135A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for my faithful and awesome serial reviewers CoppertopJ, fresh-BLOOD-was-drawn-2night, traceybuie, Shazzeer, ChaoticH and BridieM! You've supported me and encouraged me at every step of the way, and I couldn't be more grateful to you! Thank you from the bottom of my heart, guys!
So, this is it. The epilogue of this fic. I hope that it's worth your wait, and that you'll like it!
I'm happy and sad at the same time to end this trilogy, but it's time to leave Bella and Edward and their vampire life. Thank you to all of you for favoriting, following and reading in passing. It was a pleasure to share my crazy ideas with you!
Enjoy, and please review!
Epilogue
Bella
The funeral was almost over, and I couldn't wait to be done with it. We were on the Quileute reservation, where Charlie had wanted to rest according to the will that Seth had found in his house, and I was ill-at-ease, to say the least. Edward and I were the only vampires attending among the very small crowd, but grateful nevertheless to have been granted permission thanks to Jacob and Billy's insistence. The ceremony had been simple but beautiful, led by a grief-stricken but dignified Billy, with Quileute songs mixed with Lutherian prayers.
The caskets were being lowered into the ground by Jacob and his pack, and I felt Edward's arm snake around my waist as my heavy heart plummeted a little more. I felt so guilty. I hadn't had time to fulfill my father's last wishes. As soon as we came back to Forks, Seth and Leah had run to La Push to tell their mother about Charlie's death, while we took the body to the Cullen house. Esme and Carmen, our dear maternal figures, had bathe him, dressed him, and we had had to think of a plausible story for his disappearance.
By the time Seth and Leah had returned with heavy hearts and worry about Sue – who had taken the news awfully calmly, too calmly – Jasper, Edward, Jacob and Sam had come up with the best scenario we could've created. Charlie had gone fishing for a few days, probably fallen from his boat, and was lost at sea.
We had planned to toss his heavily-weighted body as gently and respectfully as possible in the deep sea off the coast of La Push at night, the day after the heartbreaking and quick ceremony in the Cullen house we organized, which Sue had insisted to attend. To my surprise, she hadn't spoken at all, let alone to me, and her thoughts were only focused on Charlie and her intense love for him. She hadn't look at me or any of the vampires at all, and only accepted Leah's embrace to support her. Then she was gone with all the other Quileutes, her mind blank from shock.
I hadn't liked it, and told Seth my worries. He had promised to look after her, but sadly I had been right. Seth and Leah had stayed with her that first day, but gone back to their waiting families for the night. And Sue had gone off during the night to the cliff where I had jumped off of so long ago, and thrown herself off it. She had drowned. Quil and Claire had found her body on the shore in the early hours of the morning, and called us.
So Jasper, Carlisle, Edward, Jacob, Sam, Seth and Leah had modified our initial plans. With Sue's suicide, it would've been way too suspicious to get rid of Charlie's body. So, as heartbreaking as that was, they faked a domestic dispute gone wrong during a fishing trip. They placed Charlie in his boat, in a pool of matching blood provided by Carlisle, and a knife with which they tore my father's wound a little deeper next to him with Sue's fingerprints on it. Then they hung Sue's body to the side of the boat from one foot, making look like she had killed Charlie, panicked and flung herself out of the boat to kill herself in remorse, only to end up tangled in a net, hanging upside down in the sea, and drowning. Then Jasper, Jacob and Carlisle had left the boat, taking care of leaving no traces, and left it drift away.
Alice hadn't expected any trouble, and she'd been right. When the Forks police got called and the boat towed in by the Coast guards, they immediately deduced what had happened, and only run light investigations to confirm our scenario. Then they had called Seth and Leah, who had had to pretend that Charlie and Sue had been abusive to each other, driving them away from their children and grandchildren. And since Charlie and Sue had isolated themselves since years ago, nobody could say otherwise. Furthermore, nobody on the rez would pipe up a word to reveal the truth. It was a closely guarded secret, since only the pack and the Elders knew the truth. And they would do all they could to keep it quiet.
I came back to the present moment as the Quileutes started to shovel dirt on the caskets. Sue and Charlie would now lay in Quileute ground, side by side, and I couldn't have wished a better thing for them. I was upset that they were both dead, of course, but Edward, Seth and Jacob had talked to me during the long hours when we mourned my father, saying that contrary to what I believed, it wasn't my fault, and that it was their fate. And I had finally accepted it. They were two fragile humans in the midst of supernatural beings, and they had chosen not to live among us.
Seth's blazing-hot hand gently squeezed mine, and I turned towards him. He was thinking about his wife and children, and their new life in Seattle. He was towering over me, but his affection couldn't be faked. He was my true brother. "So, ready to go confront Jane?" he asked with a hint of worry.
I sighed as Edward kissed the top of my head to reassure me. The Volturi guard had assessed the situation, destroyed the four captured vampires, and gone back to report to Volterra. And now Jane, Felix, Othella and a few guards were waiting for us in the outskirts of Seattle, requesting a meeting with the Cullens.
We weren't sure what Jane's intentions were, since according to Alice she couldn't make up her mind, so we would all go, plus Alistair and Tanya, the Denalis, and Marcus and Heidi who had strongly insisted.
"Yes, I suppose," I answered Seth, whose concern was matching the Quileutes' one. They wouldn't come. The Volturi didn't want to interact with them, and we wouldn't risk their lives anymore. "Don't worry, brother," I added, turning to face him with a smile, not wanting to let him see my sadness at leaving him for good again. "We'll be careful. You take care of your family and your tribe."
"I will," he promised, tears shining in his dark eyes, before hugging me tightly. I returned his embrace, my frozen heart heavy, but we had to leave. We couldn't come back, ever again. We wouldn't risk making the Quileutes' descendants phase again decades from now. We had to be forgotten.
These Quileutes won't ever forget us, Edward's voice reached me as Seth put me back down and pulled away, not hiding his wet cheeks. But their children don't know us, and never will.
And that's good, I replied softly as Leah hugged me next, thanking me sincerely. "I'm sorry about your mother, Leah," I whispered in her ear.
She shrugged lightly as she pulled away, burying her grief for now. "It was her choice," she said softly. "She really loved Charlie, and she knew that Seth and I were practically estranged to her. She would've been all alone. Better this way. I hope she's found peace."
"I hope so, too," I said, trying my best to forgive my late stepmother. It was in the past now. "Take care, Leah, and congratulations for your coming wedding."
"Thank you, Bella," she beamed, a radiant smile illuminating her face as she thought about her beloved Matt.
"We have to go, love," Edward said gently and apologetically as his arm snaked around my waist. "Time's up."
I nodded, bidding farewell to all the Quileutes who looked sad but proud, and shot a last look at Jacob, Seth and Leah. I would miss them. "Have a good life," I told them, my voice wavering. "Love, and be happy. I won't forget you, and I'll still write emails to you, if it's okay."
"You'd better, or I'll chase you all around the globe to bite your sparkling ass," Jacob teased me, trying to contain his emotional tears as he broke some of the tension. We chuckled as Vanessa came beside him and hugged his waist, and I was relieved and happy to see the intense love they shared. I knew that I could leave knowing that they would be okay.
"Yeah," Seth confirmed with a smirk, his hand gripping Leah's in comfort. "Take care, bloodsuckers."
"You too, pups," I winked, making all of them chuckle. "Goodbye."
"Goodbye," Edward simply said, and after a last look on our friends we took off running, straight to the east. He let me mull over the events of the last days, his hand in mine as I felt his love for me surround me, warming me and comforting me like only he could. And I needed him. I would need time to grieve, and his support.
I mentally said goodbye to my father, my Quileute friends and my old life as we ran farther away from the Olympic Peninsula, and focused on our meeting with the Volturi. I didn't expect a fight since we would outnumber them by far, but I was still wary of Jane.
"I don't think she'll try anything, love," Edward reassured me as our family's mental voices suddenly resonated in my mind, Emmett's the loudest. "And neither does Emmett, contrary to what he wishes."
I giggled, Edward winking at me and giving me his endearing crooked smile, as our brother was complaining about us not wanting to fight, thus squelching his fun.
"Nobody will fight," Carlisle intervened calmly as we arrived, ending Emmett's loud complaints, but not in his head.
I giggled a little more at our big brother's internal grumbling but focused on Alice. Her visions were all showing a peaceful outcome, making Edward sigh in relief. We wouldn't fight today, but the details of our meeting were murky. Some decisions would have to be made for the future to become clear.
I shot a look at the Denalis, standing on our right, and I was glad to notice that Alistair, although still a little reluctant, was among them, Tanya encased in his arms. The two of them were smiling at each other, earning soft gazes and thoughts from all of us. I had no doubt that given a little time – okay, a lot of time – the two of them would live with their family under the same roof. Alistair was reserved, but he would come around and see that his new family wasn't like his old human one. He would learn the true meaning of love.
I have no doubt about that, Edward thought as he squeezed me against him, making me sigh in relief. Are you all right, love?
I will be, I told him honestly. I knew I would be. I would've had to say goodbye to my human family and friends sooner or later, after all. That was the price to pay for being immortal, and for an equally immortal love with my mate. And I'd been ready to pay it since eighteen years ago. My mind hadn't changed, and now was as good a time as any. Of course, I would always remember them – especially my father – with a little pain, but I could and would withstand it. I had all that I needed in Edward, and more. And a true family and friends around us to support me.
Always, my Bella, Edward thought, kissing me deeply and making me melt against him. I would be a puddle of vampire goo by the time the Volturi arrived. My husband only chuckled at that, his face buried in my hair.
Not helping, Edward, I thought but without any strength in it. Of course he was helping, diverting my pain and my thoughts from a little town on the coast, a windswept graveyard and a tiny Indian reservation full of friendly shapeshifters. The memories were etched in my mind, painful for now, but they would become bittersweet as the years then decades passed by.
Esme and Alice hugged us without a word, only sending us their love and support, and I hugged them back in earnest. I was so lucky to have such a close-knit family. Even though Edward and I would go our own way for a decade or two, we would stay not too far from them, to be able to visit often.
"Ready?" Carlisle asked, his kind eyes on me. I nodded with a small smile. "Good, then let's go."
We ran at a leisure pace towards the rendez-vous point, the Denalis, Marcus and Heidi following us, and Edward's hand in mine. I wasn't planning to let go of him for at least a week. I needed him too much. And we had many hours of lovemaking to catch up with. My gorgeous husband chuckled lowly at that, but he agreed wordlessly and wholeheartedly.
I started to hear the Volturi's thoughts a minute after, and sighed. "Jane's not happy to be there," I announced calmly.
"What a surprise," Rosalie said sarcastically. "Well, the feeling is mutual."
"Please let's stay civil," Carlisle asked of all of us, earning nods and words of assent. "We don't want to fight today."
"Says you," Emmett grumbled, only to be smacked by his wife. "Rosie!"
"Seriously, Emmett," Esme said, scowling at him. "Don't provoke them."
"Okay, Mom," he exhaled in an unhappy sigh.
I focused on Jane's thoughts, and was quite stunned by them. She appeared to be genuinely concerned by Edward's and my well-being, but also very wary of us. She didn't trust us at all, contrary to Felix and Othella, but that was hardly a surprise. They were waiting for us in a pasture – where some terrified cows were huddled against the barriers as far away from the vampires as possible – their faces impassive.
We slowed down to a walk when we emerged from the forest, covering the last hundred yards, then vaulted over the barrier to face the Volturi. We stopped eight yards away from them, a safe distance according to Carlisle.
"Thank you for coming," Othella told us with a smile, breaking the silence. "We're glad to see you again, although we would've preferred more agreeable circumstances."
"Same, and welcome," Carlisle smiled. "I assume you know all about what happened with Caius?"
"Yes," Felix said with a wink at Edward and me, his thoughts positive and in our favor. "Thank you for having gotten us rid of him and his followers. That was a well done work."
"It was our duty," Carlisle nodded solemnly, glancing at Jane who was staying oddly silent.
Her mind was split. She was grateful towards us, but at the same time she truly feared Edward and me. Should we say something? I silently asked Edward. He was debating it in his mind, and next to me Alice was trying to see the outcome of this meeting, still to no avail. Jane was messing with the future. Suddenly she spoke directly to me. "Bella, did Edward bite you?"
No point denying it. Here we go, I thought, bracing myself as Edward tensed beside me. "Yes," I stated simply.
"And did you reciprocate?" she inquired, scowling.
"Yes," I confirmed curtly.
Her thoughts were swirling, fear and worry and distrust battling in her head, and I wondered if we wouldn't have to fight, after all. She would never, ever, trust us. But the image emerging from her mind was not what I was expecting. For at the forefront of her memories was... "A book?" I asked, puzzled.
Her golden eyes – so different from the last time that I'd seen them – bore into me, and she deduced that I could read minds, confirming her theory about us. "Yes, a book," she acknowledged stiffly. "This book, to be specific." She extracted from the depths of her gray robes a thick and very ancient volume, reeking of decaying velum and mould, and showed it to us.
"'On vampire matings'?" Edward read on the cover from afar, frowning and readying himself for defending me. Old habits died hard. "What is this?"
"An old warning," Jane said mildly, appraising us carefully. "I found this a long time ago in the dungeons of Volterra. I've read all the thousands of books down there."
What she didn't say, and that Edward and I saw, was that she read them during the last millennium out of boredom and loneliness. She had had Alec supporting her, but among the Volturi she'd been feared and cast aside for the longest of times. I found myself pitying her. What a sad life. But now she was free from Chelsea and Aro, she had her mate Ian, and she still had her twin Alec, who had come back to Volterra with his own mate Karl. She was happy at last.
"And what's this book talking about?" Marcus asked warily, eyeing the old volume with a suspicious glare.
"Mostly bullshit," Jane shrugged, baffling every single one of the vampires present. "It was written in the Middle Ages, and is very inaccurate. Lots of things in there are just crap, and about old customs nobody follows anymore. But there is a clear warning about mates biting each other and giving each other their venom." She stared at us, worry marring her young face and remembering the chapter about it.
"From what you've read, it's obvious that such mated vampires are highly dangerous and should be destroyed, or would destroy each other," Edward said calmly, reading her mind. She simply nodded. "It's as inaccurate as the rest, I'm afraid. Bella and I are perfectly okay, and as level-minded as before."
"What about shared talents?" Jane asked, hostility starting to pour out of her. There was her fear of us overpowering the Volturi.
"That's true," Edward told her with an even tone. "But it doesn't change what we are."
"You're much too powerful," she announced with a deeper scowl.
I had to intervene, as Edward's venom was starting to boil in his veins. "It's useful when we fight," I said softly while rubbing my mate's knuckles, directing my love and calm to him. "But that's about it, and we don't like to fight. This Caius thing is finished, fortunately, and we have no desire to fight anybody else, ever."
"I don't trust you," Jane stated honestly, earning small gasps from her fellow Volturi and some of our family members, but I simply shrugged.
"I suppose you don't, but I don't know what we can do to assuage your fears. Edward and I have no intention to take over from you, now or ever. Ruling vampires isn't something we want to do, because it must be tedious, depressing and time consuming."
Felix, tense a moment before, winked at me then, thinking that we had assured him even more of our pacifism. Othella just knew that we were true to our words, but Jane was still unconvinced. Big surprise. "You could change your mind," she said snidely.
"Not likely," Edward said, having regained his composure. "I'm already constantly assaulted by the thoughts of our family around us, and now Bella is too. Do you really believe that we would want to be under even more pressure and thoughts from all the vampires in Volterra and coming to see you? We can't use Bella's shields at all times. So I'd rather spare us the constant noises and headaches, and live our lives peacefully, away from your maddening everyday life, thank you very much. Besides," he added with a smirk, "Bella and I still make love constantly. I'd rather we keep our private life private, if possible. And I don't see how we could rule the vampire world while having at each other at all times."
"True, bro," Emmett snickered mirthfully.
Almost every vampire chuckled then, and Jane's fears abated. She knew that she was probably paranoid, and that she ought to trust us. But she was set this way. We definitely would never be friends. "Will you promise us that you'll never seek to overpower the Volturi?" she ventured, wanting to cover all her bases.
"I can easily promise you that," Edward nodded.
"Same for me," I vowed solemnly. "I'll never seek to overpower the Volturi. In fact, I never want to set foot in Volterra again," I told her earnestly. "Once was enough, even for a hundred lifetimes. No offense." And I wouldn't want to go back to that creepy dungeon for anything in the world, I added in my mind, making Edward's lips twitch and Alice wink at me.
Jane's eyes locked in mine, and she obviously believed us, because her thoughts showed her decision to let us be, and only monitor us from afar, once every century or so. "You'll be welcome to visit," Edward told her politely.
She nodded, her lips pursed, then exchanged a look with her fellow Volturi leaders. "Shall we go back home?"
"Yes," Felix agreed, beaming at us. "Thanks again, to all of you. And Alistair, if you ever want to become a member of the Volturi guard..."
Alistair shook his head, eyes wide in fright. "He's mated now," Tanya said firmly, her arms tightening around him. "Thanks for the prestigious offer, but no thanks."
"Ah, love," Felix chuckled, unfazed, as he thought about his Renata. "No worries, though I had to offer. If you ever change your mind..."
Highly unlikely, Edward thought as Alistair shrank a little into his mate's protection and behind Garrett's tall frame. I could feel my mouth twitch in amusement.
"See you then, and thanks again!" Othella said merrily, her usual happy self as her mate Will came to escort her back to the airport.
"Thank you for coming, and safe trip back," Carlisle said for all of us.
Jane's eyes lingered a last time on Edward and me as we read her mind, then she turned around and led the Volturi away, soon disappearing into the fading light.
"Phew," Garrett exhaled, wiping inexistant sweat from his forehead. "That went better than I thought. But Jane's still as uptight as before, maybe even more."
"She seems to have made her mind," Alice said, focusing on her visions. "She believed you. But what about Caius, then? Was she behind him?"
"No," Edward and I shook our heads simultaneously.
"It's all on Caius," my mate explained, recounting what we had seen in her mind. "When Jane saw Bella and me in Volterra, and the way I acted, she guessed that we were on our way to this higher level of mating, thanks to her lame book. She was concerned, of course, and she started to ask questions about us. Caius heard about it, and even found her book. Jane found him reading it two days before he took off. So he went after us out of fear, but unlike him she didn't put too much credit in the book. Caius believed every single word."
"Caius was a stupid moron," Heidi piped up softly, surprising all of us. "He was so gullible, it was pathetic. He believed everything he was told, everything her ever read, even though it didn't make sense or was unbelievable."
"True," Marcus concurred gravely. "It doesn't surprise me that because of this old rag, he suddenly decided to kill two birds with one stone. End Bella and Edward, who were supposedly a huge threat, and take revenge on them for his stepdown at the same time."
"Jane wasn't behind Caius, after all," Jasper deduced, and Edward nodded. "But she wasn't exactly forthcoming either. She could've told us about the book, and Caius reading it."
"She wouldn't have been upset if Caius had killed us," Edward said with a sneer. "She just did the bare minimum she had to do, protecting the Quileutes and calling Carlisle. But she wouldn't have wept upon our death."
"Guess we won't invite her at our wedding," Tanya said, giggling when her mate gasped loudly, eyes bulging. "Don't you agree, sweetheart?"
"I... uh..." Alistair stammered, looking like a deer caught in headlights, panic threatening to engulf him.
"Breathe, Al," Tanya laughed, rubbing his chest comfortingly, eyes twinkling. "We have time for this. It can wait a little."
"Is a century an acceptable time to wait?" Alistair finally ventured after recovering from nearly hyperventilating, Jasper discreetly helping him.
"I'm afraid not," Tanya said evenly, winking at Kate who was wiggling her eyebrows, thoughts full of mischief. "More about a decade if you want, sweetheart, but no later."
"Blimey," poor Alistair muttered, utterly overwhelmed by the perspective.
"Oh, I can't wait!" Alice chirped happily, applauding delightedly. "I love weddings!"
Her face scrunched up then as a vision assaulted her, and I watched in fascination as in her mind, twelve years from now, Eleazar would walk Tanya down the aisle of a small chapel in Alaska, towards a radiant and much more self-assured Alistair, with Garrett as his groom and Kate as her sister's bridesmaid. All of us Cullens, plus Marcus and Heidi, would be in attendance, Edward and I just back from our decade long honeymoon in Yukon. My future self was beaming radiantly at my mate, who was looking perfectly blissful.
"I can't wait either," Edward whispered in my ear as our family erupted in excited conversations around us, bringing me back to the present. He took me in his arms, our audience forgotten, and kissed me stupid. Desire surged forward, and a small wave of force erupted around us as we kissed, startling everybody.
"Sorry," I giggled, pulling away from my gorgeous mate and looking at our baffled and ruffled family. "New power when we're close."
"Yeah, take a solid decade away from everyone," Jasper ordered us, winking at me. "You definitely need it, and work on this new thing."
"And try not to break too many houses!" Emmett guffawed, making us all laugh. "You'll level down some, I'd wager."
"Oh, most definitely," Alice giggled, her eyes sparking, making Rosalie and Heidi smirk knowingly.
"Doesn't matter," I said, tugging Edward back to my eager lips. "We have forever to learn to control this."
"Forever, my Bella," Edward confirmed, his smoldering eyes riveted in mine, showing all his love for me.
I love you, I told him silently as we kissed again, lost in our perfect piece of forever.
The End
And that's it, with a partial quote from Breaking Dawn at the very end. I truly hope that you enjoyed this fic and this trilogy, and that you'll leave me some love!
I want to write the outtake about Tanya and Alistair now, but no promises on when ;) And after that, I really want to edit Pheromones, since some details irk me and have to be corrected. No change in the plot, I'm just going to rectify some obvious mistakes, but again, no schedule ;)
Thank you for having read this, and take care!