Vices and Venom (Twilight Fan Fiction)

Chapter One: The Funeral

Everyone was gathered around on the graveside to honor the life of the woman who was being laid to rest. She had no family in attendance, her mother and father were long dead. She was an only child, and since she had never chosen to marry or have children, the graveside was filled with those she had known from the past. They all talked about how full of life the woman had been but whispered about her disappearance shortly after graduation. She had got a degree at some Ivy League college and left them all behind. There were phone calls and photos shared between only her closest friends, both of which were seated in the front row, but eventually, the photos stopped.

Apparently, she was successful in her career, though no one truly knew what she did for a living. Most parts of her life had been a mystery, almost as much of a mystery as her former boyfriend whose family moved as abruptly as they came into town. Angela Weber and Jacob Black sat closest to her coffin. Jacob had been the one to choose the casket and production of the ceremony. He had opted for something small-scale, just as she preferred. He had aged, but only slightly in the last forty years, while Angie was pushing sixty. Her husband sat next to her, grasping her hand. It hadn't worked out with Ben, but perhaps that was for the best. Angie and her husband ended up finding one another during their freshman year of University. They continued living together, got married, and had two boys.

The carpeted grass crushed under their feet when they silently placed their roses atop her casket. Jacob's body was tense, and it was clear he was itching to run the grief out of his body. As if he could outrun it. He stayed until the very end, his pack coming to offer their condolences, then quickly parted ways. Their alpha needed time to be anywhere but inside his head. Especially when that head was shared with twenty other wolves whenever he shifted. Even if they did not share his grief, they would feel it and mourn the woman the same as Jacob when he shifted.

Just as I was about to step into the gloom of Forks, Washington for the first time in thirty years, another pair of old acquaintances approached the alpha. He was still as flawless as he had been the afternoon he left me in those woods outside my house, but there was darkness to him now. It was clear by the bruising under his eyes that the vampire had not fed in a long time. He looked tired, beaten, and yet, still perfect. I could feel the turmoil in his head, but I made an effort not to indulge my curiosity by diving into his mind or the mind of his companion. It didn't surprise me when I saw the 4'10 female vampire standing next to him. She offered a hand on his shoulder, but Edward brushed it off, there would be no consoling him today. Anger flared in my chest. How dare he feel sadness about my death when he abandoned me all those years ago. Had he been keeping tabs? The question bothered me more than I expected it to. Has Alice been keeping tabs all these years? I knew she couldn't see my future now, I had learned how to shield my mind from all forms of special abilities.

Jacob became more tense when the vampires moved closer.

"How did she die?" Alice asked, and Edward knew the answer as soon as Jacob's mind thought of it.

"Car accident." Jacob's hands were now in his pockets, and he was trying to hide the visible shaking. Part of it was due to the proximity of the vampires, but another factor was the stress he was currently under. "Apparently it was bad enough that they had to cremate her. All that's in the casket are personal pieces her friends and family put in there." The shifter was not usually the kind of person to offer up extra details, but I assumed that he was still trying to work out the logistics of her death by telling the Cullen siblings about it.

"I knew I smelled a vampire." He muttered, shaking his head and looking back over at the freshly flowered grave.

"Apologies for showing up." Alice met his frustrated tone, but Edward's eyes were fixed on the grave.