Revolving Worlds – Book Three

2060

Chapter Eight

A Double Funeral

Renesmee's Point of View

Setting aside the eggs that I'd been in the middle of cooking for Jacob, I rushed to see who was at the front door. There could only be a few options as to who it was, but at the rate my mind worked I was able to think of all of them, as I walked from the kitchen in the back of the house, through to the front.

I immediately ruled out it being Caius – Edward would have warned us all that he was in the area, long before he could have made it to the house, no matter how fast he ran. And if my father somehow got distracted and missed him, or Caius somehow hid his thoughts, Jake would have immediately phased, no matter his physical condition, and I would be hearing him growling, which I currently didn't.

My next thought was that it was one of the hunting party that had gone after Caius, bringing news of their progress. But that wasn't likely. It would make more sense for them to call, instead of coming all the way back here.

Perhaps they were victorious and Caius was a pile of ash now. No, that couldn't be it. I saw no sign of happiness, or satisfaction, or relief in my father's eyes, when I got up to retrieve more eggs for Jacob from the frig.

It could be David, or one of my grandchildren, come to talk about the funeral. But I think they would have rang the doorbell instead of just walking in.

That probably ruled out one of the wedding guests stopping by, too.

Everyone was used to Felicity and Jennifer coming and going as they pleased, living only a few miles away themselves. It must have been them, come to check on Jacob, or talk about rescheduling their wedding, or the loss of their nephew, William, or his and Penny's funerals, or all of it.

Yes that must have been it. I couldn't think of anyone else that it was more likely to be.

Having settled on Felicity and Jennifer, imagine my surprise when I saw Caius' hunting party – Alice, Rose, Jasper, and Emmett, all come in.

"You're back." I raced over to hug them all, relieved that Caius was gone, and everyone was safe.

"Yes, but not with good news. Caius is still out there," Rose informed me. "We didn't..."

"His scent disappeared twenty-eight miles east from where he ran." Jasper seemed pissed, but I couldn't tell if it was directed towards Caius or at himself for losing him. "There was a dead woman lying by the side of the road with her throat torn out. It was made to look like an animal attack. Caius must have taken her car after he fed."

"He doesn't seem to have a plan right now, so I can't tell where he's going," Alice sighed. We searched and searched, running halfway to the east coast, but came up with nothing.

"Keep checking," Jake growled.

"Of course. As soon as I see anything, we'll head back out," she assured us.

"I know it's horrible to say, and I don't even like thinking it, but what I don't understand is why Caius left Penny alive. Why not kill her, like he did William? He's a Vampire, so much stronger than her. All he'd have to do is flick his fingers and he could break her neck or bite and suck her dry."

"Perhaps he ran out of time, if someone saw the crash and called it in. If an ambulance arrived before he had time, Caius may be mad, but he still respects the law and keeping the secret of our kind is above all others. He'd not want to jeopardize that," Carlisle theorized.

I didn't think Caius would care about the lives of the ambulance drivers either. That couldn't be it.

"Maybe he's just a sick bastard." We already knew that. "And he wanted to leave Penny without her husband the way he was left alive without his mate. A human widow is a lot safer than a Wolf one," Emmett said.

"We may never know the reason," my father replied to everyone.

"In the meantime, on a slightly more pleasant note," Alice's mouth forced itself into a smile, "I have to go. There's a wedding that needs to be rescheduled."

"But Alice... William and Penny's funeral..." How could she be thinking about the wedding now?

"I'm not saying we are having the wedding today, but you don't want them running off to a Justice of the Peace do you?"

"Are they thinking about that?" Jake's question was directed towards my father.

"I think it was floated around more as a passing thought than an actual option," he replied.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everything, I just hope I can finish it by 4:18 this afternoon."

"What's happening at 4:18?" Bella asked.

"Sepideh will be arriving to let us know about the funeral details," Edward answered for her as Alice ran back out the front door.

This wasn't the news I wanted to here, yet there was nothing I could do about it. I went back to cooking Jake's eggs, but my mind was elsewhere, worrying about Caius, and they ended up burning.

"Renesmee, I told you that you have nothing to worry about." My father had come up behind me, dumped the ruined eggs in the trash, and was starting a new batch. "Why don't you go back to Jacob, while I do that? I'm sure he'd appreciate the company. He's still on the couch, refusing to go to Carlisle's office while he gives him a checkup."

Is something wrong?

"Not in the least. Carlisle just wants to make sure Jacob's bones are all setting correctly."

I did as he suggested and Jake, I, and the rest of the family spent the rest of the morning reminiscing about and mourning William. We talked, we laughed, we got angry, and those of us that could, (mostly me) cried. And cried. And cried.

"Cutting it a little close there, aren't we?" Rose asked Alice, as she returned with Felicity and Jennifer at 4:16.

The entire family had gathered in the living room, waiting for Sepideh to arrive. Actually, Jake hadn't left his spot on the couch. And except for showering and getting him a few snacks and some lunch, neither had I. At one point, over the past seven hours, the rest of the family had busied themselves with various tasks, including Carlisle and Esme turning my grandfather's office back into an office. The removal of all of the medical equipment was the only part I cared about. It meant that Jake was better and I didn't need to worry about him anymore. I knew he said he was fine, and Carlisle told me there wasn't anything to worry about, but until he put everything away, it had me feeling uneasy; that by it's being there meant Jake could take a turn for the worse at any time and it needed to be at the ready... just in case. I knew it was ridiculous. One way or the other. He could still get worse whether the equipment was set up or not. Likewise it could be set up for another year with Jake completely healed in an hour. Its location made no difference to Jake's actual health.

At various times during the day Edward had gone to the piano, as he did when under stress, my mother next to him, to make goo-goo eyes, or whatever it was that she did for hours on end, as he played.

Rose and Emmett retired to their room for... well... you know. And Jasper and Alice set up the chess board to play a game but ended up getting lost in each other's eyes for a few hours.

While they were all busy, Jake had decided I needed a distraction. Something to take my mind off of everything that was happening. He'd started by using his non-broken arm to give me a back rub.

"Jake you don't need to do that. If anything I should be rubbing your back," I'd argued. But honestly, it did feel wonderful, and I didn't want him to stop.

"There's nothing wrong with this arm and you're my wife, I'm supposed to be taking care of y..." He stopped, suddenly.

"Jake? Are you okay?"

"Nessie... I... Oh... I... Are you okay?" he gasped.

He pulled my hair away from my neck and I realized that this was the first time Jake had seen the scar from Caius' bite on my neck. I guess no one had mentioned it to him. Not that I, or anyone else, had intentionally tried to hide it. But my hair had been down, partially obscuring it from view.

"Perfect," I lied. "It's just a scratch, really. Or 'Battle Scars' as Jasper would put it. Now we match," I said trying to make light of it as I pointed to the one on his arm that he'd received yesterday. He'd been bitten three times. The others were on his left ankle and midsection just to the right of his bellybutton.

He was trying to be secretive about it, but I saw him raise his eyebrows toward Edward, sitting across the room at the piano. My father didn't look back, but slightly shook his head, as he continued to play. Jake must have asked him some sort of question, but not being able to hear it, I wasn't exactly sure what or how to respond... or react. It probably went something along the lines of "Is she telling me the truth?" from Jake, to which my father responded in the negative. But Jacob didn't press the matter further, so neither did I. Strange. He must have asked something else. That was good, because we had other things to concern ourselves with.

Jake continued to rub my back for an hour before I insisted changing places and we switched so I could massage his for almost the same amount of time, until a few minutes before Sepideh was due to arrive.

"So when in the new date for the wedding?" Jacob asked our daughter.

"We don't have one yet. Everyone needs time to grieve. Who knows how long that will take."

"We've waited this long," Jennifer added. "We can wait a few more months..."

"Or years longer," Felicity finished her fiancée's sentence.

"That's right," Jennifer agreed, pulling my daughter into a hug. They seemed happy and sad at the same time, with their decision. Resigned. No. Content, I guess was the best word for it.

"She's here," Alice then announced a second before the doorbell rang.

Sepideh came by herself?

"There are two Wolves in the woods that accompanied her over," my father told me. "They want to wait outside."

It made me feel better that my granddaughter recognized the risk, but I wished the Wolves felt comfortable enough to come inside as well. I know my family didn't smell very good to them, but it wasn't like any of us would hurt them.

"I'm sorry to just drop by without calling," Sepideh began, after Carlisle opened the door for her. "Oh! You're all here," she said. The somewhat happiness of surprise apparent in her voice, wasn't masked by the tears (she was fighting back) we saw as she'd turned the corner and got a view of all of us in the living room. "Of course," she added, shaking her head, realizing that Alice would have seen her coming. "I just wanted to drop by and tell you the date of the funeral, but you probably already know," she said while still looking at Alice.

"Actually, we don't," my aunt responded. "There's too many Wolves. I couldn't see that, just that you would be coming over now, since you're not a Wolf, yourself."

"Oh, well..." Sepideh begin to fumble, "well, then... in that case... it was decided that William and Penny's funerals will be held together. There's an opening at the church this Sunday the nineteenth, at 11 a.m." she said, breaking down, unable to contain her tears any longer.

Esme and Bella rushed over to her and wrapped her in a hug.

"I'm sorry." Sob. "I..." sob, "um..." sob, "really need to be getting back, now," she cried as she broke away. "There's a lot of stuff still to plan and..." she broke off, trying to once again regain control and hold back the tears. But they were building in her eyes again and everybody could tell that she wanted to get out of here.

"Of course, my dear," Esme said as she handing her a handkerchief, while steering Sepideh towards the front door. Losing your brother, while he was still so young..."

Esme kept talking, comforting my granddaughter but I had stopped listening. I was in shock. Actually Jennifer, Felicity, Alice, Edward, Jacob and I all wore similar expressions of shock, horror, and bewilderment.

September nineteenth. That was the date Alice had crossed off from the original list of days the church was available, that Jennifer and Felicity could choose from for their wedding. I clearly remembered she'd mumbled the word "funeral" as she did so.

Alice had seen William and Penny's funeral over a month ago and never said anything!

"She didn't," my father shook his head at me.

"Yeah, right!" The anger was boiling up inside of me. "How could she not!" I screamed.

The rest of the family turned to stare at me. Looks of confusion, surprise, and shock, were on their faces. They didn't know why I was so upset but I didn't care. My grandson was dead and it was preventable, yet Alice had done nothing to do so.

"You know I can't see the Wolves," Alice tried explaining to me, but I wouldn't hear it.

"You saw that there was a funeral that day. You must have known," I argued. How could she not? Her visions were so annoying sometimes. She keeps telling me she can't see Wolves, but then she sees enough around them when she wants to. Enough to have her life be all nice and happy. She gets everything she wants. She could have seen around them enough to see this.

"I saw a funeral was going to happen in the church. I didn't know whose, I just saw the caskets being set up, but they were closed."

Alice and Edward continued to try and convince me that she hadn't known what would happen, but I wouldn't hear it. She just hadn't tried. She wanted to plan a wedding so she found a way to see around the Wolves to do it, but she couldn't be bothered to see if it would actually take place. If she had, this could have all been prevented and William and Penny would still be alive.

I vowed right then and there to never speak to her again.

On Wednesday, once Jake's broken bones had completely healed, we drove to La Push, with Bella and Edward. I couldn't imagine what David was going through. We needed to check on Matthew and Sepideh too. I'd spoken to all of them on the phone several times since Sepideh had come over the other day. She was only able to get through a few minutes at a time without crying. I wanted… needed to see her in person again.

"Now's not a good time," Angelina stood in the doorway, blocking our way into David's house.

"There's never a good time to talk to someone about the loss of their child," Edward replied. "But we are still coming in."

Hesitantly she moved aside. I was shocked, figuring we would be in for more of a fight. "That's not going to make any difference," she sighed, more to herself, than us. David was passed out in the middle of his living room floor.

"What happened?" Bella asked her.

Looking around to try and determine the cause of what happened to David, I found none. There were no empty pill or alcohol bottles lying around anywhere. I didn't think he was attacked. There wasn't any sign of a fight. None of the furniture was broken. There were no holes in the walls. Not even any weapons, not that that would be necessary. How did this happen?

"He and Matthew got into a fight, and knocked each other senseless. I found them passed out on the front lawn. I dragged David in here, and called Sepideh. She should be here any minute to get Matthew."

Quickly re-scanning the room I didn't see him anywhere either. "Where is he?"

"In the backyard," my father scowled.

"They were both acting like idiots," Angelina called to Jake as he ran out to our grandson. A minute later he was back, and placed William's unconscious form on the couch.

"Should we call Carlisle?" Jake asked at the same time I asked a different question.

"Has David ever done something like this before?"

It wasn't really directed to Angelina but she answered me anyway. "I don't think so. You know how when Janet died, that was all he wanted for himself, until me. With William he just wants to forget."

"They will be fine," my father then answered Jake, after he'd checked on both of them. "No broken bones. What were they doing? I don't see any healed claw or bite marks."

"They weren't fighting as Wolves." Angelina explained. "I didn't see the whole thing, but what I did see was a fist fight that de-evolved into the two of them just head butting each other until they both passed out. I was going to try to stop them, but I think they just needed to get it out of their system. I was thinking of taking him away from here. Maybe go to Isle Esme for a few months. Take his mind off of everything," she continued.

"You can't," I nearly shouted. Didn't she understand the danger? Caius had already killed William and Penny, and who knew how many others of our deaths he'd planned. I would not let her put David's life in danger. "You would be sitting ducks on the island all by yourselves."

"Then come with us," she said to me. "Between the four of us we can handle one Vampire. Or maybe Matthew and Sepideh, or Leah... any one of them could come along. Surely that would be enough of us to take care of him."

"Absolutely not," Jacob growled. "Ness is right. It's too dangerous and you are not putting my family in that kind of danger." Angelina was technically in his Pack, but while he didn't Alpha order her not to go I could see that he wanted to.

Thankfully my father was more level headed, at the moment, and was able to convince her why it was a bad idea, at this time. "If it is alright with you, we will continue to come by, and visit; talk to him and see how he's doing. Matthew and Sepideh too. They all have been affected deeply by William's death," he added quietly to Angelina, as we were leaving a few hours later, after meeting with everyone. It wasn't really a request, even though he phrased it as such. We would be back, whether she liked it or not. They were rightly and expectedly all upset and we wanted to help, in any way we could.

"Nessie, please listen to me. I didn't... I couldn't..." Alice kept trying to explain. Over and over, day after day, every time she saw me, but I wouldn't hear it. I refused to listen, to even be in the same room as her anymore.

The nineteenth had rolled around and everyone was at William and Penny's funeral, including Alice. I was livid. How dare she have the audacity to show her face! Their deaths were as much her fault as Caius'. I wanted to tell her to get out but I still refused to speak to her. Instead I turned my back and walked away.

Instead I went over to have a word with David. "It's so nice that all the Wolves, past and present showed up."

"With one exception," my granddaughter added, joining us.

Sepideh! I shot her a look. She was young, but old enough to know not to bring him up.

"That traitor knows he wouldn't be welcome," David growled. Collin wasn't brought up much, and when he was no one ever had anything nice to say. Because of the Alpha order stopping him from Phasing after he'd attacked Janet, even his name had become a touchy subject around David.

"Let's not start any of that now." Why would she even refer to him today of all days? She knew how her father got. Pretending he didn't even exist had worked well for everybody these past twenty-five years. Let's not bring him up now. "Who did the flowers?" I asked, in an attempt to change the subject. "They are lovely"

After that potential explosion was dealt with I offered my sympathies to my son and two remaining grandchildren and then left quickly. Being in the same room with Alice for so long was just too much right now.

Caius was still out there, somewhere, which meant that I couldn't go running off into the woods like I wanted to. Instead I settled on going back to the house. It would be empty and I needed some alone time. Jake of course came with me, followed quickly by my parents. That was as alone as I would get right now. At least Alice wouldn't be there. For awhile anyway.

"Don't you think you're being a little hard on Alice?" Jake asked me, as we walked through the front door of the main house. "It's not like she's the one who killed William."

"No, but she didn't do anything to stop Caius, either," I hissed back, shaking his hand off of my arm that he'd grabbed. I hadn't meant to take my frustration out on Jake and felt horrible about it. I was just so depressed at loosing William, and pissed at Alice. I just couldn't control my feelings. I was angry and sad and... I don't know. I just couldn't calm down. Couldn't drop it. Couldn't let it go.

"Just give her some time," I heard my father tell him, as I ran up to my parents bedroom, that Jake and I were using while we were staying here.

He was wrong. Time would not lessen my pain. It would not bring my grandson back.

Time, and talking, did seem to be working for some other members of the family though. We continued to visit and after a few weeks David seemed to be a tiny bit better. Not happy, but less depressed. He hadn't tried to knock himself unconscious or pick fights with people again, so I guess that was progress. And Sepideh wasn't crying as much.

I would like to say that Matthew was beginning to realize that William's death wasn't his fault. But the way he saw it, was that out of the two of them, he was the brother who was still a Wolf, responsible for the tribes safety. The one who let the family and his Tribe down, and got Penny and William killed. Of course it wasn't his fault, but no one seemed to be able to get through to him... yet. He was currently the La Push Pack's Alpha and was dealing with his misguided guilt by pushing the other Wolves... hard. Too hard. Longer patrols, longer training hours, longer tactical and strategizing sessions.

Eventually something... or someone was going to break.

Alice kept getting glimpses of Caius here and there. As soon as she saw him, in one of her visions, the family would rush out to try to kill him, but he'd always be gone before we got there.

Edward picked up his thoughts once, when he and Bella were out picking up a grain shipment for our livestock. They had driven sixty miles away when it happened. They immediately abandoned the truck and tracked Caius for several dozen kilometers, but somehow lost him. Judging by his thoughts, Edward didn't think Caius was even aware of them following him. If he'd had he probably would not have thought in such detail of his plans for Jake and me.

Edward refused to tell us what they were but from that point on Jake and I were pretty much prisoners in the house, leaving only to hunt, and even then only when accompanied my two other family members. I didn't like it, but Jake couldn't stand it. He argued that he could protect himself, and didn't need to be babied.

It worked for awhile. He went with my family, after Caius a few times, but then Alice complained that she couldn't see when he was around and that must have been the reason why they kept losing him. He said he didn't care, that he needed to "find the bastard that killed his grandson and tried to kill his wife," not even mentioning that he was almost killed by Caius, too. But it didn't matter. The family argued that he needed to put his pride aside this time. When that didn't work they reasoned that he should be home with me, in case Caius slipped past them somehow and made it to the main house. Even with Edward and Bella, or Rose and Emmett, or Carlisle and Esme with me, one more person, or Wolf would offer me that much more protection. I think they said more to him when I wasn't around, or asleep, or something, because he eventually gave in and agreed.

Yet, even with Jake staying home with me, Alice, and the rest of the hunting party still managed to let Caius slip through their grasps, again and again. I was starting to doubt her visions even more than I had before. What was the point of them? They seemed to be useless.

Though Edward said he only heard our names in Caius' thoughts, the same safety measures were put in place for Felicity and Jennifer. And our family in La Push. In fact all of La Push was constantly being guarded by the Wolves 24/7, who now patrolled in groups of four or more. Even the Grecian Wolves, not having returned home yet, joined in.

This went on for months – Alice would get a Vision, the family would rush to where she'd seen Caius and turn up empty. Time after time, always the same. My family was getting annoyed and Jake and I, along with whoever was left to babysit us were getting restless.

Eventually Caius' appearances became less and less frequent. Days, weeks, eventually months would go by and there would be no sign of him. We all started to relax.

Perhaps he'd given up.

Either that or he was planning something big.