Epilogue Part One:

There are as many nights as there are days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness and the word 'happy' would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

Carl Jung

BPOV

Time is an auspicious friend. It can lend a heartbeat for a lifetime by granting a newborn its very first virtuous cry and it can steal ones last breath with just the single chime of the clock.

Time can be cruel and it can be kind. It can seem like an eternity when a life is lived in pain and it can feel like a whisper, barely audible and only just beginning, when your life is blessed with love.

Too soon the years pass, and with it, too much time. We can look back and wonder where our years have gone and if we achieved everything our hearts desired, or if we considered the dream for too long and missed the opportunity to try.

"A life lived in fear, Isabella, is a life half lived," my mother had written to me on the last page of the Book of Shadows. The very book which had become my personal bible and held information which I had also managed to add to over the years.

I had lived half of my life in fear and then fear had become my life, but I had not let it consume me. If I'd remained human, a witch only, and gone on without Edward, I had no doubt I would've lived my life without joy. In being with him, time had become my friend for that was something we had in mass; time.

Every moment I spent with Edward rewarded me with more happiness and more love than I ever thought I deserved. He was my everything and he gave me what I needed without pause or question.

He gave me unconditional love and I cherished him dearly, for when he looked at me and when he loved me, physically and emotionally, I felt complete. But Edward gave me more than his heart and soul; he also shared with me his body. We made love often, and each time, the majesty of it never diminished, it only got better. But Edward also gave me his body for nourishment too.

We had discovered my prerequisite for vampire blood only days after the confrontation with James and Aro. I had felt my throat ache with thirst, and each time Edward was near me, my mouth would fill with venom, coating my teeth and tongue and I would literally lust for the taste of him.

The day before we returned to the town, he took me hunting. In reluctance, I drained a deer and it tasted like dirt to me. I purged it onto the grass beside the carcass moments later and Edward had resigned to the fact that it was not animal I could feed from. Charlie had then offered me his arm. I'd screamed at him and called him crazy. Did he really think I would willingly drink from him?

But Edward and Charlie had discussed the possibility that I may need to feed from humans. With the help of Carlisle, they wanted to get me to 'sample' him, if you will.

My feelings were hurt and I was worried sick, and if I had been able to, I would've cried with the insanity of this, but eventually Edward persuaded me to try. We had to know if this was my lifestyle now and every day that I hesitated and did not feed, I grew weaker and more irritable. The burn was constant and I knew it was something I had to do, when I suddenly grabbed Edward from behind and tried to sink my teeth into his shoulder.

He simply stood still and would've let me, I know he would have, but there was something in his stillness that had stopped me, and it wasn't because he didn't fight me. It was because he would do anything to make me happy and to make my transition into this new life, easier. I had to help him by helping myself.

I had slid off his back and agreed to the 'taster' session with Charlie.

They had tied me and Edward to a tree. His back was to the trunk and my back was against his chest. In all honesty, Edward's arms felt stronger than the ropes and chains but I didn't tell Carlisle or Charlie this as I was already freaked enough as it was. To scare them too would've cause Charlie's blood to pump faster and harder and the sound and smell of his warmth running quickly through his veins may have been my undoing.

Charlie allowed Carlisle to clean his arm and then cut him. Walking close to me with his left hand covering the wound, Charlie didn't let me see the blood until his limb was directly under my nose. He removed his hand and the metallic scent of Charlie's blood assailed me.

I had groaned with the pleasure of the smell, intensifying as he held it still. I could hear his heartbeat slowing as he waited for me to move. He had been nervous to begin with, but with each passing second he relaxed. The blood was rich and thick and oh so beautifully bright. The redness looked like heaven as it trickled over his forearm. I licked my lips and caught a small drop on the tip of my tongue.

I swallowed and felt the burn quicken, filling my mouth with so much saliva it escaped from the side of my mouth. I sucked it back up and clamped my lips around the wound, drawing him into me.

At first the blood tasted – nice – it soothed a little and I closed my eyes as Charlie began to tremble.

"Bella," Edward whispered in my ear, "enough." His hands were in my hair.

I nodded and then gagged. Wrenching my head away from Edward's hands, I purged what I had taken from Charlie and breathlessly asked them all to forgive me. My body rejected him but I felt relieved.

I had not fed from animal or human again.

But I did try another vampire.

Emmett had come to the town with us, bringing Rosalie who was still human. They had something they needed to do before her change and so they travelled back with us and the surviving prisoners and guards.

With so many injured, tired, hungry, and suffering tremendous shock, we had not made the journey in one day but had camped just two miles from the town.

I had felt the thirst begin to creep its way over me, and I watched Edward with lustful fascination as he helped set up camp with Hale and the guards.

Emmett had been watching me as I stared at Edward and eventually he had come and sat beside me.

"How do you resist her?" I asked, nodding in Rosalie's direction.

Emmett sighed. "With great difficulty," he admitted. "But I have help." He nodded towards the shape shifters and Jacob. "They don't allow us time alone together. There's always a chaperone." He chuckled at the last part but I could still hear frustration in his voice.

"Jacob seemed sad about you two – why was that?" I asked him, remembering the day Jacob had answered my questions about Rosalie and Emmett.

"We had a big decision to make," he sighed. "It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

I placed my hand on top of his and squeezed gently. "I thought it was because you were changing her, that maybe he didn't agree."

Emmett looked down at our hands. "He doesn't agree but I think he has loved and lost, because unlike others, he's more understanding." I didn't need to locate Paul to know of whom he referred too. "How do you feel – about being...?" he left the sentence incomplete.

I turned to him and pondered his question. "Why?"

"Rosalie –" he gestured to his wife and then hung his head. "Is this the right choice for her?" his voice was barely audible.

"Only she can decide," I shrugged.

"Was it the right choice for you?"

"It was my only choice," I told him.

"That's not true, Isabella, there were other options."

I'd sought out Edward and relaxed slightly when I'd found him making a fire in the camps centre. "Not for me," I admitted.

"So you don't find it a struggle?"

"Yes, there are certain – issues," I began.

"Such as?"

I moved my gaze from Edward to Rosalie. "Food; nothing satisfies me."

"Nothing at all?" He sounded astounded at this.

I paused. "Edward satisfies me. His venom at least, I think."

Emmett stared at me and then turned his face away, "only him?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just his venom?" Emmett replied.

"I've only tried his."

"So – no regrets?" He looked back up at me.

I smiled at him. "None."

We had sat in silence for a while until Emmett had then suggested I try his blood, just to be sure. I'd already experimented with deer and my father – I figured, what harm could it do?

He had bitten the inside of his wrist and offered it to me. We were sat secluded in the shadows of an oak. The sun had started to set so dusk was also affording us shade. I'd taken his hand in mine, tentatively, and pausing to look for Edward once more, I'd drunk from Emmett.

Like a whoosh of blood to my head, I felt dizzy as I consumed him. I closed my eyes and sucked harder, feeling him coat the back of my throat with his delicious, sweet, nectar.

I gripped his arm with both hands and pressed him closer to my mouth which was nigh in impossible. I wanted to eat him, so I curled back my lips slightly and sunk my teeth in.

Emmett hissed and dragged his arm back. My teeth were sharp and exposed and he was too close to me. I grazed him as he moved, coating my teeth with more and I gasped as he sprung to his feet and pushed me away.

Edward was there immediately and jumping between us he challenged Emmett, believing I was the one in danger.

The look on Edward and Rosalie's face when we explained our experiment will haunt me forever. He looked as though I had been unfaithful somehow and I steadied myself, regaining my control as I prepared to face him.

Edward had been more understanding than I could possibly deserve. Rosalie had not forgiven me so easily. She believed I had taken what was rightfully hers and I imagined the roles reversed and how I would feel should I find her drinking from Edward. It was an incredibly erotic and intimate act and I promised myself I would only ever feed from Edward again. With just one circumstance allowed and that would be if I were to fight another vampire for my life.

I felt satisfied that it was only vampire blood and venom I needed and that all the humans I loved and cared for would be safe when around me. And so the ties that bound Edward and I were stronger than ever now. Since the moment he had taken me in his arms and ran his lips across my skin, piercing my flesh with his teeth and suffusing my blood with his venom, I had rejoiced in our choices, for only then had I truly started to live.

Unlike so many other people in life, Edward and I had the fortune to carry with us lots of friends. They shared our journey and they celebrated the anniversaries alongside us. But some friends had not been able to stay with us and had left this life now. I missed them dearly.

I never regretted a single moment of my life. Not even the bad parts, not one single event. For everything that had transpired to me - because of me - had made me the creature I am today. How could I regret that?

I had considered the facts and in my mind I had routed my choices into many different directions, seeing where my decisions may have taken me if I had chosen a different path from Edward. Every consideration of the life I could've lived, all of them without him, made me feel like a part of me had been removed. I felt hollow in the moments those thoughts existed and I would quickly quash them, pushing them aside to turn and find him watching me.

He was all I ever needed.

I never tired of his eyes on me, he was my constant. In fact, we spent the majority of our time just looking and appraising each other. I was counting my blessings; Edward assured me he was doing the same.

I watched him now as he lay on the hillside, his skin shimmering in the afternoon sun. I would forget that I glimmered too and ignoring my own beauty I chose to bask in his. The prism of light emanating off him never failed to steal my breath away.

Of course, I could survive without the air but when I went without, I missed his scent for it perfumed the oxygen I inhaled and in turn, flavoured my life.

I turned from him and looked down the valley into the town square. I had no trouble seeing the people from so far away for my eyesight was miraculous and sharp. They milled around the streets and in the market. Plumes of smoke from numerous fires billowed into the sky and I could smell them even from this distance. I searched the edge of the town, along the perimeter of the fort walls - the very walls that had for such a long time held me captive inside. I searched for a cottage and for the inhabitants inside to appear in the garden or at a window and I thought back to the last time I had been inside that cottage. We had left so scared and unsure of when or if we would ever return. Some did and some never set foot inside those walls again. I had returned too but had been exiled shortly after.

My memory returned to the bitterly cold day in November. We had left the town to rescue many prisoners from a cave they had been locked inside for the better part of a year. The gruesome discovery we'd made upon entering those caves would remain with me for all of my days. It was too horrible to forget; those poor souls that had suffered deserved better than nonchalance.

We had thought we could bring them all home but the forest outside had held more terror for them, for us too, and we'd fought hard and lost many good people in the battle.

Lycans were responsible for most of it and I physically shivered at the memory of them and the bloodshed. I had cast a spell over the creatures, a shrill scream that my Aunt Irina later referred to as the 'Death cry.' It had debilitated all of the animals in the clearing, including the shape shifters. She had told me later that she'd never witnessed a death cry or even known it was possible. For her, it had been a tale with no merit, rather like an old wives tale that we often heard as children but knew not of where it had come from. I hadn't known of its existence either but I'd discovered on that day and many times thereafter, that instinct was my best friend. Many of my best spells were later cast from nothing more than instinct which made me a pretty powerful witch by any means. I had been scared of the responsibility at first but then I'd found my mother's final words in the Book of Shadows and I had learnt to stop questioning who I was and what I could do.

We had woken Jacob, the Alpha of the pack. Sending a small group of shape shifters out into the forest to find James' guards, Jacob, with the help of Edward, started to destroy the unconscious Lycans where they lay. Edward had shown me how and we had then, in turn, shown Hale and Carlisle the correct procedure. We worked fast and sure, but the Lycans were changing back to men where they lay. It was harder to kill them when they resembled a man.

Edward's head was invaded with a thousand thoughts; it was too hard for him to distinguish between waking thought and dreams. He became distracted and we were so concerned with destroying them that some were able to flee. But we struggled on until each Lycan left in the clearing had been decapitated.

Jacob had explained it was a necessity to perform such a gruesome task as so many people had been attacked and injured, Hale included, and to leave the Lycans alive meant that the people they had hurt would then turn into werewolves too. It was rumoured that to stop the curse spreading to the victims, the Lycan who had attacked you had be slain. I worried that the Lycans who had escaped had turned some of the prisoners but only time would tell. It would be a curse for any of these people to live the remainder of their lives as a Lycan and so I had not flinched as I'd slammed a shovel into the throat of five of them; praying that the bodies I decimated were enough to save their victims. I didn't stop or feel wrong in anyway, not even when I heard the snap of their spine and swivelled the handle of the spade from side to side to loosen the head before it gently rolled away from its body. Not once did I shudder.

Time did tell.

Hale had gotten sick anyway and we soon realised the Lycan who had attacked him was not one of the bodies amongst the clearing.

A month had passed since the battle and we had celebrated almost every night thereafter. The moon had suddenly appeared from behind a cloudbank and shone so brightly upon us. At first his grunts and cries had been considered after effects of too much mead but Edward had stopped dancing with me and froze. The look of horror on his face would have made my heart stop if it had still been beating. He just waited in wretched agony as he listened to the cries of Hale's body and the screams inside his head.

Suddenly Edward had rushed at him, knocking Mary Alice out of the way as the throes of agony tore Hale's body apart. She wasn't hurt, only winded from Edward's rough treatment, but we had to think fast and as she watched the man she loved turn into a wild beast, she needed no persuasion in accepting Edward's reasons.

Restraining him as he struggled with his first change, Edward had dragged Hale to the damaged cells and locked him inside; the very cells I had been imprisoned in. They were fire damaged from when Edward had defeated Laurent, but two were still usable and it was here that Hale spent his first nights as a Lycan.

Hale's misery was mirrored by Mary Alice's suffering. She could do nothing to help him and so she spent every day sitting across from his cell, her back against the wall, talking to him when he was either man or monster. Hale's desperation echoed her own and I saw it in her eyes whenever I went to her and tried to offer comfort. Nothing worked and so Edward hadn't hesitated in locating Jacob and forming a search party to track down the Lycan responsible for Hale.

It had taken them three years to find him.

Three years of Hale locked inside a prison cell, alone and scared but understanding that it was the safest place he could be. During that time he learnt how to control his changes and it was no longer dictated by the lunar cycle like his first change had been, although it was still a struggle to maintain his human form when the new moon arrived.

He knew if he was ever released, Mary Alice could be hurt, killed, or worse, changed. He loved her too much to risk it and so there he stayed, till one day Jacob and Edward had found Caius, the Lycan who had fought for Aro and injured Hale.

Emmett had joined the group and this gave Edward more happiness than he could express. He had been alone for so long and now had the opportunity to work alongside his family. There was a pride to him I had never seen before and I loved him all the more for it.

But Paul had begrudged the alliance with the vampires and even though he had followed his Alpha's orders, he did so with attitude. It was Emmett who had eventually changed his mind and with it, had won Paul's undying gratitude and over the years their mutual companionship had evolved into a deeper friendship; one that even surpassed the respect Jacob and Edward had for each other.

When they found him, they had known it was the right Lycan as they were not only cursed with the life they had to lead but with the memory of every victim they'd ever touched. Edward heard it the minute they found him and he had to wait in torturous agony as the Lycan replayed over and over in his head, each and every person he had hurt or killed.

At the image of Hale passing through this monster's mind, Edward had given Jacob the signal, but Paul had been fuelling his anger since Emmett and Edward had joined the pack. Feeling the need to vent he had attacked but Caius had been ready for him. Striking a blow to Paul's chest, Caius had prepared for the kill but Emmett had pounced and sunk his teeth into Caius' throat.

Jacob and Embry intervened and with Edward assisting too, Caius was struck dead with a single blow to his skull. Emmett had decapitated him and Paul was taken home for immediate treatment. He licked his wounds for the weeks that followed but had finally admitted he was lucky to have Emmett there and on his side.

Edward carried the Lycan's head back to the cell, and even though the evidence was there, right in front of him, Hale wanted to remain locked away until the next full moon, just to be certain.

But Aro had come looking for Caius.

Jacob had burnt Caius' remains but his head was with Edward, and Edward was in the town, leading Aro straight to us all.

I had sensed him approaching and walked out of the cells to find him standing in the centre of the town. People were asleep, for which I was thankful. The moon illuminated him and I was also grateful he was in his human form.

"Isabella," he practically purred. "Where is my brother?"

"He's dead." I felt no guilt at my harsh words and tone.

"Is that so?" Aro smiled in an effort to unnerve me. "In that case, you owe me one Lycan."

"I owe you nothing."

"I think I'll take the one you have waiting for me, in there." Aro pointed behind me to the cells.

"There's no Lycan in there," I told him, praying Hale was cured of his curse and would not change ever again.

"We shall see," he glanced up at the skies and I followed his gaze to see a full moon appear from behind a cloud bank. Aro made to step forward but halted as Edward emerged from the prison followed by Mary Alice and Hale. They held hands and Mary Alice was visibly shaking.

"I see you have your friends here with us," Aro nodded towards them. "I thought James' guards would've finished you all."

"James' guard did not survive the night," Edward told him.

"You?" Aro gestured to Edward. "Is it allowed for you to kill your own kind, Edward?"

"I didn't kill them."

"Let me guess," Aro tapped his lip, "your doggy friends?"

"You'll show them some respect!" Edward growled.

"If you say so," Aro snorted. Behind him another growl emitted, this one deep and animalistic, rumbling through the trees beyond the fort walls.

"I think you've made them mad," Edward said, and looked over Aro's head towards the sounds.

It grew in volume and I could only guess at how many of them were out there. Aro turned and listened to them, hearing threats in their noise that Edward or I could not understand. Spinning back round to face us, Aro morphed quickly into his Lycan form and advanced at us in one bound. Swinging his arm round, Edward struck him, flinging Aro across the square. He was immediately on his feet but Jacob and some of his brothers had entered the town now. They stood facing him, awaiting his next move.

With one last look back at us, Aro leapt the fort walls and was gone from our sight. The shape shifters had been keeping watch over the town and so had known of his arrival and had descended, ready for a fight. I never learnt the truth about what had actually happened to Aro. The shape shifters like to tell tale of their battles and admitting defeat by an escaped enemy was not a tale they wanted to speak of. I spent my days looking over my shoulder, awaiting Aro's return and listening to the stories with only half an ear, each time they were told.

But Aro's visit had left me feeling uneasy, about the dangers that kept following me, not just from him but others too, and shortly after his quick departure, I decided it would be safer if I left the town for good. Should he truly be alive, it was best if I was away from humanity without being too far away from my family and friends.

I was exiled, and even though it was my own choice, it still hurt to be apart from them.

Because we now had no place to go, Edward and I were fortunate enough to be welcomed into the shape shifters camp and we built our own home there and lived in peaceful contentment.

Jacob had entertained me for days after our move, retelling the history of the shape shifters and Lycan's, the treaty between Edward and his camp, and I listened with genuine interest. I found his stories fascinating. Jacob included in his storytelling the birth of his entire clan. At first, only the first-born males were born with the genetic ability to change shape. The first change always arrived with puberty. But in Jacob's camp, every child born from a shape shifter father was born with the ability.

Jacob had not known for a long time why this was, he could only guess. His assumptions led him to believe that with each passing year that Edward stayed close; the shape shifter heredity trait was awakened in all. In total, Jacob had sixty-three people living in his camp, not including the vampires. Out of those sixty-three, forty-seven were shape shifters. The ones who weren't were elderly and or babies. Their ability had yet to be uncovered, but with vampires sharing their homes, it was almost a given.

I worried that the tribe would object to us being so close and therefore, disrupting their lives. They would remain ageless and forever changeable as long as we stayed.

But they told us they preferred life this way and so we remained; each one of us suspended in youth and vitality.

I asked Jacob what had made him change his mind about helping Edward. He reminded me that at the time we were in the forest, before Edward changed me, we had not known about the Lycans being in alliance with James. Jacob had left but had stayed close by, to watch over the prisoners, to see if Edward betrayed him and changed me anyway. He caught the Lycan's scent as they advanced and called for his tribe to help.

When all was said and done, Jacob could not turn his back on Edward, the prisoners, or even me. He had known of love, had lost it and mourned it, and had recognised the connection between Edward and I.

It was simply his regard for his friend that had tied him to us, and I rejoiced that Jacob was the Alpha and not one of his brothers who had despised us purely for just existing.

I asked Jacob of his lost love but that was one story he wouldn't share. I tried to push Edward for details, but he was loyal and kept his friends confidence, even from me. I respected him all the more for that.

The King never discovered what had happened to his Captain James and he knew nothing of the supernatural world that existed just outside his fort walls. He officially appointed Hale as the new head of the guard.

The day he had emerged from the cell, Hale proposed to Mary Alice.

They had a swift engagement and they wed the week after Hale's recovery. The ceremony was held in the meadow outside of the town and each and every villager attended. I was thankful they held the wedding away from the town so I could be with them on their special day.

Rosalie and I became friends too and I listened to her stories, enraptured. She explained how she had been so desolate without Emmett but had known from the moment James told her he was dead that there was something else he was not saying. For a long time she had not known of the existence of vampires, not until Edward had been brought to the cells. Overhearing a conversation about the night Emmett had died, Rosalie had decided to make herself available to James and uncover his lies.

She had resorted to drinking and even used the same herbal remedy Mary Alice had given me, just to get through the ordeal. She had discovered the crazier she had acted, the more believable her act was. The guards just turned a blind eye. She was the grieving widow of one of their colleagues but even her behaviour became too much for them and soon they ignored her, leaving Rosalie privy to many conversations she should not have heard.

We talked of the night I had lost my maidenhead to James and the sexual encounter we had experienced together. Rosalie had held my hand and apologised for everything I had endured that night, but hearing her speak of her own ordeals made me realise I had been lucky.

The night we had fought the Lycans, Emmett had agreed to change Rosalie, but there was something she needed to do first, the reason why she returned with us to the town. I had thought the ordeal with James was over when he had been destroyed but Rosalie's decision to change and abandon her daughter was just as heart wrenching as the three years Mary Alice spent watching Hale in purgatory, changing from man to Lycan. Both of these had been caused by the same man, the same monster.

On the night we had returned to the town, before Hale had first changed, Rosalie and Emmett sought an audience with Esme and Carlisle. They had asked them to take Ava and raise her as their own. It had broken Rosalie's heart to let her daughter go but there was no other way.

Either Rosalie could return to the town with the rest of the survivors but she would be parted from Emmett for the rest of her life, or she could become like him and lose her daughter. A child could not be turned and Emmett could not visit them for this put Ava at risk.

Rosalie had returned to the shape shifter's camp with a tear stained face and sought solace by herself. We had let her be, she was in some way mourning her daughter and this was not something that could be rushed.

I often wondered if she regretted her choice.

Ava was a happy child and she grew into a beautiful young woman. She was young enough to learn to love Esme and Carlisle as her true parents, never questioning the vague memories she had of a golden-haired angel who used to kiss her goodnight.

Edward had told me that Ava dreamt of her parents but she never spoke aloud of them. She never questioned who these dream people were. She just accepted that whilst she slept, the people in her dreams loved her dearly and for that she was satisfied. How many other little girls got to be loved by four fabulous parents in their lifetime?

Esme had been subdued after her release from the caves but the innocence of Ava had saved her in more ways than we had done. Carlisle had worried for his wife. He knew she suffered with shock and grieved for Peter, Hale's younger brother, but her grief lasted longer than Carlisle had anticipated.

Although he had her by his side again, Carlisle couldn't help but feel she was not really there.

Rosalie had given Esme a lifeline and she didn't even know it. She had asked Esme to take Ava, believing in her heart the request was a favour only for herself.

Once Rosalie and Emmett left and Ava was brought to her new home, the light in Esme's eyes had become ignited again. The simple joys that Ava's curious little mind sought out gave new life to Esme and new hope to Carlisle.

But Carlisle had felt resentful of the love Esme and Ava shared at first and he hated himself for it. How could he not question why his love was not enough to save her and make her happy again? It came to a head one night when Carlisle finally asked his wife. He could contain his bitterness no more.

Esme had knelt before her husband and explained that his love was what kept her alive, but it was her guilt that had made her hurt inside. She had witnessed Peter's death, blamed herself for it, and spent every minute of every day wondering if she would ever get the chance to atone for his demise. He had suffered and died a terrible death; she could not forget this. But the arrival of Ava back into her life had made her see that this was her chance to make up for that.

She had apologised to Carlisle for not being truthful from the start but she had felt ashamed. The argument had cleared the air and there was no more tension, leaving the three of them to live content.

They made excellent parents and Rosalie eventually passed from one life to the next without fear for her daughter. She had been a lovely human and she made a beautiful vampire.

End A/N's: The second part of the epilogue will be posted by Sunday evening. Please go and check out 'The Hunt' by AcrossTheSkyInStars. I beta this fic and its a Twilight/Supernatural genre which I've nicknamed TwiNatural (chuckles) anyway, its awesome, go and read it now. You can find it in my favs on my profile.

Love you all x