Lips of an Angel

Chapter 6-Tangle of Life

There were many rituals following the death of a pack alpha. Of course, they recovered his body, and Carlisle confirmed that he had been attacked by a vampire, and a very strong one. Apparently Sam's guess had been right. It was a newborn. A newborn that appeared to be Edward's ex.

Jesus Christ.

When Sam was buried, I asked the elders if I could attend. I'd known Sam well, and I needed to fulfil my promise to my friend. I needed to look after Emily, whom I had known and liked well, despite our differences. I would find James - not just for Sam, but for myself and all the other innocent humans out there - but there was no point in heading out on a wild goose chase. We had no idea where he was, or where Victoria Hunter was.

So instead, I stood beside a silently sobbing Emily as she watched her fiancé get placed into a coffin, and ritually burned. We both listened, my cold arms around her warm body, as everyone talked about Sam. I too gave my words, noting how accepting he'd been of my family and his trust in us, and us in him, both as an ally and a friend.

Emily didn't speak. Obviously, she was the person standing there that had loved him the most. Of that there was no doubt. She was his soulmate, and his fiancée. But she was grieving, therefore, more than the others. Even if she'd found the words to sum up her beloved Sam in a minute, she wouldn't have kept it together to speak them.

Emily watched, tears streaming down her beautiful face, as they placed Sam's dead body in a coffin. The blood had been cleaned away, but the wounds remained. According to Carlisle, the newborn had crushed Sam's bones - almost all of them. It would have been next to impossible to save him were we there when he was attacked.

I stood a few steps away from Emily and she kissed Sam's cold lips once, and stroked a hand through his matted hair. I held her shaking body as Billy Black leant forwards and lit the coffin on fire, thereby burning Sam's body. Emily had, of course, been given the majority of Sam's possessions, including his own engagement ring. She clutched it in her hands as she watched him burn to ashes.

Sam was so young to die. So, so young. Just the age I'd been when turned. Twenty-four. I had been too young to die when I was turned. And, although she was doing a great job of being a monster, Victoria Hunter was too young to die too. But she had been turned, most probably by James, and had then murdered another.

All these deaths had to do with James.

"I don't know how to live without him," Emily whispered, resting her head on my shoulder.

"You have to manage, Emily," I said firmly, though not unkindly. "Sam loved you, and he wouldn't have wanted your life ruined because of him. He wanted you to live a good life, and find somebody else worth your time."

"There won't be anybody else," she said, her voice sharp. "Ever."

"Do you want children?"

"I did," Emily confessed softly. "But I'll struggle with the idea now, even if I were to find somebody I loved. This world is plagued with evil. I would love to have children, with Sam, but with someone else,mafter what happened to Sam? I couldn't do it."

I nodded.

"I understand. I believe the same. Rosalie would give up anything to have children though. I must say, I think it a little selfish, what with all that exists. Even if I had the option, I doubt I could bring a child into a world like this."

And that was the truth. Alice and I had discussed it many times, and she agreed with me. Esme and Rosalie, however, didn't. While Esme agreed that there was evil in the world, she believed that somebody had to have the next generation, and that evil didn't triumph very often. Rosalie just didn't care. Selfish pig merely wanted something to dote on.