Some mild inappropriateness, because. Also, why does it only snow once school's already out? The weather has to be sentient. And evil.

Thank you to Michelle and jennej from PTB for being beautiful people and beta'ing this chapter.

Autumnal Equinox – 1. the time that signals the end of the summer months and the beginning of winter; 2. when the sun passes the equator

Chapter Eight

His pack-mates returned to find Emily and Jacob seated together at her kitchen table, his fingers clenched around a photograph. The wolves exchanged glances and crowded into the small room, bumping up against the counter and walls.

"Jacob," Sam began, "what's going on?" He looked at his fiancée. "Em, why aren't you in bed?"

Jacob leapt from his seat, practically bursting with excitement. "I imprinted, Sam," he said, smiling so widely that pain spread through his cheeks. "Man, I imprinted, it happened, I'm in love!"

"I…" The alpha took a look around the room, at the confused and faintly pleased expressions of his pack. "Great, Jacob. Who is it?"

Jacob paused, biting the inside of his cheek as he thought. "It's kind of weird," he admitted. "But no worse than yours, Sam, or Quil's!" Defensively, he said, "I won't have you insulting him, any of you."

Sam looked somewhat taken aback by the pronoun. "Jacob – who?"

"It's Edward Cullen." Jacob was unable to keep the grin from his face. He expected exclamations of shock, or even anger, but the Quileutes were surprisingly quiet, their faces contemplative.

"That might be interesting," Jared finally said. "I wouldn't mind having a bloodsucker around to fight."

Emily smiled and reached across the table to hold Jacob's hand. He looked up at her, for the first time almost anxious. "I'm happy for you, Jacob. Sam…" She looked warningly at him.

"Of course," the alpha said, his face stern. "We all are, Jacob. But I do need to ask you something."

"Okay, shoot." Jacob sat up in his chair. Sam leaned forward to look him straight in the eye.

"Does this mean you'll stop moping after Bella Swan? Will you stop being a liability and become a working member of the pack? I need every one of you, Jacob, and so far you haven't been doing a great job."

Jacob nodded, embarrassment flickering across his face. "I won't chase her anymore, Sam. I swear."

"Well, then." He shrugged. "It's not our place to control you, Jacob. Would you like me to – "

"Yeah, thanks," Jacob said, anticipating his alpha's next words. They filed out of the house, leaving Emily alone in the small kitchen as Sam locked the door behind them. Jacob stripped off his shorts and felt the wolf burst through his skin. He shivered in pleasure as his muscles stretched and released lactic acid into his bloodstream. The night suddenly looked brighter, smelled more sweet. God, it was beautiful. Jacob forced his wandering thoughts into gear and fixed his gaze on his alpha's imposing form.

The giant black wolf looked around at the circle of glowing eyes, huffing and pawing at the ground. When his stare met Jacob's, he thought, Nobody in this pack will inform the Cullens of Jacob's imprint. Nobody will tell Edward Cullen, either by word or by thought. Jacob whined, and the wolf nodded once before his next words traveled through their collective consciousness and burned themselves into their minds. Jacob, you may tell him… when you are ready. Letting go of his mental control, Sam phased back and sat down on the spongy ground, unashamedly naked. The rest followed his lead. They were all calm and relaxed after the change.

Paul narrowed his eyes, the smell of animal still wafting from his skin. "Why did we – wait, Cullen can read minds? What a freak" – Jacob glared – "-ishly cool talent," Paul finished awkwardly.

"Yeah. How did you not know that?" Jacob snapped, fighting the instinctive urge to bare his teeth. He was human, he reminded himself. It would look ridiculous.

"Not everyone's as obsessed with Cullen as you, Jacob. Come to think of it, you always have been. Should've seen this coming, huh?"

"I think it's great," Seth said stubbornly, pulling his knees up to his chin.

"But..." Leah spoke for the first time, her voice subdued. Jacob wasn't sure he wanted to look at her, to see what was probably pain in her eyes. She didn't like hearing about imprints. "But Sam, didn't Cullen go – " She broke off as Sam gave her a warning look.

Jacob leapt to his feet, any concern for the girl wiped away. "What is it? Sam! Where did he go?"

"They aren't home, Jacob," Sam said reluctantly, his eyes dark. "I'm sorry. They came to us, said he and his... brothers" – he smirked at the word – "were going to clean up Seattle if the threat is at an end."

Jacob didn't hear anything after that, just felt the change in air as he transformed back into a wolf and grabbed his jeans in his mouth. Distantly, he heard Sam bark an order and felt several pack minds join his own, following him to the city. He didn't particularly care what they did. His mind was focused to a sharpened point as he ran, the trees rushing past in a streak of green and the earth soft beneath his paws. His own thoughts – faster, faster, can't let him get hurt – were all that he knew.

Edward had barely spun around when a hard form barreled into him, knocking him back into the side of the alley. He felt the bricks dislodge behind him and pain rocketed up his side as the figure crushed him against the wall. Edward could make out the twisted face of a young woman, maybe Esme's age in years. She had sharp cheekbones and a wide, flat nose, frizzy hair tucked into her shirt collar. Her eyes were bright and stained with blood.

She was what Bella might one day be: beautiful and immortal and dead.

Edward shook himself out of his thoughts as the newborn screeched, her mind wild and feral, and drew back a fist to punch him in the gut. She wanted food, company, sex, death. She was entirely unhinged. Vampires' personalities were warped and twisted by the venom. The virus could turn the most morally-driven person into a sociopath, and newborns were fully psychotic. This one could not be reasoned with.

"Leslie," he said quietly, picking the vague memory of the girl's name out of her head. The newborn froze with shock. It was the first time she'd heard her own name in weeks. Crazily, she began plotting to tear out the strange boy's tongue after deciding that she liked the sound of his voice. She wanted it for herself.

Edward took advantage of her distraction, pushing off from the wall and kicking her legs out from beneath her. She gave a hoarse gasp and tore up a chunk of asphalt to fling at him in retaliation. Edward watched for a moment, fascinated, as the street stretched like play-doh beneath her strong hands. He easily avoided the missile and used the time she spent throwing it to leap on top of the girl, pinning her wrists to the ground and making impressions in the hard street like a child playing snow-angels. The newborn's face was inches from his own, red eyes glaring up at him.

Edward forced himself to smile soothingly at Leslie, her thoughts beating at the walls of his mind. Anger. Fear. Thirst. Carlisle had given very strict instructions before the brothers had left, and Jasper had echoed them. No newborns could be spared. The coven had room for no more.

The woman was still puzzling over Edward's unexpected closeness and his strange knowledge of her name. She mentally shrugged and craned her head upward for a kiss, deciding that it was as good a time for sex as any.

Edward closed his eyes and with his forearm, crushed her throat.

Her spine snapped with an earsplitting crack. Her thoughts went into a whirl of dizzy confusion as she realized that she could no longer move or feel her limbs. She was a predator turned prey, helpless in the face of what she perceived as a fiend sent by the Devil himself – a young boy with red-gold hair and fire-filled eyes. Lying prone on the ground, her vicious impulses faded and she began to drift.

Edward got to his feet, trying not to look at the body lying still and broken across the street. A group of drunks was stumbling down the sidewalk several blocks over, having been kicked out of a bar when one of them decided to strip. He could not afford to waste time. Edward gathered the once-human corpse in his arms and dumped it into a trash can, lighting a match and dropping it inside. Entirely numb, she would feel no pain. The flames blazed white-hot against the dark night. Even from several feet away, he could feel the slight burn of the heat against his skin. As always, Edward couldn't help but be slightly drawn to the fire as it licked at the air. It was instantly fatal, all the pain of the transformation along with the oblivion that his death had failed to provide. It could right what the venom had destroyed.

"Hey, Ed!"

His brother came bounding up the street looking as impeccable as he had before entering the city. Emmett miscalculated the speed of his run and bounced lightly off the brick wall before coming to a stop. He faced Edward, running a hand through his dark curls. Surprised amusement immediately overtook him. Edward saw his own disheveled appearance through his older brother's mind.

"I guess you didn't find any newborns, then?" he asked sullenly, clamping a lid on the can to extinguish the flames as the last of the newborn turned to ash. The sudden chill made him lightheaded as he got to his feet. A searing pain shot through his side and Edward winced, pressing a hand to his ribcage.

Emmett noticed the movement. His eyes narrowed in concern and he reached out to grab his younger brother's arm. "Hey, you okay?"

"Sure," Edward said coolly, knocking Emmett's hand aside. "Just some broken ribs, nothing really. That newborn got in a few hits." The vampire had been exceptionally strong, a month old at the most. She would have been one of the last additions to Victoria's child army of the undead. Edward would have to look her up, to see who was missing their family, their friend. To see what he could do.

Emmett lost interest in his brother, turning to the ashes of the newborn and sniffing once. A wide grin spread across his face and exposed nearly all of his knife-sharp teeth. They gleamed purple in the lights. "Man, she smells hot. Gotta love the vicious ones," he announced to no one in particular, turning to his youngest brother and affecting a look of faux surprise. "And you smell like sex. Got something you wanna tell me, bro?"

"Idiot," Edward said, but he was smiling. Emmett was the most good-natured monster he'd ever known. "We should find Jasper. See if he's – " He broke off as a new mind assaulted his own, thoughts blurred and smeared with alcohol. "Emmett…" he said warningly as a breeze wafted the enticing scent of human straight toward them.

Emmett shot upright, eyes wide and pupils dilated. "Is he coming – "

"Here," Edward confirmed, instinctively cocking his head at the smell. "This guy's a mean drunk, Emmett. I want to get rid of him." The bulky vampire turned to him, surprise written across his face. Edward backtracked quickly and cursed his Freudian slip. "Knock him unconscious so he can sleep it off, I mean. He shouldn't go home like this. He's got little kids." The hazy images of children in the man's head were thin and frightened looking. Edward clenched his fists.

The tall silhouettes of buildings, the dark sky, the smell of ashes and blood – all this reminded him painfully of his vigilante years. He could feel himself trying to slip back into old habits, into the mindset where it was all right to kill the wicked and the cruel. Even now, even decades later, Edward couldn't regret those kills. There was remorse. He had murdered, and that was a sin. But how could he have not? The human authorities proved useless when he tried to do things the right way. Too often they let true monsters slip through the cracks at the innocent's expense. How could it be better to just stand by, to watch humans be slaughtered and tortured by their own kind when he had the power to save lives?

Edward shook himself forcefully, trying to dislodge the thoughts. This road had led to his act of rebellion once before. It could not happen again. "Are you okay for this, Em?" The man was in sight now, a shoddily dressed, older gentleman with greasy skin and a packet of drugs in his front pocket. Edward could smell the marijuana from here, sickly sweet.

The vampires crept backward into the shadows of the buildings, watching the man pass. He was too drunk to notice the torn-up road and tripped over it, scraping the palm of one hand. Edward swallowed painfully as fire raged down his throat and his muscles began to ache. Beside him, Emmett growled.

He was thirsty. The man smelled good.

"Get out of the way!" Edward snarled, shoving his brother backward into the wall. Emmett landed in a crater, sending shards of brick spraying past his bulk, and Edward batted them away. "I'll handle this," he said, eyes trained on the human. The larger vampire slowly got to his feet. He was waiting for the right time to strike. "We aren't killing anyone today, Em. Now get out."

But Emmett didn't care, and Edward threw a frantic glance back. He couldn't fight him and deal with the human at the same time. Somebody would end up dead.

A welcome set of thoughts rose above the confusing babble of sleep-talk and drunken ramblings inside his head. Edward watched as Jasper came into view and assessed the situation at a glance. The blond vampire barreled straight to Emmett and pulled him easily into a headlock.

"Emmett," he said reprovingly. "For God's sake, control yourself. Your bloodlust isn't so bad." His thoughts swirled and solidified into a clear internal voice aimed for the mind reader. He isn't even overwhelmed, Edward. Just thirsty. Edward sighed in irritation. Emmett, more than any of them save perhaps Alice, relished his vampirism. He would go along with his sire's philosophy and adhere to the family diet, but viewed any slip-ups as inconsequential. And when he killed, there was no regret. No remorse.

Emmett stilled, grumbling, and Jasper's internal relief mixed with Edward's own. The human man had just begun to register the scene before him and shied away instinctively. The combined pheromones of the vampires made him dizzy and drugged. They appeared as angels in his mind, tall and glorious beings whose outlines wavered like candle flames, their shining pallor flat and depthless against the black night. Edward stepped forward and held the human in place with his gaze. He gently cupped his hand over the man's sticky mouth and nose, resisting the natural urge to crush his skull.

By the time Edward's patience had begun to run dry, the man was quiet and limp. Edward checked his pulse – normal – and left the drunk to sleep it off by the garbage bins. He returned to his brothers, wiping his now damp hand on his jeans with a grimace of disgust. Jasper broke off from scolding Emmett and gestured toward the trash bin containing the newborn's remains.

"Edward, was there just this one?"

Edward nodded. "I found some severed limbs up by Union Street, but Victoria seems to have cleaned up well. You?"

Jasper internally ran through the two young vampires he had hunted down and torn to bits. Only once had one managed to touch him. "I don't know why I'm always getting bit," he groused, rubbing the inflamed spot on his thigh. "I think the scars entice them or something."

"Maybe." Edward frowned. "Like a challenge?"

Emmett moved to tip over the tin garbage can and scattered the ashes across the damp street. He returned to his brothers and broke in, "The bigger question is why Edward smells like lust. He hiding something, Jazz?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "Newborns are in a perpetual state of arousal, Emmett."

"How you manage to make even sex sound nerdy is beyond me," Emmett said. "And that's not fair. I should've gotten the hot one, man. Rosie doesn't do rough."

Edward snickered. Talking with his brothers was wonderful in more ways than one. It was a relief to be around vampires, their minds and bodies as quick as his own. No longer did he have to pace himself so that humans could keep up. And Emmett could bring any conversation to incongruous topics in record time. "We know your sexual preferences all too well, Em."

"That's right," Jasper said, eyes glittering. The newborn that had bitten him had come from the part of Seattle that he'd allotted to Emmett. This was his revenge. "Why, just last night – ooh, Rose, like that," he mimicked. "Who does who, again?" Emmett snorted and wandered off, deciding to check over the area for eavesdropping humans. Jasper turned to his youngest brother. "I'm glad you came with us, kid," he said without preamble. "We've missed you."

"I know," Edward muttered, looking away. He had not been home much lately. "But Bella – "

"Asked you not to come tonight. Why did you?"

Edward was saved from answering as his cell phone buzzed. From the whirs of mechanisms inside the phone, they were able to hear the message without playing it. Alice was warning him to ready his playacting skills. The would-be rape was coming up, and with care Edward would be able to take the victim's place. In eight minutes, Ethan Macey would enter the nearest police station, distraught and ready to lead the officers to his unconscious attacker. Playing vigilante was almost easy with Alice's gift on his side. Edward grinned. "Jazz, you take Emmett and go home. I can handle this alone."

The older vampire looked up at the sky, and Edward followed suit. The stars beamed light down onto their faces, so overcrowded that there was no space between. The scene was as bright as day to them.

"This family functions as a team, Edward," Jasper said without warning, choosing his words with care. "If Bella Swan asks you to leave us for her, then maybe she isn't right for you at all."

Embry had told him twice now to slow down. Jake wasn't listening. He'd run in wolf form all the way to Seattle and ignored the sweat dripping down his now human back as he jogged through the streets. His grace was enough to keep him upright on the slippery asphalt even as more rain drizzled down.

"Jake," Paul finally said, coming to a stop and leaning against a nearby lamppost. He stood panting with his hands on his knees. "We really need to stop, man. What're we doing here, exactly?"

Jacob crossed his arms and tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for his pack-mates to catch their breath. Run, he wanted to run, to save Edward from anything that might cross his path. "What we're doing is keeping my imprint from harm." From harm and safe, forever, his.

"And that's gonna work how?" Embry knelt to double-knot his sneakers, craning his neck to look up as he spoke. He squinted as rain fell into his eyes. "We're in a city with no idea where to go. The vamps could've already left – we have no way to tell. And have you forgotten there could be newborns around?"

Jacob bit his lip and glanced to his right, where Leah was nodding in agreement with Embry's words. He took a breath to respond, and something burned at his nasal passages like dry ice. His eyes widened.

"I think I smell leech," Paul said. Jacob was momentarily thrown to find that he wasn't upset by the epithet. He'd almost gone violent over Paul insulting Edward before, so why not – ? Paul was continuing, and Jacob forced himself to listen. "Hey, do you guys recognize – "

Something made Jacob turn around before he even heard Leah's soft gasp. The wolf in him was reacting to some outward disturbance, and the faint sense of danger at his back told him more than enough. Jacob scanned the softly-lit street, eyes coming to rest on a figure dressed in black and leaning against a brick wall. His skin was almost flushed, one hand pressed to his side and the other fiddling with a small silver phone. His bright hair shone under the streetlights. But all Jacob could see was his face – Edward's face, and the blood that was smeared across his cheek.

Jacob was across the street before he had taken a breath, nearly crashing into the startled vampire. Edward didn't seem to have noticed the wolves or heard their thoughts, his attention entirely on the cell phone he held. Jacob knocked it from the boy's hand and barely heard the metallic thud as it hit the wet ground. He cupped Edward's face in his hands like the most fragile of glass, tilted it upward to meet his own eyes and heard himself ask, with a slowly encroaching franticness, "Are you okay?"

Edward stared at him, and there was something off about the vampire's face. His eyes. No. What – ? Jacob tried to wipe that disconcerting oddness from his mind, because Edward was hurt, Jacob had seen him wince, Edward needed him. But then why – why couldn't he feel his imprint's pain, just that ever-growing feeling that something was very wrong? Jacob looked at the vampire, his face inches from his own, his skin cool against Jacob's warm palms. Edward was pale as always, his features flawless – too perfect, pretty in the way of a china doll, his eyes an unnatural gold when they should have been green… And there was something marring that lovely face, a pervasive darkness – a sadness – that had not been present in the photograph now carefully tucked in Jacob's back pocket.

"Jacob," Edward growled, shoving the Quileute so that he stumbled backward several feet. "I don't know what's wrong with you, but stop touching me." Jacob knew him well enough to see confusion and frustration behind the anger. His thoughts had been kept silent, then. Sam's edict had held up.

Jacob nodded numbly as his friends arrived. Paul glared at the vampire, and Embry watched him curiously. Leah just looked bored. Jacob didn't care what they thought of the scene. Everything was wrong, his world that had so recently become blinding and bright now crashing down at his feet.

This wasn't the Edward that Jacob loved – loved, and he thought that word in the safe quiet behind Sam's protective wall with an aching sense of rightness. The boy in the photograph had been beautiful, vibrant, alive. Had been human, nothing like the creature standing in front of him with rapidly darkening eyes and dead pale skin. It was as if he had been run through a scanner and printed out in black and white, the colors leeched from his body and soul.

Because Edward Cullen was a vampire, and Jacob could never love a monster.

Jacob put a hand on Embry's shoulder and spun him around, jerking his thumb in the direction of La Push. He was abruptly furious. "Let's go. I wouldn't be caught dead near this freak." In his peripheral vision, he couldn't help but see the hurt that flared up briefly on Cullen's face before he composed it.

The shifter stomped away and let the others catch up, turning back a few steps down the sidewalk to watch Edward dart away into the night.

"Wow, Jake," Embry said cautiously. "Way to make him love you, dude."

Edward's cell phone lay forgotten in a pool of light from the lamppost. A small part of Jacob's mind, one which had not yet caught up with the rest, wanted to go and scroll through the contacts and recent calls.

He walked forward and, with one heavy foot, smashed the phone to bits.

Jacob kicked the streetlight, the hard metal denting slightly beneath his foot. He was left with nothing but a dull ache in his toes. Sudden fury began to well inside of him, and he turned to kick the wall instead. Some dust from the bricks crumbled away. Cullen would have been strong enough to knock over the lamppost, to shatter the brick. Freak. He punched the wall this time and his knuckles barely bruised, wolf genes a thick coat of protection over his skin.

"Jacob!" Embry shouted several inches from his ear, pulling him back to the others. "Would you hold off on the temper tantrum and talk to us, please?"

Leah crossed her arms and scowled. "Seriously, what the hell's wrong with you, jerk-ass? We wasted all this time for you, now explain!"

How could he make them understand? The rightness, the beauty that had been those few hours when he'd loved Edward with every fiber of his being, the gaping hole when that feeling had been wiped away as if it had never been. Jacob looked at her vacantly, gnawing on the inside of his cheek. It tasted like metal against his tongue. He wasn't sad, exactly, just – empty. Yearning for something that was no longer there, the magic not at work inside of him anymore. There was no one left for his wolf to crave. His imprint was dead and gone.

Jacob shrugged. "I was wrong. He's not my imprint."

"Are you sure? You might just be getting, like, cold feet," Paul ventured, an expression oddly like disappointment crossing his face. "We heard your thoughts, dude. They seemed pretty positive about Cullen there."

Not a Cullen. Never a Cullen. Jacob shook his head sharply. "It's not him."

"Who?" Leah asked, a hint of concern finally breaking through her uncaring mask. "Jacob, I don't understand."

"It's not him," Jacob repeated, staring past her into the darkness. Edward had disappeared into the night. Edward was gone. He shouldn't care. "I imprinted on the – on whoever Cullen was before he became – him. On the human in that picture. Not – " He found himself unable to continue and shook his head again.

Embry's thick eyebrows met over the bridge of his nose. "But Jake, Edward Cullen is – "

"That's right," Jacob interrupted viciously, suddenly eager to get home and away from the sympathetic faces of his pack. "The vampire is all that's left. The person I imprinted on is dead."

Edward climbed the stairs to Carlisle's office, and the door swung open before he'd reached it.

"Yes?" The blond vampire looked at him, eyes pale and cold. Edward watched his pseudo-father for a moment and then ran a hand through his hair.

"Carlisle," he said softly, "we need to talk."

Congratulations! You've made it past the first arc of the story. It's smooth sailing from here. Well, it isn't actually, but I've always wanted to say that.

As always, reviews are wonderful, wonderful things.