VICTORIA HATED THE SUN.

She had since she was a little girl. Being a ginger really didn't help her. The skin that held her body together burned under it and during the summer her mother had often kept her inside despite her protests. From the large estate they lived in, Victoria made no friends.

Maybe that had been for the best, for it was a night in the woods away from her mother in an attempt to get some alone time with her older sister Anne. God, how she missed Anne now. They'd been a pair in their human lives and a pair while they were with their maker. Victoria never quite got over that immortal loss.

Yet, while she was human she'd been made to stay inside, make no friends other than her sister.

No enemies had been made either, which may have been why her mother persisted in telling her that being alone with Anne was better. Victoria had believed her until she'd met James. He'd been the light of her life, the one who always knew how to make her laugh. They'd hunted so many people together, basking in the immortality that she'd despised before.

Now he was gone and she felt so hollow. She didn't know what to believe when it was revealed that they were mates, but her life was over the second that he died. She knew that it was the truest form of love lost, and she'd spiraled in ways she didn't want to think about. This was so far from what she'd wanted to do with her time. Victoria never wanted children in her human life and she sure as Hell didn't want to guide vampire children in her immortal one.

Each and every one of these former humans got on her nerves. She didn't remember herself bumbling through immortality like them. She didn't spill so much blood. She wasn't so damn sloppy.

So she had to do what she did. Riley Biers was a stupid little boy so in love with the immortality that she'd given him that he wouldn't think about why she never touched him, never kissed him or made a single move on him. She led him on, but what else did he expect from her? Victoria told him exactly why they were doing this.

Her mate was dead and was never coming back.

So she'd laugh at the dumb jokes, at the cultural references that were so beyond her time. She was so old, this boy so young. Eighteen years old. Naive. In love. He reminded her of plenty of the boys she'd talked to while hunting. That was how they met. Hunting. When she realized that she could use the humans to get what she wanted.

Her revenge had been in the works for over six months now. These Newborns were trained enough to kill on command, yet strong as their human blood had not been fully replaced with venom yet. Their eyes were blood red, not pale or darkening with age.

Riley was everything that she needed right now. Someone who didn't judge, didn't question, followed her. Why would she need someone to actually be with her, when her beloved mate was dead. She would die doing these dark deeds, so finding someone real for her didn't matter.

Victoria wasn't unaware of the laws like the Cullens liked to think she was. She knew exactly what she was doing. This was all a farce. An extended suicide. Why would she want to live without her mate? She didn't. Her life ended when James burned. His pretty face that had loved her for so many centuries. Victoria was a ghost already, but she'd never been known as a good person. She was selfish, damn it. She knew that. She'd come to terms with that when she was human.

So, she'd make sure to make their lives a living hell for what they did to her. Made her question her entire reason for living. Made her realize that she wouldn't live without James.

It was an act of violence to kill the mate of another. Mates were so rare, just as rare as vampires themselves. The community knows not to attack without cause, and that stupid girl was human. Wasn't even his mate. James had asked. They'd said girlfriend. What a joke.

To conflate the two infuriated her all over again. To look back on that day, she'd do it all over. She wouldn't attack her, just because that would mean James could live. She wanted him here. Holding her in his arms. Telling her that she was the prettiest girl in the world. Reminding her of all their plans.

They'd wanted to visit Greece in the winter. James wanted to visit so many people that he hadn't seen in over fifty years. Surely they'd have heard of his death already. It had been nearly a year since and Victoria wondered if this would work.

It had to. She had to avenge him somehow. Even if these armies were illegal, when had the Volturi ever done something about them? Hadn't they allowed them to roam free during the civil war? The worst that the humans would do is call it gang violence. Another unsolved case for the humans of the next generation to obsess over.

Victoria had been as careful as she could be, but Riley wasn't that way. He was so... crude in the ways he taught them. If he had been turned by another, he may have started his own Coven.

Then again, she should be grateful for Riley in some way, since he was training the Newborns that she didn't care about that much. They were like unwanted children, being taught by their older brother. Maybe after this was done and she was caught after the human girl's death, they could go on to be their own people. Live a life that was over for her.

It wasn't a matter of if rather than when she would be caught. She wasn't going to fight the Volturi as they took her. As long as she got her revenge, her life was finished on an alright note.

James would have wanted her to do this, too. Many would have said that their mates weren't violent and didn't wish death upon others. God, James wasn't like that. He was fully capable of killing, liked it, even. But he was so good to her. Good to his friends that cared about him. They had so much fun, did so many cool things as a small group of traveling vampires.

Yet she often found herself wondering what Laurent would think of her now. He'd left when James died, barely coming over to check up on her. Everyone grieves differently, she supposed, but were they not friends? Had they not spent so many years together as a group? Could that all be done away with once her mate was dead.

She wished she could cry over him.

---

THERE WERE VERY FEW TIMES THAT VICTORIA WENT TO CHECK ON HER VAMPIRE CHILDREN, BUT RILEY HAD INSISTED ON IT BEFORE THEY SET OUT FOR FORKS.

Something about them wanting to meet her again, to see her face as they faced the man who killed James. As they went out to kill Bella Swan, the terrible human woman who really had been the one to cause it. Her existence and dabbling with vampire society had caused too much, they knew that much.

They were obedient little things, not saying a word to her as she walked in. Some of them had their heads bowed down, presumably in respect. She didn't deserve it, a small part of her said. The other part, the one that knew she deserved revenge, told her that she'd done something so intelligent that the Cullens would know better than to move from where they were.

"Our scouts report that they have less members to their Coven," Riley says happily, his eyes filled with love and joy while hers felt dead. "It will be easy to kill the human."

"Are you sure that they aren't going somewhere?" Victoria asked sweetly, her eyes still cold and gone. Riley didn't notice, he never did. The boy only saw what he wanted to see, heard what he wanted to hear. The woman sighed. "We leave tomorrow for Forks. They will not have time to combat the attack."

"Of course," Riley said as he nodded. He looked down at everyone around him, much like Laurent and James did when Victoria was around. Some male thing that they did, trying to appear stronger than they really were.

"Then it is done. I will meet you in the woods near Forks." Victoria couldn't stand to be here any longer. It was useless, really, to be here in the slums of Seattle. She didn't want to be caught here, to be talked to here. Victoria wanted to leave this plane of existence. "I am going."

"Don't you want to meet them? See what they can do?" Riley asked.

No, she didn't. She didn't want to get attached to any of them. She couldn't when her life was about to end. It was better for them to not get attached to her either. Newborns that cling onto their makers don't survive, and she did want these ones to survive. She wanted them to live and to kill the girl. They could live on their own. Victoria doubted that the Volturi cared that much.

She would have been taken down by Aro himself if he cared that much. Or perhaps he would have sent his two little vampire children, the ones just old enough to be tamed. Alec and Jane, what little demons, the pair of them. Victoria never wanted to see them again. She still remembered how they helped kill her sister.

The Volturi cared a lot in the past. They'd gone around slaughtering anyone that they believed broke the law. Many did, many were in the covens of others who did. Victoria had narrowly escaped Aro once, but where was he now? Where was he during the Civil War, when Newborn Armies raged? He was nowhere. A small, bitter part of the redhead knew that he'd grown soft, that she'd lost her sister during his strength rather than his merciful days.

"We will meet after. They have work to do."

No, they would not meet after. She would be dead after this. In her heart she knew it. Victoria had never wanted to die before in her life. Even when beaten by her father she wanted to live. James had ignited her heart, given her a reason to have a connection again after Anne's death. But she was gone, and he was gone.

Riley would have to cope. He would move on. He might even find a mate of his own, be able to handle the loss of her with the introduction of a new man or woman to suit him better. She would never be available for him in the ways he wanted. He liked to pretend that she was just mourning, that being mates was the same thing as marriage. It was so much more, something that someone so young hadn't taken a grasp of yet.

Victoria didn't actually blame the young man for his obsession, but lord did she wish he would leave her alone.