A/N: Hi everyone! (Assuming you returned)
Allow me to do some explaining. If you've read the author's note which I posted FOREVER ago, that basically sums it up except things got progressively worse before they got better. Anywho, I'm back in action. This chapter is going to make up for it I hope. Enjoy!
P.S. I'm adding in a small quote from something. If you can tell me what it is and where it's from, I'll grant you something. Gotta send it to me via PM and be the first to find it!
XXX
Brady
What he had just said to me made absolutely no logical sense. Either you imprinted or you didn't. It was as simple as that. Nothing in our legends had ever spoken about a late imprint. Nothing.
"What the hell are you talking about!?" I shouted angrily.
"Brady calm down! I know it doesn't make sense, but I think it happened-"
"The fuck it happened! Eight years of being my imprint and suddenly, here and now, after everything that we've gone through, you just magically imprint? It isn't possible!" I wanted to destroy something, I was so angry. My body was shaking and from what I could tell, I was on the verge of phasing for the first time in God only knew how long.
"Brady. You're going to phase if you don't stop." He said deadly quiet.
"I don't care!" I screamed. He stood there, looking at me sadly, but a fiery determination shone in his eyes. Before long, I had managed to calm myself and stood there, deliberately staring at him, a look of consternation adorning my face. Then came a knock on the door. Collin walked slowly to the door and opened it. They pushed by him, one at a time, before they realized that I was there.
"Brady?"Ariana asked astounded.
"Ariana," I answered in return. "Jade, John, Garret. Seth." Each of them stood there, looking at me as though I were some kind of endangered species.
"Brady what on earth are you doing here?" Seth asked amazed.
"Good to see you too," I answered bitterly. "You, me, and Collin need to have a talk."
"Whatever it is, let's get it over with. We gotta be back at the stage in an hour for sound check and a full run-through." Jade said.
"Alone." I said sternly, and from the look that I was giving, none of them protested and made their way out of the hotel room. As John shut the door behind him, Seth turned to me and Collin walked over.
"What's up?" Seth asked curiously.
"He just imprinted. On me," I responded, jabbing my finger toward him.
"What the fuck? How is that possible?" Seth demanded, looking at him.
"It isn't," I answered, dejected.
"But it happened, nevertheless," Collin said carefully. "I don't know why it happened. All I know is that it did. What I figure is that maybe... maybe just maybe, it wasn't the old you I was meant to be with, but this new you."
"What does that mean?" I exclaimed, exasperated. I looked up at him and I felt warmth spread through my body as our eyes met.
"You're so much different now than who you were when we were younger. I'm different now. I didn't think it was possible. But it happened, so it has to be," He started, smiling awkwardly. "Braid, I don't understand it either. When everyone gets here, I'll ask Sam about it, see if he has any recollections that we don't. All I know is that when I looked at you, it locked into place. Like you were the only thing on this planet that I care about. I love you; I get it now, everything that you went through. Because if I have to be away from you, it would kill me."
I stared at him, shocked. Could this be possible? How? Why? A thousand thoughts flew through my mind in that instant. And then Seth spoke.
"I don't care if you imprinted on him. That's good, maybe now this whole ignoring thing will be over with and we can be best friends again. But you need to get to the stadium," He said, gesturing toward the door and Collin.
"I'm not going anywhere until Brady agrees to go with me," He said determined.
"Brady?" Seth almost begged.
"Fine. But don't think this changes much. I'm eternally pissed at you at the moment," I said finally. He grinned.
"Cool."
Collin
I didn't get it, but I wasn't about to fight it. I was happy, for once, that things were looking so optimistic. I garnered up a jacket for myself, positioned myself beside Brady, and we made our way out of my room.
Just as we started off down the hallway, the scantily-clad Katie Harper appeared in my vision, and she looked frightened. She was huddled in the fetal position against the wall. I stooped down beside her, issuing a groan from Seth along with a comment about how sluts were going to make us late, and then another groan from him as Brady kicked his shin.
"Katie?" I asked, and the look in her eyes was one of primal fear.
"It's coming. You have to get away!" She said erratically.
"What is it? What's coming?" I asked my body tensing. I'd only met one thing that could issue fear in a human like this. I sniffed the air and a tremor ran through my body as the horrendous familiar sweet stench entered my nostrils.
"Leech," I hissed, standing upright quickly. I turned to Brady and Seth, my eyes wide. It had been too long. We were out of practice. They were just as tense as I was, and I reached forward to grab Brady's hand. "We have to get her to safety." I said. He glanced at me for a moment, and the look in his eyes was bizarre, but I couldn't place its meaning. He grabbed my hand, and we both bent down to pull Katie up, but when we did, I heard the sickening snap of bones. Her back was broken, which would explain the draining color from her face.
"The damn thing broke her spine and left her to die!" I said furiously. "Katie! Katie, hold on, don't die on me!" I pulled out my phone, dialing 911, while Seth pulled his phone out, searching for numbers, I assumed, of the pack. Brady was down beside myself and Katie, whispering to her, I assumed, to calm her.
"911 what is the manner of your emergency?" Came the woman's voice.
"There's a woman here in the Hilton Seattle Hotel, 3rd floor. She's badly hurt, I think a broken spinal cord. I just found her in the hallway. My name is Collin Littlesea, my number is 253-830-8732."
"Mr. Littlesea, are you with anyone else?" She asked. "I've dispatched police and EMTs to your hotel. Stay with the victim."
"Yes ma'am, I'm with my band manager and best friend. Please hurry." I hung up on her and knelt down, finding Brady smoothing back her hair and caressing her face. Oh God. Please tell me he doesn't know her I thought.
"Brady do you know her?" I asked, checking for a pulse.
"She's my next-door neighbor's daughter," He answered, his eyes huge and full of fear.
"She still has a pulse. It's not as strong as it should be, but she has one," I said.
"Did it bite her?" Seth demanded.
"I don't know," I said, and that was when a blood-curdling screech filled the hall.
All three of our heads snapped up at the same time to find ourselves face to face with white marble skin, black hair, and deep black eyes. This thing was starving.
"What the fuck do we do now? We can't phase in here!" I said carefully, watching it. My nostrils flared.
"No you can't." Said a voice I wasn't prepared to hear. My head jerked backward to find myself looking at Edward Cullen, and then the rest of his coven, including Jacob.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked my eyes darting back to the bloodsucker in front of us.
"Jacob said that there was going to be a reunion," Renesmee said. Her voice attracted the vampire to turn its attention toward her.
"And it appears it's a good thing I had a vision," Alice muttered. She reached back and touched Jasper's hand who focused intently on the vampire in front of us; he was using his emotional power thing to calm it I'm sure.
"Victor here was on the hunt," Edward said. I shuddered. His mind-reading thing still freaked me out after all this time.
"What do we tell the cops?" I asked.
"Don't worry about the cops. I'll handle that," Carlisle said. Bella and Esme moved forward then, toward this Victor character and everyone was moving. Jacob was suddenly beside us.
"Some reunion," He muttered.
"Jacob," Renesmee chided as she walked by. A few moments, later, Carlisle was checking Katie to make sure she would be okay.
"She'll live; massive fracturing in her lumbar vertebrae, but without an x-ray it's impossible to determine the extent of the damage. She might have torn a nerve or muscles surrounding the area," He said. And just like he said, he took care of the cops and the EMTs who arrived on the scene. Something about he was a doctor who just happened to be on the floor with his family on a vacation.
After the cops finished questioning us, I glanced around. No sign of the bloodsucker that had attacked her. I sighed in relief, letting my body deflate.
"I'm so tired and the concert hasn't even started yet," I said to Brady as we made our way toward the elevators.
"Well at least we didn't have to phase. Seth ran on ahead to tell the others why we were gonna be late," He told me. As the doors clanged to a shut, I looked around at him. His eyes were troubled and I could tell that he was thinking something.
"Everything okay?" I asked.
"Yeah," He nodded. "I think I should probably call Mr. and Mrs. Harper. They'll want to know what happened to Katie."
"You can use the limo phone," I said as we left the lift and headed into the lobby. The majority of the press were outside of the hotel, being repressed by security and cops, and the swarm had gotten worse when the cops and the EMTs had arrived. I walked to the desk and told the man to bring the limo around o the side entrance and we made it out of the hotel without any followers.
"I keep forgetting that you're Mr. Big and Famous now," Brady said as the door was shut to the limo. He said down next to me, glancing around him. I handed him the limo phone and he dialed the number. The call didn't last long. From what I could hear, Mrs. Harper was in hysterics and left immediately to go to the hospital.
"Hopefully tonight will go smoothly," I offered. He glanced up at me, and smiled briefly before his attention turned to look out the window.
xxx
Brady
Well, today had been eventful. That was probably the biggest understatement I could have ever thought.
"Brady?" Collin said, interrupting my reverie. I had been thinking about the new vampire and what it had done to Katie, just outside of the room where I had been having a discussion about Collin's miraculous imprinting. On that subject I was still considering. If he was being truthful and everything that we thought we knew about imprints and imprinting was just a fraction of everything we knew, then I couldn't stay angry with him.
"Hm?" I asked, turning to look at him.
"I'm gonna have the driver pull you around to the back entrance so that you don't have to worry about paparazzi, but I have to go through the front. Keep up with the fame and everything, you know."
"That's fine. How do I get in?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. He thought for a second and then reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen, then wrote a word on it and signed it.
"Ask the guy at the back for Seth. If he doesn't get him, hand him this." He handed me the paper, and I read the word.
"Geronimo?" I asked. He chuckled and shook his head.
"Long story. Anyway, we're here," He nodded out the window. The stage was huge. I was only allowed in for big rehearsals. The same went for everyone in the school. The rest of the time, it was kept locked.
"Will I be backstage?" I asked. He nodded and then pulled me into a hug. When he let go, I smiled at him before climbing out of the vehicle and into the crisp air. Well. This was gonna be fun.
I walked toward a man with a clipboard, the only person in sight. He was wearing a Weeping Angels t-shirt and looked meaner than a bull.
"Excuse me sir, I was wondering if you could call Seth Clearwater out here for me?" I asked, and he looked at me, grunted, and then turned around.
"Sir?" I asked, and he turned around again, and raised an eyebrow. "Can you call Seth?" He rolled his eyes.
"Sir, I'm not going to ask again. Please, will you call Seth?"
"No, sir, I won't. And if you ask again, I'll have security escort you out," He said, giving me an evil grin.
"I don't think so," I returned, giving him my own evil grin.
"And why not?"
"Because, I have a funny feeling that you wouldn't have your job if you escorted me out,"
"Any particular reason why I should feel threatened by you?" He asked, puffing his chest out.
In reply, I held out the paper that Collin handed me and he looked at it before his eyes got big.
"I'm so sorry sir, hang on just a moment," He said, his body deflating. He turned around and reappeared with Seth moments later.
"Sorry for the hold up," Seth said, glaring at the man. "He tends to be a bit of a show-off."
I followed Seth into the backstage, which I had been in multiple times. Granted, the stadium itself was enormous, but the backstage seemed to go on forever. Eventually, we made it to one of the rooms where people with backstage passes and others of various importance were allowed to go. I entered the room to hear an enormous gasp and find the faces of the pack staring up at me. As if they were one being, they all collectively took a breath and said my name.
"Brady?"
