Carlisle and Jasper called a family meeting minutes later. Alex argued that she needed to shower, so once she was cleaned up and looking less like something from a horror movie, the whole Cullen family sat in the living room. For the first time, Alex was able to hear Nessie's heartbeating from across the room but it didn't trigger thirst like the humans did. Nor did her scent.
She smiled as she sat down next to Alice, who already knew what was going to be announced. She suddenly took Alex's hand, as though Alex was going to need support at that moment.
"I'm sure you've noticed a difference in Alex's eyes recently," Carlisle announced, beginning the meeting. Alex squeezed Alice's hand. He was going to tell them what happened. Alice just simply nodded and wrapped an arm around Alex.
"There was an incident in the woods involving a human. Alex bit him. It turns out, she's part vampire. We'd been going under the presences that what..." Carlisle took a deep breath before finishing. "Drake told us about her being an eighth vampire was true. But it turns out, he was not aware that Alex's father had been turned into a full vampire before Alex's conception and that Alex's mom was a hybrid like Nessie."
"What does that mean?" she asked, frowning.
"It means, you're 3/4 vampire, which makes you move vampire than human," he explained. "He wrote it in a letter to us. It was a warning. He doesn't want to take you away, he just warned us of why he had done something called Gene Neutralization with you. He pretty much put your vampire genes to sleep until you were old enough to handle them. Now, they've awakened."
Alex's mind was now spinning. She had no idea that was possible or why he would do something like that.
"He did it because you had powerful bloodlust when you were small. He knew he couldn't stick around and that your mother wouldn't have been able to control someone who was essentially stronger than her, so he spoke to a vampire with the ability to neutralize genes. But because the genes were so dominant, he knew it wouldn't last forever. Just long enough for you to have a normal childhood," Carlisle explained, looking at Alex. "Which would explain your powerful attraction to human blood now; it's what you were fed as a toddler. So now, your body recognizes it and will automatically crave it. Your father worries that your bloodlust will be worse now than it was then. Which is why we are all here; so we can be prepared for a long road ahead."
"When will Alex stop aging?" Bella asked.
"I think it happened when her vampire side awakened but we can't tell for certain," Carlisle answered. "At least that's what recent DNA tests suggest."
"Wait, I might be stuck like THIS forever! I'm only fifteen! I need to grow at least five more inches!" Alex cried.
Rosalie stared knowingly at Alex who was still trying to process what she'd just been told. Alice pulled Alex into a hug. Rosalie slipped over and sat beside Alex. She took one of Alex's hands and gave it a friendly squeeze. Alex smiled at Rosalie and sat up straight, now holding onto her mother and her aunts hand.
"Which is why I'm going to make sure Alex is in a comfortable setting for her needs at the moment. This means, we can't have any human visitors. I'm sorry Bella, but I think you'll agree with me on this one," Jasper started. "Alex will be withdrawing from school for the time being. Carlisle has documentation stating that Alex has will be on vacation but has completed her exams and can miss the last month of classes."
"Yes, if you run into a human who asks about Alex; she is in Cuba right now with Alice, trying to trace down living relatives," Carlisle finished clapping to conclude the meeting.
Alex held onto Alice and Rosalie's hands for a while. She was confused and overwhelmed, especially when Carlisle placed the letter in Alex's hand.
"Can I talk to Alex?" Rosalie suddenly asked. "We'll be outside."
They went down to the forest line and jumped over the river. They stopped in a small clearing and Rosalie motioned for Alex to sit down.
"How are you doing?" she asked. Alex was stunned and hoped Rosalie didn't drag her away just to ask how she was doing.
"You seemed upset earlier and I figured we should talk about it," she explained.
"I'm not aging, what's there to talk about?" she asked, suddenly realizing something.
"That's a big deal, Alex. You're only 15 and you're going to be like that forever," she said.
"I figured I might stop aging but I was hoping to at least get a decent cup size before it happened," she whispered, slapping her hand over her mouth and a blush spread as she remember Rosalie could hear what she'd said.
"Yeah, I figured you were holding something back," she said laughing. "But, you never know. Your body has changed since you've been here. You might still develop in that area."
"But seriously, I'm fifteen and I'm going to be fifteen forever. What if I wanted to go to college? That can't happen since I probably won't ever look old enough to enroll. And what about Seth? In fifteen or twenty years and he's in his thirties? He'll be the pedophile chasing after a fifteen year old girl! It's not fair! You got to be eighteen, even Edward got to seventeen!"
"I know, it sucks and it's not fair but you need to learn to see things on the bright side. But, about Seth, the shifts stop aging when the shift. He'll be forever sixteen," she said.
"Well at least he can legally drive!" Alex sighed, calming down.
"At least you'll get to redo high school from the very beginning," Rosalie said sarcastically. "Over and over and over."
Alex groaned and put her face in her hands. "It's already boring now and I haven't even gone through once!"
Rosalie went over and gave Alex a hug.
"It'll work out, I promise."
Rosalie and Alex headed back home and Alex went to the kitchen and grabbed a thing of ice cream. She began shoveling it in her mouth to find not only did she not like it, it tasted like garbage. Emmett was staring at her with a smug expression. That smug expression made her want to punch his lights out. But instead she plastered on a fake smile and pretended she actually was enjoying the ice cream. But in reality she was just trying not to spew over the floor.
Somehow and she wasn't sure how, she managed to get all of the ice cream in.
"Yum," she said smugly. Trying to force her grimace into a smile.
"Want more?" he asked, an evil expression on his face.
"Alex, just let him have this one!" Alice suddenly cried.
Alex rolled her eyes and stalked out of the room. She sat down on the sofa next to Alice and began watching TV but her stomach felt like it was going to explode. She laid on the couch and tried to shut her eyes but her stomach wasn't going to let that happen. She was in agony.
"Alex, you okay?" Alice asked, her face filled with worry.
"Wonderful, my stomachs just a bit jumpy," she said as her stomach protested to the ice cream again.
Suddenly, Alice gasped and ran out of the room as quickly as she could.
That's when Alex's stomach heaved, and all of the ice cream she'd just eaten and some of the blood she'd just hunted came flying out of her mouth. Thankfully, Alice had seen it and was holding a vase under her mouth.
Alice handed her a glass of water once she was done.
"Drink it, it'll stay down. Blood doesn't go well with dairy. We learned that one from Nessie the hard way," Alice explained.
"You didn't mention it sooner?" she asked.
"You would have done it anyway," Alice sighed, rubbing Alex's shoulder. "Feeling better?" she asked.
Alex nodded and slowly sipped the water.
"It's midnight, you should get some sleep," Alice said.
Once Alex was in bed, she fell asleep immediately.
Alex's dreams started out fine but Alex found herself in the same nightmare as last night. When morning came, she woke up with a start. Her heart was racing, sweat was pouring and once again, her throat burned like crazy. She stared around her sunlit room and tried to fight it.
She bothered Alice and Jasper more than enough with this thirst of hers. It wouldn't be long before they grew tired of her and cast her aside.
Maybe she could go by herself.
As she began to climb out of bed to do this, her door flew open and Alice stood in the doorway, furious.
"Have you lost your mind? Hunting by yourself! You don't even know how to scan for humans!"
"When I got here, you guys would go hunting twice, maybe once a week but over the past couple days, I've drug you guys hunting three times. You guys must be fed up!" she whispered.
"Alex, we don't care if we have to take you hunting three or four times a day, we will do anything to keep you comfortable," Alice whispered, her face softening.
"I had the nightmare again," Alex whispered.
"Come on, let's hunt," Alice whispered. "Jasper let's go."