When you came my way you brightened every day with your sweet smile
With your sweet smile

Didn't I tell you what I believe
Did somebody say that a love like that won't last
Didn't I give you all that I got to give baby

This is no ordinary love, it's no ordinary love

rose ave. - No Ordinary Love

Chapter 30: Stolen Life

Lexi

Everyone likes to pretend that in a life or death situation they'd do the brave thing – just like in the movies.

In the world of make believe, the person telling the story often accepts their imminent death, says something incredibly poignant and stirring into the eyes of the villain, and then dies a hero's death without any trace of fear or misery. Or they stay vigilant despite whatever unfeasible and desperate situation and pick their moment or opportunity and barely skim out alive. They keep their head and their wits and they fight until the very end to save their own necks, and then they ride into the sunset with endless possibilities before them.

Unfortunately for me, neither of those looked like a viable option. Because the moment his crazed, blood red eyes locked onto mine in the clearing off the beach, I knew my breaths were numbered. Brady was fast, and he was supernatural, but I knew my luck wasn't that great.

It didn't stop me from trying.

"Brady!"

My voice struggled to work. Fear had me paralyzed. This was the terrible monster from my nightmares, and then my real life memories standing before me. He was the eerily pale, blood-eyed vampire that had been taunting us for weeks now. He was the killer that had, for some reason, decided I was his most interesting game yet. And here we were, alone. He the blood-crazed vampire that thought of this with a sneering smile, and me – the feeble, frightened, clumsy little human girl. I didn't stand a chance and I knew it.

The cold, misty forest air stood still. It was suddenly thick and made it hard to catch my breath. I struggled for air as the panic rose in my chest, clutching at my insides as it told me to flee. But I was frozen in sheer terror, my eyes locked on his blood red orbs. My limbs went impossibly rigid, the hair on my arms stood up, and a horrifying jolt of fear was zigzagging up and down my spine making it hard to think. My eyes began to tear up from not enough blinking, and I absolutely hated that I couldn't peel them away.

Never in my life had I felt sheer horror like this. This monster had me in his crosshairs, and I was completely useless with fear. There wasn't going to be a happy ending for me. I knew it.

"Brady!"

The vampire was toe-to-toe with me the blink of an eye. I staggered backwards in surprise to his sudden proximity. Just as fast, his icy cold, steely arm shot out, and my arm backwards at an awkward angle. I heard something snap.

Yes, I knew in that very second that there would be no happy ending for me whatsoever.

I cried out in agony as a miserable, pinching pain tore through my arm. The adrenaline kicked in, numbing it slightly as he hissed in pleasure. The sound of the air ripping through his impossibly white teeth made my already rolling stomach practically turn over inside of me. This was the most horrible thing I'd ever endured, and this monster was going to get to end me.

I was suddenly struck with how unfair everything was.

Every girly, day-dreamy wish I'd ever had was to grow old with Brady and surrounded by our grandkids was long gone in the blink of an eye – or the time it took for him to appear in front of me and break my arm.

My eyes burned against the cold and the fear. A few tears finally slipped out, bubbling over onto my cheeks. I sniffed miserably, wincing as the adrenaline wore off and the aching, white hot pain of my arm sunk in. This monster, this leech as Brady called them was going to get to murder me and there was absolutely nothing - nothing I could do about it.

Like hell.

"BRADY!"

"Yes," it spoke, hissing in my ear. "Scream for him. Scream for the dog."

I did as I was told.

A moment later, a blur of black fur came careening through the trees from the beach. I felt him drop my arm and yank my head to the side to expose my neck. My hair fell into my face, sticking to my already-tear stained cheeks. I could hear Brady snarling across the clearing.

"We meet again, dog," the vampire growled.

His accent was thick and foreign but his words were quite clear. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I was screaming at myself to fight back, to struggle, to say something, to do something to save myself, but the part of me that was the most conscious could only cower in fear. His steely, marble arms gripped my body, twisting whatever was broken in my arm even further out of place. I felt like I was listening to the entire scene from a distance, and the only thing real and up close was the sharp, stabbing pain where something had snapped when he grabbed me.

Brady must have lunged, because the next thing I knew, I was being catapulted upwards at a speed that made my stomach lurch. My arm hung limply at my side as the vampire suddenly stilled. I could hear Brady below us in his wolf form, growling and snarling ferociously. His anger was palpable as I listened to his jaws snap below.

Good, I thought. Rip him to pieces, Brady.

Part of my paralyzed brain was only focused on the pain and the fear I felt –another tiny, miniscule little piece of it could still focus on the anger I felt that this horrible creature was going to kill me.

I didn't want to accept it.

"Let me go, leech," I stuttered through chattering teeth. Between the cold and the pain, I was quickly losing my wits.

"Your canine lover still believes he can save you from me, il mio dolce. But he is mistaken I think…" He growled in my ear. "Shall we see how badly he wants you to himself?"

I opened my eyes and fought to bring myself to the surface of consciousness only to wish I hadn't.

We were in a tree. Not just any tree, but one of the tall, moss-covered trees that seemed to go up and up for miles. He danced from branch to branch, jarring my body what seemed like unnecessarily hard each time he could. I felt hot tears of pain slip from my eyes and they fought to stay open. I caught a glimpse at Brady below, my stomach lurching from the height. He was clawing the bottom of the tree with all his might. As if he believed his rage alone could saw it to the ground.

"I shouldn't play with you," he groaned, suddenly stopping his movements. His hands moved faster than lightning as he turned me towards him in his arms, my body limp with fear and pain and shock.

I let out a whimper of misery as my arm sang with pain. It was surely broken, but what could I do? Opening my eyes slightly, I once again saw his blood red irises staring back at me. Had my body been able to obey my brain at that point, I would have shuddered in fear, but all I could do was stare.

"Why?" I choked out, my voice barely a hoarse whisper.

"Because your blood sings to me, dear girl. I knew I had to have a taste of you when I caught your scent in the woods that night. Your wolfish lover has made this the most interesting came yet."

"Let… me… go," I half groaned, half pleaded.

He shook his head.

"That is not part of my plan, unfortunately for you." He leaned in closer, his sweet breath blowing across my cheeks. My stomach churned as I realized this was it - my life was coming to a sudden end. I struggled in his grasp, my efforts doing next to nothing against his cold, steely limbs.

"I will enjoy this greatly," he growled, flipping my body forwards. My back was to his chest as one cold arm forced me against his body. My vision swam slightly as I realized just how high up in the tree we were. I soon forgot all about the height.

Without one quick motion, my head was ripped to the side. He brushed my hair away with a feather light touch as something in my neck snapped in protest.

That dulled in comparison to the sudden white-hot pain of his teeth sinking into my flesh.

I screamed.

I mean, I screamed. I'd never felt anything like this before. It was like a row of searing hot scalpels was being dragged across my soft skin, inching deeper and deeper with each passing second. I failed to notice the warm blood – my own blood – seeping down my neck, the height of the tree, Brady, my broken arm… all of it faded away and dulled in comparison to the feeling of the vampire's bite.

Brady still snarled and jumped below, but soon my ears picked up other sounds. Hopeful sounds. The desperate sounds of wolf howls cut through the air, causing the vampire to still. His bright red eyes were suddenly wide with the promise of a challenge.

"It appears as though our time together is being cut short."

I gasped in agony as the exposed gash from his teeth in my neck was exposed to the cold air. It felt open and wet with blood, but the only thing I could concentrate on was that it burned. My neck felt like it had been ripped open and was almost sizzling with a pain that my mind had to even fight to comprehend. My mind tortured me in that split second, flashing a picture of something fatty and greasy frying on a griddle. This felt like that multiplied by a thousand.

I felt something cold and wet against my skin, lapping up the warmth around the burning gash.

"Your blood is as perfect as I imagined," he groaned, rubbing his free hand up and down my side. "If you survive, I hope we meet again someday."

I was too busy struggling against the sea of pain spawning from my neck to register his words. I felt his arms leave my waist and my body careen forward from the tree branch. I twisted around mid-air, my blurry eyes focusing on his face as I fell backwards, hurtling towards the ground with nothing blocking my fall but the wind.

Then, everything went black.

Funny, I thought death would come swiftly and be peaceful.

It was neither, at least not for me.

People never really think about death – well, okay they think about death but they never really think about how they're going to die in order to get there. We usually worry about what's waiting afterwards for us once we've crossed the bridge of never coming back to this life. I'd never really thought about how I would die – just that I thought it would be light and serene. That I'd follow a light full of hope up to wherever I was headed to next, floating on a cloud of tranquility.

But it was none of those things. It was dark, and black. It was a sea of unending uncertainty. I felt heavy – not at all how I'd expected to feel once I was gone and departed from my body. This was the strangest feeling ever. I didn't feel peaceful or light or relieved. I didn't have the sense of completion I expected to feel in the back of my mind.

No.

There was none of that.

I felt burdened and angry. Weighted down. There was pain and agony, but it was in a different part of my brain now and was being held down with denial and darkness. No, all I could focus on was the fact that I was not going where I was supposed to go once I was dead. Was this my purgatory? Was something still supposed to happen? Was I going to get a choice in whether I stayed or went?

I felt imprisoned. Unable to move. Pinned down by a blanket of the shadowy unknown where my body was no longer my own, and all that was left was the feeling that I was losing control.

A feeling of despair settled over me as everything else, everything I knew – faded away.

Slowly, things came back to me. I was me again. I was Lexi, and I had a body and a memory and recognition. I wasn't lost – I was still myself. Maybe I would make it out of this after all!

But then…

As soon as the realization that I was me again hit me, I immediately wished it hadn't. My limbs gained feeling back bit by bit, and I realized something terrible was holding me back from whatever step was next for me.

I didn't understand what was happening to me. My body still felt heavy, like I was trapped in a dream. But there was pain – so much of it. Everything hurt. My arm, my back, my legs, my neck.

My neck.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I gasped in surprise.

I felt like a piece of my flesh had been suddenly ripped away from my skin, but I didn't have enough control over my body yet to scream – only enough of my mind had returned to register pain and fear and sheer agony as everything else fell to the wayside. The exposed skin felt like it was boiling near the surface and being scraped with a blade all at the same time. I'd seen a glass blower working once – he was someone my dad knew, and he'd taken me to his shop to show me how he heated the glass and bits of metal in an oven and they became so hot, they formed a silvery liquid that was like mirrored water. I felt like a mixture such as this had been poured into my open wound, and I could feel it dripping further into my body. I pictured the white-hot molten lava seeping through the gash, mixing with my blood and tissue. It spread under and over my skin, inch by miserable inch. I knew nothing else but the pain in my neck and the memory of that horrible fucking glassblower, and I felt like I was drowning.

"What is it now, you miserable dog?"

"What did you do? What did you do to her?"

This was pain as I'd never felt it. This was pain as I'd never dared to imagine it.

It was hot and feral as it ripped through the delicate veins of my neck, searing a trail of inferno down into my body. I didn't understand what was happening – hadn't I fallen? Why wasn't I dead, surrounded by fluffy white clouds and singing angels? Why wasn't my grams here? Why did it hurt so much?

"Think about what you want more. Revenge, or her? Chase me now or stay with your love and watch her burn."

I fought to comprehend, to make sense of anything that was happening, but my mind came up with nothing. I was far from perfect in my life, but I couldn't think of a single solitary thing I'd done to deserve a punishment as strange and cruel as this one.

My neck throbbed with an unbearable, radiating agony.

Oh my god, I thought. I was going to burn like this. It would spread through my entire body until I was completely charred. Would it ever end? The higher and higher the inferno blazed, the more aware I became that I was going to burn from the inside out, and it would not be quick. No, this horrible molten lava that was now tearing through the delicate skin of my veins and skin and tissue was taking its sweet time as it traveled further into my body.

Then it intensified.

It intensified a thousand times over.

Hotter and hotter I burned, the poisoned fire spreading, ripping its way through my veins. This has to end, I thought. There has to be some cause, something wrong. Someone has to help me! I can't burn like this forever! It has to stop! Someone, please help me!

But time fell away, as did reason. Forever suddenly seemed like something completely possible.

The blaze continued.

"Lexi! Oh my God, Lexi! Baby… Can you hear me? Lexi, please, please…"

I was lost in bewilderment. I wanted to return to the part of my mind that could answer back to the phantom sounding voice somewhere near me. It sounded strong, but fearful. Like it could help me.

The wave of pain pulled me further under, all rational thought drawn to it. I tried to separate it, to think of anything else, but I was alone. Alone as the agonizing flames licked their way through my insides.

"Lexi, I'm so sorry… I did this. I couldn't protect you, I couldn't save you and now…"

It crept down my spine, taking its time as it burned every rib to a crisp. It seeped down my arms, over and under every inch until it radiated in my fingertips. Even my nail beds suddenly felt like torched wasteland of space on my body. It slowly crept into my chest, encasing the heart in my chest I'd forgotten about. Every movement the devilish fire took inside my body, I was now painfully aware of.

"I fucking hate myself for doing this to you. I let him get to you. I was so… oh my God, Lexi…"

There was pressure on my arm. I wanted to scream, to gasp, or rip it away from the feeling of it. It pushed the pain further into my bones, allowing it to spread like poison. I was frozen in an agonizing hell with no hope of understanding why.

"Lexi… come back to me."

*runs and hides*

I will be answering any 'All of Me' related Q&A this week on my Tumblr - I get a lot of questions about this story. I will be taking any questions you have regarding the story, the characters, Lexi's change, etc, and putting them in a special master post for anyone to read and enjoy.b Send them my way via my ask box on Tumblr and I'll be working on a FAQ starring AOM!

Thank you for reading!