I had the strangest feeling
Your world's not all it seems
So tired of misconceiving
What else this could've been

Say something, say something,
something like you love me
Does she wanna move away
From the noise of this place

I don't even know if I believe
Anything you're trying to say to me

Mumford & Sons - Believe

Chapter 32: Planning The End

Brady

An hour later, it was still dark out. I stood in the corner of the Cullen library as Rosalie and Edward flashed about the room with dizzying speed getting ready for Carlisle's arrival. I slid into a hard chair next to the floor to ceiling windows, watching with glazed eyes as they began to work on Lexi.

"Here," Rosalie said, thrusting a syringe into Edward's hands.

He gave her a questioning look. These two had me utterly befuddled. They spoke in hushed whispers too quiet for almost my ears. It took me almost twenty minutes to figure out that Edward's grunts and small noises were answers to Rosalie's internal thoughts as they moved about the room.

"It's worth a try. It could help ease the pain."

Edward nodded, inserting the needle into Lexi's arm. I watched him pump her full of something I could only hope would ease her suffering. He carefully stuck her still tan skin several times, in several different places. Rosalie pulled her hair into a messy ponytail, barely pausing to roll up her sleeves. Her pale, expensive looking blouse was already ruined with Lexi's blood – the blonde vampire hadn't even paused or flinched to pick up my bloodied, mangled imprint. I wondered how much restraint that had taken her. I studied her as she worked – she didn't appear to be in any sort of pain or discomfort from abstaining from Lexi's blood. Huh. She must actually want to help her, I realized. A basin of ice water appeared and she began running a cloth of cold water up and down Lexi's arms. Rosalie had cut her clothes off of her before I'd arrived, donning Lexi's lifeless body in a blue hospital gown.

At some point soon after, I let my head rest against the cool glass of the window and my eyes drifted closed.

I could only hope I would wake from the nightmare that was suddenly all I knew.

"She likes that. I can… she's starting to think a little clearer now," Edward muttered. I jerked my head up, licking my lips. Rosalie was still bathing Lexi in cold water. I couldn't see Lexi's face, but the blonde hair hanging off the side of the operating table that had suddenly appeared in the middle of the room looked freshly washed. Her skin was clean of all the blood, and her arms were resting across her stomach. Her heart still beating faintly in her chest.

Thump…thump…..thump.

I sighed. She was struggling. The smell of bleach hung in the air, making me want to gag.

Edward glanced over at me, realizing I was awake. "We don't want her to smell any blood. Even the scent of her own will set her into a frenzy," he answered.

I nodded as Seth stepped through the door. He looked as tired and weary as I felt. He went straight to Edward's side.

"When will Alice be here?"

Edward glanced at the clock. "She sent me a text a while ago… about twenty minutes now. They went to get… supplies before we left. Said they'd meet us here."

"The whole family?"

Edward nodded.

I sat up. "What do you mean, 'supplies'?"

Edward turned to me, his golden eyes calm. "It might help her to have some blood right away. Might make her less apt to do something… rash," he answered quietly.

Like murder the whole town, I thought darkly. As soon as the thought entered my mind, I felt ashamed for it. The imprinted, somehow romantic side of me was trying to reason that she would wake up. Lexi was going to open her eyes, and yes, she wouldn't be herself, but she would at least speak to me again. But she'll be a monster, the rational side argued. She'll be one of them. She'll hunt and kill and drain things. She'll smell like them and think like them, and she'll never be warm again.

I focused on her heartbeat. It was still slow and struggling. I didn't have any idea how much time had passed since the bite or even how long her transformation would take, but it all felt like a lifetime. I felt utterly clueless and helpless. My imprint would be a new species, and I wouldn't even be able to help her. Even if she was a monster, what would that do to our imprint bond? I'd been pinned down with my shock and grief, I hadn't even paused to consider what all this meant. I didn't know though – if there wasn't a book on imprinting, then there certainly wasn't a book on what to do when your imprint was turned into a vampire against her will.

I slumped against the window and watched Rosalie work across the room. She adjusted the hospital gown Lexi now wore. Reaching over, she gently moved her other hand to rest on her stomach, pausing to pat it lightly. She really was being careful with her – I respected her for that, for what it was worth.

"It's moving out of her veins," Edward murmured sometime later. I straightened up again, peering towards the operating table. Rosalie stood vigil on one side while Edward stood at the end of the table, watching her closely. "It's settling into her tissues."

"Carlisle thinks the bones repair last," Rosalie chimed in, noticing I was staring. I nodded, gazing at Lexi's profile. She didn't look any different yet – just bruised and slightly paler than normal.

Seth looked over at me. "Are you okay?"

I grunted, not taking my eyes off of Lexi.

"We can talk, you know," he offered. "If you want to."

I had to send Seth away shortly before dawn. His questions about feelings and pacing were making me crazy, so I told him to go do what I no longer could – go be with his imprint. He left with little coaxing, as any imprinted wolf would. I felt another stab of pain in my heart. I could already feel a void where Lexi used to be.

The rest of the Cullens arrived in a whirlwind just as the light was starting to creep through the trees. It was hard to tell – the weather was still dark and gloomy, and it was a typical short winter day with longer hours of darkness. But they arrived nonetheless in a bustle of activity and their signature hushed voices and movements so fast they looked like the Flash.

Carlisle appeared in front of me, his steely hands taking mine before I could protest.

"I'm sorry this happened to you, son," he said gently, his golden eyes calm. "We'll get her through this. We're prepared."

Esme offered me a kind smile as her husband darted off, appearing at Lexi's side. I watched him run his fingertips up and down her arms, assessing Lexi's injuries.

"She isn't as bad as I was," Esme murmured to me.

I looked up at her in surprise. "Were you… attacked?" I asked. I didn't know proper vampire etiquette. Was it impolite to ask them how they were turned? I felt like a fool assuming most of them were turned by choice.

Edward glanced at me. "Only Bella," he answered my thought.

Esme glanced at her son, then back at me. "No… suicide. Carlisle found me in the morgue. Heart still beating, just barely," she sighed, shaking her head. I fought back a shudder as she spoke so calmly about apparently attempting suicide and barely escaping being buried alive. So matter of fact. "I was much worse than Lexi. She'll make it."

Emmett appeared next. "And we'll find the one who did this to her," he grunted. He shared a pointed look with Edward. I heard several growls echo around the room, and I realized I was very much alone in a house full of vampires. Friendly or not, I still wasn't going to leave Lexi here alone with them. I hid a wry smile. Maybe this was my normal now.

Edward nodded to Emmett, and the two turned to me. "Come upstairs. We need to talk."

Carlisle looked to Rosalie and Esme. "Can you watch her? Call me if anything changes."

I reluctantly followed the doctor and the other two upstairs to the kitchen. Seth had been living here for years, but somehow with all of them in, it again felt like it was their home. I settled onto a stool at the counter as Alice appeared in the doorway carrying a white box.

"I can see her," she sighed, her amber eyes vacant. Her husband, the creepy one, materialized next to her and gingerly took the box out of her hand. I watched with an open mouth as he began pulling bags of blood out of it and stacking them neatly in the refrigerator.

She eyed me. "I must be getting better. It only took him coming upstairs to get a clear picture."

I frowned. I wasn't in the mood for cryptic talk. "What?"

She sighed, her vision going hazy again like she was seriously spacing out. "I see vampires because I am one, I sort of see humans because I was one, and I can't see wolves because you're a different breed with which I have no common ground," she sighed, explaining it like she'd said it a thousand times. She waved her hand and took a seat beside me like we were old friends. "You've been hovering around her for hours now, I couldn't see past you. But now that you're upstairs I can see her…" she trailed off. "I'm getting better at this wolf thing, you know," she said pointedly at Carlisle.

He shrugged at her like she was a child bragging about an art project before turning back to me.

"Jasper has been doing some work overnight," he began. I glanced over at the scar-riddled, mood-changing vampire in the corner of the kitchen. He nodded at me, and I nodded curtly back. What did he have to do with this?

Edward took his place beside Carlisle. "He was securing your alibi from yesterday."

I froze.

"What… what? My… what do you mean?"

The Cullens all shared an uncomfortable look while they waited for me to piece together the meaning of what my needing an alibi meant.

"People will realize I was the last person to be seen with her. They'll think I killed her."

Carlisle nodded. "I'm very sorry. But we thought this was the last thing you'd' want to get caught up in right now."

I was suddenly fighting the urge to cry again. Tears burned at the backs of my eyelids as I thought about what that meant. People were going to think that I was some psycho boyfriend who did something sick to her. They would think I murdered Lexi.

I hung my head. "Do her parents know yet?"

Edward shook his head. "Seth is at the station right now waiting for us to reach out to him. He's going to help us make sure this all goes smoothly."

"Smoothly?" I snapped. I bit back tears. "Like how?"

How could the faked murder of my girlfriend go smoothly?

Edward looked at Carlisle for help. The patriarch gave me a woeful look. "Bella had Renesmee help her this morning before Lexi's parents woke. They broke into the house, took a few of her possessions, and forged a note. They made it look like she was leaving. They left it open – to maybe look like a suicide, or maybe just that she was running away."

I stared at him. "What? Why would they do that? That doesn't even make sense, it-"

"They had to," Edward argued. "It was the only way we could figure out to make your alibi work. If they think she was killed or murdered somehow, the first person they go after is you. Excuse us for thinking that might be the last possible thing you'd want right now."

"But Lexi was a happy person. She would never have just… left her problems. That's not her," I argued back. I thought of how happy she was – how stubborn and headstrong. There was no way her dad and Patrick would buy that story. Unless they thought I'd made her unhappy? Or that she'd gone back to her mom's in California? I thought back in my mind, scanning every inch of my brain that I could still get to function at this point. I remembered all the times she'd talked to me about her parents' divorce, the fights, and the humiliation her mom had endured when her father had come out. I remembered her telling me her dad felt guilty for taking her with him to Forks and leaving her mother behind. Lexi did feel bad about not being there for her little brothers, but… it still didn't make sense. She wouldn't have been unhappy enough to just leave. I met Edward's eyes – he'd definitely heard my thoughts.

They won't buy it, I insisted. Lexi was a happy person. She wouldn't have abandoned her life at the drop of a hat.

"We've arranged for someone to come forward with an alibi if you should need it," Carlisle continued.

I looked up at them, frowning. "Arranged? Do I want to know?"

The Creepy one spoke. "Over the years I've come to know a gentleman in Seattle that can make anything possible given the right amount of funding. Let's just say… we had the right amount to offer him to make this happen."

I snorted. "So what, am I like in your debt now?"

Carlisle blanched slightly, his eyes hard. "An innocent life has been taken, changed forever. Money is no object here. You owe us nothing for this. We can disappear in less than a day. You have a life to live. If we've learned anything here today, it's that life is precious."

He didn't stutter. I swallowed back my anger and nodded at him. "I'm sorry, I'm just… this is new to me."

He gave me a nod and looked to Edward. "What does Brady need to do to ensure this all goes smoothly?"

Edward uncrossed his arms, giving me a focused stare. "Alice went back to First Beach with Jacob where you parked your truck yesterday morning and got your phone and your vehicle and brought them here. She sent texts to Lexi's phone a few hours ago with it that looked like they were from you – we made it look like you dropped Lexi off back at home before her dad or Patrick got home yesterday. Seth is going to say you were here with him all night, having a guy's night with a few others."

"The pack will back me up," I sighed. The faces of Seth, Jake, Embry, and Quil all flashed in my mind. In hard times like these, I knew I could count on them. I leaned back in the chair. "So when the police check her phone records…"

Edward nodded again. "You need to text her this morning and ask how her night was. Ask why you haven't heard from her. Bella is going to drive the phone to Seattle today, send one final message to look like it's from Lexi, then destroy the phone. That way she'll still appear alive, but you'll be in the clear. Her family will think she's disappeared."

I slouched against the back of the barstool and stared down at the granite countertop. It all seemed to well planned, so official. They made it look easy to explain a missing person, a missing life. But that's the thing - none of this was easy.

I felt exhausted, my stomach churning, like I might throw up.

I went back down to the library one more time to see Lexi. She looked the same – slightly pale, bruised, and clammy. Dead, I thought. If it weren't for the quiet whimpers and occasional twitch, she looked dead.

Alice handed me my phone as I stared at my imprint. She was so still.

"Send a few now before more time passes," she urged. "It's early yet. In a few hours, go to her house and tell her dad you haven't heard from her and you're worried," she finished, her voice purely business. I studied her as she talked – Alice was tiny, poised, and looked visibly calm and unshaken. I felt unhinged next to her.

My fingers shook as I took my phone from her and typed out a few normal text messages to Lexi's phone.

Alice stood beside me, her strange golden eyes watching and nodding in approval before I hit 'send' on each one.

"Now go get some rest in one of the guestrooms. You can shower there, and I'll lay out fresh clothes for you before you go to her house."

She turned back to Lexi, patting her hand and focusing on the clock. What did she see?

I could only grunt in response. The weight of the day, mixed with fatigue, grief, and shock was finally wearing on me. I looked at Lexi again and tried to let it sink in that she would wake up.

"Alice?" I asked, my voice hoarse with exhaustion.

She turned back around blinked at me. "Yes?"

I swallowed. "She'll… she'll make it?"

Alice offered me a weak smile. "She will. I'll know more when you leave… I'll be able to see better and definitely give you a time, but… yes, she'll live."

The slight confirmation helped. "Okay. Will… do you think she'll still be my imprint? If she's not… human?"

Her amber eyes grew sad for a moment before she shrugged. "I honestly don't know," she sighed. "We've never… this hasn't happened before."

I nodded and headed back up the stairs out of the library. I heard her call out my name as I reached the top.

"Brady?"

I paused, turning to look at her. "Yeah?"

She glanced back at Lexi, then up at me. "I don't know what will happen. She'll wake up, but she won't be… the same. I want you to know that. She'll still be Lexi, but she'll also be a newborn vampire. Our treaty and new family ties to the pack are something we respect and value, but… she won't be herself for a while. The only thing she'll have is her instincts. Our trust with you is learned. You have to remember – we were, at one point… enemies."

I nodded, the tightness in my throat returning. "How long do we have?"

Alice glanced at the clock in the wall, then back at Lexi. "She'll wake at dawn on the third day. A little over forty eight hours from now, she'll open her eyes," she replied, her tiny voice quiet.

In just over two days, Lexi would wake. And in two days, she would be a newborn vampire.

Thank you for reading! And thank you to NinkyBaby for all of her hard work Beta-ing!