Chapter Fifty Six

Alice

Charlie seemed to be going through the change quite quickly, by the end of the first day his heart and lungs were already struggling and then we got the news that we needed to move him, not a great idea with a transforming human but we had no choice, they'd found Bella and another girl and needed somewhere quiet to take them so Garrett, Edward, and I transported him at Charlotte's suggestion to their ranch in Boulder in the back of a truck.

It wasn't easy, he had to be restrained which took the combined effort of the two guys while I drove praying we wouldn't run into any cops and thankfully our luck held. Once at the ranch we took him into the barn well away from the house just in case there were any visitors and left a message for the guy who came in to look after the horses that his services were no longer required and he could pick up his pay at the mail box at the end of the drive. Edward took the horses from the stables and put them to graze in the meadow furthest from the barn as they were being spooked by the sounds of distress coming from Charlie.

As the time grew closer for him to wake up Garrett and I were able to leave him as the thrashing slowed, he was a strong human so he was going to be even stronger as a newborn and I wondered if Emmett would have a rival for the title of strongest in the family. I had no doubt Charlie would become one of the family, it seemed inevitable although I still couldn't see Bella. However if he stayed then chances were that Bella would remember her life before the horrific events and recognize Jasper as her mate.

Edward divided his time between watching Charlie and keeping in contact with the others to check on how things were going, both with the young girl they had rescued and Bella and the baby. Now a baby had been a shock, I hadn't seen that one coming for a second but I had an idea what would happen to the little one, either Esme or Rose would adopt it, using Jenks to make it all perfectly legal. Of course there was still the matter of the Volturi but I was sure Carlisle would do his best to persuade them that it would be safe to bring the child up in ignorance of what its "parents" really were.

Thinking of the Volturi had me thinking about the time frame they had given Jasper for changing Bella. I couldn't see how he was going to do it in time, she was sick both mentally and physically and it would take time for her to heal and I didn't need my gift to know that, common sense would dictate so but would Aro be willing to extend the deadline? If not then what would we do? We could hardly stand aside while the Volturi killed Jasper's mate.

Maybe Carlisle would be able to come up with something, although he had hardly any contact with them these days I knew Aro considered him to be a close friend so maybe he would listen to a plea on Bella's behalf, if not the only thing Jasper could do was to run and keep running until Bella was ready and then change her hoping the Volturi would accept her once she was a vampire. Nothing was ever easy for my poor brother, he had to fight for everything, even his mates life!

By the third morning we knew Charlie was close to waking, his heartbeats were so ragged they couldn't possibly sustain a human and his lungs had already collapsed. He was silent now, his pale skin and stillness told its own tale but we had no idea how he would react once he woke up, after all he'd had no idea of our true nature before he was bitten. Jasper had told us that newborns woke either confused, angry, and extremely violent or crazy, enraged, and violent so we were ready to defend ourselves and stop him from doing anything that would make the humans look here.

In other words he couldn't be allowed to run amok in the nearby town. Edward and I would teach him to hunt animals and hope it was enough while Garrett would back us up. The longer he and I were together the closer we became and we both knew this was the real thing. Our bond had developed more slowly than most mates but it was no less powerful for this and I hoped once all this was over we could arrange our own wedding, maybe alongside Bella and Jasper. Esme would be in her element arranging such an event and I would let her have a free hand, I no longer needed to be in control of every facet of the family's life, now I had another outlet for my energies.

Edward came in with news,

"Apparently Jazz managed to get the baby away from Bella and Rose is taking it back to the house and Esme but it seems to be healthy enough. Bella on the other hand sounds severely traumatized and Jazz is in full protective mode so no one is getting near her to see if she's OK."

"She will be, Jazz will make sure of that although if he knocked her out to get the baby away from her he's gonna have a real hard time getting her to trust him. I guess he just couldn't accept the baby there as Bella's not it's mother. Poor little mite. Have the Volturi been informed of what happened?"

"Not yet, I think Carlisle will be contacting them once he has some more information. Em and Darius have the crazy guy locked up nice and safe and I think they're going to wait for Jazz before going to see him again."

"It doesn't matter, he's a dead man either way after what he did to Bella. I just hope he hasn't jeopardized her ability to change in time."

We heard a gasp and Charlie sat up looking around confused, so which way would he go now? I thought the guys were probably more in danger than I was, Charlie wouldn't see me as a threat, or not so great a one anyway. Edward stepped forward looking puzzled,

"Charlie? Do you remember us?"

"Of course I do. Where's my daughter? And what the hell happened to me? I remember being stabbed and then...nothing until I woke up a few seconds ago to hear you discussing Bella. He found her? She's alive?"

"Yes we found her, she's with Jasper now but she's very traumatized."

"What did you mean by jeopardizing her ability to change in time?"

"Charlie there's something you should know."

He was distracted looking at his hand which a shaft of sunlight had made to sparkle,

"What the hell happened to me?"

"Peter had no choice Charlie, you were dying, the only way to save you was to change you so that's what he did."

"Changed me into what?"

His eyes had narrowed dangerously and I saw Edward and Garrett brace themselves ready to act,

"Into one of us...a vampire."

We all expected him to attack at this point, why wouldn't he? He'd just found out his daughter was engaged to a vampire and he had been transformed into one but instead he relaxed, what the hell was going on?

"So that's your dark secret, the one it was dangerous for me to learn. Vampires? And I'm one? Does that mean I have to drink blood to survive?"

"Yes but you don't have to attack humans, we live on animal blood, its not easy but if you have the self control it can be done."

"Oh I think Charlie's got plenty of self control Alice. I've never seen a newborn just sit there asking questions and I've seen a few in my time."

"A newborn?"

"It's what we call a newly awakened vampire. Usually they are violent and dangerous, confused, and ready to kill anything they see."

"So why am I different?"

"My guess would be that you were a self controlled, strong character, as a human and that's the gift you brought over to your new life. It's going to be very useful Charlie, especially if the Volturi decide to call time on Bella's human life."

We explained all about the Volturi and Charlie caught on rapidly,

"If my daughter needs protecting you'd better show me how to hunt so I'm not a threat to her and then show me where she is."

"He won't let you in Charlie, not yet. He's protecting his mate and he'll see anyone who tries to go in as a threat and believe me you do not want t go up against The Major."

"The Major?"

"Look it would be better if we explained the situation fully as we hunted. You OK with the three of us going with you? We're just keeping you safe, once you scent blood you might not be so controlled."

"Fine lets get on with it, I need to understand what the hell is really going on."