Fate mba-2

by Аманда Хокинг

  “Yes, I suppose it does,” Mae smiled. “But it’s the truth. And your feelings on this are slightly misleading, also. The only experience you ever had was with Peter, and you have a bond with each other. When you love each other, and you exchange blood, that is the most personal, amazing feeling there is. But just eating, that’s nothing really.”

  “Uh huh,” I said skeptically.

  “Let me put it this way: Ezra bites other people,” Mae looked at me earnestly. “And on occasion, so do I. This doesn’t bother me, and it doesn’t bother him when I do it. If he let someone bite him, that would bother me. That would be tantamount to cheating.”

  “I think I understand.” What I had felt with Peter, I had felt partially because we were already bonded and partially because I was victim. If anyone bit me, I’d probably feel similarly, but if I bit someone else, I’d feel good, but without all the emotional connection.

  “When you’re a vampire, you’ll get it entirely,” Mae assured me, but that just touched on another raw nerve. Realizing this, she smiled and brushed past it. “Anyway, let’s get you dressed!”

  “I know you love jeans, but I’m thinking a skirt, definitely,” Milo chimed in suddenly and hopped off the bed so he could inspect the clothes. “There really is no other option.”

  For the most part, I just agreed with everything they said as Mae and Milo sifted through the clothes. Milo spoke animatedly and happily about everything. Being a vampire sat very well with him. Honestly, I had never seen him so comfortable in his own skin before. Jack’s tutelage must’ve really been helping, because it was an improvement from even a few days ago.

  They finally settled on a black skirt (too short) with a black top (too low) and black heels (too high) with a pair of fishnets (just right). I thought the black thing seemed a bit excessive, but Milo reminded me that it was a vampire club. Mae admitted that for some reason, they went along with the goth kid clichés. She blamed it on the modern vampires’ obsession with Anne Rice, but in a few decades, that would probably change.

  Mae proceeded to do my make up, since that was one area that Milo had never been any help in.

  He’d never been quite that gay. He left to finish busying himself with getting ready while she styled my hair and assured me that I would have fun. Once I got there, I’d understand, and I would have a good time. I asked why she wasn’t going, and she just shrugged and said she was too old for it. It wasn’t her scene anymore.

  When she was finally finished, she paraded me out into the kitchen to show the boys what she had accomplished. Jack was leaning on the island, looking rather handsome. He had traded in his shorts uniform for a dark washed denim and a rather stylish, fitted shirt. As soon as he saw me, he grinned happily and let out a long whistle, making Matilda bark.

  “Look at you.” Jack stood up straight and looked me over eagerly. His eyes lingered at the hem of my skirt, and I squirmed a bit. “I might like that skirt even more than I like those little short things you wearing this morning.”

  “Jack,” Mae said disapprovingly.

  “You’re the one that dressed her up,” Jack pointed out and looked at Mae.

  “Just be good,” Mae warned.

  “I’m always good,” Jack grumbled.

  “You do look really good,” Milo commented, and I felt embarrassed because I hadn’t even noticed he was in the kitchen.

  “So do you,” I told him lamely. All he had done was change his shirt and I suspected that he did something infinitesimal to his hair, but he did look really good.

  “I want you kids to have fun, but you need to be careful,” Mae said seriously. “And I’m talking to you, Jack. You need to keep your eyes on both of them. Milo’s really young, and Alice’s… Well, you need to watch them both.”

  “I know,” Jack rolled eyes. “I got it when we had this conversation twenty times this morning.” He had already tired of her lecture, so he started edging towards the door, and I followed after him.

  “Stay close to Jack, and don’t go anywhere with anyone, okay?” Mae cautioned, looking at me directly.

  “And just remember. Vampires are like men. They only think about one thing.”

  “So vampire men really only think about one thing?” Milo asked with a deviant glint in his eye.

  “You only think about one thing?” I teased, looking up at Jack.

  “I’m thinking about one thing right now.” His tone was joking, but he was looking at me seriously.

  He suddenly felt dangerously close to me, and my pulse quickened happily.

  “Jack!” Mae snapped.

  “Being good!” Jack announced and turned away from me.

  “You better be!” Mae insisted anxiously. “I’m trusting you! They’re both in your care, and I expect them to come in the exact same condition they are now! Is that clear?”

  “It’s been clear all day.” Jack was walking backwards to the door, so he could mount his escape while still looking at her, and Milo and I trailed right after him. “You know, I’m middle aged, Mae.

  You think you’d start trusting me by now.”

  “I would if you acted your age for a change!” Mae called after him, but he was already slipping out he garage door.

  I waved at her timidly before I left, and she just pursed her lips and hugged herself tightly. I’m sure she was already regretting her decision to let us go. On the other hand, I didn’t really feel that nervous. After all, I was with two vampires that would probably kill anyone that tried to mess with me. What was the worst that could happen?

  Chapter 13

  Ezra was out of town, so Jack got to take the Lamborghini to the club, making me feel rather high class. Milo kept begging to the drive the car, since apparently Jack had been giving him driving lessons, but it was Ezra’s really expensive car, so he refused to let him. I knew that Milo was immortal now, but I still wasn’t ready to risk him driving around. Not just yet.

  We parked by First Avenue, but it wasn’t until we got out of the car that I realized that it was the same parking garage that Jack had first met me in. It made sense, since he said he’d just gotten done eating at the club when he ran into me, and then saved my life from some ridiculous hooligans. It was so weird to think that if I hadn’t stumbled into that garage that night, my entire life would turn out differently.

  “You coming?” Jack asked, looking at me curiously. He and Milo had taken a couple steps ahead of me, but I stood just outside the car, looking around kind of dazed.

  “Yeah,” I nodded, and slowly followed after him.

  The sidewalk was intermittently littered with people with doing similar things as we were. Summer was drawing to close, and girls were getting the short skirts and halter tops out of their system.

  The Minneapolis skyline towered over us, and the sounds of music from various clubs and voices of people talking echoed off the buildings around. I looked down the street at the brightly lit marquees announcing clubs and restaurants and plays, and I wondered what there would be outside marking the vampire club.

  “What’s this place called anyway?” I asked.

  “It doesn’t really have a name,” Jack said noncommittally.. “It’s like an underground thing.”

  “Well, what do people call it? Like, the ones that don’t know it’s a vampire club? Or even the ones that do. What do they say in mixed company?” I pressed.

  While there were people probably within hearing distance, I didn’t bother to lower my voice or hide the term “vampire.” Most people were either drunk or on cell-phones or too embroiled in their own drama to notice anything I was saying. Most of them only gave a fleeting glance at Jack and Milo.

  “I don’t know,” Jack shrugged. “I think they call it V or something.”

  “That’s not very creative,” I scowled.

  “Yeah, I thought it’d be something sexier,” Milo agreed.

  “It’s an underground secret vampire club!” Jack scoffed. “It doesn’t get much sexier than that! It doesn’t
need a ‘creative’ name to entice people”

  “He has a point,” Milo allowed.

  “I still expected more from them,” I admitted.

  Jack directed us to turn off of Hennepin, leading us away from the glittery lights of the gay club flashing down the street, and Milo looked a little disappointed that we weren’t going that way.

  There were still people around, but much less then there were before, and without all the bright lights announcing venues, the yellow streetlamps made it seem much darker. The traffic had even dissipated.

  “We’re almost there,” Jack slowed his pace a bit. He held out his to me, and I didn’t understand so I just looked at him. “Give me your hand. You’re with me and I want everyone to know it.”

  “Okay?” Hesitantly, I let Jack take my hand, and then looked over to Milo to make sure he wasn’t going to growl and attack me for touching Jack.

  “He’s got it under control,” Jack explained, and then slowed down even more so we were barely walking. Even though Milo had never been there before, he stayed a couple paces ahead of us.

  When Jack spoke, he lowered his voice to just above a whisper. “Listen, stay by me. And try not to get excited or think about Peter or anything. But if you do, you find me. If somebody’s gonna bite you, it’s gonna be me.”

  “Is that a threat or a promise?” I smiled up at him and hoped my heart didn’t start racing.

  “Both,” Jack laughed a little. “No. Sorry. Neither. I’m being good. But just stay by me.”

  “You’re making this sound dangerous.” My stomach was filling with butterflies, and I thought of the worried look on Mae’s face. “Why are we going here if it’s hazardous?”

  “Its not really. I mean, it’s slightly riskier than hanging out with us in the first place,” Jack relented.

  “But you needed to get out and have fun. And I won’t let anything happen to you. So…” He shrugged and then stopped. “Milo. Hold up.”

  Jack had stopped next to a nondescript doorway in the middle of the block. The nearest streetlight had completely gone out, making it eerily dark for downtown. He squeezed my hand briefly, and I felt his temperature warm up just slightly, but it wasn’t out of control. Milo came back to where we were standing, and Jack nodded at a large black door. He raised his eyebrows, and then opened the door.

  We were immediately greeted by two massive bouncers. The door opened into narrow entryway that glowed red from the bulb above, and these two giant men were standing there, nearly blocking our path inside. They just nodded at Jack and Milo, but something about the way they looked at me when I walked past assured me that they were vampires.

  At the end of the narrow hall, there was a rather steep set of cement stairs leading down into what appeared to be black nothingness. The only light in the stairway came from the red one upstairs. I was terrified of falling in my ridiculous heels, but Jack was in front of me, and I was fairly certain he would catch me. We were walking into complete darkness, but that probably wasn’t a problem for most attendees. For my puny little human eyes, it was disorienting going down into that. I clung onto Jack tightly, and he never let me go.

  Already, I could hear the music pulsing, some kind of heavy electronica. Jack whispered that we had reached the main level, but I still couldn’t see anything. We walked a little farther, and then suddenly, Jack opened the door, bathing us in cool, blue light and making the walls echo with the music.

  Considering we were in the basement, the ceilings of the room were amazingly high for what was undoubtedly a dance floor. There were at least two-hundred people, if not more, smashed onto the floor, dancing wildly. Slender arms waved in the air, and bodies moved delicately and perfectly in time with the music. Never had I seen movements so graceful outside of the ballet.

  A long, metallic bar lined the far side of the room, and based on the bottles lining the back wall, I assumed it was an actual bar, full of alcoholic drinks for the humans. Several very attractive men and women stood behind it, manning it for drinks. The stools in front of it were full, and a line of pretty but obviously sweaty humans were waiting to get drinks.

  The music was almost too loud to think, and when I turned to look for Milo, he had already disappeared into the crowd of gyrating flesh on the dance floor. Jack smiled at me hopefully and plunged onto the dance floor. The people moving all around us were stunningly beautiful for the most part. A girl with pixie white blonde hair smiled at me, and I couldn’t help but notice the fading bite marks on her neck.

  Jack moved much more gracefully than I could ever imagine, and I tried desperately to keep up with him. We must’ve looked like a rhinoceros trying to dance with a gazelle, but he kept his hands on me the entire time, keeping me close to him, and that made it all worth it. The blue from the light made his eyes glow, and his happiness and enthusiasm were positively infectious.

  Thanks to the speed of my dancing and the proximity of Jack, not to mention my growing joy, my heart pounded heavily in my chest.

  We hadn’t been on the floor for very long when it felt like people were starting to grab at me. At first, I thought I was imagining things, and it was just the way the bodies were touching me. Then a felt a sharp prick as someone scratched the back of my neck with something, and Jack stopped dancing. Fortunately, they hadn’t scratched hard enough to draw blood, or I’d be in real trouble.

  He kept his arm firmly around me, and when I looked around, I realized that the crowd had definitely closed in on us.

  Jack started to lead me off the floor, towards a doorway into another room. Someone touched me, letting their fingertips glide lightly down my arm, almost caressing me. I looked back quickly, and I half expected whoever touched me to slink away into the crowd, but he was just standing there. Not dancing, not moving, just staring at me. Naturally, he was perfectly gorgeous, with thick hair slicked back.. His eyes were a mesmerizing black and they burned straight through me. His skin glowed flawless blue under the lights, and there was something seductively evil in the way he smiled at me.

  He must’ve had me frozen in some kind of trance, because Jack was half-carrying/half-dragging me away. When I noticed it, I managed to look away, and the way my lungs burned reminded to breathe. Then the bodies were starting to break up, and the light was shifting from blue to dull red. We were slipping through a doorway into the next room, and the walls muffled dampened the sound of the music.

  This room was smaller than the last, and dressed more like a bar or a coffee shop than a club.

  There were lots of doors and darkened hallways leading out of it, and I wondered where they went to. Several soft looking couches filled the room, and there was a small bar in a very dark corner. While there appeared to be a bartender standing behind it, with long red hair pulled back in a ponytail, there weren’t any bottles lining the wall, and I figured that had to be an entirely different kind of bar in the other room.

  On the couch nearest to us, a stunningly beautiful women laid with her head lulled back. Her silky hair had to go down to her knees when she stood up. Her clothing with black and leather and so tight, I couldn’t believe she could move. There was an intricate black tattoo running down her arm. But the most startling feature about her was the pretty young girl she had curled up on her lap. Her eyes were closed and her mouth had curled into a state of bliss, and there was a thin line of blood on her neck. The vampire holding her looked at me and smiled stunningly as she licked the blood from her lips. There was a come hither look about her that made Jack produce a low rumbling growl next to me.

  “Stop it,” Jack murmured in my ear.

  “What?” I asked, pulling my attention from the women to look about the room.

  Scenes similar to the one the couch were playing out all over. There were some people (or vampires) that were simply sitting and talking, and some that were just making out. Everyone was so insanely attractive they made Jane look like the elephant man. Strangely, as soon as we had entered the room, everyone seemed to turn and l
ook at us. Vampires with their stunning, entrancing eyes, kept fixing their gaze on me, and I would forget to breathe. If I wasn’t careful, I would end up suffocating.

  “Stop,” Jack repeated and jerked my hand so I would focus on him.

  “What?” This time, I looked up at him, away from everyone in the room.

  “Don’t look at anyone,” Jack warned me quietly.

  “Why not?” I was bewildered. Was I supposed to look at only him for the entirety of the night?

  “You keep letting them… captivate you.” He nervously looked over the top of my head, and I could tell he was starting to think that maybe this was a bad idea. “Don’t do that.”

  “Sorry,” I mumbled, but I wasn’t exactly sure how to fix that.

  “Don’t be sorry. Just…” He shook his head. “Come on.” He pulled me off to the side of the room, to a mostly empty couch, and I was careful to keep my eyes down.

  When he sat down, I sat as close to him as I possibly could. On the other side of him was a girl with hair that shown purple under the light. Her eyeliner was caked on and her lipstick was black.

  When we sat down, she’d been sipping a drink and looking around like she was watching for someone, but then she turned her attention to us. She smiled, mostly at me, and her fangs were far more pronounced than Jack’s were. Almost comically so, and I wondered if that was a natural occurrence or if she did something to make them like that. I also noticed a little silver stud in her cheek, the piercing girls got to look a metal beauty mark.

  “You’re new here,” she purred, directly to me, and her voice sounded like honey and helium.

  “Yeah,” I told her dumbly, and Jack dropped his arm around me. It was supposed to be casual, but I don’t think anybody would confuse it for anything but the protective gesture it was.

  “You, I’ve seen around before.” She looked at Jack, narrowing her eyes at him. Her makeup was so thick and heavy around her eyes, it looked like was wearing a kind of mask, like the one superheroes would paint on. She bit her lip, carefully so the fangs wouldn’t tear her skin, and tried to place him. “Did we fuck?”