Laid out on the white satin bedspread, Mae had left some clothes of hers that I could wear. She had decided on flowered silk pajama pants and a thin blue cotton shirt. Since their house generally ran cold, I put my hoodie on over it, but it almost felt like sacrilege to put on something so ordinary with her extravagance. They lived on a whole other plane from me, in every way possible.
“I’m just saying that you rolled the Jeep.” Ezra’s words wafted warmly down the hall towards me when I opened their bedroom door. “It’s not asking that much that you pay for it.”
“You just want me out of the house more,” Jack grumbled.
“That wouldn’t hurt you either,” Ezra replied gently.
I had made my way down the hall, and they all instantly stopped talking when they saw me. Mae was standing in the kitchen amongst a mass of dishes and food splayed out all over the counter tops. She had white powder on her cheeks and some kind of red sauce dripped all over an elegant white apron. Jack had a stool pulled up to the counter, and I’m sure he fancied himself helping, but I’d imagine that he spent more time playing with the ingredients than helping. As it was, he was juggling a tomato and a lemon when I walked in. Ezra had his back pressed against the wall, leaning gracefully back, like a king surveying his kingdom.
“Oh, you look so much better!” Mae beamed at me. Jack dropped the tomato on the counter and very deliberately looked away from me. “Wasn’t that bath fabulous?”
“Yeah, it was pretty great.” I ran my fingers through my tangles of wet hair, and I could almost see Mae longing to play with it. Walking over to the mess Mae was making, I was careful to keep a distance from Jack. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to make you some kind of comfort food,” Mae smiled grimly at me. “I used to be an amazing cook, I swear! Everyone in my neighborhood loved my cooking!” Jack snorted skeptically, and she reached across the counter to slap him on the arm. “I was! You would’ve been thrilled to eat anything I made!”
“Whatever you say.” Jack leaned back in the stool, moving farther out of arm’s length, in case Mae decided to swat him again.
“It’s just been so long since I’ve cooked anything.” Mae looked sourly at the mess around her, which consisted of everything from cucumbers to pears to pie crusts, and I couldn’t even begin to fathom what she had in mind. “I’ve just forgotten what everything tastes like.”
“I bet you could make a mean blood pudding,” Jack offered, waggling his eyebrows at her.
“I know you’re just being an ass, but I really could.” Her voice took on one of pride and she puffed out her chest again. “I am from England, you know. We invented blood pudding.”
“Really?” I asked, looking up at her, and she, in turn, looked to Ezra for help.
“Maybe. It’s European, definitely, but it has a very Scottish flare to it. That could be just because I’m thinking of haggis, though.” Ezra shrugged.
“Well, you’re no help,” Mae pouted. There was a spoon in a bowl of something red, and she gave it one superficial swirl, then looked apologetically at me. “I don’t think that I’ve made anything that you can actually eat.”
“What about this tomato?” Jack held up the tomato towards me, but I just shook my head.
“I’m okay. I’m not even hungry.”
“Oh!” Mae exclaimed, her eyes glittering. “Your brother is a cook, isn’t he?”
“Not professionally, but yeah, he’s really good,” I told her hesitatingly. I liked Milo and all, but there was too much going on over here, and I didn’t really want him to come over. At least not tonight.
“Oh fantastic! And I’m sure he knows all of your favorite recipes!” She was overflowing her own genius, and I didn’t really want to burst her bubble. “Here.
Why don’t you just give me his phone number and I’ll give him a call. Oh, what time is it? It’s not too late is it?” She glanced around for a clock, and it was only a quarter to nine. “He’s still awake, isn’t he?”
“He should be.” There was no real way of knowing with him, though, especially on a school night.
Mae whipped her phone out of her pocket, and I gave her his number.
When she dialed the number, I had never seen anyone look quite so excited for someone to answer the phone.
“Oh, Milo!” Mae was smiling so wide, it looked almost painful. “I’m so glad you answered! Oh, I didn’t wake you, did I? I’m sorry, love. I don’t want to disturb you.” He must’ve answered with something positive, because she laughed lightly, and continued on about making me the perfect meal to make me feel better.
“I’m really not very hungry.” I had lowered my voice considerably, just in case Mae might hear, but she was talking very animatedly to Milo and swooping around the kitchen, gathering pots and pans and whatever she thought she’d needed. “Why do you guys have pots and pans anyway?”
“It makes us look more normal.” Jack rolled his shoulders, like he didn’t think it really mattered that much. “I mean, we don’t really need kitchens, and in a household of four people, we have seven bathrooms.”
“Bathrooms add resale value!” From Ezra’s tone, I gathered that this wasn’t the first time they’d had this argument. “We’re not going to live here for that long, so its best if we get our money’s worth.”
“What do you mean you’re not gonna live here long?” I had been leaning on the counter, but I snapped my head sharply and looked over at him. They had built this gorgeous house that was so completely meant for them, I couldn’t imagine them moving. But more than that, I couldn’t stand the thought of them being farther away from me.
“I can only be twenty-six for so long before the neighbors start to notice,” Ezra elaborated, but it still took a minute for it to sink it. They were never going to age, but everyone around them would, and they’d see them remain perfect forever. “We move every five years so, but we’ve been staying in the Minneapolis area for quite awhile.”
“In fact, I’ve never lived anywhere else,” Jack added.
“You were born here?” I gave him an odd look. For no real reason, I had just always kind of imagined that he was a transplant from California or Vegas or something like that.
“Well, Stillwater, actually, but it still makes it tricky living that close to my family.” He had said it casually, like it was no big thing, but something had just dawned on me, and he noticed the shift in my expression. He sighed and realized that he’d probably said a little too much. “We can’t see our families. We change, at first, to look better, and then we don’t change at all.”
“And it’s too hard watching them grow old.” Ezra had somehow managed to take something that was really terrible sound at least vaguely soothing, but my heart still clenched. I looked over at Mae, standing over the stove and chatting amicably with my brother, and realized the full ramification of what he was saying. “It’s better to cut ties sooner rather than later.”
“It’s not as bad as it sounds.” Jack put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me, but I just shrugged it off.
There were things that I hadn’t thought about when I got involved with them, and I’m sure there would be even more things that would come up later.
Nothing about this was going to be easy.
As if to solidify my point, Peter suddenly walked into the kitchen. His jeans and shirt were slim fit, revealing the slender lines of his gorgeous body. His blazing green eyes landed on mine, for just a second, then flitted away, like he couldn’t stand to look at me. He tucked a flyaway hair behind his ear and surveyed the mess in the kitchen. Just being this close to him made my skin tremble and my blood pound heavily in my ears. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Jack flinch, but for once, I didn’t feel it. When Peter was around, he eclipsed everything else, including the feelings that I sometimes borrowed from Jack.
“What’s all this?” Peter gestured to Mae’s attempts at cooking. She’d been too distracted with her food preparation to notice him walk in, but when he
spoke, she shot him a nervous, startled look.
“I’ll call you back,” Mae muttered into the phone, then quickly hung up and dropped it in her pocket. “Peter, you’re home!”
“I am.” He chewed the inside of his cheek, and I could tell how deliberately he had to keep from looking at me. Desperately, I wanted him to look at me, though, and I wondered how he could even fight the urge. For me, it was so overpowering that I could barely breathe. “Am I to assume this is a feast for my return?”
“Peter, she knows,” Ezra told him quietly.
His eyes turned on me sharply, sending a rush through me so rapidly that I felt dizzy. Behind me, I heard a stool clatter to the floor, but I didn’t look back to see Jack storming out of the room. Peter didn’t really seem to notice either but walked slowly over to me, his eyes never leaving mine.
“So, you’re feeding her now?” Peter was looking at me, but he was asking someone else, not that anyone bothered to answer. He reached out and touched a wet strand of my hair and breathed in deeply. “And she’s showering here too. Is she living here now?”
“No.” Ezra let the word hang in the air, and Peter just kept staring at me.
In the back of my mind, I was aware that there were other people in the room, and it should be embarrassing that Peter was looking at me so intently in front of them, but somehow, it wasn’t.
“So you know we’re vampires?” Even though he started to smile at me, there was an underlying edge to his voice. “You know that we kill? You could’ve just as easily been food for us, but with a bit of luck and chance, you’re standing here instead.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. I could feel heat radiate from his body in a way that the others seemed incapable of. My skin tingled and that tugging feeling had encircled my heart. Every single part of my body screamed out for him, and painfully, I was starting to believe that he didn’t feel the same way.
“Why are you here?” Peter asked huskily.
“I–I-I want to be,” I stumbled. He had occupied my brain and it was all but impossible for me to form a competent answer. His scent, tangy and tantalizing, washed over me, blinding almost all my other senses.
“You want to be,” Peter repeated flatly. “You want this?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but then I felt his hand around my throat.
There was a rush of air and then I felt something hard slam into my back. It took me a while to realize that he’d picked me up by my neck and pressed me against a wall. His eyes burned with conflicting passions, but all I could really feel were his fingers on my throat, and the way my pulse felt pumping underneath them. His eyes were ravenous, and I knew he had the exact same thought.
“This is really what you want?” he snarled.
This time I couldn’t answer because his hand was so tight on my throat. I couldn’t even breathe, but I barely noticed. He was pressed up against me and I could feel the hard contours of his body against mine, and his intoxicating smell suffocated me. If I stayed like that for too long, I would probably die, but it seemed completely worth it.
Without warning, Jack slammed into Peter, sending him flying across the room. My lungs burned as they filled with air, and I leaned back against the wall, gasping. Peter had stumbled back into the fridge, but he quickly regained his footing and flew at Jack. Jack was ready for it though and lunged back towards Peter, pushing him back away from me once again.
“Jack!” Mae wailed, sounding utterly panicked.
Ezra stepped forward to intervene, so Peter backed down but only slightly.
Jack stood between Peter and I, his body unbearably shielding me from Peter.
For his part, Peter had a look of barely controlled rage contorting his beautiful features. He held his fists tightly clenched at his sides, and he glared past Jack at me.
“He’s not going to hurt her!” Ezra hissed at Jack, and both of them stepped back a little bit, but neither was willing to relinquish his stand entirely.
“He had his hand around her throat! She couldn’t breathe!” Jack insisted.
“I would never let her die!” Peter shouted incredulously. “I could feel her heartbeat and it never waned!” Then something occurred to him, and he took a step closer to Jack. “What do you even care? How did you even know she wasn’t breathing? What did you do?”
“Stop!” Mae screamed and ran in between the two of them. Ezra had still been standing off to the side, trying to let them sort it out on their own, but Mae put one of her hands on each of their chests. “Nothing happened, okay?
Nothing!”
“What the hell is going on?” Peter looked to Ezra for an explanation. “Why does he care about her? Something’s wrong. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be.”
“We don’t really know what’s going on,” Ezra admitted quietly, casting a look back at me. “This is unlike anything I’ve ever encountered.”
Peter studied me curiously, and my heart started to speed up. I saw his eyes register it, and then I heard Jack moan. Instantly, Peter’s eye flicked over to him.
“You’re reacting to her!” Peter didn’t sound angry so much as bewildered.
He leaned in closer to Jack, eyeing him up. “You didn’t bite her?”
“No!” Jack groaned, exasperated.
“How is this even possible?” Peter was totally amazed. When he looked back at me, his eyes softened and grew even more confused. That didn’t help slow my already quickened pulse.
“Alice!” Jack snapped.
“I can’t help it!” I lamented.
“Jack, go over there,” Mae commanded, pointing to the far side of the dining room. He grumbled something in protest but did as he was told. She walked over to me, looping around me and hugging me to her.
“She might have… somehow become attached to Jack,” Ezra explained slowly. Pain and confusion spread over Peter’s face when he looked back and forth from me to Ezra. “She reacts the strongest with you still, but it seems that some of it may have transferred.”
“How is that even possible?” Peter repeated, and Jack scoffed.
“Why do you even care?” Jack growled. “You don’t even want her!” His words sliced through me like a knife, and I flinched, so Mae tightened her arms around me. What hurt the most is that I knew he was right. Peter only felt things for me because his body made him. He didn’t feel anything real for me at all.
Peter snarled, and Ezra took a step closer to him, just to make he sure he wouldn’t lunge at Jack. “Enough!” I shouted. They were going to kill each other over something as stupid as me, and I wouldn’t stand for it. “If one of you could please just take me home, I’ll be happy to leave you all alone for the rest of my miserable life!”
“Alice, none of us want that.” Mae had started stroking my hair again and held as me close to her as I would allow. “We don’t want you to go.”
“We’re just trying to sort this all out.” Ezra had turned towards me, his eyes settling warmly on me.
“I’m going for a drive,” Jack announced suddenly and strode swiftly across the kitchen. “I’m taking the Lamborghini.”
“Just be careful!” Ezra called after him. The garage door slammed in response, and he stared after it indecisively. “Maybe I should go with him.” He looked over at Mae, who nodded in approval, and he started hurrying after Jack.
“I’ll have my cell if you need me.”
Peter leaned back against the counter, staring awkwardly at his feet. Mae still had her arm around me, and I knew that she would be one of those mom’s that would never let go. One of the benefits to being a vampire was that she’d never really have an empty nest, although she’d never exactly have a full one either. It was obvious that she played mother and nursemaid to the boys, but in reality, they were grown men and actually needed very little of her. The great appeal of me was that I was very fragile and dependant, and on top of that, a girl. For her, I was some kind of enchanted doll, and that explained the great deal of time she spent playing with my
hair.
“I still need to make you supper!” Mae burst into life and rushed over to the stove. Fortunately, she had yet to actually turn it on, or whatever she would’ve been cooking would’ve been completely burnt.
“I’m really not that hungry,” I repeated for the tenth time.
“Nonsense!” Mae had her back to me and was already flitting about with ingredients. “Why don’t you go in the other room and relax, and I’ll call you when the food is done.”
“It’s easier to just go along with what she wants,” Peter told me. He took a step away from the counter, towards the living room, and paused, waiting for me. “Come on. We need to talk.” He was right, and even though I knew very little of what we talked about would be pleasant, it thrilled me exponentially.
I walked with him into the living room, breathing in how wonderful he smelled. My body felt relieved just to be so close to him. It was exhausting staying away from him. Every part of me felt pulled to him, and I had to use all my strength to keep me any distance.
“How is your throat?” Peter asked sadly, admiring my neck.
“It’s okay,” I lied. It felt like I had terrible whiplash, but I didn’t want him to feel bad about hurting me. I sat down on the couch, so very purposefully, he sat in the chair on the far side from me.
“I’m sorry.” He looked at me sorrowfully, then dropped his eyes. “I shouldn’t have done that. But you should know that’s what I’m like.” When he spoke again, his voice was barely audible. “I’m not very nice.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“You should.” He met my eyes evenly. “You’d be so much better off with Jack. I’m…” He shook his head, unable or unwilling to say exactly what he was.
“But I want to be with you,” I insisted fiercely, and something about my voice startled him into softening a bit. But he quickly recovered, and his face hardened again.
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