Flutter mba-3

by Аманда Хокинг

  His clothes were filthy and ragged, and Peter had always been somebody that prided himself on his appearance. He was still as gorgeous as ever, and somehow, I had expected that to fade. But it turns that he was just plain stunning, and that had nothing to do with whether I was bonded with him or not.

  I waited apprehensively, half-expecting that intense pull to well up inside me at the sight of him, or my heart to get so fluttery I could hardly stand it. But nothing happened. I stared at Peter, feeling an odd connection to him and relief in knowing that he was still alive, but it was nothing like it had ever been before, and it never would be again. Even when his eyes briefly met mine, I never had to remind myself to breathe.

  He no longer captivated me.

  “You brought her?” Peter asked Ezra, but it wasn’t lined with that familiar disgust and contempt he tried hold for me. Instead, he was genuinely nervous and concerned for my well-being.

  “She insisted on coming,” Ezra explained.

  There was an odd tension between them that I didn’t fully understand. I had thought that Ezra would just come up to and say something like, “Alright, that’s enough Peter, let’s go home” but he was barely saying anything. He almost seemed afraid to go near Peter. Their awkward exchange made me decide to get to my feet and brush myself off. Hiding on the ground behind Ezra just didn’t feel right.

  “She can’t fight them!” Peter said vehemently, and when I came around Ezra, he purposely kept his eyes locked on him and not me.

  “We’re not here to fight,” Ezra replied coolly.

  “Did you come here to die then?” Peter looked pained and pale under the moonlight, and his words echoed off the trees around us. Somewhere, the owl hooted and took flight again, sending shivers down my spine.

  “Peter,” Ezra tried to reason with him, but Peter wanted nothing to do with it.

  “I can’t believe you did this! I’ve been staying here, going through all of this, so they would stay away from you! They’re going to kill you, Ezra! Do you understand that? They’re going to kill you and Alice and everyone!” Peter had started pacing anxiously, and it was clear he had started to unravel a bit.

  “Peter, no one is going to kill anyone,” Ezra’s impassive baritone overrode everything else.

  Based on the recent conversations with both Leif and Peter, Ezra’s assertions seemed rather implausible. Admittedly, when Peter had come to these woods, he’d been in a different state of mind, one that already bordered on insanity. But in general, he’d always been a strong vampire, undisturbed by his own emotions. For something to get to him this bad, it had to have merit, and it was probably unwise for Ezra to ignore it.

  “Ezra, you don’t know what they’re like,” his pleas bordered on whining, but he didn’t even care. “It’s been too long since you’ve seen them in action!”

  “We have been here for days, searching all over the lycan territory, getting our scent on everything.

  We’ve already thoroughly ruined your attempts at self-sacrifice. Let’s go back to the hotel, get you cleaned up, and try to figure a way out of this mess,” Ezra said, and that had been what I had expecting right off the bat.

  Peter groaned, but more at Ezra’s stupidity than at the thought of going to the hotel with us.

  Running a hand through his dirty hair, he nervously scanned the forest. No matter what Ezra said, he would be hesitant about going with us, for more reasons than one. I suspected that he desired a shower and clean clothes more than he was trying to let on, and that’s eventually what won him over. I can’t imagine how the lycan lifestyle ever appealed to him.

  “We probably won’t even make it back to the car,” Peter said at length.

  “The lycan are in Sweden. We have a couple days to sort things out.” Ezra took a step back, gesturing to the way back in hopes that Peter would follow.

  “Come on,” I said quietly, speaking to Peter for the first time since we had kissed, since I had been mortal. “Come back with us.”

  Peter really looked at me, eyeing me up the way that he had before. I wasn’t in love with him anymore, but something about it still made me blush, and I lowered my eyes. Finally, he nodded, and with Ezra leading the way, he followed us back to the Range Rover. I wanted to ask him things, but it didn’t seem appropriate, especially since the forest probably had ears. In the long, silent walk back, I often felt Peter’s eyes on me, but I tried as best I could to ignore it.

  Chapter 7

  Peter had obviously gone without eating for a very long time, and he gulped down almost four canisters of blood when we reached the hotel. That was enough to make even the strongest vampire woozy, and he laid down on Ezra’s bed and almost instantly fell asleep. He had spent the last month in the woods, with the last week or so spent hiding in a cave, so overall, he was in pretty sorry shape.

  Ezra leaned on the dresser, watching Peter sleep, and there was such a sublime look on his face that I didn’t dare say anything to him. Knowing that Peter was here, alive, safe… We weren’t completely out of the woods yet (literally and figuratively), but we were definitely a step in the right direction.

  His contentment at just staring at Peter didn’t catch on to me. I was truly thrilled that Peter was okay, but that was only a small hurdle in all of this. A good night’s sleep and a full stomach wouldn’t cure the fact that he had seriously pissed off a pack of lycan. While I had no intention of abandoning Peter, I didn’t like the idea of leading them back to our house, to our family, where they would just pick us all off.

  I walked around the room, fidgeting and feeling restless. I tried to sit down on my bed, relax and get comfortable, but I could hardly stand it. There were a million thoughts racing through my head, and the only thing that kept me from spouting them all out was fear of offending Ezra. To a lesser extent, I had a fear of waking Peter, but I didn’t think he’d be easily disturbed. He had to be incredibly exhausted when we found him.

  Finally, it got to be too much, and I leaned on the dresser next to Ezra. I figured it would be better if I were closer to him so I could whisper. Even if I knew we wouldn’t wake Peter, Ezra would probably think it was inconsiderate and shut me down if I used my normal speaking voice.

  “So what’s the plan?” I whispered, looking up at Ezra.

  “There isn’t much of one at the moment,” Ezra admitted tiredly.

  In my hand, I had my phone, and I twirled it around nervously. There were fifteen text messages and two missed calls from Jack, along with seven messages from Milo. They wanted to know what was going on here, but I couldn’t tell them. Lying was not my strong suit, and the truth would just cause them both to flip out and rush here to get themselves killed or something.

  “So…” I sighed and shifted my weight. “Peter’s gonna sleep and rest up, and then what? We are gonna hide here? We’re gonna go home? We’re gonna fight the lycan?”

  Ezra chewed the inside of his cheek and chose not to answer me, but I didn’t fully appreciate that.

  Peter stirred in the bed, moving his head against the pillow, and Ezra tensed up. He was feeling over protective, and I didn’t really blame him. But his paranoia should’ve left him plotting intricate escape plans instead of just gazing at Peter.

  “We should just get some rest. We’ll come up with a plan tomorrow,” Ezra said at length.

  “There’s no way I can sleep after this!” I hissed.

  “Eat.” Ezra nodded to the bathroom, where he stored the blood in a sink filled with ice.

  There were a million questions I should be making him answer, but as soon as he got me thinking about eating, there would be little else I could think of. As it was, I had already smelled it when Peter ate, and that had been hard to repress. It came back just as intense, and I decided that it would be better to just give in and get some sleep. It wouldn’t do me any good to stay up all night worrying.

  “You’ll have a lot of explaining to do tomorrow,” I reminded him harshly as I walked past him to the bathroom, and he j
ust nodded.

  I pulled out a canister of blood but sat down on the side of the tub before I opened it. I still had to tell Jack something to keep him from freaking out, so I replied to his texts with a short message saying, “We’re fine. At the hotel. Getting some sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” It was as vague as I could make it while letting him know that I was alive and well. He responded almost immediately to it, but I ignored it. There was nothing I could say to it anyway.

  I ate quickly, and it hit me instantly. I staggered into the next room like a drunk person, and I was thankful that I’d already changed into my pajamas at least. When we came back, my clothes were drenched from the snow and covered in dirt and what not, so I had changed right after Peter fell asleep. Within seconds of hitting my bed, I fell asleep.

  When I woke up, Ezra was sleeping on the bed next to me, pressed so close to the edge he was nearly falling off. I assumed it was because he had no other place to sleep and didn’t really want to disturb me or push me off the bed. Slowly, I sat up, careful not wake Ezra. Then I looked over Ezra’s shoulder and saw Peter sitting on the other bed, just staring over at us, and it was as disturbing as it was unexpected. I gasped, and even though I had managed to catch a surprised yelp before it escaped my lips, Ezra’s eyes shot open as soon as he heard me. Since I wasn’t used to sleeping with him, I couldn’t know if he was always this light of a sleeper, or if it was our current state of things that had him sleeping on edge.

  “Sorry,” I smiled guiltily at Ezra.

  He waved me off as he moved so he was sitting up. While he didn’t appear tense, his eyes searched the hotel room quickly, appraising it to make sure that nothing was out of place. He had slept on the covers, fully clothed, and he was much more alert than I was. Even though I had woken up with a start, I yawned and felt like I could fall back to sleep within minutes, if I wanted to. But I didn’t want to. There was that whole matter of trying to figure out how we were going to get out of here alive.

  “How long have you been awake?” Ezra asked Peter, looking at him carefully.

  “Not long.” Peter tried to tuck his hair behind his ears, but it was filthy, almost to the point of being matted, and it was refused to tuck back.

  “So what’s going?” I chimed in.

  The boys were sitting across from each other, and Peter had lowered his gaze, but Ezra just kept staring at him. I was kind of hidden behind Ezra, and I felt left out of the conversation. I wrapped the comforter around my shoulders and scooted across the bed, so I was sitting next to Ezra. He glanced over at me and sighed, and I just kept looking between the two of them until one of them answered.

  Somebody had to have an idea about what we were going to do.

  “So… what?” I asked flippantly when neither of them said anything. “The plan is a staring contest of some kind? Cause that’s not a very good plan.”

  “I have an idea,” Ezra finally admitted, and Peter gave him a hard look. “I can try and make an exchange.”

  “What kind of an exchange?” Peter narrowed his eyes suspiciously and tensed up sharply.

  “There’s nothing that you have that they want.”

  “That’s not true,” Ezra shook his head. “While they don’t enjoy money, they require it. They have to travel to the larger cities to eat, and they can’t walk around in the rags they live in. They don’t work or have any sort of income flow. I know they don’t enjoy stealing or whatever it is they do simply because they don’t enjoy interacting with humans. I can help them lower their interaction.”

  “They won’t take money. You’ve been gone for too long. You don’t remember what they’re like.”

  Peter rolled his eyes and shook his head.

  “There’s got be something that they want!” Ezra insisted. “These aren’t self-sufficient creatures!

  Gunnar is power hungry, and there is always something he can use to make himself more powerful.”

  “Yeah, cause we really wanna make him more powerful,” Peter scoffed and stood up. “No. I appreciate the rest and food, but I’m going to have to go back out there and face them myself.”

  “It’s too late!” Ezra got up quickly and blocked Peter’s path. “They’ve already seen us! They know we’re after you! Just taking you won’t be enough anymore!”

  Peter looked at the floor and tightened his lips into a thin line. His jaw clenched tightly, and I could tell his mind was working furiously to find fault with Ezra’s logic. I shuddered underneath the blankets, knowing that he was absolutely right. It was be impossible for the lycans not to put the pieces together, even if Leif didn’t narc us out, and I was inclined to think that he wouldn’t.

  “Let me go talk to them,” Ezra said, watching Peter struggle with his reasoning. “I’m certain that if I talk to them, we can arrange something.”

  “There’s nothing they want! Except to hurt me!” Peter flashed his wounded green eyes at Ezra.

  “Well, then I’ll convince them that whatever I’m giving them is hurting you,” Ezra decided.

  “You can’t talk to them! They’re just going to kill you!” Peter was almost pleading with him now.

  “They won’t hurt me,” Ezra assured him. “The lycan are intimidated by me, except for Gunnar, and I’ve met with him before. He won’t kill me. Not now, not like this.”

  Peter shook his head again, growing irritated with Ezra’s unfailing certainty. Absently, he scratched his head and tried to think of argument that would counter Ezra. Before the discussion had even take place, Ezra already had his mind up, though. He had tried to pass it off as a spontaneous, reluctant idea, but he had only been reluctant to admitting it. There was no other option for him, and Peter could think of nothing to change his mind.

  On the same token, Ezra couldn’t change Peter’s mind, and Peter wouldn’t freely let Ezra go on what he believed to be a suicide mission. They stood next to each other, trying to change the other’s mind and unwilling to back down themselves. Eventually, one of them would have to give, but I didn’t see how. When it came to protecting each other, they were tireless.

  “I’m not thrilled about either of your plans,” I interjected when they had been standing for an uncomfortable length of time. “So maybe we should just come up with something better.”

  “She has a point,” Ezra allowed, softening his a stance slightly.

  Peter crossed his arms over his chest and shifted his eyes between the two of us. He was skeptical about Ezra’s ease at conceding, even momentarily, and I had to admit, so was I. Ezra had seemed absolutely certain about his intentions, until I chimed in with the smallest idea.

  “Why don’t you take a shower and clear your head? Then we’ll talk after,” Ezra suggested.

  Chewing the inside of his cheek, Peter mulled it over. Despite being obviously suspicious, he was in dire need of a shower. He was a rather particular person to begin with, so his current level of hygiene had to be driving him insane. That’s probably what finally tipped him over the edge.

  “Alright,” Peter nodded, looking at Ezra severely. “I’ll get cleaned up. But we’ll talk after.”

  “Of course,” Ezra agreed.

  Peter gathered some clothes that Ezra had brought for him, then went into the bathroom.

  As soon as the we heard the water running in the shower, Ezra rushed about the room. He grabbed the keys to the Rove Rover Ranger and his cell phone, and I jumped off the bed before he had a chance to slip on his shoes.

  “What are you doing?” I demanded nervously.

  “I have to go talk to them.” Ezra pulled in his shoes and glanced at the bathroom, making sure that Peter couldn’t hear us, then lowered his voice. “Stay here, and make sure he doesn’t leave.”

  “But Peter doesn’t think you should go, and I think he’s right!” I insisted, and for some reason, I did my best to keep my voice low enough so Peter couldn’t hear.

  “He’s not. He’s just paranoid,” Ezra brushed it off. “But he needs to stay here. They will ki
ll him. Our best bet of getting us all out of here alive is bartering with them. I’ve got to try. And they won’t hurt me.”

  “How can you be so sure?” I asked.

  “I just am,” Ezra said simply, looking at me deeply. “You’re just gonna have to trust me.”

  I bit my lip and looked over at the bathroom door. If I yelled for him, I knew that Peter would come rushing out and stop Ezra from going. But Ezra had never given me any reason not to trust him, even if Peter was convinced that it wasn’t safe for him to go. If Ezra thought it was our best chance, then it probably was.

  And I had to think about more than just Ezra, Peter, and myself. We had a family back at home that could be just as susceptible to the lycan if we didn’t put a stop to it while we had the chance.

  “Hurry. And be careful!” I told him emphatically.

  “I will,” Ezra nodded once and smiled wanly at me. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. But you both need to stay here until I get back. Understood?”

  “Yes.”

  He nodded again, then swiftly and silently disappeared out the door. That left me standing in the middle of the hotel room with a teal comforter wrapped tightly around me, wondering if I did the right thing letting him go. Ezra wouldn’t think twice about sacrificing himself for Peter, or any of us really, and there was a good chance that he would lie to me about his true intentions to keep from stopping him.

  At the same time, I had didn’t have any other plans, so I did have to just trust him.

  When I heard the water shut off in the bathroom fifteen minutes later, I winced. Peter would come out any minute, and he’d expect an explanation for things. I scurried to think of some kind of argument that would keep in the hotel room with me, instead of chasing after Ezra and the lycan. My head was swimming, and I bit my lip apprehensively.

  Peter came out of the bathroom, shirtless, and I tried not to be wowed by the perfection of it. He wore drawstring sweats that were a little too big and ran a towel through his long tangles of dark hair. As soon as he looked over at me, still standing in the middle of the room, he knew, and he looked incredibly pissed off.