“I think it might be better if you just shut the hell up,” Jack suggested.
“Jane, come on.” I grabbed her shoulders and pulled her so she was sitting up. Her head lolled back for a second, revealing the still open wounds on her neck. Then she opened her eyes and lifted her head.
“Jane, come on. Let’s go.”
“Alice?” Jane squinted, and I realized she probably couldn’t see anything in the dark. “What are you doing here?”
“Taking you with me.” I put my arm around her to pick her up, but she pushed back at me.
She was much weaker than me, but I stopped trying to lift her anyway. “Jane, you’ve gotta come with me.”
“No! No! Why would I wanna I go with you?” Jane sounded disgusted and pushed away from me so she could lie down on the filthy mattress. “Get away from me. I’m staying with Jonathan.”
“I told you,” Jonathan crossed his arms over his chest. His hair was cropped short, almost shaved, and he had that perpetual unshaven look. He was undeniably foxy, the way all vampires seemed to be, and I was fairly certain that I had seen him on a billboard modeling men’s underwear before. Jane was probably thrilled that he wanted her, even if she wasn’t hooked on what it felt like when he drank her blood.
“What are you even doing here?” Jane sounded incredibly irritated, but that was probably because I was ruining her buzz. She was awake now but not entirely alert, and she ran her fingers through her in an offhandedly sexy way. Her reflexes were even seductive.
“We came to get you. We’re worried about you,” I told her as sincerely as possible. I tried to gently put my hand on her arm to convey that I cared, but she pulled it back from me.
“We?” Jane squinted harder in the darkness, trying to make out who I had brought with me, and tiredly pushed herself back into sitting a position. Her skeletal arms were stretched out behind her, holding her up precariously so she didn’t fall back on the bed. “That was your little brother I saw grinding up on some boy on the dance floor! I thought that was him, but I didn’t believe you were letting him date yet.” She gave some kind of laugh, and Milo scowled at her. “That’s just like him to narc on me anyway. I bet you just ran home to tell her right away, didn’t you?”
“This isn’t the kind of life you want to have,” Milo said, his cheeks reddening with embarrassment.
Jonathan noticed, and grinned cockily at him.
“Tell that to your boyfriend,” Jane laughed again, but it was tired, hollow sound.
“Jane, come on. This is enough. Let’s you get home.” I got up off the bed and reached out for, planning to pull her off the bed and throw her over my shoulder if I had to.
“No! I’m not going with you!” Jane repeated forcefully. “You’ve barely even talked to me since you got these new friends of yours, and now that I’ve got my own friends, you suddenly wanna hang out with me again? And on top of that, you have the balls to condemn me for doing the exact same thing as you?”
“I never did this!” I shouted. “And I was avoiding you to protect you, and then you started to avoid me. I called you like a million times but you wouldn’t answer!”
“Doesn’t that tell you something?” Jane smiled darkly at me. “I don’t want to be your friend anymore, Alice! You don’t need to save me from myself! I am just fine without you!”
“You are not fine! And I’m not saving you from you! I’m saving you from vampires!” I knew that sounded really dumb since I planned on bringing her back to a house full of vampires, but it sounded more convincing in my head. Jane laughed at the stupidity of argument, but I had had enough anyway.
I bent down and scooped her up. She yelped in protest, but I tossed her easily over my shoulder.
Admittedly, I was much stronger than before, but it was almost too easy. I doubted she even weighed a hundred pounds anymore, and she was still taller than me. As soon as I had her, she started hitting at my back and screaming at me.
“Put me down, you stupid bitch!” Jane protested, pounding her tiny fists as hard as she could against my back. Of course, it didn’t hurt at all, but they didn’t stop her from trying.
“She doesn’t want to go with you!” Jonathan made a step towards me, and Jack and Milo moved closer to him. He held his hands up in a gesture of peace, but his face was contorted to some kind of contained rage. If I tried taking away food from a starving wolf, I imagine that he would make a similar facial expression.
“I am not going with you!” Jane insisted.
“What’s going on?” Bobby shrieked, looking terrified.
“Everything’s fine!” Milo told him unconvincingly.
“You can’t very well kidnap her!” Jonathan pointed out. I hadn’t made a move towards the door yet because I was hoping Jane would calm down soon, but he was right. I couldn’t take her kicking and screaming out through a crowded dance floor and onto the city streets.
“Just put me down!” Jane shouted. Sighing heavily, I complied and set her on her feet next to me. She slapped me once more for good measure, and I had to remind myself that she was my best friend and she was just confused. “You are such a god damn controlling bitch, Alice! You always think you know everything better than I do! Just because you’re a prude doesn’t mean I’m wrong!”
“I don’t want any trouble but she is mine,” Jonathan exchanged a look with Jack, and Jane puffed visibly.
Jane completely misinterpreted his use of the word “mine.” She saw it as something resembling love, like he cared about her so she belonged to him. All he really meant was that he had bitten her first, so he had a claim laid on her until he gave her up. It was a way to keep vampires from fighting over food. Not only that, her blood would be tainted and taste horrible for about a week or so after, thanks to his saliva. Theoretically, I think that he could fight us and even kill us for trying to her from him without any repercussions in the vampire world, but I wasn’t really an expert on vampire etiquette yet.
“We can’t kidnap her, Alice,” Jack looked apologetically at me.
“See?” Jane started reaching out in the darkness, feeling around for Jonathan to come protect her.
Milo moved back, allowing Jonathan to walk over to her. He put his arm around in something that she perceived as affection but I’m sure it was nothing more than ownership. His arrogant smile said nothing more than that he’d won.
“We’ll talk later,” I relented finally.
“Fat chance,” Jane retorted. Why was I trying to save her again?
Milo went over to comfort Bobby, who was frantically clinging onto the door. Jack put his arm around me, escorting me from the room. I glanced back over my shoulder at them. Jane, thin and frail, was hanging onto Jonathan just to keep from falling over, and he looked at with her pure hunger.
Before we had even left the room, he tilted her head back and sunk his teeth into her neck. She moaned and her blood filled the room. Jack tightened his arm around me to prevent me from rushing at Jonathan and getting myself killed.
I protested, but he pulled the door shut behind us and practically drug me down the hallway, past all the rooms where vampires were feeding on other people’s best friends.
Chapter 12
I was not happy. I spent the entire car ride home sulking and glaring out the window. Jack tried to talk to me and cheer me up, but I wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn’t his fault that Jane wouldn’t come home with us, or that vampires were such horrible creatures, but he was the only one I had to take it out on. When we pulled in the garage, I slammed the car door behind me and stormed into the house, noticing that Milo and Bobby hadn’t returned yet.
“Alice!” Jack called tiredly after me, but I didn’t slow down. I had the habit of acting like a petulant child every time things didn’t work out the way I wanted. Matilda was at the door waiting for us, but when she tried to greet me, I just pushed past her. Jack indulged her more than I did, but he was trying to keep up with me so he brushed her off. “Alice, come on! I know you�
��re upset, but you didn’t really think you could swoop in there like Batman and save the day, did you?”
“I don’t know what I thought!” I grumbled.
I had reached the kitchen, and even though there was nothing in there for me anymore, I didn’t feel like going any further. I wanted to eat something. Not that I was actually hungry, not the way I ever had been as a human, but whenever I had come home frustrated about something, Milo had always fed me. In that regard, it was probably for the best that I had turned into a vampire, otherwise I would’ve most likely ended up as a very fat stress eater. Out of habit, I opened up the refrigerator, which, thanks to Bobby, actually had food in it again.
“What are you doing?” Jack eyed me up quizzically.
“Making Bobby a snack,” I lied.
Since I had never had a conversation with the kid, I had no real clue what kind of foods he might like, but Mae had stocked the fridge for him, so it was a safe bet that anything in it would be good for him. I hadn’t really meant to make him anything, of course, and it was a well known fact that I couldn’t cook, but it would give me something to do. The crisper was filled with fruits, so I grabbed them all, thinking that chopping them up for a fruit salad might go a long way to alleviate my anger.
“Do you need any help?” Jack asked, watching me drop the armload of fruits onto the island.
“Nope!” I searched the kitchen drawers until I found a large butcher knife. I couldn’t tell the last time anybody had used it, so I rinsed it off under the sink. Then I realized that I hadn’t washed off any of the fruit, either, so I grabbed it all and dropped it in the sink to clean.
“Are you mad at me?” Jack asked hesitantly. He leaned against the island with Matilda rubbing up against him so he could scratch her head.
“No,” I said, but then I decided that wasn’t exactly true. “You and Milo totally could’ve taken that Jonathan idiot. And I’m sure that Jane would’ve followed you or Milo out of there. We could’ve taken her if we really tried.”
“Maybe,” Jack relented. I started picking up the fruit out of the sink, but they were wet and slippery, and the grapes and strawberries were trying to make their escape onto the floor. Jack came over and caught what was falling away and helped me carry it back over to the island, so I could chop it.
“Thank you,” I muttered, not ready to give up on my anger just yet.
“But if we had to kidnap Jane out of there, what good would it have really done?” Jack looked at me sincerely. “I mean, you watch all those shows about junkies. What is they always say? You can make a person change, and they can’t quit for anybody else. Jane has to want to stop.”
“Then why did we even go down there?” I shouted. My hands felt shaky when I started chopping a pear, but I ignored it. I just couldn’t shake the image of how sickly and weak she looked, and how oddly content she was with the idea of it all.
“I was thinking maybe you’d be able to talk some sense into her,” Jack shrugged sheepishly.
“But now she knows that you still care, and hopefully, if she has a change of heart, she’ll talk to you.”
“Jane’s never listened to me about anything, and you know it,” I grumbled.
“Maybe so, but this is her choice, and you have to let her make it.” He was on the other side of the island from me, leaning across it and looking at me gently with his soft blue eyes. His crooked smile was sympathetic, but I ignored it, which was a considerable feat. My body is naturally always pulling towards him, and I was trying to pretend like pears and apricots were more interesting than he was.
Unfortunately, I had never been a very coordinated person, and I didn’t seem to be fairer much better with coordination as a vampire. Plus, I was distracted by Jack and by thoughts of Jane, so it was only a matter of time before the knife sliced in my finger.
I yelped and pulled my hand back, sustaining my first real injury as a vampire. The pain was much sharper and more intense than any I had felt as a human, but it almost instantly died away.
The cut was nasty, hitting the bone in my index finger. If my bones hadn’t been so strong, I probably would’ve sliced the end right off. I stared down at it, watching the blood seeping from my wound with some amazement. This was my blood, and I could smell it, warm and strangely exotic. It was a rarity that one got to smell their own blood, I suppose, and I was surprised that it still smelled delicious, even to me.
“You do smell really good,” Jack assured me in a rather hushed tone. The pink edges of the cut were already starting to heal, right in front of my eyes, and I glanced up at him. His eyes looked gone translucent, and I could his heart beat speed up. Nothing in the world was more enticing to him than the scent of my blood, and that had not changed even when I became immortal.
“Want a taste?” I offered my hand to him, knowing how wonderful it felt when he just tasted me and how crazy it would drive him. I was already imagining him pushing all the fruit off the island with one swoop of his hand and pushing me back down on it, kissing me ferociously until his mouth found my neck…
“In the kitchen?” Jack raised an eyebrow, but his breath was getting shallow.
With great effort, he managed to pull his eyes from me to look around the room, pointing how completely exposed we would be. At any minute, Milo and Bobby would come home, and Mae and Ezra had to be somewhere around here. I would probably die of shame if they were to walk in on us in a compromising situation, but still, the temptation was nearly too great.
“Suit yourself.” I shrugged, pretending like it meant nothing to me, even though I knew he could hear my own ragged heart beat. The cut had already healed completely, and the blood was drying on my skin.
Never being one to let things go to waste, I put my finger in my mouth, licking off the blood and cleaning it.
“You’re horrible,” Jack smirked hungrily and ran a hand through his sandy hair. He shook his head and took a step back from the island, trying to clear his head of me.
His predictions were entirely accurate. Within seconds, Milo and Bobby came in from the garage.
They both eyed up the fruit spread on the island with confusion, but Milo’s face was contorted into something different. He sniffed, giving me an evil look that was somehow hungry as well.
“Why does it smell like your blood in here?” Milo demanded, then shot a glare at Jack.
“I just cut my finger!” I sighed and held up the butcher knife that still had my blood on it.
There were a few droplets on the island as well, and I wiped at them with a rag.
“Oh really, Alice,” Milo rolled his eyes dramatically and walked over to me. “Do you want me to do this for you? What are you doing anyway?”
“I thought you didn’t eat,” Bobby said. His arms were crossed over his chest, but he appeared to be hugging himself more than anything else. A strand of his black hair fell into his eyes, and he pushed it back, walking over to the island to inspect what we were doing.
“I thought you might be hungry,” I mumbled, playing absently with the rag I had used to clean up my blood. Milo had taken over chopping up the fruit, and he glanced back at me with a look of surprise.
“Thanks,” Bobby said sheepishly and blushed lightly. Everyone clearly assumed that I hated Bobby, and they weren’t that far off base, but I did like distractions. I thought about pointing that out, but it would probably just hurt his feelings, so I let it go.
“Milo always used to cook for me when I got home,” I explained lamely.
Tucking a hair behind my ears, I caught Jack looking approvingly at me. He had realized that the whole snack thing was about busy work, not Bobby, and he was glad that I was throwing Bobby a little bone.
So Jack liked Bobby, which for some reason, made me angry with Jack again, so I sighed and leaned back against the kitchen counter.
“Milo is a very good cook,” Bobby smiled broadly at me before looking adoringly at my brother.
“He was gonna be a chef,” I said, twirling the
rag around my nonexistent wound.
“I still can be,” Milo cast me a look. “I’m not dead.” Jack couldn’t help but laugh at that sentiment, and Milo rolled his eyes again. “I have lots of time to become whatever I want.”
He had finished cutting up the fruit, and he went over to the cupboard to get out a large serving platter. Once he brought it back to the island, he started arranging the fruit perfectly all over it. Bobby smiled appreciatively at him and started delicately picking grapes, afraid of disturbing the masterpiece that Milo had created.
Suddenly, the bedroom door to Mae and Ezra’s room slammed loudly. I could hear quick footsteps, and Mae repeatedly saying the word no. When she appeared in the kitchen, she looked more haggard than I had ever seen her before. Her cheeks and eyes were red from crying, and her honey curls were pulled back in a very messy bun. Tissue was wadded up tightly in her hand, and she was all but glaring at us. Ezra followed close behind her, looking much better than he had the last few days. He didn’t appear nearly as upset as Mae, but his expression was grim. He watched her more than he looked at us, and when he reached out for her, she pulled away from him.
“Where have you been?” Mae demanded, her warm voice more shrill than I had ever heard it before.
Bobby had been in the middle of chewing, but he gulped the rest of it down whole and moved closer to Milo, so he could protect him from Mae. That would’ve sounded ridiculous to me, too, if I hadn’t seen how frantic she looked.
“Why? D-did something happen?” Jack asked carefully.
“Just answer the damn question!” Mae shouted, making us all jump. Her hands were balled up at her sides, and stray curls were sticking to hear tear stained cheeks. “You think you all can just come and go as you please! This isn’t a hotel! We are a family and this is our home! You can at least have the common courtesy to tell me where you are! You know I worry about you all!”
“Sorry?” I apologized uncertainly. I looked to Ezra for help, but he was too busy watching her to give us any hint about what the hell was going on.
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