My Blood Approves

by Amanda Hocking

  Milo pointed out that he’d never met Peter, and we both thought that was strange. He hadn’t come down from his room all night, and Mae hadn’t given Milo a tour of the upstairs. Like they were purposely trying to keep them apart.

  My heart pounded painfully when I realized that Peter might actually be dangerous, and maybe it wasn’t the safest place for Milo to be hanging out. I considered saying something to that effect when my phone rang.

  “Hey, sorry, I didn’t call you sooner,” Jack said when I answered. Just hearing him made me elated, but his voice had a tightness to it. Something was bothering him. “I ended up having a really late night, so I just woke up.”

  “Sorry. I hope none of it’s my fault.” But I knew it was my fault. I had done something wrong last night.

  “No, it’s not,” Jack reassured me warmly. “It was just … a little family crisis, I guess.”

  “What happened?” Anxiety gripped me, and Milo shot me a confused, concerned look, but I just shook my head at him.

  “Um… I’ll tell you when I pick you up, okay? Will you be ready soon?” He was definitely keeping something from me.

  “I’m ready now.” I was glad that I had gotten up and gotten ready before he called. If I had heard this when I first woke up, I would’ve rushed to his house in last night’s clothes with greasy hair.

  “Good. I’ll be there soon.” He hung up, probably to prevent me from asking more questions, so I flipped my phone shut.

  “What happened?” Milo’s worried expression mirrored my own, but I was too frazzled to answer him. Hurriedly, I slipped on shoes and grabbed my dark blue cardigan to throw on. “Alice?”

  “I don’t know. He wouldn’t tell me.”

  Why did I have to feel like crying? I swear, I didn’t really cry this much. Most of the time, I was a really sane, normal person. But something about Jack and Peter made me want to burst into tears all the time.

  My emotions seemed to be on overdrive. It was like I had lived my whole life using just the bare minimum, and now this family had switched them into max.

  “Is everyone okay?” Milo leaned over the back of the couch, watching me rush about. I probably had everything I needed, but I kept feeling like I was forgetting something, then running back to make sure I had it.

  “I don’t know, Milo!” I snapped. “He didn’t tell me anything!”

  “Sorry.” He sounded hurt, and I wanted to apologize, but I didn’t have time. Jack would be here “soon,” which could mean anywhere from five seconds to fifteen minutes. “Do you want me to come with?”

  “Not today.” I finally managed an apologetic smile, and he slumped down in the couch. “Another time, I promise. Just… not today, okay?”

  “Yeah, yeah, just go.”

  “Sorry. I’ll talk to you later.” And with that, I was out the door.

  I should’ve said more, but I couldn’t even wait for the elevator today. I pushed the call button, and when the doors didn’t immediately open, I ran down the stairs.

  Even in the rush I had been in, Jack had still managed to beat me outside. He’d driven the Jeep, and I practically dove into it. I looked at him expectantly, and he just smiled grimly at me.

  “What happened?” I demanded as we pulled away from my apartment building.

  “And a ‘how do you do’ to you too,” Jack replied dryly.

  “Jack!”

  “Sorry.” He stared out straight ahead but kept taking sidelong glances at me. “So… last night, after you left… Peter left.”

  “What do you mean left?” My heart had already started pounding and my stomach twisted in knots, and Jack just groaned. “Jack? Where’d he go? Why’d he leave? Because of me?”

  “You have to calm down,” Jack sighed. “This is why I didn’t do it over the phone, but maybe I should’ve.” Then he looked at me somberly, his eyes pleading with me. “Please calm down.”

  “I will if you just tell me what’s going on!” I said, but I tried to slow my breathing and the frantic beating of my heart.

  “We don’t really know where he went.” He had waited for me to calm down a bit, but he kept his eyes fixed on the road, like he was trying really hard not to be distracted by me. His knuckles had gone white from the way he gripped the steering wheel.

  “Ezra has some ideas because…” He trailed off and rubbed his temple. “He left because of… You can’t take this wrong way. I know that you will, though. You always take everything the wrong way. If I said, ‘hey you look nice today,’ you’d say, ‘and what I don’t look nice everyday?’”

  “Jack, please focus.” I wanted to yell at him and make him just hurry up and tell me what was going on.

  “Yeah.” He quickly glanced at me, but I didn’t understand what he meant so I just stared at him. “Yes. Peter left because of you. Because of what happened, well, almost happened yesterday. But it’s not because you did anything wrong, or there’s anything wrong with you. Peter’s just going through his own thing and I don’t know. I think he’s just being an ass, but Ezra says…” He trailed off, probably realizing that he hadn’t really said anything but he’d almost said too much.

  My eyes had welled with tears. No matter what Jack said, Peter left because of me, because of something that I had or hadn’t done, and it was devastating. Everything about me craved him, and I drove him away.

  “What did almost happen yesterday?” I asked quietly.

  “Well…” Jack laughed hollowly, and his hand gripped the wheel even tighter. “What do you think happened yesterday?”

  “I don’t know. Honestly, it’s hard to remember. When I try to think about it, I just remember being in his room and feeling this incredible pull towards him and this… yearning.”

  I tried hard to focus on what had sent me in a tailspin, but it felt so foggy. I could remember Peter’s eyes and the way he smelled and wanting him so much it hurt. My heart raced, throbbing painfully, and I had gotten short of breath.

  “Stop, Alice,” Jack whimpered, and he was in total agony. His blue eyes had gone almost translucent, and they had that hungry look that was very reminiscent of the one that Peter had given me last night.

  “Stop what?” I asked breathlessly. He groaned and looked away from me, and I was about press him further, but then the Jeep started skidding horribly across the road.

  “Ah, hell.” Jack gripped the wheel and tried to correct it, but I felt it start to tilt to the side, and he gave me a frantic look.

  Before I could really understand what was happening, he lunged at me, wrapping his arms tightly around me and pressing me against him. I closed my eyes and buried my face in his chest, and I felt his body curl protectively around me.

  There was the sensation of moving and I felt cold wind whip through my hair. The sound of crunching metal and shattering glass and this sickening thud filled my ears, but I could barely hear anything over the pounding of my heart.

  I finally felt Jack’s arm relax around me, and I lifted my head, looking at him in the face. He was worried and scared, but there was still that underlying hunger.

  “Are you okay?” Jack asked, pushing the hair from eyes to inspect for wounds.

  “I think so,” I nodded. I felt dazed and scared, but nothing really hurt.

  “Good. Then I need you to get away from me for a minute,” Jack said, not unkindly.

  I hurried to do as he asked, pushing myself off him and standing up. He jumped up and took several steps back from me.

  For the first time, I looked around. We were on the shoulder of the highway, and there were bits of broken glass and metal all over the road. Another car had been crushed against the cement divider in the middle, and there was an SUV farther down that looked like it had some minor damage. Headlights of stopped cars blinded me.

  At first, I couldn’t figure out where the Jeep was, and then I saw it. About thirty feet back from us, the crushed remnants of Jeep were engulfed in flames.

  I gasped, realizing that if Jack hadn’t grabb
ed me, I either would’ve stayed in that car to get smashed and burned up, or I would’ve been thrown from the Jeep going well over a hundred miles an hour and landed on the pavement.

  “Are you okay?” I looked back at him.

  Jack had taken the brunt force of everything, and if he hadn’t, I would’ve been killed. My body was much more fragile than his, but he had to have sustained some wounds.

  “Yeah, I’m great.” He tried to compose himself and looked at the carnage around us.

  There appeared to be some cuts on his arm, and when he turned away, I saw the back of his shirt was shredded and covered in blood. When he’d hit the road, he must’ve landed on his back and skidded for awhile.

  “You’re covered in blood!” I shouted and took a step closer to him, trying to inspect his wounds, but he just waved me off.

  I remembered the dog bite, and how the major wounds had looked so minor. I wasn’t really worried about this, but he had just been thrown from the car.

  “I’m fine.” He held his arm out for me to see. A thick line of blood ran from where a gash should be, but there wasn’t one. There wasn’t even a mark.

  “What about your back?” I asked, but he shook his head.

  “It tingles. It’ll be fine in a minute.” All the skin and the muscles should’ve been ripped from his back, but it would be fine in a minute.

  “You saved my life. Again.” I wrapped my arms tightly around myself.

  The adrenaline, confusion, and Peter’s sedative all mixed through me, on top of Jack’s apprehension and fading hunger. I was on the verge of hysterics.

  “Well, this time, I almost killed you too. So… it kinda evens out.” Jack meant he’d almost killed me by crashing the Jeep, but I could still feel his hunger. I remembered that ominous conversation he’d had with Ezra about how this all wouldn’t last much longer.

  “Why do you keep saving my life?” My voice trembled, and hot tears slid down my cheeks. Jack looked at me like he didn’t understand what I meant, but I went on talking, and the more I talked, the harder I cried. “I just don’t get it! Why do you keep saving me if you’re just going to kill me? Why don’t you just hurry up and get it over with already? Is this some kind of sick game for you? Do you always have to play with your food before you eat it?”

  His jaw dropped and his eyes widened with shock and hurt.

  “Do you know…” Jack trailed off, trying to get a handle on what I meant. “We’re not going to kill you.”

  “Then what’s going on?” I was almost shrieking by then. “What the hell are you and what do you want with me?”

  “Alice, we’re vampires.”

  Jack gave me an even look, and I almost burst out laughing, but then I realized that he was completely serious. I lapsed into a stunned silence, which was just as well, because suddenly there was the wailing sirens and flashing lights of the police and ambulance.

  - 13 -

  The paramedics thought that I was in shock, and if I had been able to speak, I probably would’ve agreed. They couldn’t explain how either of us were alive, or where the blood all over Jack’s body had come from. They wanted to put us in an ambulance and send us downtown, but since Jack wouldn’t pass any kind of medical test, he fought them until they finally relented.

  He allowed them to check me over, but when they said I was fine, except for the shock, he demanded a ride home in a police car.

  He sat next to me in the backseat, and while he whispered my name several times, I never responded. I just stared out the window and tried to make sense of his confession.

  Some things fit. Like his superhuman strength, his miraculous ability to heal, the way he never ate or drank anything, and I’d only ever seen him at night.

  But they were all tan (except for Mae, but she was British), and I’d actually heard Jack’s heartbeat last night. He didn’t have fangs, and he hadn’t eaten me.

  That did kinda explain what had happened with Peter, except why did they want him to eat me? What was so damn important about that? Couldn’t anybody just eat anybody?

  Mae must’ve seen the police car, because she was at the front door waiting for us when they dropped us off. Matilda jumped all over Jack, but he wasn’t in the mood, so he pushed her off.

  “Jack, what happened?” Mae was talking to him, but she was looking me over.

  I didn’t even have a scratch on me, but when I’d caught my reflection in the rearview mirror of the squad car, I was completely white and my eyes were frantic and red-rimmed from sobbing.

  “I totaled the Jeep,” Jack answered vaguely. We stood in the entryway, but he pulled off his shirt and started wiping off the blood with his ruined shirt.

  “Again?” Mae sounded exasperated and looked over at him. “Jack, you’ve really-”

  “She knows,” Jack cut her off.

  He looked at me, then quickly looked away. Even though there were still patches of blood on his back, he’d given up on that and balled up his tee shirt, then walked into the kitchen.

  “What?” Mae turned back to me, her face unsure.

  “He told me that you’re vampires.” It was the first time I’d spoken since he told me, and my voice sounded hoarse and foreign to me.

  Mae let out a long shaky breath and looked down.

  “Oh.” That was all she said. She didn’t tell me that Jack was insane, as I had hoped and half-expected, or expound on it

  “So it’s true?” I asked. The words came out even, but I knew there were hysterics hiding behind them.

  “Your throat sounds dry.” Mae forced a smile and put her arm around me, but she did it like thought I’d push her away. I didn’t, but I knew that I probably should’ve. “Why don’t we go in the kitchen and get you some water and we’ll talk in there?”

  “I’m already on it,” Jack informed us as she led me into the kitchen.

  He had filled a giant glass with cold water and ice cubes from the Pür filter in the fridge. He handed it to me, but I stopped and opened the fridge first. Just as Milo had predicted, it was completely empty. I stared into it for a minute, and Jack prompted me to drink the water.

  I shut the fridge and greedily downed the water. My thirst had kicked in, and I turned to look at them. Jack was shirtless, leaning against the island, and Mae wrung her hands, but both of them watched me.

  “Jack, I really wish you’ve waited for when Ezra was home, or Peter even.” Mae told him quietly.

  “It couldn’t wait anymore,” Jack said dully.

  “I know, but Ezra and Peter know so much more.” Mae exchanged a nervous look with Jack, and then smiled at me again and pulled out a stool. “Here, love, why don’t you sit down?”

  “Where’s Ezra?” I got on the stool and decided to start with the simplest questions first, the ones that seemed sane and rational. Not like, so, do you guys wanna suck my blood? That was the kind of thing I definitely didn’t want to think about.

  “He’s out looking for Peter,” Jack answered, and Mae looked over at him.

  She fidgeted with a wavy strand of her hair, and I knew that she desperately wanted to touch mine. My water glass was almost empty, so I set it on the island and sighed.

  “So… you’re vampires?” I asked, feeling incredibly foolish. It sounded so stupid coming out of my mouth. This was a family of normal, healthy people, and there were no such things as vampires.

  “Yes, love.” Mae smiled at me, and it had to be the saddest, most terrified smile I’d ever seen. T

  They were waiting on edge, and I didn’t understand why. They were the big powerful vampires, and I was just one small human girl. If anyone should be scared, it should be me.

  “All of you?” I looked from Mae to Jack, who just nodded solemnly. “Then why did you say that it would be better if Ezra or Peter were here? Don’t you know just as much?”

  “They’re older, much older,” Mae explained, and her strained expression started to relax a bit.

  “How old are you?” I remembered the first
time I had asked Jack that, when we were waiting in the booth at the diner, and the way he had laughed at the question.

  “Well, um, I was twenty-four when I turned, and that was in 1994. So I guess that puts in me in my forties.”

  “You don’t seem like you’re in your forties,” I said and he laughed at that, which went a long way to alleviate the tension in the room.

  “Vampires age differently, obviously.” Jack gestured to his bare chest, which did not look a day over twenty-four.

  “Physically, we don’t age much at all,” Mae elaborated. “We mature in a much different rate. When we first turn, we’ll almost regress emotionally. Jack is closer to that of someone in their teens than of one in their twenties.

  “Part of that has to do with his personality,” Mae smiled at him. “But part of it is his age. And since our minds always stay sharp, we don’t ever really get old. We learn from our experiences and we mature, but not the same way people do. Jack will never really act like a man in his forties, no matter how old he gets.”

  In retrospect, a lot of what he did made sense when I thought of him as being more around my age. Which is why it never seemed creepy that he was hanging out with me, even though he was older. He never acted older. He was, after all, at my maturity level.

  “How old are you?” I turned to Mae.

  “I was twenty-eight when I turned, and that was… wow, that was fifty-two years ago.” She looked a little surprised herself, as if she hadn’t thought about in awhile, and then smiled at me. “So, I’m eighty. Wow. Well, that’s not as bad as Peter or Ezra.”

  “How old are they?’ I couldn’t help but lean in close, scrutinizing Mae’s perfect porcelain skin. It was hard to believe that she’d even been twenty-eight.

  “Oh, gosh.” Mae looked over at Jack for help, but he just shook his head.

  “I only know the age they were when they turned.” Jack had been leaning forward onto the island, but now he stood up and leaned back on the kitchen counter behind him, crossing his arms over his chest. “Peter’s nineteen and Ezra’s twenty-six. You’re the oldest.”