“You did.” Jack reached over and squeezed my hand. “I’m very, very proud of you for that. Do you know that?”
“Not really,” I shook my head.
“You did something you believed in and helped people.” He turned on the bed so he faced me and moved closer to me. “You don’t need to hide that from me, okay? I mean, if this is who you are, what you’re passionate about then… Good. I support you, one hundred percent.”
“I don’t think this is something I want to do,” I said. “It was a onetime fluke thing. But thank you for supporting me, I guess.”
“Anytime.” He smiled and looked at me intently. “I love you, Alice. And if you can forgive me for reacting poorly the other night, do you still wanna spend forever with me?”
I smiled back at him but I didn’t get a chance to answer. Peter knocked on the open bedroom door. Hanging onto the doorframe, he leaned into the bedroom.
“Sorry to interrupt, but Mae is freaking out,” Peter said, but the smirk at the edge of his mouth led me to believe he wasn’t sorry. “She says she can’t find some sheets her mother gave her or something, and since Alice has been taking care of the laundry, Mae really wants to see you.”
“Alice!” Mae shouted from downstairs, emphasizing his point.
“Tell her I’ll be down in a minute.” I sighed and got out of bed.
Peter lingered in the doorway for a moment as I grabbed a pair of jeans off the bedroom floor. I’d only worn a tank top and underwear to bed, but they were full-on panties that covered everything.
“Peter, why don’t you go let Mae know?” Jack suggested, not unkindly, and Peter took the cue and disappeared downstairs.
“Sorry,” I told him as I slid on my pants. “I mean, that we didn’t get to talk.”
“No, it’s no big deal.” He waved it off. “We’ve got time, right?”
“Yeah,” I smiled.
By the time I made it downstairs, Mae had completely torn through the linen closet in the hall. She’d gone over to Olivia’s to get everything straightened out with Rebekah, and afterwards, she came over here with Daisy and Peter to start packing.
They were leaving tomorrow for Greenland, but they’d left most of their belongings in Australia because they’d been forced to leave in such a hurry. Mae had gone on several shopping trips lately, but she still had things she wanted to get from the house before she left.
“Alice!” Mae yelled again, tearing an old quilt from the closet.
“I’m right here, Mae,” I said walking up to her.
“Oh. Sorry, love.” She pushed a curl back from her face and smiled at me. “I’ve just been so frazzled with all of this.”
“It’s alright. What did you need?”
“This blanket my mother gave me. It had roses on it.” She held up the quilt, which did not have roses on it. “Have you seen it?”
“No, I don’t think so,” I shook my head. “Didn’t you take with you to Australia?”
“No.” She put her hands on her hips and sighed. “I don’t think I could find it then.”
“Are you sure it’s even here? I mean, maybe you left it the last time you moved,” I said.
“I thought for sure it was here.” She shrugged helplessly, staring into the closet.
“Well, just make sure you pick up your mess when you’re done,” I teased, since she’d said that same thing to me a dozen times before. She shot me a look as I walked away, and it made me laugh.
I left her to finish sorting through what few undisturbed linens we had in the house and went to the living room. Milo had set up a game of Candyland on the floor, and he sat cross-legged across from Daisy.
“How’s it going?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
“Great.” Milo shrugged.
“Where’s Bobby?” I asked.
“I sent him away.” Milo motioned to Daisy, who seemed more interested in making the colored pawns dance with each other than playing the game. “I think Ezra and Peter are working on getting money transferred for them to leave and all that.”
“How does Ezra feel about them leaving?” I lowered my voice, and Milo shrugged.
“These dolls aren’t as much fun as my real dolls,” Daisy sighed. She spun around the blue pawn and stuck out her bottom lip. “I wish Mae would let me take them out.”
“You’re getting ready to move,” Milo said, doing his best to sound cheerful. “Remember, Daisy? Mae talked to you about all the work you had to do.”
“I’m sick of moving.” Daisy spun the pawn harder, and it went flying under a nearby chair. Her face crumpled, like she might start sobbing over a missing pawn.
“I’ll get it. Don’t worry,” Milo rushed to appease her. He crawled over to the chair and reached underneath it, feeling around for the pawn.
“He’ll get it, Daisy,” I said and put my hand on her back, and her lip quivered. “It’s okay. You don’t need to get upset.”
“Is she getting cranky?” Mae asked from the hall. “It’s been a few hours since she ate.”
With his arm still stuffed under the chair, Milo arched his eyebrow at the words a few hours. Daisy was crabby because it’d been hours since she’d eaten. Even when I was brand new, I’d been able to go a day or two without any problems.
“Ouch!” Milo winced and yanked his hand back from under the chair.
Before I saw it, I could smell it. A shard of glass left over from the broken picture frame had been under the chair. In feeling around, Milo had managed to impale it in his forearm. Some blood seeped around the edges, already smelling sweet and strong, but when he pulled the glass out, it bled faster and harder. The air filled with the scent.
Daisy was on him before either of us could react. Her mouth clamped onto his arm, and Milo grabbed onto the back of her hair. He yanked her back, but she took a chunk of his flesh with her, which only made her more insane.
I bolted up and wrapped my arms around her waist, but she wriggled free. She was so small, she slid out, and launched herself at him. This time she went for his neck, and Milo couldn’t even push her off. If he did, he risked tearing out his throat.
“Get her… off me.” His words came out garbled, thanks to Daisy’s teeth in his neck.
Mae ran in, yelling her name, but I wouldn’t let her near them. I didn’t trust her to do everything she needed to do save Milo.
I used the same trick Jack had used on me when I wouldn’t stop drinking from Bobby. I wrapped my hand around Daisy’s throat, squeezing as tight as I could so she couldn’t swallow. Not that I could tell if she was even swallowing. Her bites seemed to be random attacks that had less to do with drinking blood than they did uncontrolled rage.
Daisy did stop biting him long enough to turn around and clamped her mouth on my hand. I moved back, dragging her with me so I could get her away from Milo. The wound in his neck poured all over the floor, and he pressed his hands to it, trying to stop the flow.
I wrapped my arms around Daisy, pinning her to me in hopes she would calm down, but she only seemed to get crazier with bloodlust. She clawed at my arms. Her little fingernails were like steel and raked through my skin, and she bit me anywhere her mouth could reach.
“Daisy, honey, calm down!” Mae begged her with tears in her eyes.
“Do something about that child now!” Ezra boomed, standing at the side of the room. “Or I will.”
“Alice, let me have her!” Mae held her hands out to me.
Daisy bit my arm so hard, her teeth smashed into my bone. I winced, but I looked uncertainly at Ezra. I wasn’t doing a great job of holding her back, but at least when she was biting me, I knew she wasn’t hurting anyone else.
Then Daisy reached up and sliced the underside of my chin open with her fingernails. She tried to wiggle up, so she could get to the blood, and that’s when I let her go.
“Daisy!” Mae yelled, but Daisy ran past her.
Ezra and Peter blocked the doorway to the next room, and I stood on the other side
of the room, so Daisy had nowhere to go. She ran to the corner and turned to face us, her face contorted in her demon smile as she snarled.
While I’d been trying to contain Daisy, Jack had come down, and he sat crouched over Milo, holding a blanket to his neck. The scratches and bites that covered my upper body stung and tingled as they tried to heal.
“Daisy, love.” Mae held her arms out to her and walked slowly towards her. “You need to calm down, sweetie. Everything will be alright.”
“No!” Daisy snarled, with blood dripping from her mouth. “No! It won’t! I’m hungry! I’m so hungry!”
“I can feed you, love,” Mae told her softly.
Mae reached out for her, and Daisy swiped at her. Daisy had begun to sob, but her bloodlust hadn’t relented. Mae grabbed her, wrapping her arms around her tightly to hold in her place, but Daisy fought her mercilessly, biting and kicking and clawing.
“Daisy, love, please calm down.” Mae tried stroking her hair, and Daisy nearly bit off one of Mae’s fingers. “Daisy!”
“I’m hungry!” Daisy wailed as tears mixed with blood staining her cheeks. “It hurts! It hurts!”
She threw her head back and began to scream. This wasn’t the scream of a child having a tantrum. This was a child in incredible, intense pain from being hungry, and she could do nothing to satiate it.
“Mae.” Ezra walked over to her, watching as Mae struggled to control Daisy, and he crouched down next to them.
“She’s not usually like this,” Mae insisted, looking up at him with tears in her eyes. “This is the worst I’ve ever seen her, but…”
“Mae,” Peter said gently. “That’s not true. She’s like this all the time now.”
“It hurts!” Daisy cried, but her fit seemed to be lessening. She had stopped biting Mae, but she kept kicking and wriggling.
“Mae, she’s in pain,” Ezra told her quietly, his dark eyes rested on her.
“If I feed her…” Mae trailed off.
“When was the last time she ate?” Ezra asked.
“Three hours ago.” Mae swallowed hard and looked down at the sobbing child in her arms. She screamed and thrashed because of how much pain she was in, and even if Mae fed her now, it would only hurt again in a few hours.
Nobody understood how it felt exactly for a child to be a vampire. By the way Daisy acted, I suspected she felt pain even worse than I did when I was starving. It had to be more than a lack of control that made her react like that. She was in agony.
“Daisy.” Mae held her close to her, hugging her more than restraining her, and stroked the damp curls on her head. “Daisy, love, please…” Mae squeezed her eyes tightly as tears slid out.
Daisy’s fight picked back up, and she reached out for Ezra, trying to claw at him. She snarled and almost lunged from Mae’s arms, but Mae held fast to her. In response, Daisy sunk her teeth into Mae’s shoulders.
“Daisy, I love you.” Mae whispered.
She kissed the top of her head, stroked her hair, and then as she held Daisy in her arms, Mae reached up and twisted her neck sharply. The cracking sound that her neck made as it snapped was barely audible, but I jumped when I heard it.
For a moment – barely even long enough to take a breath – everything was so eerily silent, it didn’t seem real.
Then Mae began to wail, and it was a sound unlike any I had ever heard before. Rocking the dead child in her arms, Mae wept with everything in her. Ezra tried to put his arm around her, and at first she pushed him off, screaming at him that she hated him, but finally she relented, letting him cradle her.
Milo had lost enough blood where he was on the brink of blacking out, so Jack ran to get him blood. I sat next to him, holding the blanket on his neck, and watched Mae fall apart. Milo drank quickly, and then Jack carried him upstairs so he could rest.
My own wounds had already healed, but dried blood covered my skin and clothes. I should’ve went upstairs to change or hide out, but I sat on the steps off the living room, listening to Mae.
For a while, I didn’t think she would ever stop crying, but eventually, she began to lose her voice. She made small croaked sobs and sniffles. I heard Ezra murmuring things to her, but she never responded.
“Alice?” Peter asked, and I looked up. I’d had my head resting on the wall, leaning and listening. He stood in front of me at the bottom of the steps, his green eyes moist.
“Hi,” I said softly. I didn’t want to disturb Ezra and Mae, even though they were both far enough away and so lost in their own pain that they would never notice me.
“What are you doing?” Peter asked, and I shook my head.
I had no good answer for what I was doing. I just… I felt like I should hear. Like this was my fault somehow, and it hurt listening to Mae cry like that, so I should listen. As some kind of punishment.
“Mind if I join you?” Peter asked taking a step up towards me.
“No, of course not.” I gestured to the empty space on the stair next to me, and he sat down. “How are you doing?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head, but his eyes were still wet and red. Daisy had gotten under his skin, and he hadn’t want to see anything bad happen to her. “I knew it would end this way, but…”
“I’m sorry.” I put my hand on his back, leaving tacky bloodstains on his shirt, but I doubted he’d mind. “I know you liked her.”
“It is better this way,” he said thickly and looked down at his hands. “Her life would’ve been torture. She was going to keep hurting people, killing them, but I think Mae would’ve stomached that. It was just… she was in so much pain.”
“Yeah?” I asked.
“Yeah.” He nodded and swallowed. “Daisy would wake up at night, screaming in pain. The hunger is too intense for something that small. They can’t…” His mouth twisted as he fought of tears.
“I’m still sorry this happened,” I said.
“Me too.” Tears streamed down his cheek, and I put my arm around him, pulling close to me.
Peter cried softly in my arms, and I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for the shaking of his body as he held back sobs. I ached for him, and I wanted to take away his pain.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled when he got himself under control a bit.
“Don’t be sorry.” I pushed the hair back from his face, and he sat up more but still remained close to me.
When he looked at me, his green eyes meeting mine, I’d never seen him look more wounded. With my hand still on his face, I leaned in kissed his cheek, meaning to kiss his tears away. His skin warmed under my lips, sending a familiar thrill racing through me, and I leaned back.
I wiped my thumb along the spot I’d kissed him, erasing it, and his eyes held me the way the once had. Captivating and entrancing, for a moment, I didn’t breathe. I didn’t want to. I just wanted to lose myself in Peter, and forget about everything else that hurt so much lately.
But I did remember, and I exhaled deeply, knowing this moment had to end.
“You’ll be okay, won’t you?” I asked, dropping my hand back to my lap.
“I always am.” Peter attempted a small smile, and his effort made me smile.
“I do love you, you know?” I asked him, and he nodded.
“You just love him more.”
“But that doesn’t change the way I feel about you.” I reached over and took his hand in mine. “Nothing can. And I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
“You’re worried I’m going to do something stupid?” Peter arched his eyebrow, and his smile widened.
“You tend to do that when you’re hurting,” I said.
“Don’t worry, Alice. I know that you’ll always come chasing me down, and I won’t do anything to risk your safety again.”
“So…” Jack interrupted, and I looked up to see him standing at the top of the steps, staring down at me sidled up next to Peter, holding his hand. “I just thought I’d let you know that Milo was doing good.”
“T
hanks, Jack.” I let go of Peter’s hand and stood up, but I didn’t rush. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I had nothing to hide. “I should go get cleaned up.”
“Yeah. Do what you want.” Jack walked down the stairs, brushing past me and Peter.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“Out,” he said without looking back. “And I’m leaving on a business trip tonight, so don’t wait up.”
“Jack!” I called after him, but he didn’t answer.
25
Ezra buried Daisy in the backyard, under the willow tree. After that, he decided that we’d had enough of it here and put the house up for sale.
The next few days, Mae was inconsolable. She moved like a zombie, and Ezra had to physically prompt to her do anything. She was pale and listless, and I’m not sure that even Ezra was convinced that she would ever get better. But no matter, he would stand by her through this.
Milo decided that we needed to visit our mom and that Leif needed to come with us. I was against it, but Milo eventually wore me down. She was our mother, and she had loved us the best she could. She didn’t deserve to be alone, abandoned by everyone she loved, without knowing why.
More than that, maybe she didn’t need to be abandoned anymore. Milo wanted to come clean with her in hopes that we wouldn’t have to hide from her.
Before Leif came in, Milo and I sat with her alone in our old apartment, and Milo told her the whole truth. About where we’d been and that we were vampires.
At first, Mom got angry, asking why we were being so cruel to her. Then Leif came in, and all her defenses melted. He told her she looked as beautiful as she ever did, and by the look in his eyes, I think he meant it. They both cried and kissed, and after that we talked. We talked for hours, having the first real open conversation we’d ever had.
Wisdom (My Blood Approves series) Page 26