Matilda caught sight of me and bounded towards me. There was a very good chance she would knock me over, since she was used to vampires who could handle her lunging at them at full speed, but Jack overtook her and playfully tackled her before she could do any damage. Then he stood up, brushing the grass from his swim trunks, and grinned broadly at me.
“Are you gonna go swimming with the towel too?” Jack mocked my propensity for modesty, something he was hoping I would soon get over.
“Maybe.” To spite him, I pulled the towel more tightly around me, and he laughed. Matilda came over and sniffed me heartily before concluding that it was just me, and then sauntered off, wagging her tail slowly behind her.
“Suit yourself.” A mischievous glint caught his eye, and I knew I was in trouble. After spending a summer getting thrown in the lake, I knew exactly what that look meant.
Dropping my towel, I quickly turned and ran towards the dock. Jack trailed a few steps behind me, even though he could easily sprint past me. My legs were going as fast as they could, but the sport was in the chase for him. Most of the time, he’d wait until I reached the end of the dock before grabbing onto me and tossing me into the water. It really seemed like a moot point to me since I was about to jump in anyway, but it thrilled him endlessly.
I had barely made it to the edge when I felt his strong arms looping around my waist. I squealed happily and let him twirl me around once before he released me, sending my soaring into the air and landing in the lake with a loud splash. Under the bright moonlight, I saw him take a running jump and leap out, flying over me and splashing way out in the lake. He howled excitedly when he jumped, as if he hadn’t made that same jump a million times.
“Jack!” Mae leaned out the French doors and shouted out at him. “You’ve got to keep it down so the neighbors don’t call the police again.” It was after midnight on a Wednesday, and the neighbors weren’t big fans of the noise on the lake.
“Yeah, Alice,” Jack teased, swimming over to me.
“Oh, whatever,” I rolled my eyes. “As if I’m even half as loud as you are.”
Jack laughed, taking long strokes out farther into the black water. He deliberately swam slow circles around me, but I was content to float on my back, staring up at the full moon and the stars shining down on us.
Besides, I had never really had the courage to swim to far from the shore when the water was so dark. I always had these horrible visions of being eaten by some unseen some monster coming up from the depths of the lake. It really doesn’t seem like that silly of a fear when I consider that this midnight swim takes place with a vampire.
Milo came out a little bit later, hopping off the dock into the water. He explained that Mae wanted to stay inside to continue chopping the fruit into fancy shapes. She always went overboard trying to feed us. We were just two people, but she cooked like we were an army. It only made it more obvious when they didn’t eat anything, but Milo had only made a few comments about it.
Surprisingly, he hadn’t really caught on that they weren’t human. Jack had been more discreet about his paranormal abilities than he had been with me, but Milo was a smart kid. I was inclined to think that he knew something was up, but just let it go, because they didn’t seem dangerous and they made me happy. I couldn’t actually prove this theory, though, because I couldn’t ask him about it. Then it would reveal too much, and it would just be easier if he never found out what they were.
“It’s a really beautiful night out,” Milo commented, staring up at the night sky. He had splashed around a bit, but he was floating on his back not that far from me, just admiring the night like I was.
“It’s been a fantastic summer,” I agreed.
Unlike normal summers, where it always seemed to be insufferably hot or disgustingly humid, for the most part this when had been spectacular. Of course, it probably helped that I mostly only came out at night, and that I spent a great deal of it either in air conditioned bliss or in the lake. As of late, everything had just felt perfect.
“I can’t believe it’s almost over,” Milo sighed.
“Don’t remind me!” I cringed. School was only three short weeks away, and I was not ready for it at all.
“It won’t be so bad.” Milo had been trying to convince me that school had little effect on my life, but it changed everything. There’d be no more all-nighters with Jack, and soon everything would get cold and snowy, and Milo would make me do homework. None of it sounded pleasant at all.
I was about to protest further about how ridiculous high school was when something grabbed me and pulled me under. I tried to scream but water buried me. Immediately, I assumed it was some evil sea creature coming to eat my soul and panicked. My lungs had been without air for a fraction of a second, but they insisted that I was dying. Clawing my way to the surface, I grabbed onto something strong and soft and pulled myself up.
As soon as I reached for him, Jack pulled me up out of the water and let me cling on to him. Over my own panicked gasps for breath, I heard him laughing softly, and I realized belatedly that he had been the one that had grabbed my ankle to pull me down. After a summer of similar gags, I should’ve caught on to the fact that Jack thought it was funny scaring the crap out of me.
I should’ve slapped him or told him he was a jerk, but I was instantly distracted by the feel of his arms wrapped around me. His chest was pressed up against mine, and I know he could feel the frantic beating of my heart that drove him absolutely crazy. I looked up in his soft blue eyes, and I felt breathless for whole new reason. His laughter died down, and his smile faltered as his body temperature started to rise, smoldering against my skin. Ordinarily, he would’ve pushed me away by now, but he was letting me linger in his arms and I relished the moment. My thoughts wandered back to that amazing kiss, and I unconsciously tilted in towards him, hoping desperately that he’d let go just long for one innocent little kiss.
“Hey! Look! A shooting star!” Milo shouted excitedly.
It was just enough for Jack to realize what was happening, so he pushed me back and swam a little bit away from me. Although I hadn’t directly asked about it, his temperature only seemed to rise when things between us started getting physical. During the crazy passionate kiss, his skin had felt like it was on fire, but in a really good way. Lately, Jack had been doing everything he could to keep from letting things get out a hand, and sometimes that meant that he’d physically push me away. It was getting harder to shrug off, though. The way I felt about him was getting out of control, and it was really hard trying to pretend like there was nothing going on at all.
“Did you see it?” Milo piped again.
I meant to shoot an angry glare at him for disrupting one of the few moments I managed to have with Jack, but then I saw him just staring blissfully at the sky. He hadn’t been attention to anything else but the stars, so he hadn’t known that he’d interrupted anything. Had he been aware what was going, he probably would’ve crept off into the night so we could have more privacy. He was constantly egging me to go out with Jack, but I think that was mostly because he fully intended to live through me.
“Nah, sorry, I missed it,” I told him.
“They’ll probably be another one,” Milo assured me soothingly, and I realized that I had probably sounded very heavy with regret. Unfortunately, it wasn’t about missing a stupid star. Sure, I do love a good shooting star, but kisses with Jack were even a rarer commodity than that.
“I hope so.”
I was treading water, but Jack had moved on to harassing Matilda. He’d gotten very good at finding ways to ignore me, much to my chagrin. Poor Matilda was standing at the end of the dock, barking her refusal to jump in, but he was promising her everything in the world in an attempt to cajole her. Milo had apparently tired of his stargaze so he went over to join him.
Being out in the water suddenly didn’t feel like it was that much fun. The adrenaline from the near sea monster death, followed by the near kiss, left my body feeling
achy and tired. Besides, I knew that Jack would do his best to steer clear of me for awhile, and even if I understood that routine, it didn’t feel very good.
“I think I’m gonna head back inside and see if Mae needs a hand,” I said, to no one in particular, which was just as well. Matilda was far more captivating than I was, apparently.
I turned away from them, Milo and Jack laughing heartily at how indecisive the dog seemed. By the time I made it to the shore, I heard the loud splash and their happy glee as Matilda finally jumped in the water. If only my resolution with Jack could be that simple. Admittedly I didn’t openly plead with him for things between us to move on, but he definitely knew how I felt. And I knew how he felt, which really made everything all the more frustrating.
Wrapping the towel tightly around me, I stepped in through the French doors. My skin froze instantly, thanks to the artic draft from the air conditioner. Amy Winehouse was blasting out of the stereo, Mae’s one new guilty pleasure. Jack was always trying to get her to listen to new music, and so far the only things that took were Winehouse and Norah Jones. She was dancing around the kitchen, singing along with the songs into a spatula, and despite my aggravation over the Jack situation, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Oh my gosh!” Mae put her hand over her heart and her golden eyes flashed with embarrassment at the site of me. “You scared me!”
“Couldn’t you hear me come in?” I asked, watching as she turned down the stereo and tried to collect herself. “Aren’t you guys supposed to have super hearing or something?”
“Well, yes, when we’re paying attention,” Mae smiled sheepishly at me. The fruit snack she had been preparing looked complete and nicely arranged on the island, and from the looks of the mess in the sink, she was just cleaning up when I interrupted.
“Do you need a hand?” I offered.
“Probably. But you need to go put some clothes on first.” She nodded at me, and I realized dimly that I had begun to shiver. “Unless you’re not done for the night.”
“Oh, no, I’m definitely done,” I replied grimly. The thrill of it had completely worn of the instant Jack pushed me away. That had a way of sucking the joy of anything.
“I should probably go change too.” She started untying her apron but I held up my hand to stop her.
“You don’t need to stay in on my account!” I insisted. “You can go out there and swim while I clean up.”
“Nonsense,” Mae laughed, as if she would ever let me clean up after her. She whipped off her apron and set it on the island. “If you and Ezra are in the house, I can’t imagine what kind of fun I’d even have with the boys. They’ll probably throw frogs at each other or something.”
“They had just coaxed Matilda into the water when I left,” I explained, but she wasn’t that far off of base.
When left to their own devices, Jack and Milo turned into very silly little boys. Once, when it was raining, I’d had the pleasure of splitting up a mudball fight in the backyard. It’s very similar to a snowball fight, except with mud. That seemed like a genius idea to them both until Milo started getting bruises, because as it turns out, vampires can throw much harder than weakling fifteenyear-olds.
“That poor dog.” Mae shook her head and headed off down the hall to change. I followed after her, since the main bathroom was across the hall from her bedroom.
In the bathroom, I changed into my very ordinary clothes, and I wondered if I was being too picky not letting them buy me new clothes. After all, it would thrill Mae to no end to take on me on a shopping trip. She’d spent decades buying for only boys, and everything about me was a treat to her. The bikini I discarded in the bathtub to dry had probably cost over a hundred dollars, and she’d bought me three of them. But then again, they already gave me far too much, and I returned so little. In fact, I was more of a nuisance than anything else, as witnessed when Jack repeatedly pushed me away. Sure, he wanted to kiss me, but the fact that he had to constantly shut me down annoyed him as much as it did me.
I tried to dry my hair as best I could and clean myself up. Lake water is so dirty, even when it’s clean. There’s sand and bugs and fish poop in it. I really wanted to take a shower, but I had stupidly forgotten to bring a change of clothes. Mae would always let me borrow some of hers, but it was really ridiculous how much I already took from them. I had to draw the line somewhere, because she never would.
Before I had even finished washing my face, I heard a yell. I turned off the faucet, unable to believe that I’d heard right. But then Mae was shouting Jack’s name, and I knew something was wrong. I threw open the bathroom door and rushed out into the kitchen, and I realized why it hadn’t made sense to me when I first heard it. Jack was yelling, and he sounded terrified.
Mae was standing on the stone patio when I ran outside. Jack was still several feet away from her, standing closer to the shoreline. When I tried to run past her, Mae grabbed my arm, and her face looked positively stricken. It was too dark for me to really see what was going on, but all I could feel was pure heartbroken terror. Something terrible had happened, and Jack felt worse about it than he ever had before.
“Ezra!” Jack bellowed, and he had stopped walking forward. “Ezra!”
“I’ll go get him,” Mae whispered nervously. Her hand squeezed my arm so tightly it hurt, but I barely noticed. “Alice, you stay right here. Don’t move. I’ll be right back.”
“Hurry!” Jack pleaded, but she was already gone.
“What’s going on?” I asked. I knew I was talking, but it didn’t feel real. My mouth had gone dry and numb, and I felt like I was swimming in some kind of bad dream. Despite Mae’s warnings, I started taking a step towards Jack, and he shouted at me.
“Stop!” He was so forceful, I couldn’t help but listen.
Even though I didn’t move any closer, my eyes started adjusting to the darkness, and the moonlight splashed on him through the branches of a nearby tree. He was holding something laying limp in his arms, and my breath caught in my throat. Immediately, I thought that something had happened to Matilda. The boys had gotten too rough, and she’d gotten hurt somehow, and Jack knows how freaked out I get when animals are hurt.
Then I saw Matilda whining by his feet. Her white fur was dripping wet, but then I started notice dark patches running through it. It was running off of whatever Jack was holding in his arms, but I still couldn’t see it. It was perfectly visible, but my mind just couldn’t process. I suddenly felt very dizzy and disoriented, like I was looking down at the world from an amazing height and I couldn’t make sense of anything.
A wind rustled through the trees, moving the branches, and the moonlight struck him just right.
Then I saw his face, his eyes rolled back into his head, and I saw exactly what Jack was holding in his arms.
“Milo!” I screamed, and Mae wrapped her arms around me just in time to keep from running at Jack. I fought at them in a panicked hysteria, thinking that somehow, being a sobbing crazed wreck running at him could save Milo. Fortunately, Mae was much stronger than me, and I didn’t stand a chance at pulling myself from her grip.
Ezra brushed past us, hurrying down the embankment towards them. I just kept wailing Milo’s name, as if that would help somehow, and Jack looked absolutely tortured, but I barely noticed his expression or what he was feeling. All I could see was my little brother, lying bloodied and limp in his arms, and I didn’t even want to imagine what had happened.
“Get him inside,” Ezra commanded.
Jack kept his arms around Milo, cradling him like an injured child, and Ezra very purposely placed himself between them and me, trying to shield me from as much of it as he could. I bucked futilely against Mae’s arms as they walked past us, screaming anything I could think of, and I’m sure most of it was unintelligible.
“It’ll be okay, love,” Mae tried to reassure me, but I could hear the tremble in her voice. “Ezra will know what to do.”
I watched helplessly through the glass windows.
With one quick move of his arm, Ezra pushed everything off the island in the kitchen, and Jack gingerly laid Milo on top of it. Jack just stood off to the side, watching apprehensively as Ezra inspected my brother. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but neither of their expressions looked good. Finally, Ezra just pursed his lips and shook his head.
“No!” I screamed, and for whatever reason, Mae finally let me go.
I have no idea how I got from outside into the house. The next think I knew was that I was reaching out for Milo, and Jack grappled me in his arms. His bare skin was covered in lake water and Milo’s blood, and it felt slimy rubbing against my skin. I hit him as hard as I could in the chest, even though I knew he could barely feel it, and tried to escape his grip.
“Let me go!” I wailed. “He’s my brother! And you killed him!”
“He’s not dead!” Ezra interjected, and it startled me enough where I stopped squirming away from Jack.
“Then what’s wrong?” I asked desperately. I had stopped fighting, so Jack loosened his grip on me but didn’t let me go. “Can’t you fix him? Shouldn’t we call 911?”
“I don’t think they can do anything for him,” Ezra said solemnly.
“But you don’t know!” I persisted, staring down at Milo. Other than the blood covering his head and chest, he looked just like he was sleeping, and I couldn’t imagine that there was nothing they could do for him.
“We just have to call! Where’s my cell phone?”
“Alice,” Ezra said, but I was already trying to search for my cell. Or I would’ve been, if Jack would let me go. I was working myself into a frenzy, certain that a phone call could to 911 would magically fix whatever was ailing my brother. “Alice!”
“Why aren’t you doing anything?” I yelled at him. “We have to do something!”
“We are trying to!” Ezra insisted. “Milo broke his neck and cracked his skull! Even if he lives, he’ll probably be brain damaged and a quadriplegic.”
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