My Blood Approves mba-1

by Amanda Hocking

  “I’m not trying to be mean to her,” Peter was saying, sounding small and apologetic.

  “But you are! You should’ve seen how terrified she was to come over here, because of you!” Jack, on the other hand, definitely was angry. I winced at the sound of him confessing my embarrassing secrets, but I stayed longer to listen to their argument. Maybe then I could figure out why Peter wanted to hate me.

  “Maybe she shouldn’t come back then.” He was saying it reasonably, like he was only thinking of what was best for me, not because he didn’t want me around.

  “You’re such an ass,” Jack growled. “I like her, Ezra likes her, Mae’s practically in love with her. She’s going to be around. I don’t know why you’re fighting everything so much.”

  “None of you understand, okay?” Peter sounded like he was on the verge of tears, and his voice had gotten sharper. “Ezra has Mae, and you’re too young.

  And this is like a holiday for Mae! She’s always wanted a daughter.”

  “Look, it doesn’t matter!” Jack had grown exasperated. “She’s going to be around, and you’re just gonna have to find a way to deal with it. Without hurting her.”

  “You know I don’t want to hurt her.” Peter had gotten so quiet, I could barely hear him, but his voice was unmistakably sincere. He truly didn’t want to hurt me, or even hate me. So then why did he?

  “Yeah, I do!” Jack snapped. “So knock it off!”

  “Okay!” Peter relented.

  The conversation appeared to be winding to a close and I could hear footsteps getting closer to the steps. I couldn’t have them catching me eavesdropping, so I ran to the bathroom. At least I felt less like crying now, even though I felt even more confused about what was going on. They were a family (that weren’t really a family) that had paranormal abilities (but they weren’t explained) and they all adored me (for some unknown reason), except for Peter who wanted to hate me (but didn’t hate me).

  When I came out of the bathroom, both Peter and Jack had returned to the living room. Peter remained cordial but distant. Jack played with the dog and tried to get everyone involved in some other video game. Ezra continued to ask me questions about myself, ranging from what my mother did to what television shows I liked the best, and Mae seemed contented to play with my hair for the rest of her life.

  It was after eleven o’clock when Jack declared that we should get going.

  Even with the anxiety, the night had passed amazingly fast. They all walked us to the garage door, even Matilda, making me once again feel self-conscious.

  They were constantly putting me in the center of the attention, when they were all far more beautiful and fascinating than I could ever dream of being. Mae hugged me tightly to her, and she looked almost like she was going to cry because I was leaving.

  “You will come back, won’t you?” Mae asked plaintively. Her hands were still on my arms, squeezing them a little too tightly, and Ezra put his arm around her waist, gently pulling her back from me.

  “We really enjoy having you over,” Ezra said, managing a much less frantic invite than his wife.

  “Oh, she’ll be back,” Jack answered for me, grinning broadly.

  Peter, who had been standing off to the side, took a step closer to me, and his piercing green eyes met mine. For one irrational, euphoric second, I thought he might kiss me, but he stayed frozen several feet from me. Then, very softly, but so strong that it was definitely a command, he said, “Come back.”

  “Okay,” I nodded. He must’ve established his human interaction quota with that, because then he turned and walked out of the room. I regained some sense of composure and forced a smile at Mae and Ezra. “I’ll be back. I promise.”

  “We’ll see you soon then,” Ezra smiled at me. Mae looked as if she was going to explode with glee, and Ezra kept his arm firmly placed around her to stop that from happening.

  “I told you Ezra would like you,” Jack said when we were in the garage. We were heading down to his Jeep, and I had a long tirade of questions to ask him, so I kept my mouth shut until we were safely inside. I didn’t want my thoughts interrupted at all. “Do you disagree?”

  “I do not,” I replied, then hopped into the Jeep and waited for him. He had barely gotten in when I turned full on to face him. “Okay. What the hell does your family want with me?”

  “What do you mean?” Jack asked carefully. He thought he knew what I meant, but he didn’t want to accidentally give away too much.

  “You’re all fawning all over me, like I’m a shiny gem or something.” That wasn’t the right way to say it exactly, because I felt like they genuinely liked me.

  “I don’t know how to answer that.” He started the Jeep and backed out of the garage.

  “Jack! I have a right to know what exactly you’re doing with me!” My voice sounded shriller than I had meant it to, but some small part of me was actually afraid. They were powerful and beautiful and they wanted me. It was flattering, but it was terrifying.

  “No, I know. I’ll answer you. Just give me a minute to think about it.” The radio was still playing Smashing Pumpkins, and he turned it down a little as we started the drive home. I knew we only had a few minutes until we got there, so I didn’t have much time to spare.

  “You guys aren’t really brothers are you? I mean, not in the blood relative sense.” It was more of a statement, but Jack laughed and shook his head.

  “You’re trying to tell me that you all have the same parents?”

  “No, we don’t,” Jack admitted, still chuckling over my question.

  “You’re more like a fraternity or something?” I pressed.

  “Kind of, but more than that.” He was vague, as usual, and I sighed.

  “Jack, what’s going on?” I asked him earnestly. “What is all of this? Why are you guys so different? And why do you think I’m special?”

  “Do you trust me?” He looked gravely at me.

  “Yeah, you know I do.” My heart raced. He was finally going to tell me something.

  “Okay. Then… I will tell you, very soon. But you just have to wait a little bit longer.”

  “Why? What’s going to happen in a little bit longer?” I demanded to know.

  “I’ve met your family, I hang out with you all the time, and I know that you’re not exactly human. What’s left?”

  “It’s complicated,” Jack sighed. “And I… I don’t want to scare you off.”

  “What could possibly scare me off after all I’ve seen with you?” I insisted incredulously.

  “There are still parts of me you don’t know.” He kept his voice even, but it sounded more like an ominous warning. He gave me a sidelong glance to see how I’d responded, so I tried to look brave, but he could tell that he’d rattled me. “It’s about more than just trusting me, or even trusting my family. Its about who you are.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” By now, I was getting frightened and confused, and I just wished he could be straight with me, for once. So I could go to bed and sleep like a normal person, without trying to solve the mystery of him or dream about Peter.

  “‘When you dance with the devil, the devil doesn’t change. The devil changes you.’” The way Jack said it, it didn’t sound like it came directly from him. He was quoting someone, so I took a stab in the dark.

  “What? Is that like Dylan Thomas you’re using to confuse me?”

  “No, it’s Joaquin Phoenix, and I’m not trying to confuse you. I’m just trying to prepare you.” For some reason, that sent chills down my spine, and I really wondered what he had in store for me.

  “You didn’t answer my question,” I told him when I finally found the will to speak. We’d already pulled up in front of my building, and I knew he wouldn’t answer anyway.

  “We don’t want anything with you.” He bit his lip and looked over at me.

  “We just want you to be one of us.”

  “What does that mean?” I know I looked terrified despite my best effor
ts, but he just smiled at me.

  “I answered your question.” He nodded at my building. “Get some sleep.

  I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, right, like I can sleep after that,” I grumbled opening the door.

  “When did you get so damn ominous? Were you watching Vincent Price last night or something?” Jack just laughed, and I got out of the Jeep. When he drove off, I stayed outside for a minute, letting the cold air seep into my skin.

  My whole life was changing. I could feel it. Everything about me was going to be different, and I had no idea what I was going to become.

  Chapter 8

  For the first time ever, I woke up before Milo but not by choice. I had been dreaming something about Peter’s emerald eyes and gnashing teeth, but by the time I woke up in a cold sweat, I couldn’t really put it together. My heart pounded horribly and my head was swimming. It had taken forever for me to fall asleep last night, and I couldn’t shake the feeling of impending doom. They wanted me to be one of them? What kind of horror movie crap was that? Did they expect me to marry into the family (and if so, was I supposed to marry Jack… or Peter?)? Or was it something more horrific, like they were in a cult or something? Was I expected to be some kind of virgin sacrifice?

  While taking a shower, I tried to wash away my trepidation. Despite all the unusual and sometimes frightening occurrences, I couldn’t imagine that Jack would ever hurt me. Mae and Ezra seemed sincere in their unexplained affection for me, and even Peter had shown a reluctance to hurt me. So the virgin sacrifice thing seemed pretty unlikely, as would any choice that would end with me being maimed or seriously injured.

  All of it reminded me of a story I had read once. A young rather unattractive girl climbed a mountain and accidentally stumbled into a village of the most beautiful people she’d ever seen. Everyone in the entire town was absolutely perfect and amazing, but since everyone looked that way, they had grown bored with it. Being perfect was ordinary, but all the things about her that made her ugly in her old life made her stand out as beautiful and revered.

  Everyone fell in love with her and had sex with her, and eventually she died of exhaustion and depression. There was some kind of moral to the story about how everyone just used her for the way she looked, and being liked for the way you looked is worse than not being liked at all.

  That wasn’t what stood out to me about it now. Jack and his family were completely flawless, and I was just ordinary and boring. Maybe they spent too much time keeping to themselves, and my general homeliness was new and refreshing for them. It was the only explanation I could come up with for why they’d even want to be around me. But then, how exactly would I go about becoming one of them? And why would they even want me to? Just what the hell did he even mean by “one of them?” One of them what?

  By the time I got out of the shower, I had used up all the hot water. I muttered an apology to Milo, but he shrugged and said he didn’t mind cold showers. Going to school had never seemed so much like a chore, but at least it was Friday. I could stay out as late as I wanted tonight, and I would spend every second of the night interrogating Jack if that’s what it took. I wouldn’t stop until he told me everything.

  The day went by surprisingly fast, but that was in a large part due to the fact that I slept my first three hours. Over my lunch break, I text messaged Jack and asked him when we were going to hang out. Even though he usually responded to me within seconds, he didn’t this time, but that’s what I had mostly expected since he tended to stay up all hours of the night. Still, I couldn’t help but check my phone every ten minutes and feel a twinge of disappointment that he hadn’t answered.

  When I got home, I turned the TV onto old Speed Racer cartoon reruns, but I didn’t even really pay attention to it. My phone was on my lap with the volume turned up full blast, and I kept bouncing my foot anxiously up and down.

  I crossed my arms tightly over my chest to keep from biting my nails, but it was a very hard battle.

  “Are you going over to Jack’s tonight?” Milo sat on the couch, absently watching the cartoon. He glanced over at me, and even in my distracted frame of mind, I couldn’t help but notice the pained expression on his face.

  “Probably.” Then I looked down at my phone and sighed. “Maybe not.”

  “I could make us supper if you stayed in,” Milo offered hopefully.

  When he got like that, he was just like a puppy with big adoring eyes, and it killed me to know that I was going to have to say no to that. I really had been neglecting him a lot lately, and it had to be horrible sitting in this tiny apartment all by himself night after night. But I had to get to the bottom of things with Jack or die trying.

  “That’s a nice idea, but not tonight.” I let him down as gently as I could, but his face crumbled anyway, and he looked away. Even though his voice had already changed, his face still carried all that baby fat that made him look like a little boy, and I couldn’t wait for him to grow out of that. Then it wouldn’t hurt so much when I broke his heart. “Maybe we can another day this weekend.”

  “You’re gonna be out all night with Jack.” Milo tried to keep it matter-offact, but there was a bitter edge. “It’s the weekend and you’re seventeen. I really shouldn’t expect any different. And pretty soon you’ll be out on your own and have your own life and all that. I should just get used to it now.”

  “Come on, Milo. You know you’ll always be a part of my life.” Before I had met Jack, I would’ve said that with a 100 % certainty. Milo was my brother and a huge part of my life, and there wasn’t anything that could take him out of it. At least that’s what I thought until Jack had half-warned/half-promised me that my life was going to change, that I was going to change. There might be someplace that I would go that Milo couldn’t follow, and as much as it would kill me to leave him behind, the thought of life without Jack and Peter and his family sounded far worse.

  “Whatever you say,” Milo replied, and he was completely unconvinced.

  Maybe it was starting to show on my face, that I already had one foot out the door.

  I considered arguing with him more about it, but what was the point?

  Things were changing, and we both felt it. I didn’t want to lie to Milo, so we sat in silence, watching the TV. I expected him to get up and go in another room, or at least somewhere else to mourn my impending absence, but he stayed out there with me.

  When my phone finally jingled Jack’s ring tone, my heart skipped a beat and I jumped at it, but Milo just rolled his eyes.

  When do you wanna hang out? Jack texted me.

  As soon as possible. There was no need to play games with him anymore0. I was going to put myself out there in hopes that he would do the same thing.

  You know what I think would be fun? Why don’t you bring Milo with? Jack messaged back, and I felt a wave of conflicting emotions run over me.

  Bringing him along would definitely satiate my guilt, but it would also mean even less alone time with Jack where I could drill him for answers. Plus, I still hadn’t figure out what they wanted with me, let alone what they could possibly want with Milo. But he would like them, especially Mae. Finally I decided that there was only one way to make a decision.

  “Milo, do you wanna come with me to Jack’s tonight?” I tried hard not to sound reluctant about asking him, and I even smiled when I turned to look at him, trying to make the offer sound somewhat enticing.

  “What do you mean?” His eyes lit up and his voice raised an octave, but he wanted to make sure he understood what was transpiring before he agreed to it and got full blown excited.

  “Just go over to Jack’s house and hang out. He has Guitar Hero and stuff like that.” That would be an added bonus for Jack. He’d have someone to play video games with him that didn’t get totally irritated by it or just sucked really bad at it.

  “Do you really want me to?” Milo hesitated, and I smiled reassuringly at him.

  “Yeah, of course I do.” I wanted to
be around him, but I wasn’t sure that this was the best idea. However, it was the best idea I could come up with, and nothing bad had happened to me when I’d been with Jack. In fact, he’d saved my life twice. There shouldn’t be anything to worry about. So why was I worried?

  “Then okay. Yeah. That’d be great.” He was practically beaming when he jumped up and ran into his room to change his clothes. He still had that crush on Jack to contend with, and I’m sure he’d be developing fresh new ones on Peter and Ezra.

  He’s in. When are you picking us up? I replied to Jack.

  Five minutes. I’m already on my way. There was Jack for you, not being psychic.

  “You better hurry!” I shouted at Milo and then hurried into the bathroom to fix my make up. The clothes I was wearing would have to do, but at least I wouldn’t go there with smudged eyeliner. “He’s gonna be here in five minutes!”

  “Ready!” Milo responded a second later. I peeked out the bathroom door to see him wearing almost the exact same outfit he was before — a long sleeved white shirt with a green polo over it and a pair of jeans. That was pretty much his standard uniform, but whatever floats his boat, I guess.

  “You’re sure you want to come with?” I asked him, once I had finished getting ready. We walked out of the apartment, and Milo doubled check to make sure the door was locked and that he had his house keys in his pocket, something that I never did.

  “Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Then Milo shot a nervous look at me. “Do you not want me to?”

  “No, that’s not what I meant!” I insisted quickly and smiled at him. “Of course I want you to come with.” I pushed the call button for the elevator and turned back to him. “There’s just a few things you have to know before we go.”

  “Okay?” Milo raised an eyebrow at me, but I thought it’d be best if he was prepared. The elevator doors sprung open and we stepped inside. Thankfully, we were alone, because I would feel silly saying this stuff in front of complete strangers.

  “First, his brothers are really hot. I mean, like movie star hot, except even hotter. I know that you think Jack is amazing, but his brothers blow him out of the water.” I looked over to gauge his response, but for the most part, he just looked skeptical. “Second, his family is super rich. One of their cars easily costs twice as much as Mom makes in a year, and they have five of them and this super fancy house. It’s really intimidating.”