There was nothing overly gay about Bobby, other than the fact that he had kissed my brother and looked at him like he couldn’t wait to jump his bones. His clothes were just fashionable scene apparel, skinny jeans and slip on Vans. He might be wearing eyeliner, but he might just have really dark eyelashes too. He was white, but his features were dark, like Italian or Russian.
“No, it’s okay,” Bobby laughed, brushing off Milo’s concern. “Yeah. I am gay.”
“How old are you?” I asked pointedly.
“Twenty-one,” Bobby answered, and I bristled.
Admittedly, Milo was a vampire, and thanks to they’re rapid maturation, he looked about nineteen or so. In actuality, he wasn’t even sixteen, and he was making out with a twenty-year-old guy.
Not cool. In fact, it was so not cool that I planned on freaking out on Jack for letting this happen while I was away. (At this point, it had not occurred to me that Jack was born over 40 years ago, and I wasn’t yet eighteen.)
“Alice, you were in Finland for weeks!” Milo said, sensing that I was revving up for some kind of argument. “I’m pretty sure you have more exciting things to do than interrogate my boyfriend.”
Boyfriend? They were already up to that terminology? It had been months and months until I started referring to Jack as my boyfriend. In fact, in conversation, I still don’t think I would use that word. It sounded too weird to say about him. Once you’re over the age of like twenty-five or you’re no longer human, the word
“boyfriend” no longer fits.
“Yeah. What happened in Finland?” Jack turned to look at me, trying really hard to keep the edge from his voice. Unfortunately, I could hear and understand all the little nuances and inflections to his tones.
He was worried as hell. Not just about the danger I had been in, but about what might have transpired between Peter and me.
“It’s too much to talk about right now,” I brushed him off.
“Seriously?” Jack raised an eyebrow. “That’s what you’re giving me? After weeks of this shit?
You’re gonna come home and tell me it’s too much to talk about?”
“Well, I just don’t want to upset you needlessly,” I insisted looking up at him.
“You were in Finland with Peter! And you wouldn’t answer my calls!” Jack retorted. “I’m pretty sure you’ve upset me plenty already, and it didn’t bother you then!”
“Of course it bothered me!” I pulled away from him, even though it hurt just to separate, but I was trying to be pissed off. “I thought about you constantly! But I couldn’t tell you stuff! I knew if I said anything you would rush over there and get yourself killed!”
“I would get myself killed?” Jack turned his body more so he was facing me and his expression got even more severe. “What the hell were you involved with, Alice? And what happened to Ezra?”
“Yeah, what is the deal with him?” Milo added unhelpfully.
“It’s all very complicated.” I shook my head, afraid that if I told Jack what had happened he would…
I don’t know. Yell at me a lot and then try to beat up Peter and Ezra.
“I know you were with lycan,” Jack replied quietly. “That’s who had Peter.” He bit his lip, looking down at me. “I should’ve came over as soon as you told me but…” He shook his head, upset by his own decisions. If he had gone there, everything would’ve turned out much worse, but that sounded like a horrible thing to say to him.
“Lycan?” Milo sat up sharply, almost knocking Bobby off the chair. “You mean werewolves?”
“Not exactly,” I looked over at him. “Not at all, really. They’re just vampires that live in the woods.
And they were after Peter, but Ezra made an exchange with them, and we came home. End of story. Most of the trip was spent just looking for Peter.”
“What was the exchange?” Milo asked, but by Jack’s expression, I could tell that he’d already figured it out. He furrowed his brow and stared at me.
“Peter let them do that?” Jack whispered hoarsely.
“He didn’t have a choice. Ezra… tricked him,” I explained as best I could. Somehow, I knew that if I told Jack that Ezra had left me with Peter, that would not go over well.
“What are you talking about? What happened?” Milo demanded.
“Nothing. Never mind,” I snapped. Jack was looking at me intently, his blue eyes full of too much for me to read. He was definitely pained and unhappy though, and I didn’t know how to fix it.
“Nothing happened to me, though. Okay? I barely even left the hotel room. Nobody tried to hurt me.
I never got in any fights. Everything was fine. Honest.”
Jack wasn’t completely convinced, but he was at least momentarily satisfied. He wrapped his arm around me again, so I would curl up next to him. Milo was completely perplexed, but he dropped the subject since we looked contented again. He had never been out the area, either, so he pressed for more information about traveling, and I told him what little I had seen and how terrified I had been on the plane.
Once Bobby started falling asleep, Milo decided it was time to excuse himself and head up to bed. He scooped Bobby up in his arms, carrying him upstairs to their room, and I gaped after him.
We had to have a very long talk about all of this as soon as I had the chance.
I really would’ve loved some time to catch up with Jack, but I felt exhausted and drained from the trip. Being away from home, and Jack, had been much harder than I had thought it would be. He really wanted to go to bed with me, and even with my exhaustion being what it was, I would’ve been happy to oblige. Except I knew the only reason he was insisting upon it was because Peter was sleeping across from me, and I refused to give into his paranoia. He had to get used to Peter being around, and I would rather get some rest before trying to be alone with Jack. Just the same, he walked me up to his room, kissing me gently on the forehead before going back down to the den to sleep. As soon as he left, I instantly regretted sending him away. Thankfully, I was too tired to reconsider, and I curled up in his unmade bed, falling asleep in his mass of blankets almost immediately. It felt so good to be home.
Chapter 10
When I woke up, there was this instant relief of waking up in my own bed. After a long, exhausting trip away, nothing felt better than that. Well, almost nothing. As I stretched, trying work the stiffness out of my limbs, I realized how anticlimactic my reunion with Jack had been. In fact, it hardly qualified as one at all. Somehow, I had allowed myself to get too distracted by my brother’s new boyfriend and Jack’s worry over Finland. I’d have to a very long talk with Milo about this Bobby fellow, and very soon at that. But there were more pressing needs in my mind.
Along with that familiar hunger that always burned just below the surface, there was a desperate ache for Jack. I don’t know how I hadn’t jumped him the second I saw him. Probably a bit of jet lag and confusion and stress made it too bittersweet for me to greet him the way he deserved, but I hoped he didn’t hold against me. I knew that I had go about rectifying the situation immediately. With immediately being after I had showered and brushed my teeth and made myself somewhat presentable.
When I walked out into the hall, I could smell Bobby. That sweet, delightful scent of hot blood coursing through his veins. His heart was pounding quickly, like a frightened rabbit. I tensed up, thinking he was in some kind of danger, but I belatedly realized he was just excited. This was confirmed by a happy moan from him, and a throaty laugh from Milo. My stomach tightened with nausea and anxiety as I thought about what Milo was doing in the room next to mine. It was completely unforgivable that he would have a sex life before I did, and I pushed the thought from my mind. The “talk” was becoming more imminent, but I did not want to walk in on whatever they were doing right now to administer it.
I had just gulped back the urge to vomit and took a step towards the stairs when Peter’s bedroom door opened, making me jump. Even though I had been the one that had brought him h
ome, it was still a shock to see someone in his room. It had been shut off for so long, like a shrine for a dead loved one, even though that’s the opposite of what had been happening. He looked a little startled at seeing me himself, pushing his dark hair out of his eyes and smiling thinly at me.
“Oh. Hey,” Peter said, nodding at me.
“Hey,” I replied, and wondered why this felt so awkward. We were standing across from each other, staring uncertainly, so I assumed that I should try and make conversation. “Did you sleep okay? I bet its nice being back in your own bed.”
“Yeah. It is.” Peter nodded again and shifted uncomfortably.
“You’re up!” Jack announced too loudly from the bottom of the stairs, and hurriedly raced up to us. I knew he was just doing it out of some kind of protective jealousy, but I was still relieved that he was breaking up the awkward moment between me and Peter. Jack was happy to see me, but the arm he threw around my shoulder was too tight to be anything but show. “I thought you were going to sleep all day!”
“Sorry. I guess I had sleep to catch up on,” I smiled at him. His grip around my shoulders was borderline painful and there was an oddly anxious huff about him. If I hadn’t just gotten back, I would’ve snapped at him for his unnecessary behavior.
“I’m just gonna… go,” Peter said. He turned and walked down the stairs, ignoring the look on Jack’s face.
Once Peter was out of sight, I wriggled out of Jack’s arms. It felt weird and almost hurt to be pulling away from his touch, but I wasn’t a big fan of why he was doing it. Jack realized what he was doing, and his expression changed to one of a little boy that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He shoved his hands in his pockets and his blue eyes looked apologetically at me.
“Sorry,” Jack shrugged. “I’m just getting used to all this again. I know you’ve had all this time readjust to Peter but the last time I saw him…” Jack shivered and looked away from me. I’m not sure what he was thinking about it exactly, but it was either Peter kissing me or trying to kill him, and I’m sure neither memory was pleasant.
“It’s okay.” I put my hand on his chest, relishing the way his muscles felt warm and strong under my hand, and feeling the gentle beat of his heart. The beat of a heart is a tremendous aphrodisiac for vampires, and I tried my best to smile seductively at him. I leaned in towards him, preparing to give him the kiss had been wanting to give him for ages, but then a scent of fresh blood completely diverted my attention.
Just down the hall, Milo had apparently drawn blood from Bobby, and the scent of blood was so strong and intoxicating, my mouth instantly began to water. My stomach didn’t exactly growl, because my stomach wasn’t the same as it had been before, but it was suddenly ravenous and demanding to be satiated.
On top of that, Bobby’s heart rate had quickened even more, and now I could associate the sound with the smell, making it completely irresistible. My body had flushed with heat, and all I could think/hear/feel was his blood, and how badly I needed it. The bloodlust had taken over me entirely.
I awoke in the moment with Jack’s hand tightly clamped on my arm. I had my hand on his chest, and the next thing I knew, I was trying to race down the hall, to Milo’s room in the turret, full of fresh blood. Jack had stopped me from getting very far, but it was still disturbing that I hadn’t even noticed that I had started moving in the other direction. It was like I had been in some kind of trance, and I still wasn’t completely out of it. At least now I was aware of what was happening, but it did nothing to lesson my desire to feed.
“You need to eat,” Jack said sternly.
“Yeah, no kidding,. I tried to pull towards Milo’s room again, but he stopped me.
“No, not him.” Jack shook his head and started to gently pull me in the opposite direction, away from the blood. The rational part of me understood what exactly what he was doing, that I did not what to feed on my brother’s boyfriend, but the hungry of part of me was irate that he would even consider taking me away from the blood. “Come on, Alice. There’s blood downstairs.”
“Not good blood!” I protested.
Other than the time I had bit Jack, I had never had fresh blood, so I didn’t have much to compare with it. Except that fresh blood smelled so much better than bag blood. My body craved it far more intensely, and it was almost impossible to resist. Especially since it had been awhile since I had eaten.
Well, not that long actually, but a long time for me. Jack was stronger than me, and at least some of me knew he was right, so I let him drag me down the stairs.
Fortunately, Mae was just coming up from the basement when we got downstairs, her arms overflowing with cold bags of blood. Apparently, Ezra was eating more than normal as well.
She saw the look on my face, and gave me one before I changed my mind about sparing Bobby. As I was greedily gulping it down, loving the exotic rush of pleasure that ran through me, I barely overheard her talking to Jack. Ezra was still weak and required lots of rest and food, and Peter had left to do something. She was vague on the details, but I’m not sure if that was for Jack’s sake or because she really didn’t know.
By the time I had finished my bag, she had disappeared back into her bedroom to tend to Ezra, and that deep wooziness was settling on me. I did not appreciate the fact that I had just woken up, and I was preparing to pass out again. I grabbed onto Jack, hoping that hanging onto him would somehow make me more alert. He laughed at my struggle against sleep, the sound resounding through me until I shivered with pleasure. Then he kissed my forehead and held me in his arms, and that was too comfortable for me to fight to stay awake anymore.
I was curled up in the crook of his arm when I woke up, and the bedroom was filled with the faint sounds of Depeche Mode. Jack had one arm wrapped around me, and the other one was holding a graphic novel, The Killing Joke. It was one of his favorites, so it was battered and beaten, and he had probably read it three times when he sat with me while I made the transformation from human to vampire.
He was so into it that he didn’t even notice when I opened my eyes and looked up at him.
“Hey,” I smiled up at him. He pulled his head back so he could look down at me and smiled crookedly, already setting the book aside. “Sorry I just passed out like that.”
“No, it’s cool. I understand,” Jack grinned, pushing my dark hair from off my face.
“I missed you.” I snuggled up closer to him, pressing my body against his, and his heart rate started to pick up. His eyes were dancing, and I could feel how much he had missed me.
“I missed you too,” Jack said softly. “For awhile there, I wasn’t sure if you’d ever come back.” When he pushed a strand of hair from my eyes, his face went stormy, re-imagining all the horrible things he had thought had happened to me when I hadn’t been answering my cell phone.
“But here we are!” I hurried to erase his dark thoughts, rubbing my hand over his chest. “In your room, in your bed, alone.” Something occurred to me, and my expression must’ve faltered because his face fell with concern. “We are alone, aren’t we?”
“What do you mean?” His arm tensed up around me and his voice had an edge to it. Once again, he incorrectly assumed that I was thinking of Peter, but he was the furthest thing from my mind.
“Milo and his new ‘friend,’” I explained, nodding to the thin wall that separated our rooms.
I couldn’t really trust myself against bloodlust, especially since I was with Jack, and there was already a chance that things could get out of control between us, but that was not my biggest concern.
Listening to Milo and Bobby fool around earlier had been rather nauseating, and I didn’t like the idea of them overhearing me messing around with Jack. Even if we were just kissing or something, that made me grossed out. But to be honest, I was really, really hoping to finally take things to next level with Jack, and I wanted it to be as intimate and private as possible.
“Oh, no, they’re long gone,” Jack smiled with relief and
relaxed next to me. “They want to a club a few hours ago.”
“A club?” I arched my eyebrow and knew I was ruining the mood, but I couldn’t shake my concern.
“Is that safe?”
“Yeah,” Jack shrugged. “Milo is a vampire. He can handle himself.”
“What about Bobby?” I didn’t really care that much for his safety, but I knew that Milo would, and if other vampires were to move on him, I wasn’t sure how wisely Milo would respond.
“They’re okay. Trust me,” Jack reassured me. “And if they weren’t, they have cell phones, which they know how to use. Unlike some people.” So he hadn’t entirely forgiven me for not calling him from Finland, but that was okay. I planned on making up for it completely.
“So what you’re saying is that Milo is gone, Peter is gone, and Mae and Ezra are too preoccupied to really notice anything? And we are completely, entirely, alone?” I continued, sliding my leg up over his.
“It would appear that way,” Jack smiled wickedly.
I tilted my head up towards him and his mouth pressed softly against mine. The kiss was only gentle for a minute, though. This had been the kiss I had been so desperate for for weeks, and I didn’t have the selfcontrol I once had, not that I had ever had much to start with. As soon as I felt his lips searching mine, this frantic need took over me. Throwing one leg over him, I moved so I was sitting on top of him, straddling him between my legs. Jack moaned, but it was barely audible through our kisses. His hands were searching my body, and his skin was already smoldering. My temperature should’ve matched his, and I felt the warmth racing through me, but he was apparently ahead of me. His mouth felt so cool against mine, and I put my hands on the side of his face, holding him to me.
I pulled away just long enough to tear off my shirt, and he smiled appreciatively at me. He looked like he wanted to say something, so I quickly silenced him with kisses. Normally, I love talking to him, but right now, words weren’t enough. We had been forbidden from being together almost since day one, and even after I had turned into a vampire, we had been forced to stay at arms length. Finally, nothing was standing in our way.
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