In one wall were the machines themselves, one set dark blue, and the other a weird orange.
Apparently, the days of ordinary white machines were gone. Milo was sitting on one of the washing machines, watching as Mae pulled out towels of the dryer and folded them. I’m sure he had offered to help, but she would absolutely refuse. She thought it was her duty to do everything for us that she possibly could. Milo was dressed and looked good, except he’d started painting his toenails apparently, and I blamed Bobby for that entirely. Mae, on the other hand, was still in her pajamas, and I didn’t think I’d seen in her in real clothes in days. Her hair up, but it was more of a rat’s nest than a bun, and I’m not exactly sure when she showered last.
When I walked in the room, Milo gave me a wary look, and Mae barely glanced back at me.
She was pale with dark circles under eyes, and her face looked puffy.
“How’s it going?” I asked, trying for casual instead of concerned.
“I’m going to have to buy new towels,” Mae said. The usual warmth of her British accent sounded stogy and commandeering today. I guess that was better than tired and sobbing, so I counted it as a plus.
“You all leave the towels in your room for so long they smell of mildew, and I just can’t get it out.”
“Sorry. I’m working on it,” I said. It was probably entirely mine and Jack’s fault. We were the messiest ones in the house, unless Bobby turned out to be inordinately messy.
“I didn’t say it was your fault,” Mae was nearly snapping at me, and she was folding towels in an angry huff. This is gonna sound weird and pathological, but I’m pretty sure that Mae actually loves doing laundry.
She claims she does, and I’ve seen her folding and washing things. It’s like meditation for her. I think it’s because it’s something simple and immediate, and it’s a way that she can care for her family.
That’s all she’s ever wanted to do, and it’s about the only area she can take care of us since she can’t cook for us or tuck us in or anything. At any rate, this was not how she normally did laundry.
“Bobby and I always make sure to take our towels down,” Milo informed her, and I glared him. He wasn’t being snarky exactly, but he was definitely throwing me under the bus.
“Why is Bobby doing his laundry here, anyway?” I interjected, and I realized belatedly that I had missed very crucial facts about him. “Doesn’t he have like an apartment or a job or something?”
“He’s in art school and lives in a dorm,” Milo answered, matching my glare.
“Of course he is.” When I thought about it, Bobby really had art student written all over him. “So, does he ever go to school or anything? Why is here all the time?”
“He goes when he feels like it,” Milo shrugged. “And staying here is better than staying at a dorm, and I want him here.”
“Our house has always been open to anyone who needs it.” Mae sounded almost irritated by this fact as she folded a giant towel. “Anyone that’s ever needed a place, be they vampire or not, has always had a place. You wouldn’t believe how many people we’ve had staying with us over the years. Ezra has always had an open door policy. To anyone.” She put the folded towel in the basket with the rest of them, and then she just leaned on them for a minute, as if she was too suddenly too weary to go on. “Literally, anyone. Except for my family. Except for what matters to me.”
“Mae, you know that’s not what it’s about,” Milo said gently. He tried to put his hand on her shoulder, but she snapped back into motion and started pulling a towel out of the dryer. “And you have us here. Don’t forget that. We’re your family, too.”
“You know that I adore you, but…” She held a towel to her chest and trailed off.
“Have you made a decision yet?” I asked carefully. “About what you’re going to do?” As far as I knew, she still had her heart set on turning her great-granddaughter, and Ezra had not changed his mind at all.
“No.” Mae closed her eyes and shook her head. “Maybe. I don’t know.” She rubbed her forehead and smiled sadly at Milo. “I mean, if I left, you could all handle doing your laundry, couldn’t you?”
“We don’t want you to stay because of laundry!” Milo said emphatically. “You’re like the heart of the family. I don’t know would happen if you went away.” He was obviously having a hard time with the idea of her going away. I wouldn’t be thrilled about it myself, but he seemed more dependant on her than I was.
“I know that, love.” Mae touched his leg gently, then shook her head. She went back to folding towels, but more like the normal way she did. “I still have time to think. There’s still time.”
“Alice!” Jack called from down the hall. “Alice? Where are you? Are you ready?”
“I should go,” I nodded back to the door. “We’re going to the zoo today.”
“Have fun,” Milo gave me a half-wave, but his focus was still on Mae. She was chewing her lip and didn’t even notice me leaving, and he stared at her sadly.
Back in the living room, Ezra was making Peter watch that Planet Earth documentary because of how amazing it looked on the new TV. Jack came over to me and took my hand. As he said his goodbyes to the guys, Peter gave me a weird look, and I hurried Jack along. I wasn’t sure how well I could hide my emotions from Jack, and he was going to figure out something was going on pretty quickly unless I got a handle on it.
Maybe I’d have to talk to Milo about all of this. He’d be pissed, but he’d help me out, assuming there was a way to help me out.
We got to the zoo in time for Jack to see the otters and the prairie dogs, and he was overly excited about both of them. In the nocturnal exhibit with the bats, Jack had way too much fun. As usual, his happiness was contagious, and I was having a pretty awesome time. The best thing about the zoo is that most of the people there are children, and children don’t react to us the way other people do.
Some people still stared at us more than was polite, and there was a small cluster of people following us closer than I would’ve liked, but it was nothing that I couldn’t shake off. Jack didn’t even notice it at all.
The highlight of the trip was the dolphin show. I don’t care what anybody says, dolphins are pretty awesome. Jack made sure we sat right down in the front row, so when they jumped out or came to the edge, we got splashed on. Even with that, it was nice. Afterwards, we went down to the lower level so we could see them swimming around in their aquarium. I stood next to the glass, watching them swim around like they were dancing with each other.
“You know, I swam with dolphins once,” Jack said casually. “Mae had always wanted to do it, so the two of us went down to Florida, and we spent all day in the ocean. It was like this special package we had bought, so it wasn’t like we just randomly found wild dolphins or anything. But it was super awesome. We asked Peter to come with, but he said no, because dolphins are just big fish, and there’s nothing exciting about swimming with fish.”
“Dolphins are mammals!” A little girl was standing next to me, her face pressed up to the glass, but she sounded completely offended when Jack called dolphins “fish.”
“Yeah, I know,” Jack grinned at her. “My brother thinks they’re fish.”
“Your brother is an idiot,” the little girl said.
“He sure is,” Jack laughed. The girl’s mother just noticed her talking to us, and she apologized profusely as she dragged her daughter away, all the while managing to ogle Jack as she did.
“So you and Mae really swam with dolphins?” I asked, walking away from the tank and changing the subject from Peter. Even in jest, I was uncomfortable with Jack saying anything about him.
“Yeah, it was a really spectacular trip. We should go again!” Jack suggested. We wandering around the aquarium, and he had his hands shoved in his pockets as I admired the seahorses. “Milo would love it, and I know Mae would be up to going again. We have to go during the day, and the sun gets pretty hard on you, but if you eat a lot and just cra
sh the whole next day, you should be okay.”
“That would be really awesome,” I nodded. I had never been on vacation anywhere, and I couldn’t imagine anything that would be cooler than swimming with dolphins. But the thought of Mae made me sound less than enthusiastic. “But do you think Mae would really go?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t she?” Jack asked, but then it finally dawned on him what I meant. “Oh.
Well... when this is all over, I’m sure she’ll want to go.”
“You really think so?” I raised an eyebrow. “Because, from the way Ezra makes it sound, there is no happy ending to all of this. She’s gonna be miserable.”
“I know,” Jack sighed. There was a pool full of stingrays and sharks that people could pet, and Jack stopped at it. He reached in the tank to touch them, but he wasn’t that into it. I’m sure he actually adored that kind of thing, but I had him worrying about Mae now too.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring the entire day down,” I apologized.
“No, you’re fine,” he insisted, taking his hand out of the water. “Were you talking to her today before we left?” I nodded. “How is she doing?”
“Not so great,” I admitted. “But at least she hasn’t made a decision yet.”
“You mean she’s still actually considering doing it?” Jack looked at me with wide eyes and his skin paled a little. “I thought that after Ezra gave her that ultimatum, she’d just kinda get over it. I mean, not quickly or anything, but I thought that’s where she’d be headed.”
“You didn’t see her when she fought with Ezra.” I thought about how she had literally been on her knees begging him. “For her, I don’t think there is any getting over this. Ever. Either she loses Ezra, or she loses a child.”
“I know Daisy means a lot to her, but she’s not really her child.” Jack chewed the inside of his lip, mulling everything. “She didn’t give birth to her or raise her or even ever speak to her. I understand that there’s a connection, but I don’t understand why she’s willing to sacrifice everything for it.”
“I don’t completely get it either, but then again, I’ve never been a mother,” I said. “And that’s really all Mae has ever been.” I took Jack’s hand in mine. Talking about this was making me depressed and I wished I hadn’t even brought it up. “But you don’t think she’ll actually do it, do you? Or even she does, her and Ezra won’t really split up over this? Will they?”
“I don’t know,” Jack sighed resignedly. “I honestly don’t know. Once I would’ve said that nothing could break them up, but the longer I live, the more I realize that nothing lasts forever.”
Realizing the implications of what he said, he smiled at me and looped his arm around me shoulders.
“Except for you and me. We’re in this ‘til the end, baby.” He kissed the top of my head, and I leaned onto his shoulder, and I really, really hoped he was right.
By the time we left the zoo, Jack had somehow managed to cheer me up. On the car ride home, he forced me to sing along with the Backstreet Boys, and he started making threats about taking me a karaoke bar someday. When we got home, Matilda was the only one watching the brand new TV in the living room.
They had bought her one of those pet DVD’s that was supposed be all images in sounds a dog would like, and this one was wacky misadventures with cats or something. Everyone else was either gone or hiding in their respective rooms. Matilda was so engrossed in the movie that she hadn’t run to the door to greet Jack for like the first time ever, so we decided to hang out with her and watch it and see what all the fuss was about.
He sat down in the recliner, and I sat down on his lap, resting my head on his shoulder.
“Maybe we should get a cat,” Jack said thoughtfully. Matilda was parked on the floor right in front of the TV, staring intently at a kitten chasing a string. Every time the kitten meowed, Matilda would cock her hide and prick her ears up.
“She would probably eat a kitten!” I said.
“Oh, she would not. Mattie would never hurt anything, would you, girl?” Jack’s voice got higher when he talked to her, but she just glanced back at him and thumped her tail on the floor. “See?
Harmless.”
“That’s hardly an assertion,” I laughed. “But still, that’s not a reason to get a cat. You don’t get cats so your dog has something play with, and possibly snack on.”
“Sounds like a good enough reason to me,” Jack countered.
When I came home, I hadn’t noticed anybody’s heartbeats. I was well-fed and less inclined to that sort of thing. But I was naturally kind of tuned into Jack’s and Milo’s. Even if I wasn’t paying attention, when they were distressed, I’d be able to pick up on it. Upstairs, I suddenly heard Milo’s heartbeat racing in a panic. I think it had already been beating kind of fast, but it hadn’t been terrified like it was now.
And on top of that, I could smell blood. I pushed off of Jack’s lap, but he got up, so he noticed it too. Before I could do anything else, Milo started screaming.
“Help! Oh my god, help!” Milo was screaming at the top of his lungs, and I was racing up the steps. Jack flew past me because he was a lot faster than me, and Ezra and Mae weren’t that far behind me.
When I reached the top of the stairs, Peter and Jack had already zoomed into Milo’s room, but Milo was still standing in the hallway. He was shirtless, and almost all the color had drained from his skin. His cheeks were flushed unnaturally red, contrasting even more with the unusual white of his skin, but that’s what happened after feeding. His big brown eyes were wide and horrified, and tears were already sliding down his cheeks. Fresh blood stained his lips, and there were a few splatters of on it his bare chest, most of it smeared.
He just stared at his bedroom, until Ezra pushed past me to get to his room, and then Milo turned to look at me.
“I killed Bobby.”
Chapter 18
Milo looked like he might faint after his confession, and I ran over to him to catch him. Mae had been behind me, but she stopped moving. I wrapped my around my brother and stole a glimpse inside his room. There wasn’t much to see since everyone was blocking the view, but Bobby was definitely immobile on the bed.
Peter was kneeling on the bed, and Ezra was bent over Bobby. Jack was standing in front of the door, his arms crossed, and he was feeling incredibly worried and sick over this. For some reason, he had really liked Bobby.
“Everything’s gonna be okay,” I lied, trying to pull Milo away from the door. He was crying, but they were completely silent tears, and I had a feeling he was in shock. Still, pulling him away was like pulling a marble statute. He did not want to move.
“I need AB positive!” Ezra shouted suddenly.
“AB positive?” Jack repeated.
“Yes! Now!” Ezra barked. Jack rushed past me and practically leapt down the stairs.
“Where’s Mae? I need the IV!”
“I’m right here, and I’ll get the kit!” Mae sprang to life and darted down the stairs.
“He’s alive?” I asked hopefully.
“Get Milo downstairs!” Peter growled, glaring at up at me with his intense green eyes.
“But is he-” My question was completely cut off when Ezra started pumping Bobby’s chest, giving him CPR. I tried to listen for the sound of Bobby’s heart, but over the frantic beating of Milo’s and my own and everybody’s really, it was impossible to hear. That didn’t mean anything, though. If he’d lost a lot of blood, his heartbeat would be really faint, probably too faint to hear over all the noise.
“Alice!” Jack shouted as he came barreling back up the stairs. “Get Milo out of here! He doesn’t need to see this, okay?”
Using all my strength, I started pulling Milo away from his room. I had no idea where I would take him, but away as much as I thought the plan through. By the time we made it to the stairs, Mae was already bounding back them.
“Everything will be okay, love,” Mae promised with a sad smile, but Milo didn’t e
ven really notice.
After his initial screaming, it was like he had gone into a waking coma or something. He was completely shell shocked.
Here’s what made sense to me: I needed to take Milo someplace where he couldn’t hear everything that was going on with Bobby, and he needed to get cleaned up. So I took him into the main bathroom and I turned on the sink and shower to drown out all the other sounds. I put the lid down on the toilet seat, then forced Milo to sit down, and I got a washcloth wet to start wiping off his chest and mouth.
“Did I really kill him, Alice?” Milo asked quietly, staring off into nothing.
“They’re working on him,” I evaded really answering it. “They saved my life like that before, too. Ezra is really good at giving blood transfusions, apparently.”
“I didn’t even…” Milo trailed off, and I stopped wiping at his chest to look at him. “We were fooling around, the same way we had been, and then… I bit him. And I didn’t even realize how much…. I didn’t know his heart stopped.”
“You didn’t mean to.” That was the best I could come up with. Sure, he might’ve killed somebody, but he didn’t mean to. That was the consolation that I gave him.
“The thing is…” Milo was starting to become more animated, and his tears were getting heavier and less quiet. “I know that he isn’t ‘the one’ or whatever, not like what Peter was to you. But I love him, you know? I really do love him.”
“I know, sweetie. It’s gonna be okay.” I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly. He was out and out sobbing by then, and I just kept telling him it would be okay. I had no idea if that was the truth, but that was the only thing I could say.
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