Part 7 (1/2)

”Oh.” I tucked a tangle of my hair behind my ear and hoped my voice stayed even. ”Do... do you want to?”

”I'm not going to!” Milo insisted, hurt. But he dropped his eyes guiltily to the floor. ”I want to. It's impossible not to.” Then he looked back up at him, his russet eyes full of warning. ”Don't kid yourself, Alice.

37.

They're all thinking about it.” The idea seemed to be fresh to him, and he straightened up and looked warily at the door, as if he expected one of them to come running into the room at just that second to kill me. ”It's really not safe for you here.”

”I think I'm pretty safe here,” I rea.s.sured him.

”You have no idea.” His eyes widened a little bit, then narrowed. ”Do you let them bite you?”

”No.” I floundered uncomfortably under his judgmental gaze. ”Well... it's complicated.”

”Not Jack.” Milo's voice had gotten small and plaintive and... jealous. Definitely jealous. His crush on Jack was even more intense than it had been before. Milo had gone from defensive to protective, but it was hard to deny how much more powerful he was. Before when he tired to protect me, it was something of a joke, but just standing there talking to me, there was something menacing about him. He would do real damage to someone if he wanted to.

”Not Jack,” I answered quickly, and I knew that I could never explain how Jack had tasted my blood once. There was a certain possessiveness to him, and I doubted that Milo wanted to share either of us with anyone, let alone each other. ”It was once with Peter, but it was... a very difficult situation.”

”What's going on?” He stood up straighter, and he appeared to almost be sniffing the air.

”Something just happened.”

”What are you talking about?” I looked around the room, trying to figure out what he was freaking out about.

”You. Something happened to you. You're...” His eyes changed, and I recognized that burning hunger behind them. ”Everything about you... It's like... You want me to bite you?”

”No!” I shouted, alarmed.

Admittedly, since he was so new to this, there was a good chance that he could accidentally kill me if he bit me, but that's not what had me so concerned. I remembered the way I had felt when Peter bit me, and while it was incredible, I definitely did not want my brother to make me feel that way. There was something tremendously incestuous about the idea.

”I don't understand.” His face betrayed the internal struggle going on within him, and when he took a step closer to me, it finally dawned on me that I could actually be in danger. ”What did you do?”

”I didn't do-” But then I realized exactly what I'd done. I'd thought of Peter, and for some reason, my body turned itself into the most delectable thing a vampire could imagine every time I thought of him. It usually effected Jack the hardest, but since Milo was so new, he had no defense for it.

”Milo!” Jack shouted, appearing in the doorway to his room.

With a great effort, Milo pulled his eyes away from me, and he exchanged a look with Jack that I couldn't read. They both looked rather intensely at each other, and there seemed to be some kind of conversation going on between them that I wasn't privy to. Milo swallowed hard and his breathing had grown more labored, but he managed to keep his focus on Jack.

”Go back to your room,” Jack told him calmly.

He stepped off to the side so Milo could get by, and Milo complied reluctantly. When he went to pa.s.s him, Milo looked up at Jack, almost pleading with him for something, but Jack kept his gaze 38 hard. Eventually, Milo s.h.i.+vered, and walked past him. Jack stayed frozen in the doorway until I heard the bedroom door shut as Milo went back into his room.

”What the h.e.l.l were you doing?” Jack turned back me, his voice suddenly full of venom.

”I didn't do anything!” I protested. ”He came into my room while I was sleeping!”

”You should've yelled for me or Mae!” Jack crossed his arms over his chest, but he wasn't really angry with me. He was jus worried that Milo had been about to finish the job that Peter had started. ”And you've got to stop thinking about Peter! Do you want get yourself killed?”

”It's so impossible!” I groaned and flopped back onto the bed. ”You know, in the real world, it's okay to just think about people! There's not little mind police checking to make sure that your pulse hasn't quickened or whatever stupid thing it is that I do!”

”I know,” Jack sighed apologetically. ”We're just a little more sensitive then everyone else.”

”What was that, by the way?” I looked back over at him.

”What?”

”That look you had with Milo. You were like... I don't know. Really intense and... connected.”

There was a weird pang of envy stabbing at me that I tried to ignore. ”You guys aren't like...

lovers or something?”

”No, no, of course not!” Jack laughed, and the clear sound of it made everything about me lighten and relax. ”But we are more 'connected,' I guess. Because I turned him. It makes us a little closer.”

”Oh.” I wasn't sure exactly how I felt about that, but I knew that I'd better hurry up and get used to it because there'd be nothing I could do about. The one thing I knew for sure about vampirism is that it was permanent.

”Are you okay?” Jack asked earnestly and walked closer to the bed to check on me.

”If I said no, would you stay here with me longer?” I looked up at him hopefully.

Seeing Milo, and then having him want to kill me, had shaken me, but I was mostly okay. But knowing that Milo was okay had taken this giant weight off my shoulders, and it made aware of how little time I'd really spent with Jack lately. Suddenly, I missed him terribly.

”I shouldn't...” Jack trailed off, but I already knew that I'd won.

Lifting up the covers, Jack crawled into bed with me. Regrettably, he was wearing a tee s.h.i.+rt and pajama pants, but at least he was here with me, so I decided not to look a gift in horse in the mouth. I snuggled up next to him and relished the feel of his strong arms around me. Despite Milo's earlier proclamation, I knew there was no where in the world I was safer than in Jack's arms.

”Everything's gonna be okay,” Jack a.s.sured me, but that was his mantra anymore. He stroked my hair gently, and I rested my head on his chest, letting his heart thud slowly in my ear. ”Milo's going to be just fine.

”He just has to adjust to everything.”

39.

”I don't want to talk about adjusting or how everything is going be fine or okay or great in the future,” I grumbled tiredly. ”I just want to lay here with you. And that be it.”

”That's a really good idea.”