Flutter (27 page)

“Sorry about that.” Milo dried the cuts on Bobby’s
chest and shoulder so he could apply giant Band-Aids.

“So all those scratches, those are from Jonathan’s
fingernails?” I nodded at Bobby’s chest.

“Yeah, I think so,” Bobby said, watching as Milo
bandaged a particularly nasty one that ran down his collarbone.
Hopefully, none of them would leave scars, or they would damage his
tattoos.

“That’s weird. Clawing at you seems
like such a girlie thing to do,” I wrinkled my nose. Sure, that is
how I had fought against Jonathan, but
I
was a girl, and I was openly a
terribly fighter.

“Maybe, but our fingernails are more like claws,”
Milo said absently. “It’s a weapon we have, so why not use it?”

It wasn’t until he said something that I looked down
at my own nails. Before I had turned, I had bit them all the time,
but I lost the urge. They were longer than I had them before, but I
hadn’t really thought about them being stronger. I tested one out
on my arm and winced.

Milo and Bobby continued talking, getting more flirty
and lovey, so I tuned them out. Milo had gotten awfully freaked and
possessive because Jonathan had bit Bobby, and he hadn’t even drank
his blood. It surprised me because Milo had never been the
possessive type, but I suppose that had nothing to do with who he
was as a person. It was all part of being a vampire, but I had
never gone through it because nobody else had bitten Jack since
we’d been together.

Or at least that I know of. I had no idea what he was
doing now. For all I know, someone could be biting him. Lots of
someones could, or he could be biting lots of people. He could be
doing anything, and I had no idea when or if he would ever be
back.

After Milo finished getting Bobby cleaned up, they
went back up to his room so they could change out of their
costumes, and Milo needed to wash off all his makeup. Ezra and Mae
were still up in Peter’s room with Jane, so I sat on the steps and
waited for someone to tell me what was going on. The night seemed
to drag on forever, but finally, Ezra descended the stairs towards
me.

“How is she?” I got up but held onto the wall,
bracing myself for bad news.

“I don’t know,” Ezra shook his head. “She’s been
doing this for too long. Part of the reason her bite looked so
terrible was because she had scar tissue building up. He had to
gnaw through it to get to her veins.”

“Oh my gosh!” I gasped, feeling disgusted.

“But the good news is that she hadn’t lost as much
blood as I’d originally thought.” He gave me a weak smile. “I
didn’t give her any blood, although we did give her IV fluids.”

“You have IV fluids just lying about?” I asked with a
raised eyebrow.

“In a houseful of vampires and the occasional human,
someone is going to lose too much blood eventually, and its best to
be prepared,” he said. “Your friend is resting now, but only time
will tell how well she will do. Mae is giving her vitamins and
plenty of water, and that’s the best we can do.”

“Why didn’t you give her a transfusion? Wouldn’t that
have fixed her right up?” I asked.

“No. Like I said, she’s been doing this too long,” he
said. “Her blood wouldn’t mix or coagulate right with fresh blood.
She has too much vampire saliva in her, messing with her body. That
might actually be to her benefit. Our saliva can be very helpful in
the healing process, and the only thing that has been keeping her
alive the past few days is how much she has in her system.”

“So the fact that she’s getting bit
too often is killing her
and
saving her life?” I looked at him
dubiously.

“So it would seem,” he sighed. “You can go up and see
her if you like, but she’s unconscious.”

“Unconscious like sleeping or unconscious like
coma?”

“Only time will tell,” Ezra said

“Really?” I had been asking more as a lark, but if
there was a possibility that she could be comatose, it didn’t seem
right that we were just keeping her in an upstairs bedroom.
“Shouldn’t we get her to the hospital or something?”

“If I thought there was anything they could do for
her that we couldn’t, I would’ve already taken her there. She just
needs to rest and rebuild her blood.”

“No offense, but you’re not a doctor. How can you
possibly know? If she’s dying, they can put her on life support,” I
said.

“She’s not dying, not yet, but if you think she would
be better suited at a hospital, or she would be happier living out
the rest of her existence on life support, I will take her there,”
he said, not unkindly. “But I have spent most of the past 300 years
trying to keep the human victims of vampires alive. I doubt highly
that anybody at the hospital can make that same claim, but yes,
they do have more advanced medical equipment than I do.”

“I understand.” I looked down at the steps. “As long
as she’s stable now, I say we leave her here. But I reserve the
right to take to her the hospital if her condition worsens.”

“You’ve always had that right, whether it worsened or
not.” Ezra touched my shoulder, trying to comfort me and alleviate
my shame. “Why don’t you go see her?”

I argued with him just to avoid seeing her. Ezra
would always do what was best for everyone, and I knew that. If he
couldn’t take care of Jane here, he wouldn’t have brought her
back.

But I didn’t want to see her, knowing how sick and
frail she looked. Jane had often been superficial and a bitch, but
she was always powerful. She carried herself with purpose, and the
last thing she’d ever want anyone to see is her being weak and
small.

Slowly, I pushed open the door to Peter’s room. In
his huge bed, Jane looked even smaller. Mae sat next to her,
monitoring her pulse and blood pressure, all by ear and touch. Jane
was just a thin little line down the center of the bed. Her arms
lay over the covers, and they were nothing but skin and bone.

Her normally manicured nails were broken and chipped.
A bandage covered the bite mark on her neck, so at least I didn’t
have to see that again. She kept her hair short, but her roots were
showing. Jane wasn’t even making time for hair appointments
anymore.

Mae had changed her out of her designer dress to put
her in more comfortable pajamas, and left her dress discarded at
the end of the bed. It looked dirty and faded. The only thing in
life that had ever really mattered to Jane was her appearance, and
she had completely let it go.

Mae said a few comforting things to me, but nothing
could really make me feel any better about this. When I saw Jane at
the club before, I should’ve just dragged her away, no matter how
much she fought me.

Or better yet, I never should’ve told her about
vampires, or let her see Milo after he turned. If Milo had never
bit her, if she’d never found out, if she’d never even met me. I
know I wasn’t the one that made her go to the club night after
night, looking for a fix, but I had set this course of events in
motion. If I had made a different decision any number of times, she
wouldn’t be here, knocking on death’s door.

I stood at the end of the bed, watching her chest
rise and fall with each breath. Every time she exhaled, it felt
like forever before she breathed in again, and it was an eternity
between heartbeats. Every second she was alive, I was certain it
would be her last. I barely even noticed when Peter came in the
room. That’s how hard I concentrated on Jane.

“Sorry. I just came in to grab a few things,” Peter
said and hurried into his bathroom. Since Jane had taken over his
room, he was going to sleep on the couch tonight, and if he was
getting ready for bed, it meant that it must be late.

“You should probably go get some rest yourself,” Mae
told me. “I’ll stay with Jane and make sure she’s alright. It won’t
do her any good if you stay up all day exhausting yourself.”

“You’ll let me know if something happens?” I chewed
my lip. For some reason, I thought that when I stopped watching
her, that’s when she’d stop breathing.

“I’m just across the hall from you,” Mae smiled at
me. “She’ll be just fine, love. I can feel it.”

Reluctantly, I went out into the hall and shut the
bedroom door behind me. I stood right outside it, listening for a
minute, and when her heart kept beating, I started to believe that
maybe she wasn’t going to die right then.

I let out a sigh of relief that sounded suspiciously
like a sob, and I took another deep breath to try to keep back the
tears. Peter came out of his room and almost bumped into me, since
I hadn’t bothered to a step away from the door.

“Oh, Alice, sorry!” Peter put his hand on my back, as
if I was stumbling and needed him to stabilize me.

“No, it’s okay.” I shook my head and swallowed
hard.

“Are you alright?” He lowered his head, trying to
look me in the eyes, but I looked away.

“Yeah, no, everything’s great.” I
forced a smile, and my vision blurred from the tears. “I mean, why
wouldn’t it be? I almost got my best friend
and
my brother’s boyfriend killed.
Not to mention, I have no idea where my own boyfriend is because I
drove him away. But yeah, everything is just great!” Tears slipped
down my cheeks, and I wiped them away.

“What happened to Jane isn’t your fault,” he said
quietly.

“Yes it is! I’m the one who introduced her to
vampires!” I gestured widely to the hallway. “Everything I touch
gets destroyed! I mean, you had this stable family, and I came in,
and I’m just tearing it apart! You and Jack, and now Mae and Ezra,
and I know that’s not directly my fault, but it is! It’s my fault
by association! I’m the harbinger of doom!”

I expected Peter to tell me that I was being
melodramatic and tell me in a very condescending way that none of
that was my fault. Even I knew it was pretty egotistical to assume
that the only bad things that happened in life happened because of
me.

But instead he looked at me with the utmost sympathy
and affection. I had never seen him look so gentle, and whenever he
softened, he was almost blindingly attractive.

When he reached out and pulled me into his arms, I
knew that I should pull away, but I didn’t really have the strength
for it. He held me to him, and I buried my face in his chest. I
just wanted to sob, and I wanted someone to hold me. Peter’s arms
were wonderfully strong, and it felt so good and safe that I almost
lost myself in them.

“Honestly, Alice, everything is going to be alright,”
he murmured into my hair.

“I wish I could believe you,” I whispered. My tears
were calming down, but I left my head pressed against his chest,
listening to his heartbeat.

“Peter!” Ezra suddenly boomed, sounding as if he was
standing directly at the bottom of the stairs.

He broke whatever moment I had with Peter, and I
realized how incredibly inappropriate and dangerous it was to let
him hug me, even if I needed a hug. I pulled away from him and
looked at the ground. Peter just turned and went downstairs to see
what Ezra wanted, and I slunk back to Jack’s room.

Matilda lay on Jack’s bed, looking very sad, and I
climbed in next to her. I rested my head on her back and ran my
fingers through her thick white fur. She whimpered a little, and I
knew that she missed him too. But there was nothing I could do
about it.

Although, I was starting to think it was maybe for
the best that he left. Clearly, I wasn’t good enough for him.

Mae woke me up a few hours later. I sat up with a
start, but she smiled wanly at me in the dark. “Jane is awake.”

- 27 –

Jane didn’t look any better, and she didn’t seem
entirely alert. Mae had helped prop her up with a couple pillows.
Her eyes were dull blue, almost glassy, and her expression was
completely blank. She didn’t look happy or angry to be alive, but
she watched me with kind of a subdued fascination. I think it was
still hard for her to get used to the idea that I was prettier than
her, even when I’d just woken up.

“Hey,” I said. I stood awkwardly off to the side of
the bed and pushed a dark strand of hair behind my ears. “How you
feeling?”

“How does it look like I’m feeling?” Jane asked.

“Oh, she’s doing just fine,” Mae said before I could
reply. A glass of water sat on the nightstand, and Mae handed it to
Jane. She gave Mae a bored look, but she took it anyway, taking a
long drink. “She’s been through a lot lately.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. Mae pushed the hair off
Jane’s forehead, and I didn’t appreciate the way she fawned all
over her. Jane did need extra care, but I didn’t like the way Mae
made me feel incompetent.

“You don’t know anything. We haven’t spoken in
months,” Jane snapped, glaring at me.

“That’s not my fault.” I was indignant. “I tried
calling and texting you a million times. You were the one who
didn’t want to talk to me!”

“Yeah! Because you turned into a vampire!” Jane sat
up straighter in the bed, and Mae looked annoyed that I was
upsetting her.

“You don’t need to get worked up,” Mae said, taking
the water from Jane before she spilled it all over the bed.

“So what if I’m a vampire?” I asked, ignoring Mae
entirely. “You seemed just fine spending so much time with them
that it almost killed you!”

“Yeah because they were fun and they had something to
offer me. You’re the most boring immortal on the whole planet. I
mean, look at you!” Jane gestured to me with a skinny arm. “You’re
wearing a blink 182 tee shirt and sweat pants!” I looked down at my
clothes, pulling a ball of Matilda’s hair off my band tee
shirt.

“It’s pajamas!” I crossed my arms defensively over my
chest. Then I pointed to her. “Did you see what you were wearing to
the club tonight? Your dress was dirty and covered in stains!”