“How can there not be much to tell?” My voice quavered with incredulity. “You’re telling me that the little bit you’ve confessed to me in the past few months covers the entire history of your species?”
“No, of course not,” he laughed at my fervor. “We have an extensive history, and that book you’re holding right now is a very good source of a lot of it. But it’s much like any other history book you’ve read. You’d be more interested in a biology book. ”
“Is there one?” I asked hopefully.
“There are a few,” Ezra shrugged as if none of them were that good. “Peter has some, I’m sure.
“But there are many problems with a biology book about vampires. Autopsies are impossible,” he went on. “Whatever kills a vampire tends to destroy everything inside him, making it impossible to dissect it all and see how it differs from a human. But that’s only half the problem. ”
“What’s the other half of the problem?”
“Have you heard about the bumblebee?” Ezra leaned back against the end of the Peter’s four-post bed, crossing his feet over his ankles.
“What are you talking about?” I shook my head, confused by the abrupt subject change.
“According to an aerodynamic study done in the early 20th century, the bumblebee can’t possibly fly,” Ezra explained. “Its wings are much too small and can’t beat fast enough to carry the weight of its body. ”
“What?” I furrowed my brow and decided it must be a riddle. “So… What? How do they get around then?”
Page 10
“They fly, of course,” he smiled at me.
“But you just said…” I sighed and shook my head. “What does this have to do with vampire biology?”
“Nothing. ” Ezra shrugged. “The bumblebee existed despite scientific evidence to the contrary, much like myself. Eventually, scientists figured out they were looking at the wings wrong and discovered the magic in the flight of the bumblebee.
“Unfortunately, science has yet to figure out the magic of us,” Ezra finished, looking apologetic.
“So you’re saying that nobody knows the answers to my questions?” I asked.
“Yes and no. ” He stood up. “You’ll find some things, but it won’t be enough. You look through Peter’s books and see if you can come across anything that might help you feel better. ”
“Thanks,” I said.
With that, Ezra nodded at me and strode out of the room. I sighed and listened for his departing footsteps, but there were none. The only thing I could hear was music wafting from Milo’s room that sounded like Mozart.
I settled back in the chair and opened the book where I had left off. As I read on, I found that the faded italics offered little in what I wanted, just as Ezra predicted.
It was interesting though, telling the story of the unnamed author and his transformation into a vampire. He described it as excruciating, but in the end, very brief and hard to define. There was just pain, and then an unquenchable thirst.
The only new information was that some vampires turned more than others. While most retained a sense of their humanity, some of them lost it entirely. They were crazed bloodthirsty monsters, and they didn’t live very long because humans and vampires couldn’t stomach a creature like that.
I had just finished reading that passage when I heard a disgusted scoff at the door, frightening me so much I yelped. I half-expected to find Milo standing there, with shiny new fangs and that animal look in his eyes the book described.
Instead, it was just Jack, standing in the doorway and frowning darkly at me.
“You scared me!” I pointed out in an attempt to alleviate his glare.
“What are you doing in Peter’s room?” He fought to keep the edge off his voice, but he did a poor job. The last time I’d been in this room, I’d almost died, and he strained to keep his eyes from my dried blood on the rug.
“Reading. ” I held up the book for him to see, but his expression never changed. “It’s a book about vampires. I figured that I better bone up since everybody around me seems to be one. ”
“Why don’t you take the book and go somewhere else to read?” Jack meant to ask it, but it came off as a demand.
I could’ve argued with him, and I would’ve been perfectly justified in doing so. But it felt like too much work, and the scent of Peter distracted me anyway. Thoughts of him kept lurking in my head, keeping my mind in a fog.
Jack stood just outside the doorway, refusing to step inside. When I slid past him out the door, he finally started to relax a bit.
“What do you have?” Jack touched the book, moving it so he could read the title. Immediately, he let go of the book and rolled his eyes.
“What?” I looked down at the cover, trying to figure out what displeased him. Nondescript leather with the words A Brief History of Vampyres emblazed in the cover. “It’s just a book. ”
“It’s Peter’s book,” Jack grumbled.
“Yeah, but you knew that when I was in his room. ” I gestured back to the bookcases in his room and gave him a peculiar look. “Just because Peter owns something doesn’t-”
“No, he doesn’t just own it,” Jack corrected me. “He wrote it. That’s his biography. ”
“What are you talking about?” I flipped open the book, looking for some mention of the author, but I found something that contradicted Jack. “No, it says right here the author is very old when he wrote this, and the book itself is incredibly old, and Peter isn’t even two-hundred yet. ”
“Yeah, he wrote it when he’d been turned for like twenty years, but he didn’t think anyone would think anything of it if they knew how young he was. That’s why it doesn’t mention who he is or how old he is exactly. ”
“But…” I tried to think of something to counter it with, but I didn’t even know why it was so important to me that I counter his argument at all.
“Was that the first book you picked up?” Jack narrowed his eyes, and his tone took an entirely different turn.
He was vaguely jealous, but mostly, the whole vampire bonding thing sickened him. My blood, Peter’s blood, they only seemed to exist to drive Jack insane.
I felt the same way he did. I hated that my pulse quickened just at the memory of Peter, or that I was automatically drawn to his book. Any connection to Peter felt like a betrayal, and I couldn’t stand it anymore.
“It’s just a book!”
“Whatever. ” Jack shook his head and shut Peter’s bedroom door. When he looked back at me, he wrinkled his nose. “You smell like him. ”
“Sorry. ”
“Have you eaten today?” He abruptly changed the subject, and he softened. “I can order you a pizza or something. ”
“I’m okay,” I shook my head. “I had a bagel earlier. ”
“Right. ” Jack stood awkwardly in front of me for a moment, and then stepped away from me. “I’m gonna go check on your brother. ”
“Good idea. Tell him I say hi. ”
He nodded and walked to the end of the hall, into the room I couldn’t go. I was alone in the hall, holding Peter’s book, and I couldn’t decide whether I wanted to read it or not.
Part of me wanted to read it even more now that I knew it was the story of Peter. Anything to get a better understanding of him would be amazing.
The rest of me knew it was a path I didn’t want to go down anymore. After he tried to kill me, a choice had been made, and Peter was no longer an option for me.
While Jack hadn’t requested it, I knew that a shower would fare better with him. I went into his room and discarded the book on his bed before picking out a change of clothes. Getting clean and worrying about Milo’s condition were enough. I would decide what to do about the book later.
The curtains layered the windows so thick the sun never stood a chance. No matter the time of day, darkness shrouded the house. My vision wasn’t as advanced as theirs, so Jack put a night light in
the bathroom that adjoined his room.
Page 11
I heard a rustling, and that must’ve been what awoke me from my sleep. The clock on the nightstand said it was only two in the afternoon, so I couldn’t imagine that anyone would be awake. I hadn’t gone to bed until seven in the morning, and Jack had still been awake playing Xbox.
I rolled back over, burying myself in the thick blankets of Jack’s bed.
When I heard the rustling again, I barely stirred, and decided that it must be the dog. I had overtaken Jack’s room, and it led to some confusion with Matilda. She usually slept at the end of his bed, but he was sleeping on the couch. She couldn’t decide if her loyalties lied more with him or the bed.
“Go to sleep, Matilda,” I muttered.
I was awake enough where I felt the movement. It wasn’t actually a rustling that had woken me, because the motion was nearly soundless. But there was something – almost like an electric breeze – moving about the room.
Someone was in the room with me. There was silence and a shadowy presence that I couldn’t explain.
“Matilda?” I whispered.
By now, I knew it wasn’t her, but I wanted to play along. My heart raced, but I wasn’t sure if Jack would notice that if he were asleep.
I sat up, my eyes searching the darkness. I hoped to see her massive white shape lurking somewhere, but the night light from the bathroom cast little light. Then I saw a glimpse of a shadow rush in front of it.
Before I could yell, the bed moved, and whoever it was had gotten on the bed with me. I could scream, but by the time anyone heard, it would be too late for them to do anything. So I sat in the darkness and waited for whatever came next.
- 6 -
“Jeez, Alice, settle down,” a voice chuckled in the dark, only a few inches from my face. “You’re gonna give yourself a heart attack. ”
“What? Who’s there?” I asked, my words shaking. The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.
“Shame on you,” he said with a mock disapproval. “You don’t even recognize your own brother?”
“Milo?” I scrambled to turn on the bedside lamp.
I gasped as soon as I saw him. He looked like my brother but not. The baby fat had been chiseled away to cheek bones and a strong jaw. His skin had never been scarred by acne, but it appeared even smoother and more flawless.
The change aged him, but in a good way. He no longer looked like a boy teetering on puberty but rather a young man in his late teens. His brown eyes had gotten more amazing, but his crooked, unsure grin remained the same.
“Milo?” I repeated, struggling to grasp that my little brother had become this rather stunning creature before me.
“The one and only. ” His voice still sounded much like his own, but it was deeper and more velvet. It lacked the squeaky insecure quality that had once been so distinctly him.
Without thinking, I reached out and touched his face. His skin felt soft and temperate, but before I could register anything more, something flicked across his face. He jumped back from my touch.
“What? Did I do something?” I asked, pulling my hand back.
“I’m just not strong enough yet. ” Milo backed closer to the wall but stayed in my room, bathed in the soft lamp glow.
“For what?” I asked.
“You’re the first… human I’ve been around. ” His face contorted, looking confused and torn. “I could smell you when I was in my room, and I thought I had a handle on it. But I wasn’t prepared for how your pulse would feel on my skin…” Guilt flashed across his face at finding me appetizing.
“I’m sorry. I should’ve known better. I’m always doing the same things to Jack, and you think I would’ve learned by now. ” I forced a smile at him, but his expression only got more sour. “What?”
“So… you know?” Milo asked quietly.
“You mean… that they’re vampires?”
“I knew that you had to. ” He stared past me into the darkness. “As soon as I could understand what was happening, and Mae explained it to me… She told me that you knew, and I knew you had to. But, I guess I didn’t really believe it until I heard you say it. ”
“Why wouldn’t you believe it?” I furrowed my brow. If he could believe that he was becoming a vampire, how would it be a stretch to believe that I had known about them?
“How could you not tell me about this?” Milo sounded so angry and hurt, and I flinched.
I remembered what Jack had said. When vampires first turn, all their emotions are right at the surface. Everything is so much more intense, making it harder to control. Self-control had always been Milo’s strong suit, but that’s how he could be in the same room with me so soon.
“I-I didn’t know how to tell you,” I stuttered. “I even tried to once. But you would’ve just thought I was crazy. ”
“You should’ve tried harder!” Milo snapped.
I stared at my brother, at the new exquisite contours of his face. I felt an immense sense of relief and love, but I had this feeling that I didn’t really recognize the boy glowering at me from the shadows of the room.
I imagined this was how the dad felt when that creepy little boy came back from the Pet Semetary. That thought was followed by the thick Maine drawl saying, “Sometimes, dead is better. ” I stifled the chill running over me.
“I’m sorry, Milo. You’re right. And it was so hard keeping this from you. I just…” I sighed and shook my head. “It was a hard decision. Just like this one. ”
“What one?” His eyes flashed with confusion, and I wondered how much Mae had told him.
“The one… to turn you” I swallowed hard and studied his face for his reaction. His eyes dropped from mine, and he softened. “Did they tell you what happened?”
“Jack did,” Milo nodded. “He said it was his fault, and I was dying. So you asked him to turn me. To save me. ”
“I didn’t know what else to do. ”
“I’m not angry with you,” Milo absolved me. “I’m sure I would’ve done the same thing in your situation. ”
He shifted against the wall, and I noticed for the first time the way his clothes fit against his body. In that simple movement, I saw the way the muscles moved subtly underneath his shirt. Soft would be a good way to describe him before, but now he looked like a jungle cat recoiled before an attack.
To know something is entirely different from seeing it so blatantly in front of me. Everything about him had changed, and only time would tell how much of him was still my brother.
Page 12
“You’re a vampire,” I said breathlessly.
“I am,” Milo agreed with a wry smile.
“How do you feel?”
“Pretty amazing actually. ” His smile widened and his stance broadened. “At first, it hurt like hell and I was sure I was going to die. Or at least I hoped I would. But now I feel better than I’ve ever felt. ”
“Really?” I asked hopefully.
“Yeah. ” Milo nodded, but his smile faltered. “Well, except for the hunger. It’s hard to get used to, but eating… Wow. There aren’t even words for it. ”
“So you’re eating?” I asked, even though I knew the answer.
“If I wasn’t, I couldn’t be here with you,” Milo said with a strange threatening sound to his voice, and I involuntarily shrunk back in the bed. “I’m not even supposed to be out of my room now. But I woke up hungry, so I had some blood bags in the room. Mae was completely passed out in the chair, and I was sick of being locked up. ”
“They think you’re going to eat me?” I tucked a tangle of my hair behind my ear and hoped my voice stayed even. He looked pained but said nothing. “Do… do you want to?”
“I’m not going to!” Milo insisted, but he dropped his eyes to the floor. “I want to. It’s impossible not to.
“Don’t kid yourself, Alice. They’re all thinking about it. ” H
e looked back up at me, his russet eyes full of warning. “It’s really not safe for you here. ”
“I think I’m pretty safe here,” I reassured him.
“You have no idea,” he said ominously, and then narrowed his eyes at me. “Do you let them bite you?”
“No. ” I floundered under his judgmental gaze. “Well, it’s complicated. ”
“Not Jack. ” Milo’s voice had gotten small and plaintive and… jealous.
Definitely jealous. Everything he felt got more intense when he turned, including his crush on Jack. But more than his emotions were powerful. Physically, Milo was stronger, but just standing there talking to me, there was something menacing about him.
“Not Jack,” I answered quickly. “Once with Peter, but it was a very difficult situation. ”
“What’s going on?” He stood up straighter and sniffed the air. “Something just happened. ”
“What are you talking about?” I looked around the room.
“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.
“I don’t understand. ” His face betrayed the 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-” I started to argue, but then I realized exactly what I’d done.
I’d thought of Peter, and my body turned itself into the most delectable thing a vampire could imagine when I thought of him. It affected Jack the hardest, but since Milo was so new, he had no defense for it.
“Milo!” Jack shouted, appearing in the doorway.
With a great effort, Milo pulled his eyes away from me, and he exchanged a look with Jack that I couldn’t read. 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.
Milo shivered 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 hell were you doing?” Jack turned back me, his voice full of venom.
“I didn’t do anything,” I said. “He came into my room while I was sleeping!”
“You should’ve yelled for me or Mae!” Jack crossed his arms over his chest. “And you’ve got to stop thinking about Peter! Do you want to get yourself killed?”
“It’s so impossible!” I groaned and flopped back onto the bed. “You know, in the real world, its okay to just think about people! There’s not little mind police checking to make sure that your pulse hasn’t quickened!”
“I know,” Jack sighed apologetically. “We’re just a little more sensitive than 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. Connected. ” A weird pang of envy stabbed 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 closer. ”