My blood approves

“Jack, just promise me that I’ll be okay. You know I’ll believe anything you say, so just promise me that everything will be okay.” My voice sounded more nervous than I would’ve liked.

“I know you can’t understand right now, but you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Then he put his arm around me and roughly pulled me close to him. I rested my head on his chest, and he rested his chin on the top of my head. “I’m just upset because I care about you too much. The problem’s me, not you. You are gonna be better than fine. I promise.”

“You’re right. I don’t understand.” He stroked my hair, and I moved my head on his chest. Then I realized something odd. “I can’t hear your heart beat.”

“Just listen harder,” Jack suggested. Pressing my ear closer to his chest, I listened hard, and sure enough, there it was. But it was very faint and incredibly slow. I wasn’t timing it, but it couldn’t have been beating more than ten or twenty times a minute.

“It’s so slow!” I jerked my head back so I could look at him. “Are you okay? You’re not having a heart attack are you?”

“No,” Jack laughed, this time sounding more like himself. “That’s just the way my heart beats.”

“But that’s not the way hearts are supposed to beat.” I furrowed my brow, trying to understand. “That’s not how my heart beats.”

“I know.” He was mildly amused, but my confusion always seemed to entertain him. “I can hear your heartbeat.”

“How? You’re way over there.” He was actually sitting right next to me, but he was still too far away to hear my heartbeat. “You’re hearing isn’t that good.”

“It is for this one thing.” He reached out and put his hand gingerly on my throat.

At first, I didn’t understand what he was doing, but then I felt his thumb stroking my jugular vein. He was feeling my pulse, and a look of sheer pleasure passed across his face. A warm hunger radiated from him that I didn’t grasp.

“Jack!” Ezra’s voice broke into the room, and Jack instantly dropped his hand, as if he had been caught with his hand up my shirt instead of on my throat. “Its late. Milo’s tired. Maybe you should take them home. Unless you don’t feel up to it yourself. In which case, I’d be more than happy-”

“No, I’ve got it,” Jack replied gruffly and stood up.

Ezra gave Jack a disapproving look as we walked out of the living room, but Jack refused to look at him. For me, Ezra gave a reassuring smile and said he hoped that I would come back soon. Mae hugged me tightly at the door, but she hugged Milo even tighter. During the car ride home, Milo rattled on endlessly about what an amazing house Jack had and how great Mae was and all the fun things he’d done while I had been asleep. I rested my head against the cold glass of the window, and found that for once, I had very little to say.

I still didn’t know what Jack and his family were, but they definitely couldn’t be trusted. Peter wanted to hate me because for some reason, he was going to have to kill me. The reason he was being rude to me and keeping me at a distance was because he didn’t want to hurt me. He was trying to protect me.

Despite this, I loved Jack and Mae and even Ezra, and there was definitely something strong I felt for Peter. Even believing that they were going to kill me, I still felt like they really loved me too. And I knew that if being with them meant that I would die, I would still see them again. It would be worse to live without them.

When Milo and I went up to our apartment, I still felt dazed. I knew that part of it was coming to terms with my impending death, but most of it was just an after effect of being with Peter. He was like a drug, and I was still coming down from the high. I flopped down on the couch while Milo buzzed about the kitchen. Being over there had the opposite effect on him, and he was totally energized.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Milo asked from the kitchen. I heard pots and things banging, but I just buried myself deeper into the couch. “I’m starving. You know what’s weird? We were over them from five o’clock at night until after two in the morning, and I never once saw them eat or drink anything. In fact, when I wanted something to drink, Mae had to rummage around the kitchen for a glass and some water. You know, I don’t even think they have any food in that house.

They must order a lot of take out. Which is weird cause Mae really seems like the Suzie Homemaker type.”

Milo continued to ramble on but I was starting to drift to sleep. But then it all clicked. Everything that he said compared with everything that I already knew about Jack and Peter. I understood fully what they were. But before I could actually manifest the word and put it all together, I fell asleep, and lost it entirely.

Chapter 9

Dreamlessly, I’d managed to sleep for thirteen hours on the couch. My body ached because I don’t think that I’d even changed positions at all. Whatever happened with Peter, it had been tantamount to overdosing on sleeping pills. I stretched slowly, trying to work out the kinks and cricks in my back and neck.