My blood approves

“You’re covered in blood!” I exclaimed and took a step closer to him, trying to inspect his wounds, but he just waved me off. I remembered the dog bite, and how the major wounds had looked so minor. I wasn’t really worried about this, but he had just been thrown from the car.

“I’m fine.” He held his arm out for me to see. There was a thick line of blood from where a gash should be, but there wasn’t one. In fact, there wasn’t even a raised red mark.

“What about your back?” I asked, but he shook his head.

“It tingles. It’ll be fine in a minute.” All the skin and the muscles should’ve been ripped from his back, but it would be fine in a minute. My mind still couldn’t wrap itself around him, or what he could do.

“You saved my life. Again.” I wrapped my arms tightly around myself. The adrenaline and confusion and Peter’s sedative all mixed through me, on top of Jack’s apprehension and fading hunger. I knew I was on the verge of hysterics.

“Well, this time, I almost killed you too. So… it kinda evens out.” Jack meant he’d almost killed me by driving too fast and crashing the Jeep, but I could still feel how hungry he was and remembered that ominous conversation he’d had with Ezra about how this all wouldn’t last much longer.

“Why do you keep saving my life?” My voice trembled and I could feel hot tears sliding down my cheeks. Jack looked at me like he didn’t understand what I meant, but I went on talking, and the more I talked, the harder I cried. “I just don’t get it! Why do you keep saving me if you’re just going to kill me? Why don’t you just hurry up and get it over with already? Is this some kind of sick game for you? Do you always have to play with your food before you eat it?” His jaw dropped and his eyes widened with shock and hurt.

“Do you know…” Jack trailed off, trying to get a handle on what I meant.

“We’re not going to kill you.”

“Then what’s going on?” I was almost shrieking by then, and Jack was debating on whether or not he should move closer to me or move away from me. “What the hell are you and what do you want with me?!” He gave me a long look, but then decided that I probably couldn’t hold it together much longer, so he answered me.

“Alice, we’re vampires.” Jack gave me an even look, and I almost burst out laughing, but then I realized that he was completely serious. I lapsed into a stunned silence, which was just as well, because suddenly there was the wailing sirens and flashing lights of the police and ambulance.

The paramedics felt that I was definitely in shock, and if I had been able to speak, I probably would’ve agreed. They couldn’t explain how either of us were alive, or where the blood all over Jack’s body had come from. They wanted to put us in an ambulance and send us downtown, but since Jack wouldn’t pass any kind of medical test, he fought them until they finally relented. He allowed them to check me over, but when they said I was fine, except for the shock, he demanded a ride home in a police car.

He sat next to me in the backseat, and while he whispered my name several times, I never responded. I just stared out the window and tried to make sense of his confession. Some things fit. Like his superhuman strength, his miraculous ability to heal, the way they never ate or drank anything, and I’d only ever seen any of them at night. But they were all tan (except for Mae, but she was British), and I’d actually heard Jack’s heartbeat last night. He didn’t have fangs, and he hadn’t eaten me. That did kind of explain what had happened with Peter, except why did they want him to eat me? What was so damn important about that? Couldn’t anybody just eat anybody?

Mae must’ve seen the police car, because she was at the front door waiting for us when the police dropped us off. Jack had thanked the officers when we got out of the car, and he took the time to wave at them when we walked in the house. Matilda jumped all over him, but he wasn’t in the mood, so he pushed her off.

“Jack, what happened?” Mae was talking to him, but she was looking me over. I didn’t even have a scratch on me, but when I’d caught my reflection in the rearview mirror of the squad car, I was completely white and my eyes were frantic and red-rimmed from sobbing.

“I totaled the Jeep,” Jack answered vaguely. We were still standing in the entryway, but he pulled off his shirt, revealing his muscled chest, and started wiping off the blood with his ruined shirt.

“Again?” Mae sounded exasperated and looked over at him. “Jack, you’ve really-”

“She knows,” Jack cut her off. He looked at me, then quickly looked away.

Even though there were still patches of blood on his back, he’d given up on that and balled his up his tee shirt, then walked into the kitchen.

“What?” Mae turned back to me, her face unsure.

“He told me that you’re vampires.” It was the first time I’d spoken since he told me, and my voice sounded hoarse and foreign to me. Mae let out a long shaky breath and looked down.