“No, don’t do that!” Jack protested more loudly than he meant to. I lowered my arms, and he touched my cheek, then moved his fingers back to my hair. “You are so gorgeous. What are you doing with me?”
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I am a very lucky man,” Jack murmured then bent in to kiss me.
As soon as his mouth found mine, I felt this surge rush through me. This was Jack, and I loved him more than anything else. I had gotten so caught up in being of afraid of sex that I forgot why exactly I wanted to do it.
Kissing him, his familiar taste, the way his lips worked against mine… I wanted him desperately. I pulled him tightly to me, and we stumbled back towards the bed. I fell back on it and looked up at him.
“Are you sure you want this?” Jack asked huskily.
In response, I reached up and pulled off his shirt. He was breathtaking, and I kissed his bare chest and smiled up at him. His skin already smoldered hot on my lips, and that was all the encouragement he needed.
The weight of his body pressed against mine. His heart hammered in his chest, and I could feel it pounding in time with mine. Instinctively, my body pushed against his, and I tightened my fingers in his hair, pushing his lips harder to me. Fervently, he kissed me, and I trembled with anticipation.
His mouth trailed down my neck, and I moaned breathily. It wasn’t until I felt his lips pressed against my veins that I realized how badly I wanted him to bite me. He was so hungry for it, for me, so I tilted my head back, exposing more of my throat.
The sharp pain of his teeth was over before I felt it, and hot ecstasy spread away from my neck. I felt his heart thudding in my own chest, above my heart, that double beat that made it feel like he was inside me.
In some kind of twisted pleasure, I could taste him in mouth, the tangy, honey taste of his blood, and my own bloodlust for him surged. Wanting him that badly while he had me, it was agony and bliss all rolled in one. I could feel the edges of myself waning, blackening. My body threatened to lose control, black out and give into the thirst.
What kept me from giving in was feeling how much he loved me. It flowed through my veins. It came from him, but it felt like it came from inside me. I was everything to him, and he was pure joy. I had never felt closer or more in love with him.
A tiny jolt ripped into me, and I gasped painfully. My body suddenly felt cold and alone, as result of the separation when he stopped biting me. Before I could even tell how empty I felt, his mouth was on mine. I could taste my blood on his lips, and that did strange things to me. I pressed him even tighter against me, desperate for the burning heat of his skin.
I felt his hand, strong and sure on my hip, and his fingers looped in my panties, sliding them down. I sat up a bit so I could peel off the negligee, and his arms were around me, pushing his bare skin against mine. His intensity was overwhelming, but it only made me want him more. I lay back down on the bed, and he looked me in the eye.
“I really do love you,” Jack said breathlessly, brushing my hair back from my forehead.
Then I felt him, sliding inside of me, and my breath caught in my throat. It hurt more than I expected it to, but within seconds, any pain was a forgotten memory. I buried my fingers in his back and pushed him against me. He kissed my mouth, my neck, my shoulders, everything he could reach, and I moaned against him.
Never in my life had I felt as whole or complete as I did then. I felt as if I had been made just for him, just for this. Pleasure exploded inside of me, and I bit my lip to keep from screaming.
Gasping for breath, he relaxed, but he propped himself up so he wouldn’t put the full of weight of his body on me. He rested his forehead against my shoulder and tried to gain some composure. When he gently kissed my collar bone, my skin trembled underneath his lips.
My whole body glowed happiness, and I felt dazed and weak. My vision was blurred and hazy, and I knew that my stomach should ache with hunger, but I just couldn’t feel it.
“Was that okay?” Jack asked, looking at me.
“Yeah. That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt. ” I smiled up at him and touched his face. He suddenly looked too marvelous to be real. “Did you enjoy it?”
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“Did I?” He laughed, sounding wonderfully exhausted. I had worn him out, and his laughter sent tingles all through me. “Oh my god, Alice. I didn’t know it could be that good. ” He collapsed back on the bed next to me, and he pulled me into his arms, so my head would lie on his chest. “Oh man. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on that. ”
“I know,” I giggled, feeling girlie and buzzed. I snuggled up as close to him as I could, loving the way my skin felt pressed to his.
“Wow,” Jack laughed tiredly again. “You may not know this, but you are the single most amazing person I have ever met, and I am crazy in love with you. ”
“Good. ” I kissed his chest and smiled up at him. “Cause I feel exactly the same way about you. ”
The loss of blood and the exhaustion of pleasure left me drained. My vision started to clear from the haze of lust, and the pain in my stomach kicked in, but I was too tired to deal with it. I just wanted to stay in Jack’s arms forever and listen to the sound of his heartbeat. Our bodies were slowly returning to their normal temperature, and Jack pulled the blankets up over us, tucking them neatly around me.
I just stated drifting off to sleep when I heard my phone ringing. It sounded like it was coming from the bathroom, so I decided it was faint enough for me to ignore. It stopped, so I settled back into his arms. A second later it started ringing again, and I groaned.
“Should I get that?” Jack asked.
“No, it’ll stop,” I said, hugging him even closer to me. If he got it, that meant he would have to be away from me, and I wasn’t ready for that.
It did stop, only to immediately start ringing again.
“Sorry, I gotta get that. ” He untangled himself from me and I grumbled in protest, but I let him go. He slipped on his boxers, and I watched him as he walked to the bathroom, following the sound of the ringing.
For one second, watching how gorgeous he was, my heart swelled as I realized that I got to be with him. He belonged to me, and it delighted me endlessly.
The phone stopped ringing again, and Jack sighed. “I’m still getting it, in case it starts to ring again. Where is it?”
“I don’t know. ” I sat up, holding the blankets over my chest.
“Of course it stops when I look for it. ” He poked around the hamper, since I had a tendency to leave my phone in my pants pocket, but it started ringing again. He went over to the medicine cabinet and opened it. “Alice, why is your phone in the medicine cabinet?”
“Maybe when I got the mouth wash?” I shrugged. “Just shut it off and come back to bed. ”
“Uh oh. ” He came out of the bathroom, holding my phone out to me. “It’s Jane. ”
“I should probably answer that. ” I held my hand out. I answered it just before it went to voicemail, and Jack sat on the bed next to me. “Hello?”
“Alice? Oh thank god you answered!” Jane sobbed in relief, but her voice was shaking. “I’ve run into some trouble, and… Oh god. I am sorry. I don’t know-” She sounded absolutely terrified, and she knocked any of the warm fuzzy feelings out of me.
“What are you talking about? What’s going on?” I asked.
“I don’t know! They just made me call you!” Jane said, then she shrieked and her voice got farther away.
“Jane? Jane!” I shouted.
“No, it’s not Jane,” a male voice returned to the phone, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was strong and deep with an accent I couldn’t place. Almost British, or maybe German, but softer. “This is Alice, I presume?”
“Where’s Jane?” I demanded, refusing to answer his questions until he told me what was going on. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack getting dressed. I
’m not sure if he could overhear the conversation, or if he just saw my panic.
“If you want to see her again, I suggest you come and get her,” the voice said. There was something sinisterly playful in his voice, and I heard Jane crying in the background. “Where are we? You need to tell us if you want your friend to come rescue you. ”
“You son of a bitch!” I growled. “Leave her alone! When we find you, we’ll kill you!”
“We?” He chuckled. “Even better. ” Jane screamed behind him.
“Loring Park!” Jane sobbed in the background. “We’re at Loring Park! But Alice! Don’t come! They’re going to-” She screamed again, cutting off the rest of her sentence.
“As you can tell, we’re in a hurry, so act accordingly,” he said, then the phone went silent.
- 32 -
Immediately after the phone hung up, I tried calling back, but it went straight to voicemail. Jack had already pulled on shorts and a tee shirt, and he was struggling to put on his Converse. My stomach lurched, and panic and hunger were mixing together, making me feel volatile and frail.
“Alice?” Jack asked. “Where is she?”
“Loring Park,” I told him numbly. “I don’t know who has her, but I think they’re going to kill her. And they want me to come. She’s bait for me. ” He pursed his lips and looked at me thoughtfully for a moment.
“You stay here. I’ll go get her,” Jack decided and made a step for the door.
“No!” I jumped up, holding the blanket around me. “If this is about me, there’s no way you’re going without me. ”
“Alice, it isn’t safe. ”
“Exactly!” I ran to the closet to put on clothes before he left. I don’t think I’d ever gotten dressed so quickly in my life. “I’m a vampire now. I can take care of myself. ” This I said while struggling to put on a pair of jeans and nearly falling over. “I beat up Jane’s boyfriend or whatever before. If you can handle it, I can handle it. ”
“No. I’m much more skilled than you are, and you just lost blood. ” He crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look resolute.
“I don’t care. ” I slipped on my shoes and walked up to him. “We’re together now, forever. That means if you’re in danger, I’m in danger. Jane needs help, and we’re going together. ”
“I don’t like it,” Jack relented.
“I don’t care. ” I pushed past him, knowing that we had to hurry to save her, and I had to hurry before he changed his mind. He couldn’t stop me from going, but he could slow us down with unnecessary arguing.
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“Alice?” Milo opened my bedroom door before I could even get to it. He had a bewildered, frantic look on his face. “Is everything okay?” He pushed the door open wider and stepped inside. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Why? What’s going on with you?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Nothing! I just… I thought something was wrong,” Milo floundered.
I realized what had happened. Just like I was tuned into his heart, he was tuned into mine. It had been beating in a panic for the last few minutes, so Milo was concerned. He probably would’ve come in right away, but he misread it at first as being part of me and Jack fooling around.
“Jane’s in trouble. ” I chewed my lip, looking at him, and Jack gave me a weird look. Milo was my little brother, and I’d do almost anything to protect him. But he was a vampire, more powerful than me, and from the sounds of it, Jane had more than one attacker. We needed all the help we could get. “She’s in the park. I don’t know who has her, but I think they want to kill her, and they want us to hurry. ”
“What are you talking about?” Milo tensed up, and I could see his muscles flexing under his shirt. Someday, he’d probably even be more powerful than Jack, especially since he had so much control.
“I don’t know. And I don’t have time to explain. If you want to come with, we have to go now. ” I looked insistently at him, and I knew my invitation surprised Jack. He’d expected me to demand Milo stay here, and maybe I should’ve. But Jane might die. I didn’t think I had much of a choice.
“I’m in,” Milo nodded once. “Let’s go. ”
We’d barely made it out the bedroom door when we ran into another snag. Bobby was in the process of pulling a sweater on over his head when he came out of his room. He saw us in a hurry, so he caught up with us.
“What’s going on?” Bobby asked.
“Nothing. Go back to the room. ” Milo tried to make it down the stairs, but Bobby wouldn’t stop following him. Jack and I paused at the bottom, but I wouldn’t be able to wait long for either of them.
“Where are you going? Why do you all look so freaked?” Bobby’s hair had been mussed when he pulled on the sweater, and he tried to smooth it out while keeping his eyes fixed on Milo. “What happened?”
“Look, just go back upstairs,” Milo said. “You can’t come with!”
“Why?” Bobby was only getting more and more freaked out. “What are you doing?”
“It’s too dangerous for a human. Just go!” Milo pointed up to the top of the stairs like Bobby was a disobedient dog.
“Dangerous?” Bobby blanched. “No! If you can get hurt, I’m going with you!”
“We don’t have time for this! We’re going now!” I waved my hands of it and walked to the garage. Jack was a step of ahead of me, but Milo trailed behind us with Bobby at his heels.
“Bobby!” Milo snapped at him when we reached the garage. “You can’t come with!”
“No!” Bobby grabbed onto Milo’s arm and looked as if he might cry. I wondered if this is what I had looked like when I was mortal. “I’m not gonna stay here while you go off -”
“Get in the car,” Jack said, looking over the Lexus at Bobby.
“What? No!” Milo protested. Jack refused to meet my gaze, and I knew he was thinking something, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
“Just do it,” Jack said and got in the driver’s seat.
Milo and Bobby did as they were told, although that didn’t stop Milo from arguing about how idiotic it was for Bobby to come along. I agreed with him, but I kept my mouth shut. Jack started the car, and we sped out of the garage, on the way to the park.
It wasn’t until I was trapped in the enclosed space of the car with Bobby that I realized how hungry I was. He was afraid, so his heart beat even faster, and my mouth started to water. I had to grip onto the door handle to keep my hand from shaking. Jack noticed, and he frowned at me and rolled down the window. The cold night air helped some, but there was nothing more that either of us could do.
Thanks to the ridiculous weather, the roads were slick, and Jack wasn’t keen on slowing down. When we came to a stop in front of the park, the car skidded sideways, and Jack jerked the wheel. The Lexus lurched over the curb, and slid across the slush covered grass before finally coming to a stop two inches away from hitting a tree.
“Is everyone okay?” Jack asked, looking around. Bobby had hit his head on the back of my seat, but otherwise everyone was okay.
“You’re a really terrible driver,” I muttered. I opened the door and stepped out of the car, instantly slipping in the grass. I grabbed onto the door just before I fell to the ground, but I wasn’t boding well for how I would do in battle.
“Careful,” Bobby said as he got out of the car.
“No!” Jack shouted. He’d already gotten out, and he pointed at Bobby. “You. Get back in the car. ”
“What? No!”
“No, if you come with, you’ll only hinder us,” Jack said. “Stay here so you don’t get us killed. ” Bobby wanted to argue, but he had to realize that Jack had a valid point.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Milo promised. Grudgingly, Bobby climbed back in the car, and Milo leaned in to give him a quick kiss.
“I love you!” Bobby said, but Milo was already hurrying after Jack and me. We went down a wi
nding pathway through the center of the park. It had been salted and sanded so it was much less treacherous than walking on the grass.
“Where is she?” Milo asked when he jogged up to us.
“We don’t know,” Jack glanced over at me, hoping I’d have more information.
Milo was about to ask something logical, like how did we plan on finding her, but I shushed him. I was trying to get a read on her, but it was hard. Even late at night in bad weather, downtown Minneapolis still had tons of activity. It was hard to separate sounds.
On top of that, I was getting really hungry. I kept getting focused in on the wrong smells and sounds because they were far more appetizing than what I was looking for.
“Ugh. ” I wrinkled my nose, catching onto something. It smelled dirty and not quite right.
“What?” Jack froze and looked at me.
“I don’t know. I just smell something. ” A cold wind came up, blowing it away, and I shook my head. “It was probably the dog park. But it definitely wasn’t Jane. ”
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We walked a little further down the trail, but then I started noticing the smell again. It wasn’t even a dirty smell so much as it smelled like dirt, like the ground and trees. A hint of pine, and something else, something familiar. It reminded me of when the fair came to town, and I always spent too much time feeding the goats in the petting zoo.
I kept walking, and I had started following the scent, but nobody questioned me about it. Even when we veered off the trail, they didn’t say anything to me.
Finally, too late, I placed it. I froze in my tracks, and my heart stopped in my chest.
“What?” Jack asked in a nervous whisper.
“Reindeer. ” I could barely even say it aloud.
“What?” Milo asked incredulously, and even Jack gave me a confused look.
Neither of them understood what that meant, but I scanned the trees frantically. I knew how fast they could move. They were probably here. We might be surrounded already. I turned in a circle, slipping in the slush, and Jack caught me before I fell to the ground.
The wind picked up again, taking the scent away from me, and that was the only hint I had to where they might be. Thirst mixed with my panic, and the edge of my vision blurred red. My hands trembled, but I couldn’t say for sure if that was from hunger or fear.
Milo looking around, trying to figure out what exactly had me so freaked. Jack still had his hand on my arm, steadying me, and the scent became stronger behind me, so I turned around.
Only thirty yards from us, a vampire stood on a bench. I had just been looking at it a few seconds ago, and nobody had been around, but here he was. His dark blue work jacket hung open, revealing his bare chest covered in dark hair. His jeans were filthy and ragged and hadn’t been washed in months. Despite the cold slush on the ground, he was barefoot.