"Is that Peter?" Jack got louder and angrier, and I couldn"t imagine a meeting between them going well.
"Is Jack on his way?" Peter asked, loud enough so Jack could hear me.
"I am on my way, and tell him he better watch his a.s.s!" Jack shouted, and I held the phone away from ear so it wouldn"t damage my eardrums.
"Real mature, Jack," Peter scoffed.
"Why is he even there? Tell him to just go away!" Jack suggested, and I could hear Ezra telling Jack to shut up and calm down or he was turning the car around.
"You know it"s not really fun for me to have the two you talking through me," I pointed out dryly.
171.
"I have every right to be here!" Peter insisted fiercely. "This is my house too! This is more my family than it is his! I don"t know why Jack thinks he can just claim everything!"
"Jack, I don"t know that you need to come here," I said softly. It would be much, much safer if they didn"t interact, and we all knew that. "I think we can handle it ourselves."
"No way. This is getting dealt with, once and for all," Jack told me firmly. "I"ll be there soon. Just stay safe."
"I"ll try."
I hung up the phone and started at the kitchen floor for a minute, trying to collect my thoughts.
Jack was on his way, which definitely couldn"t be a good thing. They were acting like children in a p.i.s.sing contest, and I had no idea how to resolve the situation without violence. If Jack and Peter saw each other...
"Peter, maybe you should just go," Mae offered gently, and it was clear she was thinking the same thing I was.
"I know that you"re not happy to see me, but that"s not fair." Peter was genuinely hurt by her reaction, and Mae"s eyes filled with soft tears. "I haven"t done anything wrong!"
"Peter, you know that"s not exactly true," Mae chastised him quietly. She kept her gaze on him, but nodded her head slightly to me, referencing the instance in which Peter nearly killed me.
"Look, I am not proud of that and I"m not trying to justify it, but if..." He bit his lip and shook his head. "Jack overstepped his bounds on every measure of this, yet you"re all continually on his side! She was meant for me, not him! And it shouldn"t have mattered to any of you if she had died!"
"Thanks," I mumbled, and I felt his eyes land apologetically on me.
"Alice, that"s not what I meant." He made a move towards me, then dropped his hand.
"We"re not on anyone"s side," Mae insisted, and she rested a hand on Milo"s arm, trying to keep him steady. Hearing Peter so casually talk about my death had left him fuming. "Things are far more complicated than sides, and you know that."
"But Jack is wrong!" Peter slammed his hand on the counter, and we all jumped. "What gives him the right?"
"He loves me, Peter," I told him timidly.
He turned towards me, his eyes burning on me, and I felt myself try to shrink away. Milo hissed and Mae stepped forward, trying to block Milo from Peter. She knew, just as I did, that Peter had no intention of hurting me ever again. He was hurt, definitely, and vehement about something, but I didn"t know what.
"And you think I don"t?" Peter moved so quickly, I almost didn"t see it happen. His face was directly in front of me, and I was backed up against the wall, but he wasn"t touching me at all. Milo was freaking out because of his sudden movement, and Mae was trying to push him into the other room so he could get a reign on his emotions.
"They"re fine! He"s just talking to her!" Mae kept insisting.
172.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her finally wrangle Milo into another room, but all I could really see were Peter"s green eyes. He always looked at me is if he was trying to completely look through me and solve the great mystery of me. There wasn"t one, though, and that left his eyes constantly searching Irrational tears were welling in my eyes, and I had to fight to remember to breathe. He had placed a hand on either side of me, and lowered his face so it was directly in front of mine. All I could smell and see and feel was him. It was suffocating, and I didn"t know how to fight it. The horrible truth was that I didn"t even really want to fight it. My body kept screaming that this was exactly what it needed, that this was how I was meant to feel. Always.
"How am I supposed to know you feel about me?" I whispered hoa.r.s.ely. "You were always pushing me away or running away. You"ve spent hardly a minute with me. All I know about you is that you"re simultaneously repulsed and enraptured by me. That"s not exactly the basis for love, is it?"
"I"m sorry." For the first time, Peter"s voice registered a strong emotion, and not just restraint trying to mask something. He was pained more deeply than I imagined he would be, but he went on, unabashed. "I have not been honest with you. There are a million excuses for the way that I"ve treated you, but none of them absolve me."
He exhaled deeply, his breath warming my neck. He was hungry in a familiar way, one that I stupidly welcomed. Peter wanted me in the way only he could want me, the way flowers craved sunlight. Our bodies claimed that I was the means to his survival, in more ways than one, and Peter was just finally starting to give into it.
"Does it really matter anymore?" Peter continued huskily, and when he lowered his gaze to my throat, his eyelashes fell darkly on his cheeks. "It doesn"t really matter how much I love you, does it?" He moved in closer to me, breathing me in, and he sighed reproachfully. "You smell like him."
"I"m sorry," I murmured, but I wasn"t.
Maybe a little bit of me was, but the rest of me felt oddly proud that I smelled like Jack. As if he had marked me as his, and that finally, maybe even my blood belonged to him. Deep down, I had always known it was meant to, and I think that even Peter had to, which is why he had always rejected me so harshly.
"He"s inside you now." Gingerly, Peter brushed my hair back and ran his fingers threw it, letting his fingertips graze my cheek and send surges of pleasure over me. His eyes had returned to mine, but they were duller and sadder than I had ever seen them before. "I"ve already lost, haven"t I?"
Before I could answer, his lips pressed softly against me. Emotions swirled through me too rapidly for me to name, but I found myself kissing him back. When he had kissed me before, they had been harsh and rough, but this time, it was gentle and a little sad. I think he realized this was going to be the last time that he kissed me, and he didn"t want to waste a moment of it.
When I heard the low growl coming from across the room, I awoke in the moment, with my arms wrapped around Peter"s neck and my fingers buried in his hair. His strong arms had me pressed me hard against the contours of his body, and there was little room for breathing. But as soon as I heard the growl, my heart froze, and I pulled my mouth away from Peter"s because I knew exactly who that growl belonged to.
Peter almost tossed me to the side, but that was merely for my own protection. Jack came flying across the room in such a blur I wouldn"t have known it was him if I hadn"t already known it was him. He slammed into Peter, and together, they landed on top of the dining room table and crushed it beneath them. They were gnashing teeth and hitting at each other, and suddenly, Jack 173 was soaring through the gla.s.s windows of the French doors. Peter was on his feet, preparing to follow after him, but Jack was already up, brushing away broken gla.s.s.
They stood a few feet from each other, glaring at one another and seething with unbridled rage. I scrambled to my feet, thinking that I had to do something, no matter how idiotic it might be, but before I could do anything, Ezra had swooped in between them. He stood on the rubble of the table, closer to Peter, but held out his palms to both of them.
"Stop!" Ezra boomed. "This isn"t going to settle anything!"
From somewhere down the hall, I heard Milo struggling to get free. Apparently, Mae had locked them both in a room, which was probably the safest bet. Especially since Jack was here, and there were threats against him, Milo was liable to get himself seriously injured, not to mention Jack or Peter.
"There"s only one way to settle this," Peter replied calmly, his eyes fixated on Jack.
Jack"s face had contorted with so much hate, it was almost unrecognizable. His whole body was tensed so tightly, I could see all his veins sticking out against his muscles. His chest heaved with his breathing, and he lips were pulled back in a murderous snarl. He was poised to pounce, and it was a miracle that he hadn"t torn through Ezra to get to Peter.
"Peter." Ezra turned his attention on him, which didn"t seem like the wisest decision to me, considering the expression on Jack"s face. Ezra took a step closer to Peter and rested his open palm on his chest. "You know what this kind of thing leads to. You don"t want this."
"Tell that to him," Peter nodded at Jack, who just growled in response.
"Jack!" I said, almost plaintively.
Peter winced, but Ezra tried to keep Peter"s focus on him, and it seemed to work. Jack, on the other hand, immediately softened at the sound of my voice, and when his eyes flitted over to me, he looked guilty. To me, that seemed pretty odd since I"d been the one who had just been kissing another guy, but Jack had never really been one for violence.
"Come on." Ezra moved his hand onto Peter"s back and gestured outside. Carefully, Jack moved away from the broken window so that Ezra and Peter would be able to get by if they wanted to.
"Let"s take a minute to clear our heads before we tackle this."
Jack stepped down, even allowing his fist to unclench, and that seemed to convince Peter that he was safe enough to take break. Carefully, Ezra led Peter through rubble, out into the night where the thick fog and mist had settled heavily onto the night. Jack watched them until they disappeared outside, but we could still hear the soft, careful tones of Ezra"s deep voice as he tried to reason with Peter.
Once they were gone, Jack hurried silently over to me. I opened my mouth to speak, but he shushed me. Grabbing my hand, he dragged me into Ezra"s den at the far end of the hall, and I could hear the bewildered calls from Milo coming from Mae and Ezra"s bedroom. Inside the den, Jack closed the door quietly behind him.
Again, I tried to ask him what was going on, but he pulled me into his arms and kissed me so ferociously, it erased everything. I remembered the way it felt when he bit me, his heart pounding with mine, and I could feel all the warmth and love radiating from him and surging through me. I wrapped my arms around, returning his kiss more fervently than I ever had before.
174.
Underneath his kiss, there was a desperation that terrified me, but I tried to just concentrate on how amazing it felt to be in his arms again. Everything in my very recent history had been telling me that this would never happen again, but here it was, and I wanted to make this moment last forever.
"Alice..." Jack breathed, and then he forcefully pushed me away from.
It wasn"t that he really wanted to be away from me from so much that I was clinging to him so tightly he had to actually use strength to get me off of him. His placed his hands on my cheeks, his skin smoldering hot against mine, and his blue eyes were pleading with me.
"What?" My voice cracked because I knew that whatever Jack was about to tell me was breaking his heart.
"I"m so sorry about all of this." He brushed the hair back from my face and smiled sweetly at me.
"Oh, Alice, don"t cry. Please don"t cry. Okay? We don"t have much time. Once Peter realizes we"re gone together..."
"We can just run!" I suggested helplessly and tried to keep the tears from spilling down my cheeks.
"No, Alice, he"ll never let you go. And neither can I." His face filled with agonized apologies. "But I know that I might not come back from this..."
"No, Jack, this is stupid," I insisted through the lump in my throat.
There was a pain so deep building inside me, I thought it might kill me. My body felt weak and achey, and I was afraid that I wouldn"t be able to stand for much longer. It actually felt as if the ground had been ripped out from underneath me, and I was free falling into nothingness.
"Alice, you"re worth fighting for," Jack smiled sadly. "You"re even worth dying for."
"No!" I wailed, and I started trying to fight him, so I could break away from him and stop this suicide mission he had himself set on. "This is stupid! This is the stupidest thing you"ve ever said to me! You"re such a f.u.c.king idiot, Jack!"
I was. .h.i.tting him as hard as I could, desperately trying to escape from the strength of his arms, but they were unrelenting. I even slapped him, but he barely even flinched. He just let me struggle wildly in his arms until I started to tire myself out, and then he wrapped his arms even more tightly around me and pressed me against him. I could feel the slow, heavy thud of his heart beat, and it made me sob.
His heart seemed have a set number of beats left, and that was more than I could bear.
"Alice, listen to me." Jack had buried his face in my hair, and his words came out m.u.f.fled but I understood them perfectly. "He"s not going to stop until he has you, not anymore. He"s finally realized he loves you and.... And I saw you kissing him-"
"No, Jack, I"m sorry!" I sobbed. "It"ll never happen again! I promise! I"ll never-"
"Alice, no! It"s not you. This isn"t to punish you, okay?" His fingers were knotted in my hair, and I could still feel the heavy beat of his heart against mine. "I just know I couldn"t live with that. And you can"t fight it. It"s in your blood."
175.
"Jack..." I tried to think of an argument to counter that, but there wasn"t one. He was right. I had been fighting the way I felt about Peter for almost as long as I"d known him, yet somehow we had ended up in an embrace when Jack walked in.
Jack moved so he was looking me in the face, but he kept his hands strong on my arms, in case I would decide to bolt and spoil his ridiculous plan. I knew what he was saying almost made sense.
He wanted to fight Peter for me, and there wasn"t any other way to reason with him. I could follow that logic right up until the point that one of them would die. That"s the only conclusion that Jack could come to. One of them had to die, and I knew there had to be something else.
"Alice, I just need to make sure you"re okay," Jack said thickly.
"I"ll never be okay without you!" I cried, and he winced at that, but recovered quickly.
"That"s not what I meant. I have to go back out there, and if something happens-"
"We can run away! Don"t go back out there! Then you"ll always know I"m safe!" I interrupted him, looking up at him hopefully, but his mind was already made up.
"If something happens, I don"t think he"ll hurt you, but I need to know that you"ll be safe," Jack continued, and I saw tears forming in his eyes, which only made me cry harder. "I need to know that no matter, you have a long happy life!"
"You"re not listening, Jack!" I pleaded. "I will never be happy without you!"
"Please, Alice , for me." Jack was begging me now, and he had never sounded quite as plaintive.
"What?" There was no way I could deny him anything he asked, not now. If I couldn"t convince him to run away with him, if he insisted on the most ridiculous course of action possible, then I would do whatever he asked because it might be the last thing he ever asked me.
"I want you to turn," Jack said. He must"ve heard something because he glanced back at the door nervously, and when he looked back at me, he was even more insistent.
"What? No! You expect me to live forever without you? No!" I shook my head fiercely, revolted by the idea.
"Alice..." He leaned his forehead against mine and breathed in deeply. "I love you so much.
Please. Just do this one thing for me."
"If you love me, I don"t know how you can even ask me that," I whispered hoa.r.s.ely.
Without warning, he bit into his wrist and tore open the skin. The room was filled with the intoxicating scent of his blood, and suddenly, his heart beat became palpable. I had never felt thirst before, not like that, but something about his blood triggered this very animal hunger inside of me. It was a dirty trick, because he knew as soon as he opened his veins, there would be no way I could deny his request.
Pressing his wrist to my mouth, his blood tasted nothing like I had remembered blood tasting. It was sweeter than honey, and flowed like wine down my throat, burning with a thrilling warmth.
Before it even hit my stomach, an intense pleasure exploded inside me, making my vision blur into white and everything about me felt alive for the first time.
On top of all that, I felt his love flow through me, pure and unadulterated, and unlike anything I had ever felt before. Even when he had been biting me, I hadn"t felt it like this. Drinking his blood was drinking him, and while so much about him was loving me, everything about him was love.
176.
He only tasted of kindness and innocence and boundless happiness. I could feel all of his sins, and they were so minor and insignificant, it was shocking. The worst things he had ever done he had done because I had driven him to it. I was the worst thing that had ever happened to him, and yet he loved more perfectly and more eternally than anything he had ever loved before.
When he pulled his arm from me, I stumbled backwards. I would"ve fallen if he hadn"t caught me, and I felt fresh tears burning hot down my face. The room was spinning and I felt disoriented and dizzy. The after affects of drinking his blood made me feel like I was incredibly intoxicated, complete with nausea and confusion, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I pa.s.sed out.
"Jack." My voice came out so much weaker than I had thought it would, and his arms felt strong and safe around me as he laid me down on the couch. There was something different in his expression, in his face, and I realized belatedly I had weakened him. Going to the biggest fight of his life, Jack had the horrible disadvantage of being weaker than ever before. "Oh, no, Jack!
You"re so weak! I"ve killed you!"
"No, no, Alice, I"m fine." He brushed the hair back from face, and I rested my hand on his. He was lying to me, and I felt it as certainly as anything. If he walked out of the door and fought with Peter, he would die, and we both knew it.
"Jack... I love you!" I told him fiercely. He was going to leave no matter what I said, so I decided to use my time the best I could. "You were always the one I loved. It was always you."
"I know," Jack forced a smile, and even though I was fighting it, my eyes shut. His lips press warmly against eyelids, and I felt a tear splash on my cheek from his eyes.
I wanted to say more, and I really tried, but nothing came out. There was this epic blackness settling in over me, but just before everything went completely blank, I heard the sound of h.e.l.l breaking loose just outside the door.