My blood approves

“I don’t know,” Ezra said at length. “Peter will be home soon, and hopefully, we can get some of this straightened out then.” The car had started gliding into familiar territory, and I knew we weren’t far from their home.

“What about Jack?” I asked softly.

“Peter can’t know how he feels or how close he came to biting you last night,” Ezra warned me finitely. “And he can’t ever bite you. Peter will be able to smell him on you, and that won’t be good for either of you.”

“Am I still allowed to be around Jack?” My heart broke at the thought of a life without him, even if I had Peter.

“Yes, of course. You both just have to be very in control of yourselves.”

“Are you sure that I am meant for Peter?” I asked him carefully as we pulled into the driveway.

“Yes.” Ezra answered finitely. The garage door closed behind us, but we stayed in the car. “Something’s off this time, but there’s no other explanation.”

“Oh.” It was strange how one sentence could exhilarate and devastate me.

“Are you in love with Jack?” Ezra’s voice was barely above a whisper, as if he was afraid of someone hearing.

“I don’t know,” I admitted honestly. Tears welled in my eyes and I bit my lip.

“Alice, listen to me very carefully. If you care anything for Jack, you mustn’t act on it.” His deep brown eyes settled on me, conveying the severity of his words. “I’m not trying to frighten you, but… it’s just the way things are, and I am very sorry.”

“It’s alright.” I wiped my palms across my eyes, trying to smear away the tears.

“Are you okay to go in?” Ezra asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I insisted. He waited for me to open the car door and start getting out before he got out. “So, does Mae like me so much cause of the whole blood thing and her being yours and all that?”

“No. Mae loves you because she’s Mae, and that’s what she does.” Ezra smiled brightly me, relieved to talking about a subject he was quite fond of.

Putting his hand on the small of my back, we walked into the house. “Honestly, are we what you envisioned when you thought of vampires?”

“Hardly,” I scoffed, and he laughed heartily.

“You’re home!” Mae exclaimed suddenly, running into the entrance and throwing her arms around me. For the first time ever, Matilda didn’t run and greet us, but then I realized that’s because Jack wasn’t with me. “I was a little afraid we’d scared you off last night.”

“You can never scare me off,” I said into her shoulder. She finally released me and cupped my face in her hands, staring at me as if to make sure I was real.

“Oh you look so tired! Did you sleep at all?” Her eyes had a pained look, so I nodded and forced a smile. “You know what you need, love? A nice warm Jacuzzi. We have a fabulous Jacuzzi tub in our master suite, and I’ll just get some bubbles going and you’ll be as right as rain.”

“How right is rain really?” Jack wondered dryly, and I pulled my head away from hers to look over at him. He was leaning casually against the doorway and smiling crookedly at me. My heart felt elated just at the sight of him. Last night, I had become so positive that he would be dead or gone forever, and I couldn’t contain myself. I rushed over to him and threw my arms tightly around his waist. “Hey, I’m okay, I’m okay.” He gently pushed me off, holding his hands on my shoulder until I was half a foot away from him. “Okay? I’m okay.”

“I was just worried.” I wanted to cry, and I didn’t know why. I blinked rapidly and swallowed hard.

“Yeah, you look like it,” Jack said quietly, his expression softening.

“She just needs a nice warm bubble bath!” Mae exclaimed, wrapping an arm tightly around my waist so she could pull me away from Jack, and it did require some effort on her part. “We have some wonderful lilac bath salts that just melt the tension away.” Mae continued telling me all the amazing features of her tub as she led me away, but I glanced back over my shoulder at Jack.

“You’ve really got to be more careful,” Ezra warned him.

“I didn’t even do anything!” Jack protested, and I wondered dully how this all could possibly work out in the end.

Chapter 11

The hot Jacuzzi wasn’t quite as magic as Mae had professed it would be, but it really did help relax me at least. It probably helped that I had the added comfort of knowing that Jack hadn’t done anything ridiculous to himself and that Peter hadn’t fallen off the face of the earth. All of this seemed so bizarre. In a time not so long ago, I hadn’t even known these people, and now it would be impossible to imagine the rest of my life without them, however long that life might end up being.

When I finally pulled myself out of the relaxing waters of the tub, I wrapped myself in one of their insanely soft, gigantic plush towels. To help ease my worries, Mae had filled her bedroom with lilac scented candles, and it was all aglow with candle light. I owned very few candles myself, because I believed that I would most likely end up burning down the entire apartment building, but here, with them, I knew that I was perfectly safe.