Flutter (26 page)

“It’s this one,” I whispered, gesturing to the door
in front of us. Milo moved in front of Bobby, putting himself
between him and any possible attack.

After the way Jonathan had reacted the last time we
busted in on him with Jane, I figured we should take the necessary
precautions. This time, I decided against busting in. Very slowly,
I turned the knob and pushed the door open.

Jonathan didn’t hear us because he was feeding on
Jane. He knelt on the bed, her body hanging limp in his arms, and
he gnawed on her neck. It wasn’t the gentle bites that Olivia
always gave her girlfriends, or like the ones I’m sure Milo gave
Bobby.

This was intensely animalistic, reminding me of the
shark attacks I watched on TV. Jane appeared completely
unconscious, and when I listened for a heartbeat, I couldn’t hear
one. Only the sounding of his, pounding strong and fast.

Without thinking, I flew at him. He
was killing her, and I had to stop him while there was still
time,
if
there was
still time. I jumped onto his back, and he snarled and threw Jane
to the ground. It would’ve been easier for him to just drop her on
the bed, but he purposely chucked her away, like a piece of
garbage.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, but he reached
back and grabbed me by my hair. He lifted me by it, and I screamed.
I kicked and clawed at him, and he threw me against the wall.

The pain stopped instantly. Hitting the wall hurt
like hell, but it was over right away, and I was back on my feet. I
dove at him again, punching at him. I had never been in a fight
before, so I was just doing whatever I could think of.

Theoretically, I should be really fast and strong,
but I did not feel like it. He blocked every move before I even
made it, and when I was resorting to simply scratching and kicking,
he turned me around. He wrapped his arms tightly around me,
pressing my back to his chest, and I couldn’t move.

“Drop the meat!” Jonathan roared at Milo, and I
looked over at him. Milo had carefully picked Jane up off the
floor, but he didn’t want to leave me alone with Jonathan.

“Get out of here!” I shouted. I didn’t really want
him to leave me, because I had a feeling that I couldn’t win this
fight, but this was his only chance to save Jane. “Go!”

Milo was indecisive, and Bobby stood in the hallway
right out the door, looking pale and afraid. I struggled against
Jonathan but didn’t accomplish much. He tired of the standoff, and
in a ridiculous move, he bit into my shoulder.

I yelped, and I could feel the blood flowing hot and
strange from the wound, but he didn’t drink from me. He could’ve
bitten my throat and caused real damage, but he was doing this just
to hinder and annoy me. Losing blood weakened me, and I wasn’t that
strong of a fighter to start with.

“Alice!” Milo shouted.

“Drop the girl!” Jonathan snarled, and threw me to
the ground. My shoulder had already stopped hurting, and it tingled
from healing, but I could feel the blood seeping out of me. It was
incredibly nauseating.

“Run, Milo!” I yelled, and Jonathan turned back to
glare at me.

He stood right by me, where I lay on the ground, and
an idea occurred to me. He kicked me, and I let him, and Bobby
shouted at me to get up. If Jane wasn’t unconscious, Milo probably
would’ve handed her to Bobby and helped me himself.

As soon as Jonathan turned back to Milo, I moved
forward and bit into his ankle as hard as I could. I tore through
his Achilles tendon, and Jonathan screamed in pain and fell back on
the ground. Even though the pain would stop soon, the damaged
ligament would slow him down.

I got to my feet. Jonathan, still on the floor,
grabbed my ankle. I stomped on his hand before he would get the
chance to bite me the way I had done him, and he hissed but
wouldn’t let go. He bared his teeth like he was some kind of
animal, so I kicked him hard in the face. At the same time, he
pulled my leg, so I fell back onto the ground.

His mouth was full of blood from me kicking him, and
when Jonathan laughed, some of it sprayed on me. The worst part was
that all the blood still smelled like Jane. I kicked him in the
mouth again. He finally let go of me, and I scrambled to my
feet.

Milo had started setting Jane down on the bed,
preparing to help me fight off Jonathan, but Jonathan was busy
holding his mouth to stop the blood from spilling out. I rushed
over to help Milo get Jane, even though he wouldn’t need any help.
She was little more than skin and bones. Her throat was torn open,
and Jonathan had really gone to town on it when he had bit her. It
was like a dog bite and not the usual small incision vampires
made.

I swallowed back vomit and lifted her up in my arms.
I couldn’t feel a pulse, and her head and limbs just dangled. Milo
stared down at her with a look of dull horror. If she was still
alive, she wouldn’t be for much longer. Out of the corner of my
eye, I saw movement, and Bobby gasped. I looked up, but it was
already too late.

Jonathan had Bobby in his clutches.

- 26 –

Milo lunged after them, into the hall where I
couldn’t see anything. I wanted to throw Jane on the bed, but if
she was dying, I didn’t want that to be the move that killed her.
All I could hear was the sound of growling and flesh hitting flesh
and Bobby screaming.

Finally I decided saving Jane’s life wasn’t worth my
brother or Bobby dying, so I set her on the bed.

“Sorry, Jane.” I pushed her short hair off her
forehead, and she felt completely cold under my touch.

I got to the hall the same time as Ezra. I’m not sure
how well the fight between Milo and Jonathan had been going, but
Ezra flew in and grabbed Jonathan by the throat and pinned him back
against the concrete wall.

Milo’s costume was in tatters and he was out of
breath, and he just stood across from Jonathan, glaring at him.
Jonathan fought against Ezra, but then Olivia appeared behind Ezra,
and he completely stopped.

“Enough
,”
Ezra boomed, and let go of his throat. Jonathan licked the blood
from his lips and straightened out his clothing.

My mouth had blood on it from when I’d bit him, and I
wiped at it with the back of my hand. I could almost taste it, but
I refused to. It was Jane’s blood, and I didn’t want any of it.

“I don’t want to see you around here anymore,” Olivia
said, and her voice sounded surprisingly commanding. “Is that
clear?”

Jonathan didn’t say anything. He looked at the ground
and started hobbling down the hall. His tendon hadn’t healed yet. I
couldn’t quite figure out why he’d listened to Olivia, but I didn’t
have time to think about.

“Are you okay?” Milo knelt on the ground next to
Bobby.

Bobby slumped against the wall, and he was bleeding,
but I’m not sure from where. He nodded, and I could tell he was
fighting back tears, but otherwise he was alright.

I would’ve like to stay and make sure they were both
okay, but I had to get Jane. I ran back in the room and scooped her
up in my arms, and she hung like a rag doll. Her sheer, tiny dress
revealed all her ribs, and I felt her spine. The wound on her neck
had started clotting, which meant there had to be some life, but
that was the only sign I had.

“That’s your friend?” Ezra looked in the room at her,
and his expression was grim.

“Yeah. Can you help her?” I held her out towards him,
like I was a small child and she were a broken toy I expected him
to fix.

“We’ll take her back to the house,” Ezra said simply.
Gingerly, he took her from me, and I felt better just knowing that
he had her. In my mind, he could fix anything.

“Take the back way out,” Olivia suggested when she
saw Jane. “You remember how to get there?”

“Yes. Thank you for all your help,” Ezra said.

“Anytime,” Olivia smiled at me. “You take care of
yourself. Try and stay out of trouble, okay?”

“I’ll try,” I nodded, but I was already walking down
the hall, following Ezra. Milo and Bobby came more slowly behind
us. Milo tried carrying Bobby, but he kept insisting that it wasn’t
necessary, even though it kind of was.

When we left the club, the alley around us was
deserted, and Ezra had planned ahead because he had parked right
next to it. He commanded Milo and Bobby to go straight home, and
we’d meet them there.

He laid Jane in the backseat of the Lexus, and I
climbed in back with her, resting her head on my lap. Very slowly,
her neck wound was healing, and I could feel her breath coming out
faintly. Somewhere in there, she was still alive.

“Why’d he bite her neck like that?” I asked, more to
myself than Ezra. I brushed her hair back, trying to get the blood
out from it, and held back tears. “Was he trying to kill her?”

“Not exactly,” Ezra said and looked at me in the
rearview mirror. “He was trying to get more blood, and she was
running out.” I sniffled and looked back down at Jane. “Are you
okay, Alice? Did that vampire hurt you?”

“No, I’m fine.” I glanced at my shoulder, and it was
almost entirely healed. “What about you? Are you okay?”

“Yes, I am.” Ezra didn’t appear to have a mark on
him, but he had come in for the last minute of the fight. Although,
I couldn’t help but wonder if it would’ve gone on longer if he
hadn’t had Olivia with him.

“Why did that vampire seem so afraid of Olivia? She
doesn’t seem that scary to me,” I said. Most of the time, Olivia
seemed too drunk and hazy to be anything but harmless. But this was
the second time she’d saved my life.

“Well, for one thing, that’s her club, and for
another, she used to be a vampire hunter,” Ezra said. “Although,
she tries to keep it quiet on both accounts.”

“Wait. What?” I looked
incredulously at him. “She
owns
the club, and she’s a vampire hunter? But she is a
vampire! That doesn’t make any sense!”

“People can’t possibly take down a vampire, not with
a wooden stake or an uzi,” Ezra said. “You could barely hold your
own against one, and you are a vampire. So the only ones that can
police us are other vampires. We don’t have a system of laws, but
every now and then, vampires get too renegade, and someone needs to
be called in. That someone used to be Olivia, but she retired years
ago and bought the club.”

“Why do I feel like you’re making this up?” I
asked.

“Because Olivia is easily underestimated, but that’s
part of her strength,” Ezra said. “She’s one of the strongest and
oldest vampires I’ve ever met. She must be… nearly six hundred
years old.” He looked at me in the rearview mirror. “And she’s
quite taken with you.”

I might have found that more amusing, but Jane made a
sound in my lap. Ezra sped up, probably deciding that there might
actually be hope for her. He carried her into the house, shouting
for Mae as soon as we got in the door. For the second time in a
matter of days, Ezra’s expertise with blood was called into
action.

Much to Peter’s dismay, Ezra kicked him out of his
room, and Mae and Ezra went about making Jane comfortable in there.
I tried to help, but I was too upset to be useful, so they sent me
downstairs. Milo was in the main bathroom, tending to Bobby’s
lacerations, and I went in under the guise of helping, but really,
I wanted a distraction.

I sat on the edge of the bathroom tub and watched
them. Bobby had a few minor scratches across his chest and
shoulders, and a bite wound on the back of his neck. The bite was
already healing, thanks to vampire saliva’s healing properties, but
it hadn’t been that bad in the first place. Still, that was the
wound that concerned Milo the most. He rinsed off all the rest of
them, but he cleaned off Bobby’s neck with peroxide.

Bobby winced. He sat on the bathroom counter with his
head tilted over the sink as Milo scrubbed mercilessly at the
swollen bite mark on the back of his neck. The peroxide fizzled
white, and Milo rubbed at it with a damp rag.

“That really stings!”

“It needs to be clean,” Milo said through gritted
teeth.

“I don’t think it’s that dirty,” Bobby grimaced. “You
bit me all the time and never washed them at all.” Milo didn’t say
anything, and Bobby tired of it, so he pulled away from Milo. “It’s
clean enough.”

“No, I don’t think it is!” Milo reached up for
Bobby’s neck again, but Bobby grabbed his wrist and stopped him.
Milo could easily overpower him, and he looked like he was
considering it. “Please. Just let me clean it a little bit
more.”

“Milo! No! It hurts, and it didn’t hurt until you
started messing with it!” Bobby held onto Milo’s wrist because if
he let go, Milo would immediately start cleaning his neck
again.

“That’s because I’m getting all his saliva out!” Milo
pushed Bobby’s hand back, but Bobby jerked back in the corner and
pressed his back against the mirror so Milo couldn’t reach it.
“Bobby! Just let me clean it!” If he got any more aggressive, I’d
have to intervene. “You still smell like him, and I have to get it
out!”

“No
!”
Bobby shouted. “You’ll have to deal with it! I just got attacked by
a vampire, and I’m feeling bad enough without you clawing out the
back of my neck!”

“Fine.” Milo sighed and threw the bloody rag in the
sink, then he had a change of heart. “You’re right. I’m sorry. You
had a really bad night, and I’m just glad you’re alive and that you
still want to put up with me.” Ashamed of his behavior, Milo stared
down at the sink.

“I’ll always want to be with you,” Bobby smiled at
him and gently touched his face.

Milo lifted his head and they kissed, just long
enough for me to feel embarrassed that I was in the same room with
them. I cleared my throat, and Milo blushed when they stopped.