“We’ll talk later,” I said finally.

“Fat chance,” Jane scoffed.

Milo comforted Bobby, who frantically clung to the door. Jack put his arm around me, escorting me from the room.

I looked back over my shoulder at Jane. Thin and frail, she hung onto Jonathan just to keep from falling over. Before we had even left the room, he tilted her head back and sunk his teeth into her neck. She moaned and her blood filled the air.

Jack tightened his arm around me to prevent me from rushing at Jonathan and getting myself killed. He pulled the door shut behind us and drug me down the hallway, past all the rooms where vampires were feeding on other people’s best friends.

I spent the entire car ride home sulking and glaring out the window. Jack tried to talk to me and cheer me up, but I wanted nothing to do with it. It wasn’t his fault that Jane wouldn’t come home with us, or that vampires were such horrible creatures, but he was the only one I had to take it out on.

When we pulled in the garage, I slammed the car door behind me and stormed into the house, noticing that Milo and Bobby hadn’t returned yet.

“Alice!” Jack called after me, but I didn’t slow down.

Matilda waited at the door for us, but when she greeted me, I pushed past her. Jack indulged her more than I did, but he was trying to keep up with me so he made it quick.

“Alice, come on. I know you’re upset, but you didn’t really think you could swoop in there like Batman and save the day, did you?”

“I don’t know what I thought,” I muttered.

I reached the kitchen and stopped. I wanted to eat something. Not that I was actually hungry, not for human food, but whenever I had come home frustrated, Milo always fed me. It was probably for the best I turned into a vampire, otherwise I would’ve ended up as a very fat stress eater. Out of habit, I opened up the refrigerator, which actually had food in it again, thanks to Bobby.

“What are you doing?” Jack asked.

“Making Bobby a snack.”

Since I’d never had a conversation with the kid, I had no real clue what kind of foods he might like, but Mae stocked the fridge for him, so it was a safe bet that anything in it would work. I hadn’t really meant to make him anything, and it was a well known fact that I couldn’t cook, but it would give me something to do.

The crisper was filled with fruits, so I grabbed them all, thinking that chopping them up for a fruit salad might go a long way to alleviate my anger.

“Do you need any help?” Jack asked, watching me drop the armload of fruits onto the island.

I shook my head and searched the kitchen drawers until I found a large butcher knife. I couldn’t tell the last time anybody had used it, so I rinsed it off. Then I realized I hadn’t washed off any of the fruit, either, so I grabbed it all and dropped it in the sink to clean.

“Are you mad at me?” Jack leaned against the island with Matilda rubbing up against him so he could scratch her head.

“No,” I said, but that wasn’t exactly true. “You and Milo could’ve taken that Jonathan idiot. And I’m sure Jane would’ve followed you out of there. We could’ve taken her if we really tried.”

“Maybe,” he admitted.

I picked the fruit up out of the sink, but they were wet and slippery, and the grapes and strawberries tried making their escape onto the floor. He came over and caught what was falling and helped me carry it back over to the island.

“Thank you,” I muttered, not ready to give up on my anger yet.

“If we had to kidnap Jane, what good would it have really done?” Jack looked at me. “You watch that Intervention show about junkies. What do they always say? You can’t make a person change, and they can’t quit for anybody else. Jane has to want to stop.”

“Then why did we even go down there?” My hands felt shaky when I started chopping a pear, but I ignored it. I couldn’t forget the image of how sickly Jane looked, and how content she was with that.

“I thought maybe you’d be able to talk some sense into her.” He shrugged. “But now she knows that you still care, and if she has a change of heart, she’ll talk to you.”

“Jane’s never listened to me about anything, and you know it.”

“Maybe so, but this is her choice, and you have to let her make it.” He was on the other side of the island from me, leaning across it.

My body was naturally pulled to him, and I pretended like pears and apricots were more interesting. Unfortunately, I’d never been a coordinated person, and I didn’t do much better as a vampire. I was distracted by Jack and thoughts of Jane, so it was only a matter of time before the knife sliced my finger.

I yelped and pulled my hand back, sustaining my first real injury as a vampire. The pain was much sharper and more intense than any I had felt as a human, but it died away instantly. The cut was nasty, hitting the bone in my index finger. If my bones hadn’t been so strong, I probably would’ve sliced the tip right off.

I stared down at it, watching the blood seeping from my wound with some amazement. This was my blood, and I could smell it, warm and strangely exotic.

“You do smell really good,” Jack said in a hushed tone.

The pink edges of the cut were already healing, right in front of my eyes, and I glanced up at him. His eyes had gone translucent, and I heard his heart speed up. Nothing in the world was more enticing to him than the scent of my blood, and that hadn’t changed when I became immortal.

“Want a taste?” I offered my hand to him, knowing how wonderful it felt when he tasted me and how crazy it drove him. I imagined him throwing all the fruit off the island and pushing me back down on it, kissing me ferociously until his mouth found my neck…

“In the kitchen?” He raised an eyebrow, his breath shallow.

With great effort, he managed to pull his eyes from me to look around the room, pointing out how completely exposed we would be. At any minute, Milo and Bobby would come home, and Mae and Ezra had to be somewhere around here

“Suit yourself.” I shrugged, pretending it meant nothing, even though I knew he could hear my own ragged heartbeat. The cut had healed completely, and the blood dried on my skin. I put my finger in my mouth, cleaning it off.

“You’re horrible.” He shook his head and took a step back from the island, trying to clear his head of me.

Within seconds, Milo and Bobby came in from the garage. They both eyed up the fruit spread on the island with confusion, but Milo’s face contorted into something different. He sniffed, giving me an evil look that was somehow hungry as well.