“Jack!” Milo wailed. “Make her stop!”

Jack kept pulling on me, and I literally growled at him, like a dog with a bone. He wrapped his hand around my throat, squeezing down on it. I couldn’t breathe, but more importantly, I couldn’t swallow.

I let go, simply so I could bite Jack and get him to leave me alone, but as soon as I separated, I could think again. I felt dizzy and drunk, but I didn’t feel animal crazy anymore.

Jack didn’t know that though, so he wrapped his arms around me to keep me from going after the blood. The neck had already been pulled away from me. It had been the instant I had stopped biting. Milo cradled Bobby in his arms, sobbing, and that’s how I found out.

“Bobby?” I mumbled. The familiar tired haze I got after eating settled in on me. My inner thigh tingled and itched like crazy, meaning it was healing.

“You nearly killed him, Alice!” Milo yelled at me.

“She had to do it, or she would’ve died!” Jack shouted. He was still holding me in his arms, but more gently. He just wanted me near him.

I wiped Bobby’s blood away from my mouth and tried to sit up. We were on black top next to a white building, and when I looked up, I realized it was a massive cathedral near the park. Jack had carried me over here, away from the police, and fixed me up.

I felt like passing out, but I was fighting it. We weren’t safe here, not with the lycan after us, and I had to do something.

I could hear Bobby’s heart beating, and it was still strong, I hadn’t killed him, but he had completely passed out. Not to mention the fact that he belonged to Milo, and vampires hated sharing their humans with other vampires. Even though he loved me, it had to be driving Milo crazy to let me bite him.

“I never should’ve let him come with.” Milo stroked Bobby’s hair.

“That is why I let him come with,” Jack said.

“What?” Milo glared at Jack. “You brought him along to feed her?”

“He saved your sister’s life, didn’t he?” Jack shot back. “She wouldn’t have died from the blood loss, but she’d have been too weak to do anything against the lycan. She needs to be strong to fight.”

“I’m sorry,” I apologized weakly. I tried to sit up again, but that was all I had in me. Jack’s arms were strong and warm, and I finally gave into them. Darkness rolled over me, and I passed out.

I awoke on the floor. After everything I’d gone through, I felt surprisingly good. When I opened my eyes, all I could see were the beautiful gold and white ceilings of the cathedral.

Bobby was lying next to me, sound asleep himself, and I felt this strange pulling in my heart for him. Not like love or even a crush, but just a connection. He had shared himself with me, and in return, he’d gotten some of me as well. I had never fed on a human before, and I was surprised to find that I felt anything for him afterwards.

I didn’t have time to ponder the details of our relationship, though, because I heard voices talking.

I got to my feet, still feeling kind of dazed and drunk. We were in the balcony of the church, surrounded by pews and crosses, and Jack, Milo, Peter, Ezra, and Olivia were standing at the other end. They had been trying to let us sleep, which was ridiculous. I needed to be awake and strong for this. Their voices were hushed, and I tried to sneak over to them, but I stumbled and bumped into a pew.

“Oh good. She’s awake,” Milo muttered, so apparently he wasn’t ready to forgive me yet.

“What’s going on?” I asked when I reached them. They stood in a circle, and I squeezed in between Jack and Ezra. “What are you guys doing here?”

“We called them,” Jack said, and I couldn’t believe that he’d called Peter. Ezra, I understood, but I was pretty sure he hated Peter now more than ever. “We couldn’t get to the car because of the police, and we didn’t want the lycan to follow us back home.”

“I called Olivia because she’s the only one really equipped to deal with them,” Ezra said.

“And I’d do anything for you, sweetheart,” Olivia winked at me.

She wore leather pants and a tiny leather vest with nothing underneath it. On top of that, she had donned some kind of crossbow apparatus. The leather satchel on her back was filled to the brim with metal arrows.

“Titanium is strong enough to break through a vampire’s sternum and go right through the heart.” She saw me admiring her weaponry and smiled. “The old wooden stake would never work, and even this isn’t fool proof, but it’ll at least slow them down.”

“Great,” I sighed and looked around. It dawned on me that someone was missing. “Where’s Jane?” Jack pursed his lips and nobody said anything. “Jack? What happened?”

“The lycan took her with them,” Jack said quietly.

“Oh my god.” I ran my hands through my hair. “This is a fucking nightmare.”

“We’ll get her back,” Peter promised. His green eyes met mine, and I felt Jack bristle, but he did nothing. “We’ll make the trade, me for her. They can’t deny it.”

“We are not sacrificing you,” Ezra said firmly.

“Why not?” Jack scoffed. “It’s his fault we’re in this mess! He almost got Alice killed, and who knows what’s happened to Jane!”

“We’re not giving them anybody,” Ezra said, looking at Jack sternly. “We will stop them.”

“What if we can’t?” Peter asked. “We should all die for my mistakes? No. I won’t let that happen. This is my fault. This is my war.”

“We’re all involved in it now,” Ezra said. “Do you think they’ll really just let us walk away if we give them you? That would be too easy for them.”

“You should’ve just let me die in Finland!” Peter shouted, his face raw with pain. “I told you to leave me there! Why wouldn’t you listen?”

“I’m more than happy to let you die here,” Jack offered.

“Nobody is dying here today!” I held up my hands to silence them. “We’ll figure something out! I don’t know what but… We’ll do something.”

“See? Firecracker,” Olivia smiled at me.

“We need a better plan than arguing with each other,” Ezra said. “The lycan will track us soon.”