“He had his hand around her throat! She couldn’t breathe!” Jack yelled.

“I would never let her die!” Peter shouted. “I could feel her heartbeat and it never waned!” Something occurred to him, and he took a step closer to Jack. “What do you even care? How did you even know she wasn’t breathing? What did you do?”

“Stop!” Mae ran in between the two of them, putting one of her hands on each of their chests, while Ezra stood off to the side. “Nothing happened, okay? Nothing!”

“What the hell is going on?” Peter looked to Ezra for an explanation. “Why does he care about her?”

“We don’t really know what’s going on,” Ezra admitted quietly, casting a look back at me. “This is unlike anything I’ve encountered.”

Peter studied me curiously, and my heart started to speed up. I saw his eyes register it, and then I heard Jack moan. Instantly, Peter’s eye flicked over to him.

“You’re reacting to her!” Peter didn’t sound angry so much as bewildered. He leaned in closer to Jack, eyeing him up. “You didn’t bite her?”

“No!” Jack groaned, exasperated.

“How is this even possible?” Peter was totally amazed.

When he looked back at me, his eyes softened and grew even more confused. That didn’t help slow my already quickened pulse.

“Alice!” Jack snapped.

“I can’t help it!” I lamented.

“Jack, go over there,” Mae commanded, pointing to the far side of the dining room. He grumbled something in protest but did as he was told. She walked over to me and hugged me to her.

“She might have… somehow become attached to Jack,” Ezra explained slowly. Pain and confusion spread over Peter’s face when he looked back and forth from me to Ezra. “She reacts the strongest with you still, but it seems that some of it may have transferred.”

“How is that even possible?” Peter repeated, and Jack scoffed.

“Why do you even care?” Jack growled. “You don’t even want her!”

His words sliced through me like a knife, and I flinched, so Mae tightened her arms around me. What hurt the most is that I knew Jack was right. Peter only felt things for me because his body made him.

Peter snarled, and Ezra took a step closer to him, just to make sure he wouldn’t lunge at Jack.

“Enough!” I shouted. “I’m not going to let you kill each other over something as stupid as me. If one of you could please just take me home, I’ll be happy to leave you all in peace.”

“Alice, none of us wants that.” Mae stroked my hair and held as me close to her as I would allow. “We don’t want you to go.”

“We’re trying to sort this all out,” Ezra agreed.

“I’m going for a drive,” Jack announced suddenly and strode across the kitchen. “I’m taking the Lamborghini.”

“Be careful!” Ezra called after him. The garage door slammed in response, and he stared after it indecisively. “Maybe I should go with him.” He looked over at Mae, who nodded in approval, and he started hurrying after Jack.

Mae still had her arm around me, and I knew that she would be one of those moms that would never let go.

One of the benefits to being a vampire was that she’d never really have an empty nest, although she’d never exactly have a full one either. She played mother and nursemaid to the boys, but in reality, they were grown men and needed very little of her.

The great appeal of me was that I was very fragile and dependant, and on top of that, a girl. For her, I was some kind of enchanted doll, and that explained the great deal of time she spent playing with my hair.

“I still need to make you supper!” Mae burst into life and rushed over to the stove. Fortunately, she had yet to turn it on, or whatever she would’ve been cooking would’ve been completely burnt.

“I’m really not that hungry,” I repeated for the tenth time.

“Nonsense!” Mae had her back to me and was already flitting about with ingredients. “Why don’t you go in the other room and relax, and I’ll call you when the food is done.”

“It’s easier to just go along with what she wants,” Peter told me. He took a step towards the living room and paused, waiting for me. “Come on. We need to talk.”

I walked with him into the living room, breathing in how wonderful he smelled. My body felt relieved just to be so close to him. It was exhausting staying away from him. Every part of me felt pulled to him, and I had to use all my strength to keep me any distance.

“How is your throat?” Peter asked sadly, admiring my neck.

“It’s okay,” I lied. It felt like I had terrible whiplash, but I didn’t want him to feel bad about hurting me. I sat down on the couch, so very purposefully, he sat in the chair on the far side from me.

“I’m sorry.” He looked at me sadly, then dropped his eyes. “I shouldn’t have done that. But you should know that’s what I’m like.” When he spoke again, his voice was barely audible. “I’m not very nice.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“You should.” He met my eyes evenly. “You’d be so much better off with Jack. I’m…” He shook his head, unable or unwilling to say exactly what he was.

He knew how I felt about him, that I had no control over it, and yet he still tried to convince me that he was a bad. The choice had already been made, and whether he was good for me or not didn’t matter.

“But I want to be with you,” I insisted, and something about my voice startled him into softening a bit. But he quickly recovered, and his face hardened again.

“You don’t know who I am. I’m not like them. I’m not good.”

“How are you different?” I asked.

I hated that he was so far away from me, and it had finally gotten to be too much. I got up and walked over, kneeling directly in front of him.

He smiled at me, a rather sweet, sincere one, then reached out and touched my cheek gently, brushing back my hair. It sent shivers of pleasure through me, but I fought to keep my eyes open, to keep them locked on his.

“You should be so afraid of me, but you’re not,” he murmured, bemused. He studied my face, his hand resting wonderfully on cheek. “If you weren’t…” He licked his lip and sighed. “If I didn’t feel this way about you, I wouldn’t hesitate to kill you. Do you fully understand?”