Аманда Хокинг - Flutter

“Peter,” Ezra replied finally.

At the mention of his brother’s name, Jack’s entire body tensed so tightly that he frightened Matilda away. I was still surprised at how little I felt when the topic of Peter was brought up. For so long, I had been so completely effected it by that that the something I still felt for him was nothing in comparison. The painful bond I had with Peter no longer existed, but I doubted that I could ever entirely sever my feelings for him.

“Is he coming back?” Milo had instinctively moved closer to me, as if I still needed protection.

Jack dropped his eyes to the floor, and I could feel him battling to keep his anger under control. Even though Peter hadn’t been that much of a threat to me, Jack would never forgive him for nearly killing me when I had been mortal. Somehow, I had never really faulted Peter for that, though, and with me being immortal now, I certainly didn’t feel like Peter was a danger, not to me or to the rest of the family.

“No, he’s not coming back,” Ezra shook his head, but kept his eyes on Jack, gauging his reaction to the news. “I don’t think he’ll ever come back.”

“He won’t if he knows what’s good for him,” Jack growled in a voice so low it barely sounded like his own.

“Jack, he’s still your brother,” Mae reminded him softly, her gentle accent trying to calm him.

“He was never my brother!” Jack rolled his eyes and leaned back in the chair.

Peter was 150 years older than Jack, so they weren’t related in human sense of the word.

Peter had been the one to turn Jack, though, so his blood had become fused to Jack’s, creating a bond between them that was much stronger than any normal familial bond. Before that, Ezra had turned Peter, making a bond between the three of them that had been strong and steadfast until I entered the picture. My blood had been meant for Peter, but my heart seemed meant for Jack, and a terrible rift tore the family apart.

It was something I had never wanted and I fought against it, but my feelings for both them of were too overwhelming to ignore.

“It doesn’t matter how you feel about him,” Ezra told him firmly, but there was an underlying hurt that Jack hated Peter so much. Ezra cared for both of them, for all of us really, but Peter had helped him through very trying times before the family existed. “He’s in very real danger, and I’ve got to go help him.”

“What kind of danger?” I asked, and I felt Jack’s eyes flit over to me but I refused to look back at him.

I just kept my eyes on Ezra and tried not to let any concern show.

“He’s…” Ezra furrowed his brow deeply. “He’s killing vampires.”

“Yeah, that sounds like Peter,” Jack muttered.

“I thought he’d gone off the grid,” I said, and Jack scoffed at me.

Three weeks ago, Jack had turned me into a vampire, and then Peter had taken off. This was actually something Peter did quite frequently, but usually Ezra had a way of getting in touch with him. This time, though, Peter had completely disappeared, and despite his best attempts, Ezra had been unable to reach him.

“He has. Word has just been traveling down that Peter has been getting himself into trouble,” Ezra elaborated. “And I just got a phone call that vampires are seeking revenge on him. So I’m going to try and find him and see if I can’t reason with him.”

“He can handle himself,” Jack sneered at everyone’s concern. “Peter’s killed vampires before, and he’s fought in wars. If there’s one thing Peter knows, it’s how to fight.”

“This is different.” Ezra’s eyes grew sad and faraway. “There’s reason to believe he’s on a suicide mission.”

“Good,” Jack grunted under his breath.

“I’ll go with you.” Abruptly, I stood up and knocked over the chess board. I hadn’t yet gotten a handle on my movements, and I still had the unfortunate habit of knocking things over and tripping a lot. It was so much easier to move, and my mind hadn’t caught up to what my body could do.

“You’ll what?” Jack raised an eyebrow but looked at me evenly, and he didn’t believe that he’d heard me correctly. We hadn’t talked about Peter at all since I had turned, but he had incorrectly assumed that my feelings for Peter almost entirely mirrored his own.

“I’ll go with,” I repeated. I bent down to try and pick up the chess pieces and clean up the mess I had made, but Milo swatted my hands away.

“I’ll do it,” Milo insisted, sounding rather irritated as he pulled glass pawns out of my hand.

“You get busy letting them talk sense into you.”

“Alice,” Jack said simply. His expression remained mostly quizzical, but his breathing had gotten heavier, and he was starting to catch onto the fact that he hadn’t misheard me and this wasn’t a joke.

I stood up, watching Milo dumbly for a minute as he swiftly picked up my mess, and then swallowed hard when I looked up at Ezra and Mae. Mae’s worry only deepened when she thought of me going with Ezra, but he actually looked rather intrigued and pleased by the idea.

Very recently, I had talked to Ezra about Peter briefly. I was afraid that talking about him too much upset Jack somehow, so I let the topic die almost as soon as I brought up. The horrible reality was that part of me did still care for Peter, and not because it was ingrained in me to feel that way. Peter hadn’t done anything wrong in all of this, but he had been ostracized by his family and had gone through a terrible heartbreak because of it - because of me - and that wasn’t something that I took lightly.

“Alice, you don’t need to go with,” Mae shook her head. She cared about Peter, but she didn’t want any of us in harms way, especially Milo and I, who she perceived to be particularly vulnerable.

“I know I wouldn’t be any good in a fight, but maybe I could reason with him. Maybe I could convince him that it didn’t need to get to that point,” I continued nervously. All their eyes were on me, and except for Ezra’s, they were all incredibly disapproving.

Mae turned expectantly to Ezra, waiting for him to shoot me down, and I think that’s the only reason that Jack hadn’t started freaking out yet. They all expected Ezra to thank me for my sentiments but tell me that it was better if I stayed home. Taking a baby vampire into a war zone would be dangerous and irrational, and Ezra was nothing if not cautious and logical.

“She has a point,” Ezra admitted carefully, and that’s when everybody decided to get upset.

Mae touched his arm gently and tried to plead with him that I was far too young to do go anywhere for any reason, let alone on a crusade to save Peter from a suicide mission. Jack jumped to his feet, but he couldn’t seem to decide whether he was angrier with me or Ezra, or maybe Peter. Milo had just finished setting up the chess set, and he smacked me on the arm.

“Ow!” I scowled, rubbing my arm. “What’d you do that for?”

“Because you’re an idiot and I can!” Milo glowered at me. He had always been a rather overprotective younger brother, but he was the mature one, the sensible one, and he never failed to call me out on something completely idiotic.

The thing is that I knew it was idiotic, but as soon as Ezra had said that Peter was in danger, my heart had flipped. If anything bad happened to him, I couldn’t help but feel responsible. If I had just left his family alone, the way he had repeatedly begged me to, then he wouldn’t have gotten hurt and had to run off into the mess that he’s in. Thinking of him being hurt and in trouble made me feel nauseous and scared, and I knew I had to do something to help him.

“Ezra, you can’t seriously be thinking of taking her with you,” Jack said as evenly as he could.