Аманда Хокинг - Flutter

“No, of course not!” Bobby protested, looking vaguely ill.

“Alice!” Milo snapped.

“What?” I wondered what I had said that was so wrong. “That’s not an unfair judgment to come to, especially after whatever it was you two were doing earlier.” Bobby’s olive skin burned red with shame, but Milo just glared at me.

“That’s a horrible thing to say to him!” Milo yelled at me.

“What?” I repeated, growing more confused.

“Imagine how you would feel if someone had called you a bloodwhore,” Jack looked at me.

There was something veiled in his eyes, and he quickly looked away. It made me think that somebody had probably called me a bloodwhore, and I wondered if that somebody had just been rescued from Finland.

“Sorry,” I mumbled without looking at Bobby. “I’m just looking out for Milo’s best interests.”

“Whatever,” Milo said, but he didn’t sound as angry as he had before. “Just get dressed, and we can talk more then. I’m not a big fan of talking to you when you’re naked.”

Milo put his arm on Bobby’s back and gently ushered him out of the room. He gave us a warning glare before closing the door behind him, meaning that we better just concentrate on getting dressed or he would bust back in. Jack and I just sat in silence for a minute, letting the weight of what we had almost done and the news about Jane settle in.

“So what exactly does being a bloodwhore entail?” I asked. I had started pulling back on my shirt, and I watched sadly as Jack did the same. “I understand the basic concept, but like… I don’t know. How does it work?” Running my fingers through my hair to smooth out the tangles, I thought of something that made my stomach twist. “I mean… you’ve had bloodwhores before, haven’t you?”

“Most vampires try it once or twice at least,” Jack replied evasively. He got out of bed and readjusted his clothing, purposely avoiding looking at me. “It’s fairly common.”

“Alright.” I swallowed and remembered that I had to take it all in stride when dating a vampire. “So how do you go about that? You just… what?”

“Well, they’re usually hanging around the club. They know what the scene is.” Jack had begun pacing the room, pretending to do things like readjust a picture on the wall or move something on the night stand.

The conversation was making him uncomfortable because I had mentioned that he had done it once, and though I did my best to hide it, he could tell how much that upset me. “You can just go there and find a girl.

Or a guy. Whatever you’re into. Take them to the back room at the club or back to your place. Wherever you’re most comfortable. Then you, you know, bite them. When it’s done, you go on your way, and they sleep it off. Or do whatever they want.” Jack shrugged. “It’s pretty simple.”

“So how would Jane find out about a place like V?” I asked, trying to push past how cavalier Jack was about that.

It was probably the use of the word “whore” that made the most uncomfortable. And that I knew how amazing it felt when he drank my blood, how I could feel some of what he felt, and how he could feel everything I felt. It was the most intimate act on earth, and he had just casually done with random whores he had picked up at a bar. I swallowed hard and refused to think about it.

“If she hung around downtown long enough, and now that she knows what to look to for in a vampire, it’s only a matter of time.” He fixed a piece of tape on his Purple Rain poster, then looked back at me.

“It’s the like it is with any other drug.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked edgily.

Apprehension settled over me. As soon as Milo had mentioned that Jane had gotten involved with vampires, I hadn’t been thrilled by the idea. But I had just gotten so used to Jane being reckless and having her name associated with being a whore that I hadn’t thought much of it. If Jack was showing even a shrapnel of concern for her, it meant things were pretty bad off, and he was looking very severely at me.

“Bloodwhores are addicted,” Jack explained. “So they’ll do really dangerous things for it. I mean, letting a vampire to bite you is pretty dangerous itself, but it’s not the worst thing you can do. They’ll do riskier and riskier behavior, and even if they don’t, they’ll simply crave it more and more.

And there’s only so much blood loss the human body can take. The lifespan on a bloodwhore is fairly short.”

“You’re saying that Jane could actually die?” I sat up straighter in bed, and my mouth suddenly felt very dry.

“No. I’m saying that… unless she gets out of that lifestyle, she will die,” Jack said quietly.

Time seemed to stop for a moment. It wasn’t until somebody threatened to take her away that I realized how much she meant to me. Jane was vain and self-absorbed and a bitch most of the time, but underneath that, she had always been my friend and capable of real emotion. She had become much hotter and much cooler than me when we got to high school, but she never ditched me, even when I kind of hoped she would. No matter who was at a party or what they thought of me, Jane always brought me a long, and most of the time, she stood up for me. She tried her best to make me as cool as her, but I fought it every step of the way. When we had been attacked by vampires a few months ago, she had even saved my life. She had just never believed that she more than a pretty face or stronger than being a stuck-up bitch.

And even through all the terrible things she had done, she had been my best friend since I was seven years old, and she had been there for me as much as she was capable.

Now she was in serious trouble, and it was all because of me. Funny. I had always thought she was the one who would be the death of me.

“We have to get her,” I said dully. Speaking had somehow woken me up, and I jumped off the bed, scrambling to pull on my jeans as I did. Panic had started taking over and I was flying around the room like a maniac. Grabbing my shoes and my brush and then a sweater and then thinking that I had to do something to my hair before we went to a club or Jane wouldn’t even speak to me… and then Jack grabbed my wrist.

“Alice. Slow down,” Jack said firmly. “She’s not dying right now.”

“You don’t know that!” I snapped.

“I’m pretty sure if she was in immediate danger, Milo wouldn’t have left her there,” Jack pointed out reasonably.

“Maybe.” I felt my heart slowing a little bit. Milo had just seen her, and if things were really bad, he would’ve convinced her to come back here, or at the very least insist that we hurry after her.

He hadn’t sounded that worried, though, so things couldn’t be that terrible. “But we still have to go get her.”

“I agree, but you need to take a minute to calm down. We’re going to a vampire club, for the first time since you turned, and it would be helpful if you were in control of yourself.” Jack smiled wryly and touched my cheek gently.

“Okay,” I nodded and looked down at myself. The casual jeans and top combo I was going for would never work at a club, or at least Jane would say it didn’t. If were going there, I might as well fit in. “I’m gonna go get ready. Why don’t you let Milo know, and then we can get out of here?”

“Sounds good.” Jack kissed me gently on the lips, sending tingles through me so much that I almost forgot about Jane. Fortunately, he remembered and made the kiss much briefer than I would’ve liked.

“Everything will be okay.”

I smiled like I believed him, and then I went into the closet to look for something to wear.

This life had afforded me lots of very fancy outfits, but it was hard to pick out one. What exactly did one wear when going to rescue their former best friend from an underground vampire club?