Аманда Хокинг - Flutter

“If I’m some kind of burden, I can leave. I don’t want to cause any problems between you two,” I interjected quietly. I hadn’t completely figured out what their fight was about yet, but I certainly didn’t want to be the source of it.

“You’re not a burden,” Ezra assured me, looking apologetically at me. “Don’t worry yourself with this. You can go up to your room.”

“What if she moves out?” Mae latched onto the idea of something, and her entire demeanor changed to one of pleading. She took a few quick steps closer to Ezra, deftly missing all of the broken glass on the floor. “She and Jack could move out. He can take care of her, and Milo is already selfsufficient. Peter is already gone most of the time anyway, and it’s only a matter of time before he goes his own way entirely. We have the room, and we have the time.”

“Alice and Milo are not ready to their own like that,” Ezra admonished her. “And it isn’t about them!

You keep trying to solve something that isn’t the problem. Even if everyone moved out, and it was just the two of us, I would still say no. This cannot be done, Mae, no matter what anybody else does or doesn’t do.”

“Ezra! There has to be something!” Mae moved towards him and knelt on the ground at his feet. He managed to look both sympathetic and vaguely disgusted. She was literally begging him, and when she took his hand, he didn’t pull away, but he wouldn’t look directly at her. “Ezra! Please! I have never asked you for anything like this before!”

“You’ve asked me for plenty like this before, and I have indulged you to much,” Ezra sighed. “But I cannot do this. I won’t.”

Mae let go of his hand and sat back on her heels. Closing her eyes, she rubbed at her forehead, and I knew she was trying to think of something. In her mind, there had to be some magic argument that would make him change his mind, but if there was one thing I knew about Ezra, once he made his mind about something, it could not be changed.

“What if she wanted it?” Mae looked up at him, but she was talking about me. I was getting increasingly uncomfortable with the way she talked about me like I was standing right here.

“I don’t know why you have this idea that I have some special relationship with Alice,” Ezra sounded almost tired by the idea, but he wouldn’t look at me.

“Because you turned her brother for her! I know you were against adding more vampires to our numbers, but you did that for her anyway!” Mae stared up at him.

“Yes, and I did the same with Jack, for you,” Ezra looked severely at her, and her face darkened with shame and she looked down at the floor.

I had no idea what Ezra was talking about. From what I knew, Peter had turned Jack in order to save his life. The story had I heard from everyone never made any mention of Mae or Ezra in at all. It had been a random act of compassion, and for some reason, that made Mae squirm.

“That was different,” Mae said quietly.

“Yes, it was. Because Alice actually cared for her brother. He wasn’t just some random kid,” Ezra had finished scolding her and looked off at the wall behind her. “And he’s young, but Milo is not a child.”

“She is innocent! She deserves a life!” Mae twisted a tissue in her hands, then turned to look at me.

Her face was an expression of total agony, and her gentle eyes were pleading with me.

“Alice, tell him! I don’t care what he says! He’ll listen to you! If you tell him that he needs to do this, he will!”

“I-I don’t really know what you’re talking about.” I looked to Ezra for help, but he just looked grimly at me. “I can’t tell him anything if I don’t know what you’re asking.”

“My great-granddaughter Daisy,” Mae said imploringly, silent tears sliding down her face.

“She is only five years old, and she’s going to die. She hasn’t had a chance to live her life yet. But we turn her, she can live forever. She can do anything!”

“Except grow up,” Ezra reminded her firmly. “She can never fall in love or get married. Her emotions will never completely mature, but she’ll have the wisdom of an old man. She’ll never be able to live on her own or drive a car or even go to a bar. She’ll depend on you for everything, forever, and that may delight you, but she’ll hate you for cursing her to this life. On top of all that, other vampires will never accept her, or you, for it. They’ll try to kill her because she’s an abomination against everything we are. And that says nothing to our more perverse underbelly, who thrive on making childlike vampires to live as their slaves or to trade with human pedophiles in exchange for blood. Is that really the kind of life you want for her? Do you think that’s what her hopes and dreams amount to?”

“It won’t be like that,” Mae insisted, shaking her head. “We will protect her and love her, and she’ll have everything a child could ever want.”

“But she won’t really be a child forever! She’ll be a woman trapped in a child’s body with a child’s temperament for all of eternity! That is a horrible thing to do to someone you claim to love so much!” Ezra shouted gravely.

“You don’t understand!” Mae looked up desperately at him, and he met her eyes. “I cannot let this happen! I swore I would never watch another one of my children die!” Ezra exhaled deeply and matched her intense expression with a calm one of his own.

“Then don’t watch,” Ezra replied coolly.

“Ezra!” I shouted, unable to believe that he would say something that cold to Mae, when she was obviously going through something insanely painful and difficult.

“I know she is hurting, but I can’t do this!” Ezra’s collected façade evaporated for a moment, and he was merely exasperated and worried. Mae had gone back to looking at the floor and crying, and for a brief second, Ezra just looked completely lost. “There is nothing I can do to rectify this situation!”

“So then comfort her! Don’t yell at her!” I told him, still in shock over how icy he had been to her.

“No, it’s alright, Alice,” Mae said wearily and shook her head. “I knew what I was going to get from him. Ezra is many things, but he is predictable above all else.” Sighing heavily, she slowly got to her feet. She wiped the tears from her face and tried to smooth out her hair. When she had composed herself a bit, she turned to look at him. “I will do what I have to do.”

“I understand that, but you will not do it in my house,” Ezra said evenly.

“I know.” Mae nodded once, and then turned and walked slowly back to her room.

For a moment after she left, I just stood and tried to catch my breath. I had never seen the two of them fight about anything before, let alone something as intense as that. I knew that Ezra was right, that turning a child into a vampire was an impossible idea, but I knew how desperate Mae was to do anything to protect her family. Finally, Ezra started to move, picking up the pieces of broken glass of the floor, and I went over to join him.

“You were too cold with her,” I said quietly, picking up a large chunk of glass. My hair was still dripping water cold down my back, and I tucked it behind my ears. Part of me felt nervous at the thought of contradicting Ezra about something like this, but he had no reason to be that cruel.

“She wouldn’t have listened to anything else. She’s been pleading me with since she found out about the child being ill, and I decided that being forthright was the best avenue to take.” Ezra was incredibly tired, and I wasn’t sure if he was over what the lycan had done to him yet, either.

“Why is she pleading with you?” I asked, looking up at him. “I mean, if this is what she wants, then why doesn’t she just do it herself? Why does she need your permission?”