58 “What?” I asked. “What’s he doing?” “He’s eating.” He looked at me and shrugged. “He’s going to be out in the world with people for the first time. It’s better if he’s not hungry.” “Do you need to eat?” “No. I’m good. Thanks for asking, though.” His eyes inspected me, looking for revulsion or fear, but when he didn’t find any, he eventually looked away. “Is he gonna eat my mom?” I had a serious risk of vomiting every time I thought about Milo drinking blood, but apparently, I did a fairly good job masking it. “That’s why he’s eating,” Jack said. “We’re hoping to avoid that entire situation.” “Excellent,” I sighed. “I’ll be there to bodyguard.” He flexed his muscles to prove that he was up for the job and grinned at me. “It’s gonna be fine.” “I know,” I said grimly. “Everything’s always going to be fine. Great. Good. Okay.” “He’s just about ready!” Mae declared, interrupting the worried look Jack gave me. When she saw me, her face fell. “Oh, Alice, love, you just look so pitiful.” “Sorry.” I tried to force a smile as she placed her hands on my arms. “You will be back, you know?” Her eyes glistened with wet tears, and it made me feel a little better she was sad to see me go. At least someone would miss me. “We’re not banishing you.” “I know,” I nodded, smiling a bit more genuinely. “You’re part of the family now.” She tucked a stray strand of hair behind my ear. “This is just how things have to be. For now.” “I know,” I repeated. And I did know. It didn’t change the fact that this still hurt. Mae threw her arms around me and pulled me close to her, hugging me so tight I could hardly breathe. She whispered in my hair, “Oh, love, you have
59 no idea how marvelous everything will be when it’s all said and done.” “Mae, honey, I think you’re smothering her.” Jack tapped her on the shoulder. “Oh, sorry!” Mae let go of me and took a step back, and I tried not to gasp for breath. “I keep forgetting how fragile you still are.” Down the hall, I heard Milo’s clumsy footsteps, and Ezra reassured Milo that everything would be alright. When they walked into the entryway, Ezra had his arm on Milo’s back, and Milo looked pale. “We can follow behind you if you want,” Ezra said. Jack was going with us, but Ezra and Mae had planned on staying at the house. “No, I’ll be fine.” Milo sounded better than he looked, and I wondered if I should take them up on the offer. “Are you sure?” Mae reached out and stroked his face, a gesture that I couldn’t do anymore. If I did, he’d be too tempted to rip open an artery. “Come on. Everybody’s great. Let’s get this show on the road.” Jack sensed my discomfort, and he wanted to get this over with. Reluctantly, Mae let us leave. I didn’t like how nervous she was about this, but there wasn’t very much about any of it that I did like. When we went into the garage, I walked ahead of Milo and reached the Jetta first. I grabbed for the passenger side door, planning to sit shotgun as I always did, and Milo growled at me. “Did you just growl at me?” I asked dubiously. “I might have,” Milo admitted with anger in his eyes. “Why would you growl at me?” “Alice,” Jack said sharply. He stood on the other side of the car beside the driver’s side door, and he looked at me from over the top of it. “Get in the backseat.” “Why?” “Just do it,” Jack said firmly “But that’s stupid!” I protested. “Just because Milo’s a vampire, he gets shotgun? That’s not fair. It doesn’t even make sense.”
60 “Just get in the back!” Milo snapped. I looked at him, and violence brewed in his eyes. “This is bogus,” I grumbled but got in the backseat. “This would be so much easier if you didn’t fight everything,” Jack said as he started the car. “You really didn’t realize what you were getting into with her, did you?” Milo saod. I bit my tongue, but it wasn’t an easy feat. Who the hell did Milo think he was? I wanted to shout at him, but I couldn’t, because he would literally bite my head off I did. That was so unfair, too. He got away with being a random dick because he could kill me. Milo never would’ve talked to me like that before. On the positive side, I didn’t feel so bad that I wouldn’t get to be around them as much anymore. In fact, I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t even miss Milo at all. He’d probably growl at me if I touched the television remote or something. I sulked through the car ride home. Jack had Dinosaur Jr. in the CD player, and that filled up the silence. Milo said a couple things that I couldn’t hear from the backseat, making me hate them all the more. When we pulled up in front of the apartment building, I leapt out of the car. Jack grabbed my bags from the trunk, and he and Milo followed me inside. We rode up the elevator in silence, and Milo tensed up. His jaw set, and he kept clenching and unclenching his fists. I looked over at Jack to see if he noticed, but he kept his expression blank. “Are you okay?” I asked Milo quietly outside our apartment door. “Yeah,” he nodded, but he definitely looked pale. “Maybe we should do this another time,” I suggested. I really wanted to get this over with, but not that the expense of my mother or my brother, even if he really pissed me off. “No. Let’s do this.” Milo pulled the keys out of his pocket and
61 unlocked the door. A light was on over the kitchen sink, but the rest of the apartment was dark. Milo still looked like Milo, but his drastic changes would be less noticeable in dim lighting. A scratched Led Zepplin record played softly in the living room, with Robert Plant crooning about when the levees break. “Mom?” I said cautiously, following Milo inside. “Oh, good, you’re finally here.” Mom burst out from her bedroom, a cigarette glowing in her hand, and her hair looked less frizzy than it usually did. Too-red lipsticks stained her lips. “I don’t have much longer to wait.” “You’re going somewhere?” I asked. Milo deliberately moved into the shadows of the apartment, but I lingered in the light of the kitchen. Jack set my bag on the floor and hovered next to me, hoping to catch my mother’s attention. She flitted about the living room, searching for something, so she hadn’t noticed him. The last time they met, Mom had swooned over him. “Yes, yes, in a bit,” Mom waved me away and found what she’d been looking for – a tumbler of brandy. Taking a long drink, she turned back to look at us. She finally saw Jack and inhaled deeply. “Oh, I didn’t realize you had guests.” “It’s good to see you, Miss Bonham,” Jack gave her a little half wave, and she placed her hand over her chest. “You were at a vacation house, weren’t you?” Mom asked and sat down in a chair in the living room. Apparently, he made her too weak in the knees to stand anymore. “Um, yeah,” Jack nodded, going along with the lie I had told her earlier. “Did you do a lot of swimming?” Mom was undoubtedly picturing him in swim trunks, and I wanted to gag. Milo made a strange sound, and Jack suddenly stepped forward, closer to him.
62 “We did tons of swimming. It was fantastic,” I blurted out. “But Mom, Milo really needs to talk to you. He, uh, has something major to tell you.” “Oh?” Mom struggled to pull her gaze from Jack to Milo, but her eyes didn’t have to travel far. Jack moved even closer to Milo, and things were not going as well as everyone had promised they would. “Yeah, it’s really great news,” Jack added in an attempt to sway her. “Here.” Milo thrust his hand forward, holding out a crumpled letter. His voice had taken on an icy tone, and if Jack hadn’t been here to distract Mom, she wouldn’t have bought any of this. “What are you shoving at me?” Mom made no attempt to get up and retrieve the letter from him. “It’s a letter,” Jack said and pried the paper from Milo’s fingers. When he handed it to her, their fingers briefly touched, and Milo made that sound again. “A letter?” Mom peered down at the paper once she had recovered from touching Jack. She tried to smooth it out, but the dim light and her poor eyesight made it almost impossible for her to read. “Well, what’s this about?” She looked back up at Milo. “Just spit it out.” “I’ve been accepted to a boarding school in New York,” Milo answered stiffly. “Thanks to my grades, I’ve received a full scholarship. The semester starts in a week, and they want me to get there early. So. I’m going to leave tomorrow.” “What?” Mom looked confused. Milo was the good one, and she wasn’t used to him not making any sense. “Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?” “I was waiting for the right time to tell you,” Milo said. “That’s why we want to the vacation house,” Jack smiled too broadly. “As one last hoorah before he goes.” “What?” Mom repeated. “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t tell me about this.” “I was afraid you’d be angry about me leaving.” Milo didn’t sound