As I had predicted, Milo was completely enchanted with Mae. They seemed made for each other. She was all motherly love, and he was all motherless child. When they made their way back into the living room, Milo went back to playing video games with Jack. I curled up on the couch with Mae, resting my head on her lap, and let her play with my hair.
“I know you’re hurting now, but things will make sense, love,” Mae murmured, pushing my hair from my eyes. “Everything happens for a reason.”
The nights of barely sleeping had finally caught up with me, and the soothing comfort of Mae was too much. I drifted off to sleep, and it was filled with dreams of Peter. They were almost entirely X-rated, but they weren’t bad at all. In fact, they were probably the best dreams I’d ever had.
When I woke up, I felt good, but incredibly disoriented. The living room was dark, and I was completely alone, except for Matilda, who snored loudly on the floor next to me. I moved a little on the couch, preparing to start calling for Jack or Milo, but then I heard voices talking softly nearby. And then I heard my name, so I stopped moving and strained to hear.
“Well, we obviously can’t leave Alice alone with him anymore.” That was Jack, trying to protect me from Peter, and I knew there was a reason that I’d never doubted my safety when I was with him.
“No, I agree.” Ezra’s deep voice sounded like a lullaby when he kept it low. I imagined that it would be incredibly tranquil to have him sing me to sleep.
“But they’ll have to eventually.”
“But she’s not ready for it,” Jack grumbled. “He’s not ready for it.”
“You’re not ready for it,” Ezra countered. Ready for what? Me to die?
Nobody should be ready for that. Tell him, Jack!
“Maybe not,” Jack relented. “But he feels too conflicted for anything to work. He’s sending her mixed messages, and he’s just making everything harder on her than it needs to be. I mean, you saw her today.”
“It’s incredibly painful, rejecting it.” Ezra was calmly explaining to Jack, and I didn’t understand it at all. Rejecting what? Me? Killing me? What?! “And Peter’s showing a tremendous will just going against it, but eventually, he’ll give in. It’s impossible. Whatever pain he thinks he’s avoiding, this is far worse.”
“How do you know?” Jack asked him suspiciously. “You never rejected it.”
“I did at first,” Ezra said, then backtracked. “Well, not really. I just didn’t understand what it was at first, and I tried to ignore it, and that was brutal. And I saw Peter after what happened with Alice.”
“And?” Jack pressed Ezra when he didn’t say anything, and I was forever indebted to him. I was dying to know what Peter had been like after I left, but of course, I couldn’t ask.
“Its sheer torture denying it,” Ezra replied thickly.
“How much longer will this go on?” Jack asked quietly, and I couldn’t help but notice a hint of sadness in his voice.
“Not much longer.” Ezra breathed deeply. “We’ll just have to keep an eye on both of them.”
“Ezra!” Mae called from another room, sounding farther away than them.
“Come here! Milo’s beat me at chess twice already! You’ve got to try against him! He’s amazing!”
“I’ll be right there!” Ezra shouted back to her, then spoke quieter to Jack.
“You understand?”
“Yeah,” Jack said reluctantly.
I didn’t hear Ezra’s footfalls when he walked away, but that didn’t surprise me. I saw Jack’s silhouette appear in the doorway, and I quickly closed my eyes to pretend like I was sleeping. Matilda whimpered as he walked past her, and he patted her head before sitting on the couch next to me. As soon as I felt the couch moved, I stirred like I was just waking up.
“Did you sleep okay?” Jack asked.
“Yeah,” I nodded and moved so I was sitting on my knees facing him. My voice sounded thick, and it was because I was fighting off tears, but I hoped he would think it was just because I was tired.
“Hey are you okay?” Jack sounded sad and worried. My eyes were starting to adjust to the dark, and I could just map out the concerned expression on his face.
“Yeah, just tired.”
“I gathered that when you just passed out.” He was trying to keep his tone light, but he was struggling. What Ezra had told him had gotten to him too.
When he felt anxious and worried, I felt it even worse. It wouldn’t be much longer before I started to cry.
“You sound upset,” I commented.
“Nah, I’m fine,” Jack insisted, shaking his head in the darkness.
“Jack, just promise me that I’ll be okay. You know I’ll believe anything you say, so just promise me that everything will be okay.” My voice sounded more nervous than I would’ve liked.
“I know you can’t understand right now, but you’ve got nothing to worry about.” Then he put his arm around me and roughly pulled me close to him. I rested my head on his chest, and he rested his chin on the top of my head. “I’m just upset because I care about you too much. The problem’s me, not you. You are gonna be better than fine. I promise.”
“You’re right. I don’t understand.” He stroked my hair, and I moved my head on his chest. Then I realized something odd. “I can’t hear your heart beat.”
“Just listen harder,” Jack suggested. Pressing my ear closer to his chest, I listened hard, and sure enough, there it was. But it was very faint and incredibly slow. I wasn’t timing it, but it couldn’t have been beating more than ten or twenty times a minute.
“It’s so slow!” I jerked my head back so I could look at him. “Are you okay? You’re not having a heart attack are you?”
“No,” Jack laughed, this time sounding more like himself. “That’s just the way my heart beats.”
“But that’s not the way hearts are supposed to beat.” I furrowed my brow, trying to understand. “That’s not how my heart beats.”
“I know.” He was mildly amused, but my confusion always seemed to entertain him. “I can hear your heartbeat.”
“How? You’re way over there.” He was actually sitting right next to me, but he was still too far away to hear my heartbeat. “You’re hearing isn’t that good.”
“It is for this one thing.” He reached out and put his hand gingerly on my throat.
At first, I didn’t understand what he was doing, but then I felt his thumb stroking my jugular vein. He was feeling my pulse, and a look of sheer pleasure passed across his face. A warm hunger radiated from him that I didn’t grasp.
“Jack!” Ezra’s voice broke into the room, and Jack instantly dropped his hand, as if he had been caught with his hand up my shirt instead of on my throat. “Its late. Milo’s tired. Maybe you should take them home. Unless you don’t feel up to it yourself. In which case, I’d be more than happy-”
“No, I’ve got it,” Jack replied gruffly and stood up.
Ezra gave Jack a disapproving look as we walked out of the living room, but Jack refused to look at him. For me, Ezra gave a reassuring smile and said he hoped that I would come back soon. Mae hugged me tightly at the door, but she hugged Milo even tighter. During the car ride home, Milo rattled on endlessly about what an amazing house Jack had and how great Mae was and all the fun things he’d done while I had been asleep. I rested my head against the cold glass of the window, and found that for once, I had very little to say.
I still didn’t know what Jack and his family were, but they definitely couldn’t be trusted. Peter wanted to hate me because for some reason, he was going to have to kill me. The reason he was being rude to me and keeping me at a distance was because he didn’t want to hurt me. He was trying to protect me.