When my phone vibrated, I was sobbing. Both Milo and Jane were too out to even notice. The car was still running, blasting me with freezing cold air. I had lost some blood, and I was terribly thirsty, so I had a feeling that I was going into shock.
I barely even noticed the phone vibration over my own shaking, but when I did, I answered it quickly.
“Hello?” I said, doing my best not to sound borderline hysterical.
“Alice?” Jack said, sounding rather frantic himself. A lot of background noise was behind him, people talking and what sounded like a radio announcer. “Are you okay? What’s going on? What happened? I’ve been calling. Why didn’t you answer the phone?”
“I’m okay.” I sniffled. “I didn’t hear my phone. Are you coming home?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m at the airport now,” Jack said. That explained all the sounds around him, and I heard Ezra asking him something. “What happened? Is everyone okay? When I couldn’t get a hold of you, Ezra tried Mae, and she said Milo was at your house. Is he okay? Did he do something?”
“No, he’s okay.” I swallowed hard to keep from crying again. “Milo came over, and he said I had to get out of the house, and then Jane texted me-”
“Jane?” Jack scoffed. “I should’ve known she’d have something to do with this.”
“She saved my life tonight, Jack!” I insisted defensively.
In all honesty, I had never felt closer to her than I did now. Looking at her passed out on the seat with faded red marks on her neck, I knew that she actually cared about me. She risked her life for me.
“She did what?” His voice dropped to a panicked growl. “What the hell happened tonight, Alice?”
“We went to a club, just a regular gay club,” I said quickly. “And we were dancing and it was fine, but then the vampires from the other club – Violet and Lucian – they were there. They chased us, and Milo fought them, and then we all got in the car and we’d been driving around all night.”
“Wait. They chased you?”
“Yeah. I don’t know when they stopped, though. Maybe after Milo fought with them.” I looked around, suddenly afraid that they were lurking around in the darkness, but the sky was definitely starting to lighten now. “Milo got hurt, though. And lost some blood.”
“He didn’t bite you, did he?” Jack sounded sick and afraid, and I heard Ezra booming in the background, “What is going on there?” But Jack didn’t answer him. He was too worried to stop talking to me, even for a second.
“No, he didn’t.” Fresh tears sprung in my eyes, and I tried to erase the image of my brother gnawing on Jane like a wild dog. “He bit Jane, though.”
“Oh.” He exhaled. “Is she… okay?”
“Yeah. They’re both fine. They’re just passed out in the car.” I wiped at my tears with the palms of my hand and wished this didn’t bother me so much. I had spent all this time with vampires and I wanted to be one, so it shouldn’t bother me.
“You’re still in the car?” Jack asked. “It’s almost…. It is after five there. You need to wake Milo up and get him home before the sun comes up. He’ll be too tired to do anything then.”
“They won’t wake up!” I cried. Jane stirred a little bit, but she was still out.
“Wake them up. Hit Milo if you have to. You guys need to get home,” Jack sighed. “If there are people out there after you, you can’t just sit in a car waiting for them to find you. Get Milo up and get home!”
“Okay,” I said. Looking at Milo’s sleeping face, and the trail of red-tinted drool coming out of his mouth, I figured that was easier said than done.
“The plane is about to start boarding. I’ll be home as soon as I can. You just get home, and stay put. Mae can take care of everything until I get there,” Jack said firmly. “And take Jane home.”
“What about all this stuff?” I asked. “The vampires and… and her being bit.”
“She’ll be tired when she wakes up but fine. And they’re not after her, okay? She’s safer without you. So just take her home, and you can call her tomorrow and tell her whatever the hell you want to tell her. Okay?”
“Okay,” I said “I’m gonna try and wake up Milo now.”
“Alright. Call me or Mae if you need anything. Or even 911. They’re better than nothing.” He sounded reluctant to get off the phone. “Alice? Just… take care of yourself, okay? Just run. Okay? Always run.”
I hung up the phone and went about trying to wake Milo up. I don’t think I’d ever seen him so deeply asleep before, not even when he was little. I reached over and shook him, but he swatted at me, like Jane did, but with more force.
“Milo?” I said loudly, and Jane moaned next to me. “Milo?”
“Wha…” Milo moved his head but didn’t open his eyes.
“Milo, you’ve got to get up!” I reached over and slapped his face.