“What?” Jack stopped kissing me so he could look at me. He tried to play it cool, but his excitement was unmistakable. “Seriously?”
“Yeah,” I looked up at him. Being bitten felt amazing, and he was in control enough where it wouldn’t be that dangerous. I’d be the weak one, but I’d just fed so I wouldn’t be ravenous.
“When was the last time you ate?”
“Jack!” I said. “Don’t break the romance with logic. I’m fine, okay?”
He bit his lip and looked down at me. He was making sure that I was completely okay with it, but he obviously wanted to do it. I could feel his hunger, hot and eager, flowing over me. His heart pounded heavily, and it was just above mine, so I could almost feel it. His eyes faded translucent, the way they did when he really wanted me. The more passionate he got, the lighter the color of his eyes.
When his lips pressed against my veins, I moaned involuntarily, and I arched my back, pushing closer to him.
“Alice!” Mae screamed and threw open the bedroom door.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me!” Jack yelled incredulously and sat up, and I agreed. He turned to glare at her. “There’s nothing wrong with what we’re doing!”
“I don’t care about you,” Mae said. She looked stricken, so I sat up and pushed Jack back out of the way. “Jane is missing! I think something’s happened to her!”
- 30 -
In the panic over a possible Jane-napping, I didn’t think to put on pants and Jack didn’t put on a shirt, so we both got dirty looks from Milo. He’d rushed out of his room when he heard Mae screaming. I returned his dirty look since Bobby was shirtless and guilty looking.
We were all crowded inside Jane’s room, investigating her disappearance. Mae had tired of her pursuit of the alarm manual, so she had gone upstairs to bunk with Jane again, but when she’d come in the room, Jane was gone. That was all her evidence.
“Did somebody ransack the room or something?” Bobby asked, admiring the disheveled state of Peter’s room. Somehow, half of my wardrobe had migrated over here and had been strewn around everywhere.
“No, it always looks like this,” I said. I hadn’t seen her room lately, but this was her natural state of being.
“Not to sound like a dick,” Jack said, “but you just dragged us out of bed to show us Jane’s messy room? That’s not really an emergency, Mae.”
“She’s not here!” Mae gestured to the mess around her. “That’s the emergency.”
“Again, not to be a dick, but that’s not really an emergency,” Jack said.
“Something could’ve happened to her!” Mae insisted. “She wouldn’t just leave like this!”
“She might,” Milo said. “She was bitching downstairs about how boring we are.”
“But she didn’t tell me where she was going.” Mae looked at us all with disbelief. Jane had really gotten to her, and she wasn’t willing to let her go so easily.
“You know what? I’m sure she has her phone on her,” I said. “I’ll call her, and we can figure this out right away.”
“Good idea.” Mae was slightly relieved at that.
“Well, I’m going back to bed,” Milo yawned. “I’m sure she’ll turn up.”
I hurried across the hall to my room, and Jack trailed behind me. Mae stayed behind in the hallway to argue with Milo about how innocent Jane was while I pulled my cell phone out of my pants pocket. Jack rubbed his bare arms and shook his head.
“You don’t really believe something happened to Jane?” Jack asked quietly.
“I don’t really know, and I’ll feel better making sure.” I scrolled through my phone for her number, then hit call.
The phone rang in my ear, and I watched as Milo and Bobby slunk back to their room. Mae looked at me expectantly, and I started to tell her that Jane wasn’t answering when Jane picked up.
“Yeah, what?” Jane sounded bored.
“Jane?” I asked tentatively. “Where are you?”
“Out. Your place was a drag,” Jane yawned.
“Really? You’re calling us a ‘drag?’” I asked. Mae peered at me with concern, but Jack rolled his eyes and walked to the other side of the room.
“No, you’re not.” Jane sighed. “Look, I know you guys have been really good to me, and I appreciate all your hospitality. But… the thing is, I need a bite.”
“We have food here, Jane. You didn’t need to-”
“No, not a bite to eat,” Jane cut me off. “I need to be bitten.”
“But… No,” I shook my head. “We just got you out of there. That life is bad for you, and you know it.”
“Jonathan is bad for me, and I got a little carried away on Halloween.” Jane made it sound like she had a drink too many at an office party. She had almost died because a vampire was eating her throat. “But I still love the way it feels, and I’ve just been craving it.”
“Jane!” I shouted, incredulous. “No! You will die if you keep it up!”