promise. Just… not today, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, just go.”
“Sorry. I’ll talk to you later.” And with that, I was out the door. I know I should’ve said more, but I couldn’t even wait for the elevator today. I pushed the call button, and when the doors didn’t immediately open, I ran down the stairs. It didn’t feel right to sit still anyway. My mind was reeling about the possibilities of what a family crisis could mean for them.
Even in the rush I had been in, Jack had still managed to beat me outside.
He’d driven the Jeep, and I practically dove into it. Then I looked at him expectantly, and he just smiled grimly at me.
“What happened?” I demanded as we pulled away from my apartment building.
“And a ‘how do you do’ to you too,” Jack replied dryly.
“Jack!”
“Sorry.” He stared out straight ahead but kept taking sidelong glances at me. “So… last night, after you left… Peter left.”
“What do you mean ‘left?’” My heart had already started pounding and my stomach twisted in knots, and Jack just groaned. “Jack? Where’d he go?
Why’d he leave? Because of me?”
“You have to calm down,” Jack sighed. “This is why I didn’t do it over the phone, but maybe I should’ve.” Then he looked at me somberly, his eyes pleading with me. “Please calm down.”
“I will if you just tell me what’s going on!” Just the same, I tried to slow my breathing and the frantic beating of my heart.
“We don’t really know where he went.” He had waited for me to calm down a bit, but he kept his eyes fixed on the road, like he was trying really hard not to be distracted by me. His knuckles had gone white from the way he gripped the steering wheel. “Ezra has some ideas because…” He trailed off and rubbed his temple. “He left because of… You can’t take this wrong way. I know that you will, though. You always take everything the wrong way. If I said, ‘hey you look nice today,’ you’d say, ‘and what I don’t look nice everyday?’”
“Jack, please focus.” I wanted to yell at him and make him just hurry up and tell me what was going on, but I thought that would just drag out the process even more.
“Yeah.” He quickly glanced at me, but I didn’t understand what he meant so I just stared at him. “Yes. Peter left because of you. Because of what happened, well, almost happened yesterday. But its not because you did anything wrong, or there’s anything wrong with you. Peter’s just going through his own thing and I don’t know. I think he’s just being an ass, but Ezra says…”
He trailed off, probably realizing that he hadn’t really said anything but he’d almost said too much.
My eyes had welled with tears. No matter what Jack said, Peter left because of me, because of something that I had or hadn’t done, and it was devastating. Everything about me craved him, and the fact that anything about me drove him away was completely unforgivable.
“What did almost happen yesterday?” I asked quietly.
“Well…” Jack laughed hollowly, and his hand gripped the wheel even tighter. “What do you think happened yesterday?”
“I don’t know. Honestly, it’s hard to remember. When I try to think about it, I just remember being in his room and feeling this incredible pull towards him and this… yearning.”
I tried hard to focus on what had sent me in a tailspin, but it felt so foggy.
I could remember Peter’s eyes and the way he smelled and wanting him so much it hurt. My heart was racing, throbbing painfully, and I had gotten short of breath. Just thinking about Peter caused a psychosomatic reaction.
“Stop, Alice,” Jack whimpered, and he was in total agony. His blue eyes had gone almost translucent, and they had that hungry look that was very reminiscent of the one that Peter had given me last night.
“Stop what?” I asked breathlessly. He groaned and looked away from me, and I was about press him further, but then the Jeep started skidding horribly across the road.
“Ah, hell.” Jack gripped the wheel and tried to correct it, but I felt it start to tilt to the side, and he gave me a frantic look.
Before I could really understand what was happening, he lunged at me, wrapping his arms tightly around me and pressing me against him. I closed my eyes and buried my face in his chest, and I felt his body curl protectively around me. There was the sensation of moving and I felt cold wind whip through my hair. The sound of crunching metal and shattering glass and this sickening thud filled my ears, but I could barely hear anything over the pounding of my heart.
Then I finally felt Jack’s arm relax around me, and I lifted my head, looking at him in the face. He was worried and scared for me, but there was still that underlying hunger.
“Are you okay?” Jack asked, pushing the hair from eyes to inspect for wounds.
“I think so,” I nodded. I felt dazed and scared, but nothing really hurt.
“Good. Then I need you to get away from me for a minute,” Jack said, not unkindly.
I hurried to do as he asked, pushing myself off of him and standing up. He jumped up quickly and took several steps back from me. For the first time, I looked around. We were on the shoulder of the highway, and there were bits of broken glass and metal all over the road. Another car had been crushed against the cement divider in the middle, and there was an SUV farther down that looked like it had some minor damage. Headlights of stopped cars blinded me.
At first, I couldn’t figure out where the Jeep was, and then I saw it. About thirty feet back from us, the crushed remnants of Jeep, setting on its top, were engulfed in flames. I gasped, realizing that if Jack hadn’t grabbed me, I either would’ve stayed in that car to get smashed and burned up, or I would’ve been thrown from the Jeep going well over a hundred miles an hour and landed on the pavement.
“Are you okay?” I looked back at him.
Jack had taken the brunt force of everything, and if he hadn’t, I surely would’ve been killed. My body was much more fragile than his, but he had to have sustained some wounds.
“Yeah, I’m just great.” He was trying to compose himself and looking at the carnage around us.
There appeared to be some cuts on his arm, and when he turned away, I saw the back of his shirt was completely shredded and covered in blood. When he’d hit the road, he must’ve landed on his back and then skidded for awhile.
“You’re covered in blood!” I exclaimed and took a step closer to him, trying to inspect his wounds, but he just waved me off. I remembered the dog bite, and how the major wounds had looked so minor. I wasn’t really worried about this, but he had just been thrown from the car.
“I’m fine.” He held his arm out for me to see. There was a thick line of blood from where a gash should be, but there wasn’t one. In fact, there wasn’t even a raised red mark.
“What about your back?” I asked, but he shook his head.
“It tingles. It’ll be fine in a minute.” All the skin and the muscles should’ve been ripped from his back, but it would be fine in a minute. My mind still couldn’t wrap itself around him, or what he could do.
“You saved my life. Again.” I wrapped my arms tightly around myself. The adrenaline and confusion and Peter’s sedative all mixed through me, on top of Jack’s apprehension and fading hunger. I knew I was on the verge of hysterics.
“Well, this time, I almost killed you too. So… it kinda evens out.” Jack meant he’d almost killed me by driving too fast and crashing the Jeep, but I could still feel how hungry he was and remembered that ominous conversation he’d had with Ezra about how this all wouldn’t last much longer.
“Why do you keep saving my life?” My voice trembled and I could feel hot tears sliding down my cheeks. Jack looked at me like he didn’t understand what I meant, but I went on talking, and the more I talked, the harder I cried. “I just don’t get it! Why do you keep saving me if you’re just going to kill me? Why don’t you just hurry up and get it over with already? Is this some kind of sick game for you? Do you always have to play with your food before you eat it?” His jaw dropped and his eyes widened with shock and hurt.
“Do you know…” Jack trailed off, trying to get a handle on what I meant.
“We’re not going to kill you.”
“Then what’s going on?” I was almost shrieking by then, and Jack was debating on whether or not he should
