Wisdom updated edition, p.25
Wisdom: Updated Edition, page 25
“I’m so sorry this happened,” I said. “None of you deserved to go through this.”
Tears streamed down his cheek, and I put my arm around him, pulling close to me. Peter cried softly in my arms, and I wouldn’t have known if it wasn’t for the shaking of his body as he held back sobs.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled when he got himself under control again. He sat up more but still remained close to me.
“Don’t be sorry.”
When he looked at me, his green eyes meeting mine, I’d never seen him look more wounded. I leaned over and kissed his cheek, meaning to kiss his tears away. His skin warmed under my lips, sending a familiar thrill racing through me, and I leaned back.
I wiped my thumb along the spot I’d kissed him, erasing it, and his eyes held me the way they once had. For a moment, I wanted to lose myself in Peter, and forget about everything else that hurt so much lately.
But I did remember, and I breathed in deeply, knowing this moment had to end.
“You’ll be okay, won’t you?” I asked.
“I always am.” Peter said flatly.
“I do love you, you know?” I asked him, and he nodded.
“You just love him more.”
“But that doesn’t change the way I feel about you.” I reached over and took his hand in mine. “Nothing can. And I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
Peter arched his eyebrow. “You’re worried I’m going to do something foolish?”
“You tend to do that when you’re hurting,” I admitted.
“Don’t worry, Alice. I know that you’ll always come chasing me down, and I won’t do anything to risk your safety again.”
“So…” Jack interrupted, and I looked up to see him standing at the top of the steps, staring down at me sidled up next to Peter, holding his hand. “I just thought I’d let you know that Milo was doing good.”
“Thanks, Jack.” I let go of Peter’s hand and stood up, but I didn’t rush. I hadn’t done anything wrong, and I had nothing to hide. “I should go get cleaned up.”
“Yeah. Probably.” Jack walked down the stairs, brushing past me and Peter.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“Out,” he said without looking back. “I’m leaving on a business trip tonight, so don’t wait up.”
Chapter Twenty-five
Ezra buried Daisy in the backyard, under the willow tree. After that, he decided that we’d had enough of it here and put the house up for sale.
The next few days, Mae was inconsolable. She moved like a zombie, and Ezra had to physically prompt to her to do anything. She was pale and listless, and I’m not sure that even Ezra was convinced that she would ever get better. But no matter, he would stand by her through this.
Milo decided that we needed to visit our mom and that Leif needed to come with us. I was against it, but my brother eventually wore me down. She was our mother, he’d insisted, and she had loved us the best she could. She didn’t deserve to be alone, abandoned by everyone she loved, without knowing why.
Maybe she didn’t need to be abandoned anymore. Milo wanted to come clean with her in hopes that we wouldn’t have to hide from her.
Before we invited Leif in, Milo and I sat with our mother alone in our old apartment, and we told her the whole truth. About where we’d been and how we’d become vampires.
At first, Mom got angry, demanding to know why we were being so cruel to her. Then Leif came in, and all her defenses melted. He told her she looked as beautiful as she ever did, and by the look in his eyes, I think he meant it. They both cried and kissed, and after that we all talked as a family. We talked for hours, having the first real open conversation we’d ever had.
She cried a lot, and I’d never really seen her cry before. She apologized for always running away from us, and said she was a coward. Milo and I reminded her too much of Leif, and she’d been trying to outrun the pain from that, but she never could.
When Milo and I finally left in the early morning hours, Leif was still there. By the way they were interacting, I doubted he’d leave any time soon. They had a lot of years to catch up on.
That reunion made me feel a tad bit better about everything else going on. Jack still hadn’t talked to me much since he’d been on his business trip. He responded to a couple text messages, but never initiated them.
Although, in that defense, he said the trip was really busy since he was doing it all by himself, and Ezra was supposed to be the one to handle it. But Ezra was occupied with Mae, and Peter was mourning in his own Peter way.
I tried not to think about anything and went about putting the house in order. I wasn’t sure how long it would take to sell, or where we would go once it was sold, but I wanted to be prepared.
As I was going through my clothes, sorting them out to pack and to get rid of, I opened my underwear drawer in the closet. I decided I had way too many, and I picked up a handful to throw away. I lifted them up, and something caught on the drawer.
A diamond encrusted heart-shaped locket, Peter’s gift to me for my eighteenth birthday. I detangled it from the panties and my drawer, and I held it up, watching as it spun and light shone off the diamonds.
It was very beautiful. But I would never wear it. No matter how lovely it might be, I would never feel right about wearing such a romantic gift from Peter. It may have been a stunning locket, but it shouldn’t be mine. I set it aside, with things to donate or sell.
Peter hadn’t been taking Daisy’s death much better than Mae. He’d spent the whole time locked inside Ezra’s den with the lights off, listening to classical music.
Bobby had a big art show opening at the college, and I made Peter go with me to get out of the house for a while. Bobby had done some really amazing charcoal sketches, and even Peter commented on his talent.
But it wasn’t long before the crowd started getting to him. Not the blood, but all the chatter. Too many people talking too much. We stayed long enough to see Bobby’s work and tell him it was fantastic, then we left to let him and Milo deal with the crowds all night long.
“It’s good to get out of the house sometimes,” I told Peter as we walked out of the college.
“I guess,” he said noncommittally. “I prefer sitting in the den listening to Joseph Hadyn.”
I rolled my eyes. “You and Ezra are so much alike sometimes, it’s not even funny.
“Well, we have lived together for nearly two-hundred years,” Peter pointed out. “We ought to have some things in common.”
“Yeah,” I said and pressed my hand to my stomach. The strangest wave of nausea hit me, and I stopped, waiting a moment until it passed.
“Are you okay?” Peter asked, pausing to wait for me.
We stood in the middle of the sidewalk as art students and their friends and family brushed past us. Peter put a hand on my arm and ushered me off to the side so we weren’t blocking traffic so much.
“I’m fine,” I insisted, and the queasiness had passed, so I thought I really might be.
Twice more on the short drive home, I felt that same weird nausea pinching my stomach. I rolled down the windows, hoping the cold night air would help, and it did help, a little bit. Peter asked me about it, but I didn’t want to talk, so I turned up Julian Plenti on the stereo so I wouldn’t have to.
As soon as he pulled into the garage, Peter jumped out of the car and ran around to help me out. I tried to brush him off, but I doubled over when I stood up. The nausea was so intense, I almost threw up all over his shoes.
“What’s wrong?” Peter wrapped his arm around me and helped me hobble to the house.
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “Maybe I have the flu.”
“Vampires can’t get the flu,” he said and pulled open the door to the house. “Oh fuck.”
“What?” I lifted my head, but when I saw the kitchen, I understood.
The house had been ransacked. Broken appliances and a dining room chair were splintered all over. Blood stained the tiles, splattering red on everything.
Chapter Twenty-six
I ran into the house, pushing past Peter, and I found the source of the blood lying in the corner of the kitchen. Matilda’s fur had been soaked red, and she whimpered up at me, thumping her tail on the floor. I wanted to crouch down next to her and tell her everything would be okay, but I had to make sure everyone was safe first.
“Ezra!” I shouted, holding my stomach where the pain clamped my insides. “Mae!”
Peter ran ahead, and I went after him. He went upstairs, and I searched the downstairs. Every room I went through looked like it had been demolished. But I never found anybody.
“Nobody’s here,” Peter said, running down the stairs to me. “I think their cars were gone in the garage.” He rushed over to the door to the garage and opened it to check, but he paused there.
“What?” I asked.
“The Lexus is gone.” He looked back at me. “But the DeLorean is here.”
“Jack was supposed to come back tonight,” I remembered, and the pain in my stomach intensified. “Oh my god, Peter, what if he was here?”
“Call him,” Peter commanded pulling out his own phone. “I’m calling Ezra. Maybe they went somewhere together.”
I dialed Jack, and Matilda whined. Crouching beside her, I listened to the phone ringing over and over again, and I stroked her wet fur, trying to comfort her.
Peter called Ezra, and I heard him talk excitedly when Ezra answered.
But Jack never did.
“Ezra and Mae are safe. They went to the headstone of her other child.” Peter hung up his phone, and then he saw my face. “Jack didn’t answer?”
I shook my head. “Where is he?”
The nausea hit me again, much harder this time, and it sent a shooting pain all over my body. I bent forward and collapsed on my knees.
Peter crouched down next to me and put his hand on my back, and I gritted my teeth to keep from crying out.
“Alice, when did you last feed on Jack?”
“I don’t know,” I managed when the pain subsided a bit. “What does it matter?”
“That pain you’re feeling... do you think that could be Jack?”
“What?” I asked, and then I remembered the way I had felt Jane dying after I fed on her, and I looked up at Peter in horror. “You think the pain I’m feeling is coming from Jack? Is he dying right now?”
“We don’t have time to worry about that now, but maybe you can use it to track Jack.” Peter put his arm around my waist and stood up, pulling me with him. “If you wanna find Jack, you need to focus on him. You can tell where he’s coming from.”
“How?” I asked.
“Think about him. Not the pain, him.”
I closed my eyes and thought of Jack. His smile, his laugh, and the tether that kept us connected… and then there it was. I could feel it – him – pulling me.
“I don’t know where he is, but I can take us there,” I opened my eyes.
“I’ll drive, you direct me where to go.”
As we ran out the door, I promised Matilda we’d come back for her as soon as we could. I sat in the passenger seat of the Lamborghini, holding my stomach to keep from throwing up, and I told Peter where to turn. I couldn’t tell him where the destination was – it was just a pull in a certain direction.
We were almost there when I realized we were going to the tunnels where Leif lived and Peter, Mae, and Daisy had stayed. Jack had been taken underground.
“Do you have any idea what Jack might be doing here?” I asked Peter as he pulled up next to the bridge.
“No,” he said. “There shouldn’t be anybody here at all. If Leif has been staying with your mother… The tunnel should be empty.”
The pull and ache got stronger when we reached the tunnels, and I ran down them as fast as my legs would carry me. Peter called for me to slow down, to wait for him, but I couldn’t. I knew how much pain Jack was in, and I had to get to him.
Before I reached the cavern where Peter had been staying, I could hear Jack’s screams echoing through the wall, and adrenaline surged through me. I peered around the entrance of the cavern to see what I was up against, and it made my blood run cold. Thomas, Samantha, and Dane – the vampire hunters – were stalking about the cavern.
They had ransacked here too. All of the belongings that Mae, Peter, and Leif had left here were thrown about and broken. Samantha was at the mattresses, shredding them with a knife and digging through springs and stuffing, though I have no clue what she was searching for.
Dressed in all black, Thomas was near the corner, overseeing a fire that consumed Leif’s books and various linens. At first, I thought Thomas was leaning on a walking cane, but then I realized it was a metal poker, with the sharp tip glowing orange as he stoked the flames.
Dane stood at the edge of the cliff, holding a chain in his hands. The chain had been looped through an old pulley system in the ceiling, and from the other end of it, Jack hung limply over the edge of the cliff. His hands were bound with shackles, and his chin rested on his bloody chest.
“So, you’re still saying that you don’t know where the child vampire is?” Thomas asked, and he twirled it in his hand like a baton.
“No, I’ve already told you she’s dead,” Jack said in a voice that crackled with pain and exhaustion.
“We need to find the child,” Thomas said. “I don’t think you understand how serious I am.”
“No, I do, I really do…” Jack groaned. “But I can’t help you.”
Thomas held the poker over the flame from the books, waiting until the end was glowing bright yellow, and he stepped toward Jack with it pointed toward him.
“Stop!” I shouted and ran into the cavern because I couldn’t let them hurt him any further.
“Alice?” Jack squinted at me as blood dripped down his forehead and into his eyes.
“Well, well.” Thomas grinned and twirled the hot poker again. “Maybe she can tell us something.”
“No!” Jack shouted as he struggled futilely against the chains. “Alice! Get out of here!”
“Do you have the child vampire?” Samantha asked. She straightened up from her task of butchering the mattress, still holding the knife in her hand, and stepped towards me.
“No,” I said. “But I know where she is.”
“Alice!” Jack yelled. “Stop lying! Run!”
“Oh, be quiet.” Thomas sounded bored. While looking at me, he jabbed the burning poker backwards, right into Jack’s abdomen, and he twisted it. “Tell us where the child is, or we’ll kill him.”
Samantha eyed me suspiciously as she walked towards me. “I don’t think she knows anything. I think she’s lying.”
“I think it doesn’t matter what you think, because you’ll be dead very soon,” I said.
Her eyes widened, which was probably the biggest reaction I would get out of her. I raised my right arm like I meant to hit her, and when she dodged to the side, I kicked her right in the stomach.
As she went to the ground, Samantha tried to swipe out my legs from under me with her knife, but I jumped. She hit the concrete but immediately did a gymnastic-style flip and landed on her feet.
She kicked me in my hip, but I caught her leg and twisted her around. She jerked the knife back, stabbing me in the stomach, but I ignored that and grabbed her hair to get better control of her, so she left her weapon impaled inside me.
I pulled the knife from stomach, and I ran the knife roughly across her throat, tearing open her veins and her trachea. Her hands instantly went to her neck, desperately trying to stop the blood, and the gaping wound in her throat released strange gargling noise, sounding if she was drowning in her own blood.
The knife was still in my hand, and I turned it sideways as I faced her. While she gargled and stepped back from me, futilely holding her throat, and I rushed at her and slid the knife between her ribs and into her heart.
She stared at me for a moment, so I twisted the knife. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she crumpled onto the concrete.
“That was unexpected,” Thomas said.
I wiped her blood off my hand, and then I threw the knife at Dane and sprinted toward Jack. The blade struck Dane in the shoulder, not enough to really hurt him, but it startled him into letting go of the chain. I thought it might, which was why I was already running to grab it.
When I was near the edge of the cliff, I leapt. One foot landed on Dane, and I used him as a boost to jump higher. The action also had the positive reaction of pushing Dane forward, and he staggered back and fell off the cliff
I grabbed the end of the chain and it carried me up to the pulley. The force of Jack falling had it happening so fast, and I was slammed into the ceiling. I almost lost my grip, so I looped the chain around my wrist twice. My body was the anchor, preventing the chain from slipping through the pulley, and Jack from falling down the endless hole.
Peter had finally made it into the cavern, and he was facing off with Thomas while I was focused on trying to get Jack back onto solid ground.
Bracing my feet against the ceiling, I tried pulling the chain up. Jack wasn’t that heavy compared to my strength, but I had one wrist bound to the chain, so I had to do it one-handed. Plus, I was hanging upside down, and the angle I pulled it from made it hard to slide through.
“Alice.” Jack stared up at me, his feet dangling over a black, bottomless pit.
“Hold on, Jack. I’ll save you,” I said through gritted teeth.
The chain cut into my wrist, breaking the skin and blood dripped down over my arm and made the chain slick. I feared it would deglove my hand soon, and if it did that, the chain would slide free, off my hand, through the pulley, and Jack would fall and fall and fall...
“Alice, stop,” Jack said.
I had managed to pull him up higher, almost to the height of the cliff, and then I would just have to swing him over until he could reach the ground. But suddenly the chain slipped through my hand, and I lost all the progress I’d made when he dropped the few feet back down.
