LoveAlice” In the car ride home, I said very little. My note to my mother didn’t sound very convincing, mostly because it was from me, and Milo was the one that usually did that kind of thing. Hopefully, she wouldn’t try to call his cell phone either, since he would be too incapacitated to answer it. I started worrying that she might try getting a hold of him, and when she couldn’t, she’d call the police and send a search party out after us. That really didn’t seem likely, but I was paranoid about everything.
“How long is this gonna take?” I asked finally. In my mind, I was thinking the sooner I got home, the better, and I was already trying to plan for it.
“The car ride?” Jack was willfully playing dumb, and I didn’t appreciate it. “Like five more minutes.”
“How long will it take for Milo to turn?” I carefully enunciated all the words.
“I don’t know, Alice,” Jack replied tiredly.
“What do you know?” I snapped.
“I told you that you need to talk to Ezra about all of this,” Jack grumbled. “I don’t know why you think I was kidding about it. We’re almost home now. Then you can run inside and interrogate him until your heart’s content.”
“I will.” I crossed my arms over my chest, as if I had won something.
“Yeah. I know you will.”
Being the gentleman that he was, Jack carried the bags inside when we got to his house. As usual, Matilda was waiting by the door for his return, but even she seemed oddly subdued. The entire mood of the house had changed. Everybody was on edge waiting for Milo to be okay, and under other circumstances, I might have found that flattering, but right now, it just made me even more paranoid.
Jack headed upstairs and I started following him. I planned on checking on Milo again and getting our things settled in, but Ezra appeared at the top of the steps. Something about the way he looked made me freeze, but Jack just kept on going, brushing past him with our luggage in tow.
“Did something happen?” I asked Ezra sounding panicked. Anymore, I couldn’t help but assume the worst.
“He’s fine,” Ezra reassured me and descended the stairs gracefully. “But I don’t you should see him right now.”
“Why not?” I felt myself straightening up for a fight. Nobody could keep me from my brother, not even an all-powerful vampire, but then he placed his hand gently on my arm, and some of my anger relented.
“Let’s talk.” Moving his hand to the small of my back, he ushered me towards the living room, and I let him, although I still felt nervous.
“Are you sure nothing happened?” I repeated.
“He woke up,” Ezra allowed carefully, and my heart sped hopefully.
“He did? Is he okay? What did he say?” My excitement was overwhelming, but Ezra gestured to couch.
“Please, sit. We need to talk.”
“What?” I collapsed back on the couch, feeling nauseous. I was on a constant roller coaster between terrified and hopeful, and my heart could hardly take it anymore.
“He is turning, and rather rapidly, at that,” Ezra told me warmly and sat down next to me. “He’s young and strong, and the change should be completely over within a few days. He’s going to be alright.”
“Oh, that’s wonderful,” I breathed deeply. A weight lifted off my shoulders, and a surge of relief went through me. Then I noticed the grim expression on Ezra’s face. “So why do you still look like you have bad news?”
“I don’t. Not really,” Ezra qualified, forcing a smile. “You just can’t see him for awhile.”
“What do you mean?” I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to understand why I possibly couldn’t see my brother.
“At least until the change is complete and we can get a grip on his hunger,” he elaborated, and then I remembered what Jack had said in the car. “You can’t go near him until things are under control.”
“He’s going to try and bite me?” I shook my head, disbelieving. “He hasn’t fully turned yet. He just woke up.”
“He’s already eating, Alice.”
For some reason, that stung painfully. My chest tightened and my head started to swim. I thought I still had time. I don’t know what I possibly planned on doing with that time, but I thought he’d be human for just a little bit longer. But he was drinking blood less than twenty-four hours after biting Jack. He was Milo, the vampire, and he would kill me if I got too close to him.
“It will get better. I promise.” Ezra placed his hand on mine, trying to comfort me. “You can be around all of us without any problems, and it will be much the same for Milo. It just takes a little bit of time to get a handle on things. At the rate he’s going, it shouldn’t be that long.”
“So…” My mouth felt dry and I swallowed hard. “Do I need to go home?”
“No, of course not. We wouldn’t expect you to go home while all this is going on, and for the most part, Milo is still fairly incapacitated. He shouldn’t even leave the room for a day or two. By the time he does, he should be in control enough to be in the same room as you.” He smiled at that, as if that was reassuring in some way.
“Awesome,” I replied wryly.
“I know the situation isn’t ideal, but he’s going to live, Alice,” Ezra looked at me earnestly. “And he’s going to be better than he was before. You’re not going to have to worry about him anymore.”
“I know, I know.” I closed my eyes, trying to get it all to sink in.
I knew that in a way, I should be grateful to them. They saved Milo’s life and gave him an amazing gift, but somehow, it didn’t really feel like it then. When it came to my little brother drinking blood and turning into something that would rip my head off, it felt a lot more like a curse than a gift.
“But did he say anything?” I asked, once I started to get my bearings on the situation.
“Nothing that’s very coherent,” Ezra shook his head. “He’s not exactly conscious.”
“But you just said that he woke up and he’s eating,” I persisted, bewildered.
“Yes, but he’s more…” He paused, trying to think of how he wanted to phrase it. “Delirious? He’s not completely there yet. It’s more instinct and confusion than anything else.”
“Has he asked for me?”
“He hasn’t asked for anything. He only mumbles complaints of pain and hunger. He’s not completely awake yet,” Ezra reiterated. “And Mae is doing her best to see to it that he feels as little pain and hunger as possible.”
“So… what happens next?” I asked. “He turns, and then what?”
“Let’s just get through the turning, and take things from there,” Ezra hedged the question.
“Why? What does that mean?” The panic that had started abating threatened to return with a vengeance.
“There’s no blanket answer for this. We’ll have to see exactly how Milo reacts to everything before we can say with any certainty what’s going to happen. So far, he’s turning differently than anybody else I’ve encountered, but again, I’ve never seen a vampire so young turn before,” Ezra explained carefully.
“You’re supposed to know everything!” I snapped, growing frustrated. “What’s the point of all this knowledge and immortality if you can’t just answer a damn question about your own kind?”
“I understand your impatience, but there’s really nothing more I can tell you.” Ezra smiled sadly at me, but I knew he was lying. There had to be more he could tell me, but he didn’t want to worry me unnecessarily, which probably was a wise decision on his part. He was telling me that everything was going well, and still, I was a worried wreck. But he was keeping something from me, and that just made me all the more nervous.
I heard Jack lumbering down the stairs, and I wondered if he was responding to the quickened beat of my heart. He was so sensitive to that, and he usual stayed way for my safety, but it also alerted him whenever I was upset about anything. He could read my emotions almost better than me since he had a direct link to my heart.
“How is everything going down here?” Jack was full of forced cheer, and his overly broad smile masked the anxiety underneath it.