Gasping for breath, he relaxed on me, but he still propped himself up so he wouldn’t put the full of weight of his body on. He rested his forehead against my shoulder and tried to gain some composure. When he gently kissed my shoulder, my skin trembled underneath his lips. My whole body felt like it was glowing with happiness, and I felt dazed and weak. My vision had a blurred hazy quality, and I knew that my stomach should ache with hunger, but I just couldn’t feel it.
“Was that okay?” Jack asked, looking at me.
“Yeah. That was the most incredible thing I’ve ever felt.” I smiled up at him and touched his face. He suddenly looked too marvelous to be real. He had the more gorgeous blue eyes, and they were filled with adoration for me. “Did you enjoy it?”
“Did I?” Jack laughed, and there was this wonderful exhausted quality that it made it sound ever better. I had exhausted him, and his laughter sent tingles all through me. “Oh my god, Alice.
I didn’t know it could be that good.” He collapsed back on the bed next to me, and he pulled me into his arms, so my head would lie on his chest. “Oh man. I can’t believe I’ve been missing out on that.”
“I know,” I giggled, feeling strangely girlie and buzzed. I snuggled up as close to him as I could, loving the way my skin felt pressed up against his.
“Wow,” Jack laughed tiredly again. “You may not know this, but you are the single most amazing person I have ever met, and I am crazy in love with you.”
“Good.” I kissed his chest and smiled up at him. “Cause I feel exactly the same way about you.”
The loss of blood and the exhaustion of pleasure left me feeling drained. My vision started to clear from the haze of lust, and the pain in my stomach was starting to kick in, but I was too tired to deal with it. I just wanted to stay in Jack’s arms forever and listen to the sound of his heartbeat singing to me sleep. Our bodies were slowly returning to their normal temperature, and Jack pulled the blankets up over us, tucking them neatly around me.
I had just stated drifting off to sleep when I heard my phone ringing. It sounded like it was coming from the bathroom, so I decided it was faint enough for me to ignore. Finally, it stopped, so I settled back into his arms. A second later it started ringing again, and I groaned.
“Should I get that?” Jack asked tiredly.
“No, it’ll stop,” I said, hugging him even closer to me. If he got it, that meant he would have to be away from, and I definitely wasn’t ready for that. It did stop, only to immediately start ringing again.
“Sorry, I gotta get that.” Jack gently untangled himself from and I grumbled in protest, but I let him go. He slipped on his boxers, and I watched him as he walked to the bathroom, following the sound of the ringing. For one second, watching how gorgeous as he was, my heart swelled as I realized that I got to be that.
He belonged to me, and it delighted me endlessly. The phone stopped ringing again, and Jack sighed. “I’m still getting it, in case it starts to ring again. Where is it?”
“I don’t know.” I sat up, holding the blankets over my chest.
“Of course it stops when I look for it.” Jack started poking around the hamper, since I had tendency to leave my phone in my pants pocket, but it started ringing again. He went over to the medicine cabinet and opened it. “Alice, why is your phone in the medicine cabinet?”
“Maybe when I got the mouth wash?” I shrugged. I had no idea. “Just shut it off and come back to bed.”
“Uh oh.” He came out of the bathroom, holding my phone out to me. “It’s Jane.”
“I should probably answer that,” I sighed and held my hand out. I managed to answer it just before it went to voicemail, and Jack sat on the bed next to me. “Hello?”
“Alice? Oh thank god you answered!” Jane sobbed in relief, but her voice was shaking. “I’ve run into some trouble, and… Oh god. I am sorry. I don’t know-” She sounded absolutely terrified, and she knocked any of the warm fuzzy feelings I still had out of me.
“What are you talking about? What’s going on?” I asked.
“I don’t know! They just made me call you!” Jane said, then she shrieked and her voice got farther away.
“Jane? Jane!” I shouted.
“No, its not Jane,” a male voice returned to the phone, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. It was strong and deep with an accent I couldn’t place. Almost British, or maybe German, but softer.
“This is Alice, I presume?”
“Where’s Jane?” I demanded, refusing to answer his questions until he told me what was going on.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jack hurriedly getting dressed. I’m not sure if he could overhear the conversation, or if he just saw the panic in me.
“If you want to see her again, I suggest you come and get her,” the voice said. There was something sinisterly playful in his voice, and I could hear Jane crying in the background. “Where are we again?” Jane yelped. “Where are we? You need to tell us if you want your friend to come rescue you.”
“You son of a bitch!” I growled. “Leave her alone! When we find you, we’ll kill you!”
“We?” He chuckled. “Even better.” Jane screamed behind him.
“Loring Park!” Jane sobbed in the background. “We’re at Loring Park! But Alice! Don’t come! They’re going to-” She screamed again, cutting off the rest of her sentence.
“As you can tell, we’re in a hurry, so act accordingly,” he said, then the phone went silent.
If Jack hadn’t already been moving, I might have just sat there feeling dazed. Immediately after he hung up the phone, I tried calling back, but it went straight to voicemail. Jack had already pulled on shorts and a tee shirt, and he was struggling to pull on his Converse as quickly as possible. My stomach lurched, and panic and hunger were mixing together, making me feel volatile and frail.
“Alice?” Jack said, trying to snap me out of it. “Where is she?”
“Loring Park,” I told him numbly. “I don’t know who has her, but I think they’re going to kill her.
And they want me to come. She’s bait for me?” Jack pursed his lips and looked at me thoughtfully for a moment.
“You stay here. I’ll go get her,” Jack decided and made a step for the door.
“No!” I jumped up, holding the blanket around me. “If this is about me, there’s no way you’re going without me.”
“Alice, it isn’t safe,” Jack shook his head.
“Exactly!” I ran to the closet to put on clothes before he left. I don’t think I’d ever gotten dressed so quickly in my life. Jack stood in the doorway to the closet and sighed. “I’m a vampire now. I can take care of myself.” This I said while I struggling to put on a pair of jeans and nearly falling over. “I beat up Jane’s boyfriend or whatever before. If you can handle it, I can handle.”
“No. I’m much more skilled than you are, and you just lost blood.” He crossed his arms over his chest and tried to look as resolute as possible.
“I don’t care.” I slipped on my shoes and walked up to him. “We’re together now, forever.
That means if you’re in danger, I’m in danger. Jane needs help, and we’re going together.”
“I don’t like it,” Jack relented.
“I don’t care.” I pushed past him, knowing that we had to hurry to save her, and I had to hurry before he changed his mind. He couldn’t stop me from going, but he could slow us down with unnecessary arguing.
“Alice?” Milo opened my bedroom door before I could even get to it. He had a bewildered, frantic look on his face, and my heart raced, fearing that he might be in trouble too. “Is everything okay?” He pushed the door open a little bit wider and stepped inside. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Why? What’s going on with you?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Nothing! I just… I thought something was wrong,” Milo floundered. Then I realized what had happened. Just like I was tuned into his heart, he was tuned into mine. It had been beating in a panic for the last few minutes, so Milo was concerned. He probably would’ve come in right away, but he misread it at first as being part of the festivities that me and Jack were partaking in.
“Jane’s in trouble.” I chewed my lip, looking at him, and Jack gave me a weird look. Milo was my little brother and I’d do almost anything to protect him. But he was a vampire, more powerful than me, and from the sounds of it, Jane had more than one attacker and she was terrified. We needed all the help we could get.