[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
We can follow behind you if you want, Ezra offered. Jack was going with us, as a bodyguard,
but Ezra and Mae had planned on staying behind at the house.
No, I ll be fine. Milo sounded more confident than he looked, and I wondered if I should take
them up on the offer.
Are you sure? Mae lovingly reached out and stroked his face, a gesture that I couldn t even do
anymore. If I did, he d be too tempted to rip open an artery.
Come on. Everybody s great. Let s get this show on the road. Jack sensed my obvious
discomfort, and he was in as much of a hurry as I was to get this over with.
Reluctantly, Mae let us leave. I didn t like how nervous she was about this, but there wasn t very
much about any of this that I liked. When we went into the garage, I walked ahead of Milo and
reached the Jetta first. I grabbed for the passenger side door, planning on sitting as shotgun as I
always did, when Milo growled at me. Dropping my hand, I turned to look back at him.
Did you just growl at me? I asked skeptically.
I might have, Milo admitted, and there was an anger in his eyes.
Why would you growl at me? I persisted.
Alice, Jack said sharply. He was standing on the other side of the car beside the driver s side
door, and he was looking at me severely from over the top of the car. Get in the backseat.
Why? It was a stupid thing to get pissed off about, but I couldn t help it. It was ridiculous for Milo
to flipping growl at me over seating arrangements in the car, especially when I always sat in the
front. Jack was my friend, so I should sit by him.
Just do it, Jack insisted sternly.
But that s stupid! I protested. Just because Milo s a vampire, he gets shotgun? That s not fair. It
doesn t even make sense.
Just get in the back! Milo snapped, and when I turned to look at him, there was a violence
brewing in his eyes that terrified me. Instead of freaking out like I kind of really wanted to, I just
scoffed.
47
This is bogus, I grumbled, getting in the backseat.
This would be so much easier if you didn t fight everything, Jack complained as he started the
car.
You really didn t realize what you were getting into with her, did you? Milo commented.
I bit my tongue, but it wasn t an easy feat. Who the hell did Milo think he was? There were a
million things I wanted to shout at him, but I couldn t, because he would literally bite my head off I
did. That was just so unfair, too. He got to get away with being a random dick because he could
kill me. Milo was never like this.
He never would ve talked to me like that, and Jack never would ve ganged up on me with him.
On the positive side, I didn t feel so bad that I wouldn t get to be around them as much anymore.
In fact, I was pretty sure that I wouldn t even miss Milo at all. He d probably growl at me if I
touched the television remote or something.
The entire car ride home, I just glowered. Jack had Dinosaur Jr. in the CD player, and that filled
up most of the silence. Milo said a couple things that I couldn t hear from the backseat, making
me hate them all the more. Jack just nodded or grunted something in response. Suddenly, I
really, really just wanted to be able to crawl into my own bed, and cry into my pillow if that s what I
felt like doing.
When we pulled up in front of the apartment building, I practically leapt out of the car. Jack
grabbed my bags from the trunk, and he and Milo followed me inside. We rode up the elevator in
silence, and I could see Milo tensing up. His jaw had set tightly and his kept clenching and
unclenching his fists. I looked over at Jack to see if he noticed, but he kept his expression stoic.
Are you okay? I asked Milo quietly outside our apartment door.
Yeah, he nodded, but he definitely looked pale.
Maybe we should do this another time, I suggested. I really wanted to get this over with, but not
that the expense of my mother or my brother.
No. Let s do this. Milo pulled the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door.
Thankfully, Mom kept the apartment dark. Milo still looked like Milo, but there had been drastic
changes that would be much less noticeable in dim lighting. There was a light on over the kitchen
sink, but the rest of the apartment was dark. A scratched Led Zepplin record played softly in the
living room, with Robert Plant crooning about when the levees break.
Mom? I said cautiously, following Milo inside.
Oh, good, you re finally here. Mom burst out from her bedroom, a cigarette glowing in her hand,
and her hair looked much less frizzy than it usually did. Her lips were stained with a too-red
lipstick, and I realized that she was going out. I don t have much longer to wait.
Are you going somewhere? I asked.
Milo had deliberately moved into the shadows of the apartment, but I lingered in the light of the
kitchen. Jack sat my bag on the floor and hovered next to me, hoping to catch my mother s
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]