“Nothing,” Milo said sheepishly.
“Go pack up the rest of your stuff.” Jack gestured to his room. “Let’s get out of here before you do something really stupid.”
“Sorry.” Milo slunk off to his room.
Once he was gone, I whirled on Jack, and whispered fiercely, “What was that about? What’s going on?”
“Remember how things were complicated before?” Jack asked, shooting a glance over his shoulder to make sure that Milo was out of earshot. “Well, they just got a whole lot worse.”
“What are you talking about?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Milo is jealous.”
“Of what?”
“Well…” He scratched the back of his head and sighed. “Everyone who interacts with me.”
“What?”
“Okay see… the thing is, vampires bond with whoever turns them,” Jack elaborated. “I told you about how close I was to Peter and Ezra because we shared the same blood. Well… since Milo drank my blood, we’re really bonded. And it’s different than it was with Peter because apparently, Milo had a crush on me before he turned. And with the bonding, that’s intensified.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” My arms had been crossed over my chest, but they fell to my side. “Holy hell. First your brother, now my brother. It’s like this whole thing is completely impossible.”
“No, it’s not like with Peter,” Jack shook his head. “Milo’s like a brother to me, and that’s all. And this is just new. My blood is still fresh, and he doesn’t have a handle on any of his emotions. This’ll fade. With time.”
“How much time?” I demanded.
“The thing is… there’s so much uncharted territory with you,” he tried to explain, but I laughed hollowly and shook my head.
“You don’t know. You don’t even know if it will fade. This is all assumptions!”
“Shh!” Jack looked nervously back at Milo’s room, but when he didn’t come out, he turned back to me. “No, the bond does fade. Okay? When I first turned, it was like hero worship with me and Peter.”
“That was sixteen years ago,” I said incredulously. “Do you really plan on waiting sixteen years for this?”
“It’ll stop sooner. I just can’t say the time frame, but I really don’t think it was that long with Peter and me.”
“Whatever.” I rolled my eyes. “Milo will stop. Peter will stop. Everything will stop. And one day, it’ll be happily ever after. But instead of things getting better, more stuff just keeps piling up on top of it.”
“You know what the problem is? You’re looking at this all with mortal eyes,” Jack decided. “You see time finitely, and that’s not the case. This will take time, but we have time.”
“No. You have time. Because the last time I checked-” I stopped and held my fingers to my throat. “Yep. That’s a pulse. That’s mortal blood in these veins, Jack. I’m not a damn vampire.”
“Yeah, now. But this is just temporary.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But right now, you’re whispering and standing like three feet away from me. Because if you weren’t, my brother might kill me, or your brother might kill you. And until that stops, you can’t really get any closer than you are now.”
Jack sighed and looked sadly at me. Milo came out of his room, and Jack dropped his eyes and took a step away from me.
Yeah, this was all going to work out perfectly. Jack was now afraid of my little brother. Everything was right on track.
“I’m all packed.” Milo had two duffle bags and a garbage bag of stuff in his hands.
“We should probably get going,” Jack said, taking a step towards the door. “You’ve had enough excitement for today.”
“Alice, I’m sorry about all of this,” Milo said sincerely, and softness returned to his face. I hated him for it, because just then, I really wanted to be mad, and I couldn’t. “I know how much trouble this is for you, and I never meant for that.”
“Don’t be silly,” I shook my head. “None of this is your fault. You are a victim of circumstance.”