“Jack is a vampire?”
“Yeah.”
“But you’re not?” She looked up at me, her eyes wide and scared.
“No, I’m not.”
“Why don’t I have bite marks?” Jane pointed to her neck. It was completely bare, the same as mine, even though we’d both just been bitten. “I knew that he bit me, but I didn’t have any sign of it.”
“Something in their saliva. It makes the wounds heal right away,” I shrugged. “It’s probably the same thing that makes it so they heal quickly and live forever, but on a much smaller scale.”
“That’s why your brother looked so foxy. And why I can’t get him out of my head.” Jane chewed the inside of her cheek and stared off into space. “And why I couldn’t get Jack out of my head either. They’re vampires.”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly, unsure of what else to say. “I never thought you would… When Milo invited you out, I thought we would just dance and you’d go home. I never tried to mix you guys. I just…”
“What do they want with you?” She looked at me again, and this time, she was suspicious. “Are you like Jack’s blood mule or something?”
“No, it’s nothing like that.” I shook my head. “He’s… We’re… There’s extenuating circumstances that I’m not gonna get into right now, but we’re almost dating. I guess.”
“What does that even mean?” Her hand was shaking less when she flicked her ashes. “Are you sleeping together? Does he bite you?”
“No.” I let it hang in the air, unwilling to tell her the truth. “We just care about each other.”
“So why did Milo turn into a vampire and not you?” She studied me, trying to figure out if I was lying, and I shifted uncomfortably.
“There was an accident,” I said. “He was dying, and the only way to save him was to turn him. So they did.”
“I’m not gonna turn, am I?” Jane’s hand went to her neck, touching where Milo bit her.
“No, it doesn’t work like that. You’ll be perfectly fine,” I said. “Oh. You should take iron and B12 for awhile to help your blood replenish or whatever.”
“So… they’re really vampires?” Jane eyed me up skeptically.
“You saw them.”
“I did,” she agreed thoughtfully. “But that girl, she had fangs, like hardcore. I didn’t notice any on Milo or Jack.”
“Yeah, I don’t think those are real.” I’d been thinking the same thing. “Hers must be veneers or something. She has to be a real vampire, but I think it’s all part of her ‘image.’ You saw her black lipstick and Halloween make up.”
Jane nodded and tossed her cigarette butt on the floor. She stomped it out and pulled another cigarette out from her pack.
Obviously, she’d been thinking of it before I said anything. In the car, after Violet and Lucian attacked us, she’d even used the word “vampires” herself. But it was still a hard thing to come to terms with, even when all the pieces fit.
“So what now?” Jane asked at length.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know!” She laughed hollowly. “They are vampires! Doesn’t it feel like we should do something? That we can’t just go back to living our life like normal?”
“That’s something that I struggle with everyday,” I said. “But there isn’t much else for us to do.”
“I was bit by a damn vampire! And now I’m supposed to go to Chemistry, and flirt with boys, and just pretend like none of it ever happened?” Tears welled in her eyes, and she bit her lip. “I sorta feel like my whole life was a lie. I mean, what else is there that I don’t know about?”
“Jane, we hardly know about anything,” I said. “There’s tons out there. But it doesn’t affect us. Or we don’t realize it does. This one thing happened to touch home, just for a minute, but it doesn’t change anything else.”
“It changes everything!” Jane insisted dramatically.
This is exactly why I wasn’t supposed to tell people about vampires. It was too hard for a person to take. It completely distorts the perception of reality. When things that are so clearly fiction became fact, it changes everything.