Flutter by Amanda Hocking Page A

own bed.”
    “ Yeah. It is.” Peter nodded
again and shifted uncomfortably.
    “ You’re up!” Jack announced
too loudly from the bottom of the stairs and raced up to us. He was
happy to see me, but the arm he threw around my shoulder was too
tight to be anything but for show. “I thought you were going to
sleep all day!”
    “ Sorry. I guess I had sleep
to catch up on,” I smiled at him. His grip around my shoulders was
borderline painful.
    “ I’m just gonna… go,” Peter
said. He turned and walked down the stairs, ignoring the look on
Jack’s face.
    Once Peter was out of sight, I wriggled out
of Jack’s arms. It felt weird to pull away from him, but I wasn’t a
big fan of his jealousy. Jack realized what he was doing, and his
expression changed to one of a little boy that got caught with his
hand in the cookie jar. He shoved his hands in his pockets and
looked apologetically at me.
    “ Sorry,” Jack shrugged. “I’m
just getting used to this. You’ve had all this time to readjust to
Peter but the last time I saw him…” He shivered and looked away
from me. I’m not sure what he was thinking about exactly, but it
was either Peter kissing me or trying to kill him.
    “ It’s okay.” I put my hand
on his chest. His muscles felt warm and strong, and his heart beat
gently. I leaned in towards him, preparing to give him the kiss I
had been wanting to give him for ages, but a fresh scent completely
diverted my attention.
    Just down the hall, Milo had apparently drawn
blood from Bobby, and the scent of his blood was so strong and
intoxicating, my mouth instantly began to water. My stomach didn’t
exactly growl, but it was suddenly ravenous. Bobby’s heart rate
quickened even more, and I could associate the sound with the
smell, making it irresistible. My body flushed with heat, and all I
could think/hear/feel was his blood, and how badly I needed it.
    The bloodlust had taken me over entirely.
     
     
    - 12 –
     
    I had my hand on Jack’s chest, and the next
thing I knew, I was racing down the hall, to Milo’s room in the
turret. I awoke in the moment with Jack’s hand tightly clamped on
my arm. He stopped me from getting very far, but it was disturbing
that I had blacked out for a second and had no control over myself.
I’d been in a trance, and I wasn’t completely out of it yet. At
least now I was aware of what was happening, but my desire to feed
didn’t lessen.
    “ You need to eat,” Jack
said.
    “ Yeah, no kidding.” I went
towards Milo’s room again, but he stopped me.
    “ No, not him.”
    He pulled me in the opposite direction, away
from the blood. The rational part of me understood what he was
doing, that I did not want to feed on my brother’s boyfriend. But
my thirst made me irate that he would take me away from the
blood.
    “ Come on, Alice. There’s
food downstairs.”
    “ Not good food!” I
protested.
    I’d never had fresh blood as a vampire, so I
didn’t have anything to compare with it. But fresh blood smelled so
much better than bag blood. My body craved it far more intensely,
making it almost impossible to resist.
    Jack was stronger than me, and at least some
of me knew he was right, so I let him drag me away.
    Mae was just coming up from the basement when
we got downstairs, her arms overflowing with cold bags of blood.
Apparently, Ezra was eating more than normal too. She saw the look
on my face and gave me a bag before I changed my mind about sparing
Bobby.
    As I gulped it down, loving the exotic rush
of pleasure that ran through me, I overheard her talking to Jack.
Ezra was still weak and required lots of rest and food, and Peter
had left to do something. She was vague on the details, but I’m not
sure if that was for Jack’s sake or because she really didn’t
know.
    By the time I finished my bag, she
disappeared back into her bedroom to tend to Ezra, and that deep
wooziness hit me. I’d just woken up, and I was preparing to pass
out again.
    I grabbed onto