That did kinda explain what had happened with Peter, except why did they want him to eat me? What was so damn important about that? Couldn’t anybody just eat anybody?

Mae must’ve seen the police car, because she was at the front door waiting for us when they dropped us off. Matilda jumped all over Jack, but he wasn’t in the mood, so he pushed her off.

“Jack, what happened?” Mae was talking to him, but she was looking me over.

I didn’t even have a scratch on me, but when I’d caught my reflection in the rearview mirror of the squad car, I was completely white and my eyes were frantic and red-rimmed from sobbing.

“I totaled the Jeep,” Jack answered vaguely. We stood in the entryway, but he pulled off his shirt and started wiping off the blood with his ruined shirt.

“Again?” Mae sounded exasperated and looked over at him. “Jack, you’ve really-”

“She knows,” Jack cut her off.

He looked at me, then quickly looked away. Even though there were still patches of blood on his back, he’d given up on that and balled up his tee shirt, then walked into the kitchen.

“What?” Mae turned back to me, her face unsure.

“He told me that you’re vampires.” It was the first time I’d spoken since he told me, and my voice sounded hoarse and foreign to me.

Mae let out a long shaky breath and looked down.

“Oh.” That was all she said. She didn’t tell me that Jack was insane, as I had hoped and half-expected, or expound on it

“So it’s true?” I asked. The words came out even, but I knew there were hysterics hiding behind them.

“Your throat sounds dry.” Mae forced a smile and put her arm around me, but she did it like thought I’d push her away. I didn’t, but I knew that I probably should’ve. “Why don’t we go in the kitchen and get you some water and we’ll talk in there?”

“I’m already on it,” Jack informed us as she led me into the kitchen.

He had filled a giant glass with cold water and ice cubes from the Pür filter in the fridge. He handed it to me, but I stopped and opened the fridge first. Just as Milo had predicted, it was completely empty. I stared into it for a minute, and Jack prompted me to drink the water.

I shut the fridge and greedily downed the water. My thirst had kicked in, and I turned to look at them. Jack was shirtless, leaning against the island, and Mae wrung her hands, but both of them watched me.

“Jack, I really wish you’ve waited for when Ezra was home, or Peter even.” Mae told him quietly.

“It couldn’t wait anymore,” Jack said dully.

“I know, but Ezra and Peter know so much more.” Mae exchanged a nervous look with Jack, and then smiled at me again and pulled out a stool. “Here, love, why don’t you sit down?”

“Where’s Ezra?” I got on the stool and decided to start with the simplest questions first, the ones that seemed sane and rational. Not like, so, do you guys wanna suck my blood? That was the kind of thing I definitely didn’t want to think about.

“He’s out looking for Peter,” Jack answered, and Mae looked over at him.

She fidgeted with a wavy strand of her hair, and I knew that she desperately wanted to touch mine. My water glass was almost empty, so I set it on the island and sighed.

“So… you’re vampires?” I asked, feeling incredibly foolish. It sounded so stupid coming out of my mouth. This was a family of normal, healthy people, and there were no such things as vampires.

“Yes, love.” Mae smiled at me, and it had to be the saddest, most terrified smile I’d ever seen. T

They were waiting on edge, and I didn’t understand why. They were the big powerful vampires, and I was just one small human girl. If anyone should be scared, it should be me.

“All of you?” I looked from Mae to Jack, who just nodded solemnly. “Then why did you say that it would be better if Ezra or Peter were here? Don’t you know just as much?”

“They’re older, much older,” Mae explained, and her strained expression started to relax a bit.

“How old are you?” I remembered the first time I had asked Jack that, when we were waiting in the booth at the diner, and the way he had laughed at the question.

“Well, um, I was twenty-four when I turned, and that was in 1994. So I guess that puts in me in my forties.”

“You don’t seem like you’re in your forties,” I said and he laughed at that, which went a long way to alleviate the tension in the room.

“Vampires age differently, obviously.” Jack gestured to his bare chest, which did not look a day over twenty-four.

“Physically, we don’t age much at all,” Mae elaborated. “We mature in a much different rate. When we first turn, we’ll almost regress emotionally. Jack is closer to that of someone in their teens than of one in their twenties.

“Part of that has to do with his personality,” Mae smiled at him. “But part of it is his age. And since our minds always stay sharp, we don’t ever really get old. We learn from our experiences and we mature, but not the same way people do. Jack will never really act like a man in his forties, no matter how old he gets.”

In retrospect, a lot of what he did made sense when I thought of him as being more around my age. Which is why it never seemed creepy that he was hanging out with me, even though he was older. He never acted older. He was, after all, at my maturity level.

“How old are you?” I turned to Mae.

“I was twenty-eight when I turned, and that was… wow, that was fifty-two years ago.” She looked a little surprised herself, as if she hadn’t thought about in awhile, and then smiled at me. “So, I’m eighty. Wow. Well, that’s not as bad as Peter or Ezra.”

“How old are they?’ I couldn’t help but lean in close, scrutinizing Mae’s perfect porcelain skin. It was hard to believe that she’d even been twenty-eight.

“Oh, gosh.” Mae looked over at Jack for help, but he just shook his head.

“I only know the age they were when they turned.” Jack had been leaning forward onto the island, but now he stood up and leaned back on the kitchen counter behind him, crossing his arms over his chest. “Peter’s nineteen and Ezra’s twenty-six. You’re the oldest.”

“Thanks,” Mae gave him a wry look, then turned back to me. “Well, Peter’s not quite two-hundred. Maybe one-ninety or something like that. And Ezra is… Gosh, it’s so horrible that I don’t know how old my own husband is. Oh! Jack, you remember! We had that big party a few years back when he turned three-hundred? When was that?”