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dull all our sense, lessening them to the point of mere humans. Would that surmise that living a
life in the sun could reduce us to mortality? Would we then begin to age and grow old and
eventually perish?
Which leads me to an entirely different thought. Does our immortality, our exotic power, then
come from the moon? Are the tales of lycanthrope embellished stories of vampyre? Are we at the
whim of the sun and the moon like every other creature on this earth?
For being a document that s meant to answer questions, it faired better at raising them. Peter
could find little in the way of scientific reasons sun s effect on vampires. He did, however, conduct
his own study on whether the sun could return him to a mortal, or at least to aging some. He
spent a month living during the day and sleeping at night, but all he found was that he was very
tired, weak, and inordinately hungry. As a result, he had to eat at least once a day, and it led to
him very nearly killing three people. At the end of a month, he decided that was enough and
finished his study without any real change to himself.
Lying in my bed, I rolled over and peeked out my curtains at the bluing sky. The sun hadn t risen
yet, but it was well on its way, meaning I had failed at following through with Jack s suggested
bedtime. I set the book aside and decided that I had better try and get some sleep. After the
horrible night s sleep I had last night, I was rather tired anyway.
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I managed to sleep all day, even through the baking heat of the afternoon. When I finally got up
and turned on the TV, the weatherman announced it was had peaked over ninety degrees today.
I was tempted to lay around in my underwear all day long, but Mom was still around, complaining
about the heat and her job and life in general.
After she left, I stared at my phone, hoping that someone would hurry and call me and rescue me
from the insane heat. There would be no such luck. As the day moved onto night, I had resigned
myself to spending the evening parked in front of a fan, sprawled out on the couch watching
Arsenic and Old Lace on AMC until I died of heatstroke.
This building needs central air! Milo crowed suddenly, throwing open the apartment door. I sat
up with a start and looked over the back of the couch at him. His arms were overflowing with bags
of groceries and his face looked flushed, but I m assuming that was from the heat.
What are you doing here? I asked, surprised by his random appearance.
I got up off the couch and went over to him, preparing to help with him with the groceries, until I
realized how silly that sounded. Normally, when Milo carried things in, I d be stuck with the brunt
of the load since I was stronger than him, and it was a hard to shake the image of him as being
my little brother, even though he was clearly so much stronger and better than I was.
What? You re not happy to see me? He set the bags on the table and smirked at me.
No, it s not that. I just& I stopped and looked over the bags on the table. What is all this? And
what are you doing here?
I figured you hadn t eaten a good meal since I moved out, and I thought you d be bored and
dying of heat stroke. Milo dug through the bags and started pulling out frozen things, like ice
cream and Popsicles, and put them in the freezer. Besides, I know you and Mom don t do any
grocery shopping, so you d probably waste away without me.
That s maybe true, I admitted, eyeing him skeptically. He continued going through the bags to
put things away, while I went over to the freezer and pulled an orange Popsicle out. He was
actually dead-on about the lack of food and heat stroke. But what brings you to my neck of the
woods? Aren t you afraid Mom ll catch you?
She s at work, Milo shrugged. And so is Jack. So it s very quiet at the house and I needed to
get out.
Jack s at work? I hopped on the counter to watch Milo as he put the groceries away. I thought
Ezra just came back.
He did, and he s still at home, Milo explained. With ease, he reached over me to put away
cereal on the very top shelf, something that used to require the aide of a chair for him to reach.
Jack went on his own. He s really getting the hang of the business.
What do you mean? Jack s in charge of stuff all by himself? I slurped at my Popsicle, trying to
keep orange drips of juice from spilling on my legs, but it wasn t working. It was so hot in here that
it melted almost immediately.
Yeah. Why is that so shocking? Milo laughed at my apparent surprise.
It s not. Wiping at the spot of orange on my thigh, I shrugged. I just didn t realize he was like
doing that good or whatever. I don t know. I mean, I don t even know what he does really.
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Neither do I. They re purposely keeping me out of the loop for now, but Jack says that once I get
more settled in, I ll definitely be able to do it. He says it s actually kind of fun when you get into it,
but a lot of the work is already done anyway. Like Ezra has tons and tons of patents on things,
and he just has to do a lot of legal shuffling around so people don t catch onto the fact that he s
the same guy that s been collecting money for the past hundred years or so. Milo said it all
matter-of-factly like I would completely follow what that meant.
So what? Pretty soon you re gonna be a millionaire? I bit off the last chunk of Popsicle and
chomped down on it, even though my gums didn t necessarily appreciate the cold.
Alice, I hate to break it to you, but I already kind of am. Milo looked rather sheepish as he put
away the last of the groceries in the fridge, and then turned to face me.
Well, they re super rich or whatever, but you just live with them, I gulped down the juice and
chomped on the stick.
Yeah, but& He shifted uneasily, probably fearing the worst from my reaction. I m like part of
the family now. So, Mae and Ezra set up credit cards and an expense account for me the other
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