Read Online My Blood Approves by Amanda Hocking - Free Book Online Page B

it!” Jack
growled.
    Adrenaline surged through my body, and my
feet were happy to comply when I started running back to the
car.
    Before I had even made it there, I heard the
dog yelp, and my stomach dropped. My heart pounded erratically in
my chest, and I wanted to throw up.
    I made it to the car, and I fought the urge
to just keep running. I collapsed on the pavement next to it,
gasping for breath.
    When I saw Jack walking towards me, I stood
up and hurried towards him, but I stopped sharply before I met
him.
    Part of me really wanted to hug him, but
another part of me knew what he had done, and it scared the hell
out of me. Irrational tears streamed down my cheeks, but I tried to
ignore them.
    “ Jack, what did you do?” I
wiped at my eyes to erase the tears. “What’d you do with the
dog?”
    “ Alice…” He closed his
eyes, as if it would hurt him too much to watch me react. “I didn’t
have any choice. You saw him. He was going to kill somebody! What
if you had been here by yourself or with Milo?”
    Everything he was saying was true. The dog
had looked insane and probably rabid, and even before I left him, I
knew that Jack would kill the dog. But it didn’t change
anything.
    Hurting any animal for any reason would
always reduce me to tears, especially when I had been some part of
it. He had killed that dog to protect me.
    “ I don’t care!” I cried
harder, and I wished I would just stop.
    It seemed unfair to me that I would be angry
with Jack for saving my life, but I couldn’t help it. He moved
awkwardly, as if he wanted to hug me, but he knew that I would push
him away if he tried.
    “ Alice,” Jack breathed
deeply, looking away from me. He had this agonized expression on
his face, and he took a small step back from me. “Everything just
got so much more complicated.”
    “ What are you talking
about?”
    I felt something shift, and a whole new fear
ran through me. As upset as I had been over the dog, I hadn’t hated
Jack, or even really been mad at him.
    “ This!” Jack shook his head
and walked past me. “Everything! This is so stupid. I am so
stupid.”
    “ What are you talking
about?” I ran after him, wondering what I had done that had been so
terrible. I reached out for him, but he pulled his arm away before
I even got close to it.
    “ I’m taking you home.” We
had reached the car, but he stood outside of it, waiting for me to
get in. I had stopped in front of it and refused to go any
further.
    “ No!” I insisted.
“Why?”
    “ Why?” He laughed, but it
was humorless and sent nervous shivers all over me. Then he reeled
on me, his face stone cold, and his voice harsher than I had ever
imagined it could be. “I killed a dog – to save your life – and you
look at me like I’m a monster!”
    He rubbed his temple, and I saw blood
covering his hand. Somehow, I’d managed to forget that the dog had
bitten him.
    “ Jack, I don’t think that
you’re a monster,” I explained softly. “I just don’t like it when
things die.”
    “ Nobody does, Alice,” Jack
replied icily. He bit his lip and shook his head, then mumbled,
“The damn thing was probably rabid. It was gonna die
anyway.”
    “ I know that,” I swallowed
hard. “I don’t know what I did that upset you so much, but I’m
sorry. I never wanted to offend you. And I don’t think it’s fair
that you’re going to cut me out of your life because I cried over a
dog.”
    “ It’s not because you
cried.” He softened a little, but he still wouldn’t look at me. “It
was the way you looked at me.”
    “ I’m sorry!” I insisted. “I
was in shock! The dog just charged at us and attacked you and then…
I don’t know. I’m sorry. It was just because it was a dog. Remember
when you beat up those people in the parking garage? I didn’t cry
then.”
    “ No, you didn’t,” Jack
agreed, and he finally seemed to be relenting. I took a step closer
to him, eyeing up the ragged holes in his sweatshirt and the