Fall Out Boy Is Family

Sam’s POV

Fall Out Boy was sleeping over my house, as was Felice (duh). Ashlee and Bronx had jetted out of here on a plane back home to L.A. My family was pretty rich so we had a couple guest rooms. We also had a pool.

So, naturally, we all swam around until about eleven PM. It was awesome.

Fallen, who lived a few blocks away, somehow found out and joined us. He wanted to sleep over, too, when we got out and dried off, but Aunt Lydia told him he had to come home and get some sleep for his photo shoot the next day.

Boo him. I had one the day after tomorrow. Haha! I’ll shut up now.

By eleven-thirty, Felice was down and snoring, the lucky duck. I could barely close my eyes for more than five seconds. I really don’t know why. I had some sort of gut feeling that something drastic was going to happen.

And soon.

“Psst!”

Did this count?

“Who’s there?” I asked, squinting into the darkness.

“Me.”

Pete appeared out of nowhere. Or so it seemed.

“Can you come with me?”

I nodded and slipped silently out of bed.

“I need to tell you something,” Pete confessed while leading me out of the door to my room. “And I don’t want to wake Felice up.”

“No, you really don’t,” I agreed.

He opened the door to one of the guest rooms and ushered me inside. Patrick was nowhere to be found.

“Uh, Pete, where’s—”

“Pat? He’s back in the pool. He couldn’t go to sleep.”

I smiled into the dark. “Me neither. So. What do you need to tell me?”

He took a deep breath. “You might want to sit down.”

“Um, okay…” I sat down on one of the twin beds, presumably Pete’s. It was the one under the window, and for some odd reason Pete like to stargaze.

He crawled up next to me and we sat opposite each other, our legs done in the “criss-cross applesauce” style. My knees reached the covers while Pete’s were at about
thirty-degree angles off the bed.

Boys…so inflexible.

Pete sighed again and looked at the stars. The dude’s only thirty. He doesn’t need to act so depressed.

I took his hand. “You can tell me. What’s up?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know how to begin.”

I smiled. “There’s a first time for everything.”

He smiled weakly back. “Okay… No, I can’t.” He turned his head away and retracted his hand, the hottest picture of shame I had ever seen since I had never seen Ryan Ross look ashamed.

I grabbed his hand back.

“Tell me.”

“You’ll laugh.”

“So what if I do? At least I’ll know what’s bothering you.”

He bit his lip. “Fine. I…I’m not…normal…”

I rolled my eyes. “No duh. You’re Peter freaking Wentz, international superstar. You are international, right?”

“That’s beside the point. I’m…descended from a line of…of…”

“Rich people?”

“No! That’s not it.” He was staring into my eyes, searching for a way to say what was on his mind. “I’ll just come right out and say it; I’m a Guardian.”

I blinked. “What’s that?”

“The job was passed on to me from my father, who started it with his brothers and sister. The job was to protect people like you from the descendants of cannibals.”

I blinked again. “Oh.”

“Yeah… My grandfather, Peter Lewis Kingston Wentz The First, was also known as Peter Pan.”

I couldn’t blink. My mouth and eyes were open so wide it might have been frightening.

“Peter…Pan? As in the red-haired elf with the fairies?”

“Kind of…” Pete said carefully.

“Sick!” I exclaimed quietly. “Have you ever seen a fairy?”

Pete nodded slowly.

“Lucky! I wanna see one!”

“Samantha, listen to me.”

I shut up immediately.

“I’m your Guardian. I’m here to protect you from ‘vampires’.”

He used air-quotes when he said “vampire”.

I crunched up my nose. “Vampires?”

He nodded, then smirked. “Not so excited now, are we?”

I shoved him in the chest. “Shut up. And don’t go British on me.”

He smiled for a second longer then turned back into his weird serious-business mode.

“I’ve doomed Bronx to a life he never chose to live. He may end up liking it, but it will never be what he chose to do.”

I squeezed his hand harder. “Bronx will be fine. Tell me more about these vampires.”

His brown eyes bored into my blue ones. “You’ve met one.”

I frowned, trying to recall some ghastly person with fangs I had met—or at least seen.

“I didn’t know he was a ‘vampire’ until I learned that he was a purebred from my
father a little while ago.”

“Who is it?” I asked. I had no clue who it might be.

Pete looked seriously at me again. “George Ryan Ross.”

My breath caught in my throat.

“The third.”

“Yes, I now who you meant!” I cried. “I never met his dad—never will—or his grandfather!”

This was why Pete had been acting funny toward Ryan lately. Ryan was a vampire.

“D-does Ryan know?”

Pete shook his head. “Not in the least. He’s never even tasted human blood before, as far as I know. You see, blood is sort of like alcohol to ‘vampires’. If they have a lot
of it, they get addicted. They also need about half the amount of sleep and are stronger than normal humans. It’s passed down through the Ross family line—they’re the only purebreds left—and the gene comes up randomly in perfectly normal families. For some reason females can’t pass it on, but males can.”

“So we all need to turn lesbian?”

Pete actually laughed. “No. We just need to control the ones that are born. Do you really think turning lesbian would solve anything?”

I shook my head. “No, not really. I just sort of…thought of it…”

He laughed gain.

I looked up at him, a little bit of fear probably showing on my face. “And you’re my Guardian—MINE—because…?”

“You’re destined to be a ‘vampire’s’…mate.”

Cue enraged outburst.

“That’s disgusting! How can I be destined for that?”

“You’re an only child. You’ve got the gold stripe.”

“I DON’T HAVE A FRICK…en…Ihaveagoldstripe.”

Pete nodded. “Your left eye. It’s usually the right…”

A tear streaked down my face. I didn’t have a choice as to whose kids I would have?

NEVER MIND! I did not want to think about that.

“Pete, do you know which vampire I’m destined for?”

Pete closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Without opening them, he spat out, “Ross.”

“Ryan? Ryan Ross?” I took a deep breath. “The third?”

Pete nodded in a way that looked painful.

Another tear joined the first.

“That’s why I’m here,” he said. “My job is to protect you.”

“Was that Ryan we saw, that night at the hotel?”

“I don’t know. I couldn’t’ tell.”

I could tell that that fact was bothering him.

Then, at the same time, we just reached out and hugged each other.

“Sam?”

“Y-yeah?”

“You’re either destined for Ross or the King of ‘Vampires’. And he’s older than ME.”

I couldn’t laugh. “Thanks for telling me, Pete.”

“Mm-hmm. Well, there’s one more thing.”

I groaned.

“Well, two.”

“Come on!”

“The last one I’m sure you’re going to like.”

“That’s-hic-better.”

He let out a short laugh.

“Why won’t I-hic-like the other-hic-one.”

“This is why.”

Before I could react in any way, shape or form, Pete’s palm was on the back of my neck.

And it was BURNING.