“Alice!” Milo snapped, embarrassed.

“What?” I asked.

Nothing was overly gay about Bobby, other than the fact that he had kissed my brother. His clothes were fashionable scene apparel, skinny jeans and slip on Vans. He might be wearing eyeliner, but he might just have dark eyelashes too.

“No, it’s okay,” Bobby laughed. “Yeah. I am gay.”

“How old are you?” I asked pointedly.

“Twenty,” Bobby said, and I bristled.

Milo was a vampire, and thanks to they’re rapid maturation, he looked about nineteen or so. In actuality, he was barely sixteen, and he was making out with a twenty-year-old guy. Not cool. In fact, it was so not cool that I planned to freak out on Jack for letting this happen while I was away. (At this point, it had not occurred to me that Jack was born over 40 years ago, and I wasn’t yet eighteen.)

“Alice, you were in Finland for weeks!” Milo exaggerated, sensing my growing anger. “I’m pretty sure you have more exciting things to do than interrogate my boyfriend.”

Boyfriend? They were already up to that terminology? It had been months and months until I started referring to Jack as my boyfriend. In fact, in conversation, I still don’t think I would use that word. It sounded too weird to say about him. Once you’re over the age of twenty-five or you’re no longer human, the word “boyfriend” no longer fits.

“Yeah. What happened in Finland?” Jack turned to look at me.

“It’s too much to talk about right now,” I brushed him off.

“Seriously?” Jack raised an eyebrow. “That’s what you’re giving me? After weeks of this? You’re gonna come home and tell me it’s too much to talk about?”

“Well, I just don’t want to upset you needlessly.”

“You were in Finland with Peter! And you wouldn’t answer my calls!” Jack was all but yelling. “You’ve upset me plenty already, and it didn’t bother you then!”

“Of course it bothered me.” I pulled away from him. “I thought about you constantly. But I knew if I said anything you would rush over there and get yourself killed.”

“I would get myself killed?” He turned to face me more and his expression got even more severe. “What the hell were you involved with, Alice? And what happened to Ezra?”

“Yeah, what is the deal with him?” Milo asked unhelpfully.

“It’s all very complicated.” I shook my head, afraid that if I told Jack what had happened he would… I don’t know. Yell at me a lot and then try to beat up Peter and Ezra.

“I know you were with lycan. That’s who had Peter.” Jack bit his lip, looking down at me. “I should’ve gone over as soon as you told me but…” If he had gone there, everything would’ve turned out much worse, and I think he kinda knew that.

“Lycan?” Milo sat up sharply, almost knocking Bobby off the chair. “You mean werewolves?”

“Not exactly,” I sighed. “Not at all, really. They’re just vampires that live in the woods. They were after Peter, but Ezra made an exchange with them, and we came home. End of story. Most of the trip was spent just looking for Peter.”

“What was the exchange?” Milo asked, but by Jack’s expression, he’d just figured it out.

“Peter let them do that?” Jack whispered.

“He didn’t have a choice. Ezra… did what he had to do,” I explained as best I could.

“What are you talking about? What happened?” Milo demanded.

“Nothing. Never mind,” I said. Jack stared at me intently, his blue eyes full of too much anguish. “Nothing happened to me. Okay? I barely even left the hotel room. Nobody tried to hurt me. I never got in any fights. Everything was fine. Honest.”

Jack wasn’t completely convinced, but he wrapped his arm around me, so I would curl up to him. Milo was perplexed, but he dropped the subject.

Milo had never been out of the area, either, so he pressed for more information about traveling. I told him what little I had seen and how terrified I had been on the plane.

Once Bobby started falling asleep, Milo decided it was time to excuse himself and head up to bed. He scooped Bobby up in his arms, carrying him upstairs to their room, and I gaped after him. We had to have a very long talk about all of this as soon as I had the chance.

I would’ve loved some time to catch up with Jack, but I felt drained from the trip. Being away from home had been much harder than I had thought. Jack wanted to go to bed with me, and even with my exhaustion, I would’ve been happy to oblige.

Except I knew the only reason he insisted so hard was because Peter slept across from me, and I refused to let his paranoia control our relationship. He had to get used to Peter being around, and I needed to get some rest before trying to be alone with Jack.

Jack walked me up to his room, kissing me on the forehead before going back down to the den to sleep. I curled up in his unmade bed, falling asleep in his mass of blankets almost immediately. It felt so good to be home.

When I woke up, I felt an instant relief being in my own bed. After a long trip away, nothing felt better than that. Well, almost nothing.

I stretched, working the stiffness from my limbs. My reunion with Jack had been anticlimactic. I allowed myself to get distracted by my brother’s new boyfriend and Jack’s worry over Finland. I’d have to have a very long talk with Milo about this Bobby fellow, but I had more pressing needs in mind.