“Since you brought Peter back, I assume it was a rousing success.” Milo looked at Peter out of the corner of his eye, trying not to make it obvious that he didn’t trust him at all. He’d only met him once, and that meeting hadn’t gone that great. On top of that, the only information he had about him came filtered through Jack, who had a pretty biased opinion on the subject.
“You could say that,” I replied shortly.
Jack was sitting next to me, and I wanted to snuggle up next to him, but everything felt so off. Peter glanced around the room diffidently, managing not to look happy or upset by the situation. I pulled my knees up to my chest and leaned in closer in the crook of Jack’s arm, but he was still unnaturally tense. He had no idea what had happened, and something was wrong with Ezra, so he wasn’t happy about the situation. I would’ve loved to ease his fears, but I was completely preoccupied by this Bobby character that was all but sitting on my little brother’s lap. I know I was currently curling up with my boyfriend, so I really had no right to judge his behavior, but I couldn’t help it.
“It looks like you’ve had a pretty busy time without us,” I commented as casually as I could.
“You could say that,” Milo laughed.
He looked up at Bobby, sharing one of this disgustingly sweet looks that made the bile rise in my throat. Then Bobby leaned down and kissed him on the lips, and I could hear his heart race faster. My stomach twisted in knots, out of disgust and hunger, and I didn’t appreciate that combination at all. Don’t get me wrong: It was not the fact that Milo was kissing a dude that I found so upsetting. It was that he was kissing anyone. Even after becoming a vampire, there were still so many things I was unprepared for.
“I think I’m gonna crash,” Peter said randomly. He looked over at Jack, which I found astonishingly disconcerting, and Jack’s arm tightened around me, as if he really expected Peter to tear me from his arms. “Is my room in the same place?”
“It’s exactly as you left it,” Jack replied crossly.
“Alright.” Peter nodded at Jack, then he turned and darted up the stairs.
“That guys has weird vibes,” Bobby remarked, speaking for the first time since I’d met him.
He stared after the space where Peter had been, then shook his head to toss his bangs out of his dark eyes. As if to comfort him, Milo rubbed his back, and Bobby smiled, settling back into the chair with him.
Is it too early to say that I really hate Bobby?
“So Bobby?” I asked, and he turned back to me, smiling clumsily. I decided to dispense with the small talk immediately. “Are you gay?” Jack laughed, filling me with a familiar glee. Once Peter had left, he had managed to relax a bit.
“Alice!” Milo snapped, embarrassed.
“What?” I asked innocently.
There was nothing overly gay about Bobby, other than the fact that he had kissed my brother and looked at him like he couldn’t wait to jump his bones. His clothes were just fashionable scene apparel, skinny jeans and slip on Vans. He might be wearing eyeliner, but he might just have really dark eyelashes too. He was white, but his features were dark, like Italian or Russian.
“No, it’s okay,” Bobby laughed, brushing off Milo’s concern. “Yeah. I am gay.”
“How old are you?” I asked pointedly.
“Twenty-one,” Bobby answered, and I bristled.
Admittedly, Milo was a vampire, and thanks to they’re rapid maturation, he looked about nineteen or so. In actuality, he wasn’t even sixteen, and he was making out with a twenty-year-old guy.
Not cool. In fact, it was so not cool that I planned on freaking 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 said, sensing that I was revving up for some kind of argument. “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 like 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, trying really hard to keep the edge from his voice. Unfortunately, I could hear and understand all the little nuances and inflections to his tones.
He was worried as hell. Not just about the danger I had been in, but about what might have transpired between Peter and 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 shit?
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,” I insisted looking up at him.
“You were in Finland with Peter! And you wouldn’t answer my calls!” Jack retorted. “I’m pretty sure you’ve upset me plenty already, and it didn’t bother you then!”
“Of course it bothered me!” I pulled away from him, even though it hurt just to separate, but I was trying to be pissed off. “I thought about you constantly! But I couldn’t tell you stuff! I knew if I said anything you would rush over there and get yourself killed!”
“I would get myself killed?” Jack turned his body more so he was facing me 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 added 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,” Jack replied quietly. “That’s who had Peter.” He bit his lip, looking down at me. “I should’ve came over as soon as you told me but…” He shook his head, upset by his own decisions. If he had gone there, everything would’ve turned out much worse, but that sounded like a horrible thing to say to him.
“Lycan?” Milo sat up sharply, almost knocking Bobby off the chair. “You mean werewolves?”
“Not exactly,” I looked over at him. “Not at all, really. They’re just vampires that live in the woods.
And 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, I could tell that he’d already figured it out. He furrowed his brow and stared at me.
“Peter let them do that?” Jack whispered hoarsely.
“He didn’t have a choice. Ezra… tricked him,” I explained as best I could. Somehow, I knew that if I told Jack that Ezra had left me with Peter, that would not go over well.
“What are you talking about? What happened?” Milo demanded.
“Nothing. Never mind,” I snapped. Jack was looking at me intently, his blue eyes full of too much for me to read. He was definitely pained and unhappy though, and I didn’t know how to fix it.
“Nothing happened to me, though. 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 was at least momentarily satisfied. He wrapped his arm around me again, so I would curl up next to him. Milo was completely perplexed, but he dropped the subject since we looked contented again. He had never been out the area, either, so he pressed for more information about traveling, and 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.