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  His veins were pulsing with hot blood, human blood. I realized belatedly how long it had been since I ate. Spending all that time with people lately had left me with more self-control than before, but I wasn’t accustomed to it in my own home.

  “Who is that?” I asked, finally releasing Jack so he would lower me to the ground. Milo moved protectively in front of the kid, which made something flare inside me.

  “That’s Bobby.” Jack put me down but he kept an arm looped around my waist, and I doubt it was just because he missed me. Tension from Peter along with my confused reaction to this Bobby person made the room feel unstable. “I told you about him on the phone. Remember?”

  “You didn’t tell me he was human,” I sniffed, crossing my arms over my chest.

  “You were human like ten seconds ago,” Milo rolled his eyes.

  Bobby peered around Milo at me, and it wasn’t his species difference that offended me so much. This was the first time Milo had ever brought a guy home. On top of that, I had been away when it happened, and this kid was older than Milo and had tattoos.

  “I couldn’t tell you very much about anything since you wouldn’t answer my calls or return my texts,” Jack pointed out icily, and he glanced back at Peter.

  Peter held our luggage and stood awkwardly by the front door. Matilda sniffed him, wagging her tail, but nobody else acknowledged him at all.

  Ezra looked much better, but he was still clearly unwell. Mae had to smell the other vampires on him. Even I could still smell it - dank and musty and unpleasant. Touching his face gingerly, she had tears in her eyes, oblivious to the growing unease in the room.

  “Come on.” Milo gestured to the other room. “You’ve all had a long trip. I’m sure you guys wanna relax for a bit, and fill us in with all the juicy details.”

  Milo led the way to the living room, deliberately putting himself between Bobby and me. It was weird thinking of myself as a threat.

  Jack’s arm was still around me, and I remembered with some delight that I was with him. I smiled up at him, but he was slow to return it. His heart beat too loud, meaning something distressed him.

  “I would love to catch up with you. I missed you all so much,” Mae said when we reached the leaving room. She smiled and squeezed my arm lovingly. Ezra stood behind her, his expression drawn. “But Ezra and I are going to have to excuse ourselves. He needs some rest.”

  “I understand,” I said.

  As I watched them walk away, I felt Jack’s eyes settle on me. Ezra’s anguish made Jack wary about what had gone on in Finland. I avoided his gaze, because I wasn’t ready to explain it to him, especially not in front of Milo and his new friend.

  Milo flopped back in an overstuffed chair. Bobby remained glued to his side and sat on the arm of the chair next to him, so he was half on Milo’s lap. Something about that sent a ripple of agitation through me. When Bobby put his hand on his thigh, I wanted to slap it away.

  “So…” Milo asked me. “How was your trip?”

  “It was okay,” I shrugged, unwilling to give up anymore right now.

  Peter walked over to lean against the wall, and Jack moved smoothly around me, putting himself between Peter and me. This was the way things would go for awhile, and it was too early to already get annoyed by them. I went over and sat on the couch.

  “Since you brought Peter back, I assume it was a rousing success.” Milo looked at Peter out of the corner of his eye. He’d only met Peter once, and that hadn’t gone that great.

  “You could say that,” I said

  Jack sat next to me, and Peter glanced around the room diffidently, managing not to look happy or upset. I pulled my knees up to my chest and leaned in closer in the crook of Jack’s arm, but he was unnaturally tense.

  I would’ve loved to ease his fears, but I was preoccupied by this Bobby character that was all but sitting on my little brother’s lap.

  “It looks like you’ve had a pretty busy time without us,” I said as casually as I could.

  “You could say that,” Milo laughed.

  Milo shared one of this disgustingly sweet looks with him. 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.

  It wasn’t the fact that Milo was kissing a dude that I found so upsetting. It was that he was kissing anyone.

  “I think I’m gonna crash,” Peter said. He looked to Jack, who tightened his arm around me, as if he expected Peter to tear me from him. “Is my room in the same place?”

  “It’s exactly as you left it,” Jack said as evenly as he could.

  “Alright.” Peter nodded at Jack, then he turned and went upstairs.

  “That guy has weird vibes,” Bobby said, speaking for the first time since I’d met him.

  He stared after the space where Peter had been and shook his head to toss his bangs out of his dark eyes. 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 said, and he smiled clumsily. “Are you gay?” Jack laughed, filling me with a familiar glee. Once Peter left, he relaxed a bit.

  “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 their 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 k
new 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.

  Along with that familiar thirst burning just below the surface, I had a desperate ache for Jack. A bit of jet lag and stress made it too bittersweet for me to greet him the way he deserved, and I had to rectify that immediately.

  When I walked out into the hall, I could smell Bobby. That sweet, delightful scent of hot blood coursing through his veins. His heart pounded quickly, like a frightened rabbit.

  I tensed up, thinking he was in some kind of danger, but I realized he was just excited. This was confirmed by a happy moan from him, and a throaty laugh from Milo. My stomach tightened with nausea and anxiety as I thought about what Milo was doing in the room next to mine.

  It was completely unforgivable that he would have a sex life before I did. The “talk” was becoming more imminent, but I did not want to walk in on whatever they were doing right now to administer it.

  Peter’s bedroom door opened, making me jump. I’d brought him home, but it was still a shock to see someone in his room. It had been shut off for so long, like a shrine for a dead loved one, even though it was the exact opposite of that.

  “Oh. Hey,” Peter said, nodding at me.

  “Hey,” I replied. We stood across from each other, staring awkwardly, so I assumed I should make conversation. “Did you sleep okay? I bet its nice being back in your own bed.”

  “Yeah. It is.” Peter nodded again and shifted uncomfortably.

  “You’re up!” Jack announced too loudly from the bottom of the stairs and raced up to us. He was happy to see me, but the arm he threw around my shoulder was too tight to be anything but for show. “I thought you were going to sleep all day!”

  “Sorry. I guess I had sleep to catch up on,” I smiled at him. His grip around my shoulders was borderline painful.

  “I’m just gonna… go,” Peter said. He turned and walked down the stairs, ignoring the look on Jack’s face.

  Once Peter was out of sight, I wriggled out of Jack’s arms. It felt weird to pull away from him, but I wasn’t a big fan of his jealousy. Jack realized what he was doing, and his expression changed to one of a little boy that got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked apologetically at me.

  “Sorry,” Jack shrugged. “I’m just getting used to this. You’ve had all this time to readjust to Peter but the last time I saw him…” He shivered and looked away from me. I’m not sure what he was thinking about exactly, but it was either Peter kissing me or trying to kill him.

  “It’s okay.” I put my hand on his chest. His muscles felt warm and strong, and his heart beat gently. I leaned in towards him, preparing to give him the kiss I had been wanting to give him for ages, but a fresh scent completely diverted my attention.

  Just down the hall, Milo had apparently drawn blood from Bobby, and the scent of his blood was so strong and intoxicating, my mouth instantly began to water. My stomach didn’t exactly growl, but it was suddenly ravenous. Bobby’s heart rate quickened even more, and I could associate the sound with the smell, making it irresistible. My body flushed with heat, and all I could think/hear/feel was his blood, and how badly I needed it.

  The bloodlust had taken me over entirely.

  - 12 –

  I had my hand on Jack’s chest, and the next thing I knew, I was racing down the hall, to Milo’s room in the turret. I awoke in the moment with Jack’s hand tightly clamped on my arm. He stopped me from getting very far, but it was disturbing that I had blacked out for a second and had no control over myself. I’d been in a trance, and I wasn’t completely out of it yet. At least now I was aware of what was happening, but my desire to feed didn’t lessen.

  “You need to eat,” Jack said.

  “Yeah, no kidding.” I went towards Milo’s room again, but he stopped me.

  “No, not him.”

  He pulled me in the opposite direction, away from the blood. The rational part of me understood what he was doing, that I did not want to feed on my brother’s boyfriend. But my thirst made me irate that he would take me away from the blood.

  “Come on, Alice. There’s food downstairs.”

  “Not good food!” I protested.

  I’d never had fresh blood as a vampire, so I didn’t have anything to compare with it. But fresh blood smelled so much better than bag blood. My body craved it far more intensely, making it almost impossible to resist.

  Jack was stronger than me, and at least some of me knew he was right, so I let him drag me away.

  Mae was just coming up from the basement when we got downstairs, her arms overflowing with cold bags of blood. Apparently, Ezra was eating more than normal too. She saw the look on my face and gave me a bag before I changed my mind about sparing Bobby.

  As I gulped it down, loving the exotic rush of pleasure that ran through me, I overheard her talking to Jack. Ezra was still weak and required lots of rest and food, and Peter had left to do something. She was vague on the details, but I’m not sure if that was for Jack’s sake or because she really didn’t know.

  By the time I finished my bag, she disappeared back into her bedroom to tend to Ezra, and that deep wooziness hit me. I’d just woken up, and I was preparing to pass out again.

  I grabbed onto Jack, hoping that hanging onto him would make me more alert. He laughed at my struggle against sleep, and it resounded through me. He kissed my forehead and held me in his arms, and that w
as too comfortable for me to fight to stay awake anymore.

  I was curled up in the crook of his arm when I woke up, and the faint sounds of Depeche Mode filled the bedroom. Jack had one arm around me, and the other one held a graphic novel, The Killing Joke. It was one of his favorites, so it was battered and beaten. He was so into it that he didn’t even notice when I opened my eyes.

  “Hey,” I smiled up at him. He pulled his head back so he could look down at me, already setting the book aside. “Sorry I just passed out like that.”

  “No, it’s cool. I understand,” he grinned.

  “I missed you.” I snuggled closer to him, pressing my body against his, and his heart sped up.

  “For awhile there, I wasn’t sure if you’d ever come back.” When he pushed a strand of hair from my eyes, his face went stormy, re-imagining all the horrible things he had thought happened to me in Finland.

  “But here we are!” I hurried to erase his dark thoughts, rubbing my hand over his chest. “In your room, in your bed, alone.” My expression faltered, and his face fell with concern. “We are alone, aren’t we?”

  “What do you mean?” His arm tensed up around me, and his voice had an edge to it. He incorrectly assumed that I was thinking of Peter, but he was the furthest thing from my mind.

  “Milo and his new ‘friend.’” I nodded to the thin wall that separated our rooms.

  Listening to Milo and Bobby fool around earlier had been rather nauseating, and I didn’t like the idea of them overhearing me messing around with Jack. I was really, really hoping to finally take things to next level with Jack, and I wanted it to be as intimate and private as possible.

  “Oh, no, they’re long gone,” Jack smiled and relaxed next to me. “They went to a club a few hours ago.”

  “A club?” I arched my eyebrow and knew I was ruining the mood, but I couldn’t shake my concern. “Is that safe?”

  “Yeah,” he shrugged. “Milo is a vampire. He can handle himself.”

  “What about Bobby?” I didn’t really care much for his safety, but Milo would, and if other vampires moved on him, I wasn’t sure how wisely Milo would respond.