“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine.” Irrational tears welled up in my eyes. It was stupid how much I missed him when I’d barely even been gone for a day. “We just got to the hotel. I was just calling to let you know that we got in alright.” “Good. Good.” Jack was genuinely relieved, but that was tightness in his voice, probably because he missed me and hadn’t wanted me to go in the first place. “How was your flight?” “I slept through most of it,” I admitted but neglected to tell him the reason for it. He didn’t need to know about my panicked bloodlust in New York. It would just work him up. “This is my first time being out of the Midwest, though, and it sucks. I was in New York City, and I didn’t see any of it. I barely got a glimpse of Helsinki when we were coming in.” “You’re in Finland?” There was an edge to his voice, and I realized that I might’ve said too much. “That’s where Peter’s in trouble with vampires?” “Um…” I shifted on the bed, trying to think of a line to feed him. “They’re not really vampires, are they? It’s lycan.” He sighed when I didn’t say anything, and then he held the phone away from his mouth. “Mae! Mae!” “Why are you yelling at Mae?” I asked wearily. “Because. If she knew that’s what you guys were doing-” “What?” I interrupted him. “What are you gonna do?” Jack grumbled something under his breath but didn’t really have a follow-up for that. Even if Mae had known, she would’ve been as happy about as Jack, and she would’ve tried just as hard as to talk Ezra out of going. Most likely, Ezra hadn’t told anybody where we were going for that reason. He had made up his mind, and he didn’t want to waste time fighting about it. “I should get on a plane right now,” Jack threatened. “Jack, don’t be silly. Ezra wouldn’t let anything happen to me. I’m just here to try and talk Peter into coming back, not to fight any stupid vampires,” I told him as calmly as I could. If I sounded even slightly freaked out about the lycan, than he would hop on a plane and drag me back with him. “Peter doesn’t need to come back,” Jack muttered.
“Have you been to Finland?” I quickly changed the subject. It was pointless to go over the topic of Peter again. The bond between Jack and Peter had been irrevocably severed and arguing with him about it would only make Jack more anxious. I couldn’t make him feel good about me being here, but maybe I could distract him enough where he worried a little less. “Yeah, once, a few years back,” he said disdainfully. “We went skiing and I was terrible. I broke a snowboard and rolled down the hill like a snowball. It wasn’t that fun. Finland’s not that great. You should just come home.” “Jack,” I sighed. I had started to smile when I pictured him tumbling down a hill, but it faded when he went back to trying to convince me to leave. “You’re wasting this phone call. My phone’s going to die, and I don’t have a charger. Do you really wanna spend this time arguing with me, when you know you’re not going to change my mind?” “Yeah, I kind of do,” Jack replied flippantly. “Besides, I’m sure Erza has a charger that’ll work there, and you can use that.” A few weeks ago, Jack had bought me an iPhone, since I wasn’t on my mother’s cell phone plan anymore. It was the exact same phone that both Ezra and Jack had, so if Ezra had a charger, it would work on mine. I have to be honest – being really rich was kind of awesome. “Ezra speaks Finnish,” I went on, keeping the subject away from Peter or coming home. “It’s pretty fancy, although I can’t understand a word of it.” “Ezra is fluent in like every language known to man, even the dead ones. He thought he was so cool when he watched The Passion of the Christ without subtitles because can he speak Aramaic, but I’m pretty sure that’s the only time that’ll ever come in handy.” He had lightened up, just a tad, and it made me smile. “Can you speak any other languages?” I had never heard Jack say anything in another language, nor he had he mentioned it. “Spanish and German,” Jack informed with me an odd sense of pride. “I learned Spanish in high school, and German in college, so I’m not really fluent in either. But I can ask if you speak in English in both languages, and I think that’s the only thing I really need to know.”
“Yeah, that sounds helpful,” I laughed, but my happiness made fresh tears in my eyes. “I miss you, you know?” “I miss you too,” Jack agreed solemnly. “You can come home, Alice, whenever you want. No pressure.” “I know. But I have to help out. It shouldn’t be that long, I don’t think. We’re going out first thing tomorrow. We’ll find Peter, and then come straight home.” Jack started to say something to me about the Finnish wilderness being more complex than I thought it was, but Ezra came out of the bathroom, distracting me. He had changed into flannel pajama pants and a tee shirt, and his sandy hair was a damp mess. He ruffled his hand through it, then looked at me questioningly. “It’s just Jack,” I told him, holding the phone a little way from my mouth. “Ezra’s there? Let me talk to him!” Jack demanded, and his voice had gone hard. “You don’t need to talk to him,” I sighed. “I take it he knows we’re in Finland then?” Ezra asked me, and I nodded sheepishly. “Oh well. He’d find out sooner or later.” “Look, Jack, I should get some sleep anyway. I’ll call you soon and let you know how things are going,” I told him reluctantly. Ezra had started rolling down the teal bedspread, meaning he was getting ready for bed and I should probably do the same. “Alice…” Jack was almost whining, and he realized it so he stopped. “Just call me soon, really soon. And take care of yourself, okay?” “I will,” I promised. When I hung up the phone, I had to fight the overwhelming urge to sob. Somehow hearing his voice had only made things worse. My heart ached dully in my chest, and my body felt completely out of whack. It felt like there was something missing, and I hated it. I hated that I could barely even survive being away from. Being that dependant on another person was unsettling. “You didn’t have to get off the phone because of me, you know,” Ezra said.
He had gotten into bed, and I glanced back at him, careful not to let my gaze linger long enough for him to notice how distressed I really was. I swallowed back tears, staring down at my phone, and heard the rustle of blankets as he settled himself into bed. Even though I’d just gotten off the phone, I thought about calling Jack back. It wouldn’t do any good to make me feel better, so I decided against it. “I know,” I admitted. Setting my phone on the nightstand, I crawled underneath the covers myself. “Are you going to call Mae?” “Not until I know anything. Jack can fill her in.” He rolled onto his stomach and rested his head on the pillow. “Are you doing to be okay with all of this?” “Yeah, I’m fine,” I nodded, and I wasn’t sure if I was lying or not. I leaned over and turned off the bedside lamp, but even in the darkness, I could feel Ezra watching me. It would be impossible to hide anything from him, but I was determined to try anyway. Rolling over so my back was to him, I allowed a few silent tears to slide down my cheeks. Thankfully, he didn’t say anything, and eventually, his breathing had the regulated quality that comes with sleep. Unfortunately, sleep wouldn’t be nearly as easy for me. Ezra tore open the shades while the sun was still up, and I squinted and pulled the blankets over my head. The little experienced I had with the sun so far made me tired and cranky, and I had no urge to relive that feeling. Fully dressed and whistling an old Neil Young song, I heard Ezra go about the room, and I knew it was time to get up. “What time is it?” I mumbled, still buried underneath the thin hotel comforter. “It’s a little after one, but we need to get going. We’re burning daylight.” Ezra chuckled at his own joke, and I was starting to think that maybe I didn’t agree with his sense of humor. “You’re actually expecting me to get up now?” I poked my head out, braving the blinding light that filled the room. “We do need to get going,” he told me absently. He was checking something on his phone, then he glanced back at the open. “I can close the shades, if that helps.” “You know it does,” I yawned.