Adam trailed beside me, up the stairs.
"You should eat, too," I told him.
He gave me a look, and I let it lie. If he really needed food, he'd get some. As soon as we made it into the bedroom, he started to change back to human. He was tired, and there was no urgency, so the change was very slow.
I peeled off everything I was wearing and threw it into the dirty clothes. Then I walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. It took a long time to get clean. The ash clung with surprising tenacity, and since at least some of that ash had once been a person - a zombie person - I had to get it all off.
When I finally came out, Adam was stretched out on the bed, naked and asleep. He was clean, and his hair was wet, so he'd used the other upstairs shower.
I watched him while I towel dried my hair. Peter joined me. Dead or alive, he was a werewolf, he didn't care that I was naked, so I didn't bother covering up.
"He's a good man," he told me, looking at Adam.
"Yes," I agreed.
Peter tilted his head down to look me in the eye, and he smiled. "You know he doesn't believe that. He thinks he is a monster."
"It's all right," I said. "What he thinks doesn't change the facts."
"I told him where you were," Peter said. "You sent me away. Sent me here. But I found Adam, and I told him where you were and what the vampires had you doing."
"You left before I knew what they were going to ask me to do."
"You're a walker," he said. "And they were facing a necromancer who could bind the dead. Of course they wanted you."
See, even a dead man was smarter than I was.
"Peter," I said, "it's time for you to go. I know how to fix what Frost did to you."