Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
The black van pulled into the parking garage twelve minutes later. Its windows were tinted so dark it had to be illegal.
Simon recognized Viktor's driving. He took his turns a little too fast and hit the brakes just before he had to, as if he still thought he was invincible.
The van stopped three spaces away. The driver door opened.
Viktor looked different. Fuller somehow. Less like he was held together with caffeine and determination. His hair had grown out from the military cut the Organization preferred, and he'd put on muscle that wasn't just functional. He looked healthy. Human.
Happy.
Simon didn't know what to do with that.
Viktor didn't give him time to ponder his response, regardless. His expression shifted the moment he got close enough to really see them. His pace slowed, nostrils flaring.
"Jesus, Simon." Viktor's gaze tracked from Charlie's huddled form to the blood on Simon's sleeve. "This your target?"
"We need to go."
Viktor opened the van's side door without asking more questions, though his eyes lingered on the way Charlie had his face pressed against Simon's throat.
Simon climbed in, maneuvering carefully to keep the blanket in place. The moment he tried to set Charlie on the bench seat, Charlie made a wounded sound, fingers twisting in Simon's jacket.
"Don't go." The words came out slurred, desperate.
Hell.
What was a man to do?
Simon stayed on the floor of the van, back against the wall, Charlie still in his lap.
It was more practical this way. Easier than fighting an injured vampire.
Viktor watched in the rearview mirror as he started the engine. "You seem friendly."
"He's nobody."
Charlie made another small sound, burrowing deeper into Simon's chest. "'M not nobody. I'm Charlie."
"Hi, Charlie." Viktor's tone was carefully neutral. "You look like you've had a rough night."
"Got cooked." Charlie's voice was getting dreamier. "Simon saved me. Came back for me even though I ran away. Even though he's supposed to kill me."
Viktor's eyes found Simon's in the mirror. One eyebrow raised.
"He's confused from drinking too much too fast," Simon said flatly.
"I can see that." Viktor pulled out of the garage and onto the street. "Your blood, from the smell of it."
Simon didn't respond.
What could he say, really? He could hardly deny the other hunter's senses.
"That's interesting." Viktor took a hard turn. "Reuben's favorite is feeding vampires now?"
"It was necessary."
"I'm sure it was." Another turn, tires squealing. Viktor always drove like something was chasing him. "How many times?"
"What?"
"How many times has he fed from you? He reeks of you."
Simon's hand had somehow ended up cupping the back of Charlie's head, keeping him steady through Viktor's driving. "Twice."
"Only twice?" Viktor sounded genuinely surprised. "And he's this—" He gestured vaguely at how Charlie was clinging. "That's unusual."
Charlie mumbled something incoherent against Simon's throat. His breathing was evening out, body going heavier as the blood worked through his system.
"He's passing out." Simon observed. "Finally." This was good. It would take the young vampire's body a few hours to regenerate.
They drove in silence for a few minutes, Charlie's consciousness fading with each passing block. His grip on Simon's jacket slowly loosened, though he didn't let go entirely.
"You're off your suppressants," Viktor said quietly. It wasn't a question.
"How can you tell?"
"Just a guess." His eyes met Simon's in the rearview mirror. "You're holding him like he's yours."
The words hit unexpectedly hard. Simon looked down at Charlie's unconscious form, at his own arms wrapped protectively around him. When had that happened?
"He's the one clinging to me."
"Sure." Viktor pulled into a parking structure Simon didn't recognize. "That's why you're cradling him like something precious instead of dumping him in the back."
That was entirely unfair. Simon wasn't… Simon didn't… "Where are we?" he asked to avoid all the other questions he had no answers to.
"My place. That okay?"
"Didn't know you had a place." Simon shifted Charlie's weight slightly. The vampire had gone completely limp, breath shallow against his neck. Simon really should dump him.
He didn't.
He looked at Viktor again. "Last I heard, you were heading west."
"That’s what I wanted you to tell everyone.
And I'm glad you did." Viktor parked, killed the engine.
"I needed time to figure things out." He scoffed at himself.
"I had no idea how to be a normal person.
You know how long it's been since I had to think about groceries? Or about how the rent gets paid?"
"The Organization handled everything."
"Everything." Viktor got out, came around to open the side door. "Sixteen years, Simon. Since I was twelve. More than half my life."
Simon had known Viktor was young when recruited, but hearing the number hit different. He'd been twelve. A child.
"Remind me how old you were," Viktor said. "When Reuben found you."
"Fifteen."
"Right." Viktor's expression softened slightly. "At least you had some normal life before. I barely remember mine."
He reached to help with Charlie, but Simon was already moving, adjusting his grip to carry the unconscious vampire.
He couldn't say why, but he didn't want Viktor to touch Charlie. Charlie might be a disaster vampire, but he was Simon's disaster vampire.
Simon had gone through too much tonight to hand that responsibility over to someone else.
"I've got him."
"Sure you do." Viktor led them to an elevator. "Third floor."
The building was old but clean. Nothing like Charlie's rundown apartment complex, but nothing like Simon's sterile high-rise either. It felt lived-in. Normal.
"How long have you been here?"
"Three months." Viktor unlocked a door marked 3C. "Took a while to figure out the whole civilian thing. Credit history is a bitch when you technically haven't existed since middle school."
The apartment was small but warm. The furniture was mismatched but comfortable-looking. There were books on the shelves and a plant by the window. Probably fake, because it sat next to black out curtains that would have to keep all the light out during the day.
"You can put him on the couch," Viktor said, clearing some magazines off the cushions.
Simon set Charlie down carefully. Without thinking, he pulled a throw pillow under Charlie's head and adjusted the UV blanket to cover most of him. Charlie's hand stayed fisted in Simon's jacket until Simon gently pried his fingers loose.
"When did you get so domestic?" Simon asked Viktor, straightening.
"When I realized I could be." Viktor moved to the kitchen—which seemed well-stocked. "You want coffee? Water? Something stronger?"
"Water."
Viktor filled two glasses. "You know what's fucked up? Grocery shopping. First time I went to a supermarket after leaving, I stood in the cereal aisle for twenty minutes. Couldn't figure out how to choose. There's a whole world beyond protein shakes, did you know that?"
"The shakes are efficient."
"They're joyless, which is the point." Viktor handed him the water. "But you know that. Somewhere in that thick skull, you know that."
Simon didn't answer, watching Charlie sleep instead. The vampire's face had relaxed completely, making him look even younger. The healing burns were barely visible now, just faint pink marks that would probably fade completely by tomorrow.
Simon had succeeded in saving him.
Should that make Simon happy?
Oddly, it did.
"So," Viktor said, settling into an armchair across from the couch. "Want to tell me why the Organization's best hunter is playing nursemaid to a vampire instead of staking him?"
That was exactly what Simon wanted to know. But he didn't. "It's complicated."
"Really? And here I thought nothing was ever complicated with you." Viktor took a long drink of water. "Remember that nest in Detroit? The youngest of them looked fourteen."
"She was a vampire."
"Right. So you staked her before I could even say anything." Viktor leaned forward. "Because every vampire is automatically a monster, right?"
Simon thought of Charlie fainting at the sight of blood. Charlie apologizing to a door. Charlie surviving on ketchup and hot sauce for three weeks because he wouldn't bite anyone.
But a few irregularities didn't change the truth.
"Why are you protecting this one?" Viktor asked.
"I'm not protecting him. I'm investigating. Someone set him up. We got false intelligence about murders he didn't commit. I want to know who and why."
Viktor made a sound that might have been a laugh. "You fed him your blood to investigate?"
"He was dying."
"Vampires are hard to kill."
"He was out in the sun."
"And that's hurt him, sure. But vampires can survive a lot of burning before they actually die. You know that." Viktor's gaze was too knowing. "You've tested it."
Simon had. It was part of advanced training. Understanding exactly how much damage vampires could take before termination. The memory sat like acid in his stomach now.
"This one's different," Simon said finally.
"Because he's innocent?"
"Because he's—" Chaotic. Harmless. Mine. Simon caught himself before any of those words escaped. "He's three weeks old. Abandoned by his sire. He didn't ask for any of this."
"Neither did we."
The words gave Simon pause.
"Do you ever wonder," Viktor said quietly, "what would have happened if Reuben hadn't found us? If we'd been left to turn naturally?"
"We'd be dead. Or monsters."
"Would we?" Viktor stood, and then he started pacing restlessly.
"I've been doing research, you know, finding out about real vampires, not the Organization's version.
Did you know some vampires live peacefully?
They have territories, sure, but they also have rules.
Communities. They don't all prey on innocent humans. "
"Is that the fairy tale you're telling yourself now?"