Chapter 24
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Charlie's mind went completely blank.
Simon was kissing him. Simon, who hunted vampires, who'd tried to stake him twice, who'd just spent the last ten minutes proving Charlie was defective, was kissing him like the world was ending.
Maybe it was.
Charlie couldn't think past the heat of Simon's mouth, the way his hands had come up to frame Charlie's face like he was something worth holding onto. There was nothing gentle about the kiss.
Charlie liked that.
He liked it a lot.
But then his fangs descended without his input.
Shit.
What if he nicked Simon?
He tried to pull back, but Simon held him in place, kissing him like he was trying to crawl inside Charlie's skin. Like he could somehow undo everything he'd done if he just pressed close enough, held tight enough.
The taste of blood sparked on his tongue—definitely from a cut, Charlie's fang had caught Simon's lower lip. The flavor hit Charlie's system like a drug, making his whole body light up with need. He whimpered, and tried again to pull back, but Simon's grip turned almost bruising.
"Don't," Simon growled against his mouth, and then he did something that short-circuited Charlie's brain entirely—he deliberately pressed his cut lip against Charlie's fang, letting more blood well up.
Charlie made a broken sound, his hands fisting in Simon's shirt hard enough to tear the fabric. He surged forward, knocking Simon backwards onto the floor. Simon let him, pulling Charlie down with him until Charlie was sprawled on top of him, their bodies pressed together from chest to hip.
Charlie had never felt predatory before, but something about Simon's blood on his tongue and Simon's hands pulling him closer made him feel the need to feast.
"So this is what it takes to make you go wild," Simon said against his mouth, and he sounded happy, satisfied, like Charlie going feral was what he'd wanted all along.
But that wasn't right. Simon had wanted him to be a monster so he could stake him with a clear conscience. Not so Charlie could lie on top of him, fangs out, drunk on a few drops of freely given blood.
"I don't understand you." Charlie pulled back just enough to see Simon's face. "You hate vampires. You hate what I am."
"I don't hate you." Simon's hands had found their way under Charlie's shirt, fingernails dragging along his spine hard enough to leave marks. "I hate that you exist. I hate that you're good. I hate that you're making me question everything I've ever believed."
"Then why—"
"Because I can't stake you." The admission seemed torn from Simon's throat.
"I've tried to convince myself I could. Tried to make you into something worth killing.
But you're not." His hands tightened on Charlie's waist, holding him in place.
"You're the only truly good person I've ever met and you're a vampire and that's breaking my brain. "
Charlie stared down at him, this dangerous hunter who'd killed over a hundred vampires, who was currently underneath Charlie looking destroyed by his own confession.
Charlie had wanted a lot of things since being turned. To be human again. To stop craving blood. To belong somewhere, anywhere, with someone who didn't think he was a joke.
He hadn't dared to let himself want this.
But now Simon's thumb was stroking along his jaw, warm and real. "I'm not leaving," Simon said firmly. "Stop thinking I'm going to leave." His hand slid down Charlie's back, steadying him, grounding him, and then stopped abruptly. "What is that?"
Charlie's mind was still foggy from the kiss, from the taste of Simon's blood on his tongue. "What's what?"
Simon's hand moved lower, and his expression shifted to something between disbelief and exasperation. "Charlie. You have a tail."
"What?" Charlie twisted, trying to see, and sure enough. There it was, a rabbit tail had sprouted just above the waistband of his sweatpants. Fluffy and white and absolutely ridiculous. "Oh my God."
He scrambled backward, face burning. "I didn't…I don't know how…"
"You partially shifted." Simon sat up. "While we were kissing."
"I'm sorry!" Charlie's hands went to cover the tail, which only made things worse because now he was actively aware of it. It twitched. "I guess I just… I got…"
"Overwhelmed?"
The word came out oddly gentle, and when Charlie looked up, Simon's expression had softened into something that wasn't quite a smile but wasn't judgment either.
"This is so embarrassing," Charlie mumbled, still trying to hide the tail that absolutely would not shift back. "I'm literally a disaster. I can't even kiss someone without turning into Bugs Bunny."
"Peter Rabbit," Simon corrected.
Charlie blinked at him. "What?"
"Bugs Bunny is a rabbit who walks upright and eats carrots. You're more Peter Rabbit. Small, nervous, gets into trouble."
"Are you seriously critiquing my rabbit form right now?"
"I'm just stating facts." Simon's mouth twitched, and Charlie realized with shock that he was fighting not to laugh.
"This isn't funny!"
"It's a little funny." Simon reached out, and Charlie thought he was going to touch the tail, which would have been mortifying, but instead his fingers found Charlie's wrist, pulling his hands away from their futile hiding attempt. "Stop that. You're making it worse."
"How could this possibly get worse?" Charlie could feel the tail twitching with his agitation, completely outside his control. "I'm a vampire with a prey animal form who just sprouted a tail because someone kissed me. I'm like the universe's idea of a joke."
"You're not a joke." Simon's voice went serious again, thumb brushing over Charlie's pulse point. "You're just... unprecedented."
"That's a nice way of saying 'weird.'"
"I don't do nice." Simon tugged him closer, and Charlie went despite the humiliation of the tail situation.
"I mean what I say. You're unprecedented.
Do you think there's any other vampire who literally couldn't hurt people?
Who apologizes to doors? Who gets stuck in rabbit form because they can only think rabbit thoughts? "
"Those aren't good things!"
"They're you things." Simon's other hand came up to Charlie's face, tilting his chin up. "And I happen to find them just as adorable as I find them exasperating."
Charlie's breath caught. The tail gave an involuntary twitch of what might have been happiness, which was so mortifying he wanted to sink through the floor.
"It moved," Simon observed.
"Please don't narrate my tail movements."
"It's responding to your emotions."
"Simon, I'm begging you—"
Simon grinned. "Maybe I like it when you beg."
Charlie's brain short-circuited and his tail, his traitorous, horrible tail, twitched so hard it was basically wagging.
"I—you can't just—" Words failed him completely. His face felt like it was on fire, and he was pretty sure vampires weren't supposed to blush this much. Or at all. "That's not fair."
"Fair?" Simon's thumb traced along Charlie's jaw, and his grin shifted into something darker, more dangerous. "Nothing about this is fair. You think it's fair that you exist? That you're everything I was taught was impossible?"
Charlie couldn't look away from Simon's eyes. "I don't mean to be impossible."
"I know." Simon's voice dropped lower. "That makes it worse."
Viktor's bedroom door opened.
"Are you two done having your moment, or…" Viktor stopped, taking in the scene. Charlie on the floor with a rabbit tail. Simon's hands on his face. The general atmosphere of tension thick enough to cut. "Oh my God, is that a tail?"
Charlie wanted to die. Fully die. Not vampire die, but actually cease existing.
"It just happened!" he protested, trying to twist away from Simon to hide the tail again, but Simon's grip kept him in place.
"That's incredible." Viktor sounded genuinely delighted. "It takes most vampires years of practice to partially shift."
"Can we stop talking about this?" Charlie pleaded.
Viktor laughed. "Oh, I'm not nearly done talking about it." He circled Charlie. "Can you control it? Make it go away?"
Charlie closed his eyes, face scrunched in concentration. The tail remained stubbornly present. "This is a nightmare."
A buzzing noise made him open his eyes again. Simon's phone.
Simon seemed to ignore it, but Charlie felt him tense, his fingers tightening almost imperceptibly Charlie's wrist.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." The joy had gone out of Simon's voice.
Viktor's eyes narrowed. "That's your handler, isn't it?"
Another buzz. This time Simon pulled it out, glanced at the screen, and his jaw went tight. "I have to go."
Charlie stared at Simon. Was he being serious right now? "You said you weren't leaving." Charlie hated how small his voice sounded.
Simon's gaze flicked between his phone and Charlie's face. Something warred there, some internal battle Charlie couldn't read. "There's something I need to check out."
"Now?" Viktor stood, crossing his arms. "After everything that just happened?"
"Especially after everything that just happened." Simon looked back at Charlie, just a hint of softness returning to his expression. "Look, I'm not leaving forever. I'll find you. I'm good at that, am I not?"
Charlie couldn't argue with that.
Still, he wished Simon wouldn't go. But there was nothing he could say to stop the hunter. Simon rose to his feet in one fluid motion like a man on a mission. "There's a lead I need to follow. About who set you up."
Charlie scrambled upright. "Someone set me up?"
"The murders you didn't commit. Someone called them in, gave false information to make you seem dangerous." Simon checked his weapons in a way that seemed more like habit than anything else. "I'm going to find out who."
"And then what?" Viktor's tone carried an edge Charlie didn't understand.
Simon's hesitation lasted barely a second, but Charlie caught it. "Then I deal with it."
Something about the way Simon said "deal with it" made Charlie's stomach twist. "I'll come with you."