Connor considered this. "That seems contradictory."
Simon suppressed a sigh. "You don't say."
The third vampire, who'd been silent until now, stood up. "I'm Thomas. I make furniture." He paused. "That's not relevant to anything, but everyone here opens with their thing, so."
"Simon's thing is hunting vampires," Maya said cheerfully. "This should be interesting."
"Can we have a moment?" Charlie asked, still clutching the puzzle piece. "Just… I need to talk to Simon. Alone."
"Ooh, alone time already?" Maya waggled her eyebrows.
Charlie's face somehow got redder. "It's not… we're just talking."
"Uh-huh. Talking. Sure."
"Maya," Viktor warned.
She raised her hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. Come on, boys. Let's give the disaster couple some space."
They filed out, Connor shooting Charlie betrayed looks, Thomas nodding politely at Simon, Maya making exaggerated winking faces until Viktor physically dragged her from the room.
The door clicked shut.
Charlie stood there, still holding that single puzzle piece, looking everywhere except at Simon.
"You told them about my eyes?"
"I told them nothing about your eyes." Charlie set the puzzle piece carefully on the table. "Maya makes things up. She thinks she's helping."
Simon moved closer, and Charlie finally looked at him properly. His pupils dilated immediately.
"You look tired," Charlie said softly.
"It's been a long night."
"Did you find what you needed to at the library?"
The question sat between them. What could Simon say? If he gave any credit to what he'd been told… Then his entire life was built on lies. And his mother had died because Reuben needed him traumatized enough to control.
No, Simon couldn't say that.
"It's complicated," he said instead.
Charlie nodded like this made perfect sense. "Everything's complicated now." He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. "The vampires here are nice. They don't think I'm broken."
Simon wouldn't call the vampires here nice. He'd call them weird becausehewasn't nice.
"This whole place is off," he said.
"What do you mean?"
"How can there be this many vampires gathered just outside a town that's crawling with hunters? And none of us have heard about it?" The questions nagged at Simon. The existence of this retreat didn't make sense.
It made even less sense for it to be full of 'nice' vampires like Charlie.
Even Noah had said that Charlie was exceptional.
"Maybe hunters do know about it," Charlie said. "But your bosses leave this place alone because no one's getting hurt here."
