"I'm going to destroy him," Simon said quietly.
Charlie felt the weight of those words through their bond, the absolute certainty behind them. Simon wasn't making a threat. He was stating a fact.
And in that moment, Charlie felt something unlock in his own chest.
"Good," he said.
Simon's gaze snapped to him. "Good?"
"He destroyed your life. He used your mother's death to control you." Charlie pushed himself up on one elbow. "He shouldn't get to keep living."
"You don't mean that."
"Why not?" The question came out sharper than Charlie intended. "Because I'm soft? Because I faint at blood? Because I turn into a rabbit?"
Simon studied him. "Because you're good."
"Maybe I'm tired of being good." Charlie sat up fully, the sheet falling away. "Good got me turned into a vampire as a joke. Good got me living off ketchup packets. Good got me nowhere."
"Charlie—"
"No, listen." Charlie's hands clenched in the sheets. "I've spent my entire life letting things happen to me. Before I was turned, after. Always apologizing, always shrinking, always hoping if I was harmless enough, people would leave me alone."
Simon stayed quiet, watching him with that focused intensity that used to make Charlie want to hide.
"But they don't leave me alone. They mock me or hunt me or use me." Charlie met Simon's gaze. "I'm done with it. Done being the joke. Done being helpless."
"You're not helpless."
"No?" Charlie laughed, but there was no humor in it. "Name one time I've actually done something instead of having it done to me."
Simon opened his mouth, then closed it.
"Exactly." Charlie pulled his knees up, wrapping his arms around them. "Even drinking your blood, you had to force it on me. Everything in my life has been other people's decisions."
"So what are you deciding now?"
Charlie thought about it. Really thought about it, for maybe the first time since that night behind Rosie's.
"I'm deciding that I'll stop running." He looked at Simon. "I'm deciding to fight back."
"Against the Organization?"
"Against everyone who thinks they get to decide what I am." Charlie's voice grew steadier. "The vampires who say I'm wrong. The hunters who say I'm a monster. The Organization that turns children into weapons." He felt his gaze narrow. "Being gooddoesn't mean I have to let terrible people get away with doing terrible things, does it?"
"Of course it doesn't. But…" Simon reached out to take his hand. "You don't know what you're asking for. War isn't clean. It's not just deciding to fight. It's blood and compromise and becoming things you never wanted to be."
"Then teach me."
"Charlie…"
"Teach me to be dangerous." Charlie squeezed Simon's hand.
Simon didn't look pleased at this prospect. "I'm not a good teacher. I only know how to hurt things."
"That's not true. You know how to protect things too. You protected me."
"By hurting other things."
