Simon released Charlie's wrist to take the stake, but his other hand kept Charlie firmly pinned to the wall. The moment the stake touched his palm, something shifted in Simon's expression, but the emotion was gone too quickly for Charlie to tell what it was.
"Simon," Charlie whispered, his voice breaking. "I know you're still in there."
Simon raised the stake to Charlie's chest, its point pressing against skin.
"That's it," Reuben encouraged. "One clean thrust. End this distraction."
Charlie closed his eyes, tears burning behind his lids. He'd failed. The bond wasn't strong enough. His blood wasn't enough to break Reuben's hold.
He was going to die here, staked like the pathetic excuse for a vampire he was.
Then he felt it—Simon's body shifting closer, the stake still pressed to his chest but not driving forward. The slight tremor in Simon's hand.
Could it be…?
Charlie opened his eyes to find Simon's face inches from his own. To Reuben, it must have looked like Simon was positioning for a better angle to drive the stake home. But Charlie saw the battle raging behind those cold eyes, felt the resistance through their bond.
Simon leaned forward, his lips almost brushing Charlie's ear.
"Trust me," he whispered, so softly that only Charlie could hear.
Before Charlie could process the words, Simon's head dipped to his neck. Charlie felt warm breath against his skin, then the sharp press of fangs. The points broke skin, and Charlie gasped at the strange, electric sensation of Simon drinking from him.
Chapter
Thirty-Five
Simon could think of nothing but that first taste of blood flooding his mouth.
Not just any blood. Charlie's blood.
Vampire blood.
The moment it touched his tongue, something inside Simon stirred. Reuben's presence in his mind, that cold, controlling weight that had directed his actions since the injection, recoiled slightly, as if disturbed by an intruder.
Simon's fangs sank deeper into Charlie's neck, and the blood flowed stronger. With each swallow, Simon felt Reuben's hold weakening, but something else was rising in its place, something ancient and hungry and powerful.
Something he'd been fighting his entire life.
With sudden, terrible clarity, Simon understood what was happening.
He'd spent the last decade of his life suspended in a half-state between human and vampire.
Now Charlie's blood was nudging him over to the vampire side, feeding the infection inside of him that longed to complete his halted transformation.
Simon froze, his fangs still in Charlie's neck but no longer drawing blood.
Could he become a vampire?
Could he?
Kill him, Reuben's blood command insisted in his mind.Remember your mother. Remember what these monsters do.
"Simon?" Charlie whispered, not moving, completely surrendered beneath his hands.
Simon stood suspended between two futures. If he pulled away now, Reuben's blood would reassert control. He would remain Reuben's weapon, his mother's death unrevenged, Charlie destroyed by his own hands.
But if he drank, he would become what he had hunted. What he had hated. What he had feared becoming.
