He had to make a choice.
"Simon! What are you doing? Kill him!"
The command tugged at him, trying to pull him back from the edge. But Simon wasn't looking at Reuben. His eyes met Charlie's, focused on the fear and hope there, the absolute trust despite everything Simon had just done to him.
Simon made his decision.
He drank.
One sip. Two.
The transformation hit like a tidal wave. Every cell in his body seemed to rupture and reform at once. Simon's back arched, his grip on Charlie tightening involuntarily as pain ripped through him. Reuben's presence in his mind shattered completely, replaced by white-hot fire that coursed through his veins.
"NO!" Reuben's voice came from far away now.
Simon fell to his knees, still clutching Charlie, as his body convulsed. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, faster and faster, until it seemed impossible that it wouldn't explode from his chest. Then, with sickening finality, it stopped completely.
Silence.
For one terrible moment, Simon felt nothing. No heartbeat. No breath. No connection to the world around him.
Then his senses exploded outward. Scents hit him first—Charlie's blood, Reuben's sweat-soaked fear, the antiseptic undertones of the room. Then sounds—the hum of the building's ventilation, distant footsteps three floors up, Charlie's unnecessary but comforting breathing.
Colors sharpened. The white walls burned with previously invisible variations of shade. The red of Charlie's blood seemed to pulse with its own light.
And the bond—their bond—it didn't just connect them anymore. It enveloped them, wove them together with threads of gold and crimson.
It was beautiful, the most beautiful thing Simon had ever seen.
But he didn't have the time to marvel at it all now.
A gunshot barely missed his head.
And it had only missed because Simon dodged reflexively, with more speed than he'd ever possessed even as an enhanced hunter.
Simon's new senses registered Reuben's movements with preternatural clarity. The hunter had drawn the same kind of gun Simon had carried for years.
"You chose to become the very thing that destroyed your mother?" Reuben's voice shook with rage and something that went even deeper than mere disappointment. "After everything I taught you?"
Simon rose to his feet, steadying Charlie with one hand. The stake Reuben had given him was still clutched in his other. "You mean after you arranged my mother's death to shape me into your perfect hunter?"
Reuben's face contorted. "I made you extraordinary." He raised the gun again. "And now I'll unmake you."
Simon pushed Charlie behind him as Reuben fired. With his new reflexes, Simon could track the bullet's trajectory, could almost reach out and pluck it from the air. He dodged again, moving with impossible speed toward Reuben.
But Reuben hadn't survived decades hunting vampires by being slow. He sidestepped, bringing the barrel around for another shot. Simon knocked his arm upward, the bullet embedding in the ceiling, and drove his shoulder into Reuben's chest.
They crashed into the medical equipment, glass shattering around them. Simon felt a surge of savage pleasure at the fear inReuben's eyes. The man who had controlled him, manipulated him, used his mother's death to forge him into a killer…
Simon would make him understand what it was like to be prey.
"I should have put you down the moment you started straying from the path," Reuben snarled, driving his knee into Simon's ribs. "Just like all the others who couldn't handle the process."
Simon barely felt the blow. His newly acquired strength made Reuben's attacks seem almost laughable. He grabbed Reuben's throat, pinning him against the wall.
"How many?" Simon demanded. "How many children, how many families did you sacrifice?"
"Only the weak ones." Reuben's hand moved to his belt, fingers closing around something Simon couldn't see. "Not as many as I've saved."
