He shrugged, the corner of his mouth twitching. “I said it was for a friend.”
A strange warmth bloomed low in my chest at that. A friend. Not prey. Just a word, simple and human, but it hit harder than it should have.
He unpacked the food. Greasy paper bags, plastic containers, and the familiar smell of fries and grilled meat. My stomach growled before I could stop it.
Simon smiled faintly, catching it. “Guess I picked right.”
“You guessed?” I asked.
He nodded, sitting across from me.
“I don’t eat this kind of thing anymore. Just remembered it being good,” Simon said.
“You remember?”
“Of course I do.” He looked down, tracing a finger along the condensation on the soda cup. “I used to stop by that same diner after work. I’d sit by the window and watch the streetlights. Everything looked different then, brighter and messier, but alive.”
Something in his voice softened the air between us.
“You miss it,” I said quietly.
“Every day,” Simon. admitted. “The sunlight. The noise. The taste of real food. The smell of coffee that isn’t burned.” He huffed a soft laugh, though it didn’t reach his eyes.
“You don’t realize what you love until you can’t touch it anymore,” Simon added.
For a moment, I didn’t know what to say. The truth in his tone hit too close to home.
I picked up a fry, stared at it, and finally said, “Guess that’s something we’ve got in common.”
Simon glanced up, surprised. “You miss sunlight too?”
“I miss something,” I said, leaning back. “Used to think I had everything figured out. A purpose. A place in the Guild. Then one day it all just stopped making sense.”
Simon studied me, quiet. His gorgeous eyes seemed to catch every flicker of light from the dying fire.
“Because you lost someone special to you?” he said softly. Not a question.
I froze. “You’ve been listening too much.”
He didn’t apologize. “You muttered his name once when you were having nightmares. Donovan.”
I swallowed hard. “Yeah. Donovan.”
The name tasted strange after so long. Like ash and whiskey and something I shouldn’t still want.
“He was my mentor when I joined the Guild,” I said, staring at the table. “Taught me how to track, how to fight, how to stay alive. We worked together for years. He was the best we had.”
Simon said nothing. Just waited.
“I thought…” I laughed under my breath, the sound brittle. “Hell, I don’t even know what I thought. That we were good friends, maybe something more, even if I never said it out loud. He had this way of making everyone feel seen. Then everything changed. He got a call from another hunter, who got turned into a vampire.”
Simon’s lips parted slightly. “He left?”
“He didn’t just leave,” I said. The words came out rougher than I meant. “He turned his back on everything. On the Guild. On me. He said he loved Declan. I saw someone I trusted more than anyone choose a monster over me.”
The fire cracked softly in the hearth. Simon’s face was unreadable, his gaze fixed on me like he wanted to look away but couldn’t.
“I spent months pretending I didn’t care,” I said, voice low. “Told myself he was an idiot. That he’d die for it. That I was better off.” I swallowed, throat tight. “But every time his name was mentioned, it felt like someone was pulling my ribs apart.”
