You’re a freaking murderer, little bro, the Cal voice continued.
The two vampires Zack had killed had been out of self-defense. One had been actively trying to kill him, and Anton had demanded Zack kill the other. And they were hardly innocents.
But he had a new tally to that list. The woman on the ground. She was dead.
Zack shook his head. “You’re wrong about me.”
“You were dying, clearly defeated, and yet your bloodlust overwhelmed that. I could feel it despite your tattoo.” Seamus smiled warmly at him. “You kept fighting. You wanted to kill.”
Seamus was roughly Zack’s height, though slightly broader. In a fair fight, Zack should have stood a chance, but vampirism and a thousand years of experience had given Seamus unnatural advantages.
A bit of vampire lore threaded into Zack’s calculations. The way that vampires created sirelings was to seed a bit of their own power into their sireling. Just after making another, a vampire was weaker.
Zack was stronger than he’d been. He’d taken that power from Seamus.We’re as close to level on the battlefield as we’re going to get.
“I wanted to killyou,” Zack snarled. For the first time, he felt his fangs and the strange, reflexive way his lips curled back to keep from piercing on his sharpened teeth. A full-blown hiss was in the back of his throat. As he pulled his dagger, he indulged that primal urge.
“Tantrums are expected in the young,” Seamus said seriously. “But see reason, son. You took my blood eagerly. None of my sirelings have ever drawn from me like you did. Part of you wanted to become like me. To belong to me.”
Zack pulled his dagger and slid into a fighting stance. The runes of his blade were glowing with red light. That light should have been white, but it, too, had changed. Did it have new powers? He did. Seamus was quicker than him, but not by much.This could work.
“Son,” Seamus said, his demeanor growing colder, “stop your foolishness and put away the blade.”
“You’re not my fucking father!” Zack shouted.
“Our bond is eternal, Zackery,” Seamus said as he stepped forward. “I will never throw you away like he did.”
Zack flinched. How had Seamus known about his father disowning him? Who’d told him? When? Had he known since Zack had arrived in Chicago? Since before that?
His eyes closed only for the briefest flicker, but a rush of cool air came at him. Instincts clicked into place, and he reacted, rolling away from the rush and slicing at it in the same motion. Seamus grunted, and Zack grinned. As he readjusted his stance, he watched the wound across Seamus’s forearm heal.
“I’m impressed,” Seamus said quietly.
“You can stop this fucking nice-guy act,” Zack replied. “I know what you are.”
“I understand why you are upset. No doubt Roger has been filling your head with all kinds of stories, and I can’t fault you for believing them. I didn’t understand until recently what his interpretation of events was.”
“You’re seriously playing the ‘two sides to every story’ card?” Zack shouted.
“You are so very young, Zackery. You don’t yet know what the world is truly like. But given time, I believe you’ll come to understand what I have done and who I am,” Seamus said, his tone one of a patient teacher. “I gave you my blood because you are capable of so much more than mortal limitations, including their basic moralities. I see in you the weak man I once was, and I know you can evolve beyond that.”
He means you’re a monster like him, the Cal voice snickered.
With a furious scream, Zack lunged at Seamus. Seamus dodged his first strike and his second. But Zack wouldn’t let up, and he drove him backward through the graveyard. He had his target, and he would fucking kill him.
Seamus was that fraction of a second faster. The only strikes he made were to counter Zack’s attempts to hit him. And Zack began to predict them. Began to feint and strike true. He plunged his dagger into Seamus’s shoulder and laughed.
And Seamus laughedwithhim. He put his hand around the hilt and kept it in place.
“Shut up!” Zack snapped in his face. “Fucking shut up!”
When Zack tried to pull away, Seamus grabbed him by the collar and kept him close. “A fire as bright as yours happens once in a century. You areeverythingI could want for a son.”
“Take thatback!”
“I won’t,” Seamus replied. “I told you. I will never throw you away.”
Thick tears crawled down Zack’s face. The monster who had torn apart his lovers and friends wanted him close? Wanted to be his immortalfather? It was fucked up. It wastoo fucked up.
