Page 73 of Colin

They had accepted Colin as he was since that very first day.

God, Colin wasn’t fooling anybody, was he? He wasn’t going to turn just for the sake of being a vampire. He was going to turn forthem. To stay by their sides for however long he could. He wanted more of their love, their loyalty, their acceptance.

He wanted more of Fox. His sense of mischief. His protectiveness. The way he took charge in the bedroom. He wanted more of Dane. His sweet affection. The neediness he didn’t even try to hide anymore.

Colin needed to ask them not just to turn him but to keep him.

After all, what was the worst that could happen? They laugh in his face, tell him to get lost, break his heart into a million pieces?

It was tempting, to give in to the easy fear of that. But even if his faith was a sorely underused muscle, Colin knew they wouldn’t be that cruel. Not to him.

He stayed for hours after lunch, soaking in the time with his dad, making sure to respond promptly to all the twins’ texts checking up on him. He was feeling both too sharp and too fragile to face the group waiting for him at home just yet. He’d let them do what they needed to do, and when they came home…he’d ask.

He’d ask for more.

But when he got back to the house, just after they were supposed to have left, there was a figure on the porch swing waiting for him.

Serena.

“Hey,” Colin called, his steps slowing in his confusion. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be heading to the pool?”

She was off the porch swing and standing in front of him before he could blink. “Ah, Colin. I was worried for a minute I’d miscalculated. But here you are.” She smiled at him, her face transforming with the gesture until her fangs were out, glinting in the afternoon light. “Shall we step inside? Wouldn’t want the neighbors to worry.”

Colin stepped back automatically, and her hand shot out to grip his arm so tight it hurt.

His stomach sank. Something was wrong here.

They’d trusted the wrong vampire.

twenty

Fox

Even across the street from the pool, the hot asphalt between it and them, the air was saturated with the harsh chemical scent of chlorine.

Fox didn’t mind it. It reminded him of the few happy moments of his and Dane’s childhood, before they’d run away, when their mom used to dump them at the pool for hours, leaving them to their own devices. Just how they’d liked it best.

They were waiting outside the pool in the hopes of getting their hands on their guy before he ever entered, minimizing the risk of any humans getting hurt. Of course, if Serena’s plan worked, he’d supposedly just follow at her heels wherever she would lead him, unaware she meant to kill him in the end.

A lot hinged on Serena’s faith in her husband still worshipping the ground she walked on. It wasn’t Fox’s preference, planning around someone else’s shitty relationship. But then again, they didn’t have any better leads when it came to getting a hold of him. And the guy was still trying to turn a kid for her, so obviously his wife was still on the forefront of his mind.

Still, in this moment, listening to the happy shrieks of children in the water, it all felt like a pretty big if.

It hadn’t been long after relocating that Fox and Dane had taken on a protector role of their new home city. Something about Tucson seemed to appeal to vampires, and not just the model citizens. The very first time they’d stopped a feral vampire midrampage, it had been like an awakening. It was part of why it had made sense for them to stay.

They may have been rejected loners, they may not have had a den to call home, but they’d had a purpose.

Jamie and Luc were here now though. If Colin wanted to leave Tucson, Fox and Dane could follow without feeling like they were abandoning anything. And if he wanted to stay, wanted to spend what time he could with his dad, well…what was one more decade?

“Where the fuckisshe?” Dane growled. He was leaning against a stop sign, his leg twitching, obviously fighting to keep himself from pacing out his restlessness.

Fox checked his phone—noting the text from Colin that he was finally leaving his dad’s. “We’ve still got a few minutes. She wanted a large buffer, give us plenty of time to settle in before Robert arrived.”

Robert. That was his name. So banal, just like how Jamie had described his looks. It seemed wrong, that such an ordinary guy could be capable of such evil—ripping a child away from their parents, forcing a bloodthirsty monster to grow inside them.

But that was the thing, wasn’t it? Evil was rarely the spectacular, charming supervillains of Colin’s comics. It was ordinary people acting selfishly, taking what they wanted without a care for anything or anyone else.

It wasn’t being a vampire that had made Robert bad, although maybe that had exacerbated things a bit. He’d just had a shitty personality to begin with.

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