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Danny swallowed, meeting my gaze again. “Michael, you don’t need to. I’d be fine. I’m more worried about you. What you’re giving up. By wanting to be with me.”

“I’m not giving up a goddamn thing.” I practically growled it. If I could I would have raised his asshole father from the grave, just so I could knock his teeth out and make him understand what true pain was as payback for what he had done to Danny. But Danny didn’t need my rage. He needed me to show up and be there for him. Because no one else ever had. I let out a long, steadying breath. And then said the words that had been bouncing around in my head for a very long time.

“I don’t know if I want to be a hunter anymore. My heart hasn’t been in it for months.”

Danny froze for a long moment. I could feel the cold dread. He wasn’t surprised. It was what he had been afraid of. But after a long moment, he nodded. “Yeah. I guess I knew that.”

“And I don’t know if I want a white picket fence anymore, either. I’m pretty sure that guy is gone for good. The only thing Idoknow is that we’re going to figure this shit out together, the way we always do. Because I don’t want a future that doesn’t include you. That’s non-negotiable.”

Danny sucked in a ragged breath and tears finally spilled over.

“I don’t know how to be normal,” Danny told me. “I tried to quit once. After my dad and brother were both gone. I moved in with my mom. I dated the nicest girl in town. I worked at the grocery store, graveyard shift, stocking the shelves. I tried to be normal. But it didn’t work out. I wasn’t—I couldn’t be what anyone around me wanted me to be. I guess I didn’t really know how. This is all I’ve ever done.” He paused, looking up at me, the tears running down his cheeks in a quiet sort of way, which is how Danny usually cried, on the rare occasions he did. “Being a hunter is the only thing I’ve ever wanted. It’s the only thing I’ve ever known how to do. Until I met you.”

“There will be other things,” I promised him. “You’re more than just what your dad and brother wanted you to be. And you’llwant more out of life than just me, too, eventually. And whatever that ends up being, I’ll be there to help you get it. I’m your partner. I always have been.”

“What if I lose my humanity?” Danny hesitated. “What if I become something like what we hunt?”

“Then I’m pretty sure I’d still follow you to the ends of the earth.” I gave him a rueful smile. “Sorry. You’re not getting rid of me that easily. I’d stop you from acting like a monster, over and over again, if I had to.”

He kissed me again. His lips were soft and warm. His cheek had the faintest scratch of stubble where I cupped it. And, for a blissful moment, it was just us. We weren’t sitting in the filthy kitchen of an abandoned farmhouse with an annoyed vampire in the other room. We were together in the warm, safe darkness, where nothing could ever hurt either one of us ever again.

“Michael, do you promise?”

I didn’t even hesitate. I couldn’t. Not when I meant the words so completely. “Yeah, Danny. I promise.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN || DANNY

Do you think literal steam is going to start coming out of his ears?Michael shot me an amused glance, nearly an hour later. He held my hand as we sat on the dumpy, broken couch in the living room.

Thierry paced back and forth, his hands clenching and unclenching, like he was itching to hit someone. Probably Michael.

It’s a definite possibility. Poor guy. He asked too many questions.

I smiled a little at that.

Michael caught my eye, and I felt a little burst of happiness surge through me, as I realized, all over again, that he hadn’t left me. That I had freaked him out a little, sure, but he was still right here, holding my hand.

Choosing me.

Always.Michael gave me a lazy sort of grin.

Thierry caught it and stopped dead. “Words cannot express how annoying that is,” he shook his head a little. “And I’m surrounded by it on all sides. First James and Pierce. Then Nathaniel and Ethan. And now you two.”

“You forgot about Bryan and Tobias,” Michael put in, his grin deepening.Huh. You think he’ll ever find someone to do the supernatural tail-touch with?

I snorted.Whoever his person ends up being, they’ll need all the help they can get.

“Right,” Thierry deadpanned, glaring at us. “How on earth could I forget?” He scowled at us for a long moment, before heaving another too-dramatic sigh. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.

“Um. So, I have a question,” Michael hesitated. He winced and flashed me an almost-apologetic look. “So, why does vampirism make someone bi? Danny was straight. Ish. Sexually, I mean. Err, before he was turned. But, now…”

“I’m definitely not,” I assured him.

Michael smiled back at me, but I could feel his unease. On some level, I knew he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. His thoughts were only half-formed, and he was intentionally trying to hide them from me, but I sensed the shape of them anyway: he knew that sexuality was complex, but how much of what had happened between us was simply due to the fact that I had become a vampire?

Thierry stared at him for a long moment, blinking rapidly. “You’re asking me thisnow? Don’t you think we have more pressing matters to attend to?”

“I’m just curious.”