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“Maybe,” I replied. “If that’s something you wanted.”

“I have no idea,” Danny admitted. “But maybe we could make friends? You could be a mechanic again. Maybe you could have your own garage or something again? It doesn’t sound awful.”

“You don’t need to give up being a hunter. I’d still do it with you. If that’s something you wanted.”

“A monster hunting monsters?”

“You’re not a monster, babe.”

He let the pet name slide. “I guess Bryan’s maker does that, right? She’s a vampire, but she hunts vamps who kill people. It’s how Bryan got turned. She was saving his life, while on a hunt.”

“He was able to go back to his old life after a couple of months,” I put in. “Tobias told me that he hadn’t needed to change very much about his life. He still had his friends. He went back to college.”

“Right.”

Neither of us mentioned that Bryan had then been enchanted by a dark warlock who had used him to hurt people. It wasn’t something that either Bryan or Tobias talked about much, but we’d gotten enough tidbits to put the whole thing together. Bryan had been reeling from that when we’d first crossed paths.

But still, the point was: Danny could have whatever life he wanted, once his impulses were under control. Once he’d adjusted to what he was now.

“Maybe I don’t really care what my life looks like yet? Maybe I’d be happy with whatever, so long as I was with you?”

“You’ve got enough time to live several lifetimes now,” I added.

“We both do,” Danny said quietly. “If I give you my blood on a regular basis, a couple times a week, you’ll stop aging, and you won’t get sick. You’ll heal faster, too. You could, in theory, live as long as I do. If you wanted that.”

Did I want that?

If it meant never leaving Danny’s side—never letting him walk through life alone and abandoned ever again—then yes. In a heartbeat. I would trade away everything for him.

“Michael,” Danny warned. “You need to choose it for you, too. It can’t just be because of me. That’s not fair to you.”

Before I could reply, my phone rang.

I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and looked at the number on the caller ID: it was Sheriff Dennison.

I sat up in bed, hesitating.

As I stared at the caller ID, the reason for us being in this town in the first place came rushing back. We’d been on a hunt. One that we’d never finished. The vampire nest was still out there. They were still abducting and killing people.

What would happen when we left town?

“Answer it,” Danny whispered.

I nodded and hit the green button to begin the call.

“Another body was found this morning,” Dennison told me immediately. “Your agency is talking about sending in a task force. Please, tell me you found something.”

I swallowed, not sure how I was going to explain that Danny and I were leaving town now.

My long, awkward pause was answer enough.

“Fuck,” Dennison muttered. “That’s what I thought.”

She paused, then added, “We have witnesses that put you and your partner at the scene of an attempted abduction. They said… they said some pretty crazy stuff, Hollens. What the hell happened?”

“The bad guys got away,” I said dully.

The killings are going to continue,Danny whispered into my mind.Michael, we can’t leave here until we put a stop to it.