Page 34 of Transfiguration
“Okay,” Sam agreed, his gaze intense. He looked toward the downstairs. Did they have any blood packs in the freezer? It wasn’t something they used much anymore. And if Luca couldn’t feed Sam anymore, Sam would have to find anothercibo. Luca rolled off the bed before he could succumb to the rising depression. “Luca,” Sam said. “It’s okay.”
“No. It’s not. I’m not ready.” He made his way to the closet, trying to find clothes for the day but thinking maybe he shouldn’t do office shit if his brain was unraveling. Who wanted to spend the last days of their mortal life working in an office? What was the point of money if his entire world was about to erupt?
Sam wrapped his arms around him from behind, stilling him. “Breathe.”
“I don’t want to,” Luca said, knowing he sounded like a child. He turned in Sam’s arms to bury his face in Sam’s neck. Sam didn’t smell divine anymore. “I had Hart’s blood earlier. It helped a little.”
“Okay,” Sam said. He offered no judgement. “Let’s call the office and let them know you’ll be out for a few days.”
Luca’s heart lurched in fear, and he clung to Sam, who didn’t let go.
“Whatever happens, we are here,” Sam promised.
“But vampires don’t…” And Luca understood that better now. Part of their draw to each other, Sam and Luca, was the share of blood, the taste a delight. Without that, what would they have? Would love be enough? Was it really love or desire for blood?
“Don’t overthink this,” Sam said.
“How can I not? This is who I am, who I was…”
“I’m still me,” Sam said. “I know we didn’t know each other before, but I’m still me. Stronger, faster, and less willing to take other people’s bullshit, but you get what you get.”
Luca snorted a strained laugh. “I hope I’m still me, and we work? You and Con are everything to me.” His joints throbbed with every movement, like the time passing was adding years of age to his body that had been held back by his dhampir status.
“We’ll talk with him later. Work out a plan. You trust me, right?”
Luca nodded but wondered if Sam was old enough as a vampire to help tie Luca to sanity.
“We’ll have your dad on call too, yeah?” Sam offered.
“He said he approves of you guys,” Luca said. “Claims he’d have killed you both if he didn’t.”
“I figured,” Sam said with a smile. “He’s fond of you.” Sam wove his fingers through Luca’s hair. “I am too. We’ll figure this out, okay?”
Luca let himself collapse into Sam’s arms and cried. Con teased Sam about being Superman, but Luca really needed him to be the Man of Steel right then.
FIFTEEN
Clearing Luca’s calendar was the simple part. Sam sent a note to Hart and tried to clear his own but found a roadblock. Blake’s death had made the news, and there was a lot of debate on how a witch had died while working for vampires. Sam hadn’t known Blake had been a witch.
Sam had to be on point for the media, a poster child of two worlds, vampire and witch. Though he hated both.
The rolling tide of change frustrated him. First the Dominion unraveling, then Bella, and now it appeared Luca was about to transition. Sam wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Worried, always. They expected Luca to become a vampire after a mortal death. But vampires made the normal sort of way didn’t always transition right, and Luca was anything but normal. And Con still had some hang-ups about vampires. How would he respond to having not one, but two lovers who were vampires?
Everyone looked to Sam to be the solid one, when in truth it was the three of them together that gave them stability. When one crumbled, would they all? He debated for a while on who to call for answers, thinking Hart might have some, but also wary as Luca was his son, and he might be more sensitive. That left only one other choice. Was his memory back enough to answer?
“What do you need?” Gabe asked in Sam’s earpiece while Sam moved things around in the apartment, trying to make Con’s space usable while Bella took over the spare room. Luca had fallen back to fitful sleep. Sam didn’t know how to help as offers of blood didn’t seem to delay whatever Luca was experiencing.
“Ever seen a dhampir change?” Sam asked.
“Dhampirs are rare. But yes, I’ve seen a handful transition in my lifetime.”
“Naturally? Do I need to help?”
“Luca is transitioning?”
“He’s not able to take my blood anymore, and food is making him nauseous.” Sam didn’t mention that Luca talked about the red staining his vision. The sign of a rising revenant. Sam could call his revenant at will and had years of balancing the need for blood and destruction with an ironclad control to not kill just for the hell of it. But he was also too young in vampire terms to create other vampires and had never encountered a transition of a new vampire other than himself. Did all of them have that quick rise of the revenant? A battle for sanity? Or had his hold on his revenant been more complicated because of his witch status? “Does he need to die…” Sam swallowed hard, thinking of Luca dead, even if it was only briefly, made him want to scream. “To transition?”
“He will die to transition. Whether that’s because his heart stops or someone breaks his neck, it’s all the same,” Gabe said. “Most dhampirs are not as long lived. And I only ever knew of one who died of natural causes. Luca’s kind don’t normally have quiet lives.”