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And then what would happen to Fox?

The irony was they’d been doing so well .

For years, they’d managed better than anyone could have expected, considering they’d been teen runaways without so much as a high school degree between them.

But then the place they’d been squatting in had been raided and boarded up, the few nights they’d spent in jail had cost them their jobs, and then it had been in and out of shelters and sleeping on the streets ever since.

Which would have been fine. They had each other still; what the fuck else did they need? But then Dane had gotten sick, like a complete asshole, and now he was mucking it all up for the both of them.

Fox’s hand was still on his cheek. “I’m worried about you,” he said slowly. Deliberately. As if Dane wouldn’t hear it otherwise.

“As you should be.”

The two of them jumped at the unknown feminine voice, turning in unison to see they’d been joined by a stranger.

They hadn’t even heard her approach. Dane blinked bleary eyes—she looked vaguely familiar.

Dirty-blonde hair. Sharp, fox-like features.

He’d seen her around, he was pretty sure, her clothes the right style to blend in but too clean for someone living on the street.

“Who the fuck are you?” Fox asked, hostility in his voice, defensive as ever in the face of someone unknown butting into their business.

“He’s dying, you know,” the stranger said in lieu of answering, her tone conversational. “I don’t think a hospital would even help him much, at this point.”

Fox sneered at her. “And you’re a doctor, are you?”

“No.” She gave them both a secretive smile. “I’m something much better.”

“You’re someone who doesn’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. He’s not dying. He can’t .” Fox’s voice broke at the last word, a vulnerability he’d beat himself up for later. He didn’t like to let his cracks show in front of strangers.

“Any of you can . That’s what makes you so vulnerable.” Her words were confusing Dane’s muddled mind, but she must have been referring to people living on the street. And she wasn’t exactly wrong. They’d lost more than one friend over the years. “But I can help.”

“The fuck you can,” Fox scoffed.

She turned deliberately away from him, meeting Dane’s bleary gaze. “Dane, is it?” she asked, the softness in her voice contrasting with the strange gleam in her eye. “Would you like me to heal you? Make you stronger than ever? Would you like to never die?”

“Jesus, lady.” There was real anger in Fox’s voice now, and Dane could tell he was near his breaking point. “Is this some cult thing? We’re not interested.”

The stranger focused on Fox again, and Dane could swear her face…changed. And not just her expression. The whites in her eyes had disappeared, the black in her pupils taking over, and when she bared her teeth, her canines were…elongated.

They looked like fangs.

Fuck. Just how bad was Dane’s fever? He’d never hallucinated before.

“I’d like some respect from you,” the stranger told Fox firmly, and even her voice was different now. Deeper. Harsher.

Dane fully expected Fox to explode at that. To tell her to fuck off for good. But he only nodded mechanically, his tone dull when he agreed, “Yes, ma’am.”

Dane stared at him, disbelieving. A strange sense of unease was growing in his gut. “What did you just do to him?”

The stranger’s smile was awful. “Isn’t it fun? Watch. Slap yourself.”

Dane watched in horror as Fox slapped himself across the face.

“Stop,” Dane pleaded, his voice coming out stronger than it had in days. “Whatever the fuck you’re doing. Stop it.”

The stranger studied Dane’s face, nose wrinkling at whatever she found there. “I see. The protectiveness goes both ways.” She gave an exaggerated sigh and met Fox’s eyes once more. “You may stay, as long as you don’t interrupt. And when you speak, you’ll contain that aggression, hm?”

What the fuck was happening?

Dane gasped as she grabbed his hand, her grip only tightening when he tried to pull away. She was horribly strong.

“Let’s start over, shall we? Hello, Dane.

I’m Amelia. I’ve been watching you, and I think you’d fit in quite well with my community.

” Had Fox been right? Was this a cult thing?

“I have the power to make you the same as myself,” she continued, gesturing to her changed face with one hand.

“Long-lived, enterally youthful, powerful. How does that sound?”

“Sounds like a deal with the devil,” Dane whispered.

Her laugh sent chills down his spine. “You’re not wrong. But you’d live , Dane. No one else can offer you that.”

Dane was pretty sure at this point he was either dreaming or he’d collapsed, and this was some sort of fever-induced hallucination. Even so…“What about Fox?”

She shot a disinterested look toward his brother. “Fox here can remain the vibrant, healthy human he is.”

“But he could come with us?” Dane pressed.

She pursed her lips. “That might prove difficult.”

“Then no.” Dane let his eyes close. He wasn’t interested in this hallucination if it was trying to separate him from his twin.

“Your brother isn’t dying,” the stranger argued. “He doesn’t need a deal with the devil. Why would you wish one on him?”

“I’d take it.”

Dane’s eyes popped open at his brother’s voice.

Fox spoke slowly, like it was demanding considerable effort to get the words out. “I’m not leaving him. He’s not leaving me.” There was a long pause. “Please.”

The stranger looked them both over, her lip curling in distaste. She still had fangs. “Fine,” she sighed. “The both of you, then.” She shot Fox a stern glance. “You won’t stop me, no matter how much he cries out.”

And then she was leaning over Dane, those sharp canines glinting in the sun. It all looked so real.

Maybe it wasn’t a hallucination. Wouldn’t that be funny?

No , Dane thought as he let out a scream, the pain of her teeth slicing through him cutting through his mental fog. Not a hallucination after all.

Dane was never quite sure why Amelia had kept her word and turned Fox. She’d hated him from the beginning, acting like he was a nuisance she just couldn’t escape.

Maybe she’d known, somewhere deep down, that it would never work to separate them. That Dane would have found his way back to his brother, one way or another. It didn’t stop Dane from wondering what Fox’s life could have been like, had he been willing to let Dane go.

Dane set the porch swing rocking again. “You could have stayed human, you know,” he found himself saying. “You would have been fine, eventually. You would’ve gotten back on your feet without my illness weighing you down.”

“I wouldn’t have. With you gone—” Fox shook his head. “She saved both our lives, turning us. And I don’t fucking regret it, so don’t start.”

Of course he didn’t. Fox did everything for Dane.

He’d always protected him. Human, vampire—it didn’t matter.

When their parents’ verbal abuse had begun to turn physical, it was Fox who’d stepped in front of Dane, every single time.

When they’d left that hellhole to live on the street, struggling to find enough food to eat, it was Fox who’d try to sneak Dane extra, at the cost of his own stomach.

And when the den that was supposed to be their new home had turned out to be just as toxic as anywhere else, it was Fox who’d demanded better for them both. For Dane.

People thought Fox was such an asshole, but he was completely selfless when it came to those he cared about.

Although, until Colin, the people he cared about had only included one person.

Dane kicked lightly at Fox’s shin. “You know I don’t regret it either, right? None of it would mean anything, if you weren’t here with me.”

There was a soft pulse of pure contentedness through the bond, and then Fox smirked at him. “Time around the human has made you sentimental.”

“I don’t know if anyone would accuse Colin of sentimentality,” Dane mused.

“Maybe not.” Fox leaned back with a happy sigh. “He’s fucking perfect, isn’t he? But I’ll wait, if you insist. He’s going to ask for it. I know it.”

Dane envied his brother his certainty. He wished he could be so sure.

But no one had ever chosen them before. Not anyone who really knew them. They’d always only chosen each other.

Could they really expect Colin to be any different?