"I know your name."

From the other end of the table, past open tomes and scattered papers, the mage who'd been giving him grief for the last hour glared.

That shut him up about how unversed Kane was in magic.

Admittedly, Valrus had been an asset after Kane let Hannah talk him into allowing the spirit to help. Valrus researched quickly and spat out more bullshit about magic than Milton. But there was a downside: Valrus was an annoying know-it-all who loved to go on long tangents. Even more than Dad, which was a feat.

"Yeah," Kane said smugly. "Dad found you."

"No." The orange light of the lamp brought to the table's edge, with its wire lying across the kitchen floor, shone in the creepy silver of Valrus's gaze. "The voices your vampire converses with told him, and he told you."

"No, we found a book about dark mages. You've been doing that shit for years. Forbidden magic for fucking breakfast, huh? Dad's freaked and thinks you're major trouble. Not me." Kane leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're just a boy who is afraid of being weak and stole his power."

"Underestimate me," Valrus snarled. "I dare you."

Kane shrugged. "I know who you are now—a failed mage who had power for a short time. They burned your body, you know, after you died, said so in that book. There's nothing left of you."

The forlorn expression on Valrus's face almost made Kane feel guilty. Almost. He pretended to focus on flipping through a tome on spells specific to vampires.

After a lengthy silence, Kane's gaze flickered up. "Why do you choose to be called Valrus?"

"It's my last name."

"It's stupid."

Valrus blinked rapidly. "Fuck you."

The deadpan tone coaxed a reluctant chuckle from Kane. "It sounds like Walrus," he muttered and couldn't resist smiling at the throaty noise Valrus made.

Valrus always acted so offendedly. It was as if he never had anyone dare to tell him off or make fun of him. Every reaction he gave was genuine—it was hilarious. The spirit was lucky only mages could see him, or Reid's bullshit would've annihilated the guy in less than a day.

He flipped a page. The spell depicted would make a vampire lethargic. So, what? Mild symptoms, it read. This was useless. It all had been. Dead end after dead end.

"Your first name's better," Kane said absently.

"No."

Kane looked up, frowning. "Why not?"

"I prefer my last name."

"And I prefer Kane, but you keep calling me Evan."

"Don't."

"Sage," Kane enunciated slowly.

"I can't wait for you to die."

Kane snorted. "And I'll come right back."

"Yes, because fate is a cruel bitch."

Laughing a little, Kane focused on researching.

His gaze flickered up. Valrus had followed, skimming through books, clicking his tongue, and tossing them off to the side before grabbing another. The guy took in information faster than Kane could rationalize.

"Find anything?" Kane asked.

"The spell pulled power from the other side. Not easy, I might add—it was extremely complex." Valrus kept flipping through pages, silvery eyes darting over the only words, taking in the runes and spells with expert knowledge. "The curse would be so woven into Gawen's bloodline through subsequent births that the only way to remove it would be to kill anyone who carried his blood in their veins."

"That's not an option."

Fingers leaving the tome before him, Valrus met Kane's gaze and shrugged. "Then, frankly, I do not know."

"You're the one who cast it," Kane snapped. He was desperate, staying up at all hours of the night, but he'd found nothing that could help Reid.

"I did. But I didn't consider I would be trying to uncast it in the future." Valrus's gaze flickered to Kane's hand that rested on the table. It was subtle, but noticeable. "We could try a simple dispel magic spell on him. I don't think it would work, but it would give you some closure. You'll know if it's a spell or in his blood. I guarantee the latter will be revealed, but then you can be certain and accept that killing him is a mercy."

"Fuck off," Kane growled.

"Dispelling magic is the only option."

"No."

"It's a straightforward spell."

Kane gritted his teeth. "It's not an option."

"How interesting," Valrus said, smiling curiously.

"You don't know anything."

"And you claim I'm a boy who's afraid."

Kane's heart beat rapidly against his chest. He knew he was giving away too much by fleeing from the conversation. But he wasn't about to reveal a truth he'd been running from for years to Valrus. Especially not while he was sleep-deprived.

If they performed the ritual to dispel magic, the blueness of Reid's eyes, which had begun to look lively and vibrant again, would snuff. Reid would break, and Kane would never be able to put the pieces back together.

It wasn't an option.

Reid was getting better. Tonight, he looked like himself. It had been so long since Kane had stared into the idiot's eyes and seen him. He could afford to stop a night of research and halt this conversation before Valrus caught on that Kane was hiding something heavy.

Kane yawned into his fist. "I'm done for the night." He shut the tome before him and stood.

"I don't want to go back in to the pendant. Not yet," Valrus said, louring.

"I'll let you stay out for a few more hours."

"Are you not going to sleep?"

"Not for a while," Kane replied coolly. "I'm going to have sex with Hannah."

Valrus glared. "I despise you."

Kane gave him a two-finger salute, striding to the kitchen doorway. "Try to find references to magical dimensions or the crystal thingy."

"Fine," Valrus grumbled. "But only because I have nothing better to do."

No, he didn't.

But Kane did.

Crawling onto the bed, he was careful not to jostle the mattress.

A faint rain was pattering against the window's glass above the nightstand.

Mid-prowl, a hand grasped his wrist, and he paused over Hannah's sleeping form—her brown hair splayed across her grey pillowcase and pretty face slack with peaceful sleep.

He followed the arm of the hand with narrowed eyes and took in the form lying near the edge of the bed. Reid was going to tumble off and hit his head on the nightstand if he shifted even an inch to the right.

He waited, and when he was sure that Reid was simply being creepy and reaching out in his sleep, Kane gently held the hand clasping his wrist and pulled it off. It went easily, fingers limp.

After carefully placing Reid's arm on the bed, Reid stirred a little but didn't awaken.

"You're going to fall off the bed," Kane whispered.

Nothing.

Fuck. He rolled his eyes, gripped Reid's bicep, and pulled the idiot further onto the bed. In retrospect, he should've let Reid fall because now Kane only had a sliver of space left to sleep.

Reid rasped, "Bad boy, get off." He didn't open his eyes, grimacing and trying to turn away, but Kane's hold tightened on his arm at 'bad boy.' He thought that shit had stopped after the companion bond broke.

Reid's hand sleepily slapping Kane's bicep made his hold slip away. That would leave a bruise. Reid wasn't holding back his strength.

Before Kane could smother the idiot to death with a pillow, Reid's soft palm began to rub from his forearm up to his bicep. It felt good, sort of like a massage. And he was owed one in return.

So he kept his arm hovering in the air awkwardly while trying to come up with a plan to lull the moron back to deep sleep quickly.

"We..." Reid murmured, tossing his head in distress, his expression twisting. He looked to be on the verge of bursting into tears. The sight clenched Kane's heart. What was the idiot dreaming about? He wanted to know badly. "We can't... Kenneth's here."

His heart beat wildly. It was difficult to hear Reid's tired voice slipping into a faint murmur, but Kane had heard that bullshit clearly. What the fuck?

"Reid," Kane whispered harshly, reaching out. He wanted Reid to wake up and tell him what he was hiding. And suddenly, Kane's exhaustion no longer mattered. Unearthing what he'd missed again was driving him into a singular focus.

The moment his fingers made contact with Reid's warm skin, Reid pushed them away, growling. Even sleepy, the sight of his fangs made Kane shudder, and his stomach clench. He wished that reaction would go away, but it hadn't abated with time. It had only gotten worse.

"Rowan," Reid muttered. He smiled a bit. It should have been creepy in his sleep, but it was dopey, kind of cute. Then, his expression fell, and he whimpered, "I'm sorry."

What was he apologizing for?

"Reid," Kane whispered, leaning close. He didn't want to wake the idiot, but he couldn't sleep knowing Reid was having nightmares.

This happened when Reid was a boy and had held too much stress inside. But to Kane's knowledge, Reid no longer talked during his sleep. Obviously, he'd thought wrong.

"No," Reid grumbled. He swatted at Kane's face, trying to fight some ghostly presence that wasn't listening to his protests. It made Kane feel sick to his stomach.

Was it Azrael? Gabriel? They had talked about Reid's father earlier and how he had sent everyone that video. Maybe it messed with Reid's head more than he let on?

Seconds before Kane shook the idiot awake, Reid gasped, "I need you."

Not Gabriel, then. Even in dreams, Reid would never reach out to his father emotionally. Kane hoped not, anyway.

He didn't want to touch Reid again because of his reaction last time. The palm rubbing his arm quickened, nearly desperate.

"I'm here," Kane replied, feeling helpless.

Reid began murmuring nonsensically, tossing his head fitfully.

Leaning closer, turning his ear, Kane heard a name.

His heart picked up speed, battering his chest like a drum.

Reid had said, 'Lucas.'

The moment the name fell from his lips, Reid was clawing at Kane's shirt, gripping the fabric and pulling him closer.

Kane was so angry that he didn't resist, his body stiff.

But he didn't have to.

Reid was asleep, forgetting whatever he'd been so desperate for, and began rubbing his cheek against Kane's, catlike. The throaty noises he was making were close to purrs.

Barely saving himself from being given a hernia by Reid's knee, Kane used his weight to stop Reid's squirming.

And it was a mistake.

Not because Reid made a distressed and gutturally heated noise, which raised Kane's anger to breath-stealing heights. The closeness burned Kane's throat distractedly and caused his tongue to become impossibly dry.

"Hurts," Reid whispered sleepily, boyish. It was something Reid would have said when they were ten years old, and he had scraped his knee on the pavement. "Get off," he murmured. "You're heavy."

Kane shifted, his gaze following Reid's hand, which he had felt shifting between their bodies.

Reid was holding his wrinkled shirt, fingers flexing.

Shoving Reid's hand away was pathetically easy, the limp fingers falling to the mattress with nothing but a low grumble from their sleeping owner.

Tugging Reid's shirt up gave a glimpse of a fast-rising stomach with fair hair trailing down, and deep, crisscrossing cuts were stark against the paleness of Reid's skin.

"What the fuck?" Kane murmured, beyond disturbed.

Was it Lucas? Who the hell was Kane kidding? Of course, it was that creep. After Kane had been making progress with building Reid's confidence, Lucas ruined it again.

He was at the top of Kane's list of asses to kick.

Kane shook Reid harshly but got nothing more than a grumble. If the idiot was talking in his sleep stage of REM, he would need a mariachi band playing in his ear to wake up.

But Kane needed to know the details of what had happened before he murdered Lucas.

Maybe Reid fell into a bush with nasty thorns. Was he training by himself and somehow cut himself a dozen times? Did he try to cook in the kitchen and mess up terribly again?

"Reid," Kane whispered harshly. "Wake the fuck up. Now."

Reid tried to shove Kane off, but his sleepy strength was suddenly pathetic. "I said no." Did he still think Kane was Lucas? Why wasn't Reid trying harder to get free? The idiot was practically arching up, hungry for contact.

"We're..." Reid grumbled sleepily. "Friends. Just...friends."

Friends? Then Lucas would have someone to attend his funeral when Kane finished with the bastard.

A fist struck Kane's cheek. Fuck, ouch. Reid wasn't holding back his strength anymore. Kane dropped his weight to stop Reid's flailing knuckles from hitting him again.

But lying on Reid was a mistake.

The thirst Kane had been fighting for the last week and a half hit him full force, drying his mouth, dizzying his head, and yanking away the minuscule amount of logic he had left while so rageful.

His mouth moved to Reid's neck, drawn closer by the sudden intense scent of blood overtaking his senses. He felt Reid tense, probably waking, but it was too late.

Kane bit.

He didn't have the familiar wave of nausea from feeling his blunt teeth cut into skin. This was a shiver of pleasure that made him half-mad.

Then, blood filled his mouth.

And he was lost.

He was hardly aware he had laid a hand on the side of Reid's head, entirely focused on drinking greedily. His ears rang, and his heart beat so fast that he felt it in his throat. He was sure the organ was about to pop from his chest and splatter gore over the bed, and Reid, who was putting up a tired struggle.

"What..." Reid rasped, fully waking. He gripped Kane's hair, holding tight, twisting the strands in his fist fitfully. Reid was breathing heavily but became pliant in Kane's arms.

In Kane's delirium, the hurt from his hair being yanked felt good. He growled, animal-like, and Reid stiffened, cursing under his breath.

"Get off," Reid rasped suddenly. "Kenneth. You have to..." A hand moved to push Kane's shoulder.

He didn't know what possessed him to grip Reid's wrist and pin Reid's arm to the bed, but he did so harshly.

Fuck. He was losing his mind.

The blood filling his mouth somehow became sweeter. He had no idea what was happening, only that he was starving. That was all that mattered—Reid's blood tasted beyond amazing. He squeezed Reid's wrist tighter, heard Reid gasp in pain, and suddenly Kane was drinking a honeyed tang of life.

Blood, blood, blood was his only thought on repeat.

Hands were suddenly on his shoulders, trying to pull him away.

He resisted, never wanting to leave. Why would he? The strength that he felt running hot through his veins was unmatchable. He was hard, which was distracting, but he'd take that humiliation for this feeling of completeness any day.

"Kane!"

He reared back, onto his knees, delirium broken at the sound of Hannah's voice. Her fingers were over his face, yanking, and he honestly didn't know what was happening. He felt her warm body lain across his back, trying to fruitlessly contend with his strength.

He easily shoved her weight off and heard her sharp gasp, but he had one focus that tunneled his vision.

Blood.

Reid had a hand on his throat, shaking fingers stained crimson. He was trying to kick off the blankets, but Kane was quicker, grabbing Reid's arm and dragging him closer.

"No, Kenneth," Reid growled but did nothing to stop Kane from shoving a palm against his chest and pinning him to the bed. "Are you in there? I'm saying no!"

Reid would have to fight, truly, to stop this, but he wasn't. Why wasn't he? Did he want to die? Kane had lost his mind. Couldn't the idiot look into his eyes and see that?

"Kane," Hannah gasped near his ear, gripping his face and trying to force his gaze to hers. But he didn't dare.

He could smell her blood, too.

Neither of them were safe.

Even disturbed by his actions, it didn't stop him from biting Reid's wrist, skin giving way to his teeth.

He shut his eyes tight so Reid couldn't use his freaky mind powers to stop him.

What the fuck was he doing?

Someone, please put a bullet in his head.

"Ow," Reid whimpered repeatedly, gasping for breath and pushing his palm against Kane's cheek.

Reid wasn't using his full strength, and Kane wanted to scream at the idiot to do something—knock him out, beat him bloody, anything.

Hannah's thin arms around his neck, yanking him back and cutting off his air, weren't what had him finally pulling away. The genuine pain Kane heard in Reid's voice was what broke through his blood-crazed delirium.

When Kane lifted his head with heaving breaths and opened his bleary eyes, Reid gripped his chin and forced their gazes to meet. In seconds, Reid's influence wormed its way into Kane's mind, and he was utterly helpless.

"No more blood for you," Reid growled, fingers digging into Kane's chin painfully. "Bad boy."

Did he have to say it like that? Fucking... "I'm fine," Kane rasped.

He wasn't, but it felt like the right thing to say while his girlfriend was on her knees staring at him in horror, and he had his best friend pinned underneath him, practically having forced himself between Reid's legs.

"I beg to differ," Reid replied hoarsely. He let go of Kane's chin and then slapped at Kane's chest. "Move."

Kane literally couldn't disobey, backing off. He was caught in Reid's thrall, shivering with the intensity of dark power running hot through his blood and across his skin, demanding submission.

Reid sat up and pressed his back flush with the headboard. "That was..." He inhaled, his gaze darting to Hannah and then back to Kane, the blue of his irises darkening. "Rude." His domination left, and Kane took in a breath of relief.

"I'm so fucking sorry," Kane whispered, wiping the blood from his lips with the back of his hand. He was trembling. "I don't know what came over me..."

"You do," Reid said, frowning.

"We don't know that."

"Don't pull that crap—it's happening and you know it."

Kane nodded grimly. He couldn't deny it after tonight. He could shout at Reid and tell him it was his fault, that the idiot had started the process, but it wouldn't change anything.

He was turning.