REID CONTINUES HIS ROUNDS. He's spoken to Kenneth, Hannah, and Lucas. He's leaving Rowan for last. She and Presley are still locked away, talking.

Kiernan stares at him from where the vampire is perched on the edge of Reid's messy bed. He ended his call a while ago and had been sitting alone creepily until Reid walked in without knocking.

Reid shuts the door gently. He sighs. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like I'm going to punch you."

Kiernan narrows his eyes. "Are you?"

Reid walks to the bed and sits down. He notices the way Kiernan stiffens at the graze of their shoulders and asks softly, "Touch bothers you. Why?"

Kiernan looks at him. There's an aged weariness in his dark eyes that makes him appear younger. He doesn't reply.

Reid can feel, through their bond, Kiernan's uncomfortableness. "You don't have to tell me."

Silent stretches, and Reid looks down at his lap, where his hands lay limp. "I'll guess. Tell me if I'm close?"

"Alright."

"You don't like women."

When Reid looks up, Kiernan is smirking at him, amused. "Far off the mark."

Reid frowns. "I've felt...you freak when they're close..." His eyes widen. Kiernan has been close to hyperventilation a few times, and every time, he was being bullied while he was weakened. It just so happens that the fiercest among them are fiery women.

Kiernan stares distantly at the closed door. "My maker was a cruel man. Next to him, Gabriel is gentle and benevolent." He laughs softly at Reid's snort. "Gender doesn't define viciousness. You'd do well to remember that."

Reid nods and whispers, "Was it your choice to turn?"

"Nothing was my choice." There's a rising despair that Kiernan holds close but doesn't show through the placid expression he wears.

"Is that why you..."

Kiernan shrugs. "I don't know. I reacted. Was it a mistake?" He regards Reid with a tilt to his head. "No. It wasn't."

He looks away then, leaving that weirdness settling.

Reid asks, "Have you turned anyone else?"

"No."

"Why Axel?"

"Alexander was dying," Kiernan reveals coolly. "I reacted."

"You do that a lot..." Reid smiles when Kiernan looks at him curiously. "React."

Kiernan snorts. He rests his elbow on his knee, and his fingers slip through his curly hair above his ear. He regards Reid carefully. "You're going to do something...silly. I can feel it."

Reid knows Kiernan can't know, but his heart hastens as if he's been caught, anyway.

Kiernan says, "That mage, Lucas."

Reid has a pang of relief that Kiernan seems to believe Lucas is the reason for Reid's ravaging guilt. "What about him?"

"Don't."

"Why?"

"I've known men who take. He's not going to wine and dine you, spoiled boy. You know what he wants."

Reid plays dumb. "What does he want?"

"He wants to fuck you."

Resisting a laugh at that impressively stoic delivery, Reid pouts. "No wine after?"

"Do you want him? Or what he provides?" Kiernan sighs at Reid's noncommittal shrug. "You're not sure. If it's the act that's drawing you, I could—"

"No," Reid interjects, horrified.

"Sex doesn't need to have emotion attached," Kiernan explains calmly. He's freaking out, but his expression is placid. "If you're more comfortable, you can be in control. I'm not bothered."

Reid doesn't want to contemplate where Kiernan learned to provide that kind of service. He chokes, "No...thank you."

Kiernan takes the rejection with a curious pinch to his eyebrows and a faint smile. "Not a mistake, then."

"Were you testing me?"

"Your answer shows what kind of man you are."

Reid frowns. He finds that he really wants to know what Kiernan has decided. "What kind of man am I?"

Kiernan's gaze flits over Reid's face, as if taking in his features for the first time, with a pensive silence that has Reid's heart beating rapidly against his chest.

Then, Kiernan says softly, "The kind of man that would turn down the chance to make a man that had hurt him suffer."

"That's what you were offering?"

"You didn't take it as such." Kiernan's eyes are warm. "That's the kind of man you are."

"Stop," Reid says, choked up. "You're becoming like my vampire dad—maybe my older brother." He laughs. "The sex thing threw me off. Let's go back to before you started acting horny."

Kiernan laughs, finally, and it might be the first time Reid's ever heard the vampire lose his breath. Kiernan looks handsome when his face lights up. And Reid decides that if he ever ends up in some weird time loop like in those sci-fi movies Kenneth loves, he'll save Kiernan from whatever made him so lifeless.

Kiernan's still trying to catch his breath when Reid tells him to lie down. And when the vampire obeys without protest, Reid settles beside him, not caring that he's in bed with Kiernan Moreno, the same vampire that had chased him down and dragged him back to his father more times than he can count. Not to mention, he broke his rib and dislocated his knee over a week ago.

Because he likes the feeling Kiernan gives him and realizes, in a spark of clarity, that his possessiveness to keep Kiernan close was borne from the intense yearning Reid has for paternal comfort.

They're admittedly not the tallest men. They fit on the queen-sized bed side-by-side, with room to spare.

"I want my family to be safe," Reid says, staring at the ceiling and drumming his fingers against his chest. He knows Kiernan is looking at him. He feels eyes on his face. "I won't make you stay, but I want you to be safe."

Kiernan remains silent for a long time. Then, he says, "I can't stay."

He lays a hand over Reid's fingers that rest on his stomach. The touch has Reid relaxing, comforted, and stops his lips from turning into the deep frown they'd been endeavouring.

Kiernan whispers, "However, I will stay until Azrael is beaten. That much, I can promise."

"Thank you."

"I don't have a choice."

Reid smiles. He really likes Kiernan's raw honesty. His father's a fool, not utilizing the loyalty that Kiernan offered him unwaveringly. He'd never lie. He'd have been what Gabriel needed during war. A rational voice that held his best interests.

Reid's expression falls. "Gabriel?"

Kiernan hums. "Yes."

"I'm sorry."

"For?"

Reid takes in a deep breath before whispering, "For what he did."

"I'm healed." Kiernan sounds apathetic and looks calm when Reid turns his head, but within, his maker can't hide his flutter of rising panic. His dark eyes hold Reid's gaze stoically.

"He didn't tie your wrists to whip you. Did he?"

"No."

"He did worse." Reid's heart beats rapidly. He knows what his father is capable of, but throughout the years, he's learned he can still be surprised at the extent to which the bastard will go to make a point.

"Not him."

Reid frowns. "That vampire, Dallas?"

"It doesn't matter." Kiernan smiles sadly. He's quiet, pensive. Then he says softly, "It was a reminder."

"A reminder?"

"Of what I owe your father."

"What do you owe him?"

"My life."

A heavy silence follows.

Reid won't push. He's been answered with the despair that bleeds through their connection, choking his breath and bringing tears to his eyes. He knows it was that vampire, Dallas. But he doesn't want to know the details. He's sure that whatever Kiernan suffered after he left the house that night was beyond torturous.

He's beyond grateful for Kiernan's sacrifice, because otherwise, there's a good chance that, bonded, Reid would have forgotten that his father is a monster. The thought has him close to vomiting.

After waiting in the stretching quiet long enough for both of their heartbeats to calm, Reid shifts onto his side. "So..." He's near Kiernan already, but he slides closer. "You have a cat?"

Kiernan's relaxed expression hardens. He's stopped from getting up by Reid's grabbing arms and a leg lung over Kiernan's lower half to keep him pinned.

"No," Reid whines, until Kiernan stops struggling and resigns to his fate. "Tell me. Please? What kind of cat?"

For the next fifteen minutes, the humans downstairs finish their dinner. Reid listens raptly to Kiernan, telling him about a Calico cat that stalked him and gave him no choice but to bring it home. Now it keeps scratching expensive furniture, and Kiernan claims to loathe the animal, but Reid can feel through their bond that he loves the cat very much.

It's named Micio, Axel's wife's contribution. Reid always wanted an animal. Satan refused, and his mother wasn't a fan. Kenneth claimed that Reid wasn't responsible enough, and well, he had to concede that's probably true.

Reid lays his cheek against Kiernan's shoulder. The vampire smells of minty soap, overshadowed by the ashy scent of fire that clings to Reid's clothing. "Do you think Micio has ruined all your furniture by now? You know, as retribution for you not coming home."

Kiernan has a spark of nervousness that he hides behind a cold expression. "Alexander has taken over my house duties while I've been away."

After Reid's soft laugh, Kiernan says, "You've beaten your urges. I'm relieved. Some vampires lose themselves."

"Azrael?"

"Yes."

Silence, and then Kiernan whispers, "Your father's afraid of you."

"No, he isn't."

"He said as much, drunk on wine. He saw Azrael in you. In your eyes. He claimed that he could feel that seed of viciousness waiting to bloom."

Reid's breath burns. His lips are pressed against Kiernan's shoulder, but he can't bring himself to move. He's been afraid of the same thing. The possessiveness, the twisted and deranged whispers he's been battling. He knows that Kiernan telling him this is a betrayal.

He's grateful, but he can't make words past the overwhelming emotion that's constricting his throat.

Kiernan continues, voice gentle, "When your adroitness for entrancement was revealed, I didn't know why at the time...but he was afraid. Not of you. I believe he's scared of what you're capable of."

He lays a hand on Reid's head, the weight of his touch comforting enough to take Reid from the edge he'd been teetering. "You're shrewd enough to make deals with the Bureau and the werewolves. You spilled your blood for that loyalty. In the morning, no less, when we are at our weakest. Azrael has always needed his gifts to gain his influence. Gabriel should be afraid of you. Like I said, he'd be smart to kill you. You'd take everything from him if you wished."

Reid shifts his head up, and Kiernan's looking at him with dark eyes. His maker meant every word. Reid's dizzy, his heart beating wildly.

"Leave," Kiernan whispers with a rare crack of emotion in his voice. "You'd be better than both of them. All I can say is don't. Let the weaker men rule. Take Rainer and live free." He averts his gaze, blinking at the ceiling, and huffs, "Politics are a death sentence."

Reid laughs, teary. "Politics are a death sentence. Can I get that on a shirt?"

Kiernan snorts.

"I don't want power," Reid admits honestly.

"Good."

"I won't entrance you," Reid says after a moment of quiet. "But promise me that you'll stop hurting people."

"I don't hurt people."

"You're a sadist."

"No."

"I distinctly recall having my knee dislocated by your stupid loafers. And my ribs cracked."

"That was a misunderstanding. You were masked."

"You kicked me in the face and laughed."

Reid keeps his expression placid, even though his lips tingle with a ghost of a grin. Lifting himself onto an elbow, he's grateful when the fingers resting in his hair remain. "You were hard the entire time."

"I was not," Kiernan sputters.

Reid feigns a shudder. "I was lying on the ground. I saw."

Kiernan blinks at him slowly. "You're an irritating boy."

"But you like me, anyway."

At Kiernan's scoff, Reid whispers softly, "Don't hurt people anymore."

Kiernan regards him carefully. Reid's heart hastens. There's no way he can explain why hearing Kiernan promise this is paramount. There's a chance this is their goodbye.

"I'll try to think of alternatives," Kiernan concedes.

Reid grimaces. "Alternatives?"

He lets the fingers in his hair pull him back to rest his cheek on Kiernan's shoulder, quieting their conversation. Reid will have to accept the shaky answer as being enough. Through their bond, he can feel that Kiernan is being truthful, at least.

"Don't tell Gabriel about the baby."

Silence. The fingers in his hair tighten.

Reid's eyes burn. "Please."

Kiernan whispers, "If he finds out..." His heart is beating rapidly.

"I know." Reid knows he's asking Kiernan to put his life on the line. "Please. You sacrificed yourself for me. Do the same for that baby."

"I can't keep this from him."

"You haven't told him yet. Why?"

Kiernan looks away, and his silence is enough of an answer. In truth, Reid didn't know Kiernan hadn't told Gabriel until this very moment.

Reid's eyes burn. "What Azrael did to her. You know, don't you? You know what it's like to suffer like that." He nearly cowers when Kiernan looks at him sharply. Not from fear. From the deep misery he's close to drowning in, shared through their bond.

"Quiet," Kiernan warns on shaky breath. His fingers in Reid's hair are shaking. "You don't know anything." He's close to panicking. Even if Reid couldn't feel it through their bond, the wildness in his dark eyes would give his turmoil away. "You're asking too much of me. I can't. You don't know what he'll do to me—to Alexander."

"Let Rowan have something good come from her suffering. That baby can be free. Like we'll never be able to be. Like you've never been."

Kiernan says harshly, "Alexander has a baby. Do not ask who I'd choose because it will be that child, not hers." If they weren't connected, Reid would never know that past the coldness in Kiernan's eyes, he's suffering suffocating guilt and churning despair.

Reid tries to resist the intense burn in his eyes. "Please. I can't...come up with the words to convince you...because, not telling him...I know what it risks. Please don't."

Kiernan stares at him for a long moment, his lips quivering. Then he whispers harshly, "You're a greedy boy." His fingers gentle in Reid's hair. "You'll be the death of me."

Reid smiles gently. "I know." He probably will be.

Through their bond, Kiernan's fear bleeds like a slow-moving river, grazing Reid's emotions and making him just as apprehensive for his maker, because they both know his fate will be worse than death if the truth ever comes out.

"I won't tell him," Kiernan assures coldly.

Reid's deep breath rattles in his chest. "Thank you."

Kiernan snorts. "So spoiled."

More silence.

After a lengthy yawn, Reid whispers, "I'm tired."

"Then sleep."

And Reid does.

He dreams of a future where he and Kenneth flee to the other side of the world, away from this nightmare. They don't stress over innocents they can't save, because it's not their problem anymore. They argue over menial things. Kenneth comes on his own accord to offer Reid blood and ask for it in return because he's not humiliated any longer, openly yearning.

Hannah is there, beautiful and carefree, without the frown that's been stuck on her pretty face lately. Beautiful and happy. So is Rowan, and she's breathtaking, holding an adorable, red-headed baby.

Reid takes the baby from her arms—a girl in his dreamscape. He's in love with Rowan so much that it aches, and he doesn't mind that the baby he's bouncing in his arms isn't his. He adores them both and looks forward to a wonderful future that he'd never thought he'd have.

Then, surprisingly enough, Lucas is also fantasized, handsome, and he's sweet to Asha, who looks up at him like he's her entire world. Reid feels happy for them and for her. She no longer steals sad glances Reid's way.

And in those stolen moments when Lucas comes to him, after night falls and the world is asleep, Reid lets Lucas worship him as if he's worthy of the reverence.

In this fantasy, Kiernan's taken Gabriel's place, leading Fawnhill. The vampires do well with a leader who isn't power hungry. There's true peace, and the beautiful town no longer holds a dark smog to stifle its light. His maker complains and claims he hates the responsibility and someone else would do better, but Reid knows Kiernan is happy and, more importantly, safe.

Life is boring. And so perfect. Reid's peaceful for a little while.

Reid doesn't know how long he's slept. Hours, probably. He'd awoken to Kiernan breathing on his face, asleep, and doing that thing the vampire's begun to do annoyingly well: look boyishly vulnerable.

Reid had to taper his possessive instinct, which he managed with great effort.

He taps his knuckles against Hannah's bedroom door. There's movement inside, approaching. He looks down the hallway. Kenneth's light is off. Hannah's with him. He can hear faint heartbeats from the office where Lucas and Asha are staying.

The door opens. Rowan holds the knob, looking up at him through curious green eyes. Her fiery hair has been tied behind her head. She looks small in a giant t-shirt that Reid recognizes as Kenneth's, with its logo of a sci-fi space battle.

She fixes her sleep shorts self-consciously, and Reid realizes he's been staring at her legs like a creep.

"Can I talk to you?"

Rowan nods and motions for him to come inside the bedroom. He does and is momentarily saddened at the way Milton's touch has remained despite his passing over a year ago—dark, heavy furniture that makes Reid feel confined despite the substantial floor space.

"Sorry, uh, about the window."

Reid looks at the open window on the far side of the room. The broken screen flaps with a light breeze that shivers his skin.

Rowan swallows. "Presley."

"Jumped through the window?" Reid smiles. That's hilarious.

"I told him..."

"He freaked and went wolfy?"

Then all amusement dies when Rowan sniffs and breaks into heaving sobs. She holds her elbows and crouches. Tears streaming down her pale cheeks. She doesn't react when Reid approaches.

"Can I—"

Rowan shakes her head. "Stay. Don't touch—just stay."

Reid wishes he could hug her but settles for grabbing the thin sheet crumpled at the bottom of the bed. She's sniffing, looking at him with pinched brows when he approaches, and laying the sheet over her head with a light rustle of the fabric settling.

Before Rowan can react to the admittedly strange gesture, Reid picks up the end of the sheet and joins her inside, keeping vigilant to avoid touching. He's near enough to catch a wonderful glimpse of a dimpled smile that lightens her teary green eyes beautifully.

Rowan sits and wipes her damp cheeks with the backs of her fingers. "I think...I used to do this as a kid." She whacks the sheet with her palm, rustling the fabric.

"When I..." Reid tries to think of the words that won't humiliate him, but decides it doesn't matter. He might never see her again, and he wants to be honest without his mask. "When I fell into despair, Kenneth would do this. He'd say he's cast a spell on this sheet, and now the shitty world is gone, and it's just us. And if you don't reveal what's bothering you while under here, you'll be cursed forever."

Rowan's lips quiver. "What kind of curse?"

"Something very bad," Reid assures with a gentle smile.

"Presley said I should get rid of the baby."

Reid's stomach plummets. "Don't," he breathes.

Rowan takes a shallow breath. "Why not?"

"I'll help you."

"How?" Rowan's voice cracks.

"Let me..." Reid might feel pretty nervous if he wasn't potentially talking to Rowan for the last time. She's a stranger. She is beautiful and steals his breath whenever he looks her way, but they hardly know each other. "Let me take care of the baby."

Rowan stares at him for a quiet moment, blinking away stray tears that dampen her long lashes. She slowly smiles, and he can feel his rapidly beating heart burst with intense affection he knows isn't borne from his messed-up emotions.

He really does love this woman.

"Okay," Rowan chokes.

"I'll sign anything that's needed. We can say that the baby is mine, or whatever you—"

Rowan covers her face with her palms and sobs, nodding. "Yours," she says, muffled.

Resisting the nearly overwhelming urge to reach out and touch her, Reid whispers, "I'm sorry."

Only when Rowan lowers her hands and looks up with red-rimmed eyes does he realize that he's also crying silently.

"It's not your fault," Rowan gasps. She reaches out, her soft fingers sliding over his, and squeezes. "You might run away when I tell you this, but I, um, used to follow you."

Reid doesn't wipe the tears wetting his cheeks. He laughs. "I know."

"No," Rowan says, her cheeks pink. "I used to follow you, like, to watch you."

"Why?"

"I didn't know, then. I thought you looked sad, I guess."

Reid frowns, looking down at their entwined hands. "You didn't know?"

"I've been in love with you for a long time. I know that now."

Reid looks up, his breath hitching. Rowan's smiling at him beautifully.

He stays very still when she leans closer, draping her arms around his shoulders, and pulls him into an embrace that smells of flowery soap that clings to her hair as he leans his cheek against her shoulder, breathing her in.

After a stretch of comfortable silence, he whispers, "I'm going to kill him."

Rowan's breath catches.

"I won't let him touch you again."

He pulls back at the sound of her sniffle, and Reid's heart aches to see the deep misery in her green eyes. He lays a palm on her cheek and brushes away her falling tears with a thumb. "Rowan, I love you."

"I love you too," Rowan whispers, teary.

He's in awe of this beautiful woman's presence. She's somehow shaken up his perfect world of self-abuse in a matter of days. She makes him want to try. She makes him want to fight. And makes him want a future.

Reid slowly lays a palm against her stomach, fingers splaying over the faded planet, mid-explosion printed on her shirt.

Rowan's fingers come to rest over his. "Can you feel him?"

"Her," Reid says, smiling. He can't explain how he knows—intuition, he supposes. He can sense the flutter of life in a deep, instinctive way that he cannot fully explain to himself, but he knows. He wishes the baby could remain safe inside forever. The world is too painful. He gives Rowan a soft look. "She's going to be trouble."

Rowan laughs, squeezing his fingers.

Reid kisses her gently, savouring the taste of her, and when she gasps softly before reciprocating eagerly, like she needs his lips to breathe, he decides that he'll survive tonight.

No matter what happens.

For them.