Chapter Five

Sebastian looked over the ruin of their supplies with a falling heart. He’d never owned anything in his life and two hours ago he’d been just fine with that. Funny how quickly things changed. He’d never stolen anything before and now he had two shopping carts worth of materials that, somehow, had become important to him.

Plates and silverware.

Groceries.

Sebastian picked up a box of glassware with a fist-sized dent in the side. Broken glass clinked inside.

They only mattered only because his Sire wanted them and this destruction was a threat to his Sire.

And to him.

Sebastian set the box of broken glasses on the couch, feeling an odd kinship with the inanimate thing. A box dented, but intact enough to hold all the broken pieces inside. He was full of pieces he didn’t know how to put back together again.

Nico righted the overturned shopping cart and began restocking it. He picked out the towels and clothing, shook the broken plates out, and gathered all the cutlery in a pile. The stuff they’d stolen was strewn about the apartment, but most of it was intact and still usable. The toothpaste was still sealed, the shampoo bottle still closed, the box of soap unopened.

Sebastian bent to the task while he churned over their options. Fleeing in the Shade came to mind first. He knew the area around the Belladonna Court for miles and he was familiar with more distant locations, like the Blood Forest. They could stash the carts and go on the run. Come back for them later.

He didn’t know how to flee in the mortal world. He’d never left Atlanta in his life or his unlife. He’d never been on a plane or even taken a road trip more than two hours across the city. And there was the matter of daylight, which he could feel creeping up on them even now.

Sebastian was so deep in his thoughts, he didn’t realize Nico had stopped picking things up until his voice wavered in the echoy room.

“Ugh, I don’t feel good.”

Sebastian stood up, his arms full of toiletries, to see Nico standing with one hand on the cart while his eyes rolled up in the back of his head.

Sebastian threw the items in the cart and caught Nico just as his knees gave way. He probed the bond between them as he brought Nico to the couch. He didn’t feel anything wrong in the bond, just a muted response, but Nico could have closed the connection down on his end.

“What’s wrong,” he asked, brushing Nico’s hair back. “What do you need?”

Nico flopped a hand in the direction of the grocery cart. “Food.” He said. “Protein.”

Sebastian tore through the cart. He found a block of cheese first, and ripped that open. Nico took a bite right out of the corner and sighed as if chewing was too much work.

Sebastian dug around in the groceries until he found something more substantial. Frozen hot pockets. He fished half a plate out of the broken pile and started one of those in the microwave. Picked out a fork and knife.

“There’s a protein shake—“ Nico said.

Half way through the request, Sebastian found the box and tore one free. He opened the cap. Nico sat up against the arm of the couch enough to hold the bottle with both hands and take careful sips.

Sebastian was left hovering over him, holding the drink cap in one hand and completely at a loss.

“People don’t normally pass out when they get hungry,” he said.

Nico offered him a wan smile and took another drink. His color was coming back up. He nibbled on the cheese. “I have health issues,” he said. “The doctors don’t know what’s wrong.” He sighed again and let the protein shake rest on his stomach. “It’s a lot to explain.”

Sebastian got the impression Nico was happy to explain, he was just too exhausted to do so. He crouched beside the couch and helped him lift the shake for another sip.

“You can send thoughts and emotions through the bond already. You can also send information. Memories. Like a package of thoughts. My old Sire would communicate our tasks this way, at a distance, so he didn’t have to recall us from our locations.”

Nico hummed. “A package of thoughts…” he said. “It’s all tangled up with my life.” His eyes closed again, but by the furrow in his brow, Sebastian knew he was concentrating inward. Looking at the bond around his heart.

There was a full minute of silence, then suddenly a torrent of emotion and memory came streaming out of the bond. Sebastian gasped at the volume of it, a near-complete history of Nico’s life from about fifteen to now. Some of it whipped by so quickly, all Sebastian caught at first were highlights. Doctor visits. Negative test results. A laundry list of symptoms no one could explain and some doctors dismissed entirely.

Nico spent years doing his own medical research, circling around and around a few possible answers. Nothing confirmed. Nothing diagnosed.

And eventually, he’d stopped trying. His focused turned to management solutions, medical support forums, physical therapy research on social media, and more.

Sebastian’s Sire was far more delicate than he’d thought. And the maintenance routine he required had been completely stripped away when Dimitri attacked. Some protein and an advil wasn’t nearly enough to get things back on track.

Sebastian twitched out of Nico’s infodump when the microwave beeped. His eyes focused on Nico, on the concerned look on his face. Like Sebastian might throw him out on the street now that he knew the truth.

Nico thought he was broken.

Sebastian put his hand to Nico’s cheek and leaned in close to kiss him gently. He slid their lips together and licked at Nico’s mouth. And the whole while, he pushed desire and confidence through the bond around his heart.

Nico thought he was weak, but Sebastian knew the truth. Not just anyone could be a Sire. It required a strength of spirit that only a few vampires ever managed. Sebastian wasn’t one of them. And somehow, despite being human, Nico had saved both Dimitri and Sebastian from their tortured Courts.

Nico wasn’t broken or weak. His strength simply lay in another realm. One Sebastian fully intended to introduce him to.

But first, “Finish your shake.” Sebastian took the block of cheese and wrapped it back up. He fetched the hot pocket and used a towel as a placemat over Nico’s lap. He was strong enough to sit up and take the silverware. “Eat that.” He went looking in the groceries for supplementals. He found a bottle of vitamins and a bag of clementines. The former he opened and put one on Nico’s plate. The latter he pealed while sitting on the floor, his back against the couch, so he could pass Nico wedges of orange one at a time.

In the quiet of the meal, he combed through the latter section of Nico’s memories, the details of his schedule and the tools he used to maintain it.

He realized immediately that the phone had been Nico’s primary tool. It had a series of alarms for different needs, he used it to collect daily tracking data on his symptoms, and it was his primary social outlet. Getting that phone back needed to be a priority.

Sebastian also noticed that Nico’s shopping choices represented a bare minimum for his ability to function. He needed far more clothing options, a much more substantial pantry, and—

A soft sound made Sebastian glance up over his shoulder. Nico lay curled against the back of the couch, his dinner plate empty on his lap, sound asleep.

And sleep, Sebastian concluded. He needed to catch up on his sleep urgently.

Sebastian didn’t sleep anymore, and back when he was mortal he’d lived easily on five or six hours.

According to Nico’s memories, he required ten hours a night and his performance declined rapidly without them. Sebastian suspected vampire power had been keeping him running this whole time. Nico claimed he couldn’t use it, but Sebastian had his doubts.

With the practiced silence of one who’d lived in the Shade for a century, Sebastian slipped the plate and the empty protein shake off the couch. He fetched the duvet from the bed and tucked Nico in with a pillow.

They had to leave the apartment, and soon, but Sebastian was happy to leave Nico sleeping while he finished packing their carts for the next step of their journey.

He sorted through the destroyed apartment with efficient silence. Broken or ruined items he piled up on the broken dining room table with its three intact legs sticking up in the air. Everything else he organized into the two shopping carts with the best tetris skills he could conjure. He used clothing and towels and bedsheets as packing materials around delicate items or piles of smaller things. He swept up broken things into a pile and spent a moment re-organizing the grocery cart so things were less precariously balanced.

He closed all the blinds tight on the windows before the sun rose. They were thankfully installed with solid blackout curtains on top, which left Sebastian safely tucked away for the day.

Around seven in the morning, Sebastian was just debating about waking Nico up when he felt a cold breeze push through the living room. He stood beside the couch and frowned in the direction of the kitchen.

Something crackled. Like a fireplace. Sebastian leaned into the kitchen far enough to see the front door and stiffened. The door handle and the lock were both crusted with ice. Swirls of frost spread outward from there, across the door and the adjacent wall both. Then a flickering blue flame melted its way through the lock.

Sebastian flashed back to the couch and grabbed Nico, one hand hard on his mouth to prevent any sound. Nico startled awake, eyes wide, confused, then narrow on Sebastian’s face. Sebastian put a hand to his own lips. Nico nodded.

Sebastian helped him off the couch.

He heard the door swing open and the casual steps of someone entering the apartment.

No, not someone, the witch. Belladonna’s witch and her demon Te-ror.

Sebastian’s old sire hadn’t just sent a six-fang, he’d sent his witch. Which meant he knew Sebastian was alive and wanted him dead.

The witch was only ever good for killing. Roman had no control of her and her pet demon, but her favorite thing in the world was tracking someone down to torture them to death.

Sebastian wrapped his arms around Nico. His Sire was wide-eyed, but utterly silent. Their only chance was the flee into the Shade. The witch could follow them, but Sebastian knew the Shade better than anyone. They could survive.

Before he had a chance to take the step across, the witch moved into the living room. She threw purple voidlight from one hand, a crackling icy flame, without hesitation.

Sebastian twisted to take the hit. He hid Nico behind his broad chest and felt the flame strike him in the back, burning with absolute cold. His step into the Shade froze in place. He could feel the Shade just out of reach, like a glass wall had been thrown up between him and his destination.

He turned to face the witch instead, keeping Nico behind him with a warning grip on his arm.

The witch smiled. Her flat human teeth looked wrong in such an angry face.

Sebastian’s heart shuddered with fear. They’d been so close. He understood his Sire more now than ever before. He’d had a chance to flee and he’d missed it.

But Nico could still run. He could step into the Shade wherever Dimitri was as long as Sebastian kept the witch’s attention.

He bared his fangs and hissed.