Page 71 of Priest

“Taking down this organization?”

Knight opened his eyes but didn’t turn to face Priest. “With Poe. I want these labs burned to the ground. Not just for me but for everyone they hurt. Everyone they killed. The children—” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “But I know what it’s like to live as this. And I hate it.”

Priest offered his hand, and after a long beat, Knight took it. Sometimes, he wanted more touch than this, but Priest knew this wasn’t one of those moments. The careful brush of palm against palm was more than he was expecting.

“We found Poe in weeks. You were there for…”

Years. Neither of them were brave enough to say it. Knight didn’t know how long he’d been under the lab’s control, only that he was very young when they took him, and he’d already started to age when he escaped. Most of his torment had been when he was human… but not all of it.

“Poe will heal. He has a support system here that took you years to find,” Priest told him. He stroked his thumb over Knight’s wrist. “The point of helping people the way we do is so they don’t have to suffer like us.”

Knight bowed his head, nodding as he stared at their joined hands. “Oliver asked me if it always hurt to touch people. I told him no, but it was a lie. I dream about it—about, about being able to just hold someone. It feels so fucking good. And then I wake up, and every time I try, it makes me want to tear my own skin off.”

Priest tried to pull away, but Knight clung to him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re not. I need this. I need to stop running from the things that scare me. I’m never going to get past this if I don’t.”He swallowed heavily. “I want to be able to have what you and Sunshine do.”

“A mate?”

Knight shrugged. “Just a lover would be enough for me. The ability to touch and be touched without thinking about them. The ability to sink my fangs into someone who wanted to feed me the way Oliver feeds you. Tiny sips of life from their veins, knowing they want to be there in my arms. I mean, I’m a Vampire, so I know that finding someone capable of making me their mate is next to impossible, but?—”

Priest squeezed his fingers. “About that. Ah. Well.” He bit his lip. He didn’t want to give Knight false hope, but he also knew this was a thread worth pulling because the tapestry that would unweave from this meant giving the gift of mates and life and purpose to so many beings who didn’t believe they were allowed to have those things.

“What?” Knight pressed.

Priest blew out a puff of air. “Oliver pointed something out to me. We have a bond, he and I, like Jeremiah and Remy. But it didn’t come from him.”

Knight stared at him, and Priest hunched his shoulders.

“It didn’t come entirely from him,” he clarified. “I felt something when I first saw him, I just didn’t understand what it was. But if we were entirely wrong about how Vampires were made, what if we’re wrong about a lot of things?”

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that Incubi will eventually go mad and starve to death. Oliver satiates me. Completely. The hunger is entirely gone after I feed on him.”

Knight looked unsure. He pulled his hand back. “And you think that’ll be forever?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that it’s different with him. Even in my younger days, when feeding would allow me to be full, itwas never like this. There was always a little pang of hunger left behind—a want for more. And that’s gone.”

Knight pulled one leg toward his chest and wrapped his arms around it. “That doesn’t mean someone like me is destined for a mate. I’m… barely a Supe. I was born human and made into this.”

“Except…” Priest sighed. “Oz’s theory seems to be right. Sunshine finished going through the journals, and it documented some of the experiments they did to trigger the change. It’s genetic, brother. This was always in you.”

Knight looked away. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“Okay, fine. But it means we have to question everything now. Everything we know about beings like us says we’re unnatural. That we’re abominations that weren’t ever supposed to exist. But what if that’s all bullshit?”

“What would be the point?” Knight stressed.

Priest didn’t know, but he also couldn’t deny he was onto something. Maybe he was just getting his hopes up, but from the moment he’d fed on Oliver, things had been different. Oliver hadn’t been drained, and Priest felt almost like he’d been reborn into something else. And he refused to believe all of these things weren’t tied together.

“Once we get back, we can talk to Sunshine about it. But I think I want to go back to the lab and see if there’s anything left behind,” Priest said.

Knight nodded, his jaw tense but his eyes determined. “I’ll go with you.”

“Knight—”

“No. Like I said, I’m tired of running from everything that scares me. It’s time to face this head-on. Sunshine thinks Remi’s ex—that Nephilim—might have some of the answers we’re looking for. About more than just how Vampires come intoexistence. I spoke to him tonight, and he said our number one priority after we get Poe somewhere safe is to find Oz.”

---