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Naj perched on the rooftop high above the city, watching it wake up by degrees. It always started with the windows, which flipped from dark to light as alarms rang and people rose. The winter wind whistled past. It didn't bother them. They'd stopped feeling the cold a long time ago.
Naj smelled Em as soon as she opened the door to the roof. She didn't bother being stealthy. The two of them had played the game for a long time; stealth was pointless. Naj turned around and hopped off the parapet.
"You're up late," said Em, shooting a look at the horizon.
"20 minutes to sunrise," said Naj. "I was expecting you to show up earlier."
"Shit. My invitation must've been lost in the mail."
"When have you ever needed an invitation to barge in?"
Em gave a huff of laughter, sticking her hands in her parka. Her cheeks were red from cold. "Fair enough," she said.
Naj wondered idly what was in the pockets. Probably a pistol with silver bullets. It didn't matter anymore, but Em didn't know that yet.
"Glad you're here," said Naj. "Feels fitting to have a chance to say goodbye."
Em's eyebrows shot up up.
She stepped closer, hands clenching in her parka pockets. "You going somewhere?"
"Ha, no," said Naj. "The opposite. I'm staying right here."
Em frowned. Naj could tell the moment she twigged.
"What the fuck, Naj," she said. "Is this some kind of trick?"
"No trick," said Naj.
"So, what, you have a death wish all of a sudden?" Em asked, her voice sharp.
"I wouldn't characterize it as 'all of a sudden,'" said Naj. "It's been coming for a long time." They broke off and looked away and out, back over the city blinking itself into wakefulness.
"I'll miss this place," said Naj. They turned back to Em, took her in: her thin, hard face; her wide mouth; the puckered scar on her cheek, earned in Jakarta in 1928—or had it been '29? The years ran together; even the memorable ones had lost meaning.
"I'll miss you," said Naj.
"This is definitely a trick," said Em.
"Nah, I'm just tired of running. Aren't you tired of chasing, Em? We've been doing this for so very long—from all the way back when you thought you were an ordinary witch-hunter, and thought that I was a witch."
Em's nostrils flared.
"I miss the sunrise," said Naj. "I miss eating stuff that isn't blood. I miss feeling like something matters besides keeping this giant bundle of cells in a coherent shape. Time for a new adventure."
"There's no adventure," said Em, voice harsh. "When you die, you're just ash."
"That's quite something, coming from someone who used to preach fire and brimstone from the pulpit."
"Yeah, well, a lot of things have changed. You know that."
"Better than anyone else. We've outlived them all." Naj turned their back to Em and jumped back up on the parapet.
Em came up beside Naj and leaned against the parapet, elbows next to their feet.
"What the fuck, Naj," said Em. Did the horizon look lighter? Naj felt a flutter high in their chest, just under their throat.
"I'm tired of the only person who really knows me wanting me dead."
Em huffed out a sharp breath, sending out a white plume out of her mouth that was almost immediately dispersed by the wind.
"The last vampire and the last Hunter," said Naj. "Congratulations, by the way. You've won."
Em made a sharp noise of disgust. "You're wrong."
Naj quirked an eyebrow. "About what?"
"About everything. About this being a game anyone can win. About me wanting to win. About what I wanted to do when I finally caught up with you."
The world tilted on a strange new axis. Naj looked down at Em. "You're a Hunter."
Em gave bark of laughter. "What, you're going to believe biology is destiny now, asshole? I'm whoever the fuck I want. I decide. Me."
That flutter was back. Naj shifted on their feet. "What do you want?"
"Come the fuck down and find out, you chickenshit motherfucker."
It felt like a bird was trying to break free out of Naj's chest as they hopped down. They found themself toe-to-toe with Em, looking into her muddy hazel eyes.
Em grabbed a fistful of T-shirt fabric and yanked; Naj reflexively braced for a blow that never came.
Instead, Em's mouth was on theirs, hard and sure. Naj's mouth was slack from surprise, but not for long; they found themself kissing back, matching Em's fierceness with their own.
Em pulled back. "I've been trying to pin you down for years to do this."
"Oh," said Naj stupidly.
"You want an adventure?" asked Em. "I'm going to give you all the adventure you could ever want, and then some." She smiled a sharp, crooked smile. "But to do that, I need to get your stupid ass back inside before the sun rises."
She held out her hand; Naj took it.
They turned their backs on the city finally rumbling into full wakefulness and the faint glow in the distance that was the first sign of the sun shrugging free of the horizon, and walked off into a strange new future together.