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“What doyou supposed happened to them?” Nick asked. He was lying on the grass, gazing up at stars. “The rest of them, I mean?”

He’d asked the question so many times over the years, it was almost a game to them now. It was the unanswerable hypothetical that neither of them could ever possibly know for certain. It was, for all intents and purposes, what might have been called, on Nick’s old world, a thought experiment.

Nick still occasionally felt the need to ask it anyway.

He would ask it, if only to hear any new developments from Jem, if only to know whether his mate’s thoughts on the subject had evolved.

He wore clothes that were normal to him now, that would have made him laugh a hundred years earlier. Luckily, the styles evolved slowly, even more slowly than in the time period Nick had come from. Distances were further, everything still got made by hand. But people still evolved their looks, a longer coat one year, one more tightened at the waist, with larger buttons, bigger cuffs, a higher collar, more gold brocade.

Right then, he wore a dark gray, wool frock-coat and embroidered, dark green waistcoat, a cotton shirt with a starched collar, gray gloves, a green ascot to match the waistcoat, a heavier woolen, black overcoat, shined black leather shoes, gold cufflinks, a gold watch and chain, pressed trousers, woolen socks. A beaver-felt top hat perched on a rock nearer to the door of their modest, two-story house overlooking the ocean.

All of it felt so normal as to be mundane, as did his mate’s similar attire, where he sprawled out on the grass next to him.

There were no contact lenses here, so Nick generally explained away his eyes as an “accident of birth,” one common to his family, and nothing to be alarmed from. It perhaps helped that he did most of his social dealings at night, of necessity.

There was no vampire-safe glass here, either.

There weren’t even any cars.

Getting around on horseback meant either making a spectacle of himself with odd cloaks and scarves and umbrellas… or again, doing most such things at night.

Even then, Nick inevitably had to explain that he could see perfectly well through his “oddly magical eyes.” He had to explain this especially often to young women, who seemed both fascinated, drawn, and frightened by his eyes, his “unusual good looks,” as well as his “overall Oriental presentation.”

And yes, it annoyed Dalejem.

It annoyed Dalejem even more when Nick pointed out what a hypocrite he was.

In their lighter moments, it was sometimes remarked they could have made a fortune on this world as a pair of traveling magicians. Jem often joked that, if the money ever ran out, they could take to the road and tell fortunes and perform tricks to mesmerize the locals.

Perhaps Nick could even demonstrate acrobatics.

Or, more realistically, both of them could end up burned at the stake.

Generally, they had kept a very low profile over the years to avoid that very outcome. Jem also spent a fair bit of time and effort and vigilance checking minds, and erasing anyone who might grow too curious about one or both of them, or curious in the wrong ways.

The good outweighed the bad, however.

As much as Nick’s mind still returned to his home world, his friends, his family, he had to admit, the good often well-outweighed the bad in those early years. If his family had all been with him, if Miri, Black, Angel, his parents, and the rest of them had followed Jem through that portal, he might have even preferred their new world.

It was so intensely quiet, even after all this time.

It was so much quieter than Nick could ever remember from that previous world.

There were so many stars.

The stars were endless here, mesmerizing, blinding in their brilliance and variety, and totally ignored by most humans he met who had grown up under them. Nick and Dalejem had begun stargazing as a hobby practically from their first night here.

Back home, even when Nick had gone backpacking with friends, way out into the woods and away from civilization, walking snowy ridges on high mountains as a human, or far out to sea on large ships, it never had been so quiet as it was now. The sky never held so many stars as what Nick and Jem could see in this simple seaside village in the French countryside.

Dalejem turned on his side, and smiled at him.

His pale green eyes looked faintly mischievous, and knowing, because he didn’t have to ask who Nick meant with his question.

He didn’t have to pretend to answer Nick at this point, either.

He played their little game, their thought experiment, when he wanted.