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“Nick, my darling, difficult, ever-the-most-dramatic, and endlessly intractable child of mine,” the older vampire drawled, a hint of the old Louisiana in his voice. “Listen to me closely. I would be very,verycareful with Lara St. Maarten, if I were you.”

Brick sniffed, tugging again at his collar. “I do not know what she’s told you, but I strongly suspect she is the driving force behind all of this.”

“All of what?” Nick stared back. “This ‘change’? The one you still won’t fucking explain to me? You thinkshe’sthe reason for it?”

“Yes,” Brick said coldly. “I do.”

“But you won’t tell me what it is?” Nick pressed.

Brick let out another dramatic sigh.

“It is not one thing, offspring. It is many things. It is a different scent in the air, if you will.” Brick returned his gaze levelly to Nick’s. “I do not know what she’s told you in the wake of this most recent incident, but I would approach any promises or assurances she gives you with a great deal of skepticism. If she’s trying to convince you that ‘all is normal’ and ‘all is well’ and that ‘everything will go back to the way it was,’ I would definitely not trust those words… or much of anything else coming from her.”

Nick’s jaw tightened. “And you can’t elaborate on that?”

Brick sighed another dramatic sigh.

When he spoke next, however, his voice had darkened.

“Let’s just say, I think that, despite knowing theoretically about inter-dimensional portals for decades, and that other species have walked through them to this world, causing problems and strain and even war for several hundred years… seeing one now, in thepresenttime period, and inside a well-populated,humanprotected area, has had a profound effect on not only Lara St. Maarten, but other powerful individuals in the human world. One might even say a profoundlyemotionaleffect… one that is not entirely rational.”

Brick’s voice darkened more.

“…I am telling you, something haschanged,Nick.”

Nick stared back at him.

He tried to make sense of what Brick meant him to read behind those words.

Obviously, he thought Lara was lying to Nick.

That, or Brick wanted to turn him against Lara and Archangel. Or, he really thought Lara saw the portal as a threat––even though it had closed all on its own––and she now, what? She intended to dowhat,exactly?

“Are you saying Archangel has gone full human-supremacist because of one lousy fucking portal?” Nick asked, incredulous. “A portal that’s not even there anymore? What would be the sense in that? More than half of her technological breakthroughs since the war were powered by hybrids or seers in some way. Or do you think it’s onlymeshe wants to get rid of? And any other vampires or seers she finds ‘inconvenient’?”

Brick busied himself by tugging at the cuffs of his shirt, then switching to his jacket sleeves, then his coat, then his belt, arranging his clothes in the endless fussiness he always seemed to display, no matter what he wore.

Nick knew it as a nervous tic, and sometimes as a means of buying himself time.

It never ceased to annoy Nick though, even after hundreds of years.

“Your ability to ignore my very clear statements remains healthy,” Brick muttered.

Nick grunted.“Very clearstatements? Of all the delusional, gaslighting bullshit––”

“––This isn’t my world, either,” Brick snapped, his eyes flicking up to stare into Nick’s. “You don’t seemewhining about wanting to go back, simply because I happened to be born somewhere else. What could you possibly evenwantwith that place, after all this time?”

Nick blinked at the abrupt change in subject.

Then his mouth tipped in a frown.

“You’re blaming this onme?”Nick asked, incredulous. “You’re actually pissed at me for wanting to go home?”

“I just don’t see the reason in it,” Brick said crisply, tugging at his shirt. “It’s been hundreds of years, Naoko. Possibly thousands on the other end. Everyone you knew there is most assuredly dead. And how do you know you would not return to a far more desperate and broken world than this one? Is it really soterriblehere for you that you’d take that chance?”

“Yes, you fucking psycho.” Nick stared at the other vampire in disbelief. “Itisthat fucking terrible here. And I highly doubt you’re worried it might be ‘worse’ back on our home world. Knowing you, you’re far more worried that it’snot.”

Brick glared at him coldly. “And why, dearest Naoko, would I be worried about that?”