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“Because you’re a psychopath,” Nick said without hesitation.“Of courseyou’d prefer a world as twisted as this one. You’ve had more power here than you likelyeverwould’ve accessed back home. You fuckinglovehow barbaric it is, how important you are, how easy it is to be corrupt and be king of the vampire underground. Back on our Earth, you had to hide from humans. Here, you get to be feared by them.”

Brick’s expression went back to passionlessly unmoved.

He tugged at his sleeve a few more times, then adjusted his shoulders and faced Nick squarely. His stare reverted to its flat, reptile-like countenance.

“Lara tells me you have an interest in your memories,” Brick said next.

Nick blinked, then fought back another open scoff. “Jesus.”

“Was she telling the truth?” Brick pressed.

“I should have known––”

“I am not here to discourage you in that, offspring,” Brick said, his voice a touch hotter. “On the contrary… I have come to offer my own assistance, as a counter to hers. I openly offer my help, if you would condescend to take it. I doubt Lara has your best interests at heart in agreeing to your request. You would be far safer in relying on your own kind, Nick.”

“Would I?” Nick retorted. “Would I besaferin trusting you, Brick? Because it’syouwho always has my best interests at heart?”

“Why would I not?” Brick asked drily.

“I don’t want your help,” Nick growled. “You’ve never once told me the truth about fuckinganything,Brick… not unless it directly benefited you in some way. You’ve neveroncecorroborated a memory I actuallydoremember, so why the fuck would I want your ‘help’ now?” Thinking about that, Nick scoffed for real. “I think I’ll pass on you throwing wrenches at anything I might recover that skirts too close to the truth––”

“You came to me,” Brick cut in, darker. “Youaskedme to help you remove the memories you no longer wanted. Further, you paid me for that favor in blood. Not to mention years and years of servitude. Are you so sure you would so casually throw all that away?”

At that, Nick hesitated.

He stared at Brick, surprised, in spite of himself.

“I thought youweren’there to discourage me?” he retorted. “I thought you were the only one I could trust to help merecoverthose memories? You should at least make a minimal effort to keep your stories straight,father,”he added bitingly.

“Perhaps Iamfeeling a touch paternal,” Brick shot back. “I admit, there would be benefits to me if you remembered. But I doubt there will be as many for you.”

Nick’s jaw hardened.

He scoffed, but not without anger.

“So do you want me to remember?” he asked acidly. “Or not?”

“I’m simply urging you to think carefully about this,” Brick warned. “Do you really wish to reverse everything you did? Do you wish to know it all again, to remember it all again? Because you were quite desperatenotto remember at the time. And believe me or not, I think you rememberenoughto guess I am telling you the truth about this. You know, deep down, what a steep price you paid. You have not forgotten that much?”

The silence in the entryway grew dense.

Outside those doors, Nick’s sensitive vampire ears could hear traffic picking up. He knew the early morning commutes had already begun. A lot of people still drove from the upper parts of Manhattan down to the lower-number streets for work and school and whatever else. Some even took the train out to other Protected Areas, like Wynter and Tai were doing now.

They would likely be leaving for that train in the next handful of minutes.

The city would be waking up for real by the time she and Tai found their seats on the commuter line.

It was likely already too late for Nick to take the subway home.

He’d need a cab now, one with vampire-safe windows.

But he was avoiding, and he knew it.

“That’s why I joined the White Death?” Nick thought about that, and wondered that the obviousness of it hadn’t occurred to him before. “I thought I joined prior to when you did me that ‘favor’ with my memories.”

“You did not,” Brick stated. “It was a condition of my help.”

Nick’s hands slowly clenched as he turned over the implications of that.