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Brick ignored them. Turning to Black and me, he studied our expressions.

“There is still the matter of what I need from the two of you,” he said.

Black and I exchanged looks.

“Us?” Black frowned. “What the hell does that mean?”

“This is the last of it, you see,” Brick said, motioning towards an empty corner of the basement. “The one thing Iabsolutelyneeded from you and your wife. As for why the drama of the light show and the family album, well, I thought you should know something about thewhybefore we got into the what.”

I followed his vague motions towards the far corner of the basement.

Feeling something with my seer’s sight, I flinched back, frowning.

I could feel it all around me again, that pained, throbbing, uncomfortable feeling in my gut. I stared at the far wall, and it hit me it was coming from there.

“What is that?” I asked. “What’s down here, Brick?”

I tore my eyes off that cement-walled corner of the room, looking back at Brick.

He shrugged, giving me another of those wan smiles.

“It is the very last one, darling Miriam,” he said lightly. “Theverylast one. And I would very much like it to go away now. My mother created this one. It is possibly the first, the original sin, as it were. It is possibly even the reason all the others opened later. In any case, she was my mother, and since I killed her before she could be persuaded to deal with it on her own, I suppose it is now my responsibility to rid the world of it in some other way.”

I turned, staring at him.

“Youkilled her? Your own mother?”

Brick lifted a dark eyebrow.

“This surprises you? Really, Miriam? Ishowedyou my mother. Were you not paying attention? Are you really trying to make me feel bad, employing some kind of schoolmarmish finger wagging for killingthatparticular human? Really?”

“No.” I shook my head, confused. “I just thought… the vampires…”

“Shedidkill their leader, yes,” Brick said, matter of fact. “After that same leader had already sired me, she killed him and a number of his lieutenants in a fit of pique. My mother did have that wild temper of hers… as my father would attest, were he alive.”

He smiled at me.

Again I saw that same mother in his flat eyes.

“She’d had other plans for me, you see,” Brick went on easily. “Somewhat more ambitious plans. Luckily for me, the vamps took pity on me. They also did not like the things my mother was unleashing on their world. Vampires are rather sticklers for convention, you know. You might not know this about us, Quentin… but we vampires really don’t like change. We like things to remain as they are. Predictable. Safe. Prosperous. With us at the top of the food chain. With cordial, happy, and… perhaps most importantly…discreetrelations all around.”

Black grunted.

When Brick looked over at him, Black motioned for the vampire to continue.

“Do go on,” Black said politely.

Brick shrugged, giving me another thin smile.

“Anyway, seeing what adifficultwoman my mother was, how intransigent she could be, the vampire coven to which I owe my salvation decided to push things in a different direction. Their leader, Jean Christoff, turned me while I was out with friends one night. Unfortunately, they underestimated her, and her wrath at them stealing her only son. From what I was able to piece together later, she had some of the sight herself, my mother. She knew immediately when they took her from me, and she was extremely angry. Later, when Jean Christoff and his people came back to deal with her, she managed to get the jump on them. She murdered Jean and several of his more senior vamps.”

Brick shrugged, his voice indifferent.

“I didn’t see it. The recording you saw was pieced together from Dorian’s memories, which I acquired while sharing blood with him later. I didn’t attend that excursion. I was back at the vampires’ den, still recovering from receiving the One True blood… but Dorian told me later what happened. After I had recovered from a rather tumultuous newborn phase, we took it upon ourselves to deal with my mother ourselves.”

But I was back at the first thing he’d said.

The thing he’d brought us here to do.