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That stumped me, I admit.

“How many?” Black asked.

“Seven. No… eight.”

“All at once?” Jax asked.

I glanced at him. When I did, I noticed for the first time he had positioned Kiko directly behind him. He stood with shoulders squared, placing himself entirely between the gun and her, and the vampire and her. He shielded her entire body with his, and she gripped one of his hands in both of hers behind his back. Looking at the two of them, I felt a surge of intense affection for them both.

That affection translated into fury when I focused back on Brick.

“No,” Brick said, looking at Jax. “Which is how I know it is still open. One of yours stumbles through now and then. We’ve also had odd variations on vampirism from time to time. Generally more primitive, vicious forms of vampirism… not particularly compatible with life on this world, and our quiet truce with humanity.”

Black and I exchanged looks.

That sounded a lot like those odd vampires we encountered in the New Mexico desert. The ones that started appearing out of the portal under Ship Rock.

“Yes.” Brick met my gaze when I looked over. “They are very much like those you found in that desert. Some are significantly worse. In any case, we’ve found them unassimilable with our people here.” His voice grew a touch colder, verging on metallic. “And we do not wish to have any more seers here, frankly. No offense, Quentin, but enough is enough. We would like to cap that number at you and your offspring.”

Black frowned.

His gold eyes grew hard as he studied the vampire’s face.

“What did you do with them?” Black’s voice deepened as he stared at those cracked-crystal eyes. “These seers? These ‘unassimilable’ vampires who came through?”

“We killed them,” Brick said.

His voice was utterly matter of fact.

He shrugged with the hand holding the gun.

“…Naturally. An unpleasant but necessary solution to an extremely vexing problem. One I would rather not repeatad nauseumfor the rest of my days. I do not like loose ends, Quentin. You know this about me. I would much prefer to put a stop to the travelings between our world and others altogether. Then I will feel quite happy with how things stand. I do not wish to kill other creatures, whether they are your kin or mine. Let them go elsewhere. Somewhere that is not here. That is all I ask.”

Black and I exchanged another glance.

Honestly, I could almost sympathize with Brick’s point of view.

We’d had nothing but problems with all that damned inter-dimensional bullshit.

Other than a few nice vacations to visit Revik and Allie, I couldn’t really think of anything good that had come of it at all in the past year or so, while I’d had those dimension-hopping abilities. Of course, the portalshadbrought us Dalejem, Yarli, Jax, Holo, Mika.

I couldn’t imagine my life without any one of them now.

Unfortunately, that didn’t change anything in terms of how I could help Brick with his little problem.

“There’s literally nothing I can do,” I told him.

Something else sank in suddenly.

“Did you really say youkilledCharles?”

There was a silence.

Brick looked at me, and for the first time, I saw a flicker of apology there.

“Perhaps I should have consulted you,” he said, his voice stiff. “I confess, I viewed it as a situation not unlike the one with my mother. A person too dangerous to keep alive… regardless of familial ties, or any residual feelings there.” He cleared his throat.

I knew it was pure affect, since he was a vampire and had no need to clear his throat, but the affect conveyed more of that apology.