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There was another silence while Brick looked at that same corner of the basement, then back at us. Exhaling again, in pure theater of course, he threw up his hands.

“Ah, well. I guess it can’t be helped then.”

Touching his ear, he spoke to someone via a headset I hadn’t seen him wearing.

“Ana, darling,” he said brightly. “Any news from our friends up there?”

There was a silence as Brick listened to whoever was on the other end.

Black and I exchanged frowns at Brick’s reference to “friends.”

“They’re absolutely positive?” Brick asked. “There’s definitely no way she could be wrong about that?” Brick winked at me, aiming a wry smile at Black. “Okay, okay. I understand. I didn’t think the doc here would reallylieto me… I just had to be sure.”

Exhaling again, he stared at me and Black.

Then, as if conceding defeat, he seemed to make up his mind.

“All right. Well… we tried. I guess you’d better open up.”

He dropped his hand from his ear, shrugging in our general direction.

“I suppose we can thank your uncle for this ingenious device of his… this organic binary field whatsit he brought with him from that other Earth. It is quite handy, in terms of keeping the house locked down. I suppose that will have to be good enough for now. I used to have to station vampires here. It was most inconvenient. And they all absolutely hated it, of course. It was the shittiest of the shit duties.”

Exhaling in another theatrical sigh, Brick inclined his head.

“Of course, almostnoneof them ever actually experienced a being coming through the gate. But those who did had to kill it, and those who didn’t were bored out of their minds. Now with this new upgrade, we can probably do most of it remotely. The field at least traps them here. And makes it far easier to dispose of them after. Most of them dispose of themselves, frankly… running at the doors, trying to break windows. Etcetera. Etcetera––”

“Wait.” I stared at Brick. “You’re just going to leave this here? This portal?”

Brick gave me a wan smile.

“Did you not just tell me I have no choice, Miriam?”

I frowned. “I saidI’mnot the right person to get rid of it. Aren’t there other people who know more about this kind of thing? Witches? Vampires who dabble in black magic? Humans who study the supernatural side of things?”

Brick gave me a disbelieving smile.

“Do you really imagine I have not explored those options somewhat, over the years? Do you think this is the first time I’ve attempted to get rid of the thing, Miriam?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it.

Of course he would have.

Of course.

“My mother was a singular woman… with a singular will,” Brick added. “I’m not certain it would be easy to replicate what she did, or the means by which she did it. She made a pact with something. Some creature or deity or another. Unfortunately, we may have to live with the mess she created… indefinitely, it would seem.”

“She really is the reason,” Black said, his voice holding a kind of wonder. “Isn’t she? There were no seers here before her. She was the first. She was the one to force an opening between the worlds.”

There was a silence.

Then Brick’s smile slowly returned. “I believe so, yes,” he said. “We haven’t yet found a seer who came here prior to the rituals she conducted. I am forced to believe that she created the first portal to link this world to others of its kind… perhaps this even formed the anchor for all the others. Ihadhoped it would close, when those beings left with all of Charles’ people. I had hoped that would be the end of it. But when I came here to close up shop… possibly even to sell it… I realized that we still had a problem.”

“How?” I asked, frowning. “If you can’t feel the portal, then how would you have known––”

“Something came through. While we were here. Some strange being I had not yet seen before. It had no mouth. It was very tall… claws…” Brick shivered, a look of pure revulsion crossing his face. “It was quite horrific, truth be told. Like nothing I’d ever seen. I put the field around the house shortly after. I employ some of my people to monitor the house, which is how we came to the conclusion as to where the creatures were coming through.”

“There are more of them now,” Black said. “Aren’t there? Since the other doors closed. More creatures. Different kinds––”