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“Poor baby,” he crooned.

She wagged her tail without lifting her muzzle from the bowl.

She’d walked right up to him while he’d been listening to sea lions from the end of the pier. She’d nuzzled his hand and whined, like she knew, somehow, that he was someone who would finally help her. Nick had crouched down to look her over, and stroked and rubbed her face and chest while he felt her over for injuries.

“Hey sweetheart,” he’d crooned. “Why’re you out here all alone? You shouldn’t be alone. You definitely shouldn’t be wandering up to strange vampires in the middle of the night…”

The dog whined softly, licking Nick’s ice-cold vampire hand and face.

“You are a weird one, aren’t you? You and Panthers should be friends…” he murmured to her, looking for a collar and growlingsoftly when he didn’t find one. “…he’s dumb enough to pal around with vampires, too.”

A light clearing of the throat had Nick back on his feet in an instant.

He turned sharply, putting himself instinctively between the dog and the person standing there. Nick’s fangs extended before he’d identified the interloper. He already knewwhatthe other man was. Only one creature could have snuck up on him to that extent.

Nick’s aggression and bared fangs didn’t bother the other vampire in the slightest.

“You and your odd fetish for pathetic creatures,” Brick mused. He tilted his head, looking Nick over with open affection. “I have always found it utterly charming… if unfortunately so verygrubbyin its execution.”

The older vampire shuddered.

“What are you doing here?” Nick didn’t bother with pleasantries. He didn’t feel like offering them to his sire in any case, for a lot of reasons. “You were supposed to stay away. You told Black… youpromisedall of us… that you’d stay away.”

Brick seemed equally unconcerned with this.

His red-tinted eyes remained focused on the white dog at Nick’s feet.

The dog returned his stare, growling low in her throat.

Nick rested his fingers lightly on her white, seal-like head, and she fell silent.

A smile teased Brick’s lips, right before he glanced up.

“Charming, as I said. They adore you as much as you do them.”

“What do you want, Brick?” Nick repeated coldly.

It occurred to him after he said it that he sounded a lot like the dog.

“Please, do not distress yourself, offspring.” Brick’s voice remained unconcerned, even bored. He tugged at the ends of his leather gloves, adjusting them on his hands, his silver-topped Anubis cane resting in the crook of his legs. “I am not here to cause you… or any of yourpets… trouble.”

He smirked, then made his voice matter-of-fact.

“I have business in town,” he clipped. “You certainly don’t begrudge mesomuch that you resent me taking a few moments from my own pursuits to say hello?”

Nick snorted in derision.

“I don’t know,” he replied drily. “I’m feeling pretty begrudge-y. You could have passed through on your ‘business’ and I never would have known.”

“That would be terribly rude of me, wouldn’t it?” Brick asked, a smile tugging his lips.

“We had an agreement––”

“Yes, yes.” Brick waved him off, his voice shifting from playful to annoyed. “I am so sorry I interrupted you wallowing in the filth with a creature that licks its own anus. I only wished to let you know that I will be here, in town, so don’t go scurrying off to your employer in hysterics if you happen to see more of your brethren around for a few days.”

Nick felt his fangs lengthen more.

“If I see them anywhere near me or mine––”