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He couldn’t stop now.

“When did you first meet with him, Brick?” Nick asked again.

“In San Francisco. When I went out to see you.” Brick’s voice turned harder again, significantly more annoyed. “I confess, he got the jump on me. He ambushed me… then dragged me to that old house of yours in Potrero and forced me to answer all his little questions.”

The vampire king’s voice grew more annoyed.

“…Kind of like you are now.”

“What did hesay,Brick?” Nick growled. “What did he want to know?”

“All sorts of things, really. Such curious, curious little birds you Tanakas breed. It was quite eerie really. In some ways he was so like you… so veryverylike you… yet so angry and violent, so completely unhappy with his life. I thought you were broody, Nick. I stand corrected, I must say. You are a veritable ball of sunshine and light compared to the bitter Nick who lived much longer as a human and never adjusted to his change…”

Nick thought about his own change. He thought about who helped him through the absolute worst of it and winced.

A pain rose in his chest that nearly debilitated him.

Dalejem.

Nick only made it through because of Jem.

Jem nursed him through the change. He loved him through it. He loved Nick when Nick had no earthly right to be loved by anyone. Jem stayed with him in that forest. He stuck with him no matter what Nick threw at him, and he never backed down.

He helped Nick hold onto his humanity.

He helped Nick remember who he really was.

The other version of Nick didn’t have that.

That “Nick” was what Nick himself would have become if he hadn’t had Jem. If Jem hadn’t chained him to a wall in Russia and forced him to deal with what had happened to him, Nick likely would have either killed himself or turned into a psychopath himself.

When Nick’s eyes refocused, he saw Brick watching him shrewdly.

“Ah, yes. I remember.” Brick gave him a humorless smile. “I, too, remember angry, newborn Nick. I also remember howfuriousI was when that seer stole you from me, Naoko. But I suppose in the end he was right. I suppose in the end you were right, too. I suppose it reallywasfor the best… not killing him once I realized he’d mated you.”

Nick let out a bitter laugh.

“Gee.Thanks,dad.”

Brick ignored that, exhaling another of his dramatic sighs.

“Anyway. Back to theotherNick. I managed to talk myself out of that situation in San Francisco a few months back, but it was quite chilling, frankly. Myself and dear Lara have been talking about it off and on ever since, and what we might do about the situation. If your doppelganger ever made his way out here, I mean.”

Brick’s voice grew more serious.

“We were quite sure hewould,you see. Come here. To New York. We figured it was only a matter of time before he couldn’t make himself stay away.”

Brick’s voice grew musing when he added, “Of course, it did happen much morequicklythan either of us expected––”

“Motherfucking unbelievable,” Morley muttered.

Nick glanced at him.

He agreed with his friend utterly.

Scowling, he focused back on his sire.

“So what did you come up with?” Nick asked. “You and Lara. What brilliant little schemes did the two of you hatch? You know… to keep him from killing or kidnapping or turning everyone I care about into vampires…”