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“Yeah, buthowclose?” Nick asked.

He’d just hung up with Forrest Keanu Walker, attorney at law, covert operative for Mi6, anti-fascism activist, and all-around annoyingly admirable person.

He also happened to be Wynter’s ex-husband.

Nick was one of the few people who knew he also had a huge following under a media alias, Keori, where he gave intense speeches against fascism and inter-species racism and violence, and advocated more generally for a cooperative society and for peace.

And yeah, Nick hated him a little bit.

He also kind of admired him.

He also couldn’t help but like the piece of shit.

Somehow that last part was the most annoying of the three.

“Is he coming?” Morley asked.

Nick looked over, nodding.

“Yeah. He’s on his way to the airport now. He didn’t take much nudging.” Nick grunted, again simultaneously annoyed and grateful and, most maddening of all, a little bit in awe. “He had people calling Charlie before we even got off the line. He wanted to see about getting that other Midnight to come up with him. He was thinking primarily in terms of the number of vampires he could get to come along,” Nick added, looking back at James. “Apart from any spare Midnights, he also has a few vampire friends with military backgrounds he was also going to tap… and his new girlfriend has a few people with the right skillsets, too. Turns out, he’s dating a vampire now. So that was lucky.”

Morley’s eyebrow rose.

Nick rolled his eyes.

“That’s illegal, isn’t it?” Morley grunted, smirking slightly.

Nick snorted back.

“Yeah, well… you’d better not turn him in, hypocrite man.” Nick gave the other male a mock stern look, masking what might have been a semi-real one. “You do, and you’re going to hear about it from the missus. And me, come to think of it. And probably a whole bunch of heads of state who count him as a personal friend.”

Morley laughed for real at that.

“You really are a shit-stirrer,” Nick said.

“I’ve got to get my fun somehow.” Still smiling, and now shaking his head, Morley adjusted his seat on the padded chair and folded his arms.

“You really do have the strangest friends, Midnight,” he mused. “Oh. And we’re about twenty minutes out, to answer your question from before. I was just contemplating a trip to the little boy’s room, followed by a trip to the dining car to get a coffee. Then I was going to head back to the car.”

Nick nodded. “Yeah. Agreed. We should do that.”

He realized he should probably get some blood.

Adding more human blood to his system, even a synth-pack of some kind, would dilute his connection to Wynter, but Nick opted to do it anyway in the hopes the extra burst of energy might help, even a little. Anyway, given that asshole who could peer into Nick’s mind, maybe giving him fewer windows to peer through wasn’t such a bad thing.

As it was, he didn’t feel safe contacting her.

It was driving him crazy, but he held to their decision to maintain radio silence.

“Any other news?” Morley asked, as he got up from his seat.

Nick followed him with his eyes.

“Like what? Wouldn’t Acharya call you?”

“I mean from the Archangel compound,” Morley clarified.

Nick grimaced, then shook his head, once.