Page 2 of Almost Midnight (Vampire Detective Midnight #8)

CHAPTER 2

THE PRESENT

Nick blinked, and shook his head.

He stared into the swirling mist of the portal, and fought to focus his eyes.

Where had that come from?

What the fuck even was that?

Was it memory? Fantasy?

Was the portal warning him in some way?

Or was being this close to an inter-dimensional opening torn in the fabric of this world somehow causing the streams to cross? Bringing up things he’d forgotten, that everyone told him he’d taken a lot of pains to forget?

Nick stood there, briefly paralyzed, his chalk-white, vampire hand outstretched towards the portal door. He wondered how long he’d been frozen in that position. Had all of that flashed through his mind in seconds? Minutes? Longer?

It must have closer to seconds, as no one around him seemed to notice.

Well, no one behind him had apparently noticed, at least.

Since Nick stood between all of them and the portal, with only the morphing and churning opening in the side of the mountain in front of him, that was everyone.

Everyone stood behind him.

Every one of them waited for him to walk through.

Every one of them held their breaths, even now, and waited to see what would happen when he crossed that threshold.

So why was Nick hesitating? What was making him pause, given what they’d all decided? He’d been excited to go through the portal, hadn’t he? Nick could feel the part of himself that was still excited, not just at the prospect of returning to his home world, where everyone he’d known was likely long-dead, but at the prospect of living in a place where he might still be free, where he might not be enslaved, where he could marry his girlfriend and they could buy a house and live a life that was far more ordinary and anonymous.

So what was making him hesitate?

It had already been decided that Nick would go first.

Well, no one officially “decided” that he would do that. No one even said it, not in so many words… not in any words, come to think of it.

It was simply understood that Nick would be first.

He would be the first of their group to walk through that lit opening, and plunge them into all of its frightening and wonderful possibility.

All of them felt a little drunk.

All of them felt a little off-balance, a little reckless, a little crazy.

Maybe it was the way they’d made the decision.

Maybe it was how quickly they’d all coalesced around the same thought, the same impulse, the same daring and risk, even members of their group Nick didn’t know, or had never thought would want to give up their lives in this dimension.

Like Forrest Keanu Walker, famous lawyer and activist and imbedded Mi6 operative––what the hell was he doing here? Why would he agree to any of this, given what he’d be giving up, leaving this dimension for another one?

Why would Zoe, Brick’s second, give up her spot in the upper echelons of the White Death? Hadn’t she worked for centuries to climb that ladder? Hadn’t she told Nick, more than once, that she aspired to lead her own coven one day?

Had she decided that day would never come, if she stayed here?

Had she surmised she’d never get her shot at the top spot with Brick standing in her way? It was true, Brick would never surrender it, no matter how long both of them might live. That was a given, and Nick knew it.

Zoe likely knew it, too, whatever Brick promised her.

But why would Zoe give up Brick himself, her sometimes-lover, sometimes-father figure, always quasi-religious figure and king?

Why would Jordan trust him with this, given he’d had no time at all to adjust to turning from a human into a vampire?

Why would Charlie, who seemed to like her life on this version of the Earth, as a N.Y.P.D. detective and generally fun and happy person? Why would she want to jump off this particular cliff? Was she leaving for Jordan and Morley? Or was there another reason?

Some of the choices around him made sense, of course.

James Morley was getting on in years, but strangely, Nick could see why he might want to come along, if only to glimpse the possibility of a different kind of world.

Tai and Malek didn’t belong here, any more than Nick himself did.

Neither did Wynter, his mate.

But the rest of them all bewildered Nick on some level.

While this group felt like the right group, strangely, and in a way Nick couldn’t really explain to himself, Nick still couldn’t make sense of the individual choices. Some in the group, he didn’t know at all, like the two vampires who’d attached themselves in the wake of their fight with Nick’s doppelg?nger and his army of newborns.

One of those vampires was dating Forrest Walker, and obviously signed on to follow him. The other had been a member of Walker’s posse, as well, and likely didn’t want to be separated from him and the other vampire.

Or maybe they just wanted out of this world that treated vampires like vermin.

Nick could only guess as to the motives of each of them.

He didn’t know either vampire at all.

What did all these people hope to find on the other side?

Where did they expect Nick to lead them?

Go on, Wynter urged him, feeling his anxiety. You can’t control what they do. They’re their own people, Nick. They have their own minds. And apart from Tai, they’re all adults. They know the risks.

Do they, though? Nick muttered back nervously.

Well, Wynter admitted. They know as much or as little as the rest of us, apart from maybe you. They know there is risk. They know there are no guarantees. You told them as much as you could, including the possibility that we might not all land in the same place, and even if we do, we might not land there at the same time.

Nick frowned, but didn’t answer.

He had told them all that.

It didn’t seem to change anyone’s mind.

Wynter’s thoughts grew teasing. They won’t blame you if it’s not perfect, you know. She paused. Or, maybe they will. But they’d be wrong. And if they get shot off to a different planet, or a different dimension, or sent to the same place as us, but two thousand years in the past, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll ever have to hear about it.

Nick grunted, half in annoyance, half in affection.

“Not reassuring, wife,” he murmured.

But true, she sent primly.

Nick glanced up at the night sky, and realized he was still stalling.

He stood only five or so yards from the maw of the portal, and so close, he could feel the tendrils there pulling on him, coaxing him nearer. They felt inviting, even seductive. The sharp, electrical-type current that ran between his skin and that tear in existence warmed every exposed inch of his vampire skin.

He couldn’t have explained the sensation, but he liked it.

It raised the hairs on his arms, calmed his chest, and even tinged his vision reddish-pink, which told him his irises were being affected.

Yet, he could still feel himself stalling.

Why?

This was what he wanted.

He knew without doubt that returning to his home world was absolutely the thing that he wanted, more than anything else apart from Wynter herself. He could think of little else, ever since he found out that returning to his home world might be a possibility. He knew Wynter wanted this, too, and the rest of those with him, and he knew, deep in his gut it would be the best thing for them.

This was the decision his family had made.

He knew it was right.

He knew it.

His resolve hardened at the thought.

He took a step forward.

Then another.

Then another still.

Now he was so close, his teeth vibrated against one another. Nick clenched them to control the uncomfortable sensation, but it gave him a thrill, too. It felt like a drug almost, like it was reordering some part of his mind, making his muscles loose.

He took another step.

He started to take anoth––

“HALT!” a voice shouted.

Nick froze.

His foot hung briefly in the air.

Briefly, he considered just running.

He considered making a dash for the dimensional door.

But he couldn’t do that, of course.

He wasn’t alone. He had people with him, people he was responsible for, people he loved. He couldn’t just bolt and leave them behind. It wasn’t even a question.

Slowly, Nick turned his head.

As he did, his vampire eyes picked the new forms out of the dark.

He counted them as he found faces.

Over two dozen people he could see and now smell had joined them in the clearing near the dimensional tear. More and more emerged from the darkness, even now, likely more than Nick could see, even with his vampire eyes.

He wondered how many Wynter saw, much less James Morley, Charlie, and Kit, the humans who were with them.

However many it was, they at least saw some of them. They seemed to understand instinctively, like Nick did, that they were surrounded, and heavily outnumbered.

Nick saw Wynter, Kit, and Forrest Keanu Walker stiffen.

He saw Damon stare, his eyes glowing red.

He saw Tai and Malek move closer together, instinctively.

When Nick glanced around at them, he saw them staring in roughly the same direction that Nick had been staring when he first realized they were no longer alone.

They stared especially at the most visible among the newcomers, who stood nearest to the burned out coals of the campfire where they’d all been sitting for the past few hours.

Nick saw the person standing in front, and felt his gut twist.

Gaos- damn it.

He’d waited too long.

All of them had waited to long.

They should have left while they could.

Even as he thought it, Lara St. Maarten stepped fully into the area of the campfire, right as the human soldiers around her ignited semi-organic torches. They lit up the dark forest clearing and the side of the mountain, and gave Nick an odd, disorienting feeling of déjà vu at how the artificial lights turned all of the nearby faces a sickly yellowish-green.

Nick noted the insignias on the uniforms standing nearest to Lara.

He didn’t move, though. He just stood there, his hands clenched at his sides.

His eyes returned to St. Maarten’s narrow face. She still looked tired, and he couldn’t help but notice the remnants of the bruises on her face from whatever his doppelg?nger had done to her in the process of dragging her up this same mountain a few hours earlier.

Other than that, she looked completely different.

Those same bruises were way too healed, given the short amount of time. She’d clearly used some accelerated organic healing paste or process to get them looking like that, probably combined with expensive and skillfully-applied make-up.

Her hair was back to being coiffed and perfect in its severe bob. Her eyes stared at Nick with an icy steel he hadn’t seen in them in a long time.

She knew exactly what they’d been about to do.

She knew, and she’d come to stop it.

Nick grew even more furious when it hit him he should have expected this.

How had he not known she would be back as soon as she’d collected herself?

“I’m sorry,” Lara said. Her voice sounded anything but. “I can’t allow you to do this, Detective Midnight. In particular, I can’t allow you to leave here with property that doesn’t belong to you.”

Nick felt his fangs extend before she’d finished speaking.