Page 128 of Black Curtain

“There was a short recording we managed to trigger in there, too,” Dalejem said, answering for both of them. “Your husband and I saw it. Most of it was through the windows. There were vampires burning in the front yard. At least five of them. Brick’s mother was out there, blood on her arms, holding her hands up to the sky… chanting.”

“Wait.” I stared between them. “Brick’s mother was killing vampires?”

Black nodded, his mouth grim. “Yes.”

“Well, she obviously didn’t kill Dorian.”

“She didn’t kill Dorian,” Nick echoed.

“What about Brick?” I asked, looking between Dalejem and Black. “Was Brick in the recording anywhere?”

Black shook his head. “There was no sound. So we don’t really know what happened outside. Just that Brick’s mother was there when a number of vampires burned. It looked like their leader was one of them… the tall one with the gold rings.”

He meant the one we’d seen before, the African-looking leader with the Creole accent.

I nodded, fighting to think through the significance of this.

I had no idea how any of the fragments fit together, though.

I felt like we were looking at scattered puzzle pieces, all of them painted black, so he had no way of seeing the picture they were supposed to form.

Still thinking, I frowned, staring back into the bathroom.

“I think Jax is right,” I said finally. “I think we should go down.”

Black frowned.

He didn’t like that idea.

Or really, he didn’t like that idea for me.

I realized I didn’t like the idea of all of us going, either.

“We compromise.” I gave Black an apologetic look. “I think you and I have to go. Obviously, whatever this is, Black specifically wants us in on it.” I looked at Jax. “I assume you want to come with us. To help Kiko.” I looked at Dalejem, then at Nick. “I think Nick and Jem should stay up here.”

I met Black’s gaze.

“Nick is the strongest of us. If anyone has a prayer of breaking us out of there if we need help, it would be Nick. He should have a seer with him, so we can communicate with him from down there. And we can’t separate the two of them anyway. If something happens and they need to come down, we can call Jem.”

Black frowned.

Again, I felt him trying to think of reasons for leaving me up here.

I could also feel him hate the idea of us being separated.

In the end, he looked at Dalejem and Nick, as if weighing each one of them.

“Do you really think they’ll be safe up here, doc?” he asked, almost like they weren’t both standing right in front of him. “Should we really leave them up here alone?”

I followed Black’s gaze to Dalejem, then to Nick.

I thought about his question.

It occurred to me suddenly that I felt almost normal again.

Kiko and Dex disappearing, possibly hurt, possibly dead, seemed to have finally been the thing to clear my mind. That, or I’d grown so accustomed to seer cake in my blood, I’d learned to think past it. Either way, I knew we had to hurry.

“No,” I said frankly, holding up my hands. “I don’t think Jem or Nick are safe up here. I don’t think we’re safe down there. I don’t even know if we can go down that chute without breaking our legs… or our necks.” Turning my head, I met my husband’s tiger-gold, flecked eyes. “But do we really have any choice? I want to get the fuck out of here, don’t you? And we can’t just leave Dex and Kiko down there alone.”

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