Page 135 of Black Curtain

I pointed at that same corner of the basement.

“But what is that?” I looked at Brick, still pointing. “The thing you seem to think Black and I can fix. You said it was the very last––”

“Door. Portal. Yes. Whatever the precise terminology that would be appropriate for such a dimensional or spatial anomaly, kindly let me know and I will happily employ it. In any case, as far as I can tell, it is the last. I have protected it for many years now, but I would like a permanent solution to this problem. I would like it gone.”

Brick gestured vaguely with the hand holding the gun.

“…I am not particular about such things, and certainly no expert. You may accomplish this however you like.” His pale eyes fixed on me, holding a faintly hungry look. “I am led to believe thatyou,my dear Miriam, are the expert here. Therefore, I would like you to close it for me. Permanently.”

He smiled around at all of us, still waving the gun.

“I would like to think on this family embarrassment no more. So that we can return our happy little Earth back to the paradise for vampires, humans… a few select seers and other odd creatures… that it was always meant to be.”

I blinked, staring at him.

Brick returned my blank stare with one of his most charming smiles.

“…Please,”he added sweetly, giving me a graceful little bow.

24

THE FAVOR

“But I have absolutely no idea how to do that,” I said.

I blinked at the flat-eyed, zero reaction stare from the vampire king.

Unable to hold that emotionless, dead-eyed look, I turned to Black, only to find him frowning at the vampire, his eyes now holding a smoldering rage. I could tell he was controlling it, probably because Brick still had the gun and we were trapped in this fucking basement, but I didn’t need to reach out with my light to know my husband was fantasizing about ripping Brick’s head off his neck and likely swinging it around over his head by the spinal cord.

Black looked at me, wincing.

Gaos,he murmured in my mind.Visuals, wife. Visuals.

I shrugged.

Feeling Brick staring between us, I exhaled, focusing back on the vampire.

“Really,” I told him. “I can’t help you with this, Brick. I doubt I could have done it even when I still had the inter-dimensional thing. Idefinitelycouldn’t do it now. I doubt I can even see it properly without those structures in my light. Even if Icouldsee it, I wouldn’t have a clue how to close it. Whatever the fuckthateven is…”

I motioned in the direction of the dimensional death hole his mother had punched through the space-time continuum.

“…It’s nothing at all like what I used to move around before,” I said. “I highly doubt it operates on even remotely the same principles. Didn’t you say she ripped this open by sacrificing babies and shit?”

Brick’s eyes grew a touch colder.

“My little sister, for one. Yes.”

I threw up my hands. “How on Earth would I possibly know how to close that, Brick? I don’t know what you think I’ve been doing with my spare time over the years, but trust me when I tell you this… not that.”

“You know dimensions. There must be similarities.”

I shook my head, clicking at him in irritation.

“No. The two things aren’tremotelysimilar.”

“Seers have come through it,” Brick said.

There was a silence.

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