Page 26 of Black Curtain

Every touch made me shiver, closing my eyes.

Black shrugged, his eyes still focused on my arms. “I went to see him earlier. Dex. He seems better, doc. He really does. I honestly almost told him about the Dragon thing. I thought maybe it would even relax him a little… with at least some of the weird being eliminated. Fewer seers. No more boss turning into a giant, fire-breathing lizard…”

I snorted, unable to help it.

“In the end,” Black added. “I didn’t tell him. I didn’t want to read him. And I honestly couldn’t decide if telling him that would only make the weird worse. Or maybe just bring it front and center again. I figured it might be better to wait.”

I nodded, squeezing his hand.

I had no idea which thing would make Dex feel better right now.

I still wasn’t exactly sure which thing bothered Dex the most.

I knew Kiko was a big part of it. I knew Nick almost killing Kiko was the worst of it. Nick had been one of Dex’s closest friends.

I also knew there was more to it than what Nick had done.

Still, I wished we could let Dexter out of that room.

No crazy seer hallucino-cake for Dex. Although, come to think of it, Dex would likely be grateful for that. Being roped into some decadent, quasi-religious, potentially hyper-sexualized pagan seer ritual wouldn’t have been Dex’s cup of tea even on a good day. Given everything now, and how he felt about supernatural beings in general––

“Oh, no… Jem made him a cake.”

My eyes widened.

I looked up at Black. “What?”

“A cake,” Black clarified. “Dex is getting a cake. He might throw it at us, or refuse to eat it, but Jem was pretty damned insistent he get one of his very own. Dalejem gets the names from the series of rituals and meditations he does in preparation for his role in overseeing the ceremony. He said he gotvery specificinstructions from those rituals, including around the design of each of the cakes, and who’s on the list to receive one. Dex was on the list. So was Nick, even though I doubt a vampire’s ever been included in something like this before. So were Hiroto and Yumi, incidentally. And Nick’s sisters.”

“Seriously?” I thought about that, frowning. “Is that a good idea? We’re going to dose Nick’s parents? Hiroto is nearly ninety years old.”

Black shrugged. “Not my department, doc. You’d have to take it up with Jem.”

I hesitated at that, then frowned, then hesitated again.

I tried to decide if I should argue the point with Black, or go find Jem and argue the point with him. Before I could make up my mind, music exploded out the speakers around the pool.

Thumping, heavy-sounding beats jerked something in my heart.

Seer music always reached me in a way no other music form did, while still managing to sound completely alien. I always recognized it immediately, knowing it before my mind could find a label for what it was. I knew this particular style was something a number of seers had remade over here, bringing it with them from Old Earth.

I still had no idea what it was called.

Again, I grew conscious of just how few seers were here now.

It was so strange, thinking about that.

I felt like I should feel guilty.

I didn’t really feel guilty, though. Mostly I felt relieved.

All the seers I loved were still here.

“How many?” I asked Black. “How many are left?”

It never occurred to me he wouldn’t have some idea.

I knew him. I knew he would have tried to discern those numbers immediately. Moreover, Black probably already had plans in the works to create some sort of official count, something that would be updated in real time. In the meantime, hedefinitelywould have asked someone try to count how many of his people remained.

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