Page 45 of Almost Midnight

“We are working on that,” Brick said cryptically.

Nick was unimpressed.

Moreover, he didn’t have the patience to try and tease out Brick’s big, important secrets tonight. He was too mentally wrung out to evenlistento this fucker right now.

He was definitely too wrung out to try and sort the truth from his never-ending lies.

“What am I supposed to tell Morley?” Nick asked, voice flat. “I thought you had some kind of deal with the H.R.A.? When you bring your White Death mercs in to deal with an inter-species problem like this, don’t they generally look the other way?”

“We do have such a deal, yes,” Brick said, his lips lifting in a faint smile. “Well… we did. And I already told you…wedidn’t do this. The White Death is not involved in these killings, child. I have no idea who killed these particular humans.”

Nick didn’t believe that, either.

He ignored the sincere, candid-seeming look his sire aimed in his direction. Brick could lie more impenetrably than anyone Nick had ever known. His ability to feign sincerity was one of the more dangerous things about him.

“What do you mean, youdidhave an agreement with them?” Nick asked. “Since when have younothad an agreement with them? I thought the H.R.A. was more than happy to let you kill Yi’s fascists. Didn’t you say they gave you a tacit nod on all of that, since it saved them the trouble of having to deal with the political fallout of arresting humans for causing racial unrest?”

“Things have changed,” Brick said flatly.

“Whathas changed?” Nick growled. “Would you stop fucking dancing with me?”

“I am notdancingwith you, offspring,” Brick said, now sounding more than a touch annoyed. “If you want the truth, I’m not entirely sure what is changed, although Iamworking on it. For now, I have only guesses as to the nature of our new circumstances, as well as its causes. A guess, if I were to be precise––”

“Which is what?” Nick growled, unmoved by the other’s annoyance. “What is that guess? Are you going to tell me? Or should I expect to be here until the sun is high in the sky?”

There was another silence after Nick spoke.

Brick stood there, radiating anger as he folded his arms.

Nick wasn’t intimidated, but it struck him that his belligerence likely was only prolonging this. Brick would only make this harder for him if he didn’t act grateful enough, or deferential enough, or if he didn’t appear to hang on every word out of his sire’s mouth.

“This is acourtesycall, Naoko.” Brick stared at him, one eyebrow raised. “I didn’t have to come here at all, you know.”

“Then why did you?” Nick couldn’t help himself.

Brick’s teeth clicked. “Because you are still my offspring,” he said coldly. “Despite your obvious desire to abandon me on this world, and your never-ending apathy about the plight of our race here. I felt moved to issue a warning.”

Nick blinked. For some reason, he heard truth in those words.

Possibly real truth.

He also felt genuine anger on his sire.

It frustrated him that he had no way to know if he was right about either thing.

“I am telling you,” Brick emphasized.“Something has changed.”

CHAPTER11

THE BYSTANDER

The older vampirestared at Nick meaningfully.

In the end, Nick ended up being the one to finally crack.

“That’s it?” Nick growled. “That’s all I get? What kind of fucking ‘warning’ is that? What am I supposed to evendowith that?”

Brick was already shaking his auburn head. He clucked his tongue at Nick, almost in a seer-like fashion, but not quite. He rolled his eyes dramatically.

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