Page 25 of Almost Midnight

Nick glanced at her, but she was obviously dialing her emotions back, too.

She was at least dialing them back from where he could see them.

“All of you will need to behave exceedinglynormalfor a while,” the Archangel C.E.O. continued, her voice back to businesslike, unemotional. “Ms. James is already at work, just so you know. She will be commuting via train to her job as principal of Kellerman Preparatory School every day for the rest of this week, and for the week after that, and the one after that… and so on. Tai will be going with her and attending school, just like she had been when you all lived up there. Mal will be working for me, as he had before. Kit will go back to work for me, as well. You and Detective Morley willalsobe returning to work.”

She let a touch of warning return to her words.

“I have already made myself responsible for you, and agreed to house you,” she said flatly. “This is now all taken care of legally, Detective, as Archangel is under H.R.A. contract. I have explained the stipulation of the I.S.F. already, and how it will be resolved. Kit will be taking care of that end of things, just as she did when you lived off-site.”

Nick felt his jaw harden, but his emotions honestly felt mixed.

This could be a fuck of a lot worse,he reminded himself.You could be in an H.R.A. cell, or dead, or emptied of organs… or Wynter could be dead. She could be disappeared, like Forrest Walker. They could have put her somewhere where you’d never see her again.

Orhecould be like Walker, who Nick still didn’t fully believe was as protected by Mi6 as St. Maarten wanted him to believe.

The kid could be in a black site somewhere.

Malek could be locked up.

Morley could have been fired, or thrown in a human prison for “race treason,” or some other trumped-up charge they gave to humans who made the mistake of befriending non-humans.

“Jordan?” Nick asked, abrupt. “Where’d they put Damon?”

“I imagine your partner, Damon Jordan, will be returning to work eventually, as well, and perhaps sooner than you think.” She tilted her head in a way that conceded Nick had a point. “But you are correct, Detective… he’s not going back to normal life just yet. Right now, he is under observation at a vampire scientific and care facility in Brooklyn that specializes in transitions of government employees in the line of duty.”

Nick grunted under his breath.

He didn’t meet her gaze.

That was a polite way of describing what happened to Damon, who’d been attacked and killed as a human, and turned into a vampire by a psychopath against his will.

The government euphemisms were downright sick at times.

So were the things they labeled “cures,” which had a habit of normalizing the unthinkable, rather than actuallyhelpinganyone put in that godawful situation.

Nick had never been to one, but he’d also heard a fair bit from Brick and his people about such “facilities,” and how they oversaw vampire transitions.

Jordan would likely be stuck in a room while they force-fed him calming medications––medications that vampire metabolisms burned through in under an hour––and talked to him in condescending voices while he was chained to a wall.

He’d hear a lot about his need to “come to terms” with his new status as a vampire, and, as a byproduct, as a second-class citizen of the human Protected Areas. He’d learn the joys of being owned by the state. They’d explain to him, in euphemistic, bullshit language, about how he no longer had any legal rights, not even to full personhood.

They’d feed him synthetic blood bags and tell him he’d graduate to H.R.A. live feeds when he could “learn to control himself.”

They’d also likely give him an official designation.

From what St. Maarten was implying, they’d already decided he would continue to be a cop, which made sense. Which meant he’d be designated “Midnight,” like Nick.

The thought made Nick feel sick.

It had to be Jordan’s worst nightmare, becoming a vampire.

He’d fuckinghatedvampires when Nick first met him.

Hell, he probably stilldidhate them; he’d just made an exception for Nick.

“He didn’t get in trouble for what he did by that portal?” Nick asked her, gruff.

She blinked at him, as if confused by the question.

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