Page 111 of Midnight Coven

They got clearance to leave from Acharya himself, after Morley told the police chief that they planned to follow up on a few leads back in Manhattan. Nick stayed silent through all of that, letting the two humans converse, but Nick noticed Acharya’s eyes flicker over his face and body more than once.

He saw the harder look there, too.

Nick honestly couldn’t get a sense at all of where he stood with the chief, though. He didn’t know if the anger he saw was aimed at him, or if it was even on his behalf. That anger might have very little to do with Nick at all. It might be the bureaucratic nightmare this case represented, or the rich donors breathing down his neck, or the racial authorities, or something else entirely going on, something Nick wasn’t privy to.

It might be a lingering suspicion as to why their perp looked so much like Nick.

Maybe he was still trying to decide if Nick was a good vampire or a bad one.

Truthfully, Nick didn’t much care.

Not yet, anyway.

There were too many other things on his mind.

He did have another surprise waiting for him, though.

After Morley and Nick made it down the two flights of stairs and walked out the front door of the weird mansion, Nick discovered he had a visitor.

Someone was waiting for him.

They were waiting for Nick, specifically, as it turned out.

A tall, silver-eyed hybrid with long hair stood just outside the red door, hands folded neatly at the small of his back. He stood unusually tall, well over six feet, and wore a fitted green jacket that flared out from his waist down to roughly his thighs.

When the seer-human hybrid saw Nick and Morley appear at the house entrance, he moved at once, bending slightly to pick up a metallic, unmarked shopping bag that had sat on the stoop by his leg.

His expression never changed as he walked up to Nick and Morley, inserting himself deliberately between them and the last few steps down to the driveway.

Before Nick could speak, the hybrid seer extended the hand with the shopping bag, offering it to Nick with a small bow.

“A gift, Detective.”

He didn’t offer it to Morley. He didn’t try to hand it to both of them.

He offered itunambiguouslyto Nick, and Nick alone.

Nick stared at it.

He made no move to take it.

Inside the open top of the metallic bag, he glimpsed a featureless metal box along with something else, what looked like a white sack of some kind, made of semi-organic skin.

Nick took a step back.

“No, thank you,” he told the hybrid.

“I insist,” the silver-eyed half-seer said.

He took another step forward, closing the gap Nick created by stepping back. The seer stretched his arm out further, bringing the bag closer to Nick.

“…So does Ms. Lara St. Maarten,” he added. “This is not a threat, Detective Tanaka. It is a gift. One she offers most warmly.”

Nick relaxed slightly.

His voice remained wary.

“Tell your boss her flare for the melodramatic hasn’t lessened any.”

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