Page 91 of Midnight Coven

Nick took in all of it in a few sweeps of his eyes.

Now he stared only at the Stranger himself.

He continued to take in the scene around him, but he did it now using his peripheral vision, his sense of smell, his hearing. He never took his eyes off the male vampire standing behind him and Morley.

Or maybe it was in front of them now.

Whether in back or in front, Nick faced the being that now stood between him and Morley and the door.

He understood now, why there’d been no blood.

The vampire never left.

He’d never left this room. He’d been in here the whole time the techs were here. He’d been in here with Rob and Rick. He’d been in here with Jordan.

He’d likely venomed every last one of them.

Nick understood something else… why those detectives had been so sure it was Nick who committed the murders out here, and the murders on the Upper East Side in Manhattan.

The male vampire standing in front of himwasNick.

If he wasn’t… technically…Nick,then he could have been his identical twin vampire brother. He looked so much like Nick, it briefly broke Nick’s mind.

It was beyond unsettling. It was beyond spooky.

For maybe the first time in his life, Nick questioned his sanity.

Like…reallyquestioned it. Not just as some theoretical musing.

Staring at himself in different clothes, wearing that dark, wide-brimmed hat, with part of his face and shoulder covered in black bandages, was maybe the most fucked up thing Nick had ever experienced. He had no frame on how to even react.

He stared at that other version of him, paralyzed.

From the way Morley looked between Nick and the other vamp, the boss obviously was having his own issues with the situation. He stared between Nick and his double like he couldn’t fathom what he was seeing, or maybe like he couldn’t decide if what he saw was real.

For the first time since all of this started, Nick hoped desperately that Jordan had been wrong, that they had some kind of hidden surveillance in this room.

Again, Morley seemed to almost hear him in his mind.

“I’ve got it recording,” he told Nick, without taking his eyes off the chalk-white vampire by the door. “Every second, Midnight. It’s transmitting to the station right now. Gertrude’s processing all of it as we speak… and sending it around.”

Nick felt his shoulders relax. Barely.

Then he realized something else.

Damon.

Nick’s partner, Damon Jordan, called them from inside this room.

Nick had seen the GPS tracker when Damon’s headset pinged his. This fucker had him. Somewhere. Nick’s eyes darted around the sparsely decorated space. He scanned a bamboo fountain in one corner, a low couch with pale, fern green upholstery, a low table made of cherry wood. He glanced past a cherry wood desk covered in papers, a fireplace, a free-standing globe, bookshelves built into one wall.

Nick’s nose found his friend faster than his eyes. Before he could make a complete circuit of the room, he smelled his human partner much closer.

Slowly, reluctantly, Nick tilted his eyes and chin up.

Once he had, he felt his muscles tense all over again.

Damon Jordan hung from the ceiling, shirtless.

---