Page 26 of Almost Midnight

Then her hazel eyes cleared.

“For killing a murderous vampire?” She scoffed, tossing her head. “No. They’re more likely to pin a medal on him for that.”

“Can I visit him?” Nick asked next, giving her a harder look.

She sniffed, tilting her chin a touch higher. “Of course you canvisithim, Detective. I had him placed in an Archangel facility, in a privileged ward, with my best technicians. I hadhopedyou would do more than simply visit him. I hadplannedto have you sign a contract to act as his vampire liaison, Nick, and possibly––”

“Yes,” Nick cut in. “I’ll do it. Just give me the contract. Whatever it is, I’ll sign it.”

A small amount of the hardness went out of her mouth.

Her eyes continued to survey him warily, but she seemed to sense that a large part of him had strategically backed down from their fight.

For now, at least.

“Do we all stay up here?” Nick asked next. He gestured expansively around at the living room and the view outside. “All of us crammed up here, in your luxury penthouse with you, Lara? Sharing the high-end chef, the indoor pool, the rumpus room, the theater, and the virtual playroom? That sounds… cozy.”

She rolled her eyes at him openly.

“No,” she said, a touch coldly. “When I said you would be staying here, I thought it would be patently obvious I meant thebuilding,Nick… not my private space.”

She fingered a lock of her hair back behind one ear, and sniffed.

“I have already arranged for separate apartments for each of you on the floor below this one,” she continued stiffly. “Malek has stayed there before, as have vampires and seers who work for me directly. Tai stayed there for a few months, too, while she was first being trained. I have given Ms. James the largest suite, with an additional, smaller, attached suite set aside that the H.R.A. will be told belongs to you. I don’t have any illusions that you willuseit, of course, not the bedroom, at least––”

“What about Kit?” Nick broke in. “Is she going to be forced to bunk with the rest of us? I’m assuming she has the H.R.A. breathing down her neck, too?”

“She will be staying here, as well,” St. Maarten confirmed, back to being stiff.

“She has family,” Nick pointed out.

Lara St. Maarten’s eyes grew a touch colder.

“You seemed a lot less concerned about her ‘family,’ Detective, when you planned on relocating her to a completely different dimension without their knowledge or consent.” Her eyes bored into his. “They have been informed of the new arrangement. They were sensible. They would like their daughter safe. They, unlike you,thankedme for protecting her. They also, upon hearing of the circumstances from the H.R.A., thanked meprofuselyfor keeping her from going through a dangerous portal to an entirely different dimension.”

Nick didn’t answer.

He didn’t bother to point out that it had been Kit’s decision to walk through that portal with the rest of them… not his.

His eyes returned to the park outside the window.

The colors were starting to change as the dome’s artificial sun got closer to the horizon. It turned the park orange and pink, with touches of gold and red. The barest edges of the coming night were already growing visible. The faintest glow of the virtual advertisements were beginning to light up areas by the park and nearer to the horizon.

Wynter would be back soon.

He would still get to live with her.

They wouldn’t wake up to birdsong, with a view to the woods behind her little house, the kid sleeping on the couch downstairs, and the deer wandering through her backyard, looking for stray apples and carrots.

Still, it wasn’t nothing.

St. Maarten hadn’t separated them.

While he knew it was for cynical reasons, he couldn’t help but be grateful.

“I have another request,” Nick ventured.

He continued to stare at the park.

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