Endless

Plans and Choices | Nick

I glanced his way and found him leaning against the kitchen door, cup of joe in hand and shades still covering his eyes.

Romano stood frozen, bent over in an attempt to retrieve his second gun from his ankle holster. "You... You're...dead."

"Undead." Vince scowled and shifted his sunglasses onto the top of his head.

I went over and grabbed the steaming paper cup from him. "Give me that. What took you so long?"

He shrugged. "I heard him from the next block. It was a bit of a dilemma to me."

Romano managed to close his mouth. "But—" He staggered to one of my kitchen chairs and dropped into it. "How can this be real?"

I took a sip of the scalding hot coffee. At least it didn't look like Dean wanted to shoot me anymore. In fact, he looked more ready to keel over than anything else.

"That's a bit of a long story to tell right now," I said. "Breathe, Romano."

Romano gasped a breath and shook his head. His eyes glazed over with unshed tears.

"Dude," Vince said. "Lighten up. You're making me feel bad."

"Sorry," Romano whispered. "Just a lot to take in."

"I know," I said, "but I want you to realize we never did anything to harm you or any other mortal. In fact, that's the opposite of everything I've been trying to do ever since the crash. I've been trying to protect you."

"Yeah," Romano said, but his gusto had left him. I poured him a coffee and handed it over. He stared into the cup as if he didn't know what to do with it.

"Drink," I commanded. He obeyed mechanically. "Now that you know, will you help us?"

Romano suddenly burst out laughing and took a sip of coffee. Excellent. At least he was back to being himself. Even if he kept slipping glances to Vince, trying to convince himself that he wasn't hallucinating. "How can I possibly do that?"

"Obviously the Firm isn't so effective at keeping our business out of the mortal realms. We need you to do it for us."

Vince grimaced. "Only way to do that is to hack into the FB-freaking-I's system and mark the case as solved."

"Won't work," Romano said. "Our boss will know something's up. We know the 'terrorists' were murdered, but the case of who killed them is too high profile to just make it disappear. He's thinking about putting together another task force"

"Don't tell me," I said, practically inhaling the last of my coffee. "Press got wind of it."

"You got it."

I bit into the paper cup and waited for the caffeine to kick in so I could think. It didn't make much of a difference now that I didn't inject myself with morphine. Damn.

"They're crying 'serial killer,' now that the second 'Griffon Scum' message went up."

"No one died the second time," Vince pointed out.

Romano just gave him a bitter smile. "Since when did that stop the press?"

"Okay," I said. "So the case can't disappear. You need to stall for time. Hog the case for as long as you can. Investigate. Follow all relevant leads. Except the one leading to us. I'll figure out a way for us to get out of this mess."

"Are you coming in to work?"

It broke my heart, but I shook my head. "Too risky. Everyone and their mother can track me down to the FBI now."

"Then what the heck do I do with the new partner I'll get when you're gone?" Romano scowled. "And just when I'd house trained you too."

Crap. He had a point. "Keep him busy with other stuff."

"If he's any good, it won't work for long."

I knew that, but the only options we had to protect our secret were flimsy at best while the Firm was scrambling to stay standing. I crushed the paper cup and tossed it into my dustbin. "We just need it to work long enough for us to figure out what to do. Because whatever happens, we can't let the mortals find out about us."

Vince nodded. "Trust me. Vampirism doesn't suit humans."

Romano glanced between us, then nodded. "I'll do my best. What will you two do in the meantime?"

"We'll go underground almost as soon as you leave."

"Okay." He stood, then frowned. "But you're on record now as a person of interest in the murder case. If you run, it'll look like you're guilty."

"I know. Especially since I can't exactly hand in a resignation letter. But what other choice do I have?"

Thanks for reading, everyone! Sorry for only posting today. I actually had this section ready for publishing, but Windows decided to update my computer, and I ended up without working WiFi. 

All sorted now, though. 

How are you all doing, by the way? And what do you guys think of today's section? 

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