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In the end, he told the truth.

“Yes.” He met her gaze as he rose back to his feet, and then his full height. “We’ll talk about it later.”

Briefly, a hard look touched Zoe’s crystal-colored eyes.

Nick saw a flash of anger there, aggression, coldness, maybe even a hint of,Who the fuck are you to keep that from me, when you abandoned him long ago?

Then the female vampire averted her gaze.

Zoe glanced up the staircase, her expression now neutral. When she lowered her chin and looked at Nick next, that flicker of emotion he’d seen burning there was gone.

“Later, then,” she said evenly.

She jerked her chin upward.

“They went looking for your friend. The newborn.”

Nick nodded.

Without a word, he walked past Zoe, ascending up the stairs to the right of where she stood. He walked swiftly, aiming his feet for the floor where the desk receptionist had told him they were keeping Jordan.

After the barest pause, he heard Zoe start to follow him.

CHAPTER24

TRANSITIONS

“We need Nick in here!”a male voice shouted. “Someone tell him we need him in here right now!” A pause. “Tai, no! Get back! Can’t you see he’s not in his right mind?”

The voice was deep but clear, and still young-sounding. Nick knew it as Malek’s before he had time to think about how panicked the young seer sounded.

Gaos.He hadn’t warned them like he should have.

He’d warned them, but not enough.

Jordan was a newborn still.

He was anewnewborn still.

Worse, he was a different kind of newborn than he’d been when they hiked with him up a mountain to reach that portal. Damon would be a lot stronger now. He’d likely be a lot angrier now. He’d be a lot more “vampire” than he’d been in those early hours of his transition. He’d also be grappling with emotional intensities he’d never dealt with before in his life.

He must’ve been feeding on blood for days by now.

Over a week, most likely, although time blurred so much for Nick, with the strange dreams and being shot and stabbed and knocked over walls, he honestly had no idea how long it had been. Long enough, he guessed, for Jordan to be going through some shit.

Nick had already broken into a run.

He aimed his feet for the glass doors at the end of the corridor.

Inside, he could see some kind of commotion happening.

Thank the gods, he could also see at least three of Brick’s vampires in there with them.

Kit must’ve gotten them access to the cell, or whatever they called the “room” where Archangel had been holding Jordan.

Andgaos,Damon had to be out of his mind. He had to be completely overwhelmed by the smell of the seers. Hybrids were bad enough, but twofull-blooded seerslike Malek and Tai smelled like heroin and candy and insanely good fucking and a blow job combined with a foot rub and ice cream to the average vampire. Especially to a very young vampire who wasn’t accustomed to his own biological urges and had no idea how to control himself yet.

No way would Damon be able to control himself.