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The idea was ludicrous.

The realization made Nick panic, and finally got him completely out of his own head, where he’d been lost thinking about Brick and about Brick dying, trying to make sense of his sire’s last words.

Brick seemed desperate to speak to him before he died.

It struck Nick now that he’d stayed alive through sheer force of will, struggling to hold on until he got out everything he’d wanted to say. Typical Brick grandstanding, and needing to have the last word, but Nick couldn’t help but be bewildered by his determination, too.

As for the words themselves, Nick couldn’t make sense of a lot of Brick’s disjointed speech, not yet, anyway, not entirely, but the parts he did understand, orthoughthe understood, were enough to have his head spinning.

Another portal.

That’s what he’d been telling him, wasn’t it?

There was another portal.

If Brick was right, the one in Nice was still there.

Nick fought to shove Brick’s words out of his mind, to concentrate on the here and now, but he only halfway succeeded.

He needed to, though. He needed to focus. He needed to fucking concentrate. He needed to get them all out of there alive before he could even begin to think about portals in prehistoric caves on the shores of France.

Nick fought to think about their best options now, with the H.R.A. and Archangel about to burst in on them, with Lara dead, Brick dead, and likely every human law enforcement officer on the planet about to make them public enemy number one.

He needed a way to move Jordan out in one piece, and with no seers or humans decorated with baby newborn vampire bites. Nick would strongly prefer if they got out of there quietly, andbeforethe H.R.A. or one of the human militaries arrived, especially after what Brick just spent the last seconds of his consciousness trying to tell him.

If Nick was even half-right about what those words meant, they had damned good reason not to lose any of their people right now.

Losing them to an H.R.A. torture prison would be particularly grossly ironic.

At the thought, Nick switched his comms back on.

He used the mind controls, without slowing his sprint down the corridor.

“Kit.” He didn’t wait for her to respond. “How much time?”

He was nearly to the glass doors before she answered.

“Wyter’s got the drones in the air. She and Forrest are each controlling one.” Her voice shook a little. “I’m watching right now, Nick. We’ve got visual on military trucks reaching the bridge from the Manhattan side.”

Fuck. The facility was only about ten minutes off the highway after the bridge. Fifteen if there was any amount of traffic. The bridge itself would be five minutes.

Maybe ten.

“How many?” he asked.

“Ten. So far.”

“Traffic?”

“It’s wide open, Nick. It’s two in the morning.”

His jaw clenched. “Intercept any more transmissions?”

“I’m getting a few. Mostly N.Y.P.D.” Kit sounded grim, and Nick couldn’t help but note how quiet Morley, Forrest, and Wynter were in the background. Kit lowered her voice in a way that made Nick think she’d switched to sub-vocals. “Nick. You need to hurry.”

“I know.”

“You need to really,reallyhurry.”