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He just didn’t seem to understand that his words cut more than one way.

* * *

Nick releasedWynter’s hand and began to walk.

His body and legs cut a straight line down the center aisle between computer terminals, taking him steadily but unhurriedly towards the organic glass wall and the crowd of people he could now see half-filling the glass-enclosed space.

He didn’t look back, but he knew the others were following him.

He only stopped when he reached within a few feet of the organic barrier.

He stood there, taking in the faces that were now all staring at them.

The man in front had to be their leader.

He was the same one who’d spoken to Nick before.

He smirked at Nick now, his thick lips stretching into a smug half-smile. He was bald, with mechanically-enhanced eyes, that square jaw, and a wraparound headset that had the look of one of Archangel’s prototypes. An armband around his forearm and wrist also looked like next-gen tech, and his black uniform was pristine.

“We knew you would come,” the man said, just as smugly.

Nick couldn’t help wondering what he was so satisfied about.

What did the H.R.A. believe he wanted with the portal, anyway?

While Nick might have kept his own counsel about something like that in the past, when he had every reason to keep as much personal information from the authorities as possible, now it felt like he no longer had anything to lose.

“Why?” he asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.“Whywould you think I’d come?”

The man scoffed. He spat onto the floor on the other side of the glass.

Nick’s lip curled.

“Because of course you’d come,” the man said derisively. “You’re a human-hating subversive, and a traitor. To win your pathetic attempt to make war with us,of courseyou would need to summon more of your kind here. The only way you could do that is via one of these inter-dimensional wormholes.”

Nick turned over the other man’s words.

Then he had to fight not to laugh.

The man was staring at him with so much triumph on his face.

Nick suspected that confidence would lead the human to talk, and he didn’t want to discourage that in any way, so he controlled his amusement.

“So that’s why you’re here?” Nick clarified. “To meet the vampires and seers you’re absolutely positive want to be here… onthisworld… so badly they’re frantically waiting on the other side of this portal for someone to come fetch them?”

Nick’s voice turned a touch mocking by the end, in spite of himself.

“And you plan to stop them all by yourself?” he asked with faux-politeness.

“We won’tneedto stop them if we have their leader captive, will we?” the man sneered.

“Then it wasn’t me you were waiting for,” Nick countered. “I’m not the leader of anyone. The only people who might follow me are the ones you see with me now. So were you just waiting for any random non-human to show up? Someone you could use as leverage to shake-down any encroaching aliens?”

The man glared at him, his expression cold.

Nick wondered suddenly, just how long they’d been down here.

The same thought clearly wasn’t only on Nick’s mind.