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He still stood mostly in front of Nick, like he was guarding him from the rest of us.

Now he guarded him mostly from me.

I still saw Jem watching Dexter warily, however.

Dex stood behind Kiko and Jax, who held out their arms, like they were getting ready to rush the rest of us.

It dawned on me suddenly that I stood in front of Black, holding my own arms out.

Goalies.

Guardians.

“Loonies,” Black muttered.

Jax burst out in a laugh.

Half of us stood in front of the other half of us, snarling at one another like we were ready to fight to the death.

“We need to get out of here,” Jax muttered. “You’re all acting like fucking crazy persons.”

When I glanced at him, he was looking around at the walls.

His eyes were definitely paranoid.

“I’m notparanoid,”Jax complained, aiming his paranoid words at me. “I’m notparanoid,Miri. I’m just saying. We can’t stay here. This place is fucked up. It’s wrong.”

“We can’t go anywhere,” Black growled, his voice deeper and more booming than the others. “He’s not letting us out. You heard him. He has our friends. They’ve probably got like a million vampires all over that resort. They’re probably biting people. Scaring them.”

“My parents!” Nick blurted.

I winced, looking at Nick.

Jesus. He was right.

Brick had Hiroto and Yumi.

What the fuck were we going to do about that?

Black wrapped a muscular arm around me from behind, pulling me up against his chest and abdomen. “You heard him. He won’t let us out. Not until we do this thing. So we have to do this thing. We have to do it. He’ll keep his promise. He won’t hurt the Tanakas. He won’t. Not if we do what he told us to do. So we do it. We save our friends.”

“What thing?” Dex asked, his voice even more alarmed than Jax. “What fucking thing? How? Should I hit the button again?”

“NO,” we all said at once.

I was watching Dex now though.

I realized why Kiko and Jax were protecting him.

Dex sounded freaked out.

“Of course he’s freaked out!” Jax snapped. “Leave him alone!”

I flinched back, into Black, and he turned his body slightly to shield me from Jax.

“CALM DOWN!” Black glared at Jax. “You’re too loud! Stop yelling at my wife! Stop it!EVERYBODY JUST CALM THE FUCK DOWN!”

Jax moved back and forth, and now he looked like he was in a wrestling match, his arms still held out.