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He saw Nick’s friends.

Then his mouth slid out in a triumphant smile.

CHAPTER28

THE SHADOW WORLD

Nick stared out the window.He didn’t talk.

He didn’t even talk on the comm, not anymore. He stared out the window at the flashing lights of the tunnel, now that they were in the underground part of the high-speed rail line.

That was later, though.

In the beginning he talked a lot.

He practically screamed at them over the line.

He told them what he’d felt. He told them the other Nick was coming. He told all of them to get the fuck out of there, that something bad was coming, that it might already be too late. He told them whatever security measures St. Maarten had in place, it wouldn’t be enough. It wouldn’t be anywhere close to enough to keep that fucker out.

He shouted at everyone on the line.

He ranted at them about weapons, about barricading themselves in.

He barely listened as St. Maarten outlined their security measures and how unlikely it was that anyone could get past them, much less a single vampire. He barely listened as she told him, possibly even accurately, that they’d be less safe if they tried to leave, especially if there was a good chance he might be waiting for them outside the gates of their security perimeter.

Nick listened.

What she said made perfect sense, but he knew she was wrong.

Not about the leaving being dangerous part… she was probably right about that.

But she was wrong to think they were safe where they were.

“You should call them,” Nick cut in at one point. “It’ll come better from you. You can get a bigger response. You can probably get military, too.”

“What?” She’d sounded bewildered, off-balance.

Maybe it was Nick’s calm. Maybe it was how calm he sounded, once he stopped shouting. Nick fell into a kind of blank military mind, like something that could only think in terms of strategy if he didn’t let himself feel anything.

“Call them,” Nick said. “Call Acharya first. He’ll hear it better from you. Remind him you donated at his last campaign. Then call your military buddies, Lara.”

That time, she didn’t answer.

He got the sense his words sank in better that time, though.

Nick knew it would still be too late.

The fucker was close. Nick had sensed that before, but he had no idea justhowclose the Stranger had been, not until he learned where St. Maarten had chosen to house most of Nick’s family. The other Nick would be there in minutes.

He would be there sooner than any of them could imagine.

Nick didn’t know how he knew that, but he did.

He didn’t know how he knew it was already too late, but he knew that, too.

He felt it in his wife first, when things started to change.

Nick.Panic infused her mind.Nick… something’s happening here.