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He seemed to think it was hilarious to ignite it without warning.

There was no reason for him to keep hitting Nick with current.

He just did it because he could.

Nick bore it. He didn’t make a sound.

He made himself kneel there silently, clenching his jaw to keep from swearing at the pieces of shit. At least he’d mostly moved beyond murdering them.

Now it was more about not being a “goddamned smartass,” as Morley would have said.

He clenched his jaw to keep silent.

He told himself it was to deal with the pain, but that wasn’t it.

Not really.

The damned thing hurt, though. They used a voltage on vampires they wouldn’t even use on livestock. Not in this world, and definitely not back on the world Nick came from. Back when Nick was a human cop, doing something like that could get you suspended.

It could even get you arrested if word got out.

It would have been considered animal cruelty.

If Nick had used that level of voltage on a human, he would’ve been thrown in jail for attempted murder.

Torture at least. Assault with a deadly weapon.

But Nick wasn’t on a par with humans or animals here.

As he knelt on Wynter’s ornate, orange and gold and blue foyer rug, pain exploded through his limbs. His muscles clenched involuntarily. His vision blurred. His head pounded so hard it felt like his skull might crack. All of it convinced Nick of two things.

One, he needed to get himself and his loved ones thefuckout of here. Not out of New York. Not even out of what used to be the United States.

He needed to get them thefuckoff this world.

This world sucked.

This dimension was terrible.

Of course, Nick had no idea what had happened to his own world, but frankly, he was willing to risk it. He was just fine with taking that chance.

The second thing Nick thought was more immediate.

Morley was right.

Nick hadn’t gotten the full scope of his boss’s message when Morley spoke to him on the network, but Nick got it loud and clear now. Nick had gotten too comfortable in this world. He’d gotten too comfortable with his cushy relationship with Archangel, with his cushy relationship with Morley himself. The senior detective had been right to caution him, to remind him to keep his cool, to not fight them, to play by the rules.

Morley had been reminding Nick what he was.

He’d been reminding Nick that to most cops, he wasn’t a famous ring fighter.

He was just another fucking bloodsucker.

Nick had gotten too comfortable being a celebrity.

He’d gotten too comfortable living under the protection of Lara St. Maarten, and even Brick and the White Death to an extent.

He’d forgotten what it meant to be a vampire here.