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Even this close, Nick could only smell what lived on the other side of that door.

It was as if the guy left through the ventilation shafts.

The ceiling of the corridor stretched up at a steep slant, narrowing into a peak at the roof and making the corridor itself seem strangely more narrow than it was.

The corridor also struck him as overly dark.

Then again, he and Morley hadn’t turned on any additional lights.

Nick wondered how soon the sun would be coming up. He wondered if they programmed the dome out here to have the same weather and seasons as they did over the city. He knew the artificial weather didn’t always align from protected area to protected area. These private segments of the New York might have their own climates entirely.

Something about that made his mind drift to Wynter again.

He’d been looking forward to his first winter with her, up there where she lived, in the Northeastern Protected Area. From everything she’d told him, he imagined it would be unbelievably pretty. All that wilderness covered in snow. All those animals: foxes, deer, rabbits, birds… and whatever else they’d deemed safe to bio-engineer and release into the area cleared for wildlife. It would be pretty, peaceful, like something from when he was human.

He imagined sitting by the fireplace at Wynter’s house, watching through her glass doors as the snow came down. He imagined sitting outside with her at night, watching the sky from her firepit, or maybe from the jacuzzi they’d talked about building behind her house.

A harder ripple of pain reached him.

He wanted Wynter.

He wanted her, and he wanted both of them to getthe fuckout of here.

He wanted to look at snow and sky and waves from his own world. He wanted to live in society where he wasn’t a slave. Where it wasn’t illegal to have sex with his wife.

Where they could be together out in the open.

At least at night. At least when his vampire skin allowed it.

The urge to back to his world felt disturbingly intense.

It was getting worse just about every hour now, he realized.

It was beginning to feel like some kind of sickness, or compulsion. Maybe even a fever. It had definitely become an obsession, a kind of ongoing loop in Nick’s brain.

It felt like there was something wrong with him.

It was beginning to feel like the stress of that wanting was starting to affect his mind. It also felt connected to the separation pain he got whenever he was forced to stay away from Wynter for any amount of time. Like now.

It felt connected to that pain and disconnection now.

It felt connected to Wynter somehow.

That compulsion felt densely tied to his mate.

Not even only to her. It felt connected to Tai, to Mal.

Even to Morley.

Nick felt it slightly less with Jordan and Kit, but he felt it with them, too. Strangely, he also felt it with Miri’s sister, Zoe… someone he didn’t really like to think about, especially since he and Wynter got together, but who had strong ties to that world, as well.

He was beginning to wonder if other forces were pulling on him.

He wondered if something else wanted him back there, on his home world. Maybe something had happened. Maybe he was needed there for some reason. Or maybe Wynter was needed there, or Zoe. Maybe all three of them.

Something wanted him to go home.

Something beyond even Nick wanted it desperately.