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The cracked-crystal eyes phased briefly out of focus.

It looked to Nick like some part of him went away.

Then it snapped back.

“I thought they would hold you,” he repeated, going on as if he’d never stopped. “I thought they would keep you out of my way until I finished––”

“You’re notfinishinganything.” Nick’s voice lowered to a heavy snarl. “You’re not taking anyone with you. You’re not getting anywhere near––”

“But I’m already mostly done.” The doppelganger spoke as if Nick hadn’t. He barely seemed to be speaking to anyone at all, other than himself. “It was clear, what I had to do. I had to end the bloodline first. I had to do that… fix that mistake. But that’s over now. Now I just need to collect the others. I need to go to her. I need to collect those seers, bring them back to their world. I need to collect my mate––”

“The FUCK you will!” Nick could barely see. Scarlet infused his eyes, blotting out his physical vision. “You’re notcollectinganyone!”

The words exploded out of him.

Next to him, Morley flinched, but Nick barely noticed.

It hit him that what he was feeling was fear. Terror, really. Abject, mind-stopping terror. Something about the doppelganger’s words scared the living shit out of him. They scared him past the point where he could think at all.

Maybe it was the certainty there. The utter confidence.

The completely absence of any doubt.

“You don’t have any choice,” the other vampire told him. “I’m sorry but you don’t. I never wanted to involve you like this. I really thought they would put you in jail… that it would be resolved easily and neatly, without too much pain on all sides.”

The doppelganger’s eyes grew cold.

The stare there looked disjointed to Nick. Unbalanced.

“You’ve forced me to do this the hard way,” the other vamp said. “I apologize for that. But there’s nothing you or I can do about it now. It’s already happening. Don’t you see that? It’s already in motion. And even though she’s not yours, you want what’s best for her, don’t you? You want what’s best for all of them.”

Those flickering, off-kilter eyes met Nick’s.

“She doesn’t belong here.” The Stranger held Nick’s gaze. He spoke as if explaining something very simple to a stubborn child. “She doesn’t belong. She really doesn’t. You know that. You’ve felt it. I’vefeltyou feeling that. She’s not supposed to be here. You wouldn’t really make her stay, knowing that? You wouldn’t make her stay on the wrong world, just to keep her with you? You wouldn’t. You wouldn’t be that selfish.”

The vamp looked at Morley, then back at Nick.

“I know you,” the other Nick said. “You care for her. I know you do. You should welcome this. You shouldwelcomeme doing what’s right for both of us.”

Nick felt his neck and chest clench.

He was so angry he couldn’t speak.

He couldn’t form actual words.

He let out a low, emotion-filled growl instead.

Something in the sound made Morley jump.

The human turned to stare at him, eyes wide with shock. Now the homicide detective with the salt-and-pepper hair looked like he didn’t want to be standing between them.

Nick didn’t really want him there, either.

He could work with it, though.

He never took his eyes off the doppelganger.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with you,” he growled, taking a step closer. “I really don’t. I don’t know why your body is falling apart… or what it means… but I know what itdoesn’tmean. I know itdoesn’tmean you’re gradually being teleported to some other world. It doesn’t mean you have some kind of spiritual mandate tomurderall these innocent people. Itsure asfuckdoesn’t mean you have a spiritual mandate to kidnap my mate.”