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“I’m notleavingher here. I’m not leaving her with you.”

“If you think I’m letting you take heranywhere––”

“It’s too late,” the other Nick cut in. “You’re too fucking late. Do you really not get that part? I know where she is. I knew you would try to hide her from me. I knew where they would move her before you did. I know where the seer infant is, too…”

Nick’s blood rose so intensely, he briefly couldn’t see.

The other vamp kept talking.

“…this is a warning,” the other Nick said. “I only want what’s mine. Cooperate, and no one gets hurt. Get in my way, and I’ll kill all of them. Every single person you care about here. I’ll happily kill them, if it’s between that and leaving them in this hellhole to die a slow death. I won’t just leave them here to live as slaves––”

“Just me,” Nick growled. “You’ll just leavemehere for that––”

“That’s not my problem!” the other burst out. “It’s not my fault you were born here! It’s not my fault that your people completelyfucked uptheir world! I’m sorry, that’s just something you’re going to have to live with. It’s a fate you share with others on this world. But that doesn’t meanWynterhas to suffer. Or those two seer. Or me.”

Nick felt his blood grow hotter than he could think past.

“…Do the right thing,” the other Nick added. “Do the right thing, and I’ll make sure they know it wasn’t you. I’ll make sure you don’t get arrested. Get in my way, and I’ll fix that, too. Your pal Morley here won’t be a witness… he won’t leave here alive. I’ll make sure they have footage of you killing him. I’ll kill everyone connected to you, using your face, and by the time the police realize it wasn’t reallyyouwho did all this… by the time the humans sort out all the murders they think you’ve committed… you’ll be reprogrammed into a vegetable, and I’ll already be gone. I’ll be back on my home world. Myrealworld. And you’ll be here. You’ll be here with the vampire coven you should have had all along…”

Those disjointed, cracked-crystal eyes rose up to Jordan.

“You see?” he said. “I’ve started your new coven already. You won’t be alone here. You’ll build a new family. Of your own kind. With people who actuallybelonghere.”

Nick didn’t move.

He didn’t take his eyes off the other’s face.

“Either way, my real world is already pulling me back.” The other Nick raised his half-eaten arm, showing it to him. “I’ve already been chosen. I’ve already won. You might as well let me save her. And the kid. And anyone else who wants to come with me. Do the right thing, Nick. You can still be a hero…”

Nick was no longer listening to his words.

He was calculating distances.

Him to Morley. Morley to Jordan. Nick to Jordan.

Nick to the doppelganger.

The spear to Damon’s chest.

Even now, that piece of shit wasn’t finished talking.

“If you really loved her, you’d let me take her out of this place,” the other Nick said again. “You’d let me take all of them… and you’d make peace with your life here. You’d learn to move on, and accept who you are. Accept you are where you are supposed to be.”

Somehow, that was the thing to bring Nick fully back to Earth.

His mind clicked back.

He focused on the vampire wearing his face.

He wouldn’t accept that he belonged here.

He would never accept that, not now that he knew the truth.

There was no way in hell he was giving Wynter to this thing. Not even to make her safe on that other world. He could feel the wrongness there.

He couldfeelit.

Wherever this thing was going, it wasn’t going to end well for anyone he brought with him. It definitely wouldn’t end for Wynter, or Tai, or Malek.