Page 143 of Midnight Coven

Really, they needed to come up with a plan.

The problem was, any plan Nick came up with, his damned doppelganger would feel it before Nick could do anything to put it into action.

Still thinking about that, frowning, Nick continued to pace Morley, watching the hologram of the satellite image where it hovered before then in the air.

Then Nick saw her.

Using his headset, Nick zoomed the satellite in again, focusing on a handful of people being pushed and carried up the mountain.

Nick pulled Wynter out of that group first. He saw her black hair, glimpsed the hint of blue green she liked to weave into the raven-colored waves. He saw a glimpse of her face as a vampire pushed her forward and she turned to glare at him, her delicate chin jutting.

She looked like she wanted to kick the shit out of him.

Something else occurred to Nick then.

Tai.

Tai was a child, but she was maybe the scariest seer Nick had ever encountered when it came to her abilities. Tai could kill every goddamned vampire in the place if she wanted.

Not anymore,a soft voice whispered.

Nick shuddered, then felt insane flood of panic, enough to briefly stop his mind. He scanned through the different bodies being shoved and pulled and pushed up the side of the mountain, then found a white-blond head among them with red and violet streaks coming down on several sides. She was so small compared to the rest of them, Nick hadn’t seen her.

She seemed to be moving okay, though.

They hadn’t hurt her that Nick could see.

She was walking up faster than Lara St. Maarten, whose face looked bloody and who appeared to be walking with a limp.

Then Nick saw it.

A collar.

They had a collar around Tai’s neck.

Nick got the rest of it from his double, a densely packed, strangely clear information dump that showed him exactly how Tai ended up with one of St. Maarten’s telekinesis proof collars around her neck with the pain controls jacked all the way up to their limits.

The Stranger, Nick’s doppelganger, had threatened to kill them all. He’d stood there with his newborns and threatened to burn them out of the hidey-hole if they didn’t do one of three things: kill Tai, collar Tai, or knock Tai out.

They’d opted to collar her.

Nick frowned, feeling that sick anger in his chest worsen.

He could feel how badly the Stranger wanted to bring them all with him.

Weirdly, Tai was integral to that, too.

Nick could see how the other vampire saw them: Tai, Wynter, Nick, even Mal.

Family.

Happy parents and their two exceptional children.

Nick could feel the resonance there, with the other man’s human life.

He briefly glimpsed the happy version of the Stranger… when he wasn’t a stranger but knew exactly who he was, what he cared about, who he loved.

Nick saw him in the crowd at a graduation ceremony for high school and for college. More graduations. More wild clapping for children he was so proud of, he thought he might really burst. Nick saw him there in his suit and tie, with a pretty wife and other parents beaming and clapping and whooping all around him.

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