Page 147 of Almost Midnight

He motioned sharply at Forrest Walker, who stood closest to the door.

The hybrid motioned his mother, Rose, inside first, then Charlie and Malek, then walked into the chamber himself last. The four of them were an even tighter fit than the first group had been.

As it turned out, they were too tight of a fit.

Forrest placed his hand on the hand-shaped panel, and the door beeped at them.

They rearranged themselves. They sucked in their breaths. They tried again.

The door beeped again.

They tried again, that time with Rose so mashed into the wall, Nick worried she might be suffocated before the doors let them out.

The door beeped again.

Forrest got out of the chamber.

“No!” Nick snarled. “Stop being a fucking hero! There’s no time!”

“Someone has to get out,” Forrest said, sounding as panicked as Nick. “Trust me, I don’t want to. But one of us fuckinghasto––”

“There’s no time!” Nick growled.

“None of us will make it, if we don’t!”

Without a word, Malek bent down where he stood next to Charlie.

Charlie let out a shocked yelp when the seer picked her up like she weighed as much as a doll, and placed her neatly on his shoulders. He straightened inside the tall, narrow space, and now the suited human sat on him like she was a four-year-old getting a ride from her father at the zoo. She blinked down at the rest of them, but both suits seemed to be holding.

Forty-eight seconds,the clock beeped at Nick.

“Get back in!” Nick snapped at Forrest.

The hybrid darted back inside the chamber.

That time, when he placed his hand on the panel, the door began to close.

Again, it was excruciatingly slow.

Thirty-one seconds…

Twenty-four seconds…

Sixteen seconds…

Seven seconds…

Nick watched it up until the very second the organic glass connected with the frame embedded in the wall. Then, there was a hiss as the door sealed, and relief flooded over him.

It was only him and Jordan now.

His suit started to beep at him audibly as the panel on the other side of the glass first began to slowly open. He glanced at Jordan, who returned his look with a mixture of obvious relief and nerves of his own.

Nick glanced at the beeping zero in the corner of his suit’s mask.

Only vampires on this side of the glass now.

They should be okay.

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