“Know what?”
“That it’s gone.” I waved my hand before he could correct me. “Or contained beneath the moon and not just hiding in here”—I rapped my skull with my knuckles—“waiting for you to take your control off, and then we can party.”
“I know a way.” He got off the bed and started rooting through my duffel.
“Hey!” I said, but he ignored me. Since there really wasn’t anything secret in there, I let him.
Jimmy pulled out a small plastic bag, reached in, and held up Ruthie’s crucifix. The sight of it made my eyes sting. I’d missed wearing that almost as much as I missed hearing her voice.
I jolted. I should be able to hear Ruthie’s voice again—as soon as she had something to say.
Jimmy crossed the floor, sat next to me on the bed. He held up his hand, and the chain unfurled. The tiny cross with the tiny hanging man twirled right and then left.
Jimmy leaned in. His hair brushed my face. I closed my eyes and waited. Would I go up in flames or wouldn’t I?
Seconds later his fingers brushed my hair as he slipped the chain over my head. Jimmy sat back, letting the crucifix fall between my breasts, then drawing his thumb over the cross, pressing it more firmly against my skin.
He lifted his eyes to mine. “All clear.”
I let out a whoosh of breath. “Your turn.”
But Jimmy wasn’t wasting any time. His fingers had already encircled the cock ring as well as his cock. The sight made me swallow against a sudden flare of lust.
He twisted his wrist; the circlet widened with a metallic snick and slid off. Sanducci stared at the ring resting on his open palm. Then he crunched it just by closing his fist.
“I hated this,” he muttered, and threw it out the window.
“You preferred being . . .” I made claws with my hands and hissed.
“Of course not!” Jimmy stood and began to dress. “But that thing just made me feel like a—a—what the hell do you call a guy in a harem?”
“A eunuch?”
He cast me a glance. “Very funny.”
“A harem boy?”
“All right. That made me feel like a harem boy, you know?”
Unfortunately I did. When Jimmy had been under the power of his creepy vampire father, he’d made me his sex slave, complete with the Barbara Eden genie outfit. It had not been a good look for me.
Jimmy saw my face and cursed softly. “Sorry.”
I waved the word away. “We can’t spend the rest of our lives apologizing to each other.”
For one thing, there was going to be a lot more we’d have to apologize for in the future. I was sure of it.
“Is that why you had the Dagda put a cock ring on me? Revenge?”
“I didn’t tell him what to use. It was his idea of a joke.”
“Seemed more like your idea of a joke.”
Maybe we were going to have to keep apologizing for the rest of our lives.
“Believe me or don’t believe me, Jimmy. I’m not going to keep begging you to.” I put on my clothes. “We need to deal with Mait.”
“Now?”
I glanced at the clock. Midnight. “We should go during the daytime. Unless you know how to disable those night demons.”
Jimmy shook his head. “Considering Mait is the son of the origin of darkness, I vote for daytime, too.”
I didn’t care for Kalfu’s title. The last time I’d had anything to do with “the darkness” I’d wound up a vampire.
“We should get some sleep,” Jimmy said.
My gaze went to the bed. The bedspread lay on the floor and the sheets appeared to have been slept in by a kid with untreated ADHD. Believe me, I’d known quite a few, had to share a mattress with some of them in foster care. They kicked like mules and even asleep, their legs and arms rarely stopped moving.
I glanced at Jimmy. He was staring at the bed, too. “It’s big enough for both of us,” I said, and he jumped as if I’d stuck him with a pin.
I straightened the sheets, leaning over to pick up the bedspread just as a latch clicked. My gaze flicked around the empty room even as I headed for the door. But when I opened it, Jimmy was already gone. I wasn’t surprised.
I could catch him, but why? He obviously didn’t want to stay. He’d be back with the dawn. He couldn’t go after Mait without me. Jimmy didn’t know where the Nephilim was.
Though I longed to throw my control over the balcony as Jimmy had thrown his, I knew there might come a day when I needed to put the collar back on. I shoved the thing to the bottom of my duffel, picked up Sawyer’s turquoise, and looped the chain over my neck, tucking the stone beneath my shirt along with Ruthie’s crucifix. Then I stripped off my jeans and tried to get some sleep.
Next thing I knew light had just begun to creep across the sky. The breeze through the balcony window felt morning-cool and smelled like the fresh water I heard splashing out of the hoses and washing away the filth on the streets below.