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He really was worried if he didn’t have a snide remark to follow with, about Reynard saving us. I focused on the door again and ran my fingers over the hinges. The wards were inside the door, but did they cover the hinges?

“I’m always saving his ass,” Zee explained, distracted now he had Reynard to rant about. “Imagine being a thousand years old and needing a sex demon to save you? That is low. He’s such a vampire doormat.”

Reynard would come looking, but it would take time. He wouldn’t know we were missing until well into the evening. He’d try Zee’s phone first, and find it in the car. From there, he’d trace our steps to the market, and if he got lucky, he’d find Jim and extract our next step from him—but all of that would take hours. Maybe days. Reynard wasn’t going to save us anytime soon. But at least Zee was distracted by imagining all the ways he definitely did not have a thing for Victor Reynard.

Poking at the hinges yielded a few zaps from the wards. It was tamper-proof. Kind of like my glamor. If we pushed too hard, the wards might knock us out, and considering the frozen bits of people all over the floor, this was not a good place to be unconscious.

“Can you get it open?” Zee asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“Fuck.” He dropped, and slumped against the wall. “If I die, hang my carcass in the hotel reception so my fans can come and mourn. Make it look good. Don’t let my dick shrivel up.”

I was definitely not going to do that. “We’re not going to die here.” There had to be a way. We were resourceful. I toed through the horrible severed horns and feet on the floor, but didn’t find anything of use.

The vent just below the ceiling caught my eye. It was too small for either Zee or me to crawl through, but not for our new friend.

“Hey, Zee, can you boost me up there?”

“You won’t fit.”

“I won’t, but Little Jimmy will.”

Zee glowered at Little Jimmy, licking its own armpit while still perched on my shoulder. “The pixie?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“It’s just going to escape and leave us, but sure . . . at least that gets rid of it.” He climbed to his feet, and beckoned me over by the vent. The pixie fluttered off, and perched on a nearby box.

“We’re going to open this vent,” I told Little Jimmy, and pointed at the vent cover. “Then you can crawl right out and open the door from the outside, for us?”

It blinked.

“So, you go through the vent.” I tried again. “Find a way out, and then open the lock on the other side. Do you understand?”

Another blink.

“He’s just going to fly off,” Zee grumbled. “Get over here, and let’s do this before my frozen nipples fall off.” He beckoned me over. “Get on my back, then I’ll scoot you up.”

Zee knelt, and I piggybacked on, trying not to scrape my shoes down his wings. His tail shoved against my ass, scooting me higher, and I managed to get my knees on his shoulders while grabbing his horns. Zee stood, lifting me into the air. “Oh my stars, this is high.” I wobbled.

“This is not the bareback I had in mind.”

I reached out, and walked my hands up the wall, to the vent, then popped off the cover. Little Jimmy shot over my head and was gone.

“And we never fucking saw it again,” Zee said. He dropped his head forward, tipping me over. I dropped forward, yelped, and landed in Zee’s arms.

“Hey, Kitten.”

“Hey.”

He lowered me to my feet, then folded his wings around and cuddled me close. “At least if I do fucking die, I’m with my favorite human.”

“And I’m with the best demon ever.”

“The most handsome, and amazing, and excellent demon?”

“Of course.”