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“If I need a helping hand, I’ll let you know,” I said.
“Or mouth,” she said.
One of the men made an eager sound, the endorphins already helping to dull the pain. Perfect.
35
Pierette was beinga little too delightfully helpful while I took my body armor and weapons off, so she had to stand outside the SUV on guard duty instead of getting to watch. I told her she was a bad voyeur; they were only supposed to watch. She laughed and went to lean against the side of the SUV. Ru was standing straight and every inch on guard duty on the other side.
I took off the T-shirt that I’d just put on from the bag Pierette had given me, which left me in the push-up bra that Nathaniel had probably packed. My sports bras were finally even with my lace lingerie ones.
“Leave the bra and panties if they match,” Wicked said.
I finished taking off the tactical pants to join the socks and boots on the floorboard, then went up on my knees so that the stark light could show that the lingerie matched. Wicked held out a hand, and then Truth offered his hand; I took the help, though it actually made climbing over the backseat harder, not easier, but the feel of their hands in mine was worth a little awkward scrambling.
I glanced through the back window and saw that Nicky and Ethan were actually making progress getting people moved out of our way. The problem was that new cars kept coming in behind theones that were making a path for us. It was like doing a jigsaw puzzle where the picture expanded every time you got close to finishing it and more new pieces rained down on you.
Truth and Wicked pulled me down to them in my matching lingerie. “The two of you are wearing too many clothes,” I said.
“My shirt, if you can call the hospital gown a shirt, will have to stay on, too many bandages,” Truth said.
I reached for the waist of the scrub pants he was wearing, then leaned in and gave him a soft kiss. “It’ll be easier for me to get you out of your pants if you lie down.”
He smiled and used his one good arm to help him move lower until he was lying on the blankets that someone at the Circus had thought to put in the back for them. I lifted the hospital gown up and out of the way so I could reach the drawstring on his pants. I’d felt his body eager somewhere in all the climbing into the back, but as the heel of my hand brushed against the front of his body he was soft, which meant just scooting himself from sitting to lying down had hurt that much.
I tried to call theardeur, but I was empty, there was nothing to call. I had been able to heal with sex before that, but it had required sexual interest from everyone participating. I wasn’t sure anything I could do on my own would replace the instant lust of theardeur.
I reached down the links to Jean-Claude, hoping for some help. He answered the call, his voice whispering through me. “Ma petite, what has delayed you?”
The fact that he didn’t already know where I was and why I was delayed was a really bad sign. I reached for him down the marks between us, reached as hard as I’d ever reached outside of a life-or-death emergency.
I tried to think the next part out loud, but it was as if it crumbled before I could focus. I said it out loud, no longer certain he would hear me. “I don’t know where you are, or what you’re doing, Jean-Claude. I can’t see you in my head.”
“Nor I you,ma petite, whatever is wrong with the marks between us is growing worse.”
“How can Queenie be doing this? I thought the brujas were there to keep her magic under control.”
“They are keeping her from adding to her magic,ma petite. We all believed that would be enough.”
“Obviously it’s not.”
“I am aware.”
“How is she still damaging our connection like this if she can’t keep fueling her spell?”
Truth grabbed my hand, and I got a glimpse of Jean-Claude’s face lying against blue silk, and then the image flickered like an old TV set losing its station. I reached out to Wicked, and I didn’t even have to ask for him to take my hand. The moment I could touch both of them, the image was back.
“Ma petite, I can see you, I know where you are and that you are holding the Wicked Truth’s hands.”
“Can you read my mind? Do you know why we’re delayed?”
“Traffic, a wreck, a large collision.”
“Yes!” Then I couldn’t see him anymore, no matter how tightly I held on to Wicked and Truth.
His voice was all I had when he said, “Ma petite, I fear that if you do not come to me soon, the vampire marks between us will be broken irrevocably.”
“No, I won’t let that happen.” Then even his voice was gone. I screamed his name. Wicked and Truth were asking me what was wrong. Ru and Pierette opened their doors and were looking for danger. They had their guns out pointing safely down, but there was no safety for us if I didn’t get to Jean-Claude.
