Chapter 187 - Unfinished Business

We did manage to catch Panda after all. She sent us with her best wishes and a question about when I was planning to open the store again and if she would get a full salary for this month. I had no answer for the first one, but my "yes" to the second put a smile on Panda's face.

And then we were outside.

"Hold tight, ma chèrie."

"You don't need to tell me." I was already holding for him as tight as I could, and tucked my face into his chest so I could catch only a peek of the street in front of us.

"Alright. Maybe I should instead tell you 'don't hold so tight that you will have cramps in your fingers'."

I bucked my legs in protest. "Hey, it's my prerogative to be ironic and sassy! Come on, let's move."

"And move we shall." JJ said, and whatever else I could've wanted to say got taken away from me, together with my breath.

He went from zero speed to all of it in a fraction of a second, but the inertia that should've flattened me on the spot pressed me into him with no more strength than if I was speeding in a car. Wind blasted in my ears, whipped my hair, and forced me to close my eyes entirely, but I couldn't miss the feeling of speed with which we moved, couldn't miss a single turn.

It was better than riding a motorbike. There were no bumps in JJ's gait—it was like we glided through the air, not travelled over the ground. Ten time scarier, ten times less actually risky, and with five times more physical contact involved. And not just physical, I realised. When I got used to the speed enough to register more than the howling in my ears and the thumping of my heart, I felt the soft chill of JJ's aura enveloping me.

I could see it if I opened my well. It was, I remembered, the same thing he did when he protected me from the blast with which Christina entered my life. Now it was protecting me from the G-forces, but I could tell that it meant that JJ himself was suffering from them more. But then, I imagined, something like that wasn't much harm for a vampire, so I closed my well again and instead opened my eyes to the swishing by evening streets.

It was exhilarating, and it felt like no time at all passed when JJ stopped next to my home's back entrance and put me down, only to catch me again when my knees refused to hold me.

I laughed breathlessly, grabbing at his arms. My hair was a complete mess of tangles, half of which was all over my face, while his somehow was just as artfully wavy and just a little mussed as ever. I felt drunk, on relief of not having a demon in my city, on the simple joy of that 'ride' and on the love that surged in me at the sight of my vampire.

"Oh no, my legs decided to take a holiday," I managed to say between bouts of laughter. "JJ, my loyal servant, you will have to carry your queen and boss to her bed!"

He was grinning from ear to ear as he picked me up again. "It's my sworn duty, but I will be lying if I said that it won't be my pleasure."

In a show of supernatural strength and agility, JJ unlocked and locked the door with one hand, while holding me up in another. From there, he went straight to the second floor, where I had to stop him.

"Boots!" I squirmed to reach my own. "Have to leave boots."

"Of course, how could've I forgotten?" JJ didn't miss a beat, and still didn't drop me as he shook off his shoes to replace them with house slippers. Then he had to move the sandals I dropped haphazardly to the wall, because I couldn't stand the sight of them lying in the middle of the hallway. They were just bound to get kicked God knows where this way.

The fumble of street shoes caused more laughter between the two of us. When JJ walked up to my bed, the sleep, so tempting just a couple hours earlier, seemed like the last thing on my mind.

Ever gently—with reverence, even—JJ lowered me down, but when he let go, I kept holding onto him. The laughter died on my throat, and when JJ's puzzled eyes met mine, wild blush came instead.

"So. Uh," words died in my throat too, I found out, "There was that thing we started, but didn't finish properly…"

The puzzlement disappeared like it was never there, replaced with something shiny and heated. "Oh? Something? What could that be?"

I blushed deeper and, instead of embarrassing myself any further, reached for his hair to tug him closer. He let me, and I showed what I meant by catching his lips with mine.

As soon as they met, the momentary frustration I felt left me, and my movements softened. The fingers that pulled began to caress instead, enjoying the touch of hair that would've made Golden Fleece look like a skin from a tinea-infected dog. I closed my eyes, sinking into it like into a doze.

"So, that," I breathed out when we separated again, and, through the heat that spread from my cheeks to my entire body, found in myself to have some humour. "I'd feel terrible about all this if some other invader from outer space dropped on us and I ended up dying a virgin."

"If there's God in Heaven, then no invader will fall down until morning," JJ assured me with the most serious face and the most intense look in his eyes. "But just in case it comes at witching hour, as the evils are most prone to do if you believe the folk tales, let me help you out of these clothes."