She snatched it from him. “Mementos from my experiences.” She set down the tiara, arranging it just so.

“So you took my talisman to remember me by?”

Shrug. The one that meant Yes, Rune.

“How do you steal so easily? And why not anything of significant value?”

“Like your relics? All you’re doing is inviting B&E.”

At his blank look, she said, “Breaking and entering? People coming into your territory to boost your stuff?”

He’d noticed a brace on her motel room door. She might be a hybrid, but she was just as territorial as other vampires he’d known.

She walked to a set of drawers, opening one filled with underwear, selecting two pieces of black lace. “So what’s up with your talisman anyway? I’ve seen you roll it in your pocket.”

“I’ll start talking about my past as soon as you tell me anything about yours.” He sat on the bed, his good mood unaffected. How could he feel this way after what he’d lost? For millennia, his collection had been his one nondeadly pursuit. Perhaps it’d masked his lack in other areas.

No generations to discover before him; no generation to come from him; no hope of a mate.

Now as he gazed at the vampire about to undress, he had difficulty recalling which piece had been his favorite. Which one his newest. At least she’d spared his precious library. Still, he said, “I should destroy everything here for turnabout.”

She smiled over her shoulder. “See where that lands you.”

He leaned back on the bed, hands behind his head, inhaling the meadowberry scent of her pillow. “So you believed I was out diddling nymphs, and you smashed my belongings? You must’ve been in a fit of jealousy.” Possessiveness had always rankled the hells out of him. Strangely, hers made his cock grow harder.

He’d still break her of it though. “This is why we need to work on your jealousy issues. . . .” He trailed off when she removed the shirt she’d borrowed from him, leaving her naked in front of the cracked mirror.

He rubbed his now-aching cock. When he could drag his gaze off her ass, he met her eyes in the mirror. Black forked out over his. “If we’re going to be partners on this mission, we’ll partner in other ways.”

“How’s that?” As she wriggled into a tiny thong, light glinted off the metal of her nipple piercings.

He needed to suck those nipples so hard she’d feel him the next day. “Prepare for blood and bed play.” Once his task was complete, they wouldn’t leave his room for weeks.

“You’re bringing up sex again? I’m not looking for a meaningless hookup. Be warned: I’m going all-in with the next guy I sleep with. Relationship, trust, commitment, love. The works.”

So young. So immature. “What do you know about any of these things?”

She fastened a lacy bra over tits that should never be covered. “I’ve seen love, and I want it for myself.” The combat-boot-wearing blood-drinker wanted romance?

Fascinating woman. Still, he made a scoffing sound.

Her eyes flickered as she explained, “When two people form an unbreakable bond, it’s like a reactor, feeding them power and heat and a sense of belonging. It makes them strong. They’re the true superheroes.”

She was so passionate about this, he could almost find himself believing. Then he remembered reality. “Dark fey don’t love. We aren’t capable of it.”

She glared at him as she reached for her jeans. “Don’t pull that Spock shit with me. Everyone’s capable of it.”

“Spock?”

“Star Trek? TV show? He’s all logic and pointed ears.”

“So Spock is a fey? They are known for both.” Rune was somewhat versed in this world’s popular culture since his sources—mainly the nymphs—were. But he wasn’t a hundred percent certain about Spock.

Josephine rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I’d never sleep with you unless we were exclusive.”

“In your strange imaginings, how long am I not to take another?” That he was considering even a day of monogamy . . .

“If you have sex with me, you’ll be telling me you want a commitment, a bond between only us. That you will never want another female as long as you live.”

He tilted his head as she tugged jeans over her ravishing ass. Then her words sank in. “Given your parameters, sex is decidedly off the table,” he said, even knowing he’d bed her soon. He’d seduce her into thinking his way.

Seduction was what he did. “Your views on this are naïve. Not surprisingly.”

She pulled on her T-shirt. “Your loss.”

He was fine with his life right now. Or, at least, not utterly miserable, as Dalli had said. Any other male would kill to have Rune’s existence, traveling worlds, warring, and swiving new females each night.

Now this vampire wanted to change Rune once more? “You’ve known me for four days—and you were passed out for two of them. Yet you think you know me well enough to have a relationship?”

She shrugged. Yes, Rune. “I know I won’t sleep with a guy without a commitment first.”

“Naïve,” he repeated. “I’ll talk you out of this. Like I said, we’re going to work on your jealousy issues.”

“I vow to the Lore I will never have sex with you unless we’re—”

He traced in an instant, putting his palm over her mouth. Exclusive? “Don’t say that word. You do not mean it.”