console, felt for the buttons, and pressed the electric seat until it slid back as far as it could go.
“Done.”
Fionn lowered his massive body inside. He still engulfed the space, his hair hitting the roof’s leather lining. “Thank you,” he said gruffly, as he felt for the buttons. Once he’d gotten his chair position as comfortable as he could, Rose pulled on her seat belt.
“Expensive car,” she noted.
“Fast car. We’ll get to Orléans in half the time.”
“Isn’t it a little conspicuous?”
Fionn started the engine; it purred in answer. As they pulled away, she waved to Jada. “The opposite. Only so many people own a Bugatti. It’s registered under Jada’s name.” He swung them around a corner, faster than Rose would have dared, and she marveled at the way the car gripped the road.
She caressed the leather beneath her and relaxed into her seat. “Wow.”
As they moved through city traffic, Rose fought the urge to close her eyes. She still had questions. “Who is Jada?”
“A friend of Bran’s.”
“She knows what he is?”
“People as wealthy as Jada often find themselves in our world. She and Bran are what you call fuck buddies. Not exclusive. She has a fiancé and Bran has many lovers, male and female. Jada, however, lets him drink from her.”
Rose remembered the vampire tearing into her throat and scowled as she automatically reached for her neck. “Seriously?”
Fionn flicked her a look, saw where her hand was, and turned back to the road. “Rose, it shouldn’t hurt. From what I’ve gathered, a vampire bite provides a human with much sexual pleasure. As they drink, the vampire releases pheromones that causes a chemical reaction. A sexual one. The bastard who bit you was all about the pain, so he didn’t do that.”
“I don’t know what’s worse,” Rose grumbled. “Both are a violation of a different kind.”
“Not when consent is involved.” Fionn shot her a disapproving look. “Jada consents to the bite and to the sex. Don’t judge what you don’t understand.”
“Says the man who hates what he is.”
At his icy silence, Rose heaved a sigh. “Sorry. I’m just … tired.”
“Then sleep.”
“I would but I don’t know where we’re going and … I keep thinking about these powers of mine. Of ours.”
“What about them?”
“You said witches and warlocks have limitations. That they have to pull from the world, exchange something for the magic.”
“Yes.”
“We don’t. Except for exhaustion, werewolf bites and iron, we don’t have limitations. Do we?”
He was quiet a moment as he seemed to consider her question. “Everyone has limitations. I can knock someone unconscious by visualizing my magic pinching their carotid sinus, which is what I did to the Blackwoods back at the hotel—”
“Seriously?” Rose stroked her throat again. “That’s some trick.”
“But I can’t fly. I can fall with style but I can’t fly.”
She grinned. “Did you just quote Toy Story?”
He frowned at her. “What?”
That would be a no then. Rose chuckled to herself and shook her head. “Nothing. So no flying.”
“Technically, no flying. Traveling has its limitations, as you’ve just experienced. And no cheating bodily functions. You have to eat, sleep, drink, piss, and—”
“Yeah, I got it.”
Fionn frowned. “You have very few limitations, Rose. Once you fully let go of thinking of yourself as human, you’ll discover how far your limits go.”
She nodded, considering this. It was both a thrilling and terrifying concept. Something else occurred to her. “Why borrow this car? Why pay for a personal shopper to deliver clothes to our hotel? If you can just snap your fingers and make it all appear?”
His scowl this time was ferocious. “Because I can’t just make it appear, Rose. If I snap my fingers and make this Bugatti appear, it’s because I’ve stolen it out of Jada’s secure lockup. When you’re this powerful, you have to draw a line. It would be easy to use magic to amass wealth, just as Schneider has done. But what kind of man would that make me? I’m going to be here forever, and I will not spend eternity in lazy indolence, stealing from humans. What I have, I’ve earned. Unless necessary, I do not steal.”
Her heart literally skipped a beat. She was in awe of him. “You have your own code. Your own sense of honor.”
“I don’t know if I’d call it that. But if I viewed the world and everything in it as my due, I’d lose myself. And if someone as powerful as me loses himself, I’d be putting the world in danger.”
“Fionn.”
“Yes?”
“I know you know that you’re physically attractive.”
He