Jenn looked at him carefully. He'd taken a few different vamps to his bed the past few days.
"I mean, if you're sleeping on the floor, you can sleep on my floor," Jonny added hastily, once again the teenager who'd been in love with her for months.
"I appreciate it, Jonny," she said with an understanding smile and added to herself, no way in hell. "Unless … you can … I mean the safest place is in my-"
"On your floor. I know," she said, not allowing him to complete the sentence. "I'm proud of you, Jonny. You haven't lost your honor. Czerno had none." The mention of his predecessor had the opposite effect of mentioning the Original Vamp.
"I'll be better than Czerno," Jonny said, dark gaze flaring. "You're right, Jenn. He lacked honor. What he did to my sister …"
Jenn eased back on her Guardian power, the ability to manipulate minds. Jonny was slipping out of her ability to use it, in any case, though he seemed more vulnerable to her manipulation when he was emotionally raw. She'd been testing him several times a day, astonished to learn just how quickly he was growing into his new powers. She'd be unable to use her gift against him in a matter of a few days.
She resisted the impulse to check her watch. She'd programmed it to display a countdown rather than the time. She had just under fourteen days left with the Black God until his bargain with her boss was up, and she could go home. With four days at most remaining in her ability to control the Black God, she suspected she'd be dead in five.
"I'm using the skills you taught me to interrogate someone else," Jonny said. The last of his thoughts about her in his bed slid away with the final push of her magic.
"Are you discovering what the Others are doing in your ranks?" she asked.
"They seem to be looking for something," he replied. "The last vamp whose mind I read was convinced it was a treasure hunt. And they want something … here." Jonny looked around.
"Something or someone?" Jenn asked, thoughts going to the Original Vamp.
"It could be a someone," Jonny replied. "You think that's possible?"
"I think anything is possible with the Others. You and Damian threw down the gauntlet. If they haven't acted by now, they're waiting for something," she said pensively.
"True. Who could they want? Me?"