“C’mon, sweetness. You don’t have to run. I won’t hurt you.”A pause, as though he was contemplating.“Much.” he amended, punctuating this last with a high-pitched tittering laugh that seemed to settle at the base of her neck like a giant insect, making her grind her teeth.”

“Whatever. I just won’t have Elena hurt, is all. Or the little red-headed witch.” “Ah, yes, sweet Bonnie. I wouldn’t mind one or two like her. One for Samhain and one for the Solstice.”Damon snorted drowsily. “There aren’t two like her; I don’t care where you look. I won’t have her hurt either.”

“Stay put,” he said. “I don’t want you setting off any explosives that’ll get us both killed.”“Let me go with you.”“I don’t want you getting hurt, Red.”There was something about the sound of his voice that gave her pause. “Don’t tell me you care.”He ruffled her hair as though she were four instead of twenty-five. “All right, I won’t. Just stay put.”

“Jennings saw this and held the gun up with his fingers splayed placatingly as if to show her that he wasn’t planning on using it. Not yet, anyway. “I don’t want to hurt you again, Lily,” he told her. “So just make sure you don’t do anything stupid, and I won’t.” At that moment, he reminded her of John Cusack in Grosse Pointe Blank. He acted like he was making a reasonable request. As if there was justification for shooting someone thirty times.”

“I’m gonna hold on to my self-control as long as I fucking can. And when I can’t…”She held her breath until her lungs burned, but he didn’t elaborate. “When you can’t? What happens then?”His mouth brushed the sensitive spot where her neck joined her shoulder. Teeth grazed her skin. “Then Lord have mercy on you, Lexie love. Because I won’t.”

“This wife you have, Bird said at last, deeply contemplative, did you pay a great deal for her?She cost me almost everything I had, he said, with a wry tone that made the others laugh. But worth it.”