“Not now, Jax.”
“He’s not possessed anymore!” Mimi seemed to be trying to talk sense into Titus. I could have told her that was pointless. “Someone took his girl and he’s trying to get her back.”
“Is that what he told you?” he snapped. “And you believed him?”
“I don’tbelieveanything,” Mimi barked back. “I saw it for myself.”
His skin tinged blue with power, he turned away from her to glare at me.
“We had a deal, Harker. You don’t come to the Kitchen and I forget you exist.”
He looked ready to power up for real and, while I wanted what I came for, I wasn’t gonna let him attack me
“Jax, do something!” Gigi hissed.
“Let’s all take a deep breath and calm down.” Jax coiled power around me and Titus. “Especially you, Kerry. We don’t want a repeat of City of the Future here in Manhattan.”
Well,hedidn’t. I coulda cared less. But that wouldn’t get Gemma back, so, yeah.
“I’m only here for information.” I shook my head, about the only thing I could move under Jax’s power. “Could be of use to you, too.”
“The only thing I’m interested in, demon-taint, is finally putting you down like the rabid dog you are.” Titus struggled against Jax’s hold. “Before you can hurt or kill another soul.”
“You may have to step in, Josef.” Mimi’s voice was far away.
“I don’twannahurt or kill anyone!” I tried to do the breathing thing, I really did. “I just wanna save my girl!”
“Youhave a girl?” Titus sneered. “Any girl who’d chooseyouprobably isn’t worth saving.”
I exploded through Jax’s hold and swung the blade of my katana right for Titus Wray’s throat.
Then power, heavy and absolute, stilled every cell in my body.
“I thought it’d be a good idea to stop time.” A voice spoke in the darkness of my mind. “So you could make a better choice.”
Gigi.
“If you kill him, Josef will fight you. So will Mimi. We need them to help find Gemma, remember?”
“But he said—”
“Does it matter, if you know the truth?”
“I don’t like when people talk bad about her because of me.” The sharp blade drew a tiny line of blood along Titus’ throat. “She shouldn’t be stained because of my sins.”
“Is she stained? You know her as well as I do. Maybe better on some levels. Has she been stained in any way over the past few months?”
I scowled. She knew the answer to that as well as I did.
“Then what is the issue? Let Titus Wray believe what he wants. You know the truth.”
I took a long, slow breath—one, two, three, four—and let it out in a rush.
“All right. For Gemma’s sake, I’ll spare him. Can you take us back a bit?”
“Maybe a few seconds.”
“Do it. Please.”
