Bound (Secrets of the Djinn) (12 page)

“As touching as this is, you still haven’t told us who the fuck the man you were making out with was,” Brielle drawls from the other side of the car.

“The devil,” I say, my words muffled by Zane’s chest.

Zane puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes me back gently.  “Are you hurt?” he asks.

I shake my head.  Noticing the blown out back windows of his car, I ask, “Are you?”

“How did you find us?” Roman asks from behind me.

Brielle snorts.  “Do you really think I would neglect to put a gps tracker in my car?  I fight monsters for god’s sake.  I’m not going to end up dying on the side of the road without a way for anyone to find me.”  I flinch at the ‘dying on the side of the road’ comment.

“I take it your grandmother was ignorant of this fact?” Roman says.

“Obviously,” Brielle replies dryly.  “Nice hair, by the way.”

It takes me a moment to realize she’s talking to me.  Zane reaches out and rubs a lock of my newly colored red hair between his fingers.  “I like it.”

“A gift from the devil,” I murmur, not looking him in the eye.  He saw the devil almost kiss me and I was letting him.  I can’t imagine what he thinks of me at the moment. 

“Just how chummy are you with the guy?”
Brielle asks.

Roman is the one to respond.  “He made her kiss him to save my life.”  I turn to him in shock.  I didn’t think he was conscious enough to hear my conversation with the devil.

“He didn’t kiss me,” I say. Brielle cocks her head in disbelief.

“Skye, it’s okay…” Zane starts to say.

I shake my head.  “No, really.  He didn’t kiss me.  He said he was going to, but he didn’t.  Maybe it was because you guys pulled up.”  I doubt that mattered to him, though.  He seems to enjoy rankling Zane.   I don’t repeat what Beelzebub said about the price of his help in the future.  Maybe I can get through the rest of my life without needing his assistance.  I probably shouldn’t put that thought out to the universe; it may come back and bite me in the ass.  Hard. 

“We can’t return with you,” Roman says.  All of our eyes swing to him.  He’s serious.  “Your grandmother will kill Skye.”

Seeing that her brother is too angry to speak, Brielle says, “Yeah, not going to happen.  Hank was even more pissed than Zane that she kicked you guys out, if you can believe it.”

“What?”  The word slips from my mouth even though I heard her perfectly.

Brielle shrugs.  “Apparently, Hank has a soft spot for you.  Don’t know why.”

If the circumstances were different, I’
d take offense.  Unfortunately, I can’t figure out why, either.  But Roman is right, I still can’t return with them.  “I’m pretty sure if she wants me dead, she’ll find a way.”

Brielle purses her lips.  “She is pretty determined.”

“Brielle,” Zane says wearily.  I can tell there’s been a lot of discussion around this topic.

Roman reenters the conversation.  “Perhaps the best plan is still for Skye and me to disappear
rather than going back to an already hostile environment.” 

Zane stiffens
next to me.  It’s Brielle who responds, though.  With a loud snort, she says, “You guys would be dead in a day on your own.  You were gone, what, twelve hours and you already killed two people and got yourself shot.”

The song ‘What it’s like’ by Everlast starts playing in Zane’s pocket.  He fishes his phone out and looks at the screen.  Putting the phone to his ear, he says, “Yeah, Hank.  We found them.”  He’s quiet for
a moment listening to the other man.  “About four hours.”  He steals a glance at me.  “Is everything worked out?”  I take that to mean, ‘has Grandma promised not to kill Skye and Roman?’  After a quick good bye, Zane puts his phone back in his pocket.

“Alright, Doc, l
et’s see that wound of yours,” Brielle says, approaching Roman.

With a grimace, he pulls his shirt away fro
m the gunshot wound, wincing slightly as the material pulls on the dried blood around it.  There’s still a lot of damage on the outside, but considering Roman is up and walking, Beelzebub must have fixed the internal damage.  It figures he’d still leave room for pain and infection.

Brielle moves closer and pokes at his side.  “It’s nasty looking, but you should live.”

Roman’s lips quirk up.  “Is that your official diagnosis?”

“Yup, now get your ass in the Jeep and start cleaning yourself up.  I’ll drive and you can entertain
me with your daring exploits since you left the house.”  Without giving him a chance to argue, Brielle gets in the Jeep and closes the door.  Roman glances at me, looking like he’s about to say something, but he doesn’t.  He turns and follows Brielle to the Jeep and gets in.

Zane walks to the passenger side of his car and opens the door for me. 
The seat is free of glass though the back seat is covered with it.  I can’t tell from Zane’s expression what he’s thinking.  Yes, he hugged me when I threw myself into his arms, but he also saw the human man I killed and the devil almost kissing me.  Putting his arms around me when I ran to him may have just been reflex.

I watch him walk around the
front of the car and open his door.  He slides into his seat without a word and shifts into drive.  Brielle does a U-turn in front of us and Zane follows behind her.  Seeming to be deep in thought, he doesn’t say a word to me as we start back towards his home.

After half an hour, I can’t stand the silence anymore.  “Zane, I’m so sorry I’ve destroyed your life.  I really don’t want to come between you and your family.”  His brow furrows but he doesn’t say anything.  With a sigh, I turn my eyes toward the road again and we lapse back into our uncomfortable silence.  I close my eyes, wishing for sleep.  Even a nightmare would be better than th
is tightness squeezing my heart.

Chapter 14

I can’t decide if I’m dreaming or if I really am in the veil.  The car has disappeared and the air around me is mostly mist.  A dark figure is approaching and my pulse quickens.

“Skye,” a strained but familiar voice calls to me.  Malik.

My heart swells at the sight of my brother.  “I was afraid I’d never see you again.”

A sad smile touches his lips.  “I stayed away for your protection.  There are djinn who want to bring you back behind the veil and I don’t want to lead them to you.”

“But you’re here now.”

He nods.  “Yes, because you are shining like a beacon through the veil.”

I don’t understand.  “What does that mean?”

Malik is in front of me now.  He places his hands on my shoulders and says, “When you use your flames,
your soul is visible from both sides of the veil.  A djinni just needs to open his mind to sense your location and there are always djinn trying to find you.  You must learn to control it if you wish to stay hidden.”

“How, Malik?  How do I control
it?  I was being attacked and they came.”  I glance down at my hands.  If the flames hadn’t come, I might not be alive.

He doesn’t answer my question.  “Why have you left the sanctuary I found for you?”

Something resembling a chuckle rises from my throat but there is no humor in it.  “I didn’t leave by choice.”

Anger flashes in Malik’s eyes and I have to force myself not to take a step back.  “It was the old woman?”

I don’t want to answer out of fear for Mrs. Gregori’s life.  Yes, she held a gun to my head and forced me to leave, but she was doing it out of love for her grandchildren.  No harm came to either Roman or me that could be directly attributed to her and I’m not going to throw her in front of Malik’s fury.  I hold myself and the devil responsible for what happened after we left.  There is not a doubt in my mind, he knew what those human men intended and he just left us to deal with it.

“Malik, I need you.  I need you to teach me about what I am,” I plead.

Emotion passes through his eyes I can’t decipher.  “Skye…”

I shake my head.  “No, Malik.  I don’t want to hear about you leading the djinn to me. 
You said they can already find me on their own.  I was gone from Brielle’s for less than twelve hours and now there is human blood on my hands.  You know so much more about this,” I hold my hands up, palms out, “How do you expect me to stay sane if I’m an out of control killer?”

This time, I can tell it’s pain swimming in his eyes.  “Skye, in your heart…”

I cut him off again.  “Bullshit.  There’s nothing in my heart except fear.  There certainly isn’t an instruction manual for the curse I’m living with.  The only one who seems at all willing to help me understand it is the devil and that’s only because my particular brand of evil fascinates him.”

Malik’s hands are back on my shoulders and he’s shaking me.  “Skye, this is not a curse.  You are not evil, you are a savior.”

I sniff loudly as tears flow down my cheeks.  “Really?  Do you think that’s what the guy I just killed would call me?”

Malik’s hands drop down to his sides.  “You have the right to defend yourself.”

“I didn’t just defend myself.  If I had, the man might still be alive.  I killed him, Malik.  I tortured him and I killed him.  That is not self-defense.  I am nothing but a tool for the devil to use to get a head start on torturing souls.”

Malik’s face darkens in anger.  “
What did you see which makes you believe the ones you killed deserved anything less?”

I shake my head.  “It is not my place to judge.  I’m not free of sin, why should I be able to punish others for theirs?”

“You will bring the end of a war that has raged for millennia, Skye.”

“Ending a war by torturing the losers to death is not a victory. 
It simply changes the balance of evil.  If I am supposed to end the war, why don’t you want me to go back with you?”

His answer is not what I expect.  “It’s not time yet.”

What the hell does that mean?  “Why does it matter
when
I go back?” 

Malik stares at me for a long moment and then he pulls me into his arms.  “Skye, there is
so much more to your gift than what you know right now.  I will not let you be driven mad by the crimes of others before you figure that out.”

Pulling back, I ask,
“What do you mean?  Will I reach a point where I can make others relive their sins without me seeing them?  How would that make me less evil?”

A sad smile touches his lips.  “
So many times I wish our mother was here.  She would be more of a comfort to you than a cold-hearted bastard of a brother.”

I close my eyes in frustration.  “Why won’t you answer my questions?”

“Because it’s not my place.  You must learn certain things on your own.  Eventually, my dear one, you will learn of the good you can do.  It is fate’s cruel joke that made you learn of the bad before the good.  It is the bad the djinn want to exploit.  They can control you while you are so imbalanced.  You must stay hidden until more of your power manifests.”

I am still not convinced I will be anything other than evil.  Changing the subject, w
ords fall out of my mouth I hadn’t meant to speak.  “Roman really did love me.”

Malik nods.  “Another of fate’s cruel jokes.”

Shock makes my mouth fall open.  “You knew?”

His face hardens again.  “Love doesn’t conquer all, Skye.  Regardless of how Roman felt about you, he was destined to be your downfall, which he was.  The fact that he acted out of love instead of cruelty doesn’t change the end result.”

“So, he was never trying to hurt me?  He wasn’t evil?”

The anger has manifested on Malik’s face again.  “No more evil than I am.  Someday, you will
know how little that says for him.  Remember, Skye, he may have ended up loving you, but his intentions when he first came into your life were not pure.  He had every intention of seducing you and gaining control of you for the sake of his kind.  He meant to do you harm in the beginning.”  The same thought has been tickling the back of my mind.  Does it really matter Roman ended up loving me if he had planned to hurt me in the beginning?  Does one cancel out the other?

Malik pushes a strand of red hair behind my ear.  “If you must love, love your human, Skye.  It is not ideal, but a much safer place to keep your heart.  Don’t be lured by the promises of someone who once meant you harm.  Just as I whisper in your ear like this, there are those who whisper in Roman’s, trying to seduce him back behind the veil where his hold over you can be exploited.”

Ice captures my heart.  “Roman is talking to djinn behind the veil?” 

Malik nods.  “His family wants him to return.”
  He has already asked me to join him, so he must be considering it.

“
Roman has been in contact with his family?  That may be why he’s remembering so much more than I am.”  His family is probably telling him everything, not holding information back like Malik is.  “Can they make him do something he doesn’t want to do?”

The corners of Malik’s mouth quirk up.  “No more than I can with you.”  His face sobers again.  “But do not underestimate the bonds and influence of family.  Roman comes from a long line of masterful manipulators.”