Djinn (21 page)

I power-walked the first few blocks, just in case Ivan came after me. Then I slowed my pace to normal, not entirely sure where I was going. I hadn't been outside of the house on my own at all. I'd always been with Will or Isabelle, and they'd led the way. Now it was my turn to lead and all I could think about was getting away, escaping the compound by getting through the lower ring.

I walked until I reached the ring's dividing fence. I hesitated for a moment, realising I was still wearing the fancy gold dress. At least I wasn't wearing those heels. It was not the way a lady should look at all, but I didn't care. I didn't have a destination in mind, I just needed to walk and clear my head.

"Kyra?"

I spun around to see Will, Mia and Pyke walking down the street behind me. They were still in their training gear, carrying gym bags.

"Hi," I replied. "You finished training?"

"Yeah. After you left, everyone just got distracted," Pyke said, moving his gym bag to his other shoulder.

"Only you were distracted," Mia hissed, pushing past him.

"What are you doing out here?" Will asked.

I slumped my shoulders and sighed. "Honestly, I needed to get away from Ivan. He's in another angry mood and I can't take it."

I wanted to scream and rant about how horrible everything felt, then Pyke burst out laughing, like I'd said the funniest thing in the whole world. Tears even welled in his eyes. He shook his head and placed his arm over my shoulders.

"Honey, no offence, but your dad is the angriest guy I know."

I actually smiled at that. "Yeah, he is."

"We're heading to the park to run around. Want to join us?" Pyke asked.

"I don't think the little princess wants to be slumming it with us Guardjinn," Mia said, arms crossed.

"Please. Are you sure you want to be slumming it with me?" I replied.

Pyke laughed again. Apparently I was hilarious.

"I take back everything I said about you," he said, leading the way.

"Wait … what have you been saying about me?" I replied and followed after them, but Pyke and Will only smiled.

We walked into the lower ring, and I was struck with just how different it was from the palace and my own house. The pavement on the sidewalk was cracked and uneven. Potholes were scattered throughout the road, making it barely drivable. In the middle ring the hedges and trees were trimmed into shape, but here the weeds grew wild. The Guardjinn houses were rundown, brick bases with sheet metal roofs. Anything damaged seemed to be patched up with boards.

My heart sank.

We moved through the streets until we came to a large park surrounded by towering trees. It was like a mini-forest with an open space in the centre where tables and drink fountains were scattered about. Everywhere I looked, dogs ran freely, chasing one another and darting in and out of trees. I sat with Will on a picnic table, leaving enough distance between us so we weren't touching. This didn't seem to make a difference to Mia. She still glared at me as she leaned on the opposite side. I moved over slightly to make room for Pyke to sit but he ran right past me and into the bushes.

"Where is he going?" I asked.

Mia smirked. "He's shifting," she said.

"He's what?"

Will nudged my shoulder. "I told you all Guardjinn can shape-shift into dogs, right?" he said.

"Yeah, but …" I put the pieces together. "Wait, all these dogs are Guardjinn?" I gasped.

"See, told you it wasn't your thing," Mia said.

A black Dobermann came bounding out from the bushes where Pyke had entered. He came right up to me and licked my hand.

"Pyke," I said, "I know it's you, and licking me is creepy." I pulled my hand away.

Suddenly the Doberman shifted, growing bigger and bigger until it turned back into Pyke—a naked Pyke.

"Aww, come on guys," he whined. "You spoiled all my fun."

"Pyke, put some clothes on or shift back," Will said, averting his eyes.

"What?" Pyke said, like he didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

"You can't just walk around naked in front of people," I said to Pyke, though I was looking at Will.

"Really?" he replied. "It's kind of normal here."

"It's normal to be naked?"

"Actually, kind of," Will said, and I looked at him with disbelief. "But we tend not to wave it in people's faces." That comment was for Pyke, who I made the mistake of looking at to see him shrug. All of him.

I suppose when everyone turns into animals they are technically naked. It just didn't seem like a normal thing in the human world, but then, I guess I wasn't technically human. I'd have to get used to it.

"Come on Pyke, let's go for a run," Mia said, clearly over the conversation.

Pyke paused for a moment before shifting back in to a Dobermann. Mia pretended to ignore us and pulled her top off as she walked away. She was clearly doing it on purpose to get a rise out of me or maybe Will, but he didn't seem to even notice, and soon a beautiful Dalmatian joined its Dobermann friend. Pyke nuzzled my hand to say goodbye and Mia nipped his leg, encouraging him to get a move on.

I watched the pair run off before realising I was really watching a naked Mia and Pyke and quickly looked away.

"So, you guys just come to this park and run around together?" I asked Will.

"It's a dog thing," he said. "You wouldn't understand."

"Why wouldn't I?" I said, a little harsher than I intended. "Because I'm not a Guardjinn?"

Will shifted in his seat and I immediately realised he'd meant me no offense. "It's not because you're not a Guardjinn," he said, "It's because you haven't met your animal bond and shifted yet. The animal you bond with becomes a part of you, which means, sometimes, you need to run around as a dog, or fly as a bird, or swim as a fish. The animal bond calls to you."

That made sense to me. Shifting wasn't just taking on animal form, it was more complicated than that. It was taking the animal's behaviour and personality, like when Queen Celeste's eyes looked like a cats when she got angry. I bet that had something to do with the animal she could shift into.

A sudden thought occurred to me. "Will," I said leaning in and studying his face.

"Yeah?"

"It was you," I exclaimed. "You were the Lab who was following me around my house. Weren't you?" I didn't wait for him to answer. "I can tell. Your hair is the same colour as Lab's fur, and that's why I never saw you around the town. Well, I guess I did see you, but not
you
you." I took a deep breath, realising the giant rant I'd just undertaken.

Will only smiled. "You named me Lab?"

I felt my cheeks redden. "Ah, yeah. Well, you are a Labrador."

He laughed and it made my heart flutter. I immediately wanted to slap myself for even thinking it.

"Hey Will," I said, in a more serious tone. "Can I ask you something, and you give me an honest answer?"

His laughter slipped into silence and he looked me over. "I will never lie to you," he said and I believed him.

"Good," I replied. I was counting on him being truthful. "What are Blooders?"

His eyes widened, but only for a moment. He leaned in close to me and spoke in a hushed voice. "Kyra, we shouldn't be talking about that. Ivan specifically asked that no one tell you."

"Ivan didn't want me to know," I said. "That doesn't surprise me, he never wants me to know anything. Why didn't you tell me?"

Will glanced away, but his fists were clenched.

"You just said you'd never lie to me."

His head whipped around like I'd slapped him in the face. "I've never lied to you before," he said, and I could hear the hurt in his voice "How did you even find out about Blooders?"

"I heard the council talking about it in their meeting," I replied

"What were you doing in a council meeting? Never mind, I don't want to know. Forget about it, Kyra. In fact, you shouldn't even be here. If Ivan found out you were hanging out—"

"With Guardjinn?" I resisted, slamming my hand on the table. Why did he have to get all defensive all of the time? "I don't care that you're Guardjinn. Believe it or not, Will, you are pretty much one of my only friends, and the others are Mia and Pyke. And Mia hates me."

"I thought you and Prince Nathaniel seemed pretty friendly," he remarked, looking out over the park as dogs ran past.

I could have sworn I saw jealously in Will's eyes. Was he jealous of me and Nate? Did that mean he actually had feelings for me?

I shook my head. I had to stay on topic and get answers for once. I caught Will's gaze and, before he could look away, I grasped his hand in mine. He was going to answer my questions, one way or another.

"Forget about all that," I said. "Tell me about the Blooders, Will. You said you'd never lie to me."

I held his gaze so he couldn't look away. I could feel the heat from his palms under mine, clammy and strong.

"You're not going to leave this alone until I tell you, are you?"

"No, no I won't."

"Fine, but don't tell anyone I told you. Ivan really doesn't want you to know." Will looked around to make sure no one was listening. "I didn't tell you everything about our history when I was teaching you over the last week."

I cocked my head at him. "What do you mean?"

"When I told you that we granted wishes to humans in the old times. I didn't tell you how we did it: it was Djinn blood, our blood. It's where our abilities come from and, when humans drink our blood, they can gain our abilities for a short period of time."

"What?" I shouted and clasped my hand over my mouth. "That seems like a really big thing to leave out."

"Like I said, Ivan didn't—"

"It doesn't matter, Will, you should have told me."

"I'm telling you now. Do you want to know the rest or not?"

I shut my mouth and let him continue.

"After a while, the humans became obsessed with having our abilities. They didn't think it was fair that only the Djinn got to be special, so they became forceful toward us. And then it became violent."

"How violent?"

"The humans started taking Djinn and draining their blood for themselves," he replied, a dark look in his eyes.

"That's horrible."

"We realised the mistake we'd made and cut off their supply, essentially, giving up on the 'granting wishes' business. It wasn't too hard; the humans may have outnumbered us, but we were more powerful. We went into hiding, so the humans would forget about us and not be tempted." Will's eyes were locked in a hard stare, his fists gripping the edge of the bench.

"Unfortunately, not all humans gave up, and not all of them forgot. Small groups became even more obsessed, and started doing whatever they could to gain our blood. They'd take Djinn and hold them captive, draining their blood for as long as the Djinn would stay alive."

I stifled a gasp.

"Over time, these human drank so much blood that they evolved and adapted. They became Blooders."

"But what makes a Blooder different from a regular human?" I asked.

"First off, they have red eyes, like how we have golden ones," he said. "Second, for humans, a small vial of our blood would last them maybe a day if they didn't overdo it, but Blooders, a vial would give them three days' worth of powers. It all depends on how fast they burn through it. They've evolved to have a better absorption rate."

Will hung his head, staring at the ground as he spoke. "The Blooders grew in numbers, and soon, we had to hide ourselves completely from society so they couldn't find us."

An image popped in my head as Will told his story. It was of the night I was taken, when Dad pulled a red vial from underneath his shirt and drank it. The colour drained from my face.

"My father is a Blooder," I said.

"Yes," Will admitted.

I wanted to throw up. My hands shook, and I clenched them into balls to regain control. I had been taken by a Blooder. My dad drank blood like it was drug. The sick feeling passed and was replaced with a white-hot rage. Each new realisation was like a dagger to my heart. Will may have had thick skin, but I didn't.

"You knew," I said. "You knew, and you didn't say anything. Why didn't you—oh, let me guess. Ivan didn't want me to know." I was shouting now. Several dogs turned their heads my way, then continued to chase each other. I gained control of my emotions and lowered my voice. "That's the reason Malcolm took me, isn't it? He wanted my blood?"

"Yes, he stole you in the hopes of having his own private blood supply to give him abilities."

"But he didn't even know what my abilities would be." I don't know why I was arguing. Clearly Malcolm was a mad man, and I would have no hope of figuring out what was running through his mind when he decided to ruin my life and steal me away.

"I guess it was a risk he was willing to take," Will said. "He could raise you, and you'd trust him. You'd freely give your blood to him if he asked. If he made it sound important enough."