Djinn: Cursed (5 page)

She gave Hai a, “So there look.”

I sighed in exasperation and chastised, “Behave.”

She had the common decency to look sheepish until she looked to empty space beside her and then she snorted at something the voices must have said to her.

I asked as I narrowed my eyes, “What?”

She shook her head, refusing to tell. “Nothing.”

I looked to the empty air beside her and said, “It was Stacy wasn't it?  Some smart ass comment?”

She bit her tongue then said with a shrug,  “Maybe.”  Then to the air, she said, “You're right.”

Then I swallowed and asked what I knew I had already figured out, “They just aren't voices you hear are they Dorian?  They're... you can speak to the dead.  Can't you?”

She looked down at her hands and looked so very small at that moment.  She nodded once then defended, “It's not like I want to.  They just sort of... come to me.”  Then she gave a cheesy grin. “Not all of them are as hot as Stacy here mind you.”

I actually burst out into a nervous giggle and said, “And she won't let you forget that.”

She beamed a smile at me, and I just knew my dead friend had made some sarcastic comment.  I flipped off the air then set the now empty glass of water on the little side table and said with a little reticence and resignation, “I know what's going on.”

Both women froze, eyes on me as I said the impossible, “My family line is cursed.  I'm a fucking Djinn.”

We moved to the little table as I sifted through the wealth of information my inadvertent wish to know what was going on had given me.  And it chilled me to the bone.  What had happened the prior night was just the beginning of the upcoming shitstorm.

Dori prompted me, “Djinn, kind of like a genie?”

I nodded and admitted, “Exactly like a genie.  That wish I made last night gave me all the information I needed, but there was so much.  I'm still sifting through it.  I don't even know everything I know now.”

Hailey stood and went to the coffeemaker on the little counter. “I take it I'm not getting any sleep anytime soon.  I'm going to need lots of caffeine for this.  I have to be at the police station in just three hours for a deposition.”

Then she growled out to the ceiling, “Genies, killers, talking to the dead... this is all impossible.”

I gave her a sheepish smile, spread my wings wide and shrugged.  This got an unexpected laugh from the woman and she gave an unrestrained smile as she said, “Point taken bird-girl.”

Dorian stood as she asked, “So tell us what you know and how you know it, Angel.”  She started going through the cupboards and refrigerator, setting things on the counter.

Hailey growled, “By all means, help yourself.”

Dori didn't seem put off by her tone as she countered, “Don't get your knickers in a bunch, Action Barbie.  I'm making breakfast for all of us.  I have a bad feeling we're going to need to keep our strength up.”

Then she added, “And I haven't had a full meal in days.”  Her head snapped to the side, and she hissed out, “Shut up Randy, you're dead.  You can't get hungry.”

I couldn't help it.  I chuckled at the absurdity of it all and then leaned back in the chair, my wings draping down the back of it and the pinion feathers brushing the floor.  My wings.  I think they, out of everything that had happened, were what made all of this real to me and not some sick and twisted nightmare.

I paused and asked as I looked around,  “So, ummm... how many ghosts are in here now?”

She cocked her head. “Ghosts?  Huh, I guess they are.  Just the three.  Randy, Robin and now Stacy.  Dan left earlier when he got bored.  Most just hang around with me for a couple weeks, happy to have someone who they can communicate with on this side of life.  But they usually get bored like that and move on.  Randy and Robin are the exceptions, they like trying to tell me what to do all the time, but they're nice enough.  They look out for me.”

She started cooking some eggs and threw some buttered bread onto another pan on the small stove.  “I see others on the street all the time.  I can't keep a job because they are always bothering me and talking to me while I try to work.  Everyone thinks I'm crazy, and maybe I am, how the hell would I know?”

I looked at her then at the feathers at my shoulders.  I wasn't one to cast stones in the crazy farm we seemed to be planted in.

She divided the eggs onto the bread she was browning and slid them onto some paper plates she had pulled out of one of the cupboards and slid the plates in front of us.  It was some sort of scrambled egg open faced sandwich.

Hailey stared at the plate in front of her dubiously and asked, “Who taught you how to cook?”

Dorian moved her chair beside mine and sat, giving me a grin.  Then she picked up her toasted bread with eggs and started eating, saying around a mouthful, “Nobody really.  I sort of cut bait and ran when I was twelve when my parents were trying to get me into some looney bin.”

I hesitated and asked with incredulity in my tone, “You've been on your own since you were twelve?”

She shook her head, seeming nonplused as she took another bite like she hadn't eaten in weeks.  “Not alone.  Randy and Robin and all the others watch out for me.”  She grinned. “They're like my foster-ghosts I guess.”  She shrugged.

Hailey and I exchanged glances.  My God, she was just a kid when she took to the streets.  Nobody has helped her in all that time?  I took a hesitant bite of her creation and blinked in surprise.  It was actually pretty good for something so simple.

It wasn't until I was cleaning the last bits off egg off the plate, realizing how hungry I had been, when Hai pushed her empty plate away from her a bit and leaned back in the chair, saying, “Alright darlin', no more stalling.  Just what the hell is going on here?”

I snorted when Dorian said randomly, “Your hair's purple.” She licked her paper plate clean.  Hailey tried hard not to break her serious scowl but had to look away to smile at our odd companion.

I shook my head at her, threw a wing over her shoulder and closed my eyes to sort through the information in my head.  “It sort of started back twenty-five hundred years ago in Sumeria, with one of my ancestors.  Back when ancient Mesopotamia had become part of the Achaemenid Persian empire.”

I sat back a little in my chair pulling the information from my mind that hadn't been there just hours before, it felt like I was reading from some sort of textbook.  “My family were westerners, from Briton, during their Iron Age.  They were obsessed with gaining power to protect their people from the threat of growing unrest in Europe after the recent overthrow of the Roman monarchy, and beginning of the Republican period.”

I frowned and looked at the two women who were now watching me with rapt attention.  I narrowed my eyes. “Somewhere along their travels, they lost sight of the reasons for their quest.  To protect their people.  By the time rumors of ancient powers in the far off lands of the east reached them, they were obsessed with power for power's sake.  They had lost their way.”

I shook my head. “They made the journey to the lands of Babylon, to beseech the chieftains there to share the secrets of the otherworldly beings that they were rumored to consort with.  When they could not gain the information they sought, they brought war to the region, killing all who withheld the knowledge they desired.”

I exhaled loudly as the slaughter played out in front of me like some chaotic movie that only I was privy to.  “Finally, they came up against a great chieftain, Xerxes, a warlord like no other, who seemed to wield powers that would rival lesser gods.  The battle was long and drawn out.  During a respite between sorties,  Xerxes bade them parle at his tents under a banner of peace.”

I shook my head.  “He asked why they waged war in his lands, and why they sought the power of the demons.  They put forth that it was their right to hold it over others so they would not be challenged.  The man laughed at them and asked if they really wished to meet the greater Djinn, who could grant them their desires.”

I paused and asked my companions, “Were my ancestors total idiots or something?”

I shrugged at the inevitability of what transpired next.  “He brought them to a mountain and spoke a word at the sheer cliffs.  With a clap of thunder, the very stone those cliffs were composed of, cracked open like a gash in the very Earth itself.  They stepped into the crevice and were engulfed by a darkness so profound it made them think twice about the undertaking.”

Dorian shifted in her seat cocking her head as she listened intently.  She noted me looking at her and looked down almost bashfully.  I tilted my head away in embarrassment of being caught, and toward Hai as I described the borrowed memories from eons ago.  “The warlord stopped and told them he could go no further, that the one with the ability to grant them the unlimited power they desired was in a cavern beyond.”

I narrowed my eyes, feeling anger I couldn't quite understand building inside, at the arrogance of my bloodline.  “They ventured into a cavern that was lit by some unknown source, it was magnified and glittered like a million fireflies or the glitter of gems in the sunlight.  It took a moment for them to realize that was more accurate than they could ever have imagined.  They walked between mountains of gems, some the size of a man's fist.”

“They quickly found themselves disoriented and lost their way in a fog which swirled around the great space.  Then a voice boomed out, which chilled them to their very core, because it was all of their voices and all the voices of everyone they had know, living or dead. 'Who comes to feed me their souls?' it asked.”

I shifted uncomfortably at what I described next.  “My ancestors, unsure of themselves, stuttered out who they were and that they sought the power that was rightfully theirs.  It laughed at them, and the sound of it seemed to claw at their very beings.  They tried to turn and run, but they could not get their limbs to obey.”

“In the swirling fog, they got glimpses of a being so very terrible and impossible, with an air of power that threatened to drive them mad.  He looked to be a man, but they somehow knew that it was just a mask the creature wore.  It was something from mankind's deepest nightmares, a temptation so great yet so terrifying, and they were helpless in front of it.  It stank of death and of sweet meadows.  A tempting corruption they were helpless against.”

I growled out, “He had said, 'If it is power you seek, I will give you power unlimited.  But there is a cost.  There is always a cost.'  They readily agreed, their minds filling with the possibilities of striking the same fear and awe into others that this demon had in them.  None would cross their family line.”

I gritted my teeth.  “Those from Xerxes camp heard their screams for days, but they say the most frightening part of it was the moment the screams had suddenly ceased.”

“When the demon was through with the fools who sought him out, he said to them, 'You have what you asked for, now leave me lest I consume what is left of your souls and place them with my other gems.'  That is when they looked around and realized what the mountains of gems truly were, the souls of those who dared enter the man beast's domain.”

“They chanced a single question.  Not feeling any different than when they had entered the chasm, except for the madness of their torture that had eroded their minds as a raw and corrupt power seemed to flow through them like an unrelenting tide. 'We feel no different.  Did we endure your torture for naught?'”

I grimaced as I relayed. “His anger boomed out from him, his patience wearing thin, stripping some of their humanity from them in thousands of voices. 'You have what you desired, you have simply to wish, and it will be.  But do not let your greed guide you and abuse the power, or the price will be exacted.'  They asked what the price was, now afraid of the fact that they hadn't asked before.  He just screamed, 'get out!' at them, sending them tumbling out of the great chasm with the force of it, their ears bleeding from the fetid evil in the tone.  The cliff face closed, swallowing the chasm as if it had never been.”

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair in exasperation, knowing why I was as I was now and hating everything about my ancestors and their greed and drive for power.  “They found that when they wished as the demon had told them, that whatever they wished for became a reality.  The power drove them mad with desire for their every whim, not thinking of the price to be paid as the creature had warned of.  Xerxes seemed to encourage them, humbling himself in front of their great power.  But he knew the beast, for he had bargained away his very soul as well.  It had made him the King of Kings of his land.”

“My ancestors saw the others making more and more sweeping wishes, amassing more power and influence, and one, Synne, saw it as a threat to her own power.  So for her tenth wish, she wished the others dead, so she alone could wield the power of the gods.  To be a virtual goddess among men.  She laughed at how pathetic the rest of her kin were to not have thought of it before she had.  That is when the price was exacted.”

I shook my head at the idiots who thought dealing with a demon was ever a good idea.  “The woman found that her wishes no longer manifested. That is when Xerxes had her seized, and he made a wish of his own.  Synne found herself a conduit to the power, a need inside she could not quell as she used the corrupt energies of the realms of the demons to rearrange the threads of reality, stitching them together to make Xerxes words a reality.  He bound her to his service and prevented her from doing him or his kin harm.”

“He explained that he had a pact with the greater Djinn.  That the creature would provide him with fools to grant his wishes, in exchange for him showing them the way to his lair where he could feed upon their souls.  That each was granted ten wishes of their own which bound them to the Djinn, changing them into one of his kind, a lesser Djinn.”

My voice wavered, knowing this was to be my fate as well if I were tempted to use any more wishes. “Then they would be bound by the first person to voice a wish to them.  They would be forced to be the conduit to grant three wishes to their new master before their life force was stripped of them and gifted to the Djinn for his mountain of lost souls in his lair, trapped in an endless torment that fed the demon's own power.”

I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I said in a hoarse voice, “Xerxes then bound my entire family line in a curse that tied us to his line for eternity.  He wished that we would always have a female child before our power grew inside us enough to manifest.  Then his family would bind us and use their three wishes to amass more power for themselves.  They would always track and watch our progeny, waiting for the moment they could force us to make our own wishes so they can enslave us and make their own.”

My voice cracked. “This way, when we died to pay the price of our greed, there would always be another of our line to take our place, forever cursed.  Our children and their children paying the price for our ancestor's greed and madness.”