djinn wars 03 - fallen (6 page)

There was such a tone of command in Lilias’ voice that Lauren clearly didn’t want to protest. A quick nod, and then she was gone, too, leaving Jace and me alone with the djinn woman and her wounded lover.

An uneasy silence fell. Lilias reached out and wrapped her fingers around Aidan’s. Even in his stupor, he seemed to recognize her touch and squeezed faintly, as if to let her know he understood that she was there with him.

Jace and I stood a few feet away, but I could still see the tears shimmering on her cheeks. Without looking at us, she said, “You knew this would happen.”

“No,” Jace replied gently, “I did not know for certain. I worried that it might. I tried to keep it from happening. But the Los Alamos survivors forced my hand. I could not return to Santa Fe and still keep Jessica safe.”

“And now none of us are safe.”

For a long, long moment, Jace said nothing, only stood next to me, his hand still in mine. I felt a shudder go through him, and I tightened my grip. I was tempted to reach out to him with my thoughts, but something told me that would be rude, to be holding a silent conversation right under Lilias’ nose. Even though I didn’t understand all the ramifications of how our communication worked, I guessed that the djinn could only speak in such a way with their partners. Otherwise, that conversation I’d overheard between Zahrias and Jace would have been entirely subvocal, and possibly I would never have discovered his true identity.

Well, except for the part where he’d been floating a few feet above the floor.

At last, Jace spoke. “You think I wanted this?” He didn’t sound angry, only tired, and I wished I could take him away from here and back to our rooms, hold him in my arms and let him lay his head against my shoulder. Not even make love, really, only be together, be alone, away from this ongoing nightmare.

But I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Lilias had asked for us to stay with her, although at the moment, I couldn’t quite understand why. Just so she could upbraid Jace?

She sighed then, and lifted Aidan’s hand so she could press it against her cheek. There was such tenderness in the gesture that I found my eyes widening in surprise. I couldn’t say why, exactly. It wasn’t as if I’d spent much time observing the other djinn with their Chosen, but from what I’d seen so far, they didn’t seem all that inclined toward public displays of affection.

Judging by the way her gaze flicked to me, I could tell she’d noticed my reaction. “This startles you?” she asked. “That I would care so much?”

“I — ” Helpless, I glanced up at Jace, but he didn’t move or say anything. Possibly the slightest lift of his shoulders. Floundering for words, I went on, “I — I’m sorry that he won’t be able to heal quickly. I know Miguel will do what he can, but there’s bound to be some scarring.”

“That matters very little,” Lilias replied, and again I found myself surprised. The djinn woman’s mouth curled. Then she said, “I suppose you think us all very shallow, with our young and pretty partners…even though you are one of them yourself. It is true that I chose Aidan at first because of his handsome face, but he has been a good companion to me. He is a good man, whether his face is whole or not. And I will let him know that as soon as he awakens.”

She pressed her lips against Aidan’s hand and then laid it down very gently at his side. Gaze fixed on the young man she loved — and studiously not looking at Jace — she went on, “My apologies, Jasreel. I know none of this is your fault. You cannot be held responsible for the actions of another.”

“My thanks, Lilias,” he said, his tone strangely formal. When I looked up at him, though, I could see that the solemn way he had addressed her was most likely his way of showing respect for her and her current situation, and not because he was angry. Still, I itched to know what exactly she was talking about. Was this her oblique way of referring to Aldair? It must be.

Jace had told me some of the truth, but I had to wonder right then whether he had told me all of it. That discussion would have to wait, though. For now, Lilias wanted us with her, and I knew Jace would never leave someone in need.

Luckily, Miguel returned only a few minutes after that, laden with cases of supplies he must have pilfered from the urgent-care center. After giving Jace and me a brief nod, he went directly to Aidan’s bedside and laid a hand on his forehead.

“Already feeling feverish,” he muttered, then rummaged through one of the bags he’d been carrying. “He needs antibiotics, but I couldn’t find anything except penicillin-based drugs. Let’s all pray he’s not allergic.”

No kidding. I wondered if someone who hadn’t quite finished EMT training would know what to do in the case of a negative drug reaction. Maybe. That was way out of my wheelhouse — I knew enough to clean wounds and bandage them, and even put together a makeshift splint or whatever, but that was about where my first aid knowledge stopped.

We all waited in tense silence as Miguel pushed a capsule between Aidan’s dry lips and then coaxed some water down his throat. Of course, if he did end up having a bad reaction, it wasn’t as if it would manifest immediately. But for some reason, I kept staring, as if certain the worst was about to happen.

Nothing did happen, of course. Miguel did some more rummaging and produced what looked like high-octane antiseptic, and a packet with a curved needle and a length of pre-cut suture material. At that point he did pause and look over at Lilias. “You may not want to stay to watch this,” he said.

She didn’t even blink. “I will stay by my Chosen’s side.”

“Okay.” A quick flicker of his gaze up toward us. “But you two — it’s probably better if I don’t have to do this with a full house. It’s been a while since I picked up one of these, you know?”

“Of course,” Jace replied immediately. “If that is all right with you, Lilias.”

“Yes. Thank you for staying with me. But if Miguel thinks he can do better with only me here, then it’s better that you go.”

That seemed to be our signal to leave, so we murmured our goodbyes and left the suite. We didn’t get very far, however, as Lauren was hovering just around the corner of the hallway.

“How is he?”

“Hard to say,” I said. “Miguel said he’s already feverish, so he gave him some antibiotics. Now he’s starting in with the stitches. He didn’t really need us there for that, so….” I trailed off. What else was I supposed to say? None of Aidan’s wounds appeared life-threatening, so now it seemed to be a matter of giving him time to heal.

“Got it.” Lauren was looking pale, but her voice sounded no-nonsense enough at least. “I’ll let Zahrias know. But I also wanted to say thank you for finding those generators. They’re already hooked up, and so we don’t need to worry about the food spoiling. Lindsay’s jury-rigged something with the plumbing — don’t ask me to explain how — and we’ve got running water, at least for now. We could only scavenge enough propane to run four of the hot water heaters, so we’ll be taking showers in shifts, I’m afraid.”

“That’s no problem,” I told her, slipping an arm around Jace’s waist. “We’ll take ours together. In the name of conservation and all that.”

She actually did smile at the joke — well, half-joke…I actually thought it was a pretty good idea — but then her expression turned serious again. “Zahrias will want to talk to Aidan when he wakes up. Any idea when that will be?”

Since I had no idea, I could only shrug. “You should ask Miguel about that. But I doubt it’ll be before tomorrow morning.”

“I was afraid of that.” Lauren tucked a piece of blazing red hair behind one ear. “I’ll let him know. And you two — well, I suppose you should try to get some rest. Who knows what’s going to hit us next.”

After delivering that cheerful remark, she gave us a half-wave and then headed off toward the conference room Zahrias had commandeered for his use. Jace took my hand. “Come, beloved. She’s right. Aidan is in good hands, and there’s nothing else we can do right now. I will confess that I would like to sit down.”

Of course he would. Now that I had the luxury to look at him more closely, I could see how shadowed his eyes were, the taut look to his mouth. Lord knows how he’d kept himself going this long.

Giving him what I hoped was an encouraging smile, I said, “We’ll go back to our suite, and you can put your feet up for a while. And I’ll see about scrounging something to eat, too. Sound good?”

He nodded, and we headed for “home.” His steps grew slower and heavier the whole way, and by the time we got to our rooms, it seemed as if he barely had the energy to put one foot in front of the other. Somehow, though, he mustered the strength to bend down and pat Dutchie on the head before finally going to the bed and more or less collapsing on it.

I brought him some water, then murmured that I needed to take the dog for her afternoon walk. And after that, I’d bring him some food.

His words were slurred as he slumped back against the pillows. “Thank you, Jessica. I’m sorry — sorry — ”

Pressing my lips against his cut off the unneeded apology. “It’s fine. Get your rest. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Which was only the truth, since his eyes were closing even as I leaned down to clip Dutchie’s leash to her collar. As I let myself out, I wondered if my “solution” to the djinn attack had only doomed Jace to a half-life, one in which he would be forever robbed of his true strength.

No. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe that. This was a temporary setback, nothing more. And until we could come up with a permanent solution, I would do everything necessary to take care of the man I loved. After all, he’d spent most of the autumn looking after me, making sure I was safe.

The least I could do was return the favor.

Chapter Four

Aidan finally woke up late the next morning. We didn’t see him until that afternoon, though, as he was still very weak. But Zahrias wanted us to be there when Aidan recounted what had happened while he was out on that doomed hunting expedition.

A good night’s sleep seemed to have helped Jace a good deal, although the lovemaking we’d teased one another about had never materialized. Instead, I’d spent the night snuggled up against him, hoping I could lend him some of the warmth of my body the way he’d given me his during those cold November nights back in the Santa Fe house. In the darkness, he’d wrapped his arms around me, held me close, and something in that embrace was so tender, so fierce, that I couldn’t really regret not having sex. Sometimes, just being next to one another was enough.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we went in to see Aidan. Some mass of horrific Frankenstein-style stitches on his face, I supposed. But while something like that might have been hiding underneath, fresh bandages covered his cheeks, concealing the worst of the damage. His hair appeared to have been brushed and washed, and if he didn’t look exactly cheerful, he did seem more or less alert.

Lilias sat next to the bed, her hand still in his. I wondered if she’d stayed there all night, or if she’d dozed on the couch in the sitting area of their suite. Since Aidan lay in more or less the middle of the bed, it didn’t appear as if he’d shared it with her.

Several chairs had been brought in; Zahrias was already sitting in one of them, and he gestured for Jace and me to sit down as we entered the room. No protests there. Jace had come to the realization that he couldn’t continue to exert himself the way he had the day before, not if he wanted to maintain any kind of usefulness in the long run. That meant sitting whenever possible, and letting me do most of the fetching and carrying. I didn’t mind, if that meant he would have a reserve of strength to draw on when he needed it most.

Only a brief nod from Zahrias as Jace and I seated ourselves, and then the djinn leader turned his attention back to Aidan. “How are you feeling today?”

“Like fifty miles of bad road.” A hand went up to touch the bandage on his right cheek. “Probably look like it, too. But I’ll live. Miguel says the antibiotics knocked my fever right back, so that’s something.”

“It is, indeed.” Zahrias glanced over at Lilias. “Did you sleep at all?”

“Some,” she admitted, then added in fiercer tones, “Enough.”

That seemed to be sufficient for Zahrias. His shoulders lifted, and he shifted his gaze to the young man lying in the bed. “Tell us what happened.”

For a second, Aidan shut his eyes. His lashes were dark brown, much darker than his hair, which had been bleached by the sun. When he lifted his lids again, I was startled by the bright blue of his eyes, which I hadn’t really noticed before. Maybe they only looked that bright because of all the bruising around them.

He said, “We went east, toward the hills. Clay said — he was from around here — that we still could find some deer there, maybe pheasant. And he was right. We bagged a buck and a couple of birds, and that filled the ATV we were driving, so we decided to head back.” Aidan winced. “That pisses me off. Had to leave a perfectly good buck behind.”