Jinn and Juice (23 page)

I stepped back behind the cover of Oz’s broad shoulders, quickly planning my next moves.

The game was afoot.

“I’m not exactly sure what I’m doing,” Oz said as Tamina approached him. She’d come down from her dais, helped by Dmitri, who hovered over her with the lovesick air of a smitten eight-year-old. On closer inspection, the sorcerer wasn’t that young—at least in his early twenties.

Tamina flicked her multicolored eyes at him coquettishly, but they never really warmed.

“I can guide you,” she said. “And you must remember something from your own Initiation?”

Oz nodded. “A bit. But I didn’t really believe what was happening. I thought your family had slipped me something and I was hallucinating.”

Tamina shook her head, placing a small hand on Oz’s large bicep. Dmitri shifted closer to Tamina, squaring his narrow, bony shoulders. She shot him a look and he backed off.

As she turned back to Oz, Tamina’s eyes grew round and soft again. “It pains me you were cut off from your heritage. You have tremendous potential, I can feel it.” Her voice lowered, as did her eyes. She peeped up at Oz with that patented
expression of modesty. Such a look, coming from a woman raised in a culture that prized a woman’s modesty above all else, was the equivalent of twerking against his groin.

Tamina was angling for my Master, in more ways than one. I found myself grinding my teeth. Dmitri cleared his throat.

“We should begin,” Tamina said, withdrawing her hand. Until she had Kouros, she’d need Dmitri’s power. But after that…

Something told me the kid would be back in whatever basement he’d come from, his Xbox and his right hand once again his only friends.

“Can you remember the stages?” Tamina asked Oz.

His brow furrowed. “I remember they drew a circle… salt mixed with coal dust?”

Tamina nodded. “Good. Loretta?”

The Exterminator, looking mulish but obeying, went behind the dais. We heard the opening of a door, some rustling, and then she came forward, hauling a large plastic jug that had once held road salt. Now it held a combination of salt and something powdery and gray. Coal dust.

Tamina put a hand on my former friend’s cheek and the part of me that had wondered why Loretta would betray us the way she had vanished. If Dmitri looked at Tamina like a lovesick eight-year-old, Loretta looked at the girl like she was a perfectly cooked sirloin steak. She practically slavered under Tamina’s hand.

Loretta’d always loved power. She’d stayed on as an Exterminator long after her required service was over. So no wonder she’d wanted the credit for our capture: Tamina offered power. Worse crimes had been committed for far less motivation.

Tamina made a shooing gesture at Loretta, but gave her a
small smile. The siren came forward, still hauling the large jug, then began to shakily pour out the salt to create a circle a few feet in radius.

“Now,” Tamina said to Oz, when Loretta was finished. “What comes next?”

“After the circle,” he replied, “they Called a jinni into it. An unBound one.”

Tamina nodded. “Excellent. And then?”

“They asked the jinni to Initiate the new Magi, in exchange for its eternal freedom from that Magi’s Binding. Then the jinni says something in its own language…”

Oz’s voice trailed off. I’d been Called to a few Initiations myself, and I knew the process was painful for the Magi. Not that I’d had a lot of sympathy for them, before Oz.

“And then my blood learns its own power, and I can Call and Bind what before I could only See.” Tamina’s multicolored eyes sparked with suppressed power, and I normally would have pitied the jinni Bound by a Master such as she.

But, since she planned on Binding Kouros, I was pretty sure those eyes wouldn’t be sparking for too much longer. If Tamina was a bad fruit, Kouros was a bad tree—one that could walk and talk, and whose only pleasure was sadistically torturing anyone who came near him.

He was also incredibly old—no one knew exactly how old, although I’d heard rumors from the few jinn who would talk to me that they thought him the oldest jinni still alive—and insanely powerful. That he’d been imprisoned by his own kind sorta said it all—he had the kind of personality not even his brethren could love.

“Shall we begin?” Tamina asked, her voice hoarse and dreamy. She was clearly excited to be Initiated, as in “excited.”
Oz glanced at me uncomfortably and I gave him a nearly imperceptible nod.

“Okay, let’s do this,” Oz said, giving one loud clap like a dad rounding up his kids at a softball game. He walked toward the circle, Tamina by his side. I melted back a few steps, behind the various groups of children that all moved forward to watch the show. Even the ones ostensibly guarding Bertha and Yulia moved forward, forgetting their charges completely.

They were, after all, mostly children, without any discipline and easily distracted. Hence going through with Tamina’s Initiation.

“First, Call,” Tamina urged Oz. “Your power will automatically seek the most powerful jinni within the reach of your voice. And I can tell you have a very large… reach.”

This time Tamina’s look was less than modest. Oz’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

“Okay, but I’m not sure about the Calling part,” he said. “I’ve never really done it. I found Lyla where your family said I would; I didn’t really Call her.”

“You know the words, correct?” Tamina asked. Oz nodded. “Then say them. Hear them. Lace them with your Will. You are not merely repeating the words, you are using them. They are your tool. They are a part of you…” And with that, she began to chant the ancient words of Calling, spoken in the language of the jinn.

“Te vash anuk a si. Te vash anuk a si. Te vash…”

Oz’s bass rumble joined her lilting melody.
“… anuk a si. Te vash anuk a si…”

For the first few lines, his Call was missing the call… he was merely repeating the words. But then he closed his eyes, and that little furrow of concentration I’d grown so used to seeing
appeared, and when he opened them again his power bloomed forth, white and hot, from his silver Magi eyes.

I sighed. He really was a beautiful man.

Within the circle of salt and coal dust, dark smoke began to swirl. At first slowly, then pouring in thick black undulations that snaked around each other until something began to form out of the smoke. Arms, a torso, legs, finally a head… that opened glowing red eyes upon the two who stood before it.

I waited for the moment when it tried to ground itself in the power at its feet, watching as its eyes winced in pain, the smoke of its face curling in distaste.

Red fire formed its mouth as it spoke. “Pittsburgh?” it said, contempt lacing its words. “Really?”

Normally, as the Initiate, Tamina would be silent, letting the Magi who had Called the jinni say the words of the ancient ritual. But Oz didn’t know them, and for all her faults involving megalomania, I did appreciate how Tamina was one young woman who got shit done. So she was the one who bargained with the jinni.

“We offer you a truce, Fire-born. You have been Called, but not yet Bound. In this moment, we promise you freedom, in exchange for your wisdom. Initiate me, and you go free.”

The jinni looked at Tamina, cocking its head. “You are far from home,” it said. “But I recognize you.”

Its red eyes flicked around the girl till they lit on me. Shit. We really needed the distraction of Lyla’s Initiation, but something told me the jig was up.

“You are rumored to seek Kouros,” said the jinni. “And you have his creature.”

It stood to full height, looking down at Tamina. “I think I will refuse your bargain, this time. I would rather be Bound than help you free he who is best kept prisoner.”

Tamina rolled her eyes, a very American gesture, and I wondered if she’d been watching
30 Rock
when she wasn’t planning to take over the world.

“Then my friend here will Bind you. And I will keep you here, in this room, in this circle, with only the Node at your feet to pull your power from. And I will ask you to perform services for me, until you are forced to tap into that power, and it poisons you. And then I will watch you die, slowly and painfully, and I will do the same thing to the next jinni we Call, until one of you Initiates me.”

I blinked. It was basically the same thing with which we’d threatened the jinni we’d Called earlier, to get info on Kouros. But the difference between our threat and Tamina’s? Tamina meant it. And she’d probably enjoy enforcing it.

The jinni’s eyes narrowed even further, its smoky form lashing with anger. Then I saw its shoulders droop, the thin slit of its red eyes close for just a second, and I knew it had decided to play ball.

While I understood its reluctance, I rejoiced. We only had one shot at escape, and we needed Tamina out of the picture for it to work.

Not bothering with the formal exchange of words that normally accompanied the Initiation, the jinni glared at Tamina. “I do this and you free me?” She nodded.

“God help us,” the jinni said, in its own language, beckoning Tamina forward.

She stepped toward the circle, just to within the reach of the jinni’s outstretched finger. It touched her forehead, and I felt the rush of its power into the girl.

Tamina’s eyes Flared painfully, too bright even to look at. Her body arched onto tiptoe, her spine bowed, her mouth open in a silent scream.

Then the light faded and her multicolored eyes were the pale silver of a full Magi’s.

She let out a triumphant sigh, and then she collapsed to the floor.

I took the opportunity to raise my arms to my friends, who shook off the last of their bonds with gleeful expressions.

Showtime.

T
he jinni Oz had Called cast me a look of pure hatred and disappeared, automatically freed by the magic of the circle when it fulfilled its side of the deal.

Tamina’s body was bucking like a rodeo bull, her eyes sparking as her power Flared uncontrollably. Dmitri rushed to her side, along with Loretta and a handful of kids. Everyone else moved just a little bit forward, as I’d planned on.

Everyone but my friends and me. Unnoticed, Oz slipped away from the press surrounding Tamina to join me.

I kept my hand raised, waiting for the perfect moment.

Our newly Initiated Magi screamed in agony, over and over again, victim of the inevitable rush of power that came with her new status. It happened to all Magi when Initiated, and it’s what I’d been counting on.

My hand came down: our signal. Bright white light flared from behind me as Yulia went full wisp, slicing through the remaining bonds holding her and Bertha. Bertha shook herself like a giant Doberman, then pulled a club out of her own pocket of Sideways.

As a concession to the fact that our kidnappers were teenagers,
she left her studded club put away, choosing her regular club instead.

Everyone was so busy worrying about Tamina that no one noticed us creeping toward the throne room’s wide double doors. It was that damned Loretta who, while bent solicitously over her new bestie, happened to glance up.

“They’re escaping!” she shrieked. At least fifty small faces lifted toward us, and I swore.

“Run!” I shouted, but it was too late. Two half-vamps popped right in front of us, and I heard the footfalls of more behind us. The little monsters were intimidating, despite their youth. Sharp teeth decorated their slavering, snarling faces, their whole mien one of mindless hunger.

One of the bigger boys went after Bertha, who casually bopped him over the head with her club. He went down like a sack of rocks, unconscious. The other big ones went after Yulia, who grinned ferociously. Two long, pale tendrils of light lashed around the two kids, and her eyes closed infinitesimally as she fed deep of their life essence. Her wisp magic washed over them, and they went limp in her grasp until their heads lolled on their shoulders. They’d live, after sleeping for a week or two.

That left the last, littlest one to me.

With a flick of my Fire, I lit up the back of his T-shirt. The half-vamp squealed, running in a panic around the room.

Coast clear for the moment, we turned as one to the big double doors. We surged toward them but something arced over our heads to land in the doorway, exploding with a bang that made everything go white and soundless as pain pummeled my body and my vision went dark.

It came back only a few seconds later. I found myself sitting upright on the floor, like I was about to do leg stretches. Oz was
beside me, curled away from me on his side, and Bertha was lying on top of Yulia.

Kids were heaped about the room in smoking puppy piles, and my eyes finally landed on Dmitri, standing beside Tamina, both of them looking at his hands in shock.

“Don’t kill them, you idiot,” snarled a still Flaring Tamina. “What is wrong with you?”

“Junior doesn’t know his own strength,” I muttered, giving my head a hard shake and turning toward Oz.

“Master?” I said. When he didn’t respond, I grabbed his shoulder to shake him. “Master?”

“Okay,” he muttered. “I’m all right…”

But when I got him to his feet I knew he wasn’t. He kept one arm wrapped protectively around his ribs, making me think that was where he’d taken the brunt of the magic grenade that idiot sorcerer had lobbed.

That said, Oz was ambulatory if obviously in pain. Bertha was another matter.

The half-troll had taken most of the attack, shielding Yulia with her body. The wisp was kneeling over our friend, smacking her sharply while chanting, “Don’t die, you bitch, don’t die.”

My magic automatically went in, sensing quite a bit of internal damage. “You’ve got to get her out of here,” I said to Yulia, even as I did the same to Oz. As I thought, he had a few broken ribs, one of which was perilously close to a lung.

He wasn’t going to be running anywhere. I needed to get him somewhere close by to heal that rib before he punctured something. But we didn’t have time for the intense healing Bertha needed, although moving her wouldn’t harm her any worse than she already had been. Luckily, Yulia was humming with energy from the force she’d taken out of the two young half-vamps.

“Take her home,” I told Yulia. “Can you handle her?”

Yulia looked at me stubbornly. “We’re not leaving you.” But I shook my head.

“You have to,” I said. “Bertha isn’t going to make it, and you can move faster without us. I have to get him healed, then we can follow.”

I figured our chances of getting away were pretty slim, actually, but Yulia didn’t need to know that. Not least because Tamina didn’t really want or need my friends; they’d just been insurance. We could give them time to escape, and they’d have time to regroup and bring the cavalry.

“You’ve gotta go now,” I told Yulia. “We’ll follow.”

The kids around us were waking up, getting to their feet to reel around on uncertain legs.

Yulia gave me a desperate look. “But…”

“No buts. If you can take Bertha, go
now
. If you can’t…”

“I can,” Yulia said, her voice grim. Her wisps reached out to wrap around our friend, hefting her enormous bulk with apparent ease. “And you’ll follow?”

I nodded, glancing at Oz, who was an unhealthy shade of green. “Of course. As soon as we can.”

“Be careful,” Yulia said. “We’ll send help as soon as we can.”

“Good plan. Now go,” I said, urgency lacing my voice as a little knot of swaying children converged on us.

Yulia hauled Bertha out of the room, her wisps manhandling the half-troll as if she were the child. I turned to my Master.

“Can you run?” He shook his head.

“I don’t think so. I can walk. If you help me…”

I slid under his armpit, letting his weight fall heavily on me. I set up a little wall of Fire behind us, keeping the kids at bay while we hustled out, much more slowly, in Yulia and Bertha’s wake.

A bright silver light Flared again behind us, and I heard Tamina scream in pain. The few kids who’d pulled themselves together enough to head in our direction faltered, looking back at their leader. I banked my Fire even hotter and higher, so they wouldn’t see in which direction we turned out of the throne room.

I went left, seeing a small door lurking off the long main hallway of the palace. I hoped this door wasn’t a little antechamber or something, where we’d be trapped like idiots.

“Humph,” Oz grunted as I jostled him pushing open the door.

“Sorry,” I told him, feeling relief when I saw a hallway with more doors coming off of it. Good.

“I’m going to start healing you,” I said. “I can’t do much when we’re moving like this, but I can start. It’s going to hurt.”

“It hurts now,” he said, his face pale and sweating.

“I know, Master,” I said, genuinely worried for him.

“Jesus, call me Oz,” he snapped, the pain making him lose patience.

I rolled my eyes, but did as he said. “Bear down, Oz,” I said. “I’m going to start…”

When I opened myself to the Node, its power almost overwhelmed me. It was right under our feet in Pittsburgh, but here the magic was all around us, saturating the air. I carefully grounded myself, keeping a tight grip on my magical channels so they didn’t flood, and sent a tendril of magic out to Ozan.

“Shit,” he hissed, as the magic hit him. I needed to concentrate to do any real healing, but I could at least stabilize him as we moved, to keep that rib from puncturing his lung.

“None of this is going to feel good,” I told him, grimly, as we ducked through a series of low doors leading through small stone rooms, the purpose of which was completely obscure.

“It’s fine,” he said, but his gritted teeth said otherwise.

Without thinking I gave him a squeeze with the arm I had wrapped around his waist. “I know it hurts,” I said, then “Sorry,” when he hissed. Not the best time for a motivational hug.

“No one seems to be following,” I said, as we paused in another long hallway to catch our breath and listen. Oz nodded grimly, his eyes shut. I needed to get him healed, stat.

I knew we’d found the right place when we entered what looked like a medieval tennis court, although there were low stone walls instead of nets. But there was a gallery looming above the court, accessible from a winding staircase at either end. I could see a door in the center of the gallery, leading into a dark room behind.

“Let’s go up there,” I said. Oz nodded, although he eyed the staircase with more than a little dismay.

“You can do it. Just tell me you need help. Don’t forget you’re a Magi.”

The look he gave me was dark, but he didn’t argue. “I’ll need help,” he said shortly. It wasn’t much of a command, but it would do.

Without my commanding it, my Fire blossomed, cocooning him in its swirling darkness. I carried him like that, up the stairs, my magic cushioning our ascent.

When we got to the top, I swore. The dark lintel off the gallery did not lead into the rest of the palace, as I’d assumed, but into a small, windowless room. I considered taking Oz back down, but listening to his rattling breath I knew we were running out of time.

“Tell me to heal you,” I said as I laid him on the floor.

“Do I have to?”

I rolled my eyes. “My power works better that way. I’d do it myself, if that’s what you’re asking. But if you command me the jinni in me does it automatically, and better than I can by myself.”

His concentration wrinkle formed and I knew he was filing away what I’d just told him, but before I could admonish him he said, “Heal me, please,” and I thought the
please
was a nice touch.

My jinni went to work, seeking out his injuries. They were worse than I’d first assessed—stuff had been scraping around and there was some internal bleeding I quickly stanched. The soft tissue was easy, however, and quick to manipulate. It was the bones that would be a bitch.

I took Oz’s hand as I started on his ribs, and he squeezed mine gratefully. His eyes were large, full of pain as he stared into mine. I smiled encouragingly at him as the bones were pulled into place.

My smile faltered, however, when we heard the shouts from down below. There were children in the court.

I ceased my healing as we listened. What had begun as a few quiet footfalls was now the sounds of quite a few feet, pattering around the court.

“I can smell them,” said a snarling voice. One of the half-vamps. “They were here.”

We were stock-still, our eyes still glued on each other’s as we listened. We heard footsteps beneath us, then a voice saying, “Didn’t go this way.”

The footsteps came back into the room below. “What’s up there?” a voice asked.

“Nuffin’,” said a girl’s voice. “Just a room.”

“They don’t know that,” said the snarling voice.

And we knew we were fucked. Someone shouted and other kids responded, more voices and feet piling into the court. We heard shuffling at either end of our gallery—children waiting to ascend and find us, trapped.

“They can’t get you,” Oz said. I’d started healing him again, furiously, not wanting him to be vulnerable when they came up.

“They’re about to get both of us,” I said. “This is going to hurt, but we’ll have you on your feet…”

“Lyla, stop,” he commanded. My jinni did so, even as I squeaked a protest.

His voice was calm as he spoke, and his hand in mine was steady. “They can’t get you,” he said. “If they do, they’re going to use you to bring your maker back to this world. Even I, with so little experience of jinn, can see that’s a terrible idea. Plus I don’t like Tamina very much anymore, and I don’t want her to get her way.”

“They’re just kids,” I lied. Dmitri was not just a kid, and enough kids could take us down as they had Bertha and Yulia. “I’ll get us out.”

“No, you won’t. I know what I’m doing. You have to trust me. I’ll be fine.”

I cocked my head at him, about to ask what he meant, but he spoke first.

“Lyla, I command you to get yourself to safety. Now.”

And with that, my jinni did as he said, even as I howled in protest. She drew heavily on the Node, more than I’d ever pulled. More than I’d thought I could pull. I shut my eyes against that schizoid feeling of my own power doing something against my will and suddenly I was opening them again standing outside the palace, my fingers closed around nothing.

And then Oz unBound me.

I gasped, feeling his power over me wink out of existence. I was free.

And I was pissed.

And then everything went dark…

I came to just a short while later, the shock of using and then losing all that magic having left my head buzzing painfully. I swore, remembering what Oz had done, and before Tamina could realize I was free I pulled, hard, on that last pocket of power being Bound to Oz had left me, feeling for him through the empty space his unBinding me had left, till my power found him, and I pulled…