Serpent's Kiss (36 page)
Max shouted angrily from the bedroom. Normally goodnatured, he’d apparently had quite enough of being left out.
Grace sighed and went down the hall to collect the little man. Chloe had had her Cheerios snack, but she and Max had missed out on lunch. He had to be starving. She knew she was. She changed Max’s diaper and tickled him until his bad mood vanished, and he kicked and giggled. Then she settled him on the hip on her good side and turned to Chloe, who had followed her into the bedroom to watch.
“Think it’s about time we had some supper?” she asked.
Chloe gave that proposal due consideration. “Indeed.”
K
halil reformed on the roof of the house, not necessarily because he felt any particular desire to take physical form again but more to give his roiling energy a focal point. He crossed his arms and leaned back against a dormer. The roof was shabby and missing a few tiles, he noted with disapproval. The land was as unkempt as the house, with grass that was too long and weeds sprouting around fence posts. They were overtaking once well-tended flower beds. Everywhere he looked there was evidence of neglect, while the lazy, contentious human napped. He did not approve, either of how the property was maintained or how she cared for the children. He tapped his fingers on his biceps and thought.
The Djinn were among some of the first creatures that came into being at the Earth’s formation. Born of magic and fire, they were beings of pure spirit. They gained nourishment from the energy of the sun, from of the living things of Earth and from sources of Power. Any form Khalil chose to take was like donning a suit of clothes, a facade without real substance. This body he currently wore had no organs and would not grow hungry, or grow old and die. Easily assumed and easily discarded, it would fade into nothing as soon as he let go of it.
He was not the oldest of his kind, that first generation of Djinn that were born at the keen, bright morning of the world, but he was of the second generation and therefore considered old among his people. He was an authority in his House and a voice to be reckoned with among all the Houses of Djinn. This young human creature was nothing more than a single breath of time in his ageless existence, and the fact that she called
him
ignorant was insupportable.
While he certainly knew why she irritated him, he did not know why she interested him. Her facial features and physical form were pleasant enough, at least as far as humans reckoned such things. She was pale and wore shadows on her face like the haunts of memory. Those shadows were intriguing. They told a tale but in a language he couldn’t read. He wondered what they said.
Her hair—now her hair interested him. It was a light reddish blonde, like captured fire and sunlight, and her eyes held flecks of green and honey brown. She had a temper as fiery as her hair, and she held Power in that slender body of hers too, a great deal of it. It was an odd thing, that such a young creature held a Power that felt so old to him. The land itself held echoes of the same Power. He wondered what it meant.
He sensed movement and other flares of ancient Power in the nearby city. He knew that several of the entities from the early-morning confrontation were still in the area. Carling and Rune, several of the tribunal Councillors, the Nightkind King, and the dragon were somewhere close by. Khalil was curious to discover who might leave, and if any might return to speak again with the Oracle.
Shadows lengthened across the land. The Midwestern air felt heavy and full of water, like it was pregnant with some kind of storm. From his position on the roof he could see the Ohio River that bordered the western edge of the property. One of the great rivers of the North American continent, the water captured the sunlight along its surface until it seemed to shine with its own light.
He listened to the sounds from within the house, small domestic things like the clink of cutlery against dishes, the baby’s infectious giggle, Chloe’s light voice. The child chattered about anything that took her fancy and when she wasn’t talking, she sang. She asked questions unceasingly. Despite the fiery temper Grace had displayed to him, she always answered Chloe’s questions with patience.
They were like a small nest of birds. Khalil grinned when he thought of it. Chirp chirp chirp. Then there was the sound of water running, and much flapping of wings. The chirping grew louder. Much giggling was punctuated with Chloe’s
tralaing
and Max’s cheerful yodel. The noisiness moved from the kitchen to another part of the house. Grace was putting the children to bed. She lavished love on those babies. While he did not approve of her, and he was almost certain he didn’t like her, he would have to give the human female credit for that.
He thought back to a time long ago, when his own child Phaedra would have made such light, happy sounds. Djinn children were not born as humans or other embodied creatures are born, but were occasionally formed as two Djinn mingled energies. All forms of children were rare to the Elder Races, as if nature were compensating for giving the Elder Races such long lives, and the children for Djinn were no exception.
Phaedra’s mother Lethe had been even more Powerful than Khalil, a first-generation Djinn who remembered the dawn of the Earth. Over time he and Lethe had become enemies, and to hurt him, Lethe took their child and tortured her. Khalil, along with a select few allies that included Carling, had rescued Phaedra and torn Lethe to shreds.
His daughter lived but didn’t laugh any longer, not like these bright innocents. Phaedra’s energy was jagged and twisted. She shunned contact with others and was quick to lash out and cause damage. He did not know how to help her. He had never known how to help her.
At last Grace left Max and Chloe’s bedroom. He heard her move back to the kitchen. She ran more water, and there were more sounds of dishes clinking and splashing. Then she moved to another room, the left room in the downstairs. That would be the dining room. She was silent for a while and then she went into the living room. He noticed how her gait changed at times. She would start walking at a smooth pace but she quickly slowed down, and her footsteps became arrhythmic, ungraceful. It was another oddity.
She turned on the television and that was when he slipped silent as the summer breeze through the open window into the children’s bedroom.
The toys had been picked up. The floor was clear, and the room tidy. The bedroom was not quite dark because the door was open and indirect light shone from the living room down the hall. The two cribs were at opposite sides of the room. Posters of puppets adorned the walls. A cheerful green frog hung over Max’s crib, and a pink pig wearing a blonde wig and pearls hung over Chloe’s.
Khalil added the pig in the blonde wig to the growing list of things he did not understand. He hated to admit it, but the human female might have had a point.
Khalil moved silently over to check Max’s still form. The baby smelled clean and was fast asleep again, his round cheeks flushed. Khalil picked up Max’s hand and studied it curiously. It was even smaller and more delicate than Chloe’s, a soft little starfish of flesh. These humans were such odd creatures.
When he moved over to Chloe’s crib, he saw that she lay on her stomach, sucking her thumb. She smelled clean too, and her curls were combed. Then he saw the shadowed sparkle of her eyes, and he realized she was awake and watching him as he watched her.
He crouched to look at her through the bars of her crib. She smiled at him around her thumb. He whispered, “Do you know that I am the doggie-cat?”
She nodded.
“Clever girl.” He thought a minute, trying to come up with words she might understand. It was surprisingly difficult to try to think like a small, new human might. “Do you know that I am not really a doggie or a cat?”
She nodded again.
Good. That was good. He reached over the bars to pat her back. She felt warm and soft, and a little lumpy under a light summer blanket. “Do you know that you should not pull a real doggie’s tail, or a real cat’s tail either? And you should not poke them in the eye?”
She popped her thumb out of her mouth and whispered, “Indeed?”
He frowned, suspicious. “Do you know what that word means?”
She shook her head.
He sighed. “I see we have things to work on.”
She asked, “Can you be a horsie too?”
Ah. Small, noisy and remarkably tenacious. He was learning a great deal about new humans.
“I don’t think we should be having this conversation right now,” Khalil whispered. He wanted to pick her up and hug her but restrained himself.
She snickered sleepily. “Indeed.”
He patted her back again.
Indeed.
Berkley Sensation Titles by Thea Harrison
DRAGON BOUND
STORM’S HEART
SERPENT’S KISS
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