Thorin blew out an exasperated breath and spread his arms open. “Why would I do that?”
Poe lurched to his feet. He paced the room and ran his hand through his hair.
None of his brothers had come looking for him once he’d been released. He didn’t think they’d even noticed he’d been gone.
“What did Henry wish for?” he asked when he came back to face Thorin. “Henry might have known about the supernatural world, but he’d never allowed himself to become involved with it. He had always been a foolishly religious man. What did Red give him that persuaded him otherwise?”
Thorin stood too. “Red gave him a son.”
“Bloody hell.” Poe paced away again as his mind reeled. “How come no one told me? Why didn’t Red tell me?”
“You know how Red is. He isn’t conspicuous.”
All this time, he thought his family had left him to rot in that hole.
He thought they didn’t care, and he’d convinced himself neither did he.
“You know what Ma once told me?” Thorin said. “‘Love speaks many languages and it’s impossible to know them all.’”
Thorin squared himself in front of Poe, cutting him off from his incessant pacing. “People love differently, brother. Sometimes the things they do to show their love are not even obvious. Sometimes they happen in the dark when no one is watching.”
Poe turned away when his eyes stung with tears. Gods, he missed his mother.
She had always kept him on the ground. Kept him reasonable and sane.
When he returned from the Tower, she had been the only one to notice his absence. “I wish you wouldn’t just disappear like that,” she’d said to him. “I was beginning to worry.”
But looking back, maybe he’d given her too much credit and Red not enough.
And maybe he was doing the same thing to Willa.
He went around Thorin and left the music room.
Thorin followed behind. “Where are you going?”
“I need to see the security cameras.” He went to the security room on the east end of the house and tapped in the code on the digital control panel installed in the wall. The lock thudded open.
The room was small with one wall comprised entirely of security monitors.
There wasn’t a 24-hour guard on duty here, but maybe they ought to rethink that after Raina so easily broke inside. The cameras had mostly been Dae’s idea and Red had conceded after some coaxing.
The cameras were only installed on the first floor in the shared spaces, but that was exactly what Poe wanted to view anyway.
Something had changed in Willa in the time he’d been with his family in the conservatory. But what?
“How do you work this thing?” Poe waved impatiently at the controls.
Thorin sighed. “What footage do you want to see?”
“The hallway outside the conservatory and maybe the library, too. When we were all together earlier today.”
Thorin typed in a few commands and clicked on the file that popped up. He scrubbed through the footage.
“There. Stop,” Poe said once Willa left him in the conservatory.
She lingered in the hallway just as he’d suspected she had.
But then...she pulled something from her bag.
Her tarot cards.
He watched, his heart sinking, as she went to the library and shuffled the cards with trembling hands. Then she laid five cards facedown on the table.
She started flipping them.
Poe had no experience with the tarot, so he had no idea what the cards meant.
Willa flipped the last card over and sank to her knees sobbing. Poe’s insides knotted.
“That can’t be good,” Thorin said.
Poe was cold all over.
He should have known.
He should have seen through all the hateful things she’d said to him.
Willa had been afraid. And he’d left her there. Left her to go face a demon, alone—
“I have to go.” Poe was already running as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He hit Willa’s name in his contacts.
She had wished for him to leave her alone and as far as he was concerned, time was up.
Chapter 27
WILLA
When Willa’s cell phone rang and she saw Poe’s name flash over the screen, her heart leapt to her throat.
But she couldn’t tell if that was her own feelings or the demon’s. Her body was no longer hers to command.
Help, she wanted to scream.
Run, she wanted to say.
She was in trouble. She was drowning in her own skin, but she didn’t want to drag Poe down with her.
Willa watched helplessly as her hand reached across the table for the phone, her finger swiping to answer. She cringed as the demon said, in her own voice, “That didn’t take as long as I thought it would.”
“Will.” Poe almost sounded relieved. “Where are you? I’m coming to you now.”
“Oh that’s an excellent idea,” the demon said. “Bring my collar while you’re at it.”
Silence filled the connection.
When Poe came back on, his voice had a harder edge to it. “Demijinn.”
“Ding. Ding. Ding.”
Though Willa could do nothing with her body, she had complete sensation of all of her wild emotions. And right now she was embarrassed and ashamed. Poe had told her she was no match for a demon and he’d been right. She thought she had enough experience with this one in particular to give her a leg up. But it turned out, she was just a big fucking idiot.
Now she didn’t have her body. Her sister was suffering from considerable blood loss in the next room. And Poe was still in danger.
Because the demon wanted its collar and Willa could sense its shifting plans now that Poe was on the phone.
What will I lose?
Everything.
Though her thoughts were also now the demon’s thoughts, it hadn’t made a move to drive to Billy’s to fetch the collar.
And though the demon knew what she knew, Willa was frustrated to realize she couldn’t grasp the demon’s plans.
It was as if it had constructed a two-way mirror between her and it and she was on the wrong side.
“If it’s your collar you want, I don’t have it,” Poe said.
“I know where she hid it. I’ll tell you where to look.”
“And then what?”
“And then I’ll put it on someone.”
Did it mean her, or Raina?
Or worse...
Demons could possess anyone and anything, including djinn.
But the person or supernatural being had to give permission and the likelihood of Poe or any of his brothers saying yes was slim.
The demon would have nothing to dangle in front of them to tempt them and its powers of persuasion weren’t as effective on djinn.
That, at least, gave Willa some relief.
You think I have nothing? the demon said in her head. Oh, I beg to differ.
“If you bring it to me,” it said in a sing-song voice, “I’ll tell you a secret.”
No.
“I have no need for your secrets, demijinn,” Poe said.
“I think you’ll like this one.”
Don’t. Please!
“It’s about your caeli,” the demon added.
Poe was quiet another minute. Then, “Why would I believe you?”
“Your belief doesn’t make the fact any less true.”
“If I bring you the collar, you will let Willa go.”
It was not a question. There was no negotiation.
Please don’t come Poe.
“Give me a few hours,” he said. “I’m not invoked. I’ll have to come and go the way of mortals.”
“Of course. Take your time. But not too much time. There’s no telling what I might do with this gorgeous body.” The demon kicked up its feet and propped them on the table.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” Poe said.
The demon laughed. “Too late.” The demon arched its back and slipped its hand beneath the waistline of her jeans. It danced its fingers—her fingers—over her clit.
“Oh, she likes that. She’s thinking of you inside her, djinn. She’s so wet for you.”
Poe growled through the line.
“I will retrieve your collar,” he said, his voice low and throaty. “I will even give it to you. But after that, I suggest you run. Run as far and as fast as you possibly can, because I will hunt you down, demijinn, and I will paint the earth with your blood.”
The line went dead.
The demon let the phone clatter back to the table.
“Fucking djinn,” it said and laughed.
It tried to pretend like Poe’s threat did nothing for it.
But Willa knew the truth: the demon was afraid.
And quietly in the distance she heard it think: Change of plans. I will show the djinn who really has the power.
Chapter 28
POE
Poe couldn’t breathe he was so fucking angry.
He clenched his hands into fists and roared.
He never should have let Willa drive off alone.
He never should have let her push him away.
He could have worked around her wish. He had centuries worth of experience twisting wishes to mean something else.
Instead, he’d let his ego get in the way and now Willa was out of his reach with a demon holding her hostage in her own fucking body.
He inhaled and closed his eyes. He had to think.
Because now there were no deals, no wishes. It was only him and he wasn’t enough on his own.
He had always faced everything alone. He’d thought he didn’t need his family and he’d shouldered that lie like a fucking stone. He was Sisyphus, endlessly climbing, burdened by the weight.
But it did not have to be that way.
He. Was. Not. Alone.
On his phone, he tapped at Dae’s name. His brother answered on the second ring. “Hello, brother,” Dae said.
Poe sucked in a breath. “I need your help.”
Chapter 29
POE
Dae sat on one of the stools at the bar in the billiards room. There was a cigarette clipped between his knuckles, the smoke curling around his hand.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Of course I’m serious,” Poe said. “Why does everyone keep saying that to me?”
“You want me to try to fool a demon with a decoy collar?”
Where Poe had the gift of parsing out a person’s desires even before a deal was struck, Dae had the gift of illusion. It was how he came to earn his nickname The Trickster.
“Not just one. Two dozen. Seven dozen. I don’t care how many. As many as it takes.”
Dae shook his head. “That might work for a few minutes, but the demon will sniff out the true one.”
“That’s all we need while we exorcise the son of a bitch.”
“Djinn can’t exorcise demijinn.”
“We’ll make Corvin do it.”
“Oh I’m sure that will go over quite well.”
“We can be convincing.”
“Say we are, say he does exorcise it. Willa’s sister has already said yes to it many times. It would likely jump back to her and likely she will say yes again.”
“That’s why you’ll get Raina out of the Compound first.”
Dae sighed. He stretched his legs out. “This is a risk.”
“Obviously.”
“It would be easier just to kill one of the humans, whichever one is possessed.”
“And if it were Ashley who was possessed?”
Dae straightened, a territorial scowl hardening his face. “That’s different. Ashley is my caeli.”
“And before you knew she was?”
Dae took another long hit from the cigarette and ground it out in the ashtray. When he exhaled, he looked at Poe, the smoke hanging in the air between them.
“I would have done anything to protect her.”
Poe nodded. “I feel the same way about Willa.”
He hadn’t realized just how strongly he felt about her until tonight. Until he stood to lose her.
When he was around her, everything within him uncoiled and lay still. He felt whole and centered. Right.
He did not want his caeli, he realized.
He did not care who she was or where she was.
He just wanted Will.
The brothers were quiet for a moment. The house was still around them. Oddie had gone to bed a while ago. Thorin had left.
Poe wasn’t sure where Mad or Red was.
“What changed?” Dae asked.
“What do you mean?”
“With you and me. I thought you could do everything alone. Isn’t that what you always say?”
Poe scratched at the back of his head. Apologies had never come easily to him. Possibly because he had thought himself always right.
And look how that’s turning out for you.
“Thorin talked some sense into me. I realized I was being a tremendous ass.”
“Is this really happening?” Dae swiveled on the stool and surveyed the room. “I’m not dreaming am I?”
“Oh, shut up.”
“Poe Blackwell, admitting he’s an ass? Say it isn’t so.”
Poe slid off the stool and went around the bar. “Now you can go fuck yourself.”
Dae laughed harder. Poe poured himself a glass of water as he waited impatiently for Dae to exhaust his delight. When he had, Poe sobered. “I’m sorry for pushing you away. I’m sorry for a great many things.”
Dae waved his hand vaguely through the air. “What’s done is done.” But he too was solemn as he looked Poe in the eye as if he had been waiting for this moment for a very long time. “We’re both at fault. I’m sorry I left you after Mother died. I’m sorry I blamed you. I just…I couldn’t handle it.”
“I know.”
Dae came around the bar and wrapped him in a brotherly hug. “I will always have your back,” he said. “I hope you know that.”
“I do.”
Dae’s magic permeated the air. It always reminded Poe of chai tea. Not that commercial bullshit sold on a store shelf, either. Authentic chai. The kind that originated in India. Black tea. Cinnamon. Cardamom. Cloves.
Gods. I have missed my brother.
“All right then,” Dae said. “Tell me where to go so we can save your human.”
Poe grabbed one of the runed blades from the cabinet across the room. They worked just as well on demons as they did on djinn. It would do in an emergency. And if they somehow managed to get the demon to possess someone worth killing, Poe would clamp the collar on the fool’s neck and stick the blade in his heart.
Poe strapped the blade to his arm and hid it beneath his shirtsleeve. “The demijinn said we needed to go to 1223 Kippy Creek Road. Do you know where it is?”
“I can get us close enough.” Dae set his hand on Poe’s shoulder and vaded them away.
Chapter 30
WILLA
After the phone call with Poe, the demon retreated and gave Willa control of her body and her voice again. She considered walking out the door and running just to see how far she could get.
Likely not very far.
She sensed the demon swimming just below the surface like a shark. She couldn’t see its razor teeth, but she could make out its shadow shape.
Caleb had disappeared shortly after the demon took over Willa’s body, but he’d been kind enough to carry Raina from the dining room floor up to her bedroom.
She’d been out since the demon left her, but in the half hour Willa had been by her side, Raina had begun to stir.
When her eyes flickered open and peered over at Willa, Willa was flooded with relief.
“Hey,” she said.
Raina flinched back, her eyes going wide.
So she remembered. She’d been aware of all of it.
“
It’s me,” Willa said and frowned. “At least for now.”
She grabbed the glass of water on the bedside table and offered it to Raina. “Here, drink.”
Raina pulled herself into a sitting position, the knit blanket hanging haphazardly over her kicked up knees. She drank.
“Thanks,” she said and reached over to set the glass down bringing her into the lamp’s swath of light. It exaggerated the puffy bags beneath her eyes and the deep shadows on her face.
She looked so horribly beat.
Willa’s chest tightened.
She had failed spectacularly on so many fucking levels.
She’d been running circles trying to protect her sister. And she couldn’t even manage it.
“How do you feel?” Willa asked.
Raina laid her head against the headboard. “Really tired. And sore. Like I have the flu.”
“Is that typical for…” Willa let the question trail off, somehow afraid to say the word.
“Possession?” Raina filled in.
“Yeah.”
“Pretty typical, yeah. It’s worse the first time when it leaves.” Her eyes found Willa’s. “Why did you do it? Why did you say yes?”
Willa sniffed. “Because it was hurting you. It would have killed you.”
“So what?” Raina picked at the gauze taped over her wrist. “If it had, you’d have been better off anyway.”
“Don’t say that.”
“It’s true.”
“Rae, I would never let anyone hurt you. I would never leave you. Isn’t that the promise we made each other?”
“We were just kids. You can’t protect me from everything. That’s impossible.”
“Well I can damn well try.”
“And what about you?”
“What do you mean, what about me?”
Raina pierced her with a look. “You’ll never be the same again after saying yes. Even if it leaves you, it’ll continue to haunt you. Even if it puts a collar on me, it’ll still torment you.”
The demon writhed inside of Willa.
“Maybe you don’t notice it yet, just what the demon does to you,” Raina said. “It’s like a bubble, barely even there. But it makes you feel okay in your skin. It takes away the pain, dulls the ache. Right now you’re thinking, this isn’t so bad. It could leave me right now and I’ll be totes fine.
Two Deals: a Djinn Paranormal Romance (Blackwell Djinn) Page 13
