Order of the Akasha: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Complete Series)

by E. M. Moore

  The only good news was that Granny’s visit had made the drive go by quicker and I was close to the estate now still djinn-free. Without her in the car, I pressed the gas pedal down even further and floored it. I had to tell the rest of the coven this new information, so we could work on it together.

  The world flew past and the sunlight streaming in through the windshield glinted off my all-seeing-eye bracelet. I eyed it, a thought taking shape. Could that have been the reason the djinn couldn’t get through to me? I wasn’t quite sure why, but my intuition told me no. It wasn’t the bracelet at all. It was something else entirely. What I did know that whoever was trying to get me would figure it out. I had to be prepared before that happened.

  14

  Liam was outside checking the wards when I pulled up. As soon as he saw me, he ran to the Jeep to help me out of the car, doing a once-over like I was a porcelain doll. “I’m fine,” I assured him.

  “I know. Randy told me, but I’m just checking. Did anything else happen on the way here?”

  I shut the door and grumbled. “Only that Granny came to visit to tell me that someone must be telling the djinn to do these things because it would absolutely not be doing anything on its own. That’s not how djinn’s work. Also, we probably shouldn’t call her Granny anymore.”

  Liam stared at me with a furrowed brow.

  “Trust me.”

  He shook his head. “Let’s just get you inside. We walked in and Gabe and Travis were right there, waiting. Liam gave them the quick update about what Granny had said.

  Travis immediately spoke us, suggesting that we go see Dean. “If he’s playing us…”

  “Randy called him,” I said.

  “We know, but that doesn’t mean he’s not playing us. Even if it’s not him, it’s probably his father.”

  That’s exactly what I’d thought, but I still had my reservations about it. Something about it just didn’t add up. “It couldn’t hurt to have another talk with him,” I finally said.

  Travis pulled out his cell phone and touched a number on his screen. He held it to his ear, but all it did was ring and ring. He ended the call and tried again. “Fucking wonderful,” he said, ending the call again. “Now Dean’s not picking up. It won’t even go to voicemail.”

  My insides churned. I stood from the stool, my heart racing. There was a possibility the djinn did something to Dean. Look what a djinn had done to Liam’s parents. I looked over at him, gaging his reaction, but his face was passive. “We have to go to the Reid’s house to find out what’s going on.”

  Without speaking, Liam pulled on my arm and we were out the door just about as fast as we came in. Travis hopped in the driver’s seat with Liam in the passenger’s side, calling Randy to tell him to meet us over at the Reid’s.

  I watched the way Liam’s jaw tensed and relaxed as if he were grinding away at his own teeth. After a moment, he turned to Travis, “What exactly did Walter say again?”

  Travis rubbed his jaw. “He said not to get involved and that we should only tell them when we got the pull.”

  “Which makes it sound like we should get the pull still.”

  Travis shrugged. “It did to me, but…semantics. Who knows what they did?”

  I looked inside myself, searching for the area that led me to black magic. I felt that it was right there, hovering at the surface, but it just wasn’t getting triggered. Why would a rogue djinn not be triggering it?

  “We should probably tell them it’s showing itself to me now. Then, we won’t have to lie about what we’re doing,” I mentioned.

  “Couldn’t hurt,” Travis said. “I still don’t know though. They’re pretty adamant about us not doing anything.”

  “Which is ridiculous because if I have a djinn coming after me, and djinns are known to do—” I flicked my gaze to Liam. “—unkindly things to people, then we’re going to do something about it. It’s not like we’re just going to sit back and wait until the djinn does something to me.”

  Travis pushed down harder on the gas the more we talked. We made it to Boston in record time. Traffic wasn’t half as bad on a Saturday, but it was still a major U.S. city, so it wasn’t a cake walk either. Finally, we pulled up to the mansion and got out. Randy was already waiting there, his bike propped up by the kickstand while he leaned on the bike, looking every bit the badass he was. The churning in my gut calmed a little, or maybe that was because we were all together again.

  He kicked away from the bike when he saw us and we all met up just outside the gate. “I knew I didn’t like that prick,” Randy said. “He ghosted on us.”

  I looked from him to Liam, thinking Randy’s dislike had something to do with Liam having a surprise old friend and Randy not knowing how to take that information. He was so used to Liam not having anybody but him. Then, Dean tipped the status quo and he was anxiously waiting to see where he would fall into all this. “The djinn could be going after him, too,” I explained to Randy.

  “We won’t know anything until we go up there and ask,” Gabe said. He grabbed at the iron gates and shook them, hollering out for the guard. A different one came up to the gate this time. Gabe spoke to him, telling him we wanted to see Dean Reid and if he wasn’t available, Mr. Reid would do.

  He seemed hesitant to do anything, but then Randy stepped into view and the guard changed his tune. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said, pulling the radio off his belt and walking away.

  “Tell him we’re from the Order,” Travis called out after him.

  The guy looked over his shoulder, his forehead creasing.

  “He’ll understand,” Travis said.

  The guard shrugged and continued to walk away from us. Within a couple minutes, he made his way back. He unlocked the gate and let us in, telling us that Dean wasn’t in, but that Mr. Reid was happy to see us.

  Unlike when we’d come here to see Dean, an actual servant stood in the main doorway as we walked up to the entrance. He bowed and then showed us through the house to a dark sitting room. A middle-aged gentleman with a suit on stood near a table against the wall with crystal decanters, each one sporting a different hue of brown liquid. He turned when the servant showed us in. He was all smiles. Before the servant left, Mr. Reid asked him to close the door behind him.

  A slight wave of shock went through the servant though he said nothing. Once we were all in the room by ourselves, Mr. Reid turned fully toward us. Upon closer inspection, his upper lip and forehead had dots of sweat and he was pale with a high blush over his cheekbones that didn’t look normal.

  Liam stepped forward. “Where’s Dean?”

  Mr. Reid held an exquisite cup to his lips, his hand shaking slightly. “I don’t know.” He tried to smile, but then just gave up. “I assume that’s why you’re here.”

  “We know you’re having problems with your family djinn,” Liam said. “We need to know where it is and where Dean is as soon as possible.”

  “I wish I could tell you.” He swallowed long and hard, his gaze retreating to the other side of the room where no one else sat, a far-off expression on his face.

  “Listen,” Randy said, screwing all pretense. “That djinn has been following one of us around, and since we know you’re the only one who controls it—”

  Mr. Reid looked up, startled. “B-but, I’m not. Not for the past couple weeks, anyway.”

  “Bullshit,” Randy said, his arms bulging.

  Liam held his hand up to calm Randy down, but all it did was infuriate him even more. He swore, the sound ricocheting off the walls in the room.

  “It’s true,” Mr. Reid said. “I’m not.”

  Liam came forward. Mr. Reid’s face blanched even more, his eyes growing wide with each step he took toward him. “We need to know about this djinn if we’re going to help.”

  “You’re—?”

  “Yes,” Liam said, cutting him off. This wasn’t the time for any reunions. “The djinn, Mr. Reid? How does it work?”

  Mr. Reid leaned over,
putting his glass on the small table in front of him. I crossed my hands over my chest, waiting for him to continue while still keeping my guard up. He ran a hand through his hair and started with his story. “My family, among others, found out about djinns a long, long time ago. Around that same time, we also found out that witches could control them to get what they wanted. Some people called it lazy witchcraft, but it worked well for those of us that had one.”

  “Who all had one?” Liam asked.

  “Your family,” he said. “The Pryor’s. There were also the Goode’s, the Hawthorne’s, and the Peabody’s.”

  Shit. I recognized just about every one of those names from Salem’s history. It was impossible not to know this stuff if you spent any time in Historic Salem.

  “For hundreds of years, the djinn worked very well for all of us. Nathaniel Hawthorne became an impeccable, famous writer. The Peabody’s became so wealthy and respected that they named a town after them. But, little by little, their worlds started to go under. Subsequent families disassociated themselves from the line who had the djinn, the Hawthorne’s even dropping the ‘e’ in their name until you see it used as Hawthorn today. Decades and centuries passed, each of the founding families falling into obscurity, sometimes in harsh ways like death, sometimes in ruin. Finally, it was just the Reid’s and the Pryor’s who had a djinn. Since you know about the djinn, I don’t know how much information I need to go into there.” He took a deep breath. “Then, the Pryor’s djinn started to…go bad.” He shrugged. “There’s just no other word for it. So, when the Pryor’s…died.”

  “Were murdered,” Liam said, interrupting.

  Mr. Reid just nodded. “Afterward, it was just us who had a djinn left.”

  “And how is it that you were able to keep your djinn from ‘going bad’?” Travis asked. “Weren’t you the least bit afraid of what would happen after you saw what happened to the Pryor’s? Did you ever think about giving it up?”

  Mr. Reid’s face went scarlet. “I have everything I’ve ever wanted because of that djinn. That’s not something that you just give up.”

  “Even if it would save your own life? Your family’s lives?” Randy demanded.

  “We placed it under safeguards,” Mr. Reid spat. “It worked for years until now.”

  “Now fate’s probably caught up with you,” Randy said. “You know what I think? I think this is karma we’re dealing with here. You can’t just use something to get whatever you want out of it, lock it up, and then expect it not to do anything in return. You’ve treated it like it’s your slave.”

  “It’s what djinns do.” Mr. Reid stood, his hands making fists. “We didn’t do anything to it that it already didn’t naturally do.”

  “And are they naturally supposed to be chained to one family for centuries?” Travis asked, calmer than Randy, but with the same displeasure staining his words.

  “Well—”

  “They’re right,” I said, stepping forward. “You probably pissed it off. Where do you think your son is, Mr. Reid?”

  He ran a shaking hand through his hair. “We got in a fight. He said he had to see where the djinn was, that it was our responsibility, but it had gone missing again. I just want him back!”

  “Your son or the djinn?” Randy barked, looking down his nose at the pathetic father in front of us. Dean was right. His father had an unhealthy attachment to this thing.

  “Both!” Mr. Reid snarled. He bent low, picking up his drink again and throwing the rest of it back.

  What a freaking whackjob. He was putting the djinn and his son on the same level. He was obsessed with this thing just like Dean said he was. “You didn’t tell the djinn to go after me?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t even know who you are.”

  Thank fuck for that. I didn’t need anyone this self-absorbed in my inner circle. “If the Reid’s are the only ones who have control over their family djinn, why would it be doing whatever it wants?”

  “The only thing I can think of is that it’s some sort of curse,” he said, his voice dripping with desperation. He moved forward, his face had fallen. “It’s just like what happened with the other families. We’re being punished.”

  “You should’ve thought about that before you made the djinn stay here to do your bidding.”

  “It’s what it does!” Mr. Reid shot back. “I will not apologize for that. Ever.”

  Randy just shook his head, the muscles bulging in his forearms as he no doubt thought about putting his fist through Mr. Reid’s head. He couldn’t stand any type of abuse whatsoever. Physical abuse, abuse of power, and mental abuse. What Mr. Reid did seemed to tick all those boxes.

  “When Dean, or the djinn, comes back,” Travis said, his leader voice on. “You have to ask it what it does when it leaves and why it’s doing it now?”

  Mr. Reid’s forehead crumpled. “It doesn’t work like that. The djinn doesn’t talk. It just does what we say.”

  “Apparently, that’s not the case,” Liam said.

  But he could barely be heard over Randy’s bellow. “Then you’re going to fucking tell it not to come after Norah anymore.”

  Liam moved forward after Mr. Reid and Randy had a glaring match that could’ve made it into the Olympics. “We’re trying to help,” Liam explained. “When you see or hear from the djinn or Dean again, we need to know about it.” He took a card from his back pocket and dropped it on the table in front of Mr. Reid. “And, if you can get it to stop popping up on Norah, that would be great.”

  “I don’t know if I can,” Mr. Reid said, his voice hollow and stricken. “It hasn’t done anything I’ve wanted in a while. I’ve been lost.”

  “But you’ve said it’s only been doing this for the last two weeks?” I questioned. That didn’t seem like too long of a time.

  Mr. Reid only nodded. “Yes. Two weeks. It’s been terrible.”

  Lord, have mercy. Dean was right. His father was going overboard on this. He looked exactly like the type of guy who would lose it and just do whatever he wanted. I could see why Dean came to us in the first place and now here he was, caught in the middle of all this because his father, and all his ancestors, were too greedy.

  I suddenly had a new appreciation for Granny. At least she instilled good things into me, telling me that being a witch was about helping others, not being able to get exactly what I wanted whenever I wanted it. She told me I still had to work for things, and that was probably the best thing she ever could’ve done for me.

  Liam motioned toward the card. “Just let us know,” he reminded him.

  We showed ourselves out. There was no use in talking to Mr. Reid anymore, he was just a shell of a man, too consumed in his own desires to see that his son could be in danger right now. He was more interested in getting his precious wish-giver back.

  15

  As soon as we entered the house, Travis put his hands up and stopped in his tracks. I ran right into his backside. Not that I cared about that, it was a fine backside, but it was the shift in his demeanor that worried me. The look on his face heightened my senses. “Smell that?” he finally asked.

  I sniffed. A very light scent of nastiness met my nostrils. It wasn’t overbearing, just a light haze. In fact, I was impressed he even picked it up. To me, it just smelled like someone had left something in the refrigerator for too long.

  “The wards?” Randy asked, his eyes narrowing.

  “They were still in place,” I told them. “I felt them when we came up.”

  Liam pulled out his cell phone. He touched an app on it. We all stood around him. On his screen, a picture of the outside of the house showed up. He then hit a rewind button.

  “Cameras?” I asked.

  “The house isn’t just set up for magical protection,” Liam said. “I had the security system revamped when we decided to move here instead of stay at the apartment. It’s just a precaution.”

  I didn’t care that he’d done that. It was a smart move. I was just embarrassed I had
n’t even noticed.

  He looked up, his gaze softening. “You were at the shop when I had them come in.”

  That made me feel a little better. I supposed.

  “There,” Randy said.

  Liam stopped the video and then played it back. We couldn’t see what had penetrated the wards, only that they vibrated silently when something came through it. “Let me switch to another camera.”

  He moved to the inside of the house and then set it for a couple seconds after the penetration of the wards. One second, there was nothing there, but the next, the djinn was clear as day, caught by our security cameras. The same tufts of gnarled hair and fangs looked up into the camera. He wasn’t even trying to keep his presence a secret. “How is that possible?” I asked.

  Liam shrugged. “It must have something to do with their powers. If their owner wishes them to do something, it might take over anything else, even things people have set in place to stop them from doing whatever it is they want it to do.”

  “So, if the owner said specifically to break into our house?” Randy asked.

  “Exactly. No wards or any spells could’ve stopped it because it’s just doing what it’s told to do.”

  “That’s scary,” Gabe said.

  I agreed. But it made sense too. Maybe that was why my magic wouldn’t work against it either. The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t like the sound of these djinns at all. If they were put into the hands of the wrong person, things could escalate quickly. Though Mr. Reid was a greedy asshole, at least he hadn’t made the slippery trek into black magic yet. With a djinn on his side, who knew what he could do?

  Through the video feed, we followed the djinn around the house until we noticed it took the book back that we borrowed from Dean’s family library. It also went up to my room and came out holding onto one of the shirts I’d worn the other day.

  A shiver went up my spine as we watched it walk out of the house with both those things. “My shirt? What the hell for?”