A plastic bag blew across the road, caught the glow of a street lamp and hung in the air. I looked up. Some of the windows in the nearby office buildings shone with electric light, but the spaces looked vacant.
In contrast, all the residential areas we passed showed nothing but pitch black windows. I wondered how long it would take Akeelah to start chasing people out of their homes. No one congregated in large crowds anymore. Not after concerts, mega churches, and sports events all around the world had turned into prime spots for massacres.
We ran another red light. I wondered about the electricity that made them work. Who was working at the power plants, keeping the lights on? What brave souls dared try to keep civilization from collapsing? How long would it take Akeelah to get to them?
After a one hour drive, we pulled onto a gravel road. Live Oak Plantation stood silhouetted against the night sky, all its windows pitch black.
Abby brought the Hummer to a stop next to Grandpa’s truck and a red Ferrari, which Faris must have switched for my Prelude once he got to his packed garage in the Garden District. Who could blame him?
I jumped out and ran toward the house. The massive front door opened and a dark shape walked out. It was Faris. I ran into his arms and wrapped mine around his neck. He squeezed me tightly and cupped the side of my face protectively.
We held each other without saying a word. This had been the first time in a week that we’d been out of each other’s sight. I didn’t want to do it again. Not ever.
Without pulling again, I asked, “Did you find Dad?” I wanted the answer badly, but only if . . .
I squeezed my eyes shut as he tightened his arms around me. That’s how I knew he didn’t have good news.
3
Marielle
When the answer didn’t come, I pulled away and looked into Faris’s deep brown eyes. He said nothing, but his expressive gaze was enough. He hadn’t found him. Fighting back the tears, I pressed my forehead to his collarbone. “Where is he?” I said into his shirt.
“We’ll find him.”
“What if . . .”
What if he’s dead? What if Akeelah took him? I couldn’t bring myself to say these things out loud. The thoughts had been torturing me ever since the first time I tried to call Dad and couldn’t get a hold of him.
We had been in Dubai, right after Gallardo betrayed us to Akeelah and Faris whisked us out of Venice to BASE jump from the tallest building in the world. Faris had purchased a cell phone on the black market, which we threw away right after making some important calls.
Abby and Maven called their parents and explained we were safe. Maven’s mom ordered him to get back immediately or she would ground him as if he was a bratty six-year-old, and not almost twenty.
For her part, Abby was hurt after talking to her father—not that she openly admitted it. It seemed they’d been expecting her to run away ever since she turned eighteen and hadn’t been in the least worried.
“When I told him I hadn’t run away, he just said oh. God, can you believe that?” she had asked.
Her parents had always had their hands full with four kids. Her older brother, who never went to college, still lived at home and couldn’t hold down a job. Abby had barely been getting through cosmetology school, and her younger brother and sister were a couple of hellions. But still, it was awful of them to treat her that way.
When it was my turn to call Dad, I tried his cell phone first. When that didn’t work, I called the nursery but never managed to get anyone to answer, not even Javier.
After leaving Dubai, we slowly and painfully—Djinn Air was out of the question, since it would give away our location to Akeelah—made our way back to New Orleans. I tried to call from every airport we stopped at, each time with the same result. I told myself it was just bad timing, that Dad was okay. Faris had warned him to be careful, after all. Dad knew better than to do something stupid. But if so, why was he missing now?
“What if . . . ?” I started again.
“Shhh,” Faris caressed my back and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Don’t think bad things. Maybe he went back to Austin when things got ugly.”
Dad had left me with Grandpa Arthur after Mom died and had spent several years in Austin. The whole time I thought I’d lost both of my parents forever. I had resented him so much for abandoning me. But then he came back and won me over. I couldn’t lose him now, not after all that had happened.
I took a deep breath and straightened. “Yes, maybe he did. Maybe he’s safe and sound in Austin.” I had to believe that or I would go crazy.
Reluctantly, I lifted my eyes toward the majestic, old house. In the dark, it made me think of a ghostly mansion from a horror movie. The columns were drab, the windows dusty; spider webs hung from every corner. The wind whistled over its pitched roof. It was downright spooky.
Maven was standing on the front porch. He lowered his head in greeting and looked expectantly over my shoulder toward the parked Hummer. A deep groove parted the spot between his blond eyebrows, but it disappeared as soon as he laid eyes on Abby.
His gaze came back to me. “No luck?”
“No, but we brought Javier and his family. How about you?”
Maven sighed heavily and flicked his eyes toward the house. “They’re in the kitchen. Samuel’s already being a pain in the ass. Maybe I should have left him behind.” If I didn’t know him better, his irritated tone would have me believe he was capable of abandoning his brother to Akeelah’s tigers. But nothing was further from the truth.
Abby came from behind and bounded onto the wooden porch. She and Maven regarded each other for a moment and seemed to exhale a sigh of relief. It was obvious how glad they both were to see each other in one piece—not that they would admit that.
“Well, my folks,” Abby said, dressing her tone in a heavy cloak of sarcasm, “decided to take their chances out in that crazy jungle that used to be known as the city of New Orleans.”
“Well, it was kinda always a jungle,” Maven joked.
“Yeah, I guess,” Abby agreed. “I can’t believe they’d rather stay back.” She laughed and rolled her eyes.
Maven laughed politely and exchanged a knowing glance with me. It was clear her parents’ decision to stay—and, more precisely, to let her go without protest—had hurt Abby. Both Maven and I could see it, though she’d be damned before admitting it had gotten to her.
“Hola, Faris!” Benito beamed.
Faris mock-punched the boy on the shoulder and started rattling something in rich Spanish tones. He definitely had a way with kids. Turning to Javier and his wife, he said, “I’m glad you decided to come. It will be much safer here.”
“Thanks for havin’ us.” Javier turned to me. “And you too, Señorita.”
“Wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said.
“Let’s go inside,” Faris suggested. “If you’re hungry, there are a few things to eat. Not much, but better than nothing.”
“We brought what Javier had in his house,” I put in.
Faris nodded. “I did the same. There wasn’t much that didn’t need cooking, though.”
“Do you have my backpack?” I hadn’t trusted myself with it, so I’d left it in Faris’s care. Zet’s stone and Gallardo’s book were in there.
“I do,” Faris said.
“C’mon, Elle.” Abby wiggled her nose, sniffing the air. “Follow me! You know I’m a hound when it comes to food.” She headed into the dark house.
I started after her, but Faris held me back and extended a hand to present the front door to his guests.
After everyone had entered, I said, “Always the gentleman.”
“Not sure this counts.” He pushed me against the wall, out of the view of the open door. He pinned me there and looked down into my eyes with feverish intensity. Placing a hand behind my neck, he lowered his mouth to mine and kissed me. It wasn’t a gentle kiss, but one full of passion and possessiveness. It stole my balance. He was breathing fast.
I matched him breath for breath.
“What’s gotten into you?” I asked when he stopped to take in air. I peered into his face, smiling. His expression wasn’t what I was expecting. Instead of desire, I found worry and pain. “What’s the matter?”
He shook his head. “Nothing. I just . . . missed you. That’s all.”
“Faris,” I said reproachfully. I knew him too well to accept this answer. He bit the inside of his cheek. “Faris,” I pressed.
“I was worried to death. We shouldn’t have split up. The minute you left my sight, I started feeling like I would implode. It was that hard to contain my magic. I wanted to find you so badly.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, running a hand down his jaw. His skin was soft and a beautiful olive color. “We all made it back alright, though. Besides, we were better off apart. Akeelah isn’t omnipresent.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “I wish I’d never told you that. But now we have her half-djinn to worry about, too.”
“I know that. Did you . . . run into any problems?” I said, trying to change the subject. Faris had feared Akeelah would have someone watching his Garden District house in case we decided to go back. She was a vengeful creature, so it seemed a safe bet.
“No. Nothing at all. I made a quick stop and went in the house—”
“Got the Ferrari,” I said, giving it a sideways glance.
He nodded sheepishly. “Anyway, everything looked the same as the last time I was there.” He caressed my arm distractedly. “I came right back. The streets were deserted. I kept waiting for something to happen, but . . .”
“Yeah, it was the same for us. No police. No military. Nothing.”
Right after The Superdome Massacre, police went out in full force, looking for the culprits, but all they managed to do was become Akeelah’s targets. She and her djinn-spawn made a spectacle out of the authorities’ inability to protect their citizens. First, they toyed with them, transforming their guns to bananas and their patrol cars to tricycles. Then they turned the resulting clown show into a bloodbath worthy of a serial killer’s worst nightmare. Videos of all the atrocities went viral on the Internet and quickly sent the entire world into chaos.
After the police had a try, it was the military’s turn. They came out with bigger, badder weapons. It was a big joke, really. Bullets were nothing against magic. We didn’t stand a chance. There was no weapon in our arsenal that could fight them. Nothing.
New Orleans was just the beginning. After that, the same scenario played out in almost every large city in the world. There were attacks in concert halls, soccer games, carnivals, any event with a large crowd—at least until people wised up, stopped congregating and learned to stay at home, behind closed doors, rather than risk being attacked and senselessly murdered. No wonder we got stuck on the other side of the world. Everything shut down after that.
Governments all around the world were stumped, trying to come up with a “defense plan.” Martial law was declared everywhere—not that there was anyone around to enforce it or break it. Those few who dared leave their homes did so at their own risk.
But Akeelah and her djinn had been quiet for a couple of days, now. And people were just waiting, fearing what might come next, except they couldn’t wait forever. The food in their pantries could only last so long. And what of electricity? And, more importantly, water? How long would those services last without anyone working to upkeep them? Society would fall apart before long.
In the meantime, the weight of responsibility and guilt on our shoulders got heavier and heavier. We had brought this about. We had caused this horror. Faris and I were to blame for all those people’s deaths, thousands upon thousands. We’d practically killed every single one of them. Faris had given her the incantation necessary to create djinn, and I had led her to Gallardo, the monster who had offered her the last piece of the puzzle, the knowledge that allowed her djinn to hurt humans.
A sour taste filled my mouth, a taste that every day grew more and more familiar. I swallowed hard and laid a hand on Faris’s chest. He smoothed down my hair and kissed my forehead.
“What do you think she’ll do now? I don’t think door to door is her style,” I said.
“I don’t think so either, but I’d rather not venture a guess at the moment.”
I imagined Faris had a very good idea of what could happen next. Hell, I had my own set of gruesome nightmares playing in my head every time I closed my eyes, but putting them into words wasn’t going to help my state of mind.
“You’re right,” I said.
He kissed me again. This time tenderly. His soft lips were like feathers on the corner of my mouth. He took my face in his hands and deepened the kiss, the velvet of his tongue brushing mine. Then he deposited a small peck on the tip of my nose and each closed eyelid.
“I love you,” I said in a breathy exhale.
Faris rested his forehead on mine and bit his lower lip.
“I’m sorry,” I said, cringing. “I know I shouldn’t say those words.” Every time I brought up my feelings, I hurt him. He denied it, but I knew better. It made no sense to think that expressing my love could hurt him, yet there it was.
“I’m no good,” Faris said.
“What? What do you mean?”
“What purpose do I serve? I can’t be fully yours because, to protect you, I have to keep being this . . . hybrid creature. But, even in this shape, I can’t quite keep you safe. All I can do is keep you hidden. I’m useless.”
“Please don’t.”
I tried to hold on to him, but he turned and pulled away, shaking with emotion.
“We’ll find a way, Faris. We made it this far.”
There was a point, as we had tried to find someone to fly us out of Copenhagen, when we thought we wouldn’t make it back, but we had. We’d managed to avoid Akeelah, even when she must have sent some of her half-djinn after us. “We can’t give up hope.”
He took a deep breath and gathered himself. “You’re right, as always. Forgive me. I should be keeping you from despair, not the other way around. Your strength always surprises me.”
“That’s not how it works. We’re here for each other. And I’m only strong because you’re with me.”
He smiled. “It seems like some sort of circular logic.”
“That’s because it is.”
We laughed. Our gazes connected. A current of unspoken love traveled between us, creating an intense link that nearly halted my heart. If silence felt this way, how would those three promised words feel if he spoke them out loud? I wondered if they would carry the same intensity of his dark eyes—those bottomless eyes that knew so well how to express or hide his feelings, whichever he chose.
He pressed his lips to mine and lingered for a moment. Then he pulled away and took my hand. “Let’s go inside. After everyone eats, we should all talk. Maybe nine brains will be able to figure out what to do next.”
We walked inside and shut the door on the uncertain night.
4
Robert
Robert jumped up and took hold of one of the overhead bars. He pulled up until his head touched the top of the cage, then lowered himself again. He repeated the exercise until his arms trembled and sweat broke across his forehead.
Letting go of the bar, he fell to the wooden bottom, causing his cage to swing in midair like a huge pendulum. The massive chain from which the cage hung creaked. He walked to one side and looked down at the expansive warehouse, twenty feet below. Hundreds of crates were stacked on top of each other in long rows, forming narrow corridors between them.
To his right was a clearing with a metal table in the middle. Leather straps dangled from it. His gut twisted at the sight of the thing. The echoes of muffled screams resonated in his ears, a grim reminder of the many men he’d seen tortured and possessed by demons right on that table. He turned away, pressed his back against the bars of his giant bird cage and slid down.
Again he thought of Marielle, his daugh
ter, and found tremendous relief in the fact that she had disobeyed him and had run away to look for Faris. He pleaded silently, in words that had become a repetitive prayer, that these monsters would never find her, that Faris would keep her safe and away from these horrors.
After a few quiet moments, a sudden commotion pulled him out his thoughts. Akeelah and her cohorts had been gone a second ago, but had returned, as they always did, unexpectedly.
Robert crawled to the center of the cage where he felt less exposed. If he was out of sight, maybe he’d be out of mind. At least that was the hope.
He wrapped his arms around his head to drown out the noise of the thirty deranged half-djinn Akeelah called her army. It sounded as if they’d brought a bar fight with them, or worse. The phrase “the residents have taken over the insane asylum” came to mind. It seemed a fitting description.
These men Akeelah had tortured and transformed into her army were insane. Something in the transformation process had left them unbalanced. It was anyone’s guess whether it’d been the gruesome murder, the possession by terrifying demons, the loss of their humanity, the time spent trapped inside glass bottles, or all of the above. It was also possible they’d been insane from the beginning. Or maybe they were just drunk with power. It had happened to better men.
Robert’s cage rattled and started to swing.
“Hey there, little birdy,” someone said from behind.
Robert turned to find Andy hanging from the bars like a monkey. He threw his weight back and forth like he was on top of a giant swing. The cage swayed from side to side. Robert set his hands down on the wooden bottom, trying to stay put. This had become Andy’s irritating way of greeting him whenever he visited, whether to deliver his daily meals or just to harass him. Here was a Djinn Robert knew had been insane well before Akeelah transformed him.
“What do you want, Andy?” Robert asked tiredly.
“We haven’t found that other little birdy, yet. Thought you’d want to know,” he said in a secretive tone. “Faris is keeping her well hidden.”
One Wish Away: Djinn Empire Complete Series Page 54
