by Shéa MacLeod
Jack was just wrapping up a piano lesson as we arrived. I still couldn’t get over the fact he taught little kids to play piano. It was just so … weird.
He let us into the house with some reluctance and we made ourselves at home on his couch. I tried really hard not to think about what had happened the last time I sat on that couch. Inigo really didn’t need to know about that.
Jack lounged in the chair opposite, his long fingers steepled together. He didn’t speak, but irritation was written in every line of his body.
Inigo slung an arm around the couch back behind me. A surprisingly possessive display that made me want to smack him. And not in a good way. What were they going to do? Pull out their penises and measure?
I cleared my throat. It was all so awkward. I hated awkward. “Jack, what do you know about the djinn?”
He gave me a puzzled look. “The creatures from the Middle East? I haven’t seen one of those since the Crusades.”
“No, I mean do you know anything about their involvement with Atlantis?”
Jack crossed one leg casually over the other, but I could feel the tension simmering beneath the surface. My Darkness could feel it too. It raised its head with a snarl, but I shushed it.
“As far as I know, they never had any involvement with Atlantis.” His voice was cool, calm, emotionless. His gorgeous ocean colored eyes, flat. I couldn’t tell if he was hiding the truth of the djinn, or if he was just hiding from me.
“We spoke to a Marid.” I nodded to Inigo. “Out in the high desert. He claims to have been bound by the last High Priest, but he can’t tell us why. You’re telling me when you were hooked up to this thing,” I flashed the amulet, “it never showed you the djinn?”
“No.”
I wanted to growl in frustration. Why was he being such an ass? “Okay. How about logic?”
Jack’s eyebrow went up. “Excuse me?”
I could feel Inigo beside me trying desperately to suppress his laughter. I shot him a glare. “You know more about ancient Atlantis than I do.” Hell, he’d lived with the dreams of the place for nine hundred years. “Surely, there is some logical explanation as to why the High Priest of Atlantis would not only have had a connection to the Marid, but would have bound him and his people.”
Jack was silent for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. “The Atlanteans had dealings with many species for many different reasons. They only had real, intimate relationships with humans, but they sometimes traded goods or exchanged knowledge with other peoples.”
I could have guessed that for myself. “But you don’t know why they would be involved with the djinn specifically?”
“No.”
His monosyllabic answers were giving me the fits. “Okay, fine. What about the Binding? Why would the priest have bound the Marid?”
“No idea,” Jack shrugged. “I would have said the priest wanted something from him, but since the Binding obviously survived the priest’s death, it must be more than that. A task, perhaps, which he wanted carried out.”
Or something he wanted the Marid to protect. The thought flashed through my mind. Holy shit, that was it. I had no idea what the Marid was protecting or why, but it made perfect, beautiful sense.
“Right, thanks for your help.” I stood up quickly, trying to keep the reek of sarcasm out of my voice with little success.
Jack’s expression softened for a fraction of a moment before his face returned to its usual, stoic expression. “Any time.”
Yeah. Right.
Inigo politely shook Jack’s hand. Points to him for being the bigger man. Double points for not giving me the third degree when we got in the car.
This time I drove. I needed the release that control gave me. So, I cracked the window and cranked the tunes. The freezing February slapped me in the face and the blast of ‘80s rock music assaulted my ears. I felt better already.
Inigo just leaned back in his seat and enjoyed the ride without a word. Smart man.
Eddie was still at his shop when we arrived. He glanced up at the jangle of the bell over the door, his cherubic face creasing in a huge smile. “Morgan! Inigo! Come in, come in. I was just ready to lock up. Flip the sign. We’ll have tea.” He glanced at me. “Or coffee.
I laughed and flipped the “Closed” sign across the door before sliding the bolt home. Eddie knew me far too well.
While Inigo and I made ourselves at home around the big check-out counter, Eddie bustled around making drinks and piling cookies on a plate. He even had real cream for my coffee. Sometimes I could just kiss that man.
“Now,” he settled onto his stool at the counter and took a sip of his herbal tea, “to what do I owe the pleasure?”
“We need your help.” I took a sip of my own drink, nearly scalding my tongue in the process. Strong and hot, creamy and sweet, just how I liked it.
He twinkled at me. “Now there’s a surprise. Could you be a little more specific?”
“Yeah.” I gazed at him over the top of my mug. “We’ve got a djinn problem.”
Chapter Twenty
Eddie sputtered a little. Mostly with laughter. “A djinn problem? Now that’s a new one.”
“You’re telling me.” I flashed a grin. “But it’s a doozy.”
Inigo and I gave him a quick run-down while we munched on chocolate chip cookies. They were homemade. And had nuts. Excellent.
Eddie gazed thoughtfully into his teacup. “Well, now. That’s a new one. A Marid bound by an Atlantean priest.”
“And not just any Atlantean priest,” I pointed out. “The last High Priest.”
“Not just any Binding, either. The thing’s lasted ten millennia,” Inigo reminded us.
“What really gets me is that someone had to bind another djinni to kill Vega. Not only that, he must have forced the djinni to take on the Marid’s form. There aren’t many creatures with enough magic to bind the djinn.” In fact, as Tommy Waheneka had pointed out to us, there was only one. The Fairy Queen.
“Well,” Eddie pushed back from the counter, “I’d say it’s time for the book.”
I’d been expecting it. Eddie and his creepy, sentient book. I could only hope it would cooperate. It sort of had a mind of its own.
There was the usual flurry of pages before the book stopped its flipping. The page it landed on was decorated along the edges in swirls of blue and silver. In the middle of the left page was a detailed painting of two men. I recognized both. One was the Marid. The other, the last High Priest of Atlantis.
On the right scrawled a flourish of words in black ink. I couldn’t even begin to read it. “Is that English?” It sure didn’t look like it.
“Norman French, actually,” Inigo said, peering at the page.
“That’s odd.” Eddie adjusted his glasses and leaned closer to the page. “I wonder why Norman French? Why not Old English? Or maybe Sanskrit? Or better yet, ancient Atlantean?”
“Can you read it?” I supposed another bonus of having a 400 year old boyfriend was his ability to read really old languages.
“Yeah, though it’s been awhile. Let’s see.” He adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose while he and Eddie stared at the page. “It tells of the Binding.”
“Yeah?” My patience was wearing thin.
“There’s not much here. The Marid and the High Priest of Atlantis were friends for many years. Shortly before the destruction of the city, the High Priest betrayed the Marid and his people by Binding them.” Inigo glanced up from the book. “That’s it.”
“That’s it?” My voice was practically a screech. So not attractive.
“That’s it. Nothing to indicate what the Binding was about.”
Shit. Fat lot of good that did us. “Well, what about whoever bound the djinni that murdered Vega? The Book got anything to say on that?”
More flipping pages. This time they landed on a picture of a man so beautiful and ethereal he looked like an angel. I gaped at the image. “What is he?”
Eddie took off his gl
asses, polished them, and popped them back on. His expression was grim. “That is Alberich.”
“Alberich?”
“Alberich was quite possibly one of the most evil creatures to ever have walked the earth. He was the twin brother of the Queen of the Fairies, and the only one besides the Queen powerful enough to bind a djinni. In fact, rumor has it he was actually much more powerful than the queen.”
“What do you mean by ‘was’ her brother?” I asked.
“Alberich is supposed to be dead. According to the legends, the Queen executed him generations ago.” Eddie frowned. “According to the Book, he’s still very much alive.”
Inigo and I both glanced at each other. I didn’t need his telepathy to tell me what he was thinking. His expression mirrored mine. We were in deep, deep shit.
***
“You still got that key?” Inigo’s voice cut through my thoughts as we stood outside Eddie’s shop.
“Key?”
He gave me a look. “The key from the Queen of the Fairies, Morgan.”
Shit. Yeah, that key. “Yeah, I’ve got it.” I’d been carrying the stupid thing around with me. After all, she’d said it would save my life. I’d no idea what she meant by that and I hoped I wouldn’t have to find out.
“Good. I have a feeling we might need it.” His voice was as grim as his expression.
I stared out into the darkness before slowly making my way to the car. “I don’t like this, Inigo. This is not what I signed on for. I’m a Hunter, not a … ” I waved my hands in the air searching for a word. Nothing came to me. There was no one in my world who ever went up against the sidhe. No one.
“Hey.” He grabbed me and hauled me up against him. “Look at me, Morgan.”
I gazed up into his eyes. The beautiful blue was swirling with gold, meaning his dragon was close to the surface. “You can do this. We can do this.”
“You shouldn’t have to,” I told him.
He shrugged. “I don’t really care about what I should and shouldn’t have to do. I care about you, and you are involved whether you like it or not. That means I’m involved, too. You aren’t in this alone.”
I sighed and gave him a slightly wobbly smile. “That’s probably the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.”
He flashed me a grin, then pressed his lips to mine. I opened my mouth and welcomed him in, our tongues tangling with our breaths. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling myself tight against him as his hands found their way under my shirt.
“Inigo, we’re in public.” I admit my protest was more than a little weak.
His chuckle was low and sexy, and turned my knees to jelly. “It’s the middle of the night and we’re in Eddie’s parking lot.” His lips moved from my mouth to my ear and then down the side of my neck, each nibble sending a shimmer of desire coursing through my veins.
“People can see us.” I wasn’t a prude, exactly. I just preferred to keep bedroom things … well, not in the middle of a parking lot.
He was nibbling along my collar bone. I wasn’t exactly sure when he’d managed to open my coat and my shirt. He started walking backward, hauling me with him, his mouth never deviating from its southern trajectory. We ended up in an alley down the side of the building, deep in the shadows.
“Now they can’t,” he said right before he slid my bra strap off my shoulder and took my nipple in his mouth.
I forgot all about who might or might not be watching as pleasure pooled low in my belly. I tangled my fingers through his silky hair, urging him to continue. I didn’t even notice the cold.
His fingers popped the buttons on my jeans and then slid under the rough fabric until they found my sweet spot. I made a little whimpering sound. “Inigo.”
“That’s right, baby. I’ve got you.” He pulled down my jeans and panties, baring me to the night. I should have been cold, but I wasn’t. Dragon heat.
Next thing I knew his mouth was on me, his clever tongue working its magic until I couldn’t think, couldn’t speak. Could do nothing but drown in the pleasure of his touch.
I was just about to slip over the edge when he stopped. “Inigo?”
“Shhh.” I heard the rasp of his zipper. Then he lifted me as though I weighed no more than a feather. “Wrap your legs around me, Morgan.”
I did as he asked and then, oh, sweet mercy, he slid into me. I clung to him as the first climax hit. Then he moved. With each hard thrust the pleasure wound tighter and tighter until this time I did slip over the edge, taking Inigo with me.
***
I stood in the middle of a room. I assumed it was a room. Fog swirled around me so thick I could make out nothing of my surroundings.
“Hello?” My voice echoed weirdly in the fog.
No one answered.
Hands caressed my body as if they knew me. Intimately.
I realized I was naked and the hands were touching places they shouldn’t be touching. I tried to grab them, stop them, but I couldn’t see anything. I could only feel.
Lips pressed against my throat, tiny kisses against delicate skin. I shuddered in pleasure and fear. I wanted more and I felt guilty for wanting it.
“Who are you?”
Still no answer. Just the phantom caresses of my ghost lover.
I felt myself grow wet and languid with desire as lips and fingers stroked me to a fever pitch. Then I felt that long, intimate slide of thick, hard flesh inside me. The stroke of male inside female.
The dreaming me felt guilty, but the me in the dream was having none of it. I rocked against my invisible lover, taking him deeper, begging for more. I could feel his skin, slick with sweat, against my palms, the muscles moving and shifting underneath. But still, I could not see him.
I lost myself to the pleasure of his touch, the thrust of him inside me. And as the first orgasm took me, he whispered in my ear.
“I will never leave you. I am always watching over you.” The voice was low and gravelly and oh, so familiar. As was the taste of his kiss.
“Jack?”
***
I woke with Inigo sprawled out half on top of me.
Guilt suddenly stabbed through me. Granted, it had only been a dream, but it had felt so real. And worst of all, I’d enjoyed it.
I stared blearily at the bedside clock. Crap. It was already ten in the morning and I’d managed a whole four hours sleep. The problem with having a dragon for a boyfriend is they’ve got way too much stamina.
Okay, so it wasn’t a problem, exactly. Though it did make for some rather zoned-out mornings.
I glanced over at Inigo who was snoring lightly, then slipped out of bed and staggered into the bathroom. My body was still slick with desire from the dream. I closed my eyes against the spray of the shower.
What the hell was wrong with me? How could I be having sex with my current boyfriend one minute, then dreaming about having sex with my old boyfriend the next? Obviously, I had issues. I needed to call Cordy.
And that was just for starters. Gods, there wasn’t enough coffee in the world to wake me up for what I had to face: My mother.
And, oh yeah, the freaking Fairy Queen. But mostly, my mother.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved my mother, but she was a challenge to deal with even on the best day. And accusing her of lying to me my whole life was going to result in just about the furthest day from the best you could possibly imagine.
But I needed answers, and according to Tommy Waheneka, my mother had them. As I stood under the hot spray of the shower, my mind whirred through my approach. How could I confront her without causing World War III?
I finally gave up and got out of the shower. There was just no two ways about it. Drama happens.
Inigo was still snoring away face-down across the bed. He’d tossed off half the duvet, revealing a tantalizing length of thigh and a glimpse of shimmering scales across his hip.
I shoved away the guilt that reared its ugly head. It had only been a dream, after all. You can’t control
your dreams.
“You gonna stand there drooling? Or are you gonna come have your way with me?”
I laughed. “I had my way with you, what, four times last night?”
One eye peered at me through tangled golden hair. “Wrong. I had my way with you four times last night.”
I smirked at that. “Oh, no. That’s where you’ve got it wrong, babe. I distinctly remember time two being all me.”
“Oh yes,” he sighed with a self-satisfied smile and a lazy stretch. “That was a particularly good one.” He gave me an innocent look. “Still, I could use a refresher course.”
“I give you a refresher course and I won’t be able to walk for a week. Now come on,” I tossed his jeans at his head. “Get your sweet ass out of bed, lazy boy. Time to brave the lioness’s den.”
“I like your mother,” he said, ignoring the jeans. “She brings out the bossy in you.”
I quirked a brow. Well, both brows since I’m incapable of quirking only one. “I’m always bossy.”
“Oh, I know. But you get extra bossy.” He grinned.
I rolled my eyes. “You are a lunatic. And I need coffee.”
His laughter followed me to the kitchen. I just grinned like a dope.
***
While Inigo was showering, I gave Cordelia a quick call. “Cordy, I need your help.”
“Oh, dear,” her voice was a little breathy. “That was some dream you had last night.”
“What?” I very nearly shrieked. “You can see my dreams?”
I could hear laughter over the line. “Not exactly. More the emotions that come with the dreams.”
Just fabulous. “Okay, so tell me. Why am I dreaming about … doing that with Jack? I’m in love with Inigo, for crying out loud.”
She sighed. “You know very well that you have many unresolved issues with Jack. You are still attracted to him, and there’s nothing wrong with that.” She muttered something along the lines of ‘damn puritanical morons’ or something.
“Cordy?”
“Listen, Morgan, you are going to have to figure this one out on your own. I told you, your love life is hazy. Nothing is set in stone. Only you can decide what you want. What you need.”
