Did his friend deserve this fate?
As he stared at the blade, torn between his need for vengeance and his love for a man who’d never shown him anything but kindness, the door swung open on silent hinges. Nala stood poised at its entrance wearing nothing but a white guazy nightgown.
Her black hair spilled around her face and back, her green eyes were frantic and wide. Panic fluttered at the pulse in her throat and Jinni’s mouth went absolutely dry.
“Jinni,” she cried, flinging her arms around his neck. Nala kissed him, peppering his face and brows with her relief and joy. Tears ran warm down her cheeks.
Jinni frowned, wiping the tears up with his thumbs. “Nala, we could be caught.”
“Do not worry about the guards. All know not to bother us when the King is present.”
The moment he’d spotted her, he’d forgotten about the fact that the King was in this room, that right now he could be watching him embracing his wife. Thinking about it made a sick rush of bile race up his throat. He peeked over her shoulder
Hundreds of candles lit the room, incense swirled thick and musty, sparking heat through his blood. And then he smelled it, that sick odor of musk and sex. “You mated him again.”
He ground his molars.
She nodded. “It was the only way, I had to get him sated that he wouldn’t suspect.”
Jinni narrowed his eyes, taking her arms off his neck. “Suspect what? Where is he?” He swept into the room and immediately spotted the prone form of the King.
He looked small in the enormous four poster bed. The flickering lights danced across his tallow colored skin. A white silk sheet was the only thing he wore, it wrapped loosely around his hips and upper thighs.
King Abdullah’s eyes were closed as heavy snores fell from his lips. Beside the bed, upon the nightstand, a golden goblet stood. Jinni marched up to the cup and swiped it, sniffing its contents. The red wine smelled too sweet. Sickly even. He curled his nose with disgust and sat it down, splashing some of it over the side.
“You drugged him?”
She clasped her hands. “It was the only way.”
Jinni dropped the scimitar and grabbed his head, tugging on his hair. “I cannot kill him now.”
Her eyes grew more frantic. “Jinni, the beatings. It must end.”
Heart clenching at the reminder, he squeezed his eyes shut. “I will not ram a sword through his gut while he sleeps, Nala! I’m not a coward. I came here to fight him man to man. To tell him of my love for you, to demand justice for the beatings he’s inflected upon you.”
A sharp snore punctuated his statement and he growled.
“I will not kill an unarmed man.”
“Jinni please,” Nala grabbed his hand, forcing him to stop his pacing and look at her, “you must. A night like tonight, it may never happen again. The gods have decreed this, can you not see? The guards are on another call, the King allowed me to drug him… I…” She dropped his hand and hugged her arms, “I cannot bear it anymore. You must kill him. You must. For me.”
Her look shattered his heart, the tears in her green eyes unmanned him. Jinni grabbed the sides of her face. “Do not cry, beloved. We will find another way.”
“No!” She shook off his hands and tore her shift down the center, exposing the lush curves and planes of her body. “Look at me!” She hissed. “Look at what he’s done to me. Just this night. LOOK!”
He did look and got sick.
Her fine skin was covered in blue, green, and purple. Jinni reached out to touch a large palm print on her abdomen and she smacked him.
“No, you don’t get to touch. You don’t get to pretend you care! Go. Go away.” She turned on him, covering her body with the shredded edges of her gown.
Blinking hard against the black, choking hate sweeping up his throat, Jinni reached for his sword.
He’d meant to do an honorable killing. For the kindness and mercy the King had extended him. But now…
Now things were different.
Nala’s shoulders heaved as her frame was wracked by her silent sobs.
Jinni glanced at the frail looking man on the bed. Awake, Abdullah seemed more than a man, he seemed a god. Wise in so many ways. But beneath the kingly bearing beat the heart of an abuser.
Nala glanced askance at Abdullah. “The King raped me tonight, Jinni.”
Her fingers trembled as she reached out to touch the King. Then she squeezed her fingers and yanked her hand back. “I know that in this realm a woman’s body does not belong to herself, that I am the King’s. But,” she twirled, the fire of justice burned in her eyes, “do I not deserve better?”
She did.
That was the truth. No one deserved the nightmare she’d lived through this past year.
Aria would mourn. The two had always been very, very close. But perhaps, she’d also been privy to the King’s tirades. Perhaps she’d also witnessed this violence.
Insides quaking, but resolute, Jinni clenched the hilt of the sword and with his next breath, drove the blade through the King’s heart.
The death was violent, but quick. Abdullah never even opened his eyes. He expelled his final breath, and then his chest stopped moving. Blood pooled around the body as Jinni released the sword.
He stared at his hands. He’d committed the irrevocable this night. He’d killed his King. The man he’d pledged his life to.
Nala grabbed his face, and he felt cold, numb. She shook him. “I love you, eshq-e man.”
“And I worship you, my love,” he mumbled, still unable to process that beside him lied the body of his King. That he’d killed him.
A soft smile graced her lips as she sat on the edge of the bed. Blood welled upon her white gown.
“Nala,” Jinni wrinkled his nose as she started to pull him on top of her, “Nala! The body. We cannot. The blood, it is everywhere.”
She shook her head. “The body is just a body. The King is gone. I simply want your touch, your kiss. That is all. I want to erase your pain, and you to erase mine. Just a moment. And then we’ll deal with the rest.”
How were they going to cover this up?
Jinni had never thought that far ahead. The desire for vengeance had made him forget that there was now a body to dispose of. But not just any body. The king of the realm.
Nala’s kiss ripped him from his morbid thoughts. “Your eyes are a thousand miles away. Stay here with me. I need your strength.”
Jinni grimaced when he felt the warmth of Abdullah’s blood began to seep through the fabric of his pants. “Nala, I truly wish we’d go someplace else.”
She wrapped her arms around him and pulled his face close to hers. “Soon, soon. I promise. Only… kiss me.”
Why could she not understand this was not the time nor the place? “Nala,” he groaned and then kissed her, deeply, passionately, pushing all of his pain and agony into that kiss. Giving her his strength, drawing her own into his soul.
He’d killed a man tonight. To keep her safe. For always.
The sound of feet moved through the still of the room like thunderclap. Then something loud and heavy dropped to the ground.
Terror welled deep and bottomless. They’d been found. Nala would be executed. He had to save her.
All those thoughts passed through his head in only a second and then he did what he never thought he’d do again. Reacting simply on instinct, Jinni curled his fist, drawing his immortal flame into his fist and squeezed. The intruder knew who he was, he couldn’t hide himself, and so used his magic to kill the human instantly. Wrapping his magic like a cord around the human’s throat, cutting off its oxygen and then snapping its neck.
He didn’t look to see who he killed, it didn’t matter. Nala could never be implicated.
“Oh my gods,” Nala breathed, shoving hard against his chest.
Jinni panted, squeezing his eyes shut. “Which guard did I kill?”
“Oh my gods!” Nala shrieked and Jinni jumped to his feet, grabbing her shoulders
. “Nala, quiet yourself. All of the palace will hear.”
“Oh my gods! Guards! Come, come quick!” Nala screamed and flailed and cried.
He frowned. “Nala?”
She yanked the sword out of Abdullah’s body and held him at sword point. “Guards, come quick. I’ve got him. Come!”
Jinni shook his head. “What are you . . ?”
“Come, he’s killed the King and the Princess!”
Princess?
Jinni sucked in a sharp breath and then dropped to his knees in utter shock. Aria’s tiny body laid limp and lifeless, her eyes open and staring sightless at him.
Sick, he leaned over and expelled the contents of his stomach.
Hands clamped onto his wrists, a boot kicked him in the back. But he didn’t care. He welcomed the flying fists and the excruciating pain of a booted foot kicking him repeatedly in the ribs.
“He tried to rape me. He entered and killed the King, then he tried to rape me! He must be tried and charged. He must be…”
Soul sick, Jinni blocked out Nala’s terrible lies. He’d killed the King, killed Aria. He deserved to die. Deserved it all.
How could he have been so wrong?
Tears streamed down Paz’s cheeks as she looked at the painting. Jinni prostrate on the ground, surrounded by a swarm of guards. His beloved Aria broken and lifeless before him as he reached out to her with his fingers, a broken and shattered look on his face.
“So you see now, Paz?” Jinni closed his eyes, hanging his head on his chest, “I am not a good man. I killed the King, killed…” his voice shook, “Aria.” His laugh was bitter and cold. “And all for the love of a treacherous woman.”
He turned on his heels and headed back to the window.
“What happened after that?” she asked, wiping up the tears on her face.
Jinni rested his forehead upon the glass.
“They didn’t kill you, obviously. What happened?” she asked again, walking up to him.
His voice was dead. “I could not be tried by the humans. I was returned to my world and tried by my peers. They stripped me of my powers, forever exiled me from Eastern Kingdom, and made me what you see today. A pathetic, miserable man.”
She shook her head. Wishing she could hug him, hold him. “Jinni, you’re not pathetic. You did something terrible, yes. But she lied to you. Used you.”
He whirled on her, his anger a palpable stench in her nostrils. “She did more than use me, Paz, she broke me!”
His chest was heaving, his nostrils flaring. She bit her lip.
“She didn’t love you, Jinni.”
“Don’t you think I know that?!” He growled and started his pacing. “She planned it all. Sent the guards away, drugged the King, damn her! The bruises on her body,” he stopped and pinned Paz with a sharp glare, “they’d been painted on. That’s why she didn’t want me to touch her, I would have smeared the make-up. The bruising’s from before, she’d ordered her guards to do it. She even set up, Aria. Told the girl to come to her chambers for a bed time story at precisely that hour, that is the only reason why the djinn council did not obliterate me.”
Paz swallowed hard; his grief sliced her deep.
“I loved him. He was like a father. Djinn’s are born, but we’ve no mother or father. We never know love. We never seek it. But I was an aberration. I wanted it, desperately desired it. And when I found it,” he glanced at his hands, at the fingers looking like claws the way he curled them, “I killed it. He never beat her, Paz. He never laid a hand on her. They rarely even slept together.” Tears shone in his eyes. “It was a marriage of alliance solely, the King loved his first wife, even after death. He slept with Nala to try and produce an heir, when he learned he was no longer able to father a child, he quit her bed. Until that night.”
Her jaw trembled. “Oh, Jinni.”
He looked away, the fire of his anger spent. And suddenly he looked older, tired. “I am a bad man, Paz and you need to go.”
“I’m not leaving you.”
He laughed. “Why? Because you think you can save me? Make me well? I will never be well again.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know how long I’ve been out of my body. Days, weeks, years… but in this time, I know I want you. I want to walk by your side, share your burdens… I want to be your Todd.”
He snorted, his jaw clenched hard. “My Todd.”
The haughty sneer in his tone made her insides quiver. Ashamed that she’d even admitted that to him, she turned. Even in death, life sucked.
“Stop.” His voice was a command. “I… I do not mean it. I just… by all that is holy, Paz, I do not know if I can…”
She turned around. “I’m sorry she was so evil. I’m sorry she hurt you that way, Jinni. I’m so, so sorry.” She touched her chest. “But I’m not her. And I never will be.”
He came up to her, his chest so close to her own she felt the static of him ripple through her, it made her toes curl. His gaze held infinite meaning and possibility. They stared at each other, simply stared, pouring so much meaning and emotion into the look.
“I wish I could touch you,” he whispered, tracing his hand down her cheek. She sighed as his power rolled down her form.
“I feel you,” she whispered.
“But I do not.”
She frowned.
He shook his head. “To only hold you once more. Oh, Paz, I am fading. I cannot stop this. I’ve not much time left. You have to promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“Promise me that when I go, you will get back in your body, and you will live.”
She clamped her lips. The thought of existing when he didn’t, of living and knowing he never would again, no… she couldn’t make that promise.
“I’ve enough flame for one last dance, Paz. But only if you promise.”
Chapter 15
Jinni drew on the flame, knowing there would be no Danika to save him this time. But it didn’t matter, he could prolong the inevitable but he knew his was time was over, either way, he only had tonight left.
Against rhyme or reason she’d stayed. Paz had heard the worst of him, and stayed. Was this love? He wasn’t sure. Was it possible to love someone so completely, so quickly?
Long ago, he’d have thought so. But now…
Maybe this was more. Deeper. Bigger than both of them.
Danika had told him she’d found his perfect mate and he hadn’t believed. Hadn’t wanted to believe. Believing in his soul that a black devil such as he did not deserve happiness again. But he’d found it.
Drawing the flame deep into his body, he let it fill him, stretch him. Smiling as his soul took form, flesh and bone.
Paz inhaled sharply. “You are so beautiful.”
“Should I not be saying that to you?” he asked, trembling as she slipped into his arms. Arms that weren’t made out of a nothing but air, but solid and warm. Arms that held her tight and shook when she ran her fingers up them, trailing heat and fire in its wake.
“You can. Or,” she leaned in close, until his eyes nearly crossed to keep her in focus, “you can kiss me again.”
There were a million reasons why he shouldn’t. First and foremost that this was merely prolonging the inevitable, that the less they did together, the less she’d ache when he was gone. That forcing her to tie her heart to a man who could never be her Todd would forever taint her for another.
But again, as with so many other times in his life, Jinni didn’t listen to his own wise council. He did what he’d wanted to do all along.
The first touch of their lips was hesitant, exploratory. A gentle pressure, like a coaxing question. Should we do this?
But then her nails were digging forcefully into the nape of his neck, adding friction and pressure. A low moan built between them.
Jinni pulled Paz firmer into the crook of his arms and the magic that flowed through him entered her. They melded once again into a burning ball of light and sailed gracefully through the roo
f of the hospital, still wrapped up in each other.
Their bodies pure lights of energy, burning with passion and fire, and unrequited desire.
She was everywhere, her light and life leaking into him, filling the empty spaces of his heart, his soul. He was in her too. His light and her light becoming one, a nova of pleasure as they flew higher and higher through the clouds.
Jinni clung to her. Danika had told him that he’d be Paz’s tether, but the truth was, she was his.
She made him forget.
Forget that he wasn’t good, that he should leave her alone. He kissed her, tasted her tongue, the warmth of her breath, breathing in the air she exhaled and forcing his own through her lips. In her arms, right now, he was a man and she was a woman.
A woman made for him.
Just for him.
She pulled away, gasping and quivering. Then she glanced around and smiled. “The stars. Oh, Jinni, I love your home.”
He framed her face between his large hands, shivering at the silken softness of it. “Dance with me, Paz.”
Her smile was flushed and radiant as she nodded. Jinni swept his arm around her waist, commanding the stars to sing.
An angelic melody drifted by them, through them. The pink and red streaked blue sky burst with the light of a trillion stars. They moved and swayed to the music, Paz rested her head on his shoulder, her fingers idly toying with the hair on the back of his head.
“I don’t want this night to ever end,” she whispered and then planted a kiss on his chest, right above his heart.
It thumped loudly and his fingers curled deep into her waist. “I’m so sorry, Paz.”
And he was. Sorry that he’d wasted his life and love on another, sorry he’d not been man enough to fight the fading. Sorry that he was so far gone, he could never come back.
Her eyes filled with tears and light. “How much longer do we have?”
“Not long enough.”
She closed her eyes. “Then make love to me.”
He swallowed hard and stopped moving, almost stopped breathing. “What?”
“I want this memory for as long as I live. Because if I’ve got it in here,” she tapped her head, “then you’ll never really die. Your flame will live on in my heart forever.”
Demons & Djinn: Nine Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Novels Featuring Demons, Djinn, and other Bad Boys of the Underworld Page 73
