Magical Redemption
Page 19
His words cut her because, despite his form, she wanted him. The tears threatened again, but she understood.
The more they were together, the less chance he’d ever have of returning to his natural state. With every minute they were together, his desire to protect her would increase. The sad fact was he couldn’t protect her. Within fifteen hours, she would be the property of the bomoh. That knowledge could keep him in demonic form eternally and might well cause him to go mad.
With one last lingering touch, Jinx pulled away. She tucked her hands behind her back, though they itched to touch him, again. Whether big, red, and scary or white, human, and snappy, she always wanted to touch him.
“Take your wish, so I can go and leave you to recover. The sooner you take that wish, the sooner you’ll forget about me.”
Lucian shook his head wearily.
“I’ve cradled your soul during sex. Even the genie’s curse can’t make me forget you. Isn’t that the reason you decided to have sex with me in the first place?” He smiled bitterly, displaying his wolfish canines. “At least you got your wish. Rest assured, little genie. I’ll not forget you.”
Jinx felt her face crumple as she grasped at straws. “Can’t Antigone have another try at removing the pledge?”
“Antigone can’t remove it in this form, and this form is likely here to stay.”
“What can we do?” Jinx groaned. She rubbed her eyes.
Lucian shrugged. “I’m not returning to the Family.”
“You’re not? If you don’t return, the Pater Rex will kill you through the pledge!”
Lucian stared at her. “I’d rather die than spend eternity alone as this monster.”
Jinx sobbed and wiped her eyes. “I’m so sorry.” The guilt was physically painful.
A massive, black-clawed hand wiped the silver trails of tears from her cheeks with a gentle, fleeting grace. “Don’t be,” he murmured. “I found you, I’ve had you, and I’m not sorry about it. I can’t be sorry about it.”
Jinx sobbed harder as he caught her in his arms and gently drew her to his chest. He cradled her head against the hard planes of him. His heart thumped loud and steady. Would it cease to beat in fifteen hours? Would this noble, gorgeous, strong, and vital man be gone? It seemed so wrong.
“You’ve still got your wish,” Jinx cried. “Can’t you think of something? Surely a wish could fix it?”
Jinx felt Lucian run his hand through her hair. It made her shiver. The manly scent of him was drowning her. She couldn’t let him die, because she screwed up.
I always screw up.
Jinx closed her eyes, remembering her parents, her baby, and the countless mistakes she made.
“Let it go,” Lucian murmured gently, still holding her. “Let it go.”
“I can’t! There has to be a way,” she cried.
Lucian led her to the couch where she sank down and curled up on his lap like a cat. She wanted to be close, because soon she’d be far, far, away and he’d be dying.
Would God be so cruel?
Then, like a small pinprick of understanding, it dawned on her. There was a way. They’d never be together, but at least Lucian could be free.
Jinx cleansed herself with a little spell. Lucian’s eyebrows flickered with surprise. She took a deep, steadying breath. “I...I think there is a way to free you of the pledge before the time is up.”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Really?” He sounded skeptical.
“I wouldn’t suggest this if I wasn’t absolutely serious about going through with it.”
He frowned thunderously. “I don’t like it, already.”
“The bomoh has my lamp, right?”
Lucian grunted.
Jinx continued. “You’ll stay demonic potentially forever, won’t you, knowing I’m in his control?”
“There is a high probability of that being the case, yes.”
“Well, what if I wasn’t in the bomoh’s possession? Would you turn back to your human form?”
“If I knew you were not under threat, I probably would. I don’t see how you can get away from him.”
“I don’t have to get away from the bomoh, if I’m...if I’m...dead.”
There was an almighty silence for a brief second.
“What?” Lucian exploded. “I didn’t turn demonic to have you die!”
Jinx ignored him. “If you used your last wish to set me free, I would die. I was meant to die before I was cursed with the genie curse. Wishing me free would remove the curse, and I’d die naturally, as I was originally meant to...” Her voice faded to nothing. “If I were dead, you’d have nothing to protect and would return to your natural form. Antigone could remove the pledge before the Pater Rex comes to get you.”
Lucian’s eyes were wide and incredulous. His breaths were shallow.
“Are you offering your life to save mine?” he whispered. He squeezed her hands tightly.
Am I? she wondered. “Yes, Lucian. I am,” she said.
* * * *
Lucian felt his chest squeeze and for a moment understood the utter panic of someone about to have a heart attack. “You don’t mean that,” he gasped, releasing her hands.
“I do,” she said.
“No, no, no.” Lucian shook his head. It felt strangely heavy with his horns. “No, you don’t.”
“Why not?” Jinx shrugged, her face eerily calm. “I should have died fourteen years ago. My father cursed me to keep me alive. He never should have.”
“How can you speak like this?” Lucian blustered, confused, hurt, and completely overwhelmed.
“I’ve had enough. I don’t want to be a genie. I don’t want to be the bomoh’s slave. I don’t want to be anyone’s slave.”
Lucian shook his head, again. “No.”
“There is no other way.”
Lucian looked at her large, gentle, dark brown eyes and her uncreased brow. She was certain. In his heart, he knew she was determined. She was his genie and his woman and wanted to show her love through this sacrifice. He understood that.
“Yasmina, I won’t let you do it, but...” He gripped her and pressed his face to hers. “You are an incredible woman for even suggesting it.” Lucian kissed her. When their lips met, he pressed into her, offering his power and his love. He gasped and said, “I love you.”
Not caring about taking her soul, Lucian scooped her up into his arms and walked toward the carpeted safe room once again.
I will never let her die.
Kissing her, he knew her soul could be restored when he died from the pledge. Jinx would live on, even if she didn’t want to. She might think he was a good man, but he knew better. He couldn’t let her die, because living without her would be a death sentence, anyway. He knew it was selfish, but he’d do it regardless.
As he laid the woman he loved down on the small, Spartan bed, Lucian’s heart ached.
“Make love to me,” Jinx sighed, her face peaceful.
Inhaling the erotic scent of her magic and musk, Lucian dismissed the thoughts and sunk down on top of her. “As you wish,” he murmured.
* * * *
Their lovemaking was gentle and loving. It was nothing like Lucian had ever experienced. So lost were they in the moment and each other that they didn’t hear a tiny pop. There, in the corner of the carpeted room, a large, green grasshopper appeared. It watched them through malevolent red eyes…and waited.
Chapter Sixteen
“I’ve found them,” the bomoh barked, mopping beads of sweat from his brow with his orange shroud. The Pater Rex’s hotel was sinfully hot and reeked of sulphur, sweat, and a strange, metallic odor. The sulphurous odor he knew came from the filthy chupacabras sleeping in the darkened bathroom. He presumed the metallic smell came from the occupant of the bed.
“Your pelesit has returned, I gather?” the Pater Rex asked before a spasm of tics racked his cheeks. He twisted his ring again and clearly fought to control the spasms.
“She has.” The bomoh felt his mouth broaden with relief.
“I gather they are still in the Free Zone?” the Pater Rex asked after a moment, running a small hand down the braid in his beard.
“Yes, and they are, to put it crudely, getting busy.” He chuckled mirthlessly to himself, curiously watching the Pater Rex’s rapidly contorting face. Whatever ailed him was getting worse. “What is wrong with you?” the bomoh asked after a long moment.
“N…Nothing,” the Pater Rex stammered. His expression was nervous as his eyes darted toward the bed.
“Who lies there?” the bomoh asked, gesturing to the heavily mosquito-curtained bed.
“My...my...wife,” the Pater Rex mumbled. “If your pelesit has an exact location, I will go and get Lucian, now.”
“You gave them twenty-four hours,” the bomoh reminded him. “What is the rush? If I can wait a further...” He glanced at the gold Rolex watch cutting into the fat flesh of his wrist.“Fourteen hours to possess my genie. I’m certain you can, too.”
The Pater Rex shook violently. “No, I...” He glanced again at the bed where the occupant was stirring. “Please,” he muttered. “The location?”
The bomoh felt a sweaty frown slip on his forehead and grunted. “You are not a man of honor.”
“And you are?” the Pater Rex barked back.
“No, and I never said I was. I am disappointed in you. It must be said.”
“The location?” the Pater Rex growled.
Frowning again, the bomoh said, “Be forewarned, little man. You may use no malevolent magic in this place. The owner has warded it–beautifully.”
“Who owns the place?” the Pater Rex asked.
“My pelesit does not know, and thus, nor do I.”
“Who’sss there?” a sleepy, sibilant voice asked from the bed.
The Pater Rex was startled as he waddled to the bed and parted the mosquito curtains. “Just the bomoh, my dear,” he soothed. Sweat beaded hot and sour on the little man’s face.
Why is he frightened of his wife? the bomoh mused, not really caring for the answer.
“Why isss he here?” Her tone turned querulous.
“He is locating Lucian and the new genie for me,” the Pater Rex said quickly. “You don’t need to worry your beautiful head about it.”
There was an irritable hiss from the bed. “Don’t worry?”
The bomoh watched curiously as a massive form slithered from the bed. With the rustle of dry scales, the mosquito net parted.
The Pater Rex’s wife was enormous. Half her body was that of a strikingly beautiful woman with sharp features and serpentine eyes set in a flawless face. Her skin shimmered as if dusted with diamonds. That’s where beautiful ended, as her narrow waist disappeared into a long snakelike tail of glistening green.
The bomoh recognized her instantly as a naga, but something was shockingly different. This naga exuded power. In the bomoh’s experience, nagas were armed with highly toxic venom but possessed no magic whatsoever. Yet magic literally bristled around this one as she swayed like an angry cobra toward him.
The bomoh took a step back.
“You...” she murmured and raised a manicured hand to flick back a tendril of russet hair. “You know where Lucian isss?”
The naga’s metallic odor assailed him. The bomoh could barely contain a blanch. “Yes, I have just given your, uh, husband the coordinates.” He threw a disbelieving glance between the couple.
“Then, we mussst get him. I want him, now,” she said sibilantly and smiled. Two long, poison-tipped fangs flicked forward in her shockingly black mouth. “Do you wisssh to argue?”
The bomoh stared at her with open-mouthed shock. Was she threatening him? No one threatened the bomoh!
The naga swished forward. Her power prickled his skin, and the odor of her made him instinctively recoil. “Of course not,” he said slowly. Yet another bead of sweat slithered down his cheek and scuttled into the crease of his neck.
The naga inclined her head gently. “Ssshall we call the dogsss and go?” She gestured to her small husband.
“My dear.” The Pater Rex was flustered. “There is no need for you to come along, is there Mister Bomoh?”
The naga narrowed her eyes at the bomoh. He felt his intestines squirm under her poisonous gaze. He knew then there would be no denying her.
“Err…if your wife wishes to accompany us, I do not see a problem,” he said.
“Devika,” the Pater Rex said, nervously patting his hands around his little belly. “This...this…thing you have about Lucian...” his face convulsed. Devika curled her lips to expose her fangs again, and he shrank away.
“Now isss not the time to discusss,” she snapped, her head spinning on her neck to glare at her husband.
The bomoh watched the unusual interplay between them as the Pater Rex wilted.
“If Mister Bomoh hasss Lucian’sss location, we ssshould go.”
“Yes, my dear,” the Pater Rex agreed weakly. Then, he glanced toward the bomoh. “You will be coming with us.”
The bomoh felt staggered.
“Me go? Why? I have the lamp, and the genie will come to me when the last wish has been taken. I have no desire or need to collect your demon spawn with you.”
Devika swished her tail dangerously. “You ssseem reluctant.” She parted her blackened mouth. The bomoh saw her fangs were down once, again.
“I merely do not see the need.” He backed further toward the wall. “I am a bomoh and have no need of your demon spawn.”
“I want him,” Devika hissed. “He hasss eluded you and my husssband thusss far. I would rather have him alive than dead.”
The bomoh looked toward the gnome, who was strangely resigned.
“I see,” he murmured, though he clearly didn’t. “If I must, I will join you on your hunt.”
Devika smiled broadly. The bomoh wondered again why on earth they wanted or needed the demon spawn.
It was...curious.
* * * *
Jinx opened her eyes to find her body coated with sweat. Lucian pulsed above her with heat-like, liquid fire. Hot, dangerous, and expressly forbidden; it didn’t matter. She smiled and kissed his chin as he closed his eyes. In another time, another place, the moment would have been perfect. He was a gentle, considerate lover and a man proud and willing to protect her. That was something she always wanted and, for the next few hours, she had it. Jinx knew she gave more of her soul to Lucian through their love making but didn’t care.
After her orgasm, his whole body shimmered with power, but the pain that flashed over his face was unmistakable. The look of peace that relaxed his demonic face as he moved within her was gone. His eyes grew guarded. Jinx reached up and tried to kiss him again, but he abruptly pulled out and away from her, leaving her empty in more ways than one.
Jinx knew he loathed what happened when they made love. It made him agitated and filled with self-loathing. Still bulky and enormous in his demonic state, he looked terrifying as he turned his reddened visage toward her.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Jinx asked nervously, feeling a little like a psychotherapy counselor rather than the genie she was.
A slight tug of amusement pulled at Lucian’s lips. “I don’t think there is anything to talk about. You know we can’t stay here. We’re putting Antigone and Omar in danger.”
Jinx suddenly hated all the ot
her happy couples in the world. She hung her head, resenting the fact that she’d never plan a wedding or choosing baby names with the man she loved. She forced the maudlin thoughts aside with substantial will. Lucian was right. The Pater Rex would track them down through the pledge soon. Even though she knew Omar’s home was powerfully warded to stop malevolent magic, she didn’t want to risk them.
“Okay,” she agreed and uttered a cleansing spell to freshen them both up. Lucian nodded his thanks and turned toward the door. He froze and put a hand behind him to hold her back.
“What’s wrong?” Jinx felt alarm creeping up her legs and tingling in her belly. She craned her neck around Lucian’s broad back to look.
“It’s the pelesit,” he growled. “It’s back and in this room.”
“What?” Jinx squealed. She saw the angry insect squatting on the orange carpet. “I hate that bug!”
The pelesit ticked and glared as if saying the feeling was mutual.
“How did it get out of the swamp?” she asked pointlessly, clinging close behind Lucian for comfort. “Where can we go? It will follow us everywhere. Besides that, the pledge is going to get you soon. You have to take your last wish.”
“Not here, not now,” Lucian growled and turned, pulling her up into his arms. Jinx curled her legs around his waist. She felt small and protected in his arms as he lowered his head to kiss her, again. His mouth met hers with a clash of sweetness. His elongated canines made his kiss bestial. Her heart and loins quickened once again.
“What was that for?” She gasped when he pulled away.
Lucian didn’t smile. “I want that bomoh to know you’re mine.” He turned to glare at the pelesit then advanced on the small, angry-looking insect. “Mine,” he snarled at it. “Go tell your master that!”
Jinx felt another swell of love grow.
The pelesit ticked restlessly and ignored him.
“Tell him I’d rather die than hand her over.”
Alarm bells wailed in Jinx’s mind.