Forsaken (The Djinn Wars Book 5)

by Christine Pope

  Hasan stumbled as the ground beneath his feet shifted. Madison looked toward the woods, face pale and frightened in the darkness. The sight only increased Qadim’s anger, but he retained enough control to shout at her that she must run.

  She didn’t waste time with protests, but sprinted forward, her long legs propelling her toward the wood where he and Ahmar waited. At the same time, Hasan regained his balance and turned in her direction.

  At once a wind arose, buffeting her and pulling at the heavy curls of her hair. She winced, then stumbled — for the first time, Qadim realized she was barefoot — but she did not fall and instead continued toward him, ignoring as best she could the winds that assailed her.

  She was strong, but Qadim knew she could not hold out for long against Hasan’s onslaught. “On your knees!” he shouted to her. “You will need to crawl, my love!”

  Her eyes widened, but she did as he said, immediately dropping to the ground and moving ahead on all fours. At the same time, he sent another temblor rolling through the earth, one he made sure would crest more or less exactly where Hasan stood. The other djinn staggered, cursing, and the winds tugging at Madison’s hair subsided somewhat. She didn’t look behind her, but continued doggedly, as if she knew that allowing herself to be distracted would only make matters worse.

  Then Hasan seemed to recover himself, and raised his arms. Not toward Qadim, but toward Madison.

  A dust devil arose in the darkness, surrounding her. She stopped, choking, as the very air was torn from her lungs.

  “Leave her alone!” Qadim flung at Hasan. “Your fight is with me!”

  “No, I think not,” Hasan replied. He did not sound angry. In fact, an incongruous note of laughter rippled through his voice, as if he was enjoying himself immensely. “For my fight has always been with these worthless humans. You are my friend, Qadim — or at least, I thought you were.”

  “No friend of mine would seek to wound the woman I love,” Qadim shouted, and the ground roared in response, so violently that Hasan once again lost his balance, this time falling to his knees. From the house behind him came a groaning sound and a low rumble, as of rocks collapsing.

  But the wind still surrounded Madison, who could barely be seen through the whirling column of dust. And then another wind arose, no tornado this time, but a cold blast that felt as if it had come straight down from the mountaintops. Qadim glanced over his shoulder and saw Ahmar standing there, face calm but focused as he brought his own powers to Madison’s aid, summoning a wind that tore through the dust cloud which surrounded her and dispersed it in all directions.

  Still coughing, she began to move forward again. Close, so close….

  And then she was there at his feet, and his arms were around her, feeling her alive but shaking violently.

  “Take her,” Ahmar said. “I will hold him off while you make your escape.”

  “He is mine to deal with,” Qadim growled. Surely Ahmar did not think that he would slink away and allow someone else to manage the man who had almost killed Madison.

  “Then come back and deal with him later, after your woman is safe,” Ahmar replied. Perspiration showed on his forehead, evidence of the effort he was putting forth to keep Hasan’s demon whirlwinds at bay.

  “Please, Qadim,” Madison said, her voice a rough croak. “Take me away from here.”

  How could he ignore that plea? He gazed down at her pale, strained face and nodded. And then they were gone, leaving Hasan and Ahmar behind.

  Every bone and muscle in her body ached. Madison sat on the bed in Qadim’s penthouse suite and tried not to gasp in pain as he dabbed antiseptic on the torn and bruised soles of her feet. A first aid kit sat open on the nightstand. She wondered where he’d gotten it, but then realized the hotel would have had to keep one somewhere, if only to minister to any workplace-related bumps and bruises.

  “How did you know where to find me?” she asked.

  Qadim looked up briefly. The worry hadn’t left his dark eyes, but he gave her a tired smile. “I knew that Hasan had been given the territory around Chama. The task of locating you would still have required much searching, if it had not been that one of the Chosen in Santa Fe was born in that area. She helped to narrow down where Hasan might be living, and then her djinn brought me there.”

  “You went to Santa Fe?” For some reason, that revelation surprised her. She hadn’t really pried, sensing that he didn’t want to discuss the subject, but she’d gotten the impression that Qadim didn’t have much use for Santa Fe, or the djinn and their Chosen who lived there.

  “Yes,” he said briefly. To her relief, he set down the antiseptic and the soft cloth he’d been holding, then placed a pad on the bottom of her foot and began taping it in place. “That is, I went as far north as I could, thinking I might find a horse and ride the rest of the way to Chama.”

  “It would have to be a pretty big horse,” Madison remarked, amused despite everything. Her imagination had just put Qadim on the back of one of the Budweiser Clydesdales, and she couldn’t quite keep her mouth from quirking.

  “True. But I encountered Zahrias al-Harith’s younger brother in Pojoaque, and Danilar convinced me that it would be best if I spoke with Zahrias and told him why I had such a desperate need to go northward.”

  Madison nodded. At the same time, she had to ask, “But why would they even help you? You made it sound as if you weren’t on the best of terms.”

  “No, we are not. But Zahrias — or any of his people, really — could not ignore the plight of a woman taken by a djinn with murder on his mind. Unfortunately, Hasan’s exploits are well known.”

  A shiver went over her. Delayed reaction, probably, as the room was quite warm, worlds away from the chilly air that had surrounded the house in Chama. Or maybe it was just the memory of Hasan’s harsh grip on her arms, the bruising touch of his lips on hers.

  Perhaps disturbed by her silence, Qadim frowned, his gaze locked on her face. “He did not — ”

  “No,” she said immediately. She wasn’t defending Hasan, God, no, but she couldn’t have Qadim thinking that the worst had happened. “He seemed more repulsed by me than anything. Disgusting human, and all that. But he did — ” A swallow of air, followed by another. Why was it so hard to spit the words out? Maybe it was just that she was away now and safe, and Qadim was with her, and if she told him everything, he would go back and try to finish what he’d started. She loved him, and couldn’t bear the thought of him putting himself back in harm’s way like that. “He did force a kiss on me. Not to be romantic. Just to — to show me what else he intended. That he was in charge.”

  A long, long silence. Qadim sat there at the foot of the bed, the position he’d taken so he could minister to her wounded feet, and said nothing. He felt so very far away, and Madison wished he would move, would come to her so he could hold her and tell her that everything was going to be all right. His eyes were hooded, not meeting hers.

  Then he said, “I will kill him.”

  “Qadim — ”

  “You would plead for him, when he dishonored you so?”

  “This has nothing to do with him,” she said desperately, willing him to listen, to not retreat behind djinn notions of honor and retribution. “I don’t want you to kill him because I don’t want you to take that on yourself. It’s not worth it. I’m safe. I’m here. Let it go.”

  Scowling, Qadim rose abruptly from the bed and went to the window. What he thought he would see out there, she couldn’t begin to guess, since it was black as pitch outside. “What kind of man would I be to let things lie as they are? And what makes you think that he would do the same? The two of us have unfinished business. You must realize that there is nothing to stop him from coming here and attempting to steal you again.”

  Those words sent a chill over Madison. She hadn’t even stopped to contemplate that possibility, thinking that as long as she stuck by Qadim’s side, she should be safe. But the two of them had been locked in a stalemate, a
nd it was only that other djinn — Qadim had told her his name was Ahmar — who had been able to break the impasse and had allowed her to reach safety.

  Still, she had to protest, even if she didn’t entirely believe what she was saying. “I don’t think he’ll do that. For one thing, I plan to stick to your side like glue. I hope you don’t mind.” She’d hoped that comment would make him smile, but he only stood by the window like a dark, brooding god, his expression unchanging. “And also, you had one of the djinn from Santa Fe come help you. That’s got to give Hasan pause as well, since he can’t count on that not happening again.”

  “It will not happen again,” Qadim said, the words flat, allowing no argument. “We are not allied in any way.”

  “But Hasan doesn’t know that for sure.”

  Another silence. Qadim touched the curtains that framed the window, the dark, silky fabric flowing under his fingertips. “Do you continue to argue with me in the hope that I will eventually give in?”

  “Well, maybe,” she replied, then tilted her head at him. “Is it working?”

  At last he smiled, but it was a weary one, barely lifting the corners of his mouth. But he did come away from the window and sit down next to her on the bed. The shifting of the mattress jarred all of Madison’s abused muscles, although she didn’t much care. Far more important that Qadim was here now next to her, his very presence a comfort, even if the things he’d just said certainly were not. She reached out a hand, and he took it. So warm, so strong. She’d never been the type to think she needed a man around, or someone to complete her, but right then she couldn’t help but think it felt damn good to have him there, so solid, so real.

  “You are tired,” he said. “This is nothing that needs to be solved tonight. Tell me what you want.”

  “You,” she said, and his eyebrows lifted, as if surprised she would have the energy for that sort of thing. “Not sex,” she amended. “I just want you here next to me. I want to lay my head against you, and I want you to hold me if I wake up in the middle of the night.”

  “Of course. I will be here for you, my dear.”

  He leaned in and placed a kiss against her cheek, very gently, then helped her slip under the covers. When he’d brought her back to the hotel, he’d gotten clean things for her — a tank top and capri-style yoga pants — and had fetched a damp washcloth from the bathroom and cleaned the dust and grime from her face. So she was ready enough to get into bed, even if he wasn’t. She watched as he got up and took off his jeans and T-shirt, then joined her under the covers, wearing only his boxer briefs.

  At any other time, the sight would have been enough to get her blood racing. But she’d told him the truth. She was far too exhausted to even think about sex. All she wanted was to lay her head on his chest and have those wonderful muscles of his provide a far better pillow than anything the hotel might provide. His arm went around her, heavy and comforting.

  She shut her eyes, and fell into a deep, dreamless slumber.

  Madison slept. Qadim wished he could do the same, but despite the weariness that had invaded his limbs, he did not know if he could abandon himself to oblivion. Not while Hasan was still out there. Qadim knew that Ahmar would not have stayed to see that particular battle through to the end — he had his own Chosen to worry about, and besides, this was not his fight. He had only provided a necessary diversion, nothing more. He would have left as soon as he was sure Qadim and Madison had gotten safely away.

  Whether Hasan would dare to come here…Qadim wasn’t sure about that. Something in his friend’s mind had come unhinged, that seemed clear enough, but he might still possess enough instincts of self-preservation to decide this fight was not worth the effort. Then again, he had devoted a significant amount of energy to making sure that every single mortal he’d encountered was wiped off the face of the earth. That he hadn’t done the same thing to Madison was deeply troubling. Of course Qadim was relieved beyond measure that she had escaped relatively unscathed, but this reprieve would count for little if it only meant Hasan would make it his life’s work to ensure that she, too, did not survive in the end.

  Not while I live and breathe, Qadim thought then, touching her knotted curls — but gently, so she wouldn’t awake. This fiercely protective instinct surprised him, for he had certainly never experienced it before. Was it only that Madison was a mortal, and so did not possess the sorts of powers that would help to keep her safe? And yet somehow she had survived being the captive of an angry and vengeful djinn, had even managed to escape him, if only for a few brief moments. Still, that was an achievement not many humans could claim as their own.

  Or perhaps it was because he had never loved any of those women from his past, and he knew now that he loved Madison, loved the sound of her voice and the way she would tilt an eyebrow at him when he said something particularly outrageous. Loved the talent in those fine, long-fingered hands of hers, loved the way her hair spread out on the pillow as she slept. Loved the long scar on her arm, where she’d told him that she’d broken a bone as a child.

  He’d never understood love before. Attraction, yes, the delicate dance that brought two people into one another’s orbit, culminating in an entirely different type of dance, usually horizontal. But he had always wearied of those women, or they of him, and they had parted with few regrets on either side. He had seen friends swept into passionate affairs that resulted in centuries-long commitments, and yet those relationships had never lasted for all time. Indeed, he had begun to think that love must be a construct of humanity, something they had invented to give meaning to their all-too-short lives.

  He knew better now.

  And he knew what he should do. He only feared he did not possess the courage to take that final step.

  “Madison.”

  She opened her eyes, saw Qadim staring down into her face. What time was it? The place had the peculiar, indistinct blurry darkness of a hotel room with the blackout curtains pulled shut, so she really couldn’t guess at the time of day. “Is it morning?”

  “Yes, my dear. Quite late in the morning, and we have visitors.”

  That announcement made her sit up straight, heart beginning to pound. “Not — ”

  “No,” he said at once. “Not Hasan. A delegation from Santa Fe.”

  “What are they doing here?”

  “I suppose that is what they wish to tell us. I informed them that you were still in bed, but they said they would wait.”

  That comment sounded ominous. But she knew that burrowing under the covers and trying to go back to sleep was not an option. “I need to shower, and my hair is a disaster — ”

  He smiled. “Madison, you could never be a disaster. But I understand how you might want to feel a little more freshened up, as it were. I will offer them something to drink, and in the meantime you can prepare yourself. Just come down to the lobby when you’re ready.”

  Then he bent and kissed her on the cheek, and let himself out of the suite. Madison pushed herself out from under the covers and got up, letting out a hiss of pain as her full weight hit her battered feet. They would heal eventually, she knew, but the interim was not going to be a lot of fun. Thank God those little jeweled sandals Qadim had procured for her were so light and open. She thought she should be able to slip them on over the bandages.

  He’d brought up her things — toiletries, a change of clothes, fresh underwear. Amazing how thoughtful he could be. Once upon a time, “thoughtful” was probably the last adjective she would have ever applied to a djinn. She knew better now, though.

  After peeling off the bandages and disposing of them in the trash, she climbed out of her clothes and into the shower, reveling in the sensation of the hot water beating down on her. If only she could stay in there for hours and hours. But she knew people were waiting for her, so she hurried through washing her hair and soaping away the residue of her encounter with Hasan al-Abyad. When she got out of the shower, she felt much better, if not completely herself yet.

&
nbsp; That, she feared, would require much more than a ten-minute shower.

  Fresh bandages for her wounded feet, then the world’s fastest primp, with moisturizer quickly followed by some mascara and gloss. About all she could do with her hair was towel-dry it within an inch of its life, then scrunch some anti-frizz serum into it.

  Qadim had also fetched a clean pair of jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt for her. Madison hesitated over the pile of fresh clothes, then shook her head and went to the closet, hoping that he’d thought to bring up some of the djinn-style clothing as well. Sure enough, several pieces hung in the closet, so she chose a tunic and pants in deep green silk with pale gold embroidery, and put those on. There was also a pair of gold sandals sitting on the floor of the closet. She grabbed them and headed over to a chair so she could gingerly slip them on over the gauze pads on the soles of her feet.

  Gold glinted from the nightstand. Madison couldn’t remember seeing them there before, but when she went in for a closer look, she realized that the golden glint had come from a pair of earrings and a set of matching cuff bracelets. She slid them all on, then gave herself one last glance in the mirror. Considering everything she’d been through the day before, she didn’t look half bad.

  Because her feet hurt so badly, her progress down the hall wasn’t nearly as swift as she would have liked. And the thought of all those flights of stairs….

  But Qadim had taken pity on her, because when she got to the end of the corridor, she saw that the door to the elevator stood open. They hadn’t used the elevator very much in the past, and so she uttered a silent thank-you that he’d remembered to send it to her now.

  Madison got in the car and pushed the button for the ground floor. The elevator descended slowly and seamlessly, making her almost forget that it was currently powered by djinn energy and nothing else.

  The sound of voices greeted her when the elevator doors opened. She’d become so used to hearing only one person speak at a time that for a second she hesitated, a little overwhelmed by the noise.