“If you best him.”
A lift of one eyebrow. “Very well. If I best him, I will give you a choice. You can have Margolis…or me.”
He was serious. She had a feeling the commander wouldn’t be very happy to hear about this new wrinkle, considering that Qadim had promised her to him. But the alternative….
No, she wouldn’t allow herself to think about that. About all she could do now was pray that Zahrias really would be able to beat this bastard. Otherwise, her own fate would be an unhappy one, no matter which choice she made.
And, judging by the amused expression on Qadim’s face, he seemed to know that as well.
Chapter Nine
One would think that with almost all of eternity to play with, waiting would become easier, but as the minutes stretched past, Zahrias began to wonder if he would go mad trying to figure out what might have happened to Julia and her party. At one point Jessica slipped out of the office at the museum, saying she’d better scare up some food, since it was getting late and they all needed to eat something. All Zahrias could do was think that he certainly had no appetite at the moment. Even so, he had to acknowledge to himself that she was only trying to help.
She returned sometime later with a bag of those odd bread and meat inventions that mortals referred to as sandwiches, as well as a big insulated container of coffee. “Since we don’t know how long this is going to take,” she explained.
Right then, Zahrias thought his nerves would have appreciated a good glass of wine rather than the coffee, but he didn’t say so. At any rate, coffee was one of this world’s vices that he’d come to appreciate, so he murmured his thanks as she poured some into a mug she’d gotten from the museum’s gift shop.
The sandwiches proved to be tasty enough. Where Jessica had gotten them, he didn’t know for sure, but he guessed she had probably gone to Phillip for the ingredients, even if she’d put them together herself. The three of them ate in silence for a few moments, although Zahrias noticed the way Jasreel and Jessica would flicker a quick glance at the silent radio equipment from time to time, as if willing the Los Alamos people to make contact.
But no call came through. Jasreel silently gathered up the paper the sandwiches had been wrapped in and discarded it in the trash can that sat in one corner of the room. As he did so, Jessica poured some more coffee into Zahrias’ mug.
“Maybe I should have scared up some brandy to put in that,” she said, offering him a smile.
But he could see the strain in her dark eyes, despite the smile. She was doing her best to cover up her worry, he could tell. Unfortunately, that best didn’t seem to be sufficient at the moment.
Then the radio crackled, and Shawn Gutierrez’s voice came through the speakers. “Santa Fe? Are you there?”
Zahrias immediately picked up the handset. “We’re here. What news do you have?”
“Nothing good.” The mortal’s voice sounded tight, too controlled, as if he was doing everything he could to hide how troubled he actually was. “We traced the route Julia would have taken to come back to Los Alamos and found the wreckage of her Suburban in an underpass in Pojoaque.”
Jessica gasped, and Jasreel reached out to take her hand.
“Wreckage?” Zahrias demanded. He had to push aside an image of Julia’s SUV a crumpled heap, her body broken inside. “She had an accident?”
“Oh, this was no accident,” Shawn said, sounding grim. “There were scorch marks on the asphalt, and parts of it were melted. The Suburban was blackened underneath, like it had been hit with a rocket or something.”
A rocket? What in the world….
Jessica seemed to be one step ahead of him. She came close enough so she could speak into the microphone. “Like someone hit them with an RPG or something?”
“Yeah, it looked that way. And who do we all know who could use something like that?”
Margolis. Of course. Zahrias was on his feet before he even realized what he was doing. “Where was this exactly?”
“Where the 502 crosses under the 285. It — ”
But Zahrias had no intention of waiting to hear anything else. He could go see for himself.
He had never been to the location in question, but that didn’t matter. His people could send themselves pretty much where they pleased on this plane, as long as they had a general idea. During his time here, he had studied maps of the region; he knew more or less where to go.
The night was a black one, for the moon had yet to rise. But Zahrias summoned his flames to him, and they served well enough to illuminate the underpass where Shawn Gutierrez had said that Julia’s Suburban was located.
Or what was left of it, at any rate. Two of the tires were flat, and black marks marred the undercarriage. In places, the paint looked blistered. The windshield was gone, although Zahrias could see where its remains had been pushed off to one side.
And there was blood. None on the driver’s side, for which Zahrias murmured a silent prayer of thanks, but gruesome stains marked the upholstery of the passenger seat, and the back seat as well. But no bodies.
Glass crunched behind him, and he turned, fists clenching. But it was only Jasreel and Jessica. The other djinn had clearly been holding his Chosen so he could transport her here with him; as Zahrias watched, Jasreel unclasped his arms from Jessica’s waist, allowing her to step away from him. She glanced around, taking in the wreckage, then approached Zahrias.
“Maybe someday I’ll get used to the way you djinn can pop in and out like that,” she said. “But you should have waited to hear what else Shawn had to say.”
“And what was that?”
“His search party took the bodies back with them. Three bodies, Zahrias. Julia wasn’t one of them.”
Relief at her words, yes, but if Julia wasn’t here, then that meant Margolis must have her. Zahrias nodded, since he wasn’t sure he trusted himself to speak. Just the thought of that monster having her in his grasp once again was enough to turn his blood to fire.
Jessica must have come to the same conclusion, because she said, “I know. It’s awful. But at least she’s still alive.”
“We think she’s alive,” Zahrias replied bitterly. “We know nothing for sure.”
“All right, you have a point. But it really looks like he targeted the SUV in a way that wouldn’t completely blow it up. Margolis wanted her to survive.”
Zahrias would have to take her word for that, since he knew very little of how such devices worked. He was about to say as much when Jasreel called over to the two of them.
“I think you’d better take a look at this.”
Frowning, Zahrias turned toward the other djinn and looked where he was pointing. A portion of the asphalt was not so much torn up as exploded outward, as if something had come boiling up from beneath it. As he approached the spot in question and stared down at it, cold washed over him. Only an earth elemental could have created that kind of destruction.
An earth elemental….
No.
“What is it?” Jessica asked. Clearly, she had noticed some shift in his expression.
“This was caused by a djinn,” Jasreel told her.
“A djinn?” she said blankly. “One of ours? But — ”
“No,” Zahrias cut in. “Not one of our community. Someone I had hoped never to meet again.”
Now both Jasreel and Jessica looked puzzled. That was only to be expected; Zahrias and Jasreel were cousins, but there was a good deal the younger djinn didn’t know about his past.
“His name is Qadim al-Syan. An earth elemental, as you can see from the way he made his entrance here. No real need for that, of course, but Qadim always did like to show off.”
“How do you know him?” Jasreel asked.
“I was…involved with his sister.” At that reply, both Jessica and Jasreel looked startled, and Zahrias went on, hating to reveal this much of his past but knowing he must, “It was very long ago. Long before I met Evangeline and tried to make a life with her
. I was young and foolish, and soon realized that Lyanna — Qadim’s sister — and I would not do well together. So I ended our attachment, but she did not take it well.”
“What happened?” Jessica this time, her tone gentle but her eyes curious. No doubt anything she might learn of djinn society would fascinate her.
Zahrias glanced over at Jasreel. “How much have you told her of our ways?”
“Some. As much as she has asked about. It does not seem to have much relevance to our lives now, to the way we djinn have devoted ourselves to our Chosen.”
“Ah.” It was true that those of the One Thousand, the djinn who had committed themselves to saving what they could of humanity, had known they must attach themselves to that one mortal forever, because if the connection was ever broken, the gifts of long life and abundant health that the djinn provided to their Chosen would also be taken away. But it was not always so with his people. Addressing his next words to Jessica, Zahrias said, “It is not generally our way to be with one person throughout our lives, for we recognize that to cleave to another being for that length of time is unrealistic. However, there is always a special significance given to the first person we are intimate with, and the expectation that those relationships should last longer, and be dissolved gently.”
“But I take it yours wasn’t?” Jessica said. “Dissolved gently, I mean.”
“As gently as I could.” He wished he didn’t have to speak of this. For, whatever their differences, he had not meant to hurt Lyanna. But the same fire that had first attracted him made her, by nature, difficult to deal with. She had wanted to spend centuries with him, to bear his children. And he’d realized early on that the last thing he wanted was to have any offspring with her, for that would have tied them together for eternity, even if they took other lovers later on. “She did not take the rejection well, and her brother even worse. In his mind, I had ruined her, for in those situations, it should be the woman who breaks things off, so she might save face. Qadim felt that I had made his sister look like someone that no man would ever wish to be with.”
Jessica’s brows drew together, and she glanced over at Jasreel briefly before she spoke. “That’s being a bit extreme, isn’t it?”
“We might think so, but….” Zahrias let the words die away, then shook his head. “Qadim is not known for his moderate nature. Indeed, he wished to challenge me over this perceived insult, but our families intervened, saying that would cause an even greater scandal. We all went our separate ways, and I thought that was the end of the matter.”
A matter that should have ended centuries before. Zahrias had not given any thought to Lyanna for more years than he could count. After all, he had heard that she did seem to recover at some point, and had many liaisons, although she had never begun a family with any of her conquests. When the news of her numerous lovers reached his ears, he put aside any guilt he might have felt over the way things had ended between them, and eventually put her from his mind, save to idly wonder now and again how she was faring.
Unfortunately, it did not seem as if Qadim had forgotten the slight Zahrias had made his sister suffer, imagined or no. That Julia might now be in such a vengeful djinn’s hands….
“There’s one thing I don’t understand,” Jasreel said then.
“Only one?” Zahrias responded. The bitterness was clear in his tone; he had made no attempt to mask it.
“For the moment, yes.” The younger djinn hesitated, as if he was wrestling with the best way to phrase what he intended to say next. “Putting aside for the moment the question of why Qadim is working with Margolis at all, I have to wonder how he would have known of your attachment to Julia in the first place.”
“I have no attachment to her,” Zahrias said stiffly. This was unbearable; he had no desire to speak of such things, even to sympathetic listeners.
Jessica’s head tilted to one side. “Come on, Zahrias. You’re among friends here.”
Would he have to lay bare his heart, when he had tried to keep it hidden even from himself? Yes, he supposed he could count Jessica and Jasreel as his friends now, although he had never been close with his cousin before they came here to dwell on the mortal plane.
As they watched him, he let out the smallest of sighs. “Very well. I do feel…something…for her. I have tried to ignore it, because I know she feels bound to her duty in Los Alamos, and I have no idea how she would respond to any overtures I made.” For the moment, he saw no reason to disclose what had passed between him and Julia only the day before. Yes, they hadn’t parted on good terms, but somehow that kiss he had shared with Julia still felt sacred.
To his surprise, Jessica reached out and laid a hand on his arm. “Zahrias, I never thought I’d say this to you, but you’re being kind of a dumbass.”
“I beg your pardon?” he said, certain he should be offended, although the exact meaning of the epithet eluded him.
“You two have been so busy dancing around each other that neither of you seem to realize that you’ve actually been dancing with each other the whole time. Julia’s just as interested in you as you are in her, but she went off to Los Alamos last spring because you basically goaded her into it.”
“I did not — ” Zahrias began, but she wouldn’t allow him to get any further than that.
“Oh, yes, you did, with that remark about how Los Alamos would be lucky to have her. When you said that, she knew she had to go. Because if you’d wanted to be with her, you would have made sure someone else got nominated to run things over there. She didn’t think she had any hope.”
Was that really what had happened? At the time, he’d been fighting his attraction to her, had told himself that he could not allow himself to become involved with a mortal. So perhaps he had subconsciously chosen to say something which would make it clear to her that there was no hope of a future with him.
“I — ” He broke off there, realizing that his attempts to avoid future pain had only caused a great deal more. “I am a very great fool.”
“That’s being a little harsh,” Jasreel said. “The important thing now is to find out where Qadim could have taken her.”
“True.” That was better. If he could focus on the logistics of getting her back, then perhaps he wouldn’t be able to think about everything he’d done wrong…
…or what Qadim might be doing to her at this very moment. The earth elemental might be thinking that because Zahrias had ruined his sister, he might as well do the same thing to the woman Zahrias loved.
The woman he loved. He hadn’t allowed himself to think of Julia in such a way, but he knew then that he did love her. Loved her strength and her intelligence and her beauty, the sweet fire of her lips. He had to get to her. Somehow.
Jessica asked, worry clear in her voice, “He wouldn’t — he wouldn’t have taken her to the djinn world, would he?”
Immediately, both Jasreel and Zahrias shook their heads. Jasreel spoke, saying, “No, that’s impossible. I’ve told you that mortals can’t exist there for more than an hour or two. I don’t think he’d risk her that way, since it’s clear he’s using her to get back at Zahrias. He’d stay close, I think, because this area has been designated for the Santa Fe group and their Chosen, and so there isn’t any risk of coming up against those of our people who are still out hunting the Immune.”
Zahrias hadn’t even thought of that, but it was true. Julia was not Chosen, and so would be seen as fair game by the djinn who’d made it their duty to ensure that the world was cleansed of any remaining humans. No doubt Qadim would try to protect her, lest his chance at revenge be taken away, but that couldn’t be entirely guaranteed. Jasreel was right — they had to be somewhere close by.
“What is this place?” Zahrias asked then, extending a hand toward the black night beyond the underpass, which was still illuminated by the ghostly flames he had summoned.
Jessica appeared a little startled. “What, you mean Pojoaque? I don’t know that much about it. Semi-rural at best, I gue
ss. There are houses and ranches. Not a lot. But still….”
She didn’t complete the sentence, but Zahrias thought he knew what she was driving at. Even in a sparsely populated place like this, there were probably several hundred empty houses or other structures where Qadim could be holed up with Julia. Where Margolis fit in with all this, Zahrias didn’t know for sure. Clearly, he had been the one to mount the attack on Julia’s party. But why? Had Qadim promised the former commander of Los Alamos that he would have Julia, if he only did as Qadim ordered?
That theory made a sickening sort of sense. Zahrias’ only comfort was that he very much doubted the earth elemental would honor his promise. Why give up his prize to a lowly human, when he could enjoy her himself?
“We will find her,” Jasreel said. Perhaps Zahrias’ inner turmoil had been too clearly reflected on his face, and so his cousin was saying what he could to offer comfort. “But it still worries me that Qadim somehow knew taking her would be the best way to wound you. Is it possible he’s been in contact with someone in Santa Fe?”
Zahrias did not want to contemplate such a prospect, for it would mean they had a traitor among them…or, at the very least, a djinn whose loyalty was questionable. “I cannot say. It is possible that one of our people might have a family connection with him. I do not know the genealogy of everyone there.”
“Well, it’s worth looking into,” Jessica said. “But later. The most important thing now is to find this Qadim.” She glanced from Jasreel to Zahrias, her gaze speculative. “Or, more to the point, find Julia. Aren’t you djinn able to sense when a mortal is around? You never seem to have a problem tracking down people when you need to.”
Unfortunately, the situation wasn’t quite as simple as that. “In most cases, I would say yes, but things are more complicated now because we are dealing with an earth elemental.”
“I don’t follow.”
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