No, they did not. Zahrias realized he should have thought of such a thing earlier. They would not intercede in what they viewed as a personal matter. That was something for his and Lyanna’s families to take up, if they wished. But his mother had taken the draught of the dark sleep years and years ago, and his father was most likely far too concerned with his latest conquest, whoever she might be, to care overmuch about what happened to his son. Dani would do what he could, given the opportunity, but he had a newborn child to worry about. Zahrias was slightly encouraged that Qadim had washed his hands of his sister and her plots, but that disapproval most likely would not extend to offering any sort of assistance. He feared he was very much alone in this.
“That is true,” he said, taking care to keep his tone light. “On the other hand, I have heard that the elders have subtle ways of making their displeasure known, even if they cannot take direct action.”
“They do not worry me.” Lyanna gave a negligent lift of her shoulders and turned back toward him, eyebrows raised in apparent disdain. “Qadim believes I will get the scraps from the table when it comes time for me to claim my own demesne on Earth, but he doesn’t understand one very important fact.”
“Which is?”
“I care nothing for living on the mortal plane. What could I have there that I do not already have here? And besides, the face of that world is still covered with the mortals’ ugly cities and roads and all manner of things I would prefer not to look at. So I think it is far better to stay here.”
“Even if everyone else should leave?”
Her expression turned sly. “Ah, but they won’t all leave, will they?” She came closer and laid her hand on his forearm. Zahrias made sure he didn’t react, but only gazed down into her face with a mildly curious expression. He couldn’t allow her to see how violently he wished to tear his arm from her grasp. “You will be here with me, Zahrias. And if I have you, then I certainly have no need of anyone else.”
In that moment, he could only wonder what he had done so very wrong, to be tormented by her like this. But he could not waste any of his energies in shouting recriminations at the universe. He must remain focused, no matter what.
Because what he saw now, as he fixed a false smile on his lips, was that the vine-covered pergola did not quite touch the top of the wall which enclosed the garden. A tight fit, for a man of his size, but he thought he might be able to squeeze through, if given the opportunity. That would be the real trick, for he rather doubted Lyanna would allow him to come here alone, and of course he could not slip away from his suite, not when every door was locked against him and ni-khar blocked his powers at every turn.
Still, realizing that her house was not quite the impregnable fortress he’d feared it might be gave him some hope. He would find a way, even if….
Even if he had to do the worst. Never in his life had he raised his hand against a woman, but he doubted anyone would argue that Lyanna had brought that violence upon herself, if matters should come to such a pass.
Only as a last resort, he told himself. And only if there is truly no other way.
Tone light, he said, “No one else at all? What about the men who work as your guards, or the jann who bring your meals and make sure everything is tidy?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Oh, the jann — they cannot really be counted as people. And as for the guards, well, once I am sure of you, I will have no need of them, will I?”
In her mind, perhaps not. Zahrias wondered if he should force himself to do the unthinkable, to lie down with her so she might be gulled into believing he had succumbed to her charms. Perhaps then she would dispense with the ni-khar wards, and the djinn who watched the doorways.
But then he saw Julia’s face in his mind, those blue-gray eyes of his looking at him with a sort of terrible need, the kind one didn’t want to admit even to oneself, and he knew he could never do such a thing. He and Julia had made no true compact, had not spoken any true words of love to one another, and yet being intimate with Lyanna felt like the very worst sort of betrayal. He would have to come up with a different plan.
“No, I suppose you would not need them any longer,” he told her, infusing a certain warmth into the words in the hope that she would read into them a kindling desire on his own part. It might not require all that much to push her into relaxing her guard — a smile here, a touch on the hand there. She so believed in the myth of her own desirability that it shouldn’t be too much work at all to make her think he had succumbed to her charms and had forgotten all about the mortal woman he once loved.
Or so he hoped. Because he knew he would not be able to endure much more of this.
Chapter Fifteen
“I’m not going back,” Julia told Jace, arms crossed over her chest. “We’re here — we might as well see if we can find Lyanna.”
He shook his head, strain clear in the taut look of the skin around his eyes. Back in the palace, they had been offered light refreshments by the djinn elders, lemon-infused water and delicate cakes that tasted of honey, but after being shown that perfunctory courtesy, they were told they must leave.
“We can do nothing for you,” the redheaded djinn woman said, regret clear in her tone. “And it is not altogether safe for you to be here, even with that apparatus you wear.” She’d gestured toward the cannula and oxygen tank Julia was using, and then had one of the guards show them to the front gates of the palace.
Julia had experienced a stirring of fear at the djinn's comment about the oxygen equipment, but brushed it aside. So far, she felt just fine. Well, not exactly fine, not when she was roiling with a particularly uncomfortable combination of anger and frustration and worry. But physically, she thought she was doing all right.
They had walked a good distance from the palace in silence, both of them sharing the unspoken agreement to put the structure that housed the djinn elders a decent way behind them before they would stop to talk. Now, though, she and Jace had paused on a hillside rough with black rocks that appeared volcanic to Julia’s untrained eyes. She didn’t know for certain, though, and decided it probably didn’t matter all that much.
“Look, Julia,” Jace said, his voice pleading. “I know it’s difficult for you to understand, but I literally have no way of finding this person. I’ve never met her, don’t know her family. Her connection with Zahrias goes back to a time before I was even born. In this world, it’s all about our connections to one another, and I don’t have one with her. We could wander this place until all your oxygen ran out, and we still wouldn’t be any closer to tracking her down.”
“I just don’t get that,” she retorted. In her anger, she sucked in some air through her mouth rather than her nose, and she could feel it burn the sensitive tissues at the back of her throat. Damn it. Voice scratchy, she went on, “Forget about Lyanna. You sure as hell have a connection to Zahrias. So why can’t you track him down instead?”
Jace’s expression was a study in exasperation, tinged with real worry. “Because he’s in her home, her territory. She won’t allow anyone to see anything there that she doesn’t want them to see. And I know for damn sure that she’s not going to broadcast Zahrias’ presence to anyone who might be able to do something about it.”
This was all going to make her crazy by the time she was done. The djinn plane itself was bad enough, with its shifting light and odd shadows and a sky that didn’t really feel like a sky. But the world of the people who lived there was just as bad — rules that didn’t make sense, twisted loyalties, powers that worked for one kind of djinn but not another. How they kept track of it all, she had no idea, but she supposed living for an eternity or two might help.
“So what am I supposed to do?” she asked. “Just give up?”
“Of course not. But I think it would be better to go back home and regroup. You still look like you’re doing okay, but why push it? I can bring us back here at any time. Staying until you’re almost out of oxygen, just to prove a point, isn’t going to help Za
hrias.”
Deep down, she knew he was right. It certainly didn’t sound as if she could accomplish much more here. So, back to Santa Fe, and then…
…and then what? Admit defeat and return to Los Alamos with her tail between her legs? No way. There had to be something they could do. If only they could track down someone who did know Lyanna. Well, there was Qadim, but Julia sort of doubted he’d be willing to help them out. And having to skulk around Santa Fe because somewhere in that community of djinn and Chosen there was probably a spy passing on information to Qadim and his sister….
A spy. Julia’s brain latched onto that notion. Why the hell hadn’t she thought of it sooner? Whoever it was, that person had to know how to find Lyanna.
A smile spread over her face then, and Jace cocked his head at her. “What is it?”
“Yes, we do need to go back. Then we need to root out our spy.”
* * *
Somewhere off in the house, a baby was crying. Dani had said he didn’t want to leave Lauren, and so Jace had brought Julia here to the sprawling pueblo-style home where the new family lived. Jace related that Jessica had seemed a little put out when he informed her she couldn’t take part in this convo, but since Jace was the only djinn in town they knew they could trust right then — well, besides Dani — she and Lindsay and Miles all were forced to remain back at Jace and Jessica’s home out in the country while he blinked Julia into Lauren and Dani’s living room.
“How is he?” Julia asked, glance moving toward the hallway where the crying seemed to be emanating.
“Good,” Dani replied. “Strong and healthy and thriving. And Lauren as well.” He hesitated then, looking from Julia to Jace and back again. “This business with Zahrias pains me, for I feel I should be able to go to his aid, and yet I cannot.”
“I understand why you need to stay with Lauren,” Julia began, but Dani only shook his head.
“That is not all of it. I do not wish you to think that I would not offer my assistance, even with my responsibilities here, but the truth of it is, there is very little I can do. I also never met Lyanna — she was a part of my brother’s past he did not wish to discuss, and I was born after they had parted.” He offered Julia a grim smile. “You see, it is not with us the way it is with mortals. Our lifespans are so long that the time when we are able to have children lasts for centuries. Zahrias is my brother, and we have the same mother and father, but even so, more than a hundred years lies between us, although it may appear to you that we are only a few years apart in age.”
Once he had explained it to her, the situation did make some sense. Julia realized she had been too human-centric in her thinking. It was still difficult to wrap her brain around the concept that djinn siblings could have decades or even centuries separating them.
“Okay,” she said then. “But you still know the people in the community here much better than I, or even Jace, who hasn’t lived among them as much as you have. Someone here has been slipping information to Lyanna and her brother Qadim. I guess I’m just trying to figure out why. Is there anyone in the group who seemed disgruntled with the way Zahrias was running things?”
“Not that I’m aware of.” Dani was silent for a moment; his gaze seemed to be fixed on the hallway that led to the bedrooms, where the baby had finally stopped crying. “But then, I’ve been somewhat preoccupied of late. Still, we djinn are not generally known for holding in our displeasure, so if Zahrias had offended someone, they probably would have let him know about it.”
“It’s also very possible that Zahrias’ actions as leader here had absolutely nothing to do with it,” Jace commented. “The more likely scenario — in my mind, anyway — is that the spy is a relation of Qadim and Lyanna, perhaps a cousin, or even another sibling, and has been passing on information out of family loyalty.”
Julia had been worried about that. The djinn did seem to take family seriously, for good or ill. Well, except the times when those relationships put them at one another’s throats, as had been the case with Jace and his half-brother Aldair. “So,” she said, only half joking, “I don’t suppose you have a database where you can look all that stuff up.”
Dani gave her a weary smile. “I’m afraid not. You know that Zahrias and I are cousins with Jace, of course, but so is Allira, one of the people in our group here, whose mother was my father’s younger sister. I can be certain of her, but as for the rest….” The sentence died away, and he shrugged.
“Surely there must be people here you trust who aren’t related to you,” Julia protested.
“Until this incident with Lyanna and Zahrias, I had thought I could trust all of them,” Dani told her, the usual good humor missing from his expression. “And I would have been proven wrong. A few, such as Lilias, I do trust implicitly, because she has never wavered in her commitment to her partner, and to the community here. And perhaps Alshira and Murrah, whom you interviewed after Margolis disappeared. You decided that they could not be involved.”
Yes, she had, based on the evidence she’d been given at the time. Now, though, Julia couldn’t help wondering if she’d been too hasty in believing their alibis. Qadim had been the one to break Margolis out of his cell, true, but that didn’t mean one or both of the djinn guards who’d been assigned to watch over the former commander of Los Alamos wasn’t the person who’d slipped information to Lyanna behind their backs.
“Maybe I made the wrong call on that one,” Julia said slowly. “I don’t know. I hate to think that, but I don’t know what else to say. But if you do trust Lilias, then I think we should talk to her. She might have met Lyanna once, or at least have heard of her. Anyway, it’s worth a try.”
“I’ll go fetch her,” Jace offered. “Hang on.”
He blinked out of the room, leaving Julia to sit there with Dani and try not to feel too awkward. What was she supposed to say to him, after all? Well, yeah, your brother and I decided we were into each other, but then the ex-girlfriend from hell decided to show up and make our lives miserable?
Not likely. Anyway, that sort of flip comment was an insult to the people who had lost their lives because of Lyanna’s insane pursuit of Zahrias. Still, Dani’s dark eyes were curious, but he was too well-behaved to ask any personal probing questions. Thank God.
Lauren came in then, looking frazzled. Not that Julia could really blame her. Actually, she was surprised the other woman was even up and about, considering she’d given birth less than forty-eight hours earlier.
But Lauren was Chosen, which meant she had powers of healing and recuperation that Julia could only begin to guess at. Even with that supernatural advantage, she was far paler than usual, shadows dark under her big blue eyes. Apparently those healing gifts didn’t extend to replacing sleep lost due to midnight feedings.
“Wasn’t Jace here?” she asked, looking around in some confusion. “I thought I heard his voice.”
“He was, but he went to fetch Lilias,” Dani told her. “Beloved, please sit down. How is Gabriel?”
“Sleeping,” Lauren said with a sigh. She sat down next to her partner and laid her head on his shoulder.
“So you decided to call him Gabriel?” Julia asked.
“It involved a bit of negotiation, but yes,” Dani replied. “I fear that my people have not had the most positive encounters with angels, but Lauren pointed out that we are starting a new chapter here. Besides,” he added, reaching over to take Lauren’s hand in his, “it was her grandfather’s name, and I understood her need to honor him.”
“That’s a wonderful tribute,” Julia said. For the moment, she thought it best to ignore his off-hand comment about angels, since her brain was already feeling a bit overloaded. Besides, how awful was it for her to feel a stab of jealousy as she looked at them, saw the easy way they sat next to each other, how Lauren’s fingers tightened around Dani’s, as if drawing strength from him. She wanted that sort of closeness with Zahrias, wanted to have him hold her hand and brush her hair away from her brow, wanted to w
ake up next to him every morning. Just what the hell had she been thinking, picking that fight with him? She’d always had a knack for shooting herself in the foot, but she’d really outdone herself with that knee-jerk response.
“We thought it was a good name for our son,” Lauren said softly. “We’ve all lost so much, but if we can honor the ones who are gone by making them live a little through the next generation, then it doesn’t hurt quite so much.”
Dani didn’t speak, but only continued to hold her hand. What thoughts must be passing through his mind? She’d noticed that the djinn here in Santa Fe didn’t like to talk about what their brethren were up to in the rest of the world, tried to shy away from the harsh reality that there were those among them who’d coldly plotted to exterminate the human race. True, the Santa Fe djinn had nothing to do with the slaughter, had saved the people they could. But still….
Into that awkward silence, Jace and Lilias appeared in the open space between the two couches where Dani and Lauren and Julia sat. The djinn woman smiled at them, but her expression was troubled nonetheless. Jace must have filled her in on some of the details before bringing her here.
“This is a terrible thing,” she said at once, without bothering with any form of greeting. “But I am glad you reached out to me, because I do know something of this Lyanna al-Syan.”
“You do?” Julia asked, relief rushing through her. Maybe that reaction was a little premature, but she was damn tired of hearing people tell her that they’d never met the woman.
“Yes,” Lilias replied. She went over to the unoccupied armchair that was located between the two couches, then sat down. “I fear my older brother was entangled in her web, many years ago. That relationship did not last, much to my relief, but it still did its damage nonetheless. He became cold, unconcerned with what others thought of him or of his actions.” Her lovely features tightened, and she went on, “He is not among us here. He cared nothing for my arguments that what our people planned to do in this world was wrong, and only laughed and said mankind had brought disaster and plague upon itself.”
djinn wars 04 - broken Page 21
