Kissed by Smoke (14 page)

“I’m a Hunter. Ladylike isn’t my thing.”

She pouted. “Obviously.”

“Where’s Inigo?”

She fluttered her hand around vaguely. “He’s
having a chat with the Marid.”

“The what?”

“He’s the most powerful of all the Djinn.”
She propped her chin against her fist. “He’s like our king. He’s
way-hot. Totally dreamy.”

“Uh, right. And why has Inigo gone to see
him?” I was getting a bad feeling.

“Well,” she seemed to think it over. “We
don’t really like people in our territory. You know, human people.
We discourage it.”

“What do you do to human people who wander
into your territory?”

“Well, usually the winds take care of that.
If that doesn’t work, a few hallucinations. They leave. You,” she
gave me a pointed look, “are different.”

No kidding. “So, what are you going to do to
us?”

“Oh, it’s not me,” she assured me. “I like
you. You’re pretty. And fun. And you killed those yucky Worm
things.”

“Speaking of those yucky Worm things, where
did they come from?”

She shivered. I wasn’t sure if it was from
cold or fear. I was going with fear. “Don’t know. They showed up a
couple months ago.” She leaned in closer and whispered, “I think
they were hunting.”

“Hunting what?”

She shrugged. “Don’t know.”

I decided to take another tack. “So, if you
don’t decide what happens to us, who does?”

“I told you. The Marid. That’s why Inigo is
talking to him.”

“Right. Because what would happen if Inigo
didn’t talk to him?” I prodded.

“Oh, the Marid would have killed you
outright. But I convinced him to give you a hearing.” She beamed at
me like she’d just done something super smart.

“So, the Marid isn’t going to kill us?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe yes. Maybe no. You
never know with the Marid.”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” I struggled to my
feet, fighting the woozy feeling that came over me. Whatever had
happened in the desert, it had really taken it out of me. “Take me
to the Marid.”

Zip gaped at me like a fish out of water.
“But I can’t.”

“Why can’t you?”

“It’s … it’s not protocol.”

I leaned into her face until our noses were
inches away. “Listen to me, you twit. You will take me to Inigo and
the Marid, now. Understand?”

“Yes.” Her voice was barely a squeak.

“Good.” I smiled. “Let’s go.”

***

Zip led me through a series of tunnels to
what she called the Throne Room. I hadn’t expected the djinn to
live underground. I don’t exactly know what I expected, but not
that. For one thing, there was the whole living on another plane of
existence thing, which this definitely was not. For another, they
were not creatures of earth, but of air. Not a lot of air
underground.

The Marid’s “throne room” was surprisingly
ordinary. The room was really a small cavern about the size of my
living room back home. There was no throne, per say, just a large
desk with a leather swivel chair behind it and two visitor chairs
in front. Much like Kabita’s office.

The Marid, however, was anything but
ordinary. He towered over me close to seven feet tall, muscles
rippling everywhere. His skin was red. Pure, rich, blood red. His
hair was a green so dark, it was nearly black. His face had the
breathtaking beauty of a fallen angel.

But that wasn’t what stopped me in my
tracks. What did was one thing: The Marid was the djinni I’d seen
murder Agent Vega.

I’ll admit with only a minor amount of
embarrassment that in that moment, I very nearly wet my pants. The
man, the Marid, was
huge
. And not only was he the freaking king of the
djinn, he was a killer. I had seen him suck the life and soul out
of a government agent. I had no idea what to do. Which was an
unusual thing for me.

Inigo was standing in front of the desk, a
look of concern on his face. He must have read my expression
because I could feel that slight push of his mind against mine.

Morgan? Morgan, honey, what’s wrong?

I marched across the room and grabbed
Inigo’s arm. I must have used my Hunter strength because he
actually winced. It had been years since I let my more-than-human
strength get away from me. Rattled was an understatement.

“We have to get out of here,” I hissed.

“Morgan, the Marid has asked us to stay …
“

“No fucking way!” It came out a lot louder
than I intended. And a lot ruder. Even Inigo seemed shocked, and he
was used to my less than stellar manners.

“Morgan,” Zip spoke up in her breathy little
Marilyn voice, “it’s an honor to be asked to dine by the
Marid.”

“Yeah?” I snarled, whirling on her. “And
what exactly is he going to dine on, huh? Is he going to eat our
souls like he did Daniel Vega’s?”

Zip’s eyes went wide in horror as she looked
from me to the Marid and back. Not sure if she was more horrified
at my behavior, or at what I’d just said. Me and my big, freaking
mouth. Seriously, you’d think I’d have more control by now.
Instead, everything was boiling inside me; the Air and the Fire and
the Darkness were raging and I was this close to losing
control.

“Marid, I apologize …” Inigo began, but
before he could finish, I lost control.

The amulet around my neck flared to life,
turning the cavern sapphire blue. I could feel the heat even
through layers of clothing, but that wasn’t the worst of it.

The Air rushed up and spilled out of my
chest, hitting the room with gale force. It swirled around, ripping
papers from the Marid’s desk and slamming furniture up against the
wall. Inigo opened his mouth to yell something, but I couldn’t hear
over the sound of the wind.

Zip cowered under the Marid’s desk as Fire
surged up out of me, spilling down my arms and over my body. As
usual, it didn’t hurt me, but I knew anyone or anything I touched
would be immolated on the spot. I tried desperately to rein it in,
but my control was gone. Completely shattered. There was nothing
left but fear.

The Marid finally stepped out from behind
his desk and strode toward me. I hadn’t thought until that moment I
could be any more afraid than I already was. I was wrong.

The Air whipped and howled around the room
and the Fire surged higher. I was a human flame in the middle of a
tornado and I couldn’t stop.

As the Marid approached, the Darkness hurled
its way out of my body and wrapped itself around the djinni’s
throat as thought to strangle the very life out of him. The
Darkness was responding to my fear, but I had no control. I tried
to grab onto its leash, but I couldn’t. Sheer terror swamped me. I
was going to kill them. All of them. Even my Inigo.

The Marid ignored the Darkness squeezing the
breath out of him and pressed on through the whirlwind. He was
inches from me. Close enough to kiss. It was a wonder I didn’t just
pass out from the fear. My heart pounded so hard I was afraid my
ribs would shatter.

And then he placed his palm flat against the
center of my chest. Instantly the wind died down, the flames
receded, and the Darkness uncurled itself from around his throat.
Then slowly, each of my elements receded back to where they
belonged, deep inside of me.

I collapsed. Fortunately the Marid caught me
before I hit the floor.

“You need to learn more control, little
one.” His voice was deep and a little gravelly. Like if Barry White
and Vin Diesel got together and had a vocal baby. Now there was a
thought. Yikes.

“My control is just fine. Usually.”

A greenish-black eyebrow went up. Why were
people always raising their eyebrows at me? “Seriously,” I
insisted, “I usually have perfect control.” Well, almost. “I just
don’t meet a murdering lunatic every day.”

“I can assure you that I am neither a
murder, nor a lunatic. And obviously your control is far from
perfect, if you let the Queen’s magic overcome you so easily.”

I glared at him. “What are you talking
about?”

“Ah, now that is a story to tell.” He sat me
down in one of the visitor chairs which Inigo had pulled back to
the desk after my little temper tantrum.

Inigo immediately knelt by my side. He ran
his hands up and down my arms, his forehead creased with worry.
“Are you all right, Morgan?”

“I’m kind of freaked out,” I admitted. “And
totally embarrassed. Are you okay?”

He winked. “I’m tougher than I look.”

No kidding. “He’s the one,” I whispered.
“The one I saw kill Vega.”

“I know he is.”

I blinked. I wasn’t sure I’d just heard what
I thought I heard. “Excuse me?”

“Please, little one, rest. I will tell you
all.” The Marid sat behind his desk and leaned forward, forearms
resting against the dark wood.

I scowled at the Marid. “Would you stop
calling me ‘little one’? Do I look little to you?”

Laughter spilled from his throat. “Everyone
looks little to me.”

Fair point. The man — djinni — was massive.
As I leaned back in the rather comfy visitor chair, I noticed a
small, brass lamp on the side of his desk, like something out of
Aladdin. A djinni with a lamp. Seriously.

“Fine. I saw you murder Agent Vega.” I
didn’t bother to clarify it had been while channelling my new
superpower. A superpower which had just gone haywire. “What’s your
side of the story?”

“You saw me kill this Vega, yes,” the Marid
said with a nod, leaning back in his seat, “but it was not I who
did the killing.”

“Sorry, could you run that through the
ringer again?”

He smiled a little. “You know we can take
different forms.”

“Uh, yeah, thanks to Marilyn there.” I
nodded to Zip who had moved out from under the desk and was now
hovering around the edges of the room.

“Zip,” the Marid’s voice took on a very
commandeering tone. “Please go find refreshment for our
guests.”

The djinni did some bobbing and curtseying
and made a few squeaking sounds before scrambling out of the room,
her little kitten heels clacking against the stone floor. She was
seriously adorable. I wondered what her true form looked like.

“Okay so, you can look like Hollywood stars.
What does that have to do with anything?”

“We can take on the form of many things,”
the Marid said. “Animals, people, even each other.” His eyes bore
into mine.

“So, you’re saying another djinni took on
your form and murdered Vega?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

He shook his head. “I have no idea. But my
guess is that someone forced him to take on my form and murder your
agent.”

I frowned. “Okay. Fine. Why should I believe
you? How do I know that it wasn’t you?”

“Because I have not set foot off this land
in over ten thousand years.”

That got me. “Sorry, did you say you’ve
lived here in this desert over ten thousand years? I thought the
djinn were from the Middle East.”

Again, a slight smile quirked his lips. “We
are. But my people were sent here millennia ago.”

I frowned. “All the djinn?”

He shook his head. “No. Just my clan.”

“Why?”

The muscles in his jaw flexed. Anger.
Whatever had happened all those ages ago, he was still really
pissed about it. “It is not important.”

“Oh, I think it is. You say that someone
took on your form to murder a federal agent, just miles from your
land. Land you claim you haven’t left since before the pharaohs.
And you don’t think why you’re here might have something to do with
it?”

Fury was written on every inch of the
Marid’s face, but I didn’t care. The fear had vanished and been
replaced with my usual recklessness. Inigo reached over as though
to warn me, but I squeezed his hand and ignored the warning. I knew
I was being rude. I just didn’t care.

“Very well. Our banishment was part of a
Binding. We were all banished to this land, but I alone am bound
not to leave it.”

“Binding?”

He scowled. “The djinn are very powerful.
The Marid, the most powerful of all. Yet there are a few with the
ability to bind our magic to theirs, and force us to do their
will.”

Something clicked inside my mind. Something
so bizarre I could hardly credit it. “Why were you bound?”

“I cannot say.”

“Excuse me?”

He shrugged. “Part of the Binding.”

“Who bound you?”

“I cannot say.”

Crap. I was getting a really bad feeling. I
fingered the amulet around my neck. He’d known what it could do.
“Atlantis.”

I swear if a being with skin the color of a
fire truck can grow pale, the Marid did. Yet he said nothing.

“You were bound by the last High Priest of
Atlantis.”

His expression told me I was right. I just
had no idea why a priest of Atlantis would bind a Marid shortly
before destroying the city. It was just … weird.

“Okay,” I was thinking it through even as I
spoke. “So you were bound by the priest, and forced to this land
ten thousand years ago.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I was told you
only appeared here a few hundred years ago. That you came to escape
an evil magi.”

The Marid shrugged. “There was a time my
people grew restless and began wandering outside our lands. I
called them back, but not before they’d revealed themselves to a
small tribe of humans. Got their shaman all worked up. So, I had
one of my people allow the shaman to capture him. The story we gave
the shaman was simply what you might call damage control.”

So, Tommy’s ancestor hadn’t captured the
Marid, after all. And what Tommy knew of the djinn wasn’t entirely
accurate.

“What does the Fairy Queen have to do with
all this?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. He nodded
toward my amulet. “I know the amulet is from Atlantis, and that it
glows in the presence of certain types of magic. Particularly the
magic of the Queen of the Sidhe. Her magic must be involved for it
to react as it did earlier.”