Beneath my Skin

by Brea Viragh

  He rubbed his forehead. “It’s backstory. Try to keep up. It was twenty years ago when she found me, but Jacqueline has been collecting her ‘monsters’ for much longer.” His lips almost smiled.

  “This can’t be real. You can’t be real. This…this is impossible. I’m having a nervous breakdown.” I laughed, trapped inside these white, white walls. “Is this in my head? I’ve lost my mind by letting my demon take over. That’s it, isn’t it? She’s still in control and this little mind fuck is because of her. Good one, Cer.” I flipped until I landed on my rear, freeing my hands to come together in a slow clap. “Good one. Joke’s on me.”

  “This isn’t a joke,” Dax replied, trying to sound nonchalant.

  I lifted my eyes to the ceiling and made sure to raise my voice so she would hear me, wherever she was. “If you could let me out, I’d appreciate it. Maybe we can come to an agreement and make a schedule. Where you have a couple hours once a week, maybe?”

  There was no answer.

  Dax strode forward. “Mariella, listen to me. Take a deep breath and try to calm down. Because you’re starting to make me nervous. Listen to me, sweetheart.”

  I gulped. “I’m not your sweetheart.”

  “I’m a djinn. My powers are tied to the medallion and whoever possesses it. Which means unless Jacqueline decrees it, the only thing I can do on my own is return to the bottle. That’s it. My hands are tied. Wherever I go, she can find me, and with the snap of her fingers, I’m at her side. So, to help you, I brought you here.”

  “Here. To the thing around her neck?”

  He nodded solemnly. “Yes.”

  I snorted. “Forgive me for stating the obvious, but it kind of seems like the worst place to be at the moment.”

  “She can’t get to you in here. Trust me.”

  “The last thing I need is to be trapped in a tiny room with a man I don’t know who, incidentally, tried to kill me.” I felt a jolt of shock. Dax was a slave to the woman who wanted to rip me apart. All for a measly demon. Why couldn’t she find someone else’s demon? Or summon one herself?

  Why did she want mine?

  “I didn’t try to kill you, sweetheart,” Dax replied.

  “Again with the sweetheart bit. How many times do I need to tell you?”

  “Jacqueline wanted me to capture you but not kill you. Technically, I did everything in my power not to capture you.” His tone turned pouty and frustration twisted his features until his face became hard. “There are these loopholes—”

  “Dax, I don’t care. You lied to me.” My eyes narrowed and my voice was laced with disgust. “And then you delivered me to that woman.”

  “Technically,” he argued, “I tried to get you to leave but you refused to listen.”

  I continued on as if he hadn’t spoken, getting to my feet with minimal wooziness. “Then you yelled at me. Is any of this making sense to you? Because I feel like I’m going out of my mind and really, you aren’t helping.”

  “I’ve done nothing but help, so I’m sorry you feel that way. If you’d like to have a seat on the bed, maybe we can talk about things for a minute. I’m sure you’re confused. We have a bit of time to spare before Jacqueline wakes up from your last punch. We need to use the time to plan.”

  Again I wondered what Cer had done and how we’d managed to escape. The gaping hole in my memory was a real bummer.

  The thought brought a nervous chuckle. “I’m not falling for your charm again. I’ve seen what’s underneath the false sincerity, mister.” I brought out the finger point again, rising and crossing the small space to dig it into his chest. God, were there muscles underneath his muscles? Was he made of frickin’ granite? “And I don’t like what I see. Why should I trust you?”

  “Because…” Dax took the time to lift my finger away from him. Oddly similar to the way he’d handled—yes, handled—Sandy Hair. “You tried to take me down but I’m still here. I think together we can work to accomplish something I haven’t been able to do on my own.”

  “Which is?”

  “Freedom. I know it’s something you want, too,” he said.

  “I’m free,” I insisted, turning away to wipe the rest of the dried and crusted blood away from my nose. Suddenly conscious of my appearance. “I can go wherever I want. Do whatever I want.” Well, except right now. I was grounded at the moment.

  “And what about your demon? Can you ever be truly free with her?” Dax tightened his jaw.

  “I…I don’t know.”

  “Tell me about the nature of your curse.”

  “My curse?”

  “Why you have a demon attached to your soul. I’ve seen the Enochian script she uses to communicate. I know what she does to you. Who did you piss off? Or did you sell something?”

  I made a sound of disgust. “Sell something…jeez, no. I’m not sure why I have her. Wait, how do you know it’s Enochian? No, don’t walk away from me. Dax? How do you know it’s Enochian?”

  “Because I can read it.”

  A flash of pain reminded me that no matter how I felt about Dax, there were more pressing matters. I stumbled over to the bed and let myself drop. Knees weak and head suddenly heavy. “How long are we stuck in your bottle?”

  “Well, three minutes in here is like thirty years out there,” he replied. “I should tell you…everyone you knew is now dead.”

  “What? Oh. Oh my God.” My head dropped between my knees. “I think I’m going to be sick.”

  He gave me an odd look. “It was a joke. Come on. It’s not like you care, anyway. I know about you, Mariella. I know about all the supernaturals in the area, it’s true, which means I’ve done my research and I’ve seen the way your family treats you. Why are you so eager to get back to them?”

  “What makes you think I want out for them? All I want is to live a normal life. I want a normal job and to walk down the street without wondering what people think of me. I want a boyfriend, for goodness’ sake!” I laughed nervously.

  The edges of his lips twitched. “A boyfriend? I’m sure you have plenty of men beating down your door.”

  “With a demon who could go batshit crazy at any time? No, I can’t trust myself. I’m hardly going to drag some poor unsuspecting man into my crazy life.”

  “Okay.” Dax took a deep breath and shuffled over to kneel at my feet.

  “Okay?” I repeated scornfully. Staring at him, I wished he were a good man instead of a liar, instead of a genie bound to a madwoman. If the situation were different… No, bad train of thought. Still, from the look in his eyes, I wanted to believe what he said.

  “I have half of a plan,” he said. “Stick with me on this, because I have a feeling it’s going to take the both of us to make it through. Are you listening?”

  “Of course I’m listening. Talk to me, Daxie.”

  “First of all, no nicknames. And sweetheart doesn’t count. Second, let’s talk about how to get out of this sticky situation with our lives and, just maybe, our—”

  “Freedom,” I supplied. Dax was right. What did I know about true freedom? I could hardly remember a time before I had Cer.

  Had I inadvertently sold something? Had I made a bargain before the crash? Or during or after? Something to help me survive when my mother died?

  I wasn’t sure. If the memory was ever inside my head, it was gone now. And Cer wasn’t offering any answers.

  “I have a plan, so settle in while I explain. It might take us a while.”

  CHAPTER 5

  Dax and I spent the next however long talking strategy. He was right about time working differently. I wasn’t sure how it worked in the outside world, but it felt like we spent hours talking.

  I admit, I was ridiculously inept in an emergency. Inept, yet intrigued. Intrigued by the man, the djinn himself. He spoke with animation and with sharp clarity and intelligence I hadn’t thought him capable of possessing.

  Once again, I was seeing a different side of him. Beyond the all-powerful supernatural being, be
yond the charmer, beyond the lackey and the slave and the betrayer.

  “Pretty soon,” he said, steepling his fingers and shooting me a long, heated look, “she’s going to wake up and realize we aren’t there. We don’t have much time left.”

  “And here I thought when we got out everyone I knew and loved would be dead.” I couldn’t help but smirk.

  “I’m just saying be prepared to run.”

  “I can take care of myself,” I snapped.

  He rolled his eyes. “I have no doubt. I saw you in action, remember? It’s not a scene I’m likely to forget anytime in the next millennia.”

  “What—” I stopped, not sure if I wanted the answer or not. “What was I like? When Cer took over.”

  Dax bit the inside of his lip. Searching for an acceptable answer. At once I was afraid to hear what he said. “It happened almost immediately. Your head lolled back, and when you opened your eyes, and looked at me…it wasn’t you anymore. Your pupils were slits. You were fast. An animal. You bloodied the clerk within seconds and would have ripped my head off had I not managed an enchantment to protect myself in time. I’m not sure how Jacqueline escaped certain death. She was on her way out the door when you let loose this blast of power. It’s like we were trapped in a void.”

  “You probably protected her.” I paused to study him. He studied me back, his lashes lowering as he took me in. I wondered if he understood, on the simplest atomic level, what he did to women.

  At last he sighed. “Look. I work for Jacqueline, but it doesn’t mean I enjoy what I do.”

  “What, exactly, do you do?” My eyes widened. “Oh my God, are you her sex slave?”

  He blanched. “No. Are you fucking insane?”

  I shrugged and tried to ignore the pit opening up in my gut. “It makes sense. You look like a fantasy straight out of Arabian Nights. If she doesn’t use you for physical pleasure…what does she use you for?”

  “It’s like a contract,” he explained, clearly not happy to be having this talk. “She holds my bottle, so I’m indebted to her. Subject to her every whim.”

  The next question was asked hesitantly. “And when she tells you to kidnap other paranormal creatures?”

  “Then I do it,” he answered. It was matter-of-fact and severe.

  I tried to nod in an open and entirely nonjudgmental way even as rage wanted to choke me. She had no right, I thought. No right to bend someone’s will to hers. And this was coming from a person with a doomsday clock ticking down inside of her. “I’m sorry,” I told Dax. “For whatever she makes you do. I didn’t understand before.”

  “And you do now?”

  I was trying to. He was sitting next to me and I felt the heat coming off of him. Potential stirred in the space between us. A flutter of nerves beat in my chest. Nerves and excitement with nowhere to go. Despite everything, I had the crazy desire to lean over and touch him. As if touch alone could put the smile back on his face.

  Instead, I shoved my hair over my shoulders and swallowed, looking in the opposite direction. “Maybe I do.”

  “I hate to interrupt our bonding, but it’s time.” Dax reached out a hand and drew me to my feet. “I can feel her fury. She’s awake.”

  “You’re scaring me.”

  “Good. You should be scared. But before we go—” He gave me one hard tug that brought me up to the tips of my toes and had me sucking in a breath.

  “What are you doing?” I had time to ask.

  Then his mouth was on mine. Hot and hungry and hard enough to blur reality. I recognized the small sound of shock I made. I didn’t care.

  Dax kissed like a man who didn’t think he’d see tomorrow. Like he had to take what he could and with ruthless skill. The way his teeth worked my lips, the way his tongue lashed against mine had my pulse pumping and my chest aching with desire. How I could feel such lust with my death warrant surely signed, I didn’t know. Though the reaction confused and terrified me, I felt my bones turn to mush.

  He tasted as delicious as he smelled.

  His hands dove into my hair and used the leverage to draw me back. “I knew this would happen from the first moment I saw you,” he whispered and moaned.

  “What? You can tell the future?” My voice was rough and my lips warmed with the taste of him.

  Dax lowered his head to skim his tongue along my throat. “Wouldn’t you like to know.” He nipped his way higher. “I have a feeling we’re going to get close to each other very quickly.”

  Some kind of strange, garbled agreement left my mouth.

  “Now,” he punctuated the statement with another firm kiss, “take a deep breath. It’s time to go. And when we get out? Run.”

  I didn’t have a chance to answer. The instant I opened my mouth I was back in the vacuum. The vortex with no air or light, where time meant nothing. I came to with my head swimming and my fingers clawed around my own throat. Feet firmly on the ground in the middle of the crater I’d made.

  A tug on my elbow jerked my attention back to the present.

  “Run!” Dax demanded.

  It would have been nice to say that he didn’t have to tell me twice. Apparently, he did.

  “How dare you!” a voice snarled perilously close to my ear. Yes, Jacqueline was awake. And she was on the warpath.

  I urged my legs to go faster. Out into the parking lot. My arms pumped and my lungs struggled. My vision narrowed to a single point, focused on my car.

  Dax had my car keys in hand and tossed them to me. Where had those come from? “Drive.”

  He was big on the one-word commands. The keys arced through the air and as my fingers clenched around them, Jacqueline burst outside behind us. The skin on her face was pulled back, her eyes tight and her mouth twisted into a snarl.

  “Dax Parker!” she yelled out. “Djinn! I wish for a snowstorm!”

  The bottom dropped out of my stomach. It should have been a bombshell announcement, but strangely enough the words landed softly. I couldn’t decide who to look at. Jacqueline, with triumph written across her features, or poor Dax, who was bound to the bitch. Who had no choice but to obey her. Her every whim. Every nasty wish.

  Tattoos flared to life on his skin. Our eyes met across the hood of the car, and I saw a flash of something on his face. The ghost of an expression. There and gone within seconds.

  Regret.

  “Your wish. My command,” he replied, voice deepening to a monotone. He snapped his fingers, and just as quickly the atmosphere went dark. Clouds gathered where there were none before. The sun disappeared. Fat white flakes fell in an unnatural wave.

  My chin snapped to one side like I was ducking out of the way of a slap. What a horrible woman. Adrenaline and anxiety lived inside me and I couldn’t stop my feet from fidgeting. Shifting my weight from side to side and taking a few steps away, then back. The keys were cold in my hand.

  What did we do now? Oh my God, this wasn’t part of the plan.

  After the silence went on for too long, Jacqueline said, “He can’t help you, demon alembic. He’s mine. As you will be soon enough.”

  An alembic? Was that me? The snow piling up had me too terrified to think of a proper comeback. I stood frozen in place. My façade of unconcerned cool collapsed and I was afraid I looked the way I felt inside.

  I opened my mouth to say something, anything, then Jacqueline held out her hand and a ball of light formed in her palm.

  The world around us slowed until I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. If someone pointed a gun at you, I imagine you’d react the same way I did at this moment. The world shrinks until you’re looking out through a quarter-sized opening and for a moment you can only see that gun. It’s everything. It paralyzes you.

  It was the same way with magic. Whatever power she summoned then, I recognized the destructive capability. The way that little ball of light could tear through all of us with little effort. I sucked in a rough-edged gasp.

  There was no time to decide what to do or plan my next move. Sh
e was too close and I had no choice. No way to disarm her, and no matter what kind of fight-or-flight response you read about or see in the movies, you know you have to wait it out to see where the pieces fall.

  So the world slowed. The laws of physics shattered. And Jacqueline let loose her spell. I tried to shift my weight away from the projectile path and wondered if Cer would try to gain another opportunity to take over my body. All I could do was stare.

  And watch as the beam of light hit Dax in the shoulder.

  Like a rubber band snapping into place, the world returned to normal. Someone screamed. I know I screamed. Tension flashed through me, fear turning my chest to lead, and Dax dropped into the snow with a shower of crimson blood.

  It might have been the muscle memory of having a demon take over. Or maybe not. I don’t suppose I’ll ever know the real answer. All I know is my body decided for me. Crouching into a runner’s stance, I exploded into action, launching myself straight at Jacqueline. Charging with head lowered, ready to hook her around the midsection, and destroy her.

  I was two steps away when Jacqueline reached out and took me by the throat. Momentum halted.

  “Little girl,” she said with a grimace, fingertips biting deep into my skin. “Do you know what you have inside of you?”

  I choked. Tried to gurgle out an answer and failed. My hands clawed at her to try and break the hold. It was no use. I wasn’t strong enough.

  “You have one of the strongest outside of the nine demon princes. And I should know.” Unexpectedly, Jacqueline threw me backwards. Out through the open air I sailed until I slammed to a stop on the hood of the car.

  I coughed out a breath, my face numb. “You killed him.” I struggled to roll over and get the hell away from her. Get as far away as possible before she did the same to me.

  “You sacrifice pawns to get to the queen. It’s the way the game is played. And he isn’t dead, you stupid human. If you’d take the time to look, you’d see he is still breathing.”