She didn’t feel like laughing. She felt terrible. This whole time, she’d been waiting for Chad to lead her to the lamp because that was the easy thing to do. Because she didn’t want to push him into using a wish to resist her. Didn’t want to get into a confrontation. But she should have. She should have walked up to his door and threatened to light his pubic hair on fire if he didn’t give her the lamp. And then, if he didn’t do as she said, she should have done it.
It wasn’t a pleasant thing to have to do. She didn’t relish threatening people. She didn’t like the idea that someone—even a cock waffle like Chad—might fear her. But Uncle Grey had told her that sometimes it was necessary to do distasteful things in the interest of keeping people safe. Soldiers did it. Police officers did it. And so did mages. She’d nodded and agreed wholeheartedly, but when the time came for her to save Chad from himself, she’d failed to do so.
If she said all of this out loud, she knew Darius would say that she was being too hard on herself. After everything that had happened, she knew her confidence was in the toilet. But that didn’t mean that she had to pretend that she’d made the right choice when clearly she hadn’t. Now she could admit that she’d done the best she could under the circumstances, but maybe, just maybe, she could do better.
After all, Darius seemed to think very highly of her, and lots of people thought his good opinion was worth having. People like Derek and Citrine. And Rebecca.
The thought of Rebecca made her wince, and she gunned her way around a slow-moving convertible full of more screaming young women than seemed safe. She could only hope that Rebecca was at Chad’s. She’d even settle for finding them naked. Even if she didn’t wish Chad on anybody—much less Darius’s closest friend—it would be a relief.
She kept telling herself that this was the most likely outcome as she pulled into Chad’s development and turned onto his street. The irony of it all must have come out in some way—some involuntary noise—because Darius turned inquiring eyes to her.
“What?” he demanded.
Every muscle in his body was tense. His eyes flickered an uneasy red. She took one hand off the wheel and patted his knee, explaining with hesitation. The last thing she wanted to do was upset him more, but refusing to tell him what she was thinking would probably make it worse.
“I was thinking that finding them in flagrante delicto would be a relief,” she explained. “And then I thought how crazy that was, given recent developments. Isn’t it funny how things change?”
She watched him carefully for his response, or as carefully as possible when she was pulling into Chad’s driveway. He smiled ever so slightly. Even if he didn’t seem to find the thought as amusing as she did, at least he seemed to appreciate the effort to calm him down. But as the car came to a stop, his attention went to the building and stayed there. He opened the door before she’d even turned off the engine, and he was out in the driveway, nose up and scenting the air. Across the darkened street, a middle aged man in khaki shorts and socks with sandals stared at him, but Darius didn’t seem to care.
“She’s been here recently,” he declared, moving toward the front door. His gait seemed off somehow. Instead of his usual careful and deliberate walk, he moved with a strange lurching motion, like he expected to have more legs than he did. His inner scorpion coming out, maybe? It fascinated Audra, but there was no time to analyze it. Darius looked like he was ready to break the door down.
Although she hurried, she didn’t get there fast enough. He reached the door before her, turned the knob, and walked right in. And really, what would she have done differently? Knocked on the door and waited politely while Rebecca was gone and not answering her phone, and the person she was last seen with was known to have stolen a dangerous, potentially mind-altering magical artifact? The Chad she knew was a dickwad, but not the kind of person who would harm someone. But if the djinn had gotten to him, she wasn’t sure what he’d be capable of.
She’d only seen a djinn once. It was a weak one, and Uncle Grey had brought it out of the storage in order to show her how deceptive appearances could be. When he opened the lamp, out came this amorphous figure made of what looked like glittering sand. The creature was no bigger than a house cat, and it seethed and undulated on the table as if it couldn’t decide where to go or what to do.
Then she heard it. A tiny, whispering voice at the back of her mind, suggesting that the cashier she’d been interested in only liked girls with bigger boobs, and wouldn’t it be nice to have some? That he’d never love her as she was. It was the kind of suggestion that she found laughable now. As desperate as she’d been to find love, she’d never been willing to go under the knife to make someone find her desirable. Not that she had any problem with plastic surgery. If people wanted to feel better about themselves, that was their choice. But she couldn’t comprehend doing it for someone else.
So while she had no interest in plastic surgery now, fifteen-year-old her wasn’t as secure. She’d been desperate to be liked, desperate for the attention of a boy she was sure was The One. They had all been The One, until they hadn’t.
She wasn’t sure what she would have done, if Uncle Grey hadn’t used his magic to push it back into the lamp. Then he’d put the lamp back into the void before he’d turned to her. His hazel eyes behind the rimless glasses had been kind.
“I don’t know what it offered you,” he’d said, “and I don’t want to. I just want you to realize how powerful even a weak djinn can be. If you turned it down—and I don’t doubt that it offered you something you might want—it would try again and again and again. Offering you the easy way out. The simple solution. And it would seem harmless to take the wish. The first one usually is. But the magic comes with a price. Once you make that wish, the magic corrupts you in tiny, undetectable ways. You’re more likely to make another wish, and that wish is more likely to hurt other people. The djinn is looking for a way out, but if it can’t have that, it can feed on your pain. And you’ll be hurting, once it’s all over and you realize how much your wishes hurt other people.”
“But Uncle Grey,” she’d scoffed, “how much can bigger boobs hurt somebody? Unless you’re Madonna and wearing one of those cone bras.”
He’d laughed. “That’s true. And you’re probably right. The first wish is almost always harmless. But think about what you’re really saying. You’re saying that you’re desperate enough to change yourself to make someone like you. You’re saying that you’re willing to manipulate someone into liking you. If I wanted to pull your strings, I could use that, couldn’t I?”
“I guess…” She’d drawn the word out thoughtfully. “Like, maybe once I had the boobs, and Ben still didn’t like me, then it might offer to make him fall in love with me. Like mind control him or something.”
“Exactly. And then he’s not your boyfriend. Then he’s your slave. The djinn twists your words, giving you exactly what you asked for. But nothing more. You might find yourself with bigger boobs and breast cancer. Or a boyfriend who’s really enslaved to you. Nothing comes without a price.”
That last line had stuck with her all these years. Now, as she rushed into the condo steps behind Darius, she could only hope that Chad hadn’t done the unthinkable and made Rebecca his slave. Because if so, she didn’t know how to undo that.
It took a few steps into the apartment before she became aware of the sound of crying. Her heartbeat was so loud and quick in her ears that she hadn’t heard it before. But once she did, it nearly bowled her over. That sound couldn’t mean anything good, and she dreaded what she’d see as she went down the hall to the bedroom. Darius was at her side, giant and hulking and ready to throw down. That should have made her feel better, but it only made her worry all the more.
They reached the closed bedroom door at the same time. His enormous paw shot out, pushing the door open with a bang. A surprised yelp on the other side of the door sounded somehow familiar. Chad had made that noise once when they’d been at her house, and her a
sshole cat had gotten fascinated by the dangly things attached to his body and tried to bat them around a little. She’d laughed and laughed, and ever since then, he’d refused to enter her place at all.
Chad sat there on the bed, tangled in the sheets. He was still wearing the shiny blue dress shirt he’d been wearing at the restaurant, but now it was wrinkled and stained. The top couple of buttons had popped off at some point, exposing smooth, tanned skin. He stared at them with the kind of horror usually reserved for masked terrorists or something equally threatening. Although really, Darius fell into that threatening category, if Audra was going to be honest. His quiet fury would be scary to be on the other end of.
“Where is Rebecca?” he growled.
Chad cowered harder, if such a thing were possible. Audra stepped between them, interposing her body. Chad’s face was streaked with moisture—he’d been the one crying. In all the months she’d known him, she’d never seen him shed a tear. He’d been terrified before they’d entered the room, and she was fairly sure it wasn’t because he’d heard them coming. The Chad she knew might have called the cops and hid in a closet at the first sign of a home intruder, but he wouldn’t have messed up his clothes and started crying hysterically.
Something had happened. Had the djinn gotten the best of him? Were they already too late?
“Chad, what happened?” she asked.
“Sand. Sparkly sand,” he said, through chattering teeth.
“What did you do to her?” growled Darius.
Chad shrank away from him, beginning to cry anew. Audra put a hand on his arm and met his eyes.
“Darius, I need you to stop,” she said firmly. “I won’t get answers out of him if he’s hysterical.”
He growled again.
“He’s seen the djinn,” she said.
It took a moment before he could focus on her face, but eventually he nodded.
“Of course. I’m sorry,” he said. “But I’m not leaving the room. I won’t leave you alone with him.”
She nodded. “Thanks.”
Then she turned her attention to Chad. Despite everything that had happened, she felt for him. Did that make her weak? She wasn’t sure, but she’d have to untangle it all later. Right now, she needed to know what had happened. She sat down on the edge of the bed with its slippery satin sheets. Chad was rocking and crying inconsolably, and she put a hand on his back to comfort him. He shrank away from her touch.
“Don’t! Don’t!” he exclaimed.
She held her hands up.
“Okay. I’ll keep my hands to myself. But I need to know, Chad. What happened? Where’s Rebecca?”
He shook his head, shutting his eyes. “No…” he murmured.
“Okay, where’s the lamp? The lamp that the sparkly sand came out of.”
That had to be the djinn. But if she compared the one she’d seen all those years ago to the magic whammy of this lamp? That was like comparing a Chihuahua to a Newfoundland. They weren’t in the same weight class. The djinn she’d seen was quietly persuasive. This one would be about as persuasive as a hurricane.
“No. Don’t.” He squeezed his eyes tighter, his hands clenching into fists.
“I’m going to take it away, Chad. I’m going to put it somewhere safe, where it can’t hurt anyone else.”
He was silent for a long moment, so long that she thought he wasn’t going to answer. When he did, his voice was cracked and broken. She wondered what he’d seen, what had happened. But really, she didn’t want to know.
“Rebecca,” he said. “She has it.”
“No,” said Darius in disbelieving tones. “No, she doesn’t. She can’t!”
He punched the wall, leaving a big hole in the drywall. Chad watched him with round, frightened eyes. Darius took one look at his expression, whirled around, and left the room.
Audra patted Chad on the arm, trying to maintain her calm in the middle of all this chaos. She had to find out where Rebecca had gone. Chad could be lying to her; after all, he’d managed to hide his cheating ways for lord only knew how long. But she thought he was telling the truth now.
“Where did Rebecca go?” she asked gently.
“I don’t know. I was so scared. So… scared.”
He began crying again, and no amount of back patting could soothe him. There was nothing else she could do here. No other questions she could ask. And if she was going to comfort one of the men in this house, she would choose the one that hadn’t betrayed her. Maybe that made her a terrible person, but it was what she wanted. Darius needed her, and she could do Chad no good except by finding the lamp. She could only hope that Darius could track Rebecca down by scent.
When she let herself out of the room, Chad was still sobbing. She cared more about that than she wanted to.
Chapter 16
Darius paced outside Chad’s condo, unable to keep still. As he moved back and forth, back and forth, he noticed the blinds of the unit next door twitching as the person inside watched him. Normally, he’d be worried about that person. He would have tried to settle their fears, prove that the big hulking man in the yard wasn’t dangerous. Not to them. But he couldn’t stop pacing for fear that his emotions would burst out of him in other ways. Like manifesting stingers and chiton.
So many things could be happening to Rebecca right now, and none of them were good. When Audra had made her comment about hoping to find Chad and Rebecca in bed together, he’d only half agreed. But now, seeing Chad so broken up, he would have given everything to find them together. Naked. He’d give them his blessing and leave quite happily.
What had happened to break Chad like that? He’d only met the guy once, but he felt fairly confident in saying that Chad wasn’t really the hysterical crying type. Something had happened in the short time since they’d seen him at the restaurant. Something bad. And now Rebecca was gone.
The worst part of the entire situation was that for a moment, when Darius saw Chad quaking in his bed, he’d thought that maybe Rebecca was behind all of this. That she’d taken the lamp. Hurt Audra. Created all of this mess. That they’d been wrong to suspect Chad this whole time, and his best friend and the person he trusted most in the world was behind it all. Of course she wasn’t. Rebecca wouldn’t do something so terrible. The fact that he’d even thought it made him a terrible person. And so he paced and worried and berated himself, and the neighbor watched on until Audra came out of the building.
He whirled to face her, trying to keep his instincts under control. He hoped that whatever happened, he got to fight something. He needed that release.
“What did you find out?” he demanded, taking a step forward and looming over her.
“I’ll tell you as soon as you cool down,” said Audra calmly.
The simple way she said it stopped him cold. He was being ridiculous. He had reasons to be ridiculous, and he wasn’t going to apologize for it, but he had to stop. He closed his eyes for a moment, ignoring the urgent mental voice that told him they didn’t have time for this, and concentrated on his breath. The familiar calming exercise worked its usual wonders. It only took a few breaths before he quit feeling so agitated.
He opened his eyes and said, “Thanks. I needed that.”
“You’re welcome,” she said. While she didn’t smile, her voice was kind. Maybe the news she had wasn’t the sort of thing that would make him want to smile either. “Let me tell you what’s up. But let’s move into the car. I think Chad’s neighbor is about two inches from a full on coronary.”
She glanced at the window, and the blinds twitched again. Darius shot an apologetic glance in the same direction, but really, he hadn’t done anything wrong. He hadn’t trampled any flowers or messed up the yard. But he knew he was scary, and he knew Audra was right. She led the way to the cramped car but didn’t turn on the engine.
“Chad’s not exactly coherent, but he says Rebecca has the lamp,” she said with deliberate gentleness. “I don’t know the details. But…wait a minute! I hadn’t thought
about this before. Maybe she took it from him to keep him safe? She knows what it is, and she knows it’s dangerous. So he stole the lamp from me, just as we thought, and then when she found out about it, she took the lamp from him. The djinn maybe tried to make her stop, but she could have powered through it. And then Chad was left all torn apart because she took it away from him by force. He probably saw the djinn for what it really was, and it scared the crap out of him.”
He brightened at this suggestion. “You know, that does make sense. Although you’d think she’d call one of us right away so that we could dispose of it. Here, I was feeling all guilty for suspecting her, but of course that’s what she’d do.” He paused as another thought occurred to him. It made him so relieved that he chuckled out loud. “And I bet I know why she hasn’t called yet, either.”
“Why’s that?” asked Audra.
“She’s been trying to talk me into asking you out ever since the night we met you. She’s probably trying to give us some alone time,” he said, blushing.
“Oh.” Audra sat quietly for a moment, long enough that Darius got a little worried. But when he looked over, a tiny smile played over her lips. “Well, if that’s her intent…”
Before he could react, she leaned across the shifter and pressed her lips to his.
She tasted like toothpaste, and her lips were soft and warm. His tongue touched her lips. The little delighted noise she made killed what remaining self control he had left. If there had been space, he might have tossed her into the backseat and gone for it. It was probably good that there wasn’t. Instead, he contented himself with running his hands down her back and feeling her shiver.
After not nearly long enough, she pulled back. Her hand cupped his chin, and now she did smile at him.
“I’d like to continue this, but there are two problems,” she said.
“What’s that?” he rumbled with uncharacteristic impatience.
“First of all, we should probably find Rebecca and get that lamp away from her before it can cause any more trouble. I’m sure she’s fine, but I know I’d be much happier if it was stored away safely, and I imagine you feel the same.”
The Supernaturals of Las Vegas Books 1-4 Page 44