by S. Young
Ignoring Charlie’s disgruntled mumblings beside her, Ari stuck out a hand to Jai, pushing through her nervous butterflies. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
“What? Now? You’ve just returned from Mount Qaf. You’ve been gone a whole day. Don’t you want to sleep first?”
“No. As far as I’m concerned, I was gone like an hour. I want this done. Now.”
Heaving a sigh, Jai nodded. “Fine.” The air around him pulsed and suddenly he wore a black leather jacket over his white T-shirt.
“Show-off,” Charlie muttered.
Rolling her eyes at him, Ari shoved him playfully, only for him to grab her arm and haul her into a fierce hug. Feeling his muscles tremble beneath her and his heart pound against her ear, Ari held on tightly, breathing him in. He smelled like the tropical detergent she used. At the feel of his lips against her forehead, Ari sighed, melting into him.
“You come back in one piece, you hear,” he demanded hoarsely.
Afraid if she held on any longer, she wouldn’t let go, Ari pulled back and smiled up at him as confidently as she could. It was only when she let her gaze flicker over his shoulder she flushed, caught in Jai’s turbulent green eyes. Another pang of guilt cut through her for and Ari retreated. She felt torn in two, and she hated it. “I will,” she murmured her promise.
“You’ll need a jacket,” Jai said, coming around the coffee table to stand before her.
His proximity did funny things to her and she had to concentrate extra hard to conjure a jacket. She chose a brown leather biker jacket she'd seen in a shop window a few months ago. The one she’d lamented over because it cost a year's allowance. Now it fit, sleek and snug, like it had been made especially for her.
Being jinn had its perks.
“Outside.” Jai strode out into the hall. He pulled the door open with a flourish. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter 23
The coppery scent of death
Flying wasn’t Ari’s thing. It wasn’t ever going to be Ari’s thing. Ari thought she’d just have to hold Jai’s hand and they’d zip up into the air together. Instead Jai slid an arm around her waist to draw her tight against his side. He murmured for her to hold on tight. She did so, trembling shyly as he pressed her against his hard body, one of his hands gripped her shoulder while the other held her by the hip. Ignoring the way she lit up around him, Ari nodded one last goodbye to a seriously pissed off Charlie before she felt the vibration of jinn enchantment as Jai pushed into the cloak. Ari followed suit, barely having hidden herself when Jai shot them into the sky at a blurring speed that made her scream. Her stomach bottomed out and the vacuum of air that rushed into her mouth momentarily suffocated her. Panicking, Ari clung tighter to Jai, squeezing her eyes closed and praying for the sensation to end.
The flight was painful with the wind hitting her skin like hail stones; her muscles burned from the tension of holding on so tightly to Jai. It seemed to last forever and all Ari could do was tuck her head into Jai’s neck and wait it out.
Superman and Lois Lane made this look so much fun. It is so not fun.
Jai’s chuckle bounced around in her mind, making her bury deeper into him. I’m getting that. I have claw marks on my skin.
Oops, sorry.
It’s fine.
With the superhuman speed they flew at, it came as no surprise when Jai slowed on descent within minutes. Prying her eyes open, she peeked out from under her lashes to see they moved closer and closer toward the ground.
The earth below burst with color—greens and reds and blues and purples and glinting diamond light — all of it moving, like multi-colored bugs scrambling around. People! They were heading for a ton of people. Sure enough, Jai eased back on the accelerator and as they approached ground, she nipped her nails into his shoulder in her anxiousness. What the hell is that?
It looks like… a parade.
A parade? A parade of what?
Uh… humans?
Bracing herself for impact, Ari was glad for Jai's graceful landing. Her feet hit concrete with little reverberation . She staggered out of his arms, only to be shoved back into them.
“Hey, what was that?” A girl in costume shrieked, glancing around for her invisible ‘attacker’. Ari and Jai broke apart, taking in the surrounding madness.
Come out of the cloak, now.
Following his instructions, Ari stepped out of it, only to be slammed into Jai again by a giant green alien. Dodging the next stream of people, Ari cursed under her breath at the sparkles and glitter and multi-colored faces and masks. Everywhere… there were aliens.
Eyes alighting on a banner spanning the entire width of Main Street, Roswell, Ari cursed loudly this time.
Welcome to Roswell’s Annual UFO Festival!
“You have got to be kidding me.” Jai bit out a curse and moved out of the way of a guy dressed in silver spandex. The beat of drums crashed around them and the song Spaceman by Babylon Zoo blared from somewhere. The air smelled of burgers and cotton candy. Laughter and singing mingled in with the raucous celebration, and Ari felt a little disorientated by it all. A laughing alien face appeared inches before her and she bit back a yell, stumbling into Jai to get away from the face that smelled of hot rubber and sweat. Jai caught her and she looked down in surprise when he tangled his fingers through hers and held tight.
She gulped. “What now?”
Now we find Pazuzu. You’ll feel him, Ari. You’ll sense jinn among us. He’s old and powerful, so whatever you do, don’t let go of my hand.
Okay.
Jai shoved into the crowds, ignoring the disgruntled yelps as they walked in the opposite direction of the parade. They sidestepped floats and a couple of cars and plunged back into the crowds again. Keeping her senses alert, Ari couldn’t help but feel drained. There were just so many people there. How were they ever going to find Pazuzu?
Jai glanced back at her, squeezing her hand. Crazy, huh?
Too crazy.
He’s gotta be here somewhere, Ari. Just hold on.
I am. I am.
Flexing her hand in his, Ari realized how safe she felt with him. Safer than she even felt with Charlie. It was nice. Too nice.
As they passed people melting under the New Mexico sun in their heavy makeup and costumes, Ari was glad her body ran at such a stable temperature. Looking for Pazuzu in these crowds and dehydrating at the same time did not sound like fun. Not that this was—
What the hell is that?
Jai’s hand tightened again. You feel that?
Yes, she replied. She checked over the crowds, searching for the origin of the jinn energy surge she'd sensed. What is that?
Jai drew to an abrupt halt, pulling Ari to a standstill. He groaned. This isn’t happening.
What? She eyed him apprehensively before following his gaze through the parade.
There. He nodded his head and Ari squinted, trying to see what had caught his attention. Focusing, she searched the energy she had felt only moments before and her spidey senses zoomed in on a young woman in a skin-tight, bright green catsuit beckoning two young men down a dark alley. The boys grinned at each other before following her in. Another jinn.
No way.
Yes way. And not just any jinn. He looked down at her, his eyes hard. A ghulah. A flesh-eating jinn. They prey specifically on travelers.
Ari’s stomach flipped at the thought of the carnage the jinn was about to unleash. She hadn’t even known there were flesh-eating jinn. Wow. She'd really been born into a very disturbing world. Travelers? Her eyes widened as she looked back at the UFO festival sign. Of course. People traveled from all over the world to enjoy the Roswell UFO Festival.
Ari, I have to stop her. I can’t just stand by and let that happen when I can do something about it.
I know. But I’m coming with you.
No.
Yes.
Ari, I don’t have time to argue about this.
Neither did she. Tugging out of his grip, Ari pushed through the
crowds toward the alleyway. Feeling the heat of Jai at her back, Ari looked over shoulder defiantly. What do we do?
You do nothing. Just stay out of the way.
Ari gaped as Jai shot by her in a blur, disappearing into the dark of the alley. Panic suffused her at the thought of the ghulah hurting him and Ari gripped asphalt, dashing into the alley. The smell of garbage and beer flooded her nose and tickled her upchuck reflex. Ari’s breathing sounded overly loud and she clamped a hand over her mouth, willing her eyes to adjust to the darkness.
A yell rent the air and Ari dove forward, the sounds of glass smashing and loud rustling setting her heart to pounding.
“Jesus Christ!” a guy cried out in fear, his voice reaching Ari only seconds before he appeared out of the dimness, blood seeping from the fleshy bite in his neck. Pale and weak, completely discombobulated, he fled past Ari and out into the street.
Screw this!
Petrified, Ari marched into the alley, the shapes of dumpsters and garbage bags spilling out into the dirt infested space forming before her as her eyes adjusted. Stepping tentatively over what smelled like urine, Ari wrinkled her nose, trying to hear past the rushing of blood in her ears.
A bloody hand lay limp on the ground and as soon as she saw the blood, the strong, thick, nauseating scent of copper made her gag. Disbelief and screaming unreality wept through her as she followed the hand to the rest of the body. It was one of the boys. Hurrying forward, Ari was just about to fall to her knees to inspect him when a gust of wind blew past her, carrying Jai in it. He slammed into the wall beside her, dirty garbage bags breaking his fall as he slid down it with a wincing scrape of leather against brick.
“Jai?” she squawked, making a move toward him only to be stopped when a large hand wrapped around her throat. Ari was turned and lifted off the ground, her feet dangling as she struggled to draw breath. The jinn’s female façade smiled up at her sweetly, her mouth covered in gore from where she’d been eating the boys. To Ari’s horror, her jaw elongated unnaturally, revealing huge sharp teeth. Ari closed her eyes, shutting out the image of blood and flesh dripping from the ghulah’s mouth.
“Another Hunter from the Guild, I presume. I don’t know why you bother when you know you’re not allowed to kill us.”
She squeezed tighter and black spots started popping up all over Ari’s vision. Biting her nails into the ghulah’s hand, Ari raked them deep and the jinn winced just before Ari lost consciousness.
Jai pounded a fist against the enchantment the ghulah had placed around him while she choked the life out of Ari. Before she’d gripped Ari, Jai had been able to think clearly. The ghulah was more powerful than she should be, almost as if she were borrowing power. When the barrier went up around him, his eyes had zeroed in on the talisman she wore around her neck. A sorcerer’s talisman. She was drawing power from it. His only thought had been of removing the talisman from her neck and destroying it. That is… until her attack on Ari unraveled him. The emotions that rushed through him as he banged and punched the invisible wall keeping him from rescuing her were nothing like how they described. There was no one thought in a moment like this. There was terror and fury and panic and vengeance. It was unrelenting and painful as it clawed and clouded his brain, reducing him to a saliva-ridden animal desperate to eviscerate the jinn who dared to hurt what was his.
When Ari’s eyes rolled back in her head, Jai stilled, staring in disbelief as the ghulah released her. Ari’s body hit the concrete with a thud as she collapsed, sprawled out on the dirty ground, unconscious, seeming dead, her hair spread out in a halo around her head, her throat red raw from strangulation. The rise and fall of her chest, however, eased him, and rationale returned to him.
The ghulah took a few steps towards him, a smug smile on her painted face. Jai found his fury, drawing a foot across the ground like a bull readying to charge.
“I’ll deal with the girl once I’ve gotten rid of you for good. What say I lower the barrier and we play this nice and fair half-breed?”
No way was he telling her he wasn’t a half-breed Hunter. He needed the advantage the element of surprise would provide. The barrier dropped and Jai fell back on good old-fashioned human training.
He threw a punch. Her nose broke under his fist.
Howling the ghulah clasped her face. Her retaliation, the buzzing that erupted in Jai’s ears, almost made him laugh. It was a wasp enchantment—a hallucination that wasps were crawling in his ears and into his brain—to make him think he was being smothered alive by them. With a wave of his hand, he killed the enchantment, something a half-breed could never do.
The ghulah’s eyes narrowed, the blood dripping out of her mashed nostrils. “What are you?”
Without another word, he drew his knee back and thrust his leg out with every ounce of power within him. His foot connected with her solar plexus and she stumbled back in outrage. Jai lunged at her, pummeling his fist into her face again and again. At the hum of power emanating from her neck, Jai swore and snatched at the talisman, ripping it from her neck and melting the stone in his bare hand. The act cost him; the ghulah pushed her own magic out to cast him back into the air. He slammed into the wall again; the breath whooshed momentarily out of his body as he slumped to the ground.
“You’re not the Guild,” The Ghulah snarled. “You’re full-blooded jinn!”
Huffing, Jai drew to his feet, shrugging at his leather jacket. He would reek by the time he got out of here. “Yeah. So that leaves us at a stalemate. Neither of us can kill the other without being taken before the jinn courts. So what do you say you get the hell out of Roswell?”
She curled her lip. “I was here first.”
Narrowing his eyes, Jai crossed his arms over his chest. “Look, I may be unable to put you in the ground like I want to, but I can make sure you never walk again. So what’s it going to be?”
“You don’t frighten me.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t have all day and my patience is wearing thin since you tried to choke my friend to death.”
“She didn’t, though,” Ari croaked, and Jai shuddered in relief as she clambered to her feet. Her face was pale, her neck red and swollen, and she swayed unbalanced on her feet. She touched her neck, wincing, as she glared at the ghulah.
“You alright?” Jai asked, wishing he could grab her and hide her somewhere where nothing bad could happen to her ever again. How the hell was he going to get them out of this?
“I’m fine,” she reassured him, taking a few tentative steps toward him, her hair falling into her face. She tucked a few strands behind her ear with trembling fingers. When she pressed her side up against him, it took everything within him to resist putting an arm around her. Ari threw her shoulders back, looking every inch the battered princess. “More than I can say for this bitch.”
The ghulah grinned, cocking her hip confidently. “Like you could do anything to me, sweetheart.”
“Actually.” Ari smiled at her, a wicked smile he’d never seen before. It made him shiver, as did the pulse in her aura that told him she was about to use her magic. “I command you to leave Roswell and to never eat the flesh of any human again.”
The smug smile on the ghulah’s face slipped as the force of Ari’s command hit her. “How?” she blinked, her body walking her out of the alleyway. She stepped over the boy’s body next to the dumpster, and as she strode toward the mouth of the alley, her neck still craned over her shoulder, she gaped at Ari in utter disbelief.
That is some seriously creepy power she has going on. Jai eyed Ari, not sure what to say.
Catching his look, Ari shrugged wearily. “I know. It’s creepy.”
He couldn’t help but smile. “A little.”
“It worked though, right?”
“That it did.”
Frowning, Ari whipped around, her eyes falling on the body of the guy. “We should help—”
“He’s gone, Ari.” Not wanting her to see the mess the boy was in, Jai caught her arm, pulli
ng her back.
“But—”
“He’s dead.”
Hating the way her lip trembled with distress, Jai wished there was something he could say or do, but there was really no way to comfort someone during their first experience with a violent death.
“We need to get out of here,” he told her quietly, trying to draw her gaze away from the young man. “We need to step into the cloak and get back out there and find Pazuzu. You okay to do that?”
Chapter 24
What’s the use of the wind
if it won’t take you away?
Accepting that there was nothing to be done for that one boy was harder than Ari ever could have imagined. Numbly, she followed Jai into the cloak, disappearing out onto Main Street just in time. Two deputies were approaching the alley with cautious. Feeling sick at the thought of what they’d find, Ari turned away, gripping tight to Jai’s hand. The garish costumes and masks—some seriously scary—as well as the pounding music and riotous flurry of the crowds were difficult to manage. She was quiet, not even using telepathy to talk to Jai. After ten minutes, Jai squeezed her head. Come out of the cloak.
You sure? People might have seen us go into the alley.
We’ll have a greater chance of feeling Pazuzu if we come out.
She needed little persuading after that. Ari so wanted this over. She wanted to find him. She wanted to cure her dad.
And then what?
Thankfully, Ari was distracted from the ominous thought by a ripple of power flooding over her, the unpleasant taste of dirt filling her mouth. What is that?
Pazuzu.
Heart pounding, Ari clasped her other hand around Jai’s wrist, feeling the vibrations grow deeper, stronger, nearer. She twisted her neck around, searching people that strolled past.
“Watch it,” a voice growled as a body slammed into her. A gray alien mask with its pointy chin and huge black almond-shaped eyes stared down at her blankly and Ari screamed inwardly at the pulsating power that was coming off the tall stranger in waves.