I checked all around the room but her luggage wasn’t there. Why would she have taken her bags to the studio with her? Deep inside I knew something was really wrong, I wanted to search more, but I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I collapsed there on the floor and gods knew how long I was out. The room hadn’t been touched when I came around once more and I darted out into the hall as soon as I could. Something in there was drugging me and I’d never felt such a thing before. I didn’t know what it was but considering I’d only been affected since checking out the vase I assumed it was something to do with that ornament.
Once my head was clear I tried to do what any sane Djinn would do and ended up with a blinding headache. I could not reach my amulet. I had not felt such a feeling of separation for many, many long years. It was frightening. I tried several times but no, I couldn’t do it. What scared me the most wasn’t the fact that Kiya had obviously been kidnapped and I didn’t know who had taken her or where she might be, no, it was the fact that someone was blocking my powers and that person had Kiya. Now that scared the shit out of me.
I’d told Rahul I couldn’t go to America but no, he wouldn’t listen. I knew Joe and Josh would be out to get me. Joe and Josh were Djinns. Yes, I knew their real names but I wasn’t telling them to you because your puny mouths wouldn’t be capable of handling the language. I had lived in the US for a bit with one of the earlier Khans. I couldn’t remember exactly when, time flew, but had been a while after that huge world war thing that had happened and sometime before mobile phones had become popular. I had liked America actually, there had been a good community of Djinns in New York where I’d lived. Life had been almost bearable when I had gone to a bar at the end of the week, had taken off my human form and just relaxed with some real mates.
That had been until Joe and Josh had turned up. I had been glad to see them at first, they were the brothers of my true love back in Jennistan. I thought they’d be able to bring me news of her but when I’d asked they’d gone crazy and the ensuing violence had got us all thrown out of the bar for good.
“You’re a fucking piece of work, Johnny,” Josh had spat, his black hair slicked behind his big ears. Even in human form Josh was not the most attractive of the bunch. His nose put Concorde to shame.
“Guys, I don’t know what you mean at all. I just want to know about your sister, I miss her.”
“So do we,” Joe had snarled. He had good lips for snarling, rubbery and large. He’d looked somewhat like a rabid Chihuahua. “You heartless bastard.”
I had never got any sense out of those guys, just a threat that if I ever set foot on their patch again, well, there wouldn’t be much of that foot left by the time they’d finished with me. That was why the Khans had returned to India and that was why I’d told Rahul I couldn’t come to America. Stupid human. If only he’d listened to me.
You humans might have been used to having to scurry about looking for your counterparts but I was not. I had never had to search for a Khan in my whole life before, they had always been a click of my fingers away. Of course I could have poofed back to India to Rahul, my tea kettle was still active, but I really didn’t fancy telling him what had happened. So I had to think.
Kiya was in trouble and I would have to find her but how? I couldn’t go back into the room as something in there was making me go doolally. I would have to remember what was in there. I remembered a stink, oh yes, it was the driver. Definitely eau de floppy-haired dude. What was his name? Christian? Curtains? No, Curtis, that was it. I would have to find him. But how?
* * * *
I am sure you humans are all very much worried about little Kiya and what was happening to her. Well, I wasn’t really. I was just hoping she wasn’t dead already because if she was my hopes of ever being wished free had just gone up in smoke. You say I’m selfish, I say I am practical. I had been away from my home for a very long time and the love of my life for equally as long. I wanted to go back to Jennistan so much. Rahul being all loved-up with his missus, as annoying as she was, made me think of my true love far too much and I needed to get off the earth and back into her arms. I couldn’t contemplate more years of service. I had to be wished free and soon. That was my only concern, I promise you. I wasn’t thinking of Kiya’s cute smiles and her witty banter and how I’d miss them, nope. I wasn’t at all worried about her and don’t you dare to disagree, okay? I’m a big, macho Djinn and don’t you forget it!
So after working out the source of the stink I went to look around the hotel to see if I could find traces of him. I put myself into human form of course and smiled sweetly at folks. I’d found that humans were so much more open to suggestion when you were friendly. I was horrified to find out that my vase and room trouble had lasted longer than I’d thought. Close to forty-eight hours in fact. Kiya was long gone. However, I took a deep breath and chose not to panic. Panicking was not an option for Djinns really, it wasn’t a pretty thing to see.
I looked at the staff for clues and I found the doorman Kiya and Curtis had talked to on duty at the front door. I used my biggest, slickest smile when I caught his attention.
“My good man,” I said in my poshest Mahurajah tone, “I was wondering if you could summon some transportation for me.”
“Certainly, sir,” he replied gruffly, ”I’ll be just one moment.”
“Well, thank you, thank you, but I am looking for something most particular. A driver, he brought me here, pleasant fellow he was. Blond hair, quite long, blue eyes I believe and quite handsome if you like that sort of thing.”
I noted from Ralph’s salacious smile that he did indeed ‘like that sort of thing’.
“I think you mean Curtis, Sir.”
“Indeed, indeed, yes. That’s the fellow.”
“Follow me, his car is just over here.”
Ralph led me to the limousine Kiya had ridden in the day before and I climbed in the back.
I smiled, I waved, I was polite until the blond-haired fop got away from the hotel.
“So, son, where did you take her?”
“Take who?” he asked and raked his fingers through his hair. Sitting behind him I could just see his eyes in the mirror and I could tell he was worried.
“Kiya Khan.”
“I don’t know who you mean, dude. Sorry.” He shrugged.
“You know who I mean. Black hair, eyes like sapphires, skin like milky coffee.”
“Oh, I do know who you mean, the Bollywood star. Yes, I picked her up from the airport the other day, nice girl I thought.”
“Curtis, you’re a bad liar. I know you broke into her room the night she arrived and that you carried her out of that room against her will and you’ve taken her somewhere. I’m just not quite sure where.”
“You what? I don’t have to listen to such accusations, you know. I think I should let you out here, sir.”
“Curtis, take me to her.”
“I don’t know what you mean. You’re crazy!” He pulled in at the side of the road, I thought they called pavements sidewalks in America. Never ceased to amaze me how humans played with language. No one had a clue what anyone else was saying.
“I want you to take me to Kiya. I know your boss has kidnapped her for whatever reason and I suspect your boss is a Djinn.”
“Now I know you’ve lost your mind, you’re outta here. I’m not taking anymore!”
I did something then that I rarely do in the presence of humans. I changed.
“I’m a Djinn. Your boss is a fucking Djinn and you’re a shit actor. Now take me to Kiya.”
Curtis blanched when he looked over his shoulder but the fact he didn’t lose his lunch made me think he’d seen my kind unmasked before.
“Look, you can drive me to wherever you took her or I can rip the pretty head off your shoulders and chew on it a while, the choice is yours.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll take you, I’ll take you. Fuck. I’m not paid to do this shit.”
“Now that’s better.” I turned back to human, unw
illing to be seen by some poor random passer-by in Djinn form. “Who is your master by the way?”
“Oh, the guys who give me my instructions are called Joe and Josh. I don’t think it’s their real names, I mean, Josh the Djinn? Really?”
“Well, my name’s Johnny,” I said distractedly. “J names work well for Djinns.”
It was as I’d thought. Kiya had been captured by my enemies. They obviously wanted to get to me. I’d told Rahul it was trouble sending me to America. I just hoped with all my stony heart that Kiya hadn’t paid for his arrogance.
Chapter Six
Kiya
I wasn’t sure at which point I realised that I’d been kidnapped. I had always slept deeply and so I wasn’t aware of anything being wrong when I found it a struggle to open my eyes. My head felt muzzy as though I’d been drinking evil alcopops the night before. Urgh. That had happened once before, Johnny had warned me against it but I had ignored him and wow, had I regretted that the next morning.
When I eventually got my brain to work properly I realised I’d not touched even a drop of alcohol the night before and also that my arms and legs ached. I tried to move them but I couldn’t.
I tried to open my eyes, I thought I’d managed it but things were still black.
My senses slowly crept back to me and I felt the pinch of rope around my wrists and my ankles, there was also material resting across my face. I was tied up and blindfolded and although I’d had various fantasies about ending up in such a situation with a man I fancied the arse off—this scared me. I tried to speak.
My throat was sore, my mouth dry.
“Help,” I croaked. “Help!”
“Oh, hey, the package is coming round.” I heard a cruel laugh.
“At long last,” another voice chimed in, similar to the first.
“Where am I?” I asked. Well, I’d been drugged, you couldn’t expect me to think of original questions under such circumstances. I apologise for sounding like someone in a crappy action movie.
“Darling, if we wanted you to know that we wouldn’t have blindfolded you, right?”
“Why have you done this? What do you want from me?”
“You know what we want, bitch, don’t play stupid.”
I wanted to protest that I didn’t know but something told me that might not be the wisest move to make.
“Can I have a drink of water at least, please?”
I yelped when cold water poured on me from above. I opened my mouth and drank what I could, the rest drowned my hair and rolled down my cheeks and soaked into my top.
“Thanks,” I gasped.
“Polite broad, aintcha? I suspect you’ll not be thanking us again anytime soon.”
Maniacal laughter echoed around, giving me the sense I was in a big room with high ceilings. Where could I be? I wasn’t in a temple or a palace, I was pretty sure. It dawned on me slowly that I was probably in a warehouse or something like that.
“Ah-ha, Aseem’s awake now, he can see to her.”
Another man to add to the mix. Why did they want me? They told me I knew so it must be obvious. I was convinced they wanted a ransom. Rahul Khan was known to be the richest Bollywood star of all time. It was as that realisation hit, that I started to wish Johnny had come to America with me. Yes, he was annoying but he’d have kept me out of this mess I was sure.
“You told me it was a precious parcel,” a new voice broke into my thoughts, “you didn’t tell me it was a…a…a…girl!”
“Oh, Aseem, shut up, would you? She is a precious parcel and you need to look after her, keep her alive and keep her here. We will be back to question her tomorrow. Do not feed her and only give her a little water. We want her to be eager to answer our questions.”
“I don’t know if I can do this, Josh—”
“I don’t care what you think, you belong to us. That is what being a slave means. You will do it or you know what we’ll do to your mom.”
“All right, all right, but I don’t like it.”
“We don’t care if you like it, you idiot, just do your job.”
This Aseem sounded a lot nicer than the guys who were leaving. He had a familiar Eastern twang to his voice, though it was masked with quite a heavily American accent. He would be my best bet for getting out of here, I knew it. I needed to escape before the hard cases came back but that was as far as my clever plan stretched.
“Don’t untie the bitch either,” I heard one of the voices from a distance, “you complete idiot. She’s not our guest, she is our captive.”
“But surely I can—”
“No, Aseem, no. Think of your poor mother, she’d die if anything happened to you and if that fat chick escapes then something nasty will happen to you, I promise.” Heavy footsteps echoed around the space and grew quieter as the brutes headed for the door.
“Fat chick?” I heard Aseem mumble. “She isn’t fat, stupid men, they don’t appreciate beauty.”
“Aseem,” I whispered, “that’s your name, isn’t it? Aseem, please help me.”
“Dear woman, I wish I could but you have heard what my orders are.”
“But you sound like a good man, Aseem, you know this is wrong.”
“Everything about this mess is wrong but I can’t do anything about it. They’re not good people, janemaan, and if I anger them I will be in even deeper trouble.”
“But I could help, I’m rich, my father is rich, we live in India. We could take you and your family away from here. I know my dad would reward you richly for helping me.”
“No one can help me, no one. Please be quiet or I will be forced to gag your pretty mouth too.”
Aseem’s voice hardened. I knew when to cut my losses. At least he seemed like a good man and I was pretty sure I could get him talking. I was an actress, I played with emotions all the time. I would do my best to use my wiles to my advantage. I wouldn’t even mind if I had to seduce him.
“Aseem, could you at least take the blindfold off for me, please?”
“Oh, I suppose so. It’s not like there’s anything to see in this dump anyway.”
I felt his body warmth as he drew closer. He smelt of spices, cardamom and cinnamon and musky manliness. He moved his fingers deftly to untie the material from around my head and I blinked in the light. It was searingly bright at first but as I accustomed to letting my eyes work again I realised that the huge, high-ceilinged room was lit by a single dangling bare bulb. It was a dank, dark place. There was the odd box scattered here and there but nothing to indicate the place was really used any more. I was sat on an old wooden bench in the middle of a cleared area. Aseem was sat in an old garden chair off to the right of me, a newspaper open before him.
His eyes were dark and mellow like unrefined sugar, his skin was just a shade or two lighter and made me think of caramel. I certainly liked the idea of licking him all over. He was slim but sculpted, I could see the muscle definition in his arms under the edge of the black T-shirt he wore. Nope, there would be no problem at all in seducing him to get me out of this situation.
I looked more closely at him and the newspaper. I caught the date on the front page.
I blinked, shook my head and looked again. No, the date was still the same. I had definitely lost a whole day somewhere along the line. Bloody hell, what had the beggars knocked me out with?
I had no real idea of time, I could see windows high above me, tiny, long and thin but they were evidently so grimy that they let little to no light in. Either that or it really was the middle of the night. In which case I’d lost closer to thirty-six hours. When I thought about being out cold for so long I started to feel well and truly afraid for the first time. They could have done all sorts of evil things to me before I even woke. Men who would drug a woman and leave her unconscious for so many hours were not men I wanted to mess with. I had to escape. Had to.
I heard a rustling from Aseem’s chair and noticed him taking a bite from a sandwich. My stomach rumbled.
“Aseem,” I s
aid, “I’m hungry.”
He looked up reluctantly and sighed.
“Have they not fed you?”
“No,” I replied, “I’ve only been awake a little while but I think, I think I’ve been here for much longer than that.”
“I believe you’re right.” His brows knitted and he bit his bottom lip. I supposed he was contemplating how much trouble he’d get into with his masters. “Okay, you can share my sandwich.” He stood, put down the paper and grabbed a Ziploc bag firmly in between his fingers.
When he reached me he sat down on the bench beside me.
“I’m afraid it isn’t much.” He offered me two half slices of bread, the contents being brown with a stripe of purple through it.
“Peanut butter and jelly,” he said in response to my obviously quizzical look, “it’s an American thing but it’s deceptively good.”
“Okay,” I smiled, “but I’m a little tied up, how am I to eat?”
“Good point,” he replied, “I will have to feed you.” I had hoped he’d untie me but I guess I shouldn’t have expected it to be so easy. He held out the sandwich and I leant forward and took a bite. I couldn’t exactly complain or demand something else even though the contents sounded incredibly bizarre.
I was pleasantly surprised by the crunchy, salty peanut combined with the sharp but sweet tang of the grape-flavoured jam. It was quite pleasant. “It’s pretty good, actually.”
“Mm,” he agreed, “I like them. Good job really.” He sighed. “I rarely eat anything else.”
He offered the sandwich to me again and I took another bite.
“You’re a prisoner here too, aren’t you?”
Aseem tightened up as if my words put him back on his guard, then he let out a long, soft breath.
“Yes, yes, I am.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You really are a kind soul,” He smiled, his dark eyes sparkling with emotion. “I am your jailer but yet you express sympathy for me.”
Bollywood Nightmare Page 4