djinn wars 03 - fallen

by Christine Pope

  “Get some of the other Chosen to help,” Jace said, his voice tight with strain. I could tell that the exertions of the afternoon were finally beginning to wear on him. “We’ll head in that direction, and they can catch up with us.”

  Lauren nodded, then all but ran into the building. We followed at a much slower pace, more or less holding Aidan up, since somewhere between the hardware store and the parking lot, he seemed to have passed out completely. Maybe that was better. He had to be in a tremendous amount of pain.

  Our stumbling little trio hadn’t made it much past the lobby when two Chosen I didn’t know very well, both tall young men, came hurrying up and took over, slipping their arms around Aidan so Jace and I could finally let go of him. I straightened, rubbing my neck. The next morning, I’d probably be feeling the strain in the muscles of my neck and shoulders.

  “You know where to take him?” Jace asked one of them, a lean, good-looking guy with sandy hair and friendly hazel eyes.

  “Lauren told us,” the man answered. “We can take over from here. You’re looking pretty wiped.”

  Privately, I had to agree. Maybe Jace could hold up under the effects of the device better than most of his fellow djinn, but that didn’t mean he was doing well, especially not after expending so much effort just to get Aidan here.

  “We’ll stay with him,” Jace said quietly.

  The young man gave the shadows under Jace’s eyes and the pinched look around his mouth a dubious glance, and then he shrugged. He didn’t quite say, your funeral, but I could tell he didn’t think Jace had the energy to make it that far.

  Nor did I, but somehow he took careful step after careful step, following the two young men all the way back to the suite Aidan and Lilias shared. Just as we approached the door, she came running down the hallway, black hair flying behind her like a dark cloak. Spotting her injured lover, she let out a cry and went to him. Her big dark eyes grew even larger as she took in the ruin of his face.

  “What happened?”

  Jace sent her a look of mingled weariness and worry. “You know what happened.”

  Her full lips compressed. “I didn’t think they would take it this far.”

  “Oh, they did.”

  The two young men carrying Aidan didn’t pause for this convo, but took him inside and laid him down on the bed. I briefly noted that the suite seemed to have an Incan motif, with pyramids and lizard-birds in stylized murals on the wall. But then Lilias was going to Aidan and pressing her lips against his forehead.

  “It is all right,” she murmured. “It is going to be all right.”

  At least she wasn’t recoiling from him. In fact, I saw a fierce tenderness in her features, a determination to make sure he would survive this, no matter what. When she straightened and turned back toward the rest of us, her mouth was set, eyes clear and focused.

  “I’ll need whatever healing supplies this place might have brought to us here. Are any among you a healer?”

  The two young men looked at one another and shrugged. I could tell they’d thought they were beyond needing that sort of help. They probably weren’t going to be too thrilled when they found out that all of us Chosen were right back to square one — mortal, vulnerable.

  In the meantime, we had to do what we could.

  “I have some first aid training,” I said. “I’m sure Lauren is looking for someone to help, but I’ll do what I can until she can find someone better qualified.”

  “Thank you,” she replied, then glanced over at Jace. “It seems you are even luckier in your Chosen than we all thought.”

  “Well, I’m no doctor — ” I began, and she shushed me.

  “Do what you can.”

  I nodded and hurried into the bathroom. The washcloths and towels appeared clean enough, so I’d start there. Biting my lip, I turned on the tap, wondering if water would even come out. But it did, and it was hot. They must have already gotten the water heaters switched over to propane. As to why the plumbing was working…well, I’d thank my stars for that now and worry about the mechanics of it all later.

  After dampening the cloth with hot water, I went back out to the bedroom. The two young men had disappeared, and I looked over at Jace.

  “They’ve gone for supplies.”

  Of course. I turned back to Aidan and tried not to wince in sympathetic agony as I dabbed at the jagged cut on one of his cheeks with the washcloth I’d prepped. He jerked under these ministrations, but I could tell he was enough out of it that he couldn’t sense all of the pain I was probably causing.

  I’d just started cleaning the wound on his other cheek when a casually gorgeous Hispanic young man entered the room, carrying a small first aid kit. “I’m Miguel,” he told me. “I’ve had some EMT training, although I ended up not getting my certification after all. Let me take a look at him.”

  Relieved beyond measure that help more expert than mine had arrived, I handed over the washcloth to Miguel and backed away from the bed. “Why didn’t you finish?” I asked as he began to wipe the blood from Aidan’s face.

  A quick sideways flash of a smile. “Decided to try modeling instead.”

  Well, I could see the logic in that, with those cheekbones and that smile. I went to take my place next to Jace and twined my fingers in his, glad to feel his touch even if his skin was cool against mine, a sure sign of the havoc the djinn-blocking device was wreaking on his system. Lilias stood on his other side, her hands clenched into fists as she watched Miguel work.

  She spoke quietly, pale beneath the usual warm olive of her skin. “What can we do?”

  He set the washcloth down on the nightstand and cracked open the first aid kit, then shook his head. “I’ll clean the wounds with what we’ve got here, get some bandages on, but he’s going to need something better than that. Butterfly bandages at the very least. Stitches would be better. And antibiotics.”

  “There’s an urgent-care place a few blocks down the road.” Lauren’s voice came from the doorway, and I turned slightly to see her standing there, pretty features strained, although I could tell from the almost unnatural calm in her voice that she was doing her best to maintain her composure. “I’ll send someone over. Just let me know what you need.”

  As Lauren spoke, Miguel was cleaning Aidan’s wounds with alcohol wipes. That must have hurt like a bitch, but he hardly moved, just twitched every so often. Then Miguel laid some gauze first over one wound, then the other, and taped the fabric down as best he could. Without looking up from his work, he said, “I’d better go. I know what to look for. He should be stable enough for now. If it’s really only a couple blocks from here, that means the urgent-care facility is close enough that I can go and come back in less than fifteen minutes.”

  “Are you sure?” Lilias asked. I could tell that she didn’t want to run the risk of having the community’s only medic too far from his patient.

  “Absolutely,” Miguel replied, then straightened and turned to face all of us. From the way his gaze flickered down to Aidan and back toward us, I got the feeling something else was bothering him…and I had a good idea what it was.

  He said, “He’s not healing the way he should be.”

  “No,” Jace returned, tone flat. “And he won’t, as long as that device is protecting us from attack by the other djinn.”

  Miguel glanced at me, dark eyes intent on my face. “You knew.” The words weren’t exactly an accusation, but they sure felt that way.

  “Jace told me on the drive over.”

  To my surprise, Miguel only shrugged. “Okay. At least now I know what I’m dealing with.”

  He moved past us and headed out the door, barely squeezing past Lauren. Now her expression was more worried than ever, brows pulled together, jaw tense, but she only said, “Anything else you need here?”

  “No,” Lilias replied. She went to the table by the window and took one of the chairs, then moved it to Aidan’s bedside. I could tell the exertion bothered her — she was breathing hard by t
he time she was done — but none of us offered to help her. She clearly wanted to do this on her own. “Let Zahrias know what has happened. Jasreel and Jessica can stay here with me.”

  There was such a tone of command in Lilias’ voice that Lauren clearly didn’t want to protest. A quick nod, and then she was gone, too, leaving Jace and me alone with the djinn woman and her wounded lover.

  An uneasy silence fell. Lilias reached out and wrapped her fingers around Aidan’s. Even in his stupor, he seemed to recognize her touch and squeezed faintly, as if to let her know he understood that she was there with him.

  Jace and I stood a few feet away, but I could still see the tears shimmering on her cheeks. Without looking at us, she said, “You knew this would happen.”

  “No,” Jace replied gently, “I did not know for certain. I worried that it might. I tried to keep it from happening. But the Los Alamos survivors forced my hand. I could not return to Santa Fe and still keep Jessica safe.”

  “And now none of us are safe.”

  For a long, long moment, Jace said nothing, only stood next to me, his hand still in mine. I felt a shudder go through him, and I tightened my grip. I was tempted to reach out to him with my thoughts, but something told me that would be rude, to be holding a silent conversation right under Lilias’ nose. Even though I didn’t understand all the ramifications of how our communication worked, I guessed that the djinn could only speak in such a way with their partners. Otherwise, that conversation I’d overheard between Zahrias and Jace would have been entirely subvocal, and possibly I would never have discovered his true identity.

  Well, except for the part where he’d been floating a few feet above the floor.

  At last, Jace spoke. “You think I wanted this?” He didn’t sound angry, only tired, and I wished I could take him away from here and back to our rooms, hold him in my arms and let him lay his head against my shoulder. Not even make love, really, only be together, be alone, away from this ongoing nightmare.

  But I knew that wasn’t going to happen. Lilias had asked for us to stay with her, although at the moment, I couldn’t quite understand why. Just so she could upbraid Jace?

  She sighed then, and lifted Aidan’s hand so she could press it against her cheek. There was such tenderness in the gesture that I found my eyes widening in surprise. I couldn’t say why, exactly. It wasn’t as if I’d spent much time observing the other djinn with their Chosen, but from what I’d seen so far, they didn’t seem all that inclined toward public displays of affection.

  Judging by the way her gaze flicked to me, I could tell she’d noticed my reaction. “This startles you?” she asked. “That I would care so much?”

  “I — ” Helpless, I glanced up at Jace, but he didn’t move or say anything. Possibly the slightest lift of his shoulders. Floundering for words, I went on, “I — I’m sorry that he won’t be able to heal quickly. I know Miguel will do what he can, but there’s bound to be some scarring.”

  “That matters very little,” Lilias replied, and again I found myself surprised. The djinn woman’s mouth curled. Then she said, “I suppose you think us all very shallow, with our young and pretty partners…even though you are one of them yourself. It is true that I chose Aidan at first because of his handsome face, but he has been a good companion to me. He is a good man, whether his face is whole or not. And I will let him know that as soon as he awakens.”

  She pressed her lips against Aidan’s hand and then laid it down very gently at his side. Gaze fixed on the young man she loved — and studiously not looking at Jace — she went on, “My apologies, Jasreel. I know none of this is your fault. You cannot be held responsible for the actions of another.”

  “My thanks, Lilias,” he said, his tone strangely formal. When I looked up at him, though, I could see that the solemn way he had addressed her was most likely his way of showing respect for her and her current situation, and not because he was angry. Still, I itched to know what exactly she was talking about. Was this her oblique way of referring to Aldair? It must be.

  Jace had told me some of the truth, but I had to wonder right then whether he had told me all of it. That discussion would have to wait, though. For now, Lilias wanted us with her, and I knew Jace would never leave someone in need.

  Luckily, Miguel returned only a few minutes after that, laden with cases of supplies he must have pilfered from the urgent-care center. After giving Jace and me a brief nod, he went directly to Aidan’s bedside and laid a hand on his forehead.

  “Already feeling feverish,” he muttered, then rummaged through one of the bags he’d been carrying. “He needs antibiotics, but I couldn’t find anything except penicillin-based drugs. Let’s all pray he’s not allergic.”

  No kidding. I wondered if someone who hadn’t quite finished EMT training would know what to do in the case of a negative drug reaction. Maybe. That was way out of my wheelhouse — I knew enough to clean wounds and bandage them, and even put together a makeshift splint or whatever, but that was about where my first aid knowledge stopped.

  We all waited in tense silence as Miguel pushed a capsule between Aidan’s dry lips and then coaxed some water down his throat. Of course, if he did end up having a bad reaction, it wasn’t as if it would manifest immediately. But for some reason, I kept staring, as if certain the worst was about to happen.

  Nothing did happen, of course. Miguel did some more rummaging and produced what looked like high-octane antiseptic, and a packet with a curved needle and a length of pre-cut suture material. At that point he did pause and look over at Lilias. “You may not want to stay to watch this,” he said.

  She didn’t even blink. “I will stay by my Chosen’s side.”

  “Okay.” A quick flicker of his gaze up toward us. “But you two — it’s probably better if I don’t have to do this with a full house. It’s been a while since I picked up one of these, you know?”

  “Of course,” Jace replied immediately. “If that is all right with you, Lilias.”

  “Yes. Thank you for staying with me. But if Miguel thinks he can do better with only me here, then it’s better that you go.”

  That seemed to be our signal to leave, so we murmured our goodbyes and left the suite. We didn’t get very far, however, as Lauren was hovering just around the corner of the hallway.

  “How is he?”

  “Hard to say,” I said. “Miguel said he’s already feverish, so he gave him some antibiotics. Now he’s starting in with the stitches. He didn’t really need us there for that, so….” I trailed off. What else was I supposed to say? None of Aidan’s wounds appeared life-threatening, so now it seemed to be a matter of giving him time to heal.

  “Got it.” Lauren was looking pale, but her voice sounded no-nonsense enough at least. “I’ll let Zahrias know. But I also wanted to say thank you for finding those generators. They’re already hooked up, and so we don’t need to worry about the food spoiling. Lindsay’s jury-rigged something with the plumbing — don’t ask me to explain how — and we’ve got running water, at least for now. We could only scavenge enough propane to run four of the hot water heaters, so we’ll be taking showers in shifts, I’m afraid.”

  “That’s no problem,” I told her, slipping an arm around Jace’s waist. “We’ll take ours together. In the name of conservation and all that.”

  She actually did smile at the joke — well, half-joke…I actually thought it was a pretty good idea — but then her expression turned serious again. “Zahrias will want to talk to Aidan when he wakes up. Any idea when that will be?”

  Since I had no idea, I could only shrug. “You should ask Miguel about that. But I doubt it’ll be before tomorrow morning.”

  “I was afraid of that.” Lauren tucked a piece of blazing red hair behind one ear. “I’ll let him know. And you two — well, I suppose you should try to get some rest. Who knows what’s going to hit us next.”

  After delivering that cheerful remark, she gave us a half-wave and then headed off toward the confere
nce room Zahrias had commandeered for his use. Jace took my hand. “Come, beloved. She’s right. Aidan is in good hands, and there’s nothing else we can do right now. I will confess that I would like to sit down.”

  Of course he would. Now that I had the luxury to look at him more closely, I could see how shadowed his eyes were, the taut look to his mouth. Lord knows how he’d kept himself going this long.

  Giving him what I hoped was an encouraging smile, I said, “We’ll go back to our suite, and you can put your feet up for a while. And I’ll see about scrounging something to eat, too. Sound good?”

  He nodded, and we headed for “home.” His steps grew slower and heavier the whole way, and by the time we got to our rooms, it seemed as if he barely had the energy to put one foot in front of the other. Somehow, though, he mustered the strength to bend down and pat Dutchie on the head before finally going to the bed and more or less collapsing on it.

  I brought him some water, then murmured that I needed to take the dog for her afternoon walk. And after that, I’d bring him some food.

  His words were slurred as he slumped back against the pillows. “Thank you, Jessica. I’m sorry — sorry — ”

  Pressing my lips against his cut off the unneeded apology. “It’s fine. Get your rest. I’ll be back before you know it.”

  Which was only the truth, since his eyes were closing even as I leaned down to clip Dutchie’s leash to her collar. As I let myself out, I wondered if my “solution” to the djinn attack had only doomed Jace to a half-life, one in which he would be forever robbed of his true strength.

  No. I wouldn’t allow myself to believe that. This was a temporary setback, nothing more. And until we could come up with a permanent solution, I would do everything necessary to take care of the man I loved. After all, he’d spent most of the autumn looking after me, making sure I was safe.

  The least I could do was return the favor.

  Chapter Four