by A. Star
I heard Nagi chirp as she flew overhead and found a branch that best suited an upside-down nap. I sat up as Irving approached, the sun illuminating his beauty like a spotlight. He surprised me as he was dressed in ordinary human clothing. Not a swatch of leather was in sight, but it seemed that Irving could wear anything and still look like a super model. All he had on was a plain navy t-shirt and dark denim jeans that made me shake my head at how well they fit him. His carbon hair was pulled back but there were no goggles and it didn’t appear that he was carrying his gold stopwatch either. Damn, the man was fine. Why couldn’t he be human? Why could he not be a mean ass Djinn with a grudge so I could keep him forever?
“Hey you,” I said with a smile. I was happy to see him, though I wouldn’t say so out loud. “How are you feeling?”
“I am well.” Irving stopped at the foot of the bench and bowed. “For you.” He straightened and handed me a little yellow flower. I glared at him. It was a daffodil.
I threw the flower at him and leapt to my feet. “You sneaky little jerk! How’d you find out?”
He laughed, obviously feeling better if he was already pulling stunts like this one. “I have my ways.”
I frowned at him. “What have you been up to, Irving Amir?”
Irving leaned down and kissed me, completely blowing off my request from the night before to not kiss me again. I wanted to chastise him, but I enjoyed it so much, I immediately rescinded my order and decided to let him kiss me whenever he wanted. It was probably a mistake, but I honestly didn’t give a shit.
“I am always up to something, Glory,” Irving said, brushing his thumb over my bottom lip. “But I acquired your name from the female in the office at your school a few days ago. Unlike you, she found me absolutely charming and even invited me to dinner.” His tone turned into an accusing one. “You’ve never done that.”
I ignored the quip. “So this is what you were doing here when you got shot? Snooping around in my business?”
Irving frowned, but quickly let it slip away. “I told you I would learn of your name eventually, and now I have. There is much more to know about you and since I am stuck with you until you make your three wishes, I have plenty of time to snoop and find out.”
“So you’re stuck with me?” I said, my selective hearing turned all the way up. It was one of my less redeeming qualities. “Well, we wouldn’t want that, now would we?” I grabbed my bag, pushed past him and walked off.
I hadn’t made it five steps before he appeared in front of me.
“Dude! Are you insane? What if someone saw you do…that?”
“Nobody saw me.”
I looked around and couldn’t find a single soul in the courtyard or even out on their balconies. For some reason, that only made me more annoyed.
“I like being stuck with you, Glory.”
“Liar.”
“Lies are for cowards.” He reached out, hooked a finger through one of the belt loops on my shorts, and pulled me to him.
“Do you enjoy being stuck with me?” he asked. His violet eyes were so hot that the working side of my brain melted as soon as it re-registered how beautiful Irving was.
“Only sometimes,” I croaked.
He laughed and his sweet breath fluttered my eyelashes. “Sometimes works for me.”
We stared at each other for an eternity, then Irving broke the gaze and looped my arm around his. We started walking back toward my apartment building.
“So, what’s for supper, Daffodil?”
I groaned. “I’d rather be called something stupid, like baby-cakes, than Daffodil.”
“Okay, baby-cakes.”
I grinned like an idiot. “Ash does all the cooking at our place and I avoid the kitchen like the plague. I’ve burned water on more than one occasion, just ask her.”
He frowned. “How does one burn water?”
“You boil it until it’s nothing but that black flaky layer at the bottom of the pot.”
“You have clearly done that many times,” he said with a laugh.
“More than I’ll ever admit to.”
He laughed again. “So what shall we eat then? I’m starving and I get terribly irritable when I’m hungry.”
I shrugged. “We could always go out for dinner.”
His eyes danced with laughter. “You wish to compete for my affections, do you?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. This isn’t a damn date, Irving. This is two people grabbing dinner because they both get fussy when they are denied sustenance for too long.” I elbowed him. “And what would you know about dating anyway?”
“Djinn date, Glory,” he replied a bit defensively. “We do not call it that, but we do spend a considerable amount of time getting to know a significant other before moving forward with a relationship. Our kinds are not as different as you might think they are.”
I thought on this a moment. “Still not a date, though.”
He nodded once. “Deal. I mean, how could it ever be a date when we do not even like each other all that much? We have shared an intimacy or two, but it meant nothing, correct?”
I turned my blushing face away from his gaze. “Right,” I muttered, feeling all weird and pathetic inside. It was lame to not want to be the first one to say that my feelings had changed. I liked Irving—a lot. Not only was he a pleasure to behold, but he was sweet at times, and funny. And his kiss? I would die a miserable hag if I wasn’t blessed with another one of those again in my life.
I opened the door to my apartment and yelped when Ash practically bulldozed me to the ground on her way out.
“Fuck, Ash!” I exclaimed, pulling myself out of Irving’s arms. He’d caught me when I’d stumbled away from the door.
“My bad.” But Ash didn’t give a shit that she’d nearly killed me. Her eyes were on Irving. Of course her eyes were on Irving. I huffed and pushed inside, and Irving followed. I heard the door close behind us, but Ash had also followed us inside and I knew she wasn’t going to leave until I introduced her.
I disappeared into the kitchen to grab a soda. “Ash, this is Irving. Irving, this is my roommate, Ash.”
“Hellooo,” I heard her coo. I rolled my eyes and went back out to join them, tossing the lid of my soda bottle into the trash as I passed it.
“It is a pleasure to meet you,” Irving said, kissing Ash’s freaking hand.
“You didn’t tell me he had a sexy accent too!” Ash was already a puddle of lust at Irving’s feet. Could have sopped the bitch up with a towel.
“Irving has an accent, Ash,” I said to be funny.
“You said he was an asshole. Assholes don’t have manners.”
“You said I was an asshole, Glory?” Irving’s violet eyes filled with amusement.
“You are an asshole, Irving. And weren’t you just leaving, Ash?”
“Hell no. You’re mistaken.” She tossed down her bag and leaned against the back of our couch with her tattooed arms crossed. “So tell me more about yourself, Irving. Like, do you have an available brother who is as fine as you?”
Irving smiled. “I do not have a brother. But I do have a very handsome cousin.”
Ash licked her tongue out and winked. “That’ll work.”
“I will introduce you then.”
I looked at Irving. Was he serious? His cousin was without a doubt a Djinn. No fucking way was that happening.
“I don’t see how that’s going to happen since your cousin lives in another country,” I snarled, shooting Irving a glare.
“Another country?” Ash said, snapping her fingers. “Got my hopes up for nothing. Guess Glory and I will just have to share you, Irving.”
Irving burst out laughing, but I’d had enough. I grabbed Ash’s bag and pushed her ass toward the door. “Bye, bitch. Don’t work too hard or accidentally stab yourself with one of your needles.”
“Okay, okay, I’m leaving,” Ash laughed, taking her bag from me. It was her art bag so I knew she was working the late shift at Agony Ink. “B
ut just a couple of things, Irving. Don’t eat anything Glory cooks and please, no sex on the kitchen table.”
Irving grinned. “I would never dream of doing either.”
“Out!” I opened the front door and pushed Ash through it, crouching like a ninja prepared to attack if she came back through. She laughed some more, blew Irving a kiss, then dashed down the stairs into the courtyard.
“I hate her,” I lied, grinning as I shut the door. I actually loved Ashlyn like a sister and I was sure Irving could sense that. I was just glad she hadn’t noticed yet that half of the expensive towels she’d bought were missing from the linen closet. I’d had to throw them out since Irving’s blood had stained them beyond what any bottle of bleach could handle.
Back in my bedroom, Irving relaxed on my bed while I tried to find something to wear to dinner. I decided on a short skirt covered in swirly patterns with footless tights underneath and a fishnet top. I completed the look with a pair of light grey ankle boots.
I stepped out of the bathroom, took one look at Irving in his human clothes and turned around. I’d had a thought. “If you’re going in disguise, so am I.” I disappeared into my bathroom and returned wearing my Cleopatra wig—a black, shoulder-length cut, with sheared bangs.
Irving laughed and rose to meet me in the middle of my bedroom. “Where did you acquire such a headpiece?”
“Costume store,” I replied. “I was zombie Cleopatra for Halloween last year.”
He shook his head. “You are an unusual creature, Glory St. Pierre.”
I took that as a compliment.
I decided on a Thai restaurant I knew of not too far from my parent’s house in Brighton. It was small and intimate, and I knew that only the locals would be there since you had to be a local to even know about it. Ash and I went there often to eat, drink, and male bash. But I also chose it for its seclusion. Irving was being hunted and I wanted to keep him under the radar as much as possible without putting our lives on complete hold and hiding out in my apartment forever.
For dinner, we shared a pork curry dish with Thai noodles and iced tea, which is a lot stronger than most people think it is. We chatted, not even bothering to avoid the topic of his near demise the night before. It was fresh on our minds, and I for one was not about to pretend it hadn’t happened.
“Have you told anyone yet?” I asked. “Like the Sultan?”
Irving shook his head. “No. I do not want to worry him or panic the kingdom. There haven’t been reports of hunters for many years. My kind are convinced we have finally entered an era of peace and I do not wish to tarnish that.”
“But you almost died, Irving. You said yourself that the hunters who shot you were skilled and know how to kill Djinn. You owe it to your people to warn them that the human realm may not be the safest place for them right now.”
“I agree, Glory. And I will as soon as I am assured that a true threat exists. If it is only me and my Chronolier that the hunters are after, then I will protect the Djinn kind with my silence for now. If I can find the hunters before they find me, then I can eliminate them and the threat before anyone else in my kingdom finds out there even was one.”
I blinked. “Eliminate them?”
“Yes.”
“As in, kill them?”
Irving’s jaw clenched. “I will not let harm come to any Djinn if I can help it. I will destroy any threat to them without a second thought. And I may have to, Glory. I hope you understand that.”
I snorted. “And you told me you weren’t an assassin.”
“I’m not. Senselessly killing for no reason is not the same as killing to defend my kind. And I will defend my kingdom until death, Glory. I am sorry if this disturbs you, but I make no apologies for those that I will put down to protect my realm.”
I sat back in my chair, taking it all in. I stared across the table at Irving, trying to get a read on him. It wasn’t hard. He was serious and meant every word he said. The hunters would die miserable deaths at his hands if they became more of a threat than to just him. I sympathized in a way. If hunters had shot me with a poisoned arrow, I wouldn’t be feeling so up to preserving lives either.
Eventually, I nodded. “I understand.” And I did. Irving and I weren’t so different. He’d kill for his family and I would for mine. If this is what he felt he had to do, then I respected that. Besides, who was I to question his methods when I’d only just been introduced to his ways? I’d only just learned that Djinn existed while Irving and his kind had been battling hunters for centuries. I needed to trust that he knew what he was doing and not get all in my feelings because he was considering taking out a bunch of humans. They’d signed their own death warrants by attacking him first, so I couldn’t really feel too bad for them.
The conversation had become too heavy for me, so I changed the subject. I’d planned on securing our truce that night, not arguing, and so it was time to make that happen.
“I think we should at least pretend to be friends, you know, at least until the hunters are taken care of.”
Irving cocked his head. “We are not friends, Glory?”
I shrugged and drank down the last of my iced tea. “I just know that you’re not the biggest fan of humans and that I don’t make it any easier sometimes.”
Irving sighed. “Again, my quarrel with the human race has nothing to do with you,” he said. “I feel guilty because I am to blame for making you feel as though I want us to be enemies. I do not want that at all. I harbor no confusion about what I feel for you and I do want us to be friends.”
I swallowed hard. His wording threw me for a loop. “So you actually like me then?”
His eyes sparkled at me. “I think my letting you put your tongue in my mouth last night proves that I like you, Glory.”
“What? You were the one tonguing me down!”
He grinned. “If you say so.”
I just shook my head at him. “So what’s with the get-up, Djinn boy?”
“What get-up?” he replied, smiling at the server who had been overly attentive the entire meal. It was for Irving’s benefit only, though, I was sure of that. He had captured the attention of most of the women in the restaurant, not that he noticed.
“The clothes,” I said. “You’re not in your usual gear today.”
Irving smiled. “Look closer, Glory. I am wearing what I always wear.”
I frowned, but stared at him anyway. For a moment, nothing happened. Then his silhouette flickered, fading out, then back in. I saw the leather duster framing his magnificent body and the goggles sitting atop his head, ready to be slid into place at any moment. I imagined he was wearing his leather pants and boots too, but they were hidden beneath the table.
“That’s too cool,” I breathed. “It’s a glamour.”
Irving nodded. “I’m a bit of a sloth. Would rather glamour myself than actually change my attire.”
I laughed. “In that case, I wish I had the ability to glamour myself.”
Irving’s head snapped in my direction. His eyes glowed a violent purple, almost as though he was in a trance. His entire body stiffened and his head slowly bowed to me.
“Irving…what the—” I thought about what I’d said and realized what I had just done. Oh shit…
“Your wish is my command,” he said, his voice sounding a million miles away.
“Irving, no. I didn’t mean—”
Remembering the rules for wishing, I knew it was too late. I felt something warm slip over my body, like a ray of sunlight, making me tingle all over and break out in a light sweat.
I gasped a breath and waited for something else crazy to happen. But nothing did and after a few moments, Irving’s eyes returned to normal. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed our little exchange, but no one was paying us any attention.
“What have you done, Glory St. Pierre?” Irving growled, clutching the sides of the table.
My mouth flapped open, but I had no words. No explanation.
“Yo
u have done a very bad thing.”
“It—It was an accident!”
Irving leaned forward. “You have just made yourself a target!”
“A target?”
“Yes. For the League of the Black Cloud.”
The hunters? “I don’t understand.”
“We must leave.” Irving looked up and gestured to our server who hurried over and practically bowed at Irving’s feet. I wanted to kick the bitch in the head, but I was still a bit too stunned to move.
Irving paid the bill and then grabbed my arm to escort me from the restaurant. I barely had time to grab my bag, which held his Chronolier. Irving hailed a cab, since that was how we had traveled to the restaurant, and practically pushed me inside.
“Where are we going?” I asked. I tossed a smile at the cab driver, but I didn’t mean it. Irving gave the driver our destination. It was my college campus.
“Why are we going there?”
Irving ignored me. I didn’t ask again.
When we arrived at campus, Irving paid the cabbie and tipped him extra to erase his navigation system. The driver hesitated but couldn’t resist a one hundred dollar tip that I swore Irving made appear out of nowhere.
The campus was dark and abandoned, of course, except for the weekend security, but we easily avoided them. Irving practically dragged me to a secluded part of campus between the Arts & Sciences and Music buildings. He came to a stop and forced me to turn and face him.
“Use it,” he demanded, dropping his glamour and revealing the Djinn I was used to seeing.
“Use what?” My voice shook a little bit.
Irving grunted. “Your glamour, Glory. Make me see what is not really there.”
“How the hell do I do that?”
Irving didn’t respond and I realized he wanted me to figure it out.
So I just imagined it. I imagined myself as Queen Elizabeth I. The fiery red wig, white makeup, and elaborate frock. I willed it to be real, and so it was. It was just that easy.