by Lyn Brittan
“No. I didn’t think so.”
“Then where is it and why is the street empty?”
“Good question. This place should be packed. It was five seconds ago.”
“Magic.” They said it at the same time and drew closer to one another near the trunk of the car. “Something feels off but I haven’t been here long enough to be a good judge of it. This is your town. Tell me, does anything seem strange to you?”
“It’s weird. I mean, I get that we’re not in the heart of the city yet, no one else is on the highway. But I can’t think of anything else in particular. Unless...”
“What?”
She shifted her weight to the other foot and folded her arms. The muscles twitched as she spoke and she couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder. “See my wrist? I fell today. I’ve fallen a lot since meeting you. That’s not a come on, by the way. I just mean that all day, I’ve been tripping and sliding and...well...that’s stupid, right?”
“No. We should go,” he said, but he left it at that, feeling no pressing desire to remind her that he’d fainted. One event didn’t necessarily tie to the other.
She nibbled at her lip again. He couldn’t stand not to comfort her and brought her hand to his lips. “Nothing’s going to happen. So there’s magic around – who cares? Hmm? It’s Galveston. Chances are, there’s some new magic worker with a book from the internet trying something out. Besides, if there were ever two people who could take care of themselves, it’s us. A djinn and a natural born? A post born witch doesn’t have a chance.”
“I feel like we’re about to have a moment and I don’t want to ruin it.”
“But?”
“Do that again.” She held her hand up to his mouth, not speaking until his lips danced across her knuckles. “Right, still feels good. But actually look at it. That bruise and scab on my wrist...isn’t it a little crazy I still have it? I’m not even a good enough witch to fix it.”
“Perhaps a wish is in order. I’ve got some magic left in me yet.” He closed his eyes and waited, eager to please like a panting dog.
“I wish...”
The wish washed over him like warmed honey, heavier and sweeter than any wish he’d ever experienced. Wishes pulled, but this half-one, not yet fully born, wrapped around him like a lover’s arms. Cassia’s arms. Ah, crap, if he wound up cumming on the street because of a wish, he’d run neck first into a clothesline and hang his own damned self.
“I wish...”
“Yes? Your wrist.”
“I wish you would kiss me.”
The draw of the wish and the natural tug she had over him presented too big a force to ignore. Their lips crashed together, his over her soft ones. His mind screamed at him to stop. His lips? Too rough. Too unsteady. Too unpracticed.
Shame warmed his face, ripping him out of the moment. Cassia wasn’t the type of woman to want for a lover. A girl like her had strings of men, all capable of a better job than this piss poor performance. Her tongue darted out, but he didn’t part his lips. Not fully. He should have spent the last hundred years preparing for this moment and instead he’d pissed it away. He tried to break apart, but she held firm, not stopping until the cacophony of car horns threatened to deafen their ears. The magic, literally, had come to an end.
“Good wish.”
“Happy to grant it.”
“Was I too much again?”
“Still perfection.”
Another series of honks and screaming drivers led to a jog and slammed car doors on either side.
Something about her smile dismissed a lot of important things, mainly the cause of their exiting the Jag in the first place. But she seemed to share the same sentiment he did – that the moment they’d just had was a good one. The kind you held onto. The kind you drew out as long as possible.
A teen witch must have caused a tiny tear in reality or something. So what? He’d just kissed a beautiful woman.
His woman.
Right?
Yes...probably.
The car ride was silent, but easy and punctuated with side eye glances and embarrassed chuckles. He’d grown used to women staring at him. Yet the vivaciousness of Cassia meant so much more. It enlivened and terrified him. Yet, he still couldn’t be sure that this was nothing more than some passing attraction.
Well, he could. Dating could turn into love and then what? Djinn had deeply loved women, only to find their true mates later on. Better to play it safe this time.
At least until he got things sorted.
*****
It took everything she had not to jump the man in the middle of the highway. Something about him made her want to do naughty, filthy, shock-your-momma-if-she-knew things to him. Instead he grinned, frowned and then morphed into that same blank face she’d seen when they first met.
What in the blazes had his previous employer done to him? Or caused Faruq to do to someone else? She much preferred the grinning, kissy face Faruq to this one. If only he’d tell her what happened. Not that she had a way to fix it.
Yet.
That was worth going back and studying magic for – to find the person responsible and turn him into a newt...or a steaming pile of manure. There had to be a spell for that somewhere. “And I’ll find it.”
“Huh?” Faruq’s eyes widened and he shifted his gaze from the road to her.
“Sorry, I mean to say that it’s weird how I’ll be older than my big sister in a few years. I totally fail at not being jealous about it. As soon as they have kids, she’s going to start making regular trips to Tig’s lamp. That’s not a request for a rejuvenating trip to your lamp, by the way. Although I’ve always wondered what those things look like inside. Dinah won’t tell me squat.”
Again, his face darkened and she felt about an inch high. Clearly, she’d just stepped into taboo djinn territory. While she waited for him to say something...anything...the car went through five more intersections and into a parking lot. “Is this the place?”
“Yeah.”
She took her time gathering her purse and unlocking her seatbelt. They’d reached that cringe inducing moment of ‘would he open her car door or not.’
Not. It was the first of many nots. She started ticking off all the other things he did not do.
He did not hold her hand.
He did not put his arm around her.
He did not speak on the short walk across the street.
He did hold the door to the bar open for her, but...
He did not help her out of her coat.
He did not hold her chair out.
And he did not ask for her wine choices.
He’s lucky she didn’t deck him. Wrong friggin’ chick. Whatever hang-ups he had were his own and she wasn’t going to let him put them on her. She struggled to be understanding here, but the rudeness came in freaking avalanches with this guy. And always after moments of awesomeness.
Whatever.
All she had to do was get through this dinner and she’d never have to see the weird, beautiful, rude, good kisser again. “What is your problem?”
“Come again?”
She hadn’t meant to stay it out loud, but it slipped when he did not offer to pass the rolls. “I asked what your problem was. You’re hot and cold. Look, if this is some set up by Tig and you’re not interested, that’s fine. We can leave now and never have to see each other again. But I’m not some girl that you can slap your lips on and—”
“Cassia—”
“I am not finished.”
“I know, but...I’ve uh...” He dropped his gaze and fiddled with his spoon, then leaned back into his chair. “I’m going through some things and I don’t want to drag you down with me. I care about you—”
“I don’t appreciate you lying.”
“How am I lying?”
“You just met me. I didn’t anticipate some undying declaration of love, just a little human decency.” She would have said more, but zipped it when a waiter approached with their appetizer
. How had they gone from kissing to this?
“Put your head down.”
“Excuse me?”
She didn’t, of course. Faruq’s sudden interest in his shrimp creole had her eyes up and wandering around the room. “I don’t see anything.”
This was met with rolled eyes and pursed lips. “What part about keep your head down don’t you understand?”
“Oh, that’s real cute. You’re telling me what to do already? We’re not there, buddy. You’re the worst, fucking date and...oh...”
“Yeah, caught that, did ya?”
That, was a very angry ghost. Hooded eyes glared around the room behind a long hooked nose and yellowed, snaggled teeth. The creature flittered from person to person, millimeters from their faces. They had no idea of the horror less than a breath away. No, that was no ghost, but a ‘geist.
Ghosts were sad, lonely creatures, but very much of the other realm. When they came over, they didn’t much interact with the living...not without help, anyway.
Poltergeists, on the other hand, had that terrifying ability to reach out and cruelly touch. They moved things, bumped things, touched and heard things, but they spoke very rarely and only if they knew, you knew and could get you to speak their name. Three times was all it took to set Bloody Mary free and look at what that bitch had done over the centuries.
She tried to turn away, but her neck locked in place.
Additional thought melted to goo as Faruq’s chair skidded over and his lips came down on hers. She reached through the years, searching for an appropriate spell to knock this guy on his behind...
...after she finished tasting him a little more.
Yep, still like cedar and almonds.
One hand pulled at her neck. The other drew blazing circles on her bare knee. She was aware that someone nearby cleared their throat, but she found it very hard to care. Faruq’s tongue darted at the corners of her mouth and his lips curled against hers. “Don’t get cocky. I ought to hex you for that.”
“I may have just saved you.”
“That’s pretty confident, genie.”
“Djinn and I did. You’d attracted the ‘geist. It was new and felt power, but couldn’t trace it – even to a table with a witch and djinn. This was the most convenient way to distract you.”
“So you didn’t want to kiss me?”
“I didn’t hate it,” he said with a grin. Then, as she’d come to expect, his face tightened and the jerkface was back. “We’re not the only ones on a date. There’s a couple in here – over there – but she wishes he’d go away. I used her wish to take care of the poltergeist.”
“Are you suggesting you kissed me to protect me?”
The hand, still on her knee, tightened. “I won’t let anything hurt you. No matter what happens, I won’t. Just a minute.”
And the yo-yo continued. She raised a pointed finger to call him on it, when a man stormed from the rear of the restaurant, stained napkin still around his neck. “That must be the other half of the bad date.”
“Yep. He got handsy with her and she wished he’d go off and screw himself.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did. As for the young lady...” Faruq did a seated bow when a tanned man waltzed into the restaurant. “I believe he will answer her next wish.”
The man, correction, djinn, tipped an invisible hat in their direction, then slid into the stall with the woman. Cassia had little doubt what that wish had been. “Friend of yours?”
“Nope. Generally speaking, we don’t like to step in on one another’s wishes. Plus, I don’t care to be spanking other women tonight.”
She didn’t miss that ‘other’ part. If he meant to spank her, well...well...okay, she might let him, but after she’d figured out what his deal was. He confused her and that meant nothing tonight. If he even wanted it, he’d have to work for it.
That’s what tripped her up. A man didn’t kiss like that unless he felt something. This, whatever it was, could lead somewhere if he ever got his act together. “What happened to you? Do you even like being a djinn?”
“I...uh...”
“I hated being a witch. You know the movies. All the good little witches are blonde and then there’s me. I never quite fit the mold.”
“Well, I’m not blue, am I? Nor do it have a triangle beard that I twirl between my fingers.”
“True, true, but it’s different for you. You’ve had an eternity to deal with this. My sister and I didn’t get close until adulthood. We were never in the same school at the same time. And I fell into the role of younger, dumber one. She took to magic better than I did too. I always had to fight for power and it left me totally drained. She’d get a headache after working up a new spell while I’d end up laid out for a week trying to boil water.”
“You have power. I can sense it hovering all around you. Can’t you tell?”
“I guess. Too much for my own good.” She shivered and opened her mouth to change the subject, but stopped herself. She’d only gone down this road for his sake, anyway. She was fine with her non-witchyness. Mostly. “My dad says it’s like a car with a bad sparkplug. Sometimes it takes awhile to get going. Sometimes, it won’t go at all. That’s why I left here for college. No one knew me or what I was, or my sister.”
“No expectations.”
“Exactly.”
“But you wound up back home.”
“One of my great-grandmother’s estranged sisters died without an heir. The house went to my parents, but they travel all the time and they gave it to Dinah. Naturally. Anyway, rehabbing it became a way for us to reconnect. Never mind that I’d just finished grad school and this was a free place to stay. Then Tig showed up and Dinah moved out before we really moved in. Now it’s just me there. I stay busy, but for the first time, I get to study my magic at my own pace. If people just left me alone with it, I could like it. Maybe. Your turn. What’s your anti-magic story?”
Whatever was on his parted lips must have hurt too much to share. He swerved around it by pouring another glass. When he opened his mouth again, she held up her hand, unable to stomach more dodging and weaving. “You know what? Forget it. You don’t have to share that with me.”
“I want you to know that I appreciate the gift of your story.”
“But?”
“I don’t deserve it, Cassia.”
“Do you want to deserve it?”
“I...”
“If you have to think about it—”
“Nothing would make me prouder than to have you at my side. But I’m not a whole man and you deserve that.”
“Because a terrible person held your lamp?”
His chuckle didn’t have a stitch of humor to it. Faruq’s wide thumb ran across the rim of his wineglass before he downed it and poured himself another. “Is that what they told you? No, the only fool in the story was me. I grew to hate what I was very early in life. Can you imagine how hard it is to hear every wish, every hope, every need? And yet be so miserable that you don’t want to help?”
“Tig doesn’t go around granting wishes.”
“He doesn’t care, either way. He has something else to live for now. He grants wishes as easily as getting dressed. Me? I wonder, why them. Selfish, isn’t it? So I tossed my lamp in the ocean.”
“You did what?”
“I know, but it didn’t help. I still felt the tug of wishes, but was too weak to grant them.”
“Back up to the part where you tossed your house and the source of your power in the ocean because you’re sad.”
“My melancholy—”
“It ain’t melancholy, it’s wallowing. C’mon, get up.”
“We’re leaving?”
“We’re dancing. You, me and your freaking melancholy. Before you bring up the marked absence of music, do I need to remind you that I don’t need a jukebox if I have a djinn?”
The wish didn’t even have to pass her lips. Slow melodies filled the room when her chair scraped across the floor. Wai
tstaff scrambled around with confused looks on their faces, but her hand on Faruq’s chin brought his attention back where she wanted it. She tried to lead, but the second his hand made contact to her waist, something took hold. Faruq’s eyes latched onto hers and his mouth hinted at a smile. This is your one last shot, boy. Don’t screw it up.
“Sir? Ma’am? There’s no dancing allowed.”
“I wish...”
The music crescendoed at his wink and he pulled her closer. She might tell herself that he had to in the cramped space, but one wish and all the tables would have disappeared. No, he wanted this. So did she.
Soon, an older couple, wrinkled and bent, stood to take each other in their arms. She might have happily watched them for an hour, if not for the djinn in front of her.
“When I hold you, I forget that we’ve only just met. That’s dangerous, so you must remember for the both of us,” he said.
“I remember a kiss. For a while I’ll think you’re interested, then I wonder if you can’t stand to look at me.”
“Cassia, I could stare at your body for an eternity. I’m only hesitant because of what it may cost us in the end and that’s something I can’t share right now. But you never have to wonder if I want you. You never have to wonder that I care.”
“I don’t want—”
People who asked her to be quiet got an earful. Faruq’s way of shutting her up left her giggling against his mouth. They made more than a scene and although other couples danced, she could feel eyes all centered on them. She drew back when they stopped for air. “We’re about to cause a stir.”
“I believe we did that when we started kissing.”
“And whose fault was that?”
“To be plainly honest, Cassia, I don’t know.”
*****
The food proved a necessary, if incomplete, distraction. Watching food pass her lips led to thoughts of other things on her lips.
Other parts of him...
More than once during the evening, he’d had to readjust his pants or recite ancient verses to calm himself. He’d counted himself lucky until dessert. While he thought the chocolate bourbon pecan delicious, Cassia found it rapturous. Her eyes rolled to the heavens and her tongue flicked out to catch wayward crumbs. Had they been alone, he’d have helped her out. As it stood, the option was still on the table.