Stone Chameleon (Ironhill Jinn #1)

by Jocelyn Adams

  She could be hurting him. She could be drowning him or carving out his heart right now.

  I pounded my palm on the wheel. The instant the green flashed, I shoved the accelerator down and sped away from the intersection. Three blocks to go. It might as well have been three continents for the distance it represented in my frantic perception.

  My phone buzzed against my hip bone as I pulled into a dark street a half block from Ironhill High at quarter past ten. “Lou Hudson.”

  “Tell me you haven’t gone in yet,” Harper said through heavy breaths, as if she’d been running, or still was. “There’s no way these accidents were coincidence. This entire part of town is in complete chaos. You’ll never guess what’s all over the street.”

  I shivered. “Water.”

  “And, surprise! Gerry got a call about another dead vampire out near the windmill almost to Norristown.”

  I rubbed my aching head. “And he found nothing.”

  “Yep, and he’s still almost a half hour away. He’s trying to get some other units there sooner, but dispatch told him there’s something major going on besides the accidents.” There was more panting and grunting, making me imagine she’d jumped over something. “Isaac isn’t at the hive. I’ve ditched the car, and I’m looking for a cab. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure you’d go alone, Lou. You have to wait for me. Please.”

  I’d never heard her sound so vulnerable, so afraid. “It’ll be all right. Maybe she just wants to talk to me.” I winced at the lie. Harper was no idiot.

  “Bullshit! She killed five vampires, so she’s got to be one badass bitch. I’ll be there in fifteen minutes if I have to steal a car to do it, and I’m loaded for bear. Where are all the freakin’ cabs in this city?”

  “You most certainly will not break the law.” I steadied myself, resigned to whatever would come beyond the black double-doors of the high school. “If you were me, could you do nothing while our friend might be terrified and dying at this very moment? Could you stare his grandmother in the face and tell her he died, and you did nothing out of fear for yourself? Because you were waiting for a friend?”

  Her groan held resignation. “I hate it when you do that.”

  “You’re a good friend, and I love you with all my might. Goodbye, Harper.” I shut off the phone so I wouldn’t hear a response that might break my resolve.

  Thinking calming thoughts, I exited the Focus, made my way to the edge of the property, and stared at the dark building from the cover of trees. The wide open space around it, illuminated by several light standards, would make it impossible for me to approach undetected, even if I took on the appearance of stone. With no cover to use, even a half-blind person would notice a woman-sized rock crawling across the ground.

  After settling all my weapons into place, I approached the main doors. If I couldn’t be subtle, I might as well be bold. A tug on the metal handle didn’t move it. I cupped my hands around my face and peered through the window. Nothing moved anywhere in the locker-lined hallway within.

  Left or right? There were other doors at the side and back of the building. If she expected me to find my way in, certainly she would have left one of them unlocked. I’d break in to find Dom if need be, but I preferred not to cause any more destruction than necessary.

  I went right for no particular reason, jogging along the never-ending row of windows allowing glimpses into classrooms filled with chairs atop desks—the typical arrangement for summer break. The entrance at the south end of the building didn’t budge, so I continued around the back. Every door I tugged upon held firm, the tension in my body increasing with every failure.

  Desperate and sensing Dom’s time might be running out, I picked up a discarded tire rim outside of the auto shop bay and launched it through the back door. The crashing of glass and metal filled the night and no doubt carried to every corner of the school. If she hadn’t known I was there before, no doubt she did now.

  Splendid.

  I reached through the hole I’d made and pushed on the handle to let myself in. Pulse ticking away double-time, I stopped and listened, slipping my fingers around the bone handles of my daggers and pulling them free of the sheaths. Not a sound came back to me save for the drumming of my heart. If I’d been a psychotic vampire murderer who had an affinity for water, where would I go?

  Oh! Did the school have a pool? It didn’t when I went there, but I seemed to recall reading something about renovations in the paper after part of the school had burned in a fire. I considered calling out for Dom, but it would have painted a target on my head before I could determine what lay ahead.

  Careful to step around the glass, I followed the hallway to the first cross-juncture, where the lockers turned from yellow to muddy orange. I’d had my first kiss against those dented lockers, one that grossed me out at the time. It didn’t have the toe-curling appeal Amun’s kiss had. I shook off the rest of the reminiscent memories and concentrated on my mission.

  Both directions looked the same, but more of the school lay to the right if memory served, so I followed my instincts that way, forgetting which section had been rebuilt. When that yielded nothing more than the cafeteria and empty classrooms, I returned to the main corridor and followed it until the next hallway peeled off.

  If my nose hadn’t picked up the faint scent of chlorine, I’d have walked right by the unmarked doorway without another glance. I put my ear to the barrier. Not a sound registered. I pushed it open to find a dark stairwell leading down. A stronger blast of chlorine wrinkled my nose as I moved inside and closed the door with a gentle click behind me.

  I took the stairs two at a time until I reached the cement landing at the bottom. Moving with caution, I patted my fingers along the wall in a rich darkness that ate my vision entirely. When I came to a door, I nudged it open with my hip and gave a sniff, hoping for pay dirt. The stench of body odor and smelly socks suggested I’d most likely found the boys change room. Either that or a rotten potato cellar.

  At the end of the narrow space, I came upon what I’d been looking for. A small amount of light seeped around the edges of the pool entrance. I opened it a crack and peered through. Dom lay on the far side of the water on the white tiled deck. His hair lay in a wild array around his head, drenched and draining into a puddle beneath his limp form.

  A small swarm of water butterflies fluttered about his head, waiting for him to move so they could slash at him some more. Given the thatch work pattern of cuts on his back, they’d been at him for a while, the little bastards.

  Several more rips than normal adorned his jeans, and his shirt had been shredded and left in a heap beside him. Lights shone from within the pool, casting a ghostly blue onto the white ceiling that rippled and shifted with the water. As the surface glimmered, I realized I’d never again step foot into a lake or a pool without being crippled by fear.

  I reigned in my panic enough to give a quick glance around the room for the mystery woman, but found nothing but a few life preservers and a pair of goggles hanging on the lifeguard’s seat. After re-sheathing my daggers, I withdrew my katana and sped to my friend. I slashed at the insects until they broke into mist as they had in the sewer.

  Kneeling beside him, I lay the katana on the tile. “Dominic.” I gave him a gentle shake. “Can you hear me?” At his sudden scream, I covered his mouth with my hand and turned his face toward mine. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth and nose. Terror had claimed his soul, apparent in his wide eyes.

  “Water.” His voice shook. “Eyes in the water.”

  “We need to leave.” I tried to help him to his feet by pulling his arm over my shoulder, but he clung to me with such ferocity his weight toppled me down on him. “Please, Dom. It’s Lou. You need to help me get you out of here. Do it, and I’ll buy you a lifetime supply of Doritos.”

  Whether he noticed my tears or found humor in my offer, he calmed and appeared to register my presence, perhaps for the first time. “I hoped you wouldn’t come.” He
paled as he pressed his forehead against mine, and his fingers fisted into my shirt. “I’m so sorry, Lou. I tried to run, but she’s too fast.” He looked past me and screamed again.

  The floor disappeared. I met face-first with the solid block wall, and one of my elven daggers broke free of its sheath and clattered to the tile below. Bone-jarring pain echoed through my head and down my spine. Dazed, I fell back onto the deck, rubbing my gushing nose. Water pooled around me, soaked me to the skin. White spots dominated my vision.

  What new hell was this?

  As if in answer, something snaked around my leg. A tentacle of water lifted me to the high ceiling. I withdrew my remaining dagger from its sheath and slashed at it, but the blade sailed through with no resistance. The liquid manacle tightened around my ankle until I cried out. A small army of droplets burst out of the tentacle like spores, forming into translucent wings as the newborn butterflies rushed toward me.

  I needed to think, dammit! If they reached me, I’d be in ribbons within seconds.

  Although it would reveal my heritage to Dominic, I replaced the dagger in its sheath, fished my ebony stone from my pocket, and clenched it in my fist. Holding the image in my mind, I transformed my leg only to match the stone, filling with my magic until I let loose a roar that should have frightened away every living thing for miles. The tentacle shivered and tightened harder until I thought my ebony foot would break off.

  Razor-sharp wings made of water sliced at my back and arms, fluttering away from my flailing, or bursting into mist if I touched one of them. No amount of punching, clawing, or brute strength freed me as the creature dangled me over the floor for several minutes.

  I stopped my struggle long enough to look for someone who might be controlling the water, having not considered it until that moment.

  There, in the pool. A woman stood on the bottom with long, flowing hair the color of lilacs in the spring, rippling out around her like beautiful snakes. My jinn teeth broke through my gums as I imagined taking her head in my hands and giving it a sharp twist.

  Her arms stretched up toward the surface, and she smiled, one of pure malevolence and victory, her eyes sparkling like sunlight reflecting from still waters. Not a stitch of clothing covered her nude form. She wasn’t in chameleon form; I could deal with that.

  If I couldn’t affect the puppets, perhaps I could affect the puppeteer. Perhaps with some puppets of my own. I called to the walls, summoning shards of stone from the concrete to break free and come to me. I didn’t take time to form them into anything fancy—pointy would have to do.

  When I had several dozen hovering behind me and out of her line of sight, I flexed my energy and sent them darting toward her. Too late, I realized I hadn’t thought through my plan. The last vision I had was crimson bleeding up from the bottom of the pool and the floor coming up fast.

  My head smashed against the hard deck. Sickening pain coursed through me from top to bottom. As I lost my hold on consciousness, Dominic’s bone-jarring wail chased me into the darkness.

  * * *

  Somewhere beyond the drum chorus marching in my head, I became aware of raised voices in the room, the sounds slapping against my ears. Ugh, had I left the TV on? No, I never did that. Bloody neighbors must have been fighting again.

  The strange echo made me think my bedroom had grown several sizes before cold tile registered against my face. Why was I lying face down in my bathroom? No, mine didn’t smell of chlorine, nor were the tiles in such a broken state.

  “This is bullshit,” a woman said in a tone laced with acid. Harper? “Are you blind? If not, you must be the densest vampire, like, ever.”

  Someone snarled. I knew that snarl.

  “Isaac!” That was Gerry. “Put the fangs away. If you bite her, you’re in violation of section two. Don’t make this worse than it already is.”

  “This is a hive matter.” Isaac’s rage swept over the room like a firestorm, drawing me further awake and making me wish I wasn’t. “She’ll remain mine until the trial, but given the evidence, I doona see the point of holding one at all.”

  Why would Harper have a trial?

  “You can’t let him do this, Gerry.” Harper again. “You know she didn’t do this. Fine, take her to jail, but a human jail where this arsehole won’t go off and kill her before he figures out she’s been set up by some psychotic bitch with a water fetish.”

  Oh. They were talking about me. I scrambled to remember, but after I’d found Dominic, my memory held nothing but weightlessness and pain.

  A heavy sigh came from Gerry as I peeled my lids open, wondering why there were six people but only three voices. Bright fluorescents shone down from the ceiling, highlighting a pool to my left, filled with bloody water.

  Right. I’d found Dom at the pool. I lay in a crater, as if I’d plummeted from the sky. Good lord, the stone. I glanced at my foot that had lost its shoe at some point, relieved when it appeared pink instead of black like my rock. Had I killed the woman? Was it her blood in the pool, or mine?

  “There’s nothing I can do, Harper.” Worry dragged against Gerry’s voice. “The law is clear. This is Isaac’s jurisdiction, and human law no longer applies to her.”

  Harper’s breath hitched. “But what about Dom? He’s not a damn vampire. And why can’t the paramedics come in to look at her, or at least let me check her out? She’s still not awake. By the look of her, she might have a cracked skull for all we know. And explain to me how she fell so hard she broke the floor, dumbass. You can’t let her die like this.”

  Every muscle in my body screamed when I tried and failed to rise onto my hands and knees. “Dominic.” I’d heard him screaming. “Where is he?” I talked around a fat lip, and my nose was plugged—or broken. The metallic tang of blood filled my mouth.

  A rush of air ruffled my hair, and blue plaid fabric filled my vision. The push of power against my skin announced Isaac’s arrival beside me, and he was no happier to see me than the last time.

  “I thought we were friends.” His voice had fallen low, like an echo from a nightmare, the venom in it setting my guts to boil. “How dare you attack the hive like this?”

  “What’s happening?” I tried to focus on him, making out only a vague outline of his face. “What are you talking about?”

  Footsteps pounded tile. “Get away from her or I’ll kill you myself,” Harper said.

  “No.” I tried to get up again, but only managed to roll over, blinking at the brightness and wincing at the jackhammer going to work within my head. “Stop this nonsense. Where’s Dominic?”

  Isaac scooped me off the floor into his arms, drawing a scream from me. My spine creaked, and my world spun until I retched. “Playing the fool does not become you, Lou Hudson. I claim you in the name of hive justice.”

  “Lou?” Harper spoke through a sob. “I’ll find that bitch. I swear I will, and this arsehole will be begging for forgiveness.” She came nearer and shoved her face close to Isaac’s, though I couldn’t see her expression. “I don’t care if you’re the king of the new fucking world—if you hurt her, even a little, I’ll enjoy carving out your heart and wearing it as a necklace. You hearin’ me, dead man?”

  Chapter Seventeen

  I opened dry eyes to a foreign ceiling composed of slate-colored stone of the type I imagined old dungeons to have. Water seeped through cracks and plinked onto the primitive wooden bench I lay upon. I turned my head to find out where I was, but the flash of fireworks within my skull stopped me cold. A moan burned in my parched throat.

  “Tell me why.”

  I took a moment to decide if I’d actually heard Isaac’s voice. “Where am I?”

  “The hive.”

  I’d never heard his voice so devoid of inflection, so dead.

  “In the…but why? How did I get here?” A search of my foggy memory only turned up snippets of angry voices and blurry images.

  “Tell me why! And your own man? Did he find out what you were doing and try to stop you? Is t
hat why you smashed his skull in and spilled his innards all over the school like a grisly Halloween prank?” His bellow caused me to jerk and roll into the damp wall.

  She killed him? Grief welled up like an angry beast in my soul. A tiny rumble shook the stone beneath me. Oh, God. I fully understood what Amun had said about the jinn being walking natural disasters waiting for a trigger. If I gave in, destruction would follow. I imagined my emotions as a black tide, forcing it down into my soul so it wouldn’t bring the building down around us.

  The crackling of static sounded behind me. A steady stream of tears leaked out of my eyes as I turned in search of Isaac. He stood beside the bench. Beyond him, bars extended from floor to ceiling on three sides of what appeared to be a prison cell with no visible door.

  I shook my aching head, unable to move air through the squeeze on my throat. “She was there. I tried to help him, but I-I don’t remember what happened. Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me he’s all right.”

  Isaac fisted his hands into my shirt, tugged me to my feet, and pushed me against the wall. Another kaleidoscope of colors lit up my eyes with the resulting pain. “She did nothing to you. None of them did.” His fangs showed below his curled lip. Instead of gold, his eyes flared crimson. “They were mine. Tell me why you killed them!”

  Entirely lost, I begged him with my eyes to listen. “I swear to you I hurt no one other than the woman who called me there, and she wasn’t a vampire.” If I hurt her at all. The blood in the pool might have been Dom’s.

  “Lies!” His fist twisted my shirt collar, putting pressure on my throat.

  In a panic, I searched my memory for proof to give him. “What did you find me doing the first night we met?” My voice trembled. “Do you remember?”

  Releasing me, he stepped back and scrubbed a hand harshly over his face. “Two men had shot Gwenyth and chained her with irons laced with fae silver.”

  “Yes.” I fought the agony of Dom’s loss that simmered in the heart of me. “And they were about to cut out her heart when I came along on my way home from my last class of the day.”