“One way or the other,” Rafi added darkly. “Things are starting to unravel for him. I’m sure he hadn’t expected Lona to switch sides.” He stopped as his cell phone began to chime. “I need to take this. I’ll be out on the deck waiting for your signal.”
Karis watched him slide open the door leading to the deck. “He seems like a good guy.”
“The best,” Vander confirmed, taking the necklace from her hand. “Let me put this back on for you.”
She lifted her hair as he walked behind her, marvelling at how deftly his large hands could fasten the chain.
“Are you all right?” he asked, pulling her into his warm embrace.
“I’m scared.” She rested her head on his chest, comforted by the strong thud of his heart beating against her cheek.
“I know and I wish I could do this part for you.”
“This is going to work, Vander, it has to.” She pulled away from him, swallowing down the lump in her throat. “Let’s do this.”
“Why don’t you lay down here?” He motioned her to the dark leather couch and waited until she was comfortable. “Remember how you reached out for me with your mother’s help?”
“I forgot to tell you I tried to do it again a few minutes ago.” She held up her hand when he frowned. “I’m fine.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“She told me to be careful. That was it. It was like she just faded away from me.” She shook her head. “She’s weak and exhausted. I think this may be our last chance to bring her back home.”
“Don’t say that, don’t even think it. Just focus on reaching her again now.” He sat at the opposite end of the couch and lifted her bare feet onto his lap. “Once you have made the connection, concentrate on finding out where she is now. What you see, I will see and we will go to her,” he said as he rubbed her feet. “I am going to stay right here beside you.”
“I know,” Karis whispered, seeing concern in the amber depths of his eyes. “Here I go.” She closed her eyes and slowly relaxed as he massaged the soles of her feet. Minutes passed by with only the sound of her breathing filling the room as she reached out to her mother with her mind. She welcomed the familiar buoyancy in her body as she centred her thoughts. A pulse of energy vibrated through her and she was vaguely aware of Vander’s sharp intake of breath as the image of her mother chained to a wall came into full focus. Her heart sank to witness her mom huddled on the ground, shivering in the dark.
Karis?
I’m here, Mom. We’re going to get you out of there. Do you know where you are?
She could see her struggling to speak and realised Rue must have drugged her.
Mom?
Rue moved me and his men to the Shadow Clearing. Karis, don’t underestimate him or yourself. I’m losing strength…I…
Mom? Mother?
Karis opened her eyes and struggled to sit up as waves of disorientation washed over her. “Do you know the place she was talking about?”
“I do. I can’t believe he’s been practically under High Council’s noses, the last place anyone would suspect him of hiding.” He leant down to kiss her toes. “I’m going to tell Rafi and we’ll go. I want you to stay here.”
“I’m going. I can help you.” She stood up. “She’s my mother. I
have
to go.” She yelped as he grabbed her and brought her close to his body.
“It’s too dangerous, Karis.”
She tilted her head to look in his eyes. “I could help.”
“You could get hurt.” His hands tightened on her arms. “I promise I’ll bring your mother back to you. Just wait here where I know you’ll be safe
.”
I feel safe when I’m with you.
She didn’t try to block her thought from him.
The golden irises that had mesmerised her from day one darkened in hue and his hands tightened on her arms as Rafi opened the door.
“Ready?” Rafi asked.
“Let’s go,” Vander said, releasing her with a quick kiss.
The two men talked strategy in low tones as she placed a hand over her racing heart. She had asked herself whether she loved him or not and now the force of the emotion she had only dreamt about experiencing made her heart skip beats. There was no question. She
did
love him.
“Vander, wait—” she said, turning around, but the living room was empty.
He was already gone.
* * * *
Vander stepped through the portal with Rafi, Karis’s words replaying in his head. He knew she would be furious for the way he had left her but he couldn’t risk another liability. There was no way he could handle anything else happening to her. He couldn’t wait to exact retribution when he caught up with Rue for even attempting to harm her…dear, God, for even touching her.
He silently signalled the other Djinn joining the fight. Each team of men moved into position to attack Rue’s camp up ahead at Shadow Clearing. With the moon hiding behind a cover of clouds, he was banking on the element of surprise. They would hit the rogue genies hard and put an end to the traitorous bastards for good. End the dissention among their kind once and for all.
He flexed his fists in anticipation of the moment he brought Rue down to his knees. Another tormenting image of Karis’s lifeless body beneath the other genie’s hands kicked his heightened senses into overdrive.
He would have his revenge.
With the stealth of a panther, he took the first steps towards the side of the old castle with Rafi and two other men flanked on their sides. It was time and he was more than ready to end what Rue had started.
Karis cursed. He had left her behind! “Think, Karis, think.” She paced the living room and stopped mid-stride. Her wishes! Vander still had to grant her three wishes. There was no way he could deny her. “Vander, I wish to be where you are,” she whispered and a second later everything went black.
Vander was calling her name. His angry whisper pierced through the mental fog surrounding her. She blinked as his face slowly came into focus.
“Dammit, Karis!” he hissed, pulling her up against the cold, stone wall of the castle. “How could you do this?”
“You left me.” She shook her head, disorientated and cold. “You gave me no choice.”
“This was careless of you and where the hell are your shoes?”
His voice was the smallest of whispers, but Karis shivered in the wake of his fury. She glanced at the other men nearby, barely visible in the dark in full tactile gear and night vision goggles.
What had she been thinking to come without her shoes or coat? He was right. She should have listened. “I’m sorry.”
He stared at her, his eyes gleaming like liquid honey in the night. “I can’t risk supplying you with shoes and letting Rue’s men get a handle on where we are by tracing my magic energy.”
“I get it,” she whispered. Her feet were already freezing in the damp dirt, but she would not complain.
“Stay close to me and keep up!”
He looked like he wanted to strangle her as he turned around. She glared at the back of him, angry with herself and him.
Don’t worry about me.
If he heard her thought, he ignored it. She followed him along the stone walls and tried to move as fast and silently as the rest of the men in the eerie quiet surrounding them.
There was something familiar about the landscape she found unsettling.
She crouched low to the ground, thankful for the patch of grass under her bare feet as Vander signalled Rafi and the other men to move in the opposite direction. Everything appeared ominous in the all-encompassing darkness as they continued moving around the perimeter of the huge building.
“She’s right in there and she appears to be alone,” Karis whispered as they came upon an arched doorway. She closed her eyes for a moment. “I told her we are here but she won’t respond. I think she might be hurt.”
Vander opened his mouth to speak and yanked her to the ground as muffled gunshots rang out overhead. “Rafi, what’s going on?” he asked into his headset.
“Two of his men are down, two others have surrendered. We’re going in,” Rafi answered back. “But we don’t have Rue.”
“Copy that,” Vander replied, turning to her. “Are you certain your mother is alone?”
“She’s not reaching back, so I can’t see clearly. Can’t you just pop us in there with that disappearing act you do so well?”
He pulled her into the alcove besides the door. “We’d be going in blind. I have to do this alone.”
“Dammit, Vander, let me help.”
“We are wasting time, Karis.” His hand tightened around her wrist.
“You don’t know which room.”
“So, tell me or I’ll find it on my own.”
“I
wish
for you to take me to my mother.” She saw the rage in his eyes a split second before they shifted from their hiding spot in the doorway.
“Mom!” She pushed through the disorientation flooding her system and rushed to her mother’s slumped form against the back wall.
Karis, wait.
Chapter Eleven
She ignored Vander’s warning, fell to her knees and gently touched her mother’s neck for a pulse. “She’s barely breathing, Vander, we’ve got to get her out of here.”
Without hesitation, she moved her hands towards the chains encircling her mother’s wrists. She focused all of her energy on loosening the metal until she could pry them open. More gunshots rang outside the door and Karis screamed. She wrapped her arms around her unconscious mom as gunfire exploded outside of the door.
“Stay down!”
The door exploded and pieces of wood hurtled towards them in a cloud of dust. Purple spheres of light whizzed into the room, striking Vander in the chest.
Karis watched as if in slow motion as Rue advanced on him, continually striking him with brilliant balls of purple energy. She could see the pain on his face as he lifted his hands and retaliated with jagged jolts of wavering blue light in Rue’s direction.
For a brief moment, she thought the blows had crippled the other man as he stumbled backwards. Her sigh of relief shifted to terror as two more men entered the room.
She screamed in horror as Vander was struck with two more paralysing spheres of light from Rue’s men. Tears trickled down her cheeks as he fell to his knees, his jaw clenched in obvious agony.
“You’re friends have cost the lives of three of my men.” Rue waited for Vander to stand on his feet. “Despite that, I’m willing to give you a chance to join us. Join me in fighting for our freedom to do as we wish. No more vessels binding us to new masters, no restrictions on when we can move between dimensions. What do you say?”
“Many of us did not ask to be Djinn, but we are Djinn. I have chosen and the others like me to live and honour who and what we are,” Vander said through clenched teeth.
Rue laughed. “So, you’re going to give me the ole genie honour code bullshit?” He shook his head. “I expected nothing less, but I had to see if you could get the big picture here.”
“What I see is a Djinn willing to upset the balance of energy between worlds for his own selfish wants.”
“Aren’t you tired of fulfilling everyone else’s needs?”
“Whether I am or not does not change the fact of what I am…what you are.”
Karis’s vision blurred as his eyes met hers.
Everything is going to be okay.
She nodded slightly and swallowed back her tears.
“Somebody shut him up, please,” Rue said, turning away from Vander with disgust.
Karis gasped as one of the guards hit him with another ball of purple light. Her stomach roiled as he fell to the ground on his knees.
“You,” Rue gestured towards the tallest of the men, “keep an eye on her.”
She glared at the stocky guard and looked down at her mother so still in her arms. Maybe she could take the tall soldier-looking guy by surprise, hurt him like she had Rue. He just needed to step a little closer.
“Careful, she’s not without her own powers as you know. If she tries anything give her a dose of what he got.” He turned his attention back to Vander still crouched on the stone floor. “I always knew Lona would go back to you. She was happy with me at first, but it wasn’t long before she understood my love for her would never change my love for women.” He flicked a glance at Karis, his eyebrow lifting with the corner of his mouth. “I never could measure up to your love for her and I always knew she regretted walking away from you to be with me.” He kicked Vander in the gut and laughed as he grunted in pain.
So, he had loved Lona. Despite the dire circumstances they were now facing, she couldn’t ignore the stabbing pain in her heart to even dare consider he still loved her now.
Her mother stirred in her arms and she tore her eyes from Vander to see her mom struggling to open her eyes.
Mother?
She waited for a response, but her mother didn’t respond or move again.
“Do you know she once asked me why I couldn’t be more like you?” Rue shook his head and turned to his cohorts who chuckled humourlessly along with him. “I wish she could see you now…weak and on your knees in front of me.”
The depth of fury in Vander’s eyes sent a chill down her spine. She could see him straining to stand, his body still shaking from the effects of the strange energy spheres.