Bound (Secrets of the Djinn) (28 page)

Brielle’s cheeks pink slightly.  “Porcupine.”

What
an odd code.  “Was that a random choice?”

“No.”  Sighing, she said, “My dad said I was a prickly baby sometimes and he nicknamed me porcupine.”

I try hard not to laugh.  What a perfect nickname for her.  Obviously, she disagrees.  “Got it,” I manage without giggling too much.

“I’m out of here,” Brielle says, not appreciating my amusement.  She leaves the room, pulling the steel door closed with a bang.  Twenty seconds later, I hear the passageway close after her.

Now all I can do is wait.  Wait while everyone I care about fights my battle for me.  I’m not going to be able to stay in this room long.  My conscience won’t let me.

Chapter 33

I spend about an hour pacing the room and trying not to let my claustrophobia get the better of me.  The room is large, but I still feel trapped.  I never thought I’d feel relief when the night finally dawns, but I do. 

I can tell from the monitors when full dark falls.  On the monitor nearest the road, shapes begin to fill the open space until there
is a sea of black creatures.  The lower djinn have arrived.  Not a single one of them has a human face or body.  They’re more like wisps of black smoke shaped vaguely like humans.  Or demons.

The shapes don’t move closer and when I study them through the monitor, I
understand why.  Their shapes are wavering and the ones in front seem to be in pain.  The sine wave.  It’s keeping them out for right now.

From the shadows outside of the reach of the monitors, something happens.  A burst of energy of some kind hits the djinn and some of their shapes dissolve.  Malik must be out there.  Several more bursts shake up the smoke-like creatures until less than half of them remain.
  My brother is expending a lot of energy to do this.  I haven’t asked him if his power level stays constant or if he tires after such a great use of his magic.  I hope it’s the former.

Something on one of the other monitors catches my eye.  A human shape moves in the shadows, coming closer to the house. 
He has the blonde hair and blue eyes of the djinn.  I want to yell out, warn the others he’s here, but I’m locked in this damn sound proof room.  My fingers move to the keyboard, ready to type the word porcupine.

I stop at the letter o.  Hank suddenly fills the monitor with his great, hulking shape.  He takes the djinn by surprise
, grabbing him from behind.  The others must be watching on monitors upstairs.  Before the djinni has time to react, Hank holds him with one arm and twists his head with another.  I can almost hear the sound of his neck breaking.  The djinni slumps in Hank’s arms and the big man lets him fall in a heap on the ground.  No copper will be used today.

I sit back in the chair, my hand covering my mouth as bile tries to fight its way up my throat.  How can I let my friends kill for me while I sit back and watch, not getting my hands dirty?  I can’t.  Leaning forward again, I finish typing the word porcupine.  The seal on the steel door releases with a quiet hissing sound.  Standing up, I take a deep breath and walk to the door.  It’s heavy, but I manage.  Stepping out, I use the light from th
e room to find the first step. The passage door at the top of the stairs begins to slide open.  I’m not sure it will close in twenty seconds or not, so as soon as I have my footing, I bound up the stairs. 

The cellar lights are on and I stop dead when I see Jalynx sitting on a box. 
The same box Brielle used to open the passage.  “It’s about time,” she says.  “I was beginning to think your time in the human world made you a coward.”

“What are you doing down here?” I ask.  Had she followed Brielle and me
without us realizing?

“You and I have important things to discuss.”

Incredulous, I say, “Now?  Can’t it wait until after?”  If we’re still alive.

She shakes her head.  “No, my sweet, it can’t.  What I will tell you is critical in determining the outcome of today.”

My sweet?  “I doubt words can win the day,” I say dryly.

Jalynx walks around me in a slow circle.  “You certainly blossomed into a beautiful flower.  The power and energy you carry is almost tangible.”

When she is once again standing in front of me, I ask, “Are you hitting on me?”

She laughs. 
“No, my sweet.  I am simply looking at you with a mother’s eye.”

I take an unconscious step backwards.  “Jalynx, you’re not my mother.  What’s wrong with you?”

“Jalynx can’t respond at the moment.  I am always dominant when I am within her.  I am your mother, my sweet, and I borrowed this body to protect you.”

My mind reels with this information.  “
Mother?”  Has she really been with me these past couple of days?  “How…how long have you possessed Jalynx?”

Jalynx’s shoulders shrug.  “On and off since you were girls.
  I knew my time was at an end, so I performed the rites of possession before I died, making it easy for my spirit to slip in and out of the girl.  By doing so, I eluded true death.”  A sweet smile touches her lips.  “I watched over you when you were young and helped mold you into the strong woman you have become.”

Thoughts bombard my mind. 
I should be happy I’m communicating with my dead mother, but a nagging idea in my head insists something is seriously wrong here.  I need to dig deeper.  “Where were you when Jalynx helped me sneak away to be with Roman?”  It seems like my mother should have steered me away from such a mistake.  Then again, maybe she tried and I was too headstrong to listen.

“Why, I encouraged the match.  In order for you to become the great djinni you are meant to be, you needed the mark.”

I don’t understand.  “But the mark weakens me.”

She shakes her head and smiles.  “No, my sweet, the mark gives you control.  You may have been marked by Roman, but you bound him to you
, making you the dominant one.  He is yours to command.”

My stomach roils at the thought.  “I don’t want to command him.  I hate that I’ve bound my friends to me.”

Jalynx waves her hand impatiently.  “Stop whining, there is work to be done.  I will not allow you to become a weak-minded troll like your father.  It was exhausting leading him around and training him to jump through hoops.”

“Weak-minded?  Malik said our father was cruel and dominating.  He said you were frightened of him.”

She laughs.  “That was what I wanted Malik to believe.  How else could I get him to kill the bastard after I was gone?  If I did it myself, I would have been sent to the funeral pyre with my dear husband and would not be a martyr in your brother’s eyes.  Once you become a martyr, all flaws are forgotten.”

Is this truly my mother’s voice coming from Jalynx’s lips?  “You tricked my brother into killing our father and you possessed my best friend for years. 
Why would I want anything to do with you now?”  Another thought crosses my mind and I cringe.  “Jalynx and Malik slept together.  You weren’t…”  I let the question hang unspoken in the air.

“Of course not,” she snaps.  “Though, I admit I did encourage the stupid girl to crawl between your brother’s sheets.”

The better to manipulate him, I guess.  “Why are you telling me all this?  What do you want from me?”

“Finally, we can discuss what is really important.
  It is time for you to take your rightful place.  You were meant to lead the djinni back to this side of the veil and I am here to help you.”

She’s insane.  “No, I won’t do that.  This side of the veil belongs to the humans and I’m not going to bring the djinn here to slaughter them.”

A storm is brewing in Jalynx’s eyes.  “You may keep your human pet, but as for the rest, they were created as lesser beings by a vengeful god.  They were put here to taunt us when we refused to bow down before the god and swear allegiance and he couldn’t force us.  We were too strong.  So he made beings who had no magic.  Beings who were helpless against him and he gave them our world to punish us.  He pushed us behind the veil into a wasteland of sand and heat where our pale skin would burn and our very young and our elders would waste away under the scalding sun.”

“There’s more to the story than that,” I argue.  “The djinn are ruthless and cruel.  Our race tortured and killed humans and we deserved to be sent behind the veil.”

“Nonsense,” she snaps.

I don’t hear the rest of what she says.  Flashes of what is happening around the house fill my mind.  I see the horde of djinn gathered in front of the house. 
Even the lesser djinn are closing in so the sine wave must not be working anymore.  Malik stands before them with Zane, Roman, Hank and Brielle at his back.  Even Mrs. Gregori has motored her chair into position behind him.  I need to get up there.  “We can argue about this later, but right now, I need to be with those I love.”

“Yes, by all means, let’s go kill my dear sister-in-law,” Jalynx says with a smile that could curdle
breast milk.

“I don’t plan on killing anyone,” I protest.  “There has to be another way to settle this.”  Jalynx rolls her eyes.  Even I don’t believe my words, but I’m still going to try.

Winding our way back through the house, we make it almost to the front door just as a scuffle breaks out.  I stop moving because I can no longer see what’s in front of me.  In my mind’s eye, I see Zane and Hank being attacked from the side by five djinni while Malik and the woman who must be our aunt exchange heated words.  I can’t make out what they’re saying.  Hank grabs two of the djinni and knocks their heads together.  Dazed now, they are no match for his large, powerful fists.  I’m not sure if they’re unconscious or dead, but if it’s the former, they won’t be getting up anytime soon.  Zane is holding his own with the other three but still, Brielle moves to help him.  She hits the shortest one of them in the back of the head with her gun, then again in the nose when he turns around.  Blood spurts everywhere and he staggers back from her.  Brielle’s foot comes up to the djinni’s groin and suddenly his nose is forgotten.  She kicks him in the face to remind him it still hurts.  The djinni is rolling on the ground, one hand holding his bleeding nose and the other his crotch.  Zane has dealt with the other two so all five of the attacking djinn are down.  As suddenly as it had left me, my vision returns again. 

Wrenching open the door, I cry,
“Enough!”

“Damn it, Skye!” Zane
growls, wiping blood from his face.  He kicks the djinni in front of him in the gut in frustration and begins to walk towards me.  “You’re not supposed to be here.” Pointing at Brielle, he says, “I’ll deal with you later.”  Brielle has the sense to keep her mouth closed.

“On the contrary,” the short, sharp nosed woman
in front of Malik says.  “My niece is exactly where she should be.  Come along, we must be leaving.  You wouldn’t want these lovely people to get hurt, now would you?”

“My sister will not be going anywhere with you,” Malik
snarls.  “You can bring the entire Marid army and you will still fail to obtain her.”

‘Fail to obtain her.’  He makes me sound like a computer chip or something. But he is right, I’m not going anywhere.  “If you leave now, there can be peace between us.  When my powers fully manifest, I will come to you to see how I might be of service to my people.  Until then, you will stay on your side of the veil
and leave us alone.”  I’m proud that my voice didn’t crack during my little speech because I’m terrified by the number of djinn standing before us.  I think Malik underestimated the number our aunt would bring.

A cruel laugh escapes my aunt’s lips.  “
You already possess the only power I need,” she says.

“Oh, you are such a bore, Agares,” Jalynx says from behind me.

Surprised, Agares turns to her.  “You dare to speak to me in such a manner?  You are nothing more than Malik’s whore.”

Jalynx moves forward.  “Do not let the shell fool you,” she says.  A burst of energy flies from her hand towards my aunt. 

“No!” I shout, shoving Jalynx to the ground and taking the brunt of the power she wielded.  “You will not get Jalynx killed!”  The power courses through me, filling me down to my cells.  It’s familiar, like Malik’s.  It seems my mother can use her own magic when inside Jalynx’s body.

“
I
will not get her killed?” my aunt snaps.  “It is she who attacked me!”  Raising her hand, she is about to give an order to the djinni who are now surrounding her instead of standing behind her.

“It’s not Jalynx’s fault, she’s being possessed,” I rush to explain.

Agares stops and stares at me in disbelief.  “What kind of lies are you trying to sell me?”

“Skye, what are you doing?” Malik asks quietly.

Out of the corner of my mouth, I say, “Our mother is possessing Jalynx.”

Malik’s face pales.  “How long?”

“I’ll explain later,” I say.  He doesn’t say anything, but the green around the edges of his face tell me what he’s thinking.  I’d really like to reassure him, but now is not the time.

“Your mother?” Agares asks.  I guess I didn’t speak quietly enough.