Genie Knows Best (20 page)

Kal put a finger to her lips. “What’s done is done. All we can do is move forward, so don’t beat yourself up over it, Samantha. You certainly didn’t plan for this to happen. Just make sure you tell him to
deliver
Albert.”

She hadn’t planned for any of this to happen. Not the least of which was caring for a genie.

But she knew what it was like to grow up without a mother, and she couldn’t sentence poor Laszlo to that. Not when it was her fault that she’d had what Albert wanted and also now had the ability to fix the situation. She certainly hoped Kal knew what he was doing. She’d wish it, but wishing wasn’t exactly her forte these days.

Gritting her teeth, she tucked the lantern under her arm and turned to face Harv. “Okay, here’s the deal. You deliver Albert and I’ll deliver the lantern. That’s the best you’ll get. Take it or leave it.”

“You’re sure I can’t take you instead?”

Samantha shuddered. One depraved animal in her life was enough and Albert filled that role too perfectly.

“
I’m
sure,” Kal answered.

Harv smirked. “Just checking.”

She so wanted to wipe that smirk off his face. To the point that she almost hoped he didn’t have any information, but that wouldn’t help Laszlo.

Frustrated—at Harv’s greed, Kal’s altruism, and her lack of wishes—Samantha plucked the torch from Kal. “Fine, Harv. You’ve got a deal. And now we have a dragon to find.” She strode toward the intersection of the tunnels, raised the torch, and looked back at Harv and Kal. “Coming, gentlemen?”

***

She looked like a goddess herself, standing there with the torchlight casting a halo around her head, the fire in her eyes at Harv’s ridiculous proposal, and her determination and compassion to get Laszlo back.

Kal loved that about her. Every single bit. Especially the fact that Harv had never been bested by a woman, and whether the Yale knew it or not, he just had been. Sam probably didn’t even realize it, but Dirham had caught the stipulation he’d purposely made her say and they’d shared a quiet chuckle at Harv’s expense.

But he didn’t refrain from grinning while he swept a hand in front of the Yale. “You heard the lady. Let’s get moving.”

Harv raised an eyebrow. “I would’ve expected more of a fight about her giving up the lantern.”

“You have to find Albert first.”

“You doubt me?”

Kal shrugged. “You never know what life’s going to throw at you. Karma gets pissy if you try to direct her, so I just go with the flow. Works better for everyone.”

Harv didn’t say anything for a few seconds. Probably trying to figure out Kal’s angle. Good, let him. The Yale didn’t live by the same set of rules as Kal; he’d never even think to see the loophole, which was the reason Kal had suggested it in the first place.

“You know what keeps me amused, Kal?” Harv asked as he started off.

“I don’t particularly care.”

“How you can stand taking orders from the likes of her and her kind. I’d go out of my freaking mind.”

Kal gave him the answer every djinni learned in the first year of training. “Eye on the prize, Harv. Eye on the prize.”

“She’s definitely a prize. Have you hit that yet?” said Harv, crass despite the Ivy League pedigree.

Kal had to repeat the
prize
mantra to himself—twice—before he could respond. His relationship with Harv had never been what you’d call friendly, more of a mutual you-live-your-life, I’ll-live-mine sort of thing. He never knew when he’d need someone with a skill set different than his—Harv had more skill sets than were legal on six of the seven continents—so it worked between them. But that comment about Sam negated the last thirty-seven hundred years of tolerance.

“You don’t really expect me to dignify that with an answer, do you?”

Harv grinned. “You never were easy.”

“And neither is she, so get your mind out of your own personal gutter.”

“Damn, man, I’ve missed sparring with you. How long ’til you get out?”

Kal nodded at Sam as she turned the corner to go down another tunnel, Dirham bouncing beside her. “One more.”

Harv whistled. “Her? All you have to do is finish up with her and then you’re free? So when I get the lantern, you’ll be back to being full-fledged? All powers fully restored?” His antlers rubbed together, generating the fluorescent green light that made the darkness bearable.

More than Harv was anyway. “You have to get the lantern first.”

The antlers stopped. “Why do I not like how you said that?”

Damn. Overplayed his hand.

Kal shrugged, opting to let Harv think it was bravado. He didn’t need to give anything up before they got what they needed. “Because I don’t want you to?”

“Too bad your wishes don’t count for anything. Unless, of course, you wanted me to do something about her.” One of the antlers thumbed in the direction Samantha had gone. “I could take her out right now if you want. Get you those powers back right away.”

In Harv’s world, he’d just complimented Kal, but all Kal could picture was Sam lying in a pool of blood. The thought was more repugnant than losing out on the vizier job. “Don’t touch her, Harv. Not a hair on her head.”

“What about elsewhere?”

Kal punched him. He didn’t think about it, hadn’t seen it coming, and didn’t register it until his hand started to hurt like shit.

“What the fuck was that for?” Harv cursed as he got off the ground.

Kal shook his hand. Damn, that hurt. “Don’t talk about her like that. Don’t even think about her like that. Keep your grubby hooves off of her. She’s so out of your league you shouldn’t even be breathing the same air.”

“Whoa.” Harv’s antlers went straight up. “Chill out, man. Fine. I’m backing off. And you can get your info from someone else.”

The Yale turned to leave, but Kal waved his hand, trapping Harv in an invisible box. If anyone asked, he’d remind them of the danger Sam would be in if they didn’t get answers from Harv. It was weak, but he could argue it.

The gods and High Master willing, he wouldn’t have to.

“You did not just do that.” Harv snorted and pawed the ground, going feral.

“We need what you know.”

“You’ve got a crazy way of showing it.”

“You’ve got a crazy way of coming on to my master.”

They glared at each other until Harv finally started laughing. “Man, Kal, talk about
Karma
being pissy. Looked in a mirror lately?” His antlers circled around his ears and settled on his head like a crown. It was a look he wore often for just that reason. “Fine, Kal. Take down your force field. I made the deal, so I’ll give you what you want. Question is, will she?”

“Back. Off. Harv.” Kal raised his fingers, pausing only to try to come up with a sustainable argument for sending a bolt of lightning through the spectrasphere and into the Yale because, technically, talking smack about someone’s master wasn’t considered magic-worthy.

Kal so wanted to have the chance to shoot off a few rounds, but Harv, damn him, raised his antlers in surrender, negating the necessity and the excuse.

“Fine. She’s off limits. I get it, Kal. But do
you
get that even when the High Master frees you from that prison, she’s going to have you tied up in another? She’s already got you wearing a gemstone tracker. Is she afraid you’re going to run out on her? And, man, it’s too bad you can’t explain any of this to her.”

Kal refused to let Harv get a rise out of him. His relationship with Sam was none of the Yale’s business.

He removed the force field from Harv just as Samantha poked her head out from the corner she’d gone around.

“Are you two coming?”

Harv snorted. “Yeah. Kal, are you?”

Kal flipped him the bird, a universal symbol no matter what shape you came in. “Be right there. Sam.”

“Ah, crud, man. You got it bad.”

“Don’t make me hurt you again, Harv.”

The Yale chuckled. “Oh, Kal, it’s you who’s gonna be hurt.”

Albert checked the supplies in the trunk one more time. He had the slickest bowie knife he could find to threaten the dragon with, and enough firepower to level the entire magical town to threaten
them
with if it came to that. Harming the little four-legged matchstick would almost be an afterthought.

He fingered the gold coin. This thing came in handy. He had hit up a few weapons shops, dropped into a pair of bank vaults, and topped the day off with a visit to a Ferrari dealership followed by a little “hop” to Monte Carlo. All without so much as an alarm going off, TSA pat-downs, or payment exchanging hands.

He patted the duffel bag on the floor in front of the passenger seat. Well, money had exchanged hands—it’d gone from his left hand to his right as he’d cleared out the cash drawers, then right into the casinos for chips. He almost wished he could watch the U.S. news reports to see what spin the police put on the lack of clues, but he had more important fish to fry.

Make that, dragons to barter.

He picked up the little fire-breather’s cage from the fireproof box he’d swiped at a hunting store. The lizard had tried to prove the old “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” adage, and Albert wasn’t a big proponent of melting the Ferrari’s leather.

“Knock it off, Jack,” he said as the thing, once again, singed the dish towel. He should have used aluminum foil instead. Or a grill cover.

He was going to have to leave Jack in the car, check into the hotel, and then pop back out to retrieve him. Ah, well, this part of the plan he could improvise.

He made sure the ransom note was in the breast pocket of the designer tux he’d swiped. Two notes, actually, in case something happened to one of them. This was no time for mistakes. Come tomorrow, he had one shot at this.

And then the genie would be his.

***

Harv and Kal had emerged from the tunnel, laughing and scowling respectively, and Samantha wished it were the other way around. It also hadn’t helped matters that, after a terse acknowledgment—barely—of the other’s right to live, Bart began muttering beneath his breath every time Harv took a step.

Maille seemed to be heartily enjoying Bart’s jealousy, which made no sense, but then, what in Izaaz did?

Dirham’s chatter with the Yale certainly didn’t. He kept asking Harv why he lived in a tunnel and what the conditions were like, his high-pitched voice reverberating through this larger tunnel until Bart had had enough and snapped.

“First bolt of fire I get, so help me, fox, I’m singeing your fur.”

“Oh no you’re not,” said Lexy, her fur bristling. “You’re not touching him. Dirham’s done nothing to you.”

“He annoys me. That’s reason enough for shish kebab.”

Dirham grabbed her by the tail when she went into a crouch. “It’th okay, Lexthy. He won’t acthually do it.”

“Try me,” Bart shot back.

Dirham shook his head. “No thank you,” he muttered with her tail still in his mouth.

“Nice, Barty,” mocked Harv. “Scaring the little vixen. Make you feel like a big man?”

Bart stomped two steps toward Harv before Maille caught his arm. “Let it go, Bart. You can’t take him. Not in this form.”

“Say that to my face when I’ve got my scales back, Yale,” Bart snarled. “Then we’ll see who’s feeling big.”

Harv flicked an antler. “Let’s not forget that
you
came to
me
.”

“This was not my idea.”

“Yet you’re here. I swear the three of you have lost your
cojones
the way you’re following these women around. And, yes, I’m including you in that, dirtbag.”

Lexy, out of nowhere, bit Harv on the hind leg.

Who knew the vixen had it in her?

Harv bolted and howled, back-kicking the fox into Maille, who fell against Bart, who shoved her out of the way right into Samantha, who then fell down and dropped the lantern which went skittering off into the darkness. The tunnel was wide enough that she didn’t hear it hit the wall.

Kal ran to her side so fast that the torch brought a trail of flames with it like a comet. “Are you all right, Samantha?” He set the torch down beside her and the flame flickered off the metal walls like something from a horror movie. Considering what she was about to tell him, it
was
a horror movie.

“I will be, but the lantern’s missing,” she whispered.

Four hooves went cantering by in the darkness.

Kal threw the torch after the Yale. “Get away from it, Harv!”

“Yeah, right! Be prepared to serve me, djinni!”

“The lantern? Oh, no!” Dirham leapt over Samantha and followed the torch after Harv.

“Dirham, wait for me!” Lexy went after him.

Bart was next. Maille, however, didn’t budge.

Samantha turned around and saw the foxes scramble between Harv’s legs, tripping him up. Bart brought him down with a
thud
, a grunt, and a couple of curses, the Yale’s hooves flailing in the flickering light.

“Give me that lantern!” Harv said with another round of foreign curses and a
clunk
or two.

There was a yelp, then Dirham limped out of the shadows on her left, dragging one of his back legs and the lantern with him, with Lexy running interference, worry etched into her little face.

“Don’t hyperextend your leg that way, Dirham. Luckily, Harv’s hoof only clipped it, but you could still damage the tendon. Leverage the lantern instead of lifting it.” Lexy stuck her muzzle beneath the spout, balancing it on her nose. “Let me help you.”

The two of them dropped the lantern in Samantha’s lap. “Here you go, Samantha. You need to be more careful with it. Remember what I said about it. That was too close.” Dirham looked over his shoulder at Kal. “You might want to do something about that, Kal.”

Samantha clutched the lantern to her chest. Close? It was almost a disaster. On more than just the losing-their-bargaining-chip-with-Harv front.

“I have to have a reason, Dir, since she can’t wish it.”

“Keeping it away from that clown until he tells us what he knows is a good reason,” said Bart, brushing his hands together and swiping at a bloody gash across his cheek. “And since
she
obviously can’t be trusted with it, I’ll take it.” He lunged toward Samantha as if he still had wings and almost ripped the lantern from her grasp.

Samantha held on tight, and Kal slashed his hand in front of his face. The lantern disappeared at the same time that Bart hit the ground with a
thud
.

Something hit Samantha’s chest with a
thud
. A lantern-shaped pendant.

She picked it up to get a closer look, but Harv climbed to his feet at that moment, so she tucked it beneath her shirt. No sense tempting the Yale, though she had a feeling that where it now was would tempt him more.

“Gods-damned gnomes! I almost had it.” Harv kicked something out of his way and a
clang!
reverberated along the corrugated length of metal. “They leave their shit everywhere.”

“They do? Ew!” Dirham sniffed the air. “I don’t smell anything.”

“Oh, for Achaemenes’s sake. You are really going to make me work for that lantern, aren’t you?” Harv cantered off into the darkness, his glowing antlers leading the way. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”

Samantha hung back with Kal while everyone else traipsed off after Harv.

There had to be some way to fix this. All of it. The dragon, Kal, Albert—she
really
wanted to fix Albert. “Are you sure about this, Kal?”

“I am, Sam. Trust me. He’s not going to get the lantern.” Kal picked up the torch. “Don’t worry.”

Worry was her middle name nowadays. As for trust, well, she actually did trust Kal. He was telling the truth; his Code demanded it. But more than just adhering to The Code’s standards, Kal was that kind of guy. “You seem pretty sure of that.”

“I am.” He smiled that sexy, half smile that turned her knees to mush.

“Why?”

Kal tapped the end of her nose with a finger. “Semantics.”

Samantha blew out a breath. Why wasn’t she surprised? “But if Harv isn’t going to get the lantern, why are we following him? He’ll never give us the information if he knows he’s not going to end up with control of you.”

He held out his hand and helped her climb over a rusting pipe that bisected the tunnel’s floor. “That’s the best part. He
doesn’t
know. He actually thinks he’s going to outsmart me. Trust me, Sam, I am so going to enjoy telling him, but not until
after
we find out what his network of spies has to say.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know, and it’s best if you don’t. That way you can’t give anything away. Just remember: semantics.”

She was trying to
forget
semantics. Word choice and double meanings were what had gotten her into this predicament in the first place.

Well, no, actually
Albert
was the one who’d gotten her into this predicament, and like Kal with Harv, she’d revel in the poetic justice of besting Albert.

She just had to figure out how.