Zane barely moves out of the way for Roman to pass. Their shoulders bump together and I hold my breath to see who throws the first punch. Neither of them, thank god.
Zane comes in the room and closes the door after him. “You two are mighty friendly considering you’re not together,” he says as he drops the blankets and pillow he brought in on the floor next to the bed.
I know my cheeks are bright pink. “Not that friendly,” I say. Even I don’t believe me. Not wanting to get into a big conversation about my non-existent love life, I stand up and walk around the bed and get under the covers. “I really want to go to sleep.”
Zane raises a brow. “If you kissed me like that, sleep would be the farthest thing from your mind.”
I give him a sour look. “Good thing I don’t plan on kissing you, then.”
He chuckles and spreads the blankets where he wants them. I start to get nervous when he pulls his t-shirt over his head. Okay, he looks as good as Roman if a little less bulky. “That’s all you’re going to take off, right?”
“You mean you don’t want the whole show?” he asks with a sparkle in his brown eyes.
“I’ll pass, thanks,” I say dryly.
Regardless, he unsnaps his jeans and slides them down his legs. Of course my eyes go immediately to his ass, which is covered only by boxers now. “Sorry,” he says, “jeans are just too uncomfortable to sleep in.”
“You could have worn sweat pants,” I counter, averting my eyes. “Or shorts.”
He shrugs. “What fun would that have been?” With a smile, he lies down on his blankets and puts his hands behind his head on the pillow. “Are you going to spend all night talking or are you going to turn the light off so we can get some sleep?”
I throw the extra pillow on the bed at him. “Very funny.” I reach over to the lamp on the nightstand and turn it off. The room is now shrouded in darkness. The blinds on the window must be the kind that block out light completely.
I feel my claustrophobia crawling up my spine as my breathing increases. I thought there would at least be some light from the moon, but it’s as if I’m wrapped in a black cocoon. I’m not usually afraid of the dark, but now that I know there really are things that go bump in the night, I find myself wishing I had a nightlight.
“Skye, are you okay up there?” Zane asks with real concern in his voice. He must have heard my breathing becoming faster and shallower.
“Just having a mild panic attack, that’s all.” My voice is shakier than I would have liked.
I expect him to make fun of me, but he doesn’t. “I can turn on the bathroom light,” he says.
I feel stupid. I’m a grown woman for god’s sake. Plus, I happen to be one of the things that go bump in the night. “No, that’s okay,” I say, even though my body is starting to shake.
I hear him rustling around with the blankets, and then his footsteps as he walks across the room. A second later, the bathroom light is on and peeking out from the slightly ajar door. I’m comforted as I see his form walking back towards the blankets.
“Thank you,” I say, embarrassed.
“No problem, I like a little light when I’m sleeping, too,” Zane says as he covers himself back up.
“Liar.”
He laughs. “You’d be surprised. I have a Spiderman nightlight in my room.”
He just keeps surprising me. “Why do you act like an ass when you’re actually a nice guy?”
“What a backhanded compliment, thanks.”
My turn to laugh. “Sorry.” I find now that I’m in bed, I’m too wound up to sleep. “Can I ask you something?”
“So sleep is not happening here for a while then?” he asks, feigning annoyance.
I ignore his response. “Do you hunt the djinn like Brielle? Or do you always stay here with your grandmother.”
“I was expecting questions about my superb physique and my mastery of wit.”
“Shut up,” I say through a smile. “Will you please answer my question?”
“That’s hard to do if I have to shut up.”
“Zane.”
He laughs. “It depends on the situation. If it looks like Brielle is going to need back up, I go with her. She hates it, but she’s my little sister and I worry about her. Sometimes I go out on my own. I also spend a great deal of time with Grams. She wants to think she’s tough and doesn’t need anyone to take care of her, but obviously she does. If you haven’t noticed, Brielle isn’t exactly the caregiver type.”
“That’s an understatement,” I say dryly.
“Hey now, she’s still my sister.”
I find his loyalty to his sister heartwarming. “She also saved my life. That makes me a fan of hers, too.”
Something bangs against one of the windows and I sit up, ramrod straight. “What’s that?”
“You happened to pick the room closest to the giant oak that grows next to the house. It was just a branch tapping against the window. Or a bat coming in to attack you,” he teases.
I wish I had another pillow to throw at him, but I’m not willing to give up the one I’m using. “Bats don’t fly into windows, birds do.”
“Then you have nothing to worry about,” he says through a yawn.
I lie back down and close my eyes. The branch hits the window again, but I try not to react. If it was something other than the tree, I’m confident Zane wouldn’t be ignoring it. Closing my eyes, I wait for sleep to carry me away. After a few minutes, Zane’s breathing is already evening out; I envy people who can fall asleep so quickly. It takes me a while longer.
I’m being chased by a demon. I don’t turn back to look at him, but I know he’s there. I’m running as fast as I can and holding my side, trying to keep as much blood inside of me as possible. I’m almost there, but I’m still out in the open. There’re no trees, no buildings, just open space. The ground is brown and arid, cracking into tiles of dried mud. I know I’m losing too much blood, but I can’t stop. If I stop, I’ll be his forever. He lied to me. He said he would never do anything to harm me; that he loved me. I opened my heart and my mind to him and he repaid me by leaving his mark. He never loved me. It was never to him what it was to me. I am such a fool; a child, tricked by a clever saitan. I’ve shamed myself and my family. How will I tell Malik what happened?
“Skye, you must stop! Let me explain. At least let me look at your wound, you are losing too much blood.” He’s right behind me; I’m almost within his reach.
I don’t respond for fear that my heart will believe his lies again. I keep running. I feel the darkness trying to take me; my vision is dimming and I know I’m going to pass out soon. I stumble and that’s enough for him to grab my arm. I try to shake it free, but his grip is too strong.
“Skye,” he says, breathless. “It’s not what you think.”
A flash in the night, the crackle of power lighting a path through the air, and then his hand is gone. He was too focused on me; he wasn’t prepared for Malik’s attack. I made it. I made it home. My body turns in on itself now and I crumple to the ground, too quickly for Malik to catch me.
He scoops me into his arms, cradling me against his chest. “My dear one, what have you done? What have you done. I can’t save you this time.” I feel his tears mingle with mine on my cheek.
“Skye, wake up,” Zane is saying as he shakes my arms. “It’s just a dream. Just a dream.” Slowly, I wake to find real tears on my cheeks and my body trembling.
Sensing I’m awake, Zane pulls me into his arms and cradles my head against his chest just as Malik had. “Shh, you’re okay. You’re safe,” he whispers in my ear. “Nothing is going to hurt you here. Nothing.”
He holds me for a long time; well after my body has stopped trembling and there are no more tears left in my eyes. He strokes my hair as he would a child who has had a nightmare and I find comfort in his touch. Eventually, he lays us back against the pillows, my head still on his chest and his arms a blanket of steel, guarding me from any outside forces. And any internal ones. Soon, my eyes flutter closed and sleep takes me once more. I snuggle against Zane, knowing that despite all his teasing, he isn’t going to take advantage of my vulnerability.
“Zane, what the hell are you doing?” a voice whispers harshly, waking me as well as him. I recognize that charming voice.
“Huh?” Zane say through a haze of sleep.
“It’s my turn to watch her so you can get the hell out of her bed now,” Brielle says.
“Go back to bed Brielle, I’m fine right here.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” Accusation rings clearly in her words.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” Zane says, finally awake. “She had a nightmare. I had to calm her down.”
I can barely make out Brielle’s shape with the help of the bathroom light. “Nothing happened,” I say, insulted that she’d think I’d jump into bed with her brother after just meeting him a few hours ago.
“Fine, you two are fucking angels. It’s still my turn to watch you,” Brielle drawls.
“I got this. Go back to bed,” Zane tells her. “I want to go back to sleep.”
“Whatever.” Brielle retreats from the bed and closes the door behind her when she leaves the room. I can’t believe she didn’t slam it.
“You know, now that we’re both awake, I wouldn’t be opposed to…”
“Shut up and go back to sleep,” I tell him. I feel his chest move as he chuckles. Despite myself, I cuddle up to him again, enjoying the warmth of his body. He doesn’t say anything else as we both fall back to sleep.
The room is still dark when the door slams open, startling both Zane and me. Zane barely has time to react before Roman is dragging him out of the bed. He wakes up a lot quicker this time and he’s able to block the punch that Roman has thrown. “Dude, chill,” Zane says, pushing hard against Roman’s chest which sends him stumbling back. “Not that it’s any of your business, but all we were doing is sleeping.”
Roman’s eyes are literally sparking and his hands are shaking as little flashes of light dance around his fingertips. I know from my time in the veil what is about to happen. I scramble out of bed and put myself between Roman and Zane. “Don’t you dare,” I say to Roman.
His eyes shift to me and I take a step back. That’s not just jealousy in his eyes. That’s possession. He thinks I’m his. Without thinking, I take a step forward and I slap him across the face as hard as I can. “Don’t you dare,” I growl. A hatred is welling up inside of me deeper than any emotion I’ve ever felt. “You do not own me and you never will.”
The surprised expression on his face, both from the slap and from my words, brings me some satisfaction. Attempting to get himself back under control, Roman spits out, “Pardon me for misjudging you. I didn’t think you were the type of woman that would jump from one man’s arms to the next in the blink of an eye.”
The air around me starts to crackle. The hair on my arms stand straight and my body feels like it’s on fire as some unknown power seeps into me. I feel truly alive for the first time. I feel the light from the hallway and bathroom channel into me and a glowing ball grows in my hand. Roman’s eyes widen as my intent sinks in.
“Dammit,” Zane says from behind me. “I know this is going to hurt.”
Before I can even guess what he means, his arms are around me like a vice grip. He hurtles us onto the bed, surprising me out of whatever power had grabbed hold of me. It doesn’t take him long to let go and scoot off the bed. “Fuck, I just lost every hair on my arms and chest!” He looks down his lean body. “And my legs, too.” There’s a distinct smell of burning hair in the air. He assesses the rest of his body for damage, but he seems fine.
Turning to me he says, “You are one freaky chick when you’re in djinn mode.”
Djinn mode? I close my eyes and stay on the bed, wishing the last few minutes away, to no avail. I have djinn powers and I was about to use them on Roman. Something clicks open in my mind, a distant memory that had been hidden away. As much as I wanted to, I wouldn’t have been able to hurt Roman because of his mark - unless I chose to kill him in cold blood.
The panic in Roman’s eyes when mine seek his out tells me he hasn’t remembered that little detail. I can’t stay like this. I have to sit up and face what just happened.
“Uh, what’s going on?” Brielle asks from the doorway. “I heard Zane screaming like a girl.”
He gives her a dirty look. “The next time someone’s hair gets burned off, it’s going to be yours.”
Brielle is completely lost. “Huh?”
Zane shakes his head and his face becomes blank. “Nothing. We were just talking about breakfast and I couldn’t stand the thought of Skye putting syrup on her eggs.”
I look at him like he’s insane. I’m about to tell Brielle what really happened when Zane shakes his head slightly in a clear signal to keep my mouth shut. Roman is even more confused than I am.
“Why don’t you go start breakfast?” Zane says to Brielle.
“Why don’t you bite me?” she responds. I’m guessing they have a lot of circular conversations like this.
He tries a different tactic. “Will you at least let Grams know that we’ll be right down?”
Brielle’s eyes narrow. “You know, you could just say, ‘hey, Brielle, I want to say something I don’t want you to hear, so leave.’”
“Brielle, I want to say something that I don’t want you to hear, so leave.” She makes a rude gesture in Zane’s direction, but after dropping a pile of clothes on the floor, she walks away and in a moment we can hear her feet on the stairs.
Zane rounds on Roman. “Do you want to get yourself killed?” he asks. Before Roman can respond, Zane continues. “Grams would kill you in a heartbeat if she thought you were using djinn powers so get yourself the fuck under control. The only reason I’m going to let it slide this time is because I’d have to fess up about Skye as well. But, if you let your jealousy push you over the edge again, I’ll shoot you myself.”
He rounds on me. “And you? You owe me an apology for my lost hair.”
“Sorry,” I say quietly. I feel like a kid about to be sent to the principal’s office if I don’t knock it off.
“I apologize as well,” Roman says, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t mean it.
Zane isn’t fooled either. “Whatever man, but I’m serious about pulling that shit again. I’m going to go get dressed and if I hear one peep out of this room that sounds like Skye is in trouble, I’m coming back with a bullet meant just for you.” He strides out of the room leaving Roman and me in an awkward silence.
Roman is the first one to break it. “I don’t know what just happened. I saw you in bed with him and…”
“And you didn’t like seeing someone else playing with your toy,” I snipe.
He’s taken aback. “No, that’s not it at all. I was jealous and I let it get the better of me.” Grudgingly, he adds, “You’re right. It’s none of my business what happens between you and Zane. I made an assumption based on our interactions last night and that was foolish of me.”
There’s still an underlying insult in his words, but I choose to ignore it. “I had a dream last night. Actually, I believe it was a memory. I was running from you. My side was bleeding and you had just marked me. I wanted nothing to do with you.” My arms are crossed over my chest and I find I’m tapping my foot.
Roman looks down at the floor and then slowly lifts his eyes to me again. “You were running across dried mud. You wouldn’t stop, no matter what I said. You wouldn’t let me explain that marking you was for your safety, not for me to control you.”
I gasp and let my hands fall to my side. “You remember that?” Anger is starting to grip me again.
He shakes his head. “No, I had the same dream.”
That’s impossible. “You’re lying,” I say. He has to be.
He shakes his head again, sadly this time. “I’m sure you believe that, but I’m telling you the truth. I don’t remember marking you, but I do remember how I felt in the dream and all I cared about was keeping you safe. I wanted desperately for you to believe me.” His eyes catch mine and hold them. “Because I loved you too much to let anything happen to you.”
Oh, he’s good. The way he’s looking at me could almost convince me he’s telling the truth. But, I remember the devastation I felt in the dream over his actions. I’m not going to fall for his empty words twice.
I retrieve the clothes Brielle left for me. “I want to get dressed so I’d appreciate it if you’d leave.”
Roman walks past me without saying another word.