Secret Worlds (101 page)

A guard goes for her, but I slug him in the face. I shove him down and plant my foot into his throat. He chokes on his final breath. I pull the gun from my pocket.

A succession of clicks issue behind me. I halt, my gun still raised.

A guard snaps, “Drop the weapon!”

I hesitate. There's nothing else to do. Nothing that won't risk hurting Syd. I place the gun on the floor next to one of the two guards I killed. Syd's guard might be alive, but he will have a headache from hell if he comes to. 

A barrel nudges me in the side, urging me over to Karl. Syd is right beside me, captured by another guard.

Karl sizes me up, then her. He turns back to me.

The gun in my side jabs harder.

Karl's hand flicks up. Just for a second.

My eyes narrow. 

He made the same motion the first time Syd wound up at gunpoint in the summoning chamber. He just ordered the guards not to shoot. 

Of course. He's not ready to kill me yet, not until he can grow my replacement. And he's not going to let them kill Syd, either. He's too desperate to make me the savage jinn he has in mind to let that to happen.

The guards are bluffing. I think.

I throw my elbow into the guard behind me. He shoves back. I spin around and catch my fist into his temple. He swings, lands solid in my chest. I struggle for air as I dive after him. My fingers dig into his face. I will take down every one of these jerkwads before letting them near Syd. Another jolt hits. I channel the intensity into shoving him to the ground. 

Clamoring picks up behind me. I don't dare look, but I know Syd is on the move again. She's a bad ass like that.

The guard thrusts his arm up and clenches my throat. I try to shake him off, try to pull away without losing my hold on him. He pushes into it, doesn't let up.

My chest seizes until my vision darkens. I continue to jerk and pull. His hold slips. I stumble a few steps, then crash side first into the floor. My teeth jar together. A searing tear rips through my shoulder.

I scramble to my feet, hunching over and choking on my burning throat. My eyes lock on the guard as he clamors upright. He swings wide. I put up my arm to block him and duck in the same motion.

“I did it,” Silvia says from behind me. “Dimitri! I did it!”

I shove the guard back as I turn, the bottom of my jacket thudding against my legs.

Silvia is standing on the stage. She's gripping a knife, blade and fingers covered in red.

Karl is slumped over in his seat, his lap filling with the blood running from his throat.

The room is silent. My head more so.

I stare at her. The kittens at the hotel had been preparation. She'd had it out for her father for years.

“He was going to let you die,” she says. “I couldn't allow that. You are
my
inheritance. He had no right.”

Even though the pain is subsiding from my mind and body, I don't know what to say. Part of me can't believe I'm out of the wish. The hum is gone. I don't have to kill Syd.

Another part of me is terrified to see Silvia basking over her bloody hands. 

She smiles at me. Her smile has never been more unsettling.

I glance at Syd. She's breathing hard, looking between me and Lizzie Borden over there. 

My throat burns from the lack of water. The choking session didn't help either. I swallow hard a few times, and it takes a minute for my throat to start working. I try that speaking thing again. 

My voice is raspy. “Good work, Silv.”

I start inching for the side door. Now would be an excellent time for Syd to learn to read minds. 

Her eyes dart to me, then she shuffles a little.

Silvia holds the blade up to the light as if scrying in the dripping blood. I have no idea what the guards are doing. I can't take my eyes of Silvia. It might break her spell, and then she'll give the commandments and start making wishes. If the guards have any intelligence, they're backing out the other way. She's almost as much of a threat to them as she is to me.

Syd and I are shoulder-to-shoulder, nearly to the side exit. Another few inches, and we can bolt. 

The door swings open. Silvia looks up. Her knife clatters to the floor.

I spin around. 

Eileena gazes over me to her spawn.

“It's done,” Silvia says, with no less passion. “The master bond is mine.”

Eileena pushes past me and Syd, heading into the chamber. She yanks down several of the sheer fabric curtains and toss them over Karl's body like she's hiding dirty furniture.

She brushes her hands together. “Are you ready to give the commandments, Silvia?”

Fuck.

I would make a run for it, but I'm sure Silvia has seen Karl summon me enough times to know how to do it. I've spent the last twenty-three years pissing off my new master. I'm in enough trouble as it is.

“Dimitri, come here, please.” Sylvia's tone is firm. Like she's speaking to a child.

This is going to get ugly. I already kind of miss Karl. At least his evil was predictable.

I take a deep breath and trudge toward the stage. My head is down. I don't want to look at her. For our whole lives, we were on the same field. Now she owns everything. Including me.

“Eyes one me, Dim.” 

I grimace, but I do what I'm told. How the hell did I think I had won? She's going to wish Syd dead and then I will be right back where I started. Or she will come up with something crazier, because she could make the Mad Hatter flee.

The fact her hands are still bloody and her father's corpse is rotting behind her doesn't seem to bother her. She's all smiles.

“Dimitri, you may never tell anyone who or what you are.” Her voice never waivers. She must have practiced the big moment every day for years. “This … I … wish.”

The hum fades in then right back out. I know the drill. It will hang out, silent but waiting for me to screw up. This is how the commandments work.

Silvia claps her hands. “Dimitri, you may never kill yourself. This … I … wish.”

Another little jab from the hum. Letting me know it's got this one too.

Syd rushes from the side, swooping to the floor. “Hands up. Now.”

I turn as she points a gun at Silvia. My gun. Why is everyone taking my gun lately?

Silvia looks at her. I know Silvia. She doesn't think Syd is serious. I also know Syd, and Silvia probably should tread carefully. She doesn't excel at that, though. 

Syd growls. “I told you to put them the fuck up!” 

If I wasn't in love before, game over.

Silvia glances at her mother, who is standing just to the side of me. Then she rolls her eyes and raises her arms. I have never seen a lazier resignation.

I steal a glance behind me. The guards are gone. Smart boys. Run fast.

Syd creeps closer to Silvia. “You're going to let me and Dim walk out of here, got it?”

I grimace. Doesn't Syd realize Silvia already has the master bond? She can summon me from anywhere in the world.

I swallow hard.

“Syd, that's not going to help much.” My voice is gravelly, not quite recovered.

Syd scowls but doesn't look away from Silvia.

“This is dumb,” Silvia says with a tone like we're discussing the plot of a cheesy TV show. Then a flash of devious intelligence crosses her face. “You can't kill me. I'm the master now. If I die, my genie dies. There's no one left to inherit the bond.”

She lowers her arms, slow and casual, mocking Syd.

Syd keeps the gun steady, but her scowl deepens. 

“You didn't know that?” Silvia grins at Syd. All she is missing are the devil horns and hooves. “Or did you think I didn't know that?”

I wave my hand at Syd to back off. She is only getting me in more trouble. And probably herself, too. If Silvia hadn't wanted Syd dead before, she will now. She might even want to watch. Or help.

Syd glances at me, then points the barrel at the ground. Her body is still tense though. She's just waiting for Silvia to make a wrong move.

“My father might have thought I was an idiot, but I understand the genie bond better than he ever did.” Sylvia smiles, satisfied and far more demonic than I took her for. “At least, better than he does now.”

“This was a long time coming,” Eileena says from behind me.

I start and then turn to face her. I had forgotten Madame X was overseeing.

She glowers at me. “It's about time our people take back what's ours.”

I shake my head and struggle to speak. “You're not even a Walker by blood. You married into the family.”

She narrows her eyes and moves in. “The jinn belong to my people.”

I open my mouth to reply, then halt. For the first time, I note Eileena's heritage: Arabic. That's where Silvia gets her tan skin and dark hair. 

“The Arab blood was so diluted in the Walker line,” Eileena says with distaste. “Until Silvia. We will take back the jinn. All of them.”

“Not like he's a real jinn, anyway.”

I snap around to look at Sylvia. She flutters her eyes in the way that always makes me want to throw a chair at her face.

I choke on my dry throat. “What does that mean?”

“You're not a real jinn,” she says in a tone that should end with “duh”.

I stare at her. Dumbly. It's my specialty. 

Silvia blinks. “Did no one tell you the story?”

“No, no one told me the fuckin' story.” My irritation is highlighted by my already raspy voice. “Do you think your father and I went out for Taco Tuesday?”

“It's a good story, though,” she says.

“Thanks, Silv. That solves everything.”

She shrugs. “I thought you knew. I don't see why they would keep it from you. Back in Arabia, when it was all still pagan tribes, the jinn visited our world. They were welcomed. Even worshiped in some areas. The jinn appeared as animals, and sometimes they appeared in human form.

“But then men discovered how to summon the jinn and bind them into servitude. Some masters were nice, but some were not. There was a jinn, a woman. They called her Al-Jamila. She spent most of her time around a particular tribe, because she and one of the men had fallen in love.

“The man walked in on his other tribe members preparing a ritual. He demanded to know what was going on, and they admitted they were going to summon their own jinn. It was a growing practice then, for a tribe to summon a jinn to work for their greater good. The man wanted to know which jinn they had chosen, but they wouldn't even look at him. He knew it was Al-Jamila.

“They summoned her, but as they set to bind her to them, he pushed her out of the way and took her place. He thought the bond would die with him, but it was passed down to his son, and so it was with the master too.”

My exhausted brain reels to make sense of what she said. “So, that man who saved Al-Jamila, he's my ancestor?”

“Yes, he sacrificed not only himself but every generation onward forever so that Al-Jamila could be free.” She sighs. “I told you, it's a good story. Romantic.”

“Yeah, um, Silvia. I'm not sure if you noticed this … ” I gaze down at myself. “I don't look very Arabic.”

“Oh, Dim, if your family didn't mind other species, I'm sure they were on board early with interracial marriages too.”

Eileena scoffs. “Not unlike the Walkers.”

I don't reply. I had just come to terms with the fact I wasn't human, that I was barely more than a monster, and now everything is flipped around again. Not like it matters. I might be human, but I'm still cursed with the genie bond. 

Syd says, “What I don't get is—”

The door at the far end of the chamber bursts open. I spin around. Larry staggers in, struggling with two large burlap sacks in each hand.

He sees me and halts.

I stare at him, incredulous. “Good god, how are you even standing?” 

Then my eyes trail down to the sacks. They have small slits on the bottom, leaving a grainy trail in their wake.

I would recognize thermite anywhere. He has the hookups to make it properly—in enormous quantities.

“You.” He storms toward me. “Get Karl, now.”

I point behind me to the throne.

Larry squints. Then he drops the sacks at his feet and has a gun pointed across the room at Silvia's head. 

Eileena makes an indignant noise.

“I've had enough of this bullshit!” His finger twitches on the trigger. “Where is the goddamn jinn?”

I clear my throat. 

He hesitates. Just a little. Just enough for me to catch his arm and twist. I shove him to the floor, arm behind his back and his knees against the bags of thermite. A small blowtorch drops out of his pocket and rolls a few feet.

He was serious. He was going to blow this place up. 

His cry sounds strangled as I twist further and apply more pressure. “Did you kill Mark?”

Syd's head shoots up, eyes wide. 

“Yes, I killed Mark,” Larry says between sharp breaths. “Stop fuckin' around and get me the jinn.”

I lean down. “You're not in any place to be giving orders, are you?”

He sneers, but another little twist has him rethinking his attitude.

“Dim, we need to get out of here. Now.” 

Syd sounds panicky, but she's been solid all the way through. What changed?

I look up.

“Please, let's just go.” She makes a move for the door.

Silvia bends down, grabs her knife, and lunges at Syd.

I yell a warning, but Silvia is on Syd's back. She raises the knife. I let go of Larry and charge across the room.

Syd spins in a half-circle, dropping the gun. She throws her elbow, repeatedly, into Silvia's side. I hook Silvia's arm and yank her off. The knife clatters to the floor. Silvia and I both dive for it. She grabs it from under me and swings at Syd's face.

Syd blocks with her arm. The knife slices through her sleeve and gashes her open. Blood streams to the floor. She takes a retreating step. Silvia swings again and again, like she's in a David Carradine movie. 

Syd backs into the wall. Silvia swings low and up, aiming for Syd's gut. Syd drops down. I scramble for the gun and pull the trigger.

The explosion fills the room. Then there is silence.

Syd peers up at me from behind her bleeding arm. I follow her gaze to Silvia's body on the floor. Headshot.