Tales of the Djinn: The Double (26 page)

“Well,” Joseph said. “You certainly are more than a pretty face.”

At this, Yasmin blushed so hotly she could have powered a nexus with that alone.

Chapter Nine

THE
trip through the nexus was as dizzying as Elyse remembered. Her brain felt like a clock whose hands spun in both directions. She couldn’t tell if she were big or small, awake or dreaming. Light beamed all around her or maybe she was the light. Her ears rang with music that played a thousand tunes. Then, like a guillotine chopping the illusory from the real, she was in an actual place again.

Fortunately, Cade’s hold on her hand saved her from stumbling.

Weirdly, her palm wasn’t bleeding anymore. Her face and neck weren’t either. Maybe going through a door was like shifting?

“Whew,” she said, unable to hold back a breathless laugh. “Those portal thingies are quite the ride.”

Cade grinned and both of them looked around. It was nighttime, and they were on the roof of a broad building, easily a block long but just a few stories tall. Elyse didn’t see or hear Mario. She did, however, recognize the skyline.

“That’s the Empire State Building!” she exclaimed delightedly. “We’re back in New York. Mario mustn’t have had a chance to re-key the door.”

“You’re right. This is the same post office Joseph and I originally landed on.”

A thud and a curse behind them caused them to snap around.

“It’s me,” Arcadius said, pushing up from his hands and knees. “Don’t attack.”

Cade had drawn his scimitar. He slid it away slowly. When he spoke, he seemed amazed. “You followed us.”

“I . . . obeyed an impulse,” his double said. “The portal was closing. I had to make up my mind quickly.”

Elyse thought his usual unemotional tone held a hint of embarrassment. Maybe her heart shouldn’t have sped up, but it did. Had his
impulse
involved her? She couldn’t deny the possibility was appealing. She’d experienced a definite wrench at leaving him behind, and he’d looked forlorn to see them go. Now that he was with them, she felt as if someone she liked quite a bit had brightened up a party.

His arrival made it perfect.

She glanced at Cade to check his reaction. He wasn’t angry or displeased. Surprised, she thought, and maybe a bit doubtful.

“We did warn Murat he might have to stand in for us,” Arcadius reminded. “And he has Joseph to help him.” He scanned their surroundings with the same professional composure Cade had displayed. “I take it the sorcerer got here too far ahead of you to catch. Do you know where this is?”

“This is Manhattan,” Cade said. “Elyse’s home.”

“Well.” Arcadius’s expression was better guarded than his double’s. What a poker player Cade must have been once upon a time! “Is it always this cold?”

She laughed. Cade had put his arm around her shoulders. She wasn’t chilled at all. “The temperature has got to be in the forties. The real icebox weather was back when Cade arrived.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Arcadius drew half a breath and spoke. “Perhaps, since this is your city, you’d like to suggest how we proceed?”

His formality reminded her of Cade when she first met him—that wonderful old world politeness. Happiness she simply could not control welled up inside her. She was very glad both of them were here. If she got the chance, she’d show Arcadius everything.

“I suggest I take you home,” she said. “Wherever Mario slithered off to, we won’t find him now. Once we warm up and catch our breath, some means of tracking him will occur to us.”

“You’re certain you want me in your residence?” Arcadius asked.

“Actually, we need you there,” Cade broke in, chafing her arm as if she and not his twin needed reassurance. “Mario knows where Elyse lives. He might have people watching her building.”

This was true. Nonetheless, she knew Cade was saying it to spare Arcadius awkwardness. He was being kind to the other man—and not because he had to. Elyse couldn’t recall him doing this before. She was startled and touched and secretly amused.

How often did a man get a chance to befriend himself?

More to the point, how many people would want to if they met who they used to be?

Since they had no carpet, Arcadius added to her amusement by proposing he and Cade fly her home in their smoke forms. While this would have been exciting in a slightly scary way for Elyse, Cade warned his double it would attract unwanted attention. He suggested they take a taxi, but Elyse had to put the kibosh on that. Between them, they didn’t have one normal U.S. cent.

“I’m afraid we’re stuck with foot power. Luckily, we’re only a mile or so from my home. Walking will give Arcadius a chance to take in his surroundings.”

The two djinn spelled the roof door open and then they were on their way. Cade was even more entertained than Elyse by the way his original gawked. While she was sure Arcadius had studied up on the human plane, a man like him didn’t spend his days hanging out at view cafés. The information he’d have about her world couldn’t replace experience. The rush of traffic on the avenue caused him to jerk and touch his weapon, though he watched the vehicles with interest. The skyscrapers left him slack-jawed—and some of the people too.

“This place is . . . lively,” he said as two Goths with matching foot-high blue Mohawks strode by them on the sidewalk. The pair was chattering animatedly about where to eat in Little Korea.

“This is the city that never sleeps,” Cade informed him.

Arcadius nodded, his gaze on the surrounding scene. Like his double, he was naturally coordinated. Even as he craned around to watch a passing stretch Hummer, he sidestepped a manhole from which a cloud of subway steam issued. “No one is dressed quite like us.”

“We’ll fix that,” Cade said. “The jewels on our slippers are worth quite a bit of cash, as Joseph and I discovered.”

“I’m surprised we aren’t drawing more attention.”

“New Yorkers pride themselves on not being startled by eccentricity.”

“But you shouldn’t do spells in public,” Elyse put in—in case Cade’s answer misled his twin.

Arcadius grinned at her. “I understood that much.”

His smile was as wonderful as Cade’s—a ray of sunlight breaking through somber clouds. She rubbed her cheek to hide the fact that it had heated.

Arcadius jolted to a halt in front of a lit-up boutique window.

“What’s a golem doing there?” he demanded, pointing at the mannequin. “Suppose someone puts a spirit inside it!”

“It’s only plastic,” Cade said. “Those forms are for displaying goods, to entice people to buy them.”

Arcadius frowned. “Those garments aren’t high quality.”

“Don’t worry,” Cade reassured. “Other establishments sell better.”

Elyse couldn’t restrain a laugh. This wasn’t a Dollar Store. Those were expensive designer duds! “You djinn men sure don’t like roughing it.”

Arcadius pulled himself haughtily straighter. “I shall wear whatever I need to without complaint.”

Elyse patted his beautiful embroidered tunic sleeve. He wore black and navy for stealth but had still dressed richly by her standards. “I’m sure you will. I’m only teasing you.”

“You deserve nice clothes as well,” he said stiffly. “Not those flimsy . . .
blah
garments.”

He pulled the word from the air, the way Cade used to.

“Thank you,” she said, striving to be polite in spite of her amusement. “I appreciate the sentiment.”

Given how many sights distracted Arcadius and how much Cade enjoyed playing tour guide, they took longer than they might have to reach her house. Elyse had worried while she was away, but the place looked fine. The front stoop was clean, the façade showing no more wear and tear than before she’d left. The vestibule light was on, and the bike rack for tenants was orderly.

It was as if the brownstone hadn’t missed her at all.

“This is your home?” Arcadius asked, pausing on the sidewalk to regard its six stories.

“Yes,” she said, hoping the building made a better impression than the mannequin and its clothes. She remembered how dubious Cade had seemed when he first viewed it. “I live in an apartment on the top floor. I rent out the other eleven units. Twelve actually, counting the basement Cade and Joseph shared.”

“The
basement
,” Arcadius said, his dark brows arching.

“The nexus is in the cellar behind it. Your double did what he had to without complaining too.”

Arcadius double-checked that she was pulling his leg. He returned his attention to the house. “I don’t sense anyone watching us.”

“Nor do I,” Cade said. He’d been surveying the nearby street.

“We should proceed with caution,” Arcadius advised.

“Crap,” Elyse said, causing both men to look at her. “I don’t have my keys. You’ll have to spell our way in here.”

They went up the steps together. Cade took hold of the knob and muttered a quick chant. “Hm,” he said when it wouldn’t give to his twist. “That should have worked.”

Arcadius leaned closer and peered at it. “There’s a spell on this lock. To prevent it from being charmed open.”

“I wonder if Mario put it there,” Cade mused. “Or Cara—assuming your cousin and the sorcerer are still together.”

This didn’t strike her as logical. “If it was them, who are they trying to keep out? They’d expect me—and by association
you
—to get in with a regular key.”

Cade rubbed his chin. “I could smoke around the house. See if I spot them inside.”

“But what if someone spots
you
? Screw it.” Elyse made up her mind. “I’ll buzz a tenant. The lights on the second floor are on. One of them will recognize me and let us up.”

Her strategy worked. Susan Gunnarson from 2B came down with her terrier Ivan whuffling happily in her arms. Perhaps to make up for his annoyance over her initiative, Arcadius insisted he and Cade guard her fore and aft as they went up the stairs. Susan watched their procession go by wide-eyed. It wasn’t every day her landlady arrived looking like an Arabian Nights princess with two equally opulent matching men.

“That must have been some vacation,” she observed, “to lose your luggage
and
come back with souvenirs like those.”

Elyse was happy the woman bought her explanation for appearing the way she did. The hint of envy in her tone she understood perfectly. Odd dress aside, the handsome djinn invited coveting.

“This is it,” she said as they reached the sixth floor landing. She noticed neither man was winded from climbing all the steps.

Arcadius surveyed the quiet hall. He rubbed the back of neck, perhaps confused by how plain the brownstone was compared to domiciles in his dimension. “It’s warm,” was the nicest thing he thought to say.

Cade laughed beneath his breath. “You’ll like the inside,” he predicted.

Both men pulled their swords as footsteps approached from behind the door to 6B.

Shoot,
Elyse thought. She’d forgotten her crotchety neighbor, Mrs. Goldberg, who’d spied on Elyse for Cara and nearly got her killed.

“Don’t attack,” Cade whispered to Arcadius. “That resident keeps dangerous company, but she’s an old lady.”

Except . . . the person who exited the opposite apartment wasn’t an old lady. It was a male with a rangy build on which faded jeans hung loosely. His salt and pepper hair waved so much it almost curled.

The shape of the body beneath the black turtleneck was stunningly familiar.

Elyse felt like her heart would explode. This couldn’t be who she thought it was. The man that profile belonged to was dead. This had to be a cruel joke. Or a magic trick. Or maybe this person just resembled the one she knew.

The man locked the deadbolt and turned. They’d been so silent he hadn’t noticed they were there.

“Oh,” he said, dropping his keys in shock.

His face
was
his face: his nose strong, his mouth made for laughing, his eyes sharp with humor and intelligence. The only change was that he was leaner and a few years older.

Two years,
she thought, her head gone light from too much or too little blood. Gray mist crept across her vision.

“Dad,” she gasped, and crumpled to the floor.

~

Her dad’s gentle hand stroked her forehead. “Hey, sweetie. Time to wake up.”

Eyes still closed, she smiled at the love in the simple touch. “’s not a school day.”

“She must be dreaming,” her dad chuckled to someone.

A different set of hands touched Elyse’s arm. They were gentle too. Elyse’s eyes snapped open. She was back home in her living room, on her back on the long leather couch. Her dad’s face moved into view.

“Oh, my God,” she said.

“It’s okay,” her dad soothed. “I can explain everything.”

“You’re alive.”

“Yes,” he agreed.

She looked at Cade. He was hunkered beside the couch. His were the hands on her arm. Arcadius hovered a few feet behind him, as if he weren’t sure he was a part of this scene but didn’t want to withdraw farther. Her father saw the direction her gaze had gone.

“Those men of yours are protective,” he observed. “They nearly killed me when they thought I’d cast a spell to knock you out.”

Elyse struggled onto her elbows, her brain scrambling to respond. The way he said
those men of yours
implied he knew their arrangement wasn’t platonic. Plus, they’d accused her father of doing spells, which they wouldn’t have done if they’d been hiding what they were. Of course, Leo
did
do spells—or so she’d discovered. Chances were, her father knew right off that Cade and Arcadius were djinn.

Her dad patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry, honey. While you were unconscious, your friends caught me up on what you’ve been up to.”

“It’s okay.” Cade’s normally low voice was deepened by concern. “We’re satisfied we can trust him.”

That made the corners of her mouth tug up. He meant
we
as him and his spirit twin.

“Dad,” she said, her brain finally settling on the topic she most wanted to address. She took his hand and squeezed it. “Where the hell have you been?”

“Can’t I get a hug from my daughter first?”