Tales of the Djinn: The Double (30 page)

“You’re admiring our wallpaper,” the aunt burbled, noting his glance if not his expression. “Vince was so proud of that. It’s real Victorian.”

“Very nice,” he said solemnly.

Cade coughed into his napkin. He was across the table next to Leo, with a view of the dining room’s broad entry. Arcadius had snagged the seat beside Elyse, his vantage the two “French” doors to the softly lit garden. Elyse seemed tense. He wondered if it would help to rub her hand. Cade did that frequently. Before he could decide, the aunt turned to him. She’d taken the position of authority at the table’s head, where—despite her dithery manner—she appeared comfortable.

“How long have you been twins?” she asked interestedly.

Arcadius had to pick up his jaw. What did she mean: how long had they been twins? Leo had presented him and Cade as siblings. Could this human have recognized them as not the ordinary sort?

“All our lives, ma’am,” Cade answered for him with careful gravity.

The aunt broke into a laugh, her hand covering her mouth. “Of course. Forgive me. Vince always said I should think before I speak. I simply can’t get over how much alike you look.”

“I’m the handsome one,” Cade said straight-faced.

The aunt gaped a moment and then laughed at that as well. “Call me, June, won’t you?”

“June,” Cade agreed, bowing his head to her.

Arcadius saw his shoulders had relaxed. His double seemed to have dismissed June as a threat. He’d have to watch her on his own, he guessed.

Cade’s body language changed again as someone new came to the doorway.

“Hello, Cara,” he said coolly. “Nice to see you again.”

“Arcadius,” a smooth feminine voice replied.

Her spicy perfume had arrived ahead of her. Arcadius turned to find a younger, more confident version of the aunt in the broad archway. Now this was a striking woman. Tall and curvaceous, Cara’s voluptuous figure stretched all the right sections of her burgundy velvet dress. Modesty seemed not to concern her. A handsome garnet necklace drew attention to the valley of her cleavage. Her hair was honey blonde like her mother’s but shiny and shoulder length. She flicked it behind her and pursed her painted mouth.

She made him think of a harem girl who couldn’t conceive of the sultan choosing anyone but her as the favorite.

“That one’s Cade, I think,” June corrected. “Do you two know each other?”

Cade answered before her daughter could. “We met when I visited Elyse in New York by myself earlier.” He held Cara’s gaze steadily. “I’m sorry your fiancé won’t be joining us tonight. I looked forward to seeing him again.”

Cara narrowed her cool green eyes. Although expertly made up, they weren’t as tender and lovely as Elyse’s. “I wouldn’t worry about that. I’m sure you’ll meet up with him soon enough.” She turned to Arcadius and cocked her head. “So. There really are two of you. Elyse gets herself into the oddest spots sometimes.”

“Elyse is woman enough to handle any . . . oddity,” he returned.

She didn’t like the suggestiveness he injected into that. She frowned, and he smiled, and then she jerked her gaze from him with a small head toss.

Elyse had twisted around in her chair to watch this exchange. Cara greeted her by name and bent toward her, instantly causing both men to tense. Neither would bet Elyse’s safety that this woman wouldn’t harm her in front of her mother. Arcadius ground his teeth as Cara touched Elyse’s shoulders, leaning in as if to kiss her cheek. He supposed Cara didn’t have as much experience with djinn as her fiancé. She must not have known they heard every word she said.

“You blab to my mom, you die,” she said in an undertone.

Elyse’s head jerked back, her eyes locking onto her cousin’s. “I guess that answers my question about whether you regret your choices.”

“Girls,” their hostess scolded, reading their demeanor if not their words. “This is a celebration. Don’t start up your old squabbling.”

Her daughter smiled as if she didn’t know what a squabble was. “I was just admiring what Elyse has done, or rather
not
done with her hair.”

“It is nice, isn’t it?” June said. Arcadius noticed Elyse had blushed.

“As a bird’s nest,” Cara sniped creamily. She sauntered behind Elyse to the remaining place setting, which was located at the foot of the white-draped table. On the way, her manicured nail tapped Elyse’s silver spoon. It was a playful gesture, idle to most people’s perception.

Cade and Arcadius weren’t most people. Their brows shot up as the shimmer of a pre-made spell leaped from her fingertip to the utensil.

“Goodness,” Arcadius exclaimed, immediately leaning across Elyse to wrap the thing in a white napkin. “I think there’s a spot on this. Perhaps it should be returned to the kitchen.”

June made dismayed noises he didn’t pay attention to. He checked the spell carefully. It wasn’t poison but a compulsion that Elyse wouldn’t “blab”—should Cara’s whispered threat not prove effective. He sent Cade a look to say as much and sat back again.

“What was that about?” Elyse asked softly.

“I’ll tell you later,” he said. “Everything’s fine for now.”

When he smiled at her, somehow he couldn’t restrict his response to that. A spot of warmth was expanding inside of him, as penetrating as sunshine. The perhaps misleading sense that she was his to protect was pleasurable. He squeezed her hand as he’d wanted to before.

Though Elyse’s expression was perplexed, she didn’t pull away.

“Okay,” she said. “I guess I’ll wait till then.”

~

Cade had decided to be the less paranoid member of his and Arcadius’s alliance. Nonetheless, he didn’t like the vibe Elyse’s cousin was giving off. Cara picked at her food, was borderline rude to her own mother, and sent hooded hostile looks toward Elyse. No doubt about it: she was up to something.

All through dinner she’d been periodically touching a small clutch purse, which she’d laid within reach beside her plate. The contents buzzed as her mother’s housekeeper set dishes of sorbet in front of them for dessert.

Cara pushed back her chair and rose. “Excuse me. I need to take this call.”

“We’re still eating,” her mother said. “Can’t it wait?”

“Sorry,” Cara said and slipped away hurriedly.

Her spiky shoes clacked into the hallway and kept going. At the rate she was moving, she’d soon be out of eavesdropping range.

“Forgive me,” Cade said to June. “Could you tell me where to find the facilities?”

She gave him more convoluted directions than were convenient, considering he didn’t actually need them. He strove to hide his impatience until she trailed off.

“Got it,” he said and went after her daughter. A quick glance up and down the hall assured him it was clear of servants. He changed swiftly into his least visible smoke form. The corridors weren’t well lit. Even if she was on alert, Cara was unlikely to notice his vaporous shimmer.

He found her in a study whose masculine furniture must have been her father’s. Her profile faced him, her attention on her cell phone.

“Can’t you handle it yourself?” she was asking into it.

The voice that came back was buzzy, but he thought it was Mario’s. “I need the extra juice,” he said. “Tonight’s pair is resisting me.”

“This isn’t what we planned.”

“Just get here,” the male voice snapped.

Cara’s caller hung up. She shoved the cell phone back in her bag as if it had annoyed her. She tapped her lips thoughtfully. A moment later, she dug out a set of keys—car keys, he concluded from the beeper gadget they were attached to.

This presented him with a dilemma. He could follow her in his smoke form, but that would split up their team. Given Mario’s experience with magic, he might well spot Cade in vapor form. Depending on the nature of the “pair” he’d mentioned, Cade would be up against a superior force. He’d also be leaving Elyse with only Arcadius and Leo to protect her. From what he knew of Cara, she was a good actress. This business with the call might be a ruse to divide and conquer.

Cara appeared to have made up her mind. The study had its own window doors to the outside. She exited through them without bothering to grab a coat—or to say goodbye to her mother’s guests. Cade watched her stride across the lawn until she disappeared into a large separate garage. Half a minute later, a car revved. Doors rolled up and a sleek green Jaguar zipped down the drive.

Damn it,
he thought, still not following her.

He sincerely hoped he’d made the right decision.

When he rejoined the others, they were drinking coffee from delicate cups in a large white-on-white parlor.

“There you are,” their hostess burbled. “We thought you’d fallen in.”

Cade blinked at that idea. His gaze traveled automatically to Elyse. She sat on a spindly sofa next to her father, her cup and saucer perched on her stockinged knees. She was so different from her cousin—endearingly awkward, certainly less dramatic—and yet to him she was infinitely more beautiful.

The heart creates beauty
, he thought, surprising himself a bit.
Both in the lover and in the loved.

“Aunt June was telling us Cara has been staying in her old rooms,” Elyse informed him. Her manner said she thought this significant.

“I was surprised she wanted to,” June confessed. “She has her own apartment in the city and, well, to be truthful, Cara always was closer to Vince than she is to me. Peas in a pod, those two. Not that Cara and I don’t love each other.”

“She’s just worried because you’re on your own,” Leo said soothingly.

“I suppose so,” June said. “Or she misses Vince and feels like his spirit’s here. Anyway, it’s touching.” She shook her head and
tched
sympathetically.

“Could I speak to you a moment?” Cade took the opportunity to ask Arcadius.

“Perhaps that could wait,” Leo said.

Elyse’s father stood. The way his suit hung on him gave it a sort of dash. His hand went into his trouser pocket, coming out with a small wrapped object. “I have one more guest gift for you, June.”

“For me?” Her hand pressed her soft bosom.

“Because I missed your birthday while I had amnesia. I found it in Italy. It’s really quite special.”

June opened the crinkling tissue. Something colorful was inside. “Oh!” she gasped. “A majolica nightingale! You remembered I collect—”

Her chin dropped to her chest mid-sentence and she began to snore.

“Dad!” Elyse exclaimed. “What did you do to her?”

“It’s just a harmless djinn artifact. People use them in your boyfriends’ world instead of sleeping pills.”

June began to list forward in her chair. Leo pushed her back gently. Cade understood then how Elyse’s seemingly nonviolent father had maintained control of the nexus for all those years. Friendly though he was, when it came to accomplishing what he thought was important, Leo was pragmatic.

“There we go,” he said, satisfied their hostess wouldn’t topple onto the floor. “Now we can search the house without upsetting her. Cara left to meet Mario, I take it?”

“How did you know?” Cade asked.

“Lucky guess,” he said, waving it away. “I believe both Elyse and myself have been wondering why Cara is sticking close to her childhood home . . . unless she wants to keep an eye on something here.”

“Exactly,” Elyse said. “She doesn’t show any signs of enjoying her mother’s company, or of being worried about her.”

“You think the missing djinn might be here,” Cade deduced.

“They might,” Leo said. “The property is big enough.”

“What are we waiting for?” Arcadius asked, rubbing his hands together. “Let’s search this pile of bricks.”

They moved together into the hall. Only Elyse glanced back at her slumbering aunt. Cade guessed June seemed okay, because Elyse shrugged her worry off. Leo shut the door quietly behind them.

“We should toss Cara’s rooms first,” he said.

Elyse rubbed her cheek unsurely. “Wouldn’t the servants have noticed if she were keeping people there?”

“Not if the djinn are sealed in containers. Cara and Mario might only be letting them out when they have a use for them. They wouldn’t even require feeding.”

Cade and Arcadius winced. Being imprisoned for long periods was disagreeable. Unless you stayed in your smoke form, you got hungry or ran out of oxygen. The longer you were prevented from turning physical, the greater the risk of mental confusion—which could become permanent.

“All right,” Elyse said. “Cara’s old rooms are on the second floor.”

They succeeded in avoiding servants along the way. Elyse’s nervousness increased as they climbed the stairs. Cade wasn’t the only one who noticed.

“Are you okay?” Arcadius asked her.

“Fine,” she said. “Just . . . remembering past visits. Sleepovers with Cara weren’t exactly the highlight of my childhood.”

“You never told me that,” Leo said. “I thought you idolized your cousin.”

“I did. But that made it harder when she was mean. Even when she wasn’t, constantly remembering to let her be the star was stressful.”

Spread out for safety, they progressed down a carpeted hall. Elyse was in the cautious lead. No lamps were on in this corridor, but a window at the end let in the subdued landscape lighting. Elyse stopped at the final door.

“This should be it,” she said.

She didn’t seem inclined to open it.

Arcadius reached past her and turned the knob. “Wait here. I’ll take a look around.” He returned a minute later. “It seems fine. I don’t sense any magical booby-traps.”

Leo entered and flipped on the light switch.

Cade restrained a whistle. A daughter from a good djinn family wouldn’t have minded sleeping here. The walls were pink, of course, the furnishings frilly. They were good quality, though, and the space was large. Windows deep enough to enclose reading seats offered a view of the house’s grounds. Other doors led to a bathroom, a large partitioned closet, and what appeared to be a sitting room with a nice antique desk.

Elyse didn’t gaze around like the others. She’d come to a halt in one corner in front of a large dollhouse. Two stories tall plus an attic, the elaborate structure was fully furnished inside and out—and nearly as tall as her. The “grounds” for the house included trees and a swing set. The creation was so detailed that, had it not been a human toy, Cade would have concluded it was magically shrunken. Within the house were little rugs and light fixtures and dolls dressed up in old-fashioned human clothes. The dining room table had plates of food on it.