Darkness, Kindled (29 page)

White frowned in distaste at her 
gratitude. “Still so human,” he muttered and without another word, he whirled around, his robes billowing behind him, and strode down the palace corridors, flames erupting around his heels, taking him away into the Peripatos.

Ari turned her body fully into Jai, 
breathing him in as his strong, hard arms wrapped around her, crushing her to him. His mouth was on hers before she could say a word and she melted into his kiss. She knew he could taste her tears of relief spilling down her cheeks to her lips.

***

Homecoming had been emotional as Ari was pulled into Trey’s arms, then Fallon’s, then Caroline’s, and surprisingly even Michael’s.

As she stood back and watched Jai get similar treatment (although it was more a masculine back thump from Trey and Michael), it occurred to her that she had people who truly cared about her. Not just her, but Jai.

They’d all been heartbroken for 
them and were absolutely delighted to have them back, and back together.

However, before Ari could enjoy the 
moment, Red and Glass rather impolitely ushered Ari, Jai, and Trey out of the Roes’ house and into their own.

“What’s going on?” Jai asked, his 
arm still wrapped around Ari’s waist.

Since their quick escape from Mount 
Qaf, he’d barely let go of her.

Red and Glass gave them hard looks.

“This isn’t over. It won’t ever be over unless I do something about it,” Red informed them quietly, gravely.

Ari and Jai gazed at one another 
with puckered eyebrows before Ari asked Red what he meant.

“You know Asmodeus will just find 
another way to torment you, don’t you?”

She gulped at the thought, 
uneasiness dampening her glow of relieved happiness. “Yes.”

“I won’t let that happen. Enough is 
enough.”

Jai took a step nearer to Red, his 
body solid with tension. “What can we do?”

“Not we. I.” Red nodded to Glass 
and Trey. “Tell them.”

Glass tilted his head at Ari. “Have 
you felt anything different about Trey? Something about his aura. Does it feel … like mine?”

Ari nodded, her grip on Jai 
tightening. “Yes. How did you … I thought …” She cleared her throat. “I assumed it was something to do with him spending so much time with you.” She blushed now. “Intimately.”

Trey grinned at her embarrassment, 
obviously finding her guess amusing.

Glass frowned at him, silently 
telling him to grow up. That only made Trey grin harder. With a sigh, Glass turned back to Jai and Ari. “When Pazuzu slit Trey’s throat, I made a decision.

A decision no Jinn king has ever made. I cannot allow harm to come to Trey, and the only way to avoid that was to give him a piece of me.”

Ari and Jai said nothing, trying to 
process what the hell Glass meant. He continued, “You know that pieces of a Jinn can be taken and placed within others. You saw that with your mother, Ari, when Red and I took a piece of her and placed it within the Jinn trapped in your father’s bottle. When White killed that Jinn, that piece of Sala returned to her. I gave a piece of myself to Trey but in the event that Trey dies, the piece of me will die with him. I have made it so. I have made it so that no one will harm him. If they harm him, they harm me, and if they harm me—”

“They disrupt the balance,” Ari 
finished, her eyes wide with astonishment. Glass loved Trey so much, he would do such a thing, make such a sacrifice? It was mind-boggling.

“But when Trey dies a natural death 
…?” Jai whispered, obviously just as shocked.

Glass shook his head. “He is imbued 
with me and with my power. Trey will live indefinitely. That’s why I had to ask his permission before I did it.”

Ari’s jaw dropped as she turned to 
her friend. “Trey, you’re immortal?”

No longer smiling, Trey nodded. “I 
want to be with him,” he replied simply.

Red took control of the conversation again. “With your permission, I am going to place a piece of myself inside each of you.”

The floor might as well have 
disappeared beneath Ari’s feet, and as if sensing that, Jai held her tighter.

“What?” she croaked.

The Red King studied her carefully, softly. “You remind me so much of your mother. I miss her, Ari. Every day. The only thing that makes her loss bearable is a promise I made to her. I promised to protect you. There have been moments when I didn’t know if I could keep that promise, but when you threw yourself on the proverbial blade for me, I no longer had any doubts. If I can use my brother’s words, it is a matter of honor.

If you have a piece of me inside you, Azazil will command Asmodeus to leave you alone.”

“For eternity,” Jai replied, his tone suggesting uncertainty. “Because we’ll be immortal too.”

Red sensed his wariness over life everlasting and nodded his head at Ari. “You love her? You don’t want to live without her? Ari is the daughter of a Jinn king and an Ifrit, Jai. Even with your mother’s blood, you will not live as long as Ari will. She will outlive you. Perhaps by many a long year.”

Her uncle’s prophecy lodged into a hard, painful ball in her chest as she turned in Jai’s arms to gaze up at him, clearly expressing her fear over having to live without him. It was too close to the bone to think about rationally, to remember that even so, they’d have a long, happy life together. “Jai,” she begged without needing to say the words.

He brushed his fingers tenderly down her cheek. “It’s forever, Ari. Forever is a very long time.”

“But it’s forever with you.”

His eyes flared bright at her words and he leaned down to press his forehead against hers, taking a moment to feel her and breathe her in. She reciprocated, though her muscles were tense with question. Would he accept Red’s offer? For her?

Jai pulled back and looked at the Red King, resolve etched in his features. “Yes. We’ll accept your extremely kind offer, Red.”

Red appeared to relax right along with Ari.

“Brace yourself,” Trey suddenly murmured darkly. “This is going to hurt like a bitch.”

Red grimaced. “He’s not wrong.”

Always

“We spend a lot of time in cemeteries and

graveyards,” Ari observed casually as she and Jai walked side by side, their bodies alert in the dark. “Have you noticed that?”

They passed an impressively large headstone and Jai nodded. “I think it’s just our luck lately. Next month it’ll seem like we spend a lot of time in the desert or in forests or in … shopping malls.”

“Was that a dig at this month’s expenditures?” 
she asked. A twig cracked to their right, pulling her attention. She peered into the dark but didn’t find what she was looking for.

“Not at all.”

“Caroline is throwing an engagement party for Fallon and Eli. I needed an outfit.”

“One outfit comes in fifteen bags?”

“It wasn’t fifteen—it was five. And I bought three outfits. I don’t know what mood I’ll be in the night of the engagement party.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You didn’t need to say anything.

Your tone said everything.”

“You do shop more than you used to.”

Ari wrinkled her nose and stopped to stare at him, hands on her hips. “Dude, I spend my days and often nights,”

she gestured around the moonlit cemetery, “hunting and killing Jinn. That’s just as bloody as it sounds. Shopping makes me feel like a girl again.”

Jai grinned at her, and she tingled all over. God, she hoped that feeling never faded. “Dude?”

“It slipped out.”

He shook his head in amusement and began searching again.

Almost a year had passed since 
their ordeal with Asmodeus, which meant she and Jai had been dating for over a year. It felt like a lot longer, but in a good way. As for Asmodeus, he’d unwillingly backed off. Permanently. Once Red had placed a piece of himself within Ari and Jai (a procedure so painful, they’d both blacked out), he and Glass had told Azazil exactly what they’d done. Of course, the Sultan was at once impressed and enraged. In the end, however, there was nothing to be done but put his own protection behind Ari, Trey, and Jai to ensure that his sons came to no harm through their deaths. Asmodeus was foiled, and Ari was glad she hadn’t been forced to share a room with him since.

Things had been quiet in the royal Jinn world. Ari no longer had contact with the Sultan or any of the Jinn kings, with the exception of Red and Glass. Red stopped by once in a while to check on them, but Glass was a more permanent feature since he and Trey were as loved up as Jai and Ari. In fact, Trey was thinking of getting his own place so they’d all have more privacy. Ari would definitely miss living with him. Not only did he crack her up but he also acted as a coolheaded mediator in Ari and Jai’s hotheaded disagreements.

And now they had an eternity of head-butting to contend with. Not that it bothered either of them. They each secretly liked the head-butting and where it eventually led.

The last year had not been quiet in other ways, however. Michael kept them busy and they were rapidly growing a legendary reputation as Jinn assassins. According to Red, complaints had been made to Law Makers and Azazil up in Mount Qaf. But since they weren’t technically breaking the law, and Azazil liked their help with maintaining the balance, Jai, Ari, and Trey were allowed to continue working for the Roe Guild.

When Ari wasn’t working or making out with Jai or shopping or training, she found the time (every few months or so) to check in with Derek and Charlie. Derek had separated from his wife and was living in a small apartment closer to town. He had joint custody of his two sons and he actually seemed okay as far as Ari could tell.

Charlie was happy. He was still dating the shy brunette and taking care of Mikey and his mom, who Ari also checked on. They were good too. Mrs. Creagh was dating Charlie’s boss, which clearly pissed off Charlie but Ari found it hilarious. She was just glad they were alive and healthy to have these disagreements and dramas.

As for Fallon, she’d spent the last year giving Eli McEttrick the runaround. She’d confessed to Ari that theirs was a friends-with-benefits relationship, but it had quickly deteriorated as it became clear Eli was interested in more. He pursued her with an impressive determination and persistence. She’d finally given in six months ago, and then he’d proposed, and it had taken him another three months to get her to say yes.

Michael was happy with his daughter’s choice of husband, and even happier that the engagement had started up talks of the possibility of the two Guilds joining together to make the largest Guild on the East Coast. Some were excited at the possibility, others not so much. Ari and Jai didn’t care what happened as long as they could stay with the family they’d built within the Roe Guild, and spend their days hunting and their nights cuddling.

Well, usually their nights.

“Do you think the Utukku is even going to show up?” Ari asked, almost whining. She was missing an episode of her favorite show for this crap.

“Not if you keep talking.”

“Someone is grumpy tonight.”

“I expected to be in bed with my girlfriend right about now, not hunting some creepy little schmuck in a cemetery in Maine.”

“Schmuck? Did you just use the word schmuck?”

Jai shook his head but his lips twitched, giving him away. “That’s all you got out of that sentence?”

“I’m not thinking about the rest of that sentence. It’ll just piss me off even more knowing what we could be doing instead of doing this.”

Jai stopped and reached out to her, his arm wrapping around her waist. He drew her close and pressed a soft kiss to her lips.

Ari snuggled closer to him. “We’re not acting like responsible assassins right now.”

“I know.” He groaned and kissed her forehead before moving away from her. “When this is over, I’m going to make it up to you.”

A delicious shiver rippled over her at the thought. “Will you do that thing I like?”

“The thing-thing, or the thing?”

he asked, scanning the next aisle of headstones.

“The thing.”

“Baby, we get this guy and I’ll do the thing and the thing-thing.”

The Utukku picked that particular moment to appear at the end of the aisle, and with Jai’s sensual promise ringing in her ears, Ari unleashed a far more powerful curse than she needed to on the wicked Jinn.

It exploded.

Jai slowly turned to her, choking on laughter. “Was that necessary?”

Instead of answering, she grabbed the lapels of his jacket and pushed him back against the trunk of a tree. “You just promised to do both things. It was definitely necessary.”

He grinned and wrapped his arms around her, yanking her willingly against him. “So all I have to do is offer sexual favors and it completely wipes out any hesitation you have over taking a malevolent life?”

Ari leaned up to brush her mouth over his, loving the way his fingers dug into her hips with need. “You make that sound so much worse than it is.”

His kiss quickly turned hot and deep. Finally, Jai pulled back, their breathing heavy. “We should get back.”

“Or find the nearest hotel.”

“Or find the nearest hotel,” he agreed, his eyes heavily lidded with passion.

And then Jai’s cell beeped and he groaned, dropping his head against hers as he pulled the phone from his back pocket. He groaned again. “It’s Michael. He says once we’re done here, he needs us back at his place to discuss our next assignment.”

Ari frowned, took his cell, and began texting.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m telling him we’ll see him in the morning. It’s almost midnight, Jai. We need ‘us time’ and some rest.”

“I know.” He sighed but she could hear the teasing in his voice. “It’s not like we’re immortal or anything.”

She rolled her eyes and shoved his cell suggestively back in his pocket. “That’s the fifth time this month you’ve used that joke. You need to get new material.”