Darkness, Kindled (7 page)

She wrinkled her nose. “A little.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She smiled mischievously.

“If I remember correctly from my girlfriends’ tales, you performed something akin to a miracle last night.”

“You really shouldn’t say these 
things. It will only make me an egotistical jackass.”

Laughing, she shook her head. “I 
think we’re past that.”

“You know, if you continue to be 
mean to me, I won’t do it again. I will become a very selfish lover.” His face was completely deadpan.

Ari’s lips twitched, her chest full of fluttering wings, she was in such a good mood. “Become a selfish lover and I’m out of here. You’ll need to get used to your right hand again.”

Jai threw his head back on the 
pillow, laughing at her, his eyes glittering in the morning light. “What have I created?”

“A very happy girlfriend.” She 
crawled over him, her arms braced on his chest, her hair falling like a curtain around them.

“Yeah?” he breathed, staring up at her reverently. He brushed her hair back, curling his fingers around her ear, sending shivers down her spine.

“Mmm.” She pressed her mouth to 
his, groaning as Jai deepened the kiss. He wrapped his arms around her slender waist and rolled them, trailing heated kisses down her throat, her chest, down her soft belly. When he kissed her there, she cried out and quickly clamped a hand over her mouth, sensing Trey’s energy in the house now and not wanting to be heard.

Biting her tongue, Ari’s eyelashes fluttered closed as she let Jai take her on another amazing sensual journey.

After a joint shower, they dressed in Jai’s room, acting like stupid, loved-up idiots and enjoying every minute of it. It wasn’t until they were about to leave the room and venture downstairs for breakfast when Jai returned them to a more serious place.

“Did Asmodeus visit your dreams 
last night?”

Hearing the edge in his voice, Ari was thankful her honest reply was, “No.”

He grunted and Ari automatically wanted to shut his bedroom door to bar them inside, away from all the crap outside. Instead, she followed him downstairs, his large hand holding hers tight in his. When they entered the kitchen, Trey was already there with his easel in the corner, looking out into the gardens. Paper, paints, charcoal, and pencils littered the breakfast table. He glanced up from the blurry, abstract landscape he was working on and grinned knowingly at them. “Morning,” he offered silkily.

He knew.

How did he know? Ari blushed.

“Morning,” she mumbled and hurried to pour herself a white coffee, a black one for Jai—his only vice. Ari wondered if in Jai-Land, she could be considered a vice too.

“Ari, you’re positively glowing 
this morning. What could have possibly brought such a—ow!” Trey yelped and Ari turned to see him rubbing the back of his head as Jai moved innocently away to take a seat. She snorted and slipped into a chair beside Jai, pushing the coffee toward him.

He smiled softly, his eyes blazing with heat as he looked at her. “Thank you.”

Ari flushed. “You’re welcome.”

“Do Glass and I act like this?” 
Trey asked.

Ignoring his teasing, Ari studied his painting. “That’s beautiful. Can we hang it somewhere or are you selling it?”

Trey studied his own work. “Nah, I think we’ll hang it. It should stay with this house.”

“So I hate to destroy a pleasant 
morning, but …” Jai sighed heavily. “Trey, we have a problem.”

His best friend caught the serious note in his voice and lowered his paintbrush. Bracing his hands on the back of a chair, Trey nodded. “Okay, hit me with it.”

Ari was silent as Jai filled Trey in on the situation with Charlie and Asmodeus. It didn’t surprise her that she’d agreed they should confide in Trey. After all, he was on their side and if they were going to be handling this alone, he would be a welcome help.

Shaking his head at the news, Trey sat down at the table. “So … you’re not telling Michael?”

The thought of keeping secrets from a man who’d helped them made Ari ill. It was with a heavy heart she replied, “We can’t tell him, Trey. You know what the Guild will do to Charlie, and I just need one more chance to save him.”

“To save him? Ari, he’s 
blackmailing you.”

“Trey,” Jai asked softly, “what if it were me?”

Trey groaned. “Oh. Okay, fine. So we need a plan, right?”

“Actually, I think I might already have one,” Jai offered quietly.

That was news to Ari. She sat up 
straight, anticipation zinging in her blood. “Yeah? Since when?”

“This morning.” He sat forward, his gaze drifting between her and Trey. “What if we try to dry Charlie out?”

Ari frowned. “Like you would a drug addict?”

“Exactly.”

“Okay …”

“How?” Trey asked.

“We tag him ourselves. Bind him 
with magic and keep him in the basement until the emerald is out of his system and he’s functioning like a human being again.”

Ari’s chest felt heavy at the 
thought but she’d also begun to feel restless. It was a plan, the only plan they had to save her friend, and she wanted to get started on it. However, they had another issue to deal with first. “And the Ghulah and Pazuzu?”

Jai shrugged. “The Ghulah we can 
kill. Pazuzu … well, for him we’re going to need to get our hands on a Secretum.”

“A what now?” Ari raised an 
eyebrow, wondering what it was and how hard it was to get.

“It’s a powerful binding item. It’s created from the wood of a Conessi tree, packed with tellicherry bark and harmal and also treated with harmal. A strong-enough Jinn can entrap another lesser Jinn within the box, and once locked, it’s impossible for the Jinn to escape. If we use Charlie’s help to lure Pazuzu to us, I think the three of us can do it.”

“You think?” Trey made a face.

“We’re talking about freakin’ Pazuzu here.”

Jai smirked. “Trey … there’s two of us and one of her.” He indicated Ari with admiration in his expression. “That ugly bastard doesn’t stand a chance.”

Ari laughed nervously. “Are you using overconfidence to give us confidence?”

“I’ll never tell.”

She chuckled but her fingers trembled around her mug just thinking about the damage Pazuzu had done to her and Jai when they’d last faced him. He’d tried to rip Ari to shreds, and the pain, the excruciating pain, like a million paper cuts all over her body, wasn’t something she’d soon forget. Neither was the memory of watching Jai almost die.

The only thing that had saved them had been the power of the Seal inside of her. Now that was gone. Did they really stand a chance?

“Baby, it’s the only way.”

She nodded.

“Jai’s right.” Trey stood, rubbing his hands together, a simmering energy crackling around him. “We can totally pull this off.”

Jai stood too, his expression grim again. “For now, we wait until Charlie contacts Ari and we’ll take it from there. We go about our lives as normal. Don’t act weird, and don’t give anything away to the Guild.”

Because of their sudden secretiveness, the loud knock on the front door startled them. Ari pushed her senses out toward it. “Michael,” she whispered.

Jai squeezed her shoulder and left the kitchen. She and Trey exchanged slightly worried glances at the sound of murmured voices, their guilt over keeping this a secret from Michael conjuring worst-case scenarios for the reason behind his surprise visit.

When Jai entered the kitchen followed by their Guild leader, Ari stood and smiled naturally. “Morning, Michael.”

He smiled back at her but the 
expression didn’t reach his eyes. “Ari. Trey.” His gaze drifted back to Jai and then to Trey again. “I … uh … I’d like to have a word with you alone, Ari, if that’s okay.”

Right then, Ari didn’t want to be 
alone with him. In fact, she couldn’t be. She was afraid anything she said might give her away. “Oh, you can say what you have to say in front of Jai and Trey. We’re family.”

Michael took a step toward her, his 
eyebrows drawn together in a deep frown. “Ari, please. I think we should speak alone.”

Her heart sped up, the rhythm of 
its beats growing steadily faster. “Okay, well, now I really want them to stay.”

“Ari—”

“Just tell me what’s wrong, 
Michael.”

Their Guild leader sighed wearily. “Fine.

Luca Bitar has been in contact.”

“My father?” Jai strode past him to 
stand between her and Michael. “What’s going on? What’s that got to do with Ari?”

Michael eyed Ari. “Are you sure you 
don’t want to speak alone?”

Her mind raced as she tried to think 
why Michael was so concerned about her privacy. “If it’s about Jai’s father, he should hear it too.”

“It’s not about Luca. He was 
calling to warn me that his son David has been spreading rumors that you are, or at least once were, the Seal, and Yasmin Lenz has been corroborating those claims. Most Jinn don’t believe him, but Luca wanted us to be aware in case it sends some inquisitive Jinn our way.”

The blood rushed in Ari’s ears as 
it suddenly dawned on her why Michael wanted to have this conversation in private. Because of David, and what he’d done. Clearly, Luca found out from his son and had told Michael why David had been subjected to Ari’s command.

Oh, hell. Ari’s 
eyes flew to Jai as he turned to her, confusion written all over his face. “How did David know what you were? Only Luca, Nicki, Yasmin, and Tarik knew. And Yasmin couldn’t tell anyone.”

Ari shook her head, not sure how 
Jai would react to the information. “Jai …”

“Ari?” He took a step toward her, 
his face dark, eyes glittering with warning. “How did he know?”

She raised her hands defensively.

“It was nothing, okay? It was nothing. I dealt with it.”

“Dealt with what?” he snapped.

“Tell him, Ari.” Michael sighed 
again.

Stomach churning, Ari met Jai’s gaze 
and informed him quietly, “When we stayed at your parents’ home. I used the command of the Seal against David.”

His eyes burned with questions Ari 
feared he already knew the answers to. “Why?”

She shook her head, hating that

their wonderful morning together was ruined. “Don’t do anything. Please.”

“Why, Ari?” His voice was rough

with impatience. Ari couldn’t remember seeing him so close to losing control.

She glanced back at Trey for help, 
but he looked just as ready to explode.

Closing her eyes briefly, she 
turned back. When she opened them, she saw pain in Jai’s eyes. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. But … He … he tried to assault me. Force himself on me.”

With a yell of pure fury that 
caused Ari to stumble back into the table, Jai disappeared into the roaring flames of the Peripatos.

“Shit,” Michael and Trey bit out in 
unison.

Ari didn’t respond. She was already 
summoning the Peripatos to chase after her boyfriend. Almost falling out of it in her hurry to get to the Bitar mansion, Ari stumbled against Trey who’d followed her. He steadied her, and the sounds of yelling from Luca’s office jolted them into action. They raced out of the hallway and Trey shoved open one of the large double doors. Ari pushed past him as he came to a stop, only to find Jai’s fists curled into the neckline of David’s shirt. He’d hauled him close, his furious green eyes almost black with aggression.

“Did you touch her?” His voice was 
low, the words edged with a growl.

David grabbed onto Jai’s hands.

“Get off me!”

“Did you touch her?”

His brother’s eyes flicked to Ari 
and his lip curled into a sneer. He smirked as his gaze traveled back to meet Jai’s, and Ari felt her stomach drop as he whispered, “She loved every minute of it.”

Jai moved so quickly, he was a 
blur. The floor tiles cracked beneath their feet as he lifted David and slammed his body into the ground. Jai didn’t waste a minute, his fist smashing down into his brother’s face in retribution for his crime.

Ari moved to intervene but was 
halted by Trey’s strong hands. He held her while she squirmed, her head spinning around upon hearing the familiar Irish voice as Luca held Nicki from the scene.

“Let me go!” she shouted in outrage 
to her husband, but Luca held fast.

“It is Jai’s right,” Luca told her 
authoritatively.

Even Tarik, the eldest of the Bitar 
brothers, stood at the side, arms crossed over his chest as he watched Jai beat David to a bloody pulp.

“No!” Ari cried out, forcing magic 
into her touch so that it created the slightest electrical shock. Trey jumped with a bark of annoyance and let her go. She hurried to Jai’s side. “Jai, stop!

He’s not worth it.” She grabbed hold of his arm and he snapped around with murderous intent, only to still at the sight of her. Ari glanced down at David with a gulp.

He was barely conscious, his face 
bloodied and bruised.

“Jai, stop,” she whispered, tears 
filling her eyes. She hated that she’d brought him to this.

Jai yanked his arm out of her hold 
and got slowly to his feet. The air around his body crackled with dangerous energy as he turned to stare at his so-called family. His chest heaved from exertion and fury. “If any of you hurt what’s mine again, I will come after you, and I will kill you.” He eyed Luca. “And you can tell the same to that little bitch spreading rumors about Ari. You tell her she stops, or I’ll make her stop.”

Luca nodded. “I’ll tell her, son.”

“I want him out of the Tribe.” Jai glowered at David and then back at his father. “I want him fired.”