djinn wars 04 - broken (31 page)

In that moment, he wished he had drunk more of his wine. Djinn could not get truly intoxicated, but they could achieve a slightly elevated state if they consumed enough alcohol…and right then he knew he would have been better able to steel himself to do this if the edges had been blurred slightly.

But since he also knew that he must do what he could to buy himself more time, he took in a breath, then leaned forward and placed his lips on hers.

Going back to the house to fetch the device had cost them some time, because of course Jessica and Miles and Lindsay wanted to know what Julia and Jace had learned. Jessica also seemed shocked that Murrah could be complicit in helping Qadim and his scheming sister, while Miles only narrowed his eyes.

“I knew there was something about that one I didn’t like.”

“Sweetheart, you don’t like anybody.”

Miles shot Lindsay an irritated glance following that remark, while Julia tried not to grin. It was true; he might care about Lindsay, but Julia had a feeling he only tolerated most other people.

“Anyway, we should be able to catch him off guard using this,” she said, hefting the device in her hand. It still shocked her that something so powerful could fit into her palm.

“That’s something,” Jessica said. Her gaze wasn’t on the device, however, but on the djinn she loved. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“Of course not,” Jace replied. He’d been standing next to her, and he bent down and kissed her on the cheek while Jessica tried to look annoyed with him and failed miserably. “I’m making this up as I go along. But it’s the simple truth that it’s very difficult to restrain a djinn unless he’s grossly outnumbered. And Murrah is
big
.”

That was for sure. Qadim was probably the tallest djinn Julia had ever seen, but Murrah was only an inch or so shorter at the most, and proportionately broad. Jace had some serious muscles from working the farm or whatever else it was he did to keep himself in shape — did djinn even need to exercise? — but Murrah still looked like he could bend the younger man into a pretzel.

Jessica wore a resigned expression. “Well, I know you’re going to do what you’re going to do, but just be careful. I’ve kind of gotten used to having you around.”

This time the kiss Jace gave her was right on the lips, completely ignoring the fact that they had an audience. Lindsay just grinned, while Miles looked exasperated. And Julia — again, the best she could do was fight back another of those sharp spikes of jealousy.

After all, that could have been Zahrias kissing her, if she hadn’t been such a stubborn pain in the ass.

“We should go,” she said. “I mean, we don’t know for sure that Murrah is home, but Lilias did a quick pop in and out of the downtown area, and she didn’t see him lurking around any of his usual haunts, so it’s probably safe to assume that he’s at his house.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jace replied. His dark eyes were twinkling, but then the faint smile he’d been wearing faded. “Let’s do this.”

He approached so he could wrap his arms around her. That still felt strange, especially with Jessica watching, but it was the only way he could transport someone in the djinns’ particular mode of travel.

The next part was the trickiest, simply because Julia had to trigger the device literally the second they appeared at their destination. Any earlier, and Jace’s powers would be cut off. She didn’t know what would happen if a djinn was yanked back into the real world mid-blink, as it were. But she really didn’t want to find out.

Her finger had been resting on the switch, difficult enough because of the way she had to keep her arms wrapped around Jace’s midsection. What made it even harder was the mild bump she experienced as her feet touched the tile floor of the house Murrah shared with Martine. Julia’s fingertip skated right past the switch, and she frantically grabbed for it again, because standing right there in front of them was Murrah himself.

His mouth opened — whether to ask what the hell they were doing there, or maybe to simply let out a shocked sound, Julia didn’t know — because in the next second she did push the switch.

The djinn’s reaction wasn’t quite as extreme as Qadim’s when she’d used the device on him, probably because the power level wasn’t jacked up as high. But Murrah still stumbled a bit before steadying himself and fixing them with a shocked glare.

“Why are you using that thing on me?” he gasped.

Julia felt a pang of remorse, followed by worry that Lilias had been right and Murrah had nothing to do with Zahrias’ kidnapping. Really, in that moment, the big djinn looked so startled that she had to believe he must be innocent.

Jace didn’t seem to be experiencing any such qualms, however. Jaw set, he advanced a few steps toward the other man. “I don’t know, Murrah. Why
would
we be using it?”

Almost at once, Murrah’s gaze shifted away from them. “I — ”

A master spy, he wasn’t. What with the way he wouldn’t meet their eyes, and only stood there, staring at the polished terra-cotta tile under his feet, he might as well have been holding up a sign that said “I’m guilty.”

“We don’t want to hurt you,” Julia said quickly. “I’m just using the device because it was the only way to guarantee you’d stay put.”

“It must affect him, too,” Murrah said, with a flash of his dark eyes in Jace’s direction.

“It does affect me,” Jace said. His tone was so steady that it gave the lie to his words, although Julia could see the tension in the muscles of his neck. He was working hard to make sure he wouldn’t shake or lose his balance. “But remember, Margolis used one of these things on me for weeks. I have a lot more experience managing it.”

“Oh,” the other djinn replied. His expression was so hangdog that Julia almost wanted to reach out and give him a hug, despite everything. “Can I — can I sit down? It’s hard to stand.”

“Be my guest,” Jace told him. “But don’t think that means you don’t have to tell us what you know.”

Murrah gave a sort of grunt, then stumbled over a few feet to a big chair upholstered in dark brown leather. It creaked as he sat down in it, but otherwise it appeared more or less adequate to supporting his weight.

“So, then,” Jace went on. “You do admit that you were feeding information to Qadim and his sister?”

“Just to Qadim,” Murrah said. “Lyanna would never lower herself to come down here.”

Julia didn’t know if that particular revelation was good or bad. “Why would you do that, Murrah?”

The djinn looked like a dog that knew it was about to get whacked with a rolled-up newspaper. “They’re my cousins. They asked for my help. And in the beginning, I didn’t know why they even wanted to hear about what we were doing here in Santa Fe.”

“But you figured it out.”

A helpless-looking shrug, while once again Murrah stared at the floor. “I began to guess.”

“So why didn’t you go to Zahrias and warn him?” Jace asked.

“How could I? Zahrias was the leader here, but Qadim and Lyanna are my blood. Besides, I knew Lyanna wouldn’t hurt him. She only wanted to be with him again.” Expression pleading, Murrah glanced first at Jace, then Julia. “It would have been different if he’d had a Chosen, but he didn’t.”

The words felt like a knife lodged somewhere in her gut, but Julia forced herself to say calmly, “That may be, but aren’t the needs of the people here in Santa Fe more important than Lyanna’s needs? I mean, it wasn’t as if she needed Zahrias so he could give her a rare blood transfusion or something.”

Murrah squirmed in his chair. “Maybe, but — ” He broke off and sent another of those pleading looks in Jace’s direction. “Tell her, Jace. She’s not one of us, so she doesn’t understand how family is supposed to come first.”

“Family is important to us, too,” Julia said, her voice hard. With some effort, she forced aside one of countless memories of her parents arguing. Not all families were like that. “Or rather, it used to be important, until your buddies decided to eradicate the human race. Now we have to make new families, since ours were taken away.”

“They were not my friends, the ones who killed the humans,” Murrah protested. “And I did not agree with what they did. I have my Chosen, the same as everyone else here in Santa Fe. What I did to help Qadim and Lyanna had nothing to do with that — ”

A female voice broke in then. “What’s going on here?”

Julia turned to see a young woman standing in the arched opening that led from the living room to a long hallway. Like all the other Chosen, she was very pretty, but there was a strained, haunted look in her dark eyes.

“I’m sorry about this, Martine,” Jace said. “But Murrah has all but admitted that he’s been passing information along to the people who kidnapped Zahrias.”

“Wait.” Blinking in confusion, she glanced over at her lover. “Zahrias has been kidnapped? When did that happen?”

“Early this morning,” Julia replied. Good lord, had all that happened in the space of one day? It felt like years since Zahrias had disappeared before her eyes, ripped away from this world by a group of Lyanna’s thugs.

Maybe she should have been relieved that so little time had actually passed, since it would seem to limit what Lyanna might be doing to Zahrias, but Jace had warned her that time flowed differently on the djinn plane. True, it had felt as if they’d been there for hours, but when they returned from their abortive audience with the elders, only about forty-five minutes seemed to have passed.

“And you had something to do with it, Murrah?” Martine demanded.

He wouldn’t meet her gaze. “I had to, Martine. They were family, and they asked.”

Her lips pressed together. Some of the vagueness seemed to leave her as she glared at her lover. “I thought
we
were family. All of us here in Santa Fe. Isn’t that what this community is supposed to be about? You told me that when you first saved me and took me to Taos. You said it would be all right, because you’d be giving me a new family.”

The anguish on Murrah’s face made a sudden rush of pity go through Julia. She couldn’t forgive him for what he’d done, but it was clear that he hadn’t really stopped to consider all the ramifications of assisting Qadim and Lyanna.

“I was,” he mumbled. “That is, I did.”

“But obviously this family isn’t as important as your djinn family, is that right?”

Jace cut in, obviously trying to salvage the situation, “Murrah was probably caught between a rock and a hard place, and I have a feeling he made his choice out of instinct. Isn’t that right, Murrah?”

Looking almost absurdly relieved by Jace’s intervention, the big djinn nodded. “That is right. And I thought that Zahrias was with Lyanna before, so perhaps he would not mind so much being with her again. We could always have someone else lead us.”

Julia couldn’t help herself. Tone acid, she inquired, “Someone who would have done a better job than Zahrias?”

Murrah winced, and Martine added, her own voice almost as sharp as Julia’s, “That’s not the kind of decision you’re supposed to make on your own. Losing Zahrias will affect everyone here. And what about Dani? His partner just had their son. Think about that, Murrah. If family is so important, what does it mean that you allowed the baby’s uncle to be taken away from here?”

Her words might have been physical blows, raining down on her partner, because with each sentence he flinched, and shrank as far back into his chair as someone of his bulk was able to. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Jace looked like he’d had enough, too. He held up a hand, saying, “Okay, Murrah. I know you didn’t stop to think about all this. But what we need now is to know how to find Lyanna. I’ve never met her, but you have. So will you take us there?”

That question made Murrah shake his head. “I cannot do that. If she discovers that I’ve led you to her — ”

“Grow a spine, Murrah,” Martine snapped, annoyance ringing through every syllable. Julia didn’t really know all the difficulties the two of them had faced since she’d been returned to him after her captivity with Khalim’s band of rogue djinn, but it seemed clear their relationship hadn’t quite returned to the loving intimacy that most djinn/Chosen partnerships seemed to share.

“You have never met Lyanna,” Murrah said. If the look of fear in his eyes hadn’t been so genuine, it might have been comical. “I cannot take you to her.”

“But I can,” came a new voice, one that Julia knew all too well and had hoped she would never hear again.

As one, they all turned toward the front door. Standing just inside, arms crossed, was Qadim.

This is hell,
Zahrias thought.
All our lives, we thought that being confined to this plane was punishment enough, but now I know what true torment is.

Lyanna lay in his arms, eyes hungry. After that first kiss, she had abandoned any notion of continuing with their dinner, and had led him to a softly upholstered divan placed up against one wall. Perhaps he should have been grateful that she had only taken him there, and not to her bedchamber. At least on the divan he could attempt to keep things from progressing much further.

Her mouth had been insistent, demanding. She tasted of the wine they had drunk, but her kiss was not sweet the way Julia’s had been. Rather, it was sour, harsh, like the dregs that had collected at the bottom of his goblet. How he had allowed her to kiss him and managed to prevent himself from letting out any betraying shudders, any other signs of revulsion, he didn’t know. But for now, it seemed as if Lyanna was still fooled, that his plan to make her think that he was slowly losing himself to her charms was working.

Unfortunately, he knew she was impatient. A few kisses were one thing. But they had shared far deeper intimacies than that in the past, and so she would not be content with these sorts of embraces for very much longer.

He needed to get back to the garden, to the one place where he thought he might have a hope of escaping. A small hope, but better than none. He wouldn’t allow himself to think about how she might retaliate if his attempts should come to nothing.

“An idea just came to me, Lyanna.”

She gazed up at him, mouth pursed. “Is it the same idea I am having?”