jinn 02 - inferno (4 page)

“Same as last I spoke with you, dragon,” I replied just as solemnly. Why they couldn’t just use a name was beyond me. Learning a new name every couple hundred years or so wasn’t all that taxing, but the council was stuck in their ways. I doubted many of them even knew I went by Baker.

Anessa smiled, her wide pale eyes blinking slowly, her white hair all but glowing in the dim light. “It’s good to see you again. It’s been too long.”

I kissed the unicorn’s cheek, her horn carefully hidden beneath her human appearance. How much of her essence had she lost, or rather, how much had the council taken over the years? One of the main problems with being immortal was everyone wanted a piece of it. With Anessa anyone who consumed her horn became immortal, with Leilah they wanted her blood, and with me they wanted my ashes. We all had a way to make others immortal, but it took something from us to do so. The council offered a fair amount of protection, but any time someone who wasn’t already immortal joined—and there weren’t many natural immortals left—one of us had to make a sacrifice. And honestly, I was tired of sacrificing to something I wasn’t even sure I believed in.

Besides, being immortal was really more of a curse than a gift.

“So they sent the dames to deal with me.” I winked. “I’m flattered.”

“You should be,” Leilah said.

Anessa rolled her eyes at her. “We volunteered. We miss you. We
all
miss you. Even Rhys.”

I raised an eyebrow. Rhys probably had no idea they were even here. He was a walking, talking douchebag. There was nothing like a demi-god with a bug up his ass to ruin your day. “I’m sure.”

“It’s true,” Leilah said, and I couldn’t help but believe the dragon more than the unicorn. She wasn’t the type to sugarcoat things. She liked her victims bitter and bloody.

“Why am I here? If you just wanted an update, we could have done it over the phone.”

The women exchanged a look and Anessa nodded to Leilah.

Leilah’s reptilian eyes met mine. “It is time for you to come back. Your sabbatical has carried on long enough. We demand your return.”

I stared at them waiting for the punchline because this had to be a joke. There was no way in hell I was going back to the council, not now, not ever, but the punchline never came. “Hate to break it to you, doll, but that wasn’t a sabbatical I went on. I quit the council and I’m disinclined to return to it—ever. I’m not sure how to be more clear.”

Scales shot up over Leilah’s arms and her eyes blazed as she stepped toward me. “Arrogance.”

Anessa held her back. “He had every right to leave.” She glanced over at me. “You go by Baker now, right?” I nodded. “Baker, please reconsider. We wouldn’t be here if we didn’t need you. Things are different now. The council has changed. I think we have addressed some of the issues you had before.”

Changed? What did they think I was, a chump? The council didn’t change. They used you until there was nothing left but a shell of who you were. I got out and I wasn’t going back, but all of this was curious. Very curious. “Why do you suddenly need me?”

The women exchanged glances. “The world is in upheaval. The fae are falling apart, the guardian’s council crumbled, the jinn are about to be reintroduced into the Abyss as free beings, and there is a new fallen angel among us who we can’t find. How is that for a start?” Leilah asked. “You remember the dark years that followed such a transition last time. There is still time to direct this change. We need you to help us find the angel.”

I froze. “You’re looking to recruit the angel?

“It would be better than Lucifer getting another one, would it not?” Anessa shot back. “If she refuses, we will eliminate her. She does not belong in this world. But imagine what she could do on the council.” Her skin glittered at the possibility.

I shrugged. If they thought they could bully the angel into doing anything, it was their funeral. I sure as hell wasn’t going to help them. “I don’t see how any of this is my problem.”

“A dawn is before us, but it doesn’t have to be a frightening time. We can correct some of the mistakes we made before. Your guidance and experience living among them would be invaluable.” Anessa batted her pretty eyelashes.

I wasn’t falling for it though. More than likely they wanted my help making new immortals to fight for their cause. If they were gearing up to start over they’d need some serious juice behind them, which meant recruitment—and a lot of it. The last time this happened, nearly half the council went into retirement because so much of their life force had been drained. This time… I shook my head. There was no fucking way.

“If not for us, then consider your friends. The people you care about in this broken world. Could we not make it better for everyone?”

Despite everything, I did remember what it was like last time. The dark years when the humans knew of us and hunted us as game. Vampire slayers, dragon hunters, angry villagers with pitchforks and torches. . . . To end that fiasco we had to erect the veil between worlds, making it so we could never coexist with humans again—at least not openly. There was a price for that choice. A lot of people lost loved ones and even to this day, when a supernatural being had a child with a human, the human part of that union died unnaturally early. It wasn’t something anyone thought much about or even mentioned but it happened too often to be ignored. There were far too many displaced half-bloods roaming around the Abyss, waiting for their moment in the sun. It was a problem we created trying to fix another problem. Was the outcome really worth the cost? Perhaps we could have learned to coexist with the humans. Perhaps we broke countless families for no reason at all. Where would the pieces fall this time? What would we lose and how severe would the consequences be?

I cleared my throat, refusing to be swept away by the idea of creating the world around me as I wished it. The problems we knew, in my mind, were better than the ones we couldn’t yet fathom. None of this should have even been placed within our control. “What gives us the right to determine how anyone else lives?”

“Well, it’s this or putting an end to the troublemakers.” Leilah bared her teeth in what I assumed was an attempt to smile. “I believe you know both sets of troublemakers well. Here’s our offer: you can save your friends from elimination by joining us, or you can continue on your own and let your friends’ time come to an end. If we cannot control this change, we will fight it.”

Leilah’s face was stony and Anessa’s was sympathetic, but she didn’t contradict the dragon. The council had always been full of bastards—apparently that hadn’t changed. “Just to give you fair warning, they might not be as easy to kill as you’d like to believe, and if the council goes after them, the Abyss won’t be the only thing that changes. None of you will survive the fight.”

Leilah looked unimpressed. “Two elves, a jinni, and a meddlesome guardian. I think we can manage.”

I grinned because it would piss her off. The council was formidable, but if we could handle Hell, we could handle them—if it came to that. The biggest concern was we didn’t need another enemy right now. “I’ll think about it.”

“You have three days,” Anessa said. “We really would like you to come back, Baker.”

In three days I would have to tell them no, which meant we only had three days to get a handle on our angel problem and get Olivia back, before the council waged their own war against us.

Bored. So bored. I stretched my arms and arched my back in my shitty new-to-me car. It still hurt to think about how I decimated the Roadster.

No one was coming or going from the demon lair. Four people had entered about an hour ago making a grand total of six demons in the house right now, but they weren’t doing anything. At least nothing I could see. Maybe they were performing satanic rituals and having sex with goats or maybe they were playing
Pictionary
. Who cared? My ass was falling asleep and I was out of snacks.

My cell phone rang. I glanced at the caller ID and smiled. “Femi’s Feline Fantasies. How can I make you purr?”

Sy’s deep chuckle ran down my spine like warm water. “Mmmm, let me count the ways.”

“What’s up, lover?”

“Now something completely different than when I called.”

“Pull yourself together, man.” I laughed. “Really though, what’s going on?”

“Nothing. Just checking in with you. Are you doing okay? Need help with anything?”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m good, mom, thanks. How’s Selene?” Sy’s cousin Selene was always knee deep in a shit storm of her own creation—obviously we were destined to be friends.

“She’ll survive. You don’t know any dark witches, do you?”

“Can’t say that I do. I have plenty of demon and jinn buddies though. Either of those strike your fancy?”

“Not at the moment.” He paused as if considering his words. “Be careful, Femi, okay? You shouldn’t be messing around with either of those groups. Sometimes you have to know when to walk away from something.”

If I had retractable claws, the tone of his voice would have made them pop out. My eyes narrowed and I tapped a pointed nail against the back of the phone. “When I need your opinion on what I can or cannot handle, I’ll give it to you. I am a descendent of the goddess. They are the ones who should fear me.”

“Look, I’m just saying watch your back. If you need me for anything, I’m here. You know that, right?”

“Thanks, but I’m golden, hotshot. The only thing I need right now are more snacks. I’m starving. Wasting away. It’s been like three and a half minutes since I last ate. Feed me, Seymour, feed me.”

The passenger side door opened on my car and Sy slid in with a wicked grin. “Still driving this?” he asked, eyeing the worn, maroon seat and the massive dashboard.

I wrinkled my nose. “Haven’t found something that speaks to me yet. How’d you find me? Stalk much?”

“I can always find you.” He winked and handed me a Styrofoam container of fried clams.

How he found me no longer mattered as I breathed in the fried deliciousness. Perfection. I popped one into my mouth and closed my eyes as I chewed. I devoured one after another, occasionally looking at the narrow rectangular brick house I was supposed to be watching. Given the area I assumed the demons were in a flat in the building, but I didn’t see any people coming and going from it—at least no normal people. Everyone that came in and out of the building did so at night and looked shady as fuck. My fingers scraped the foam at the bottom of the container. My eyes flickered down. Empty. I only had a moment of disappointment before Sy produced a second box that was still warm. Not only was he hot, but he cooked and fed me. Sy was a keeper. I grinned back at him as I opened it.

“I love watching you eat. You consume more than any man I’ve ever known and you still walk around in skintight leather.” His eyes crinkled, getting that goofy, I-like-you-more-than-I-should look.

“High metabolism,” I said, licking the grease off my fingers and giving him the side eye. Sy was a keeper, but I had no intention of keeping him in the way he would have liked. “Don’t you have a bar to run?”

He shrugged and his finger skimmed my shoulder. “I wanted to see you.”

My skin rippled beneath his touch and a purr lodged in my throat as those same fingers drifted up the side of my neck and across my jaw. My chin automatically leaned into his touch and an appetite of a different kind came to life. The air in the car hummed between us and the next move I made would determine everything. I could turn to him and see how well the sexual tension between us translated to the bedroom—or the front seat. I visualized Sy’s tight muscles and imagined tearing away the soft T-shirt that fit him like a second skin and accentuated his ripped chest. The thought of his sculpted body suspended over me as he looked down with those soft silver eyes made my breath thin and my body warm. I wanted to feel his lips on me, his hands, his entire body moving with mine. The intensity of my want spiked, begging begged me to give in.

I handed my trash to him. “Well, I’m working. Thanks for the delivery.” Half-saluting him, I turned my gaze back to house, shoving my lust aside.

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself. The moment he left, his absence echoed through me, but I ignored it. Sy and I were friends and that was all we would ever be. He wanted things—things that went beyond having fun. Things I wasn’t prepared to give to him or anyone. He entertained plenty of girls willing to take the edge off and soothe away the hurt feelings of rejection. As far I could tell, though, I was the only actual friend he had. Keeping that position meant more to me than any one-night stand or half-baked attempt at a relationship ever would. And it would be half-baked. We both lived for our jobs and that wasn’t going to change. Plus, I wasn’t the commitment type and that wasn’t ever going to change either. So I let Sy go and I would keep letting him go until he finally took the hint and moved on.