Marked (15 page)

So, here we are.  Mrs. Gregori is back in her wheelchair.  She looks like death is only minutes away, but her vitals are getting better and I’m pretty sure she could kick the grim reaper’s ass if necessary.  She is not going to leave her grandchildren unprotected from the evils that are Roman and me.

We’re back in the Mrs. Gregori’s flowered sitting room.  She is again by the fireplace and Brielle is standing sentry at the door; her gun itching to be fired.  Not one of her air guns either; this one shoots real bullets.  Zane is in a chair across from his grandmother.  If I had to pick a winner in his fight with Roman, I would have to say from the looks of it, Zane came out of it a little more bruised and bloody.  Roman and I are on the sofa.  The room is deadly quiet, but I’m not going to be the one to speak first.  One wrong word and I’m pretty sure I’d be full of bullet holes. 

Finally, Zane sighs and leans forward, his elbows on his knees.  He nods his head towards Roman.  “I don’t know about him, but I don’t think Skye knew she was a djinni.”  I can’t help passing him a small, appreciative smile.

“Oh, come on, Zane.  Think with your head, not your…”

“Brielle, don’t you dare finish that sentence,” Mrs. Gregori warns.  “And it just so happens that I believe the same.  You,” she says, pointing at Roman, “are another matter.  You play a good game, but I’m not entirely convinced that you’re as ignorant as she is.”

I look at Roman.  Do I believe it?  I don’t know anymore.  Doubt oozes from my pores to cover my face.  I look over at him and as our eyes meet, anger and hurt are screaming from his.  What does he expect from me – blind faith?  I just met the man for god’s sake.  The feelings I have for him could just be from my mark.  Turning to Mrs. Gregori, I say, “What happens to us now?”

Her face is wrinkled stone.  “How did you enter the veil?”

I shrug my shoulders.  “I have no idea.  I was mad and the room started filling with fog.”

“Did you talk to anyone while there?” she asks.

I want to close my eyes and disappear into the fog again.  How do I answer that so that I won’t get shot in the back of the head?  “Yes,” I begin slowly.  “I was warned that pulling you into the veil would kill you and I had to get you out of it.”

Mrs. Gregori is not going to let it go at that.  “Who warned you?”

“A man.  A djinni, I mean.  I didn’t get a good look at him.”  That’s true.  I couldn’t see him clearly.

I’m a terrible liar and I’m horrible at keeping secrets.  So it’s not surprising when Mrs. Gregori says, “I believe you know exactly who you were speaking to.”  There’s an underlying threat in her words telling me that this is my last chance to come clean.

With a surreptitious glance at Brielle, I say, “It was Malik.”

“Son of a bitch,” Mrs. Gregori spats.  “I always suspected.”

“That is not true!” Brielle says, leaving her place at the door and coming closer, her gun at the ready.  “Malik hates the djinn.  Why else would he want me to keep shoving them back behind the veil?”

“Now who’s not thinking with her head?” Zane says with a smug look in Brielle’s direction.  Brielle shoots him a look that could melt titanium.

Taking in the pain on her face, I feel like I just broke her heart into tiny little pieces.  I guess I did, or will have when she finally believes me.  Her denial is ramped up pretty good at the moment.  “He said there’s a war going on behind the veil.  Maybe it has something to do with that?”

“What kind of war?” Mrs. Gregori asks before Brielle can spew another threat at me for defaming Malik’s character by accusing him of being a djinni.

I shrug.  “I wasn’t able to get any details.  Another djinni, a really eerie one, showed up and he and Malik fought.”

“About what?”

“Um, me mostly.  They talked about my mark and then Malik shot lightning from his hand at the other djinni.  Then he told me to let Roman bring me back from the veil.  But…”  Oh, shit.  I wasn’t going to tell them the rest.  At least not until I’ve had a chance to figure out what the deal is between Roman and me and why I supposedly let him mark me. This is why I’m terrible at secrets.  They just seem to fall out of my mouth. 

Of course, no one’s going to let that ‘but’ hang in the air all by itself.  Six eyes are boring into me, waiting for me to continue.  Fuck.  Why didn’t Roman just keep me in that induced coma?  Life was a whole lot simpler then.

Well, here goes.  I’m throwing Roman under the bus.  Sort of.  “He said that there’s some sort of past between Roman and me, and that I have to be careful until my memory returns.”  There, that wasn’t so bad.

“So Doc is evil and you’re still Miss Perfect?” Brielle says.

I give her a sour look.  “No.  For all I know, I could be the bad guy.”  What the hell am I saying? 

Roman has been quiet until now.  “What, exactly, did he say about me?” he asks.  I try to give him a ‘shut up, I’ll tell you later look’ but it doesn’t work.  “Just spit it out, Skye.  I don’t have anything to hide from these people.”

That he knows of, at least.  Which begs the question – why?  Why don’t either of us know that we’re djinn?  Were our parents djinn?  If so, it seems like at least one of them would have mentioned it.

Sighing heavily, I say, “He implied that you were a saitan.”

All three of them react.  Brielle’s gun is up again.  Zane suddenly has a pistol in his hand that must have been tucked in his waistband.  And Mrs. Gregori?  It would appear that yarn and knitting needles aren’t the only things she keeps in her knitting box.

Somehow ignoring the barrels filled with bullets that are pointing at him, Roman says, “Funny, I don’t feel like the devil.”

That’s it?  That’s his reply.  I shake my head in astonishment.  “This isn’t the time to make jokes, Roman.  I’m pretty sure these guys are already eager to kill us.”

“So I’ve noticed.  And I wasn’t joking.  I’m guessing by your reaction, these things are pure evil.  If I was one of these…creatures, wouldn’t I have lived a life of crime?  The worst thing I’ve ever done was hazing freshmen in my fraternity and even then I apologized later because I felt guilty about it.  Why would I have chosen to become a doctor if I was evil?  I wanted to spend my days curing people, not killing them.  I’ve stayed with Skye because I was and am concerned about her well-being.  I have never wanted to control her.  You are all going on assumptions based on a tiny mark on her neck.  I cannot be who you think I am.”  He turns to Mrs. Gregori, indicating that he’s been speaking to her, not me.

She puts her gun back in her knitting box.  “Put them away,” she says to Brielle and Zane.  Brielle is more leery than Zane but she eventually puts her gun on a table next to where she’s standing.

Mrs. Gregori spends several long moments assessing first me, then Roman.  Her face is still a wrinkled mound of stone, so I have no idea what’s running through her mind right now.  Finally, she says, “Brielle’s friend Malik may be a djinn, but he’s never brought her any harm.  He has made it easier to track and bind the djinn and send them back to where they came from.  Because of that, we’re going to let you stay.  On one condition.”

A glance at Roman reveals storm clouds in his eyes and a firm set to his jaw.  I really don’t want to know what condition that is, but I suspect he already knows.  He looks at me and through clenched teeth, he says, “She wants us to be bound to one of them.”

A satisfied expression crawls over Mrs. Gregori’s face.  “Correct.”

“Bound?” I gasp.  “As in, we have to do exactly what you tell us to do kind of bound?”  I don’t think I’m game for that.  Taking my chances out in the world without their protection is looking better and better.  “If we say no are you going to let us leave?”

“No.”

My mouth drops open.  “No?  What are you going to do then, kill us.”  The words come out as an accusation, not a question.

Another long moment of silence before she says, “You have until morning to make your choice.  You will either be bound and allowed to stay in this realm until we figure this out, or you will be bound and thrust back behind the veil.”  ‘Where you belong’ is obviously on the tip of her tongue, but she doesn’t say it.  Bound or bound.  Glad we have such great choices. 

One thing is for sure – Roman and I are in this together. 

Roman and I are given armed escorts up to our rooms where I’m hoping to finally get some rest.  I’m pretty sure that this is the longest day in the history of time.  It’s surreal how my life has flipped upside down.  Before my accident, all I wanted to do is be a doctor.  Today, all I want to do is escape into oblivion so no one can find me, provided I can stay alive long enough for that to happen.

I stop at my bedroom door and put my hand on the doorknob.  I turn to Zane.  “Are you going to camp out in front of my door all night?” I ask.

He grins.  “Sorry, no.”

What a relief.  I am going to say that out loud until he says, “I have strict orders from Grams to keep you safe.  From yourself and from him,” he jerks his head towards Roman who is about three seconds away from kicking his ass again, “so I’m coming in with you.”

Exasperated, I say, “Roman is not going to hurt me.  He’s a good man who wouldn’t hurt a fly.”  I hope.  I don’t know why I’m showing him so much loyalty when I’ve been warned against him by the only djinni this family trusts.  But a part of me, however small that part is, does trust him.  It must have something to do with our past together.  Would I run away with him at the moment?  No.  I haven’t worked my way up to that much trust yet.  I still have some doubts about how close we were, but I’m pretty confident he’s not biding his time waiting for an opportunity to kill me.  I wonder if my faith in that has anything to do with my mark.  Probably.

“Yes, because the saitan are known for their bunny like timidity and kitty cat cuddliness,” Brielle says snidely.  “Do you have no sense of your own peril at the moment?”  She shakes her head.  “How have you survived this long?”

I give her a sour look, hoping to match hers.  “Because until just recently, no one was trying to kill me and nobody was holding me prisoner under the pretense of keeping me safe.  Silly me for needing time to adjust to the situation I’ve found myself in.”

She has the decency to look a tiny bit chagrined.  Ignoring me now, she says to Zane, “Do you want the first watch or the second?”

I roll my eyes.  “Oh for god’s sake, this is insane.  You guys do what you want; I’m going to bed.”

Zane grins.  “I’ll take the first watch.”

Roman’s face twists into an expression that could easily pass for psychotic.  “If you lay one hand on her, you’ll answer to me.”

“Yeah, and then you’d have to answer to me,” Brielle says with a wicked gleam in her eye.  “And we’ve already determined that I could kick your ass.”  Wow, was that humor slipping out of her mouth?  She’s actually trying to diffuse the situation.

Roman’s expression downgrades to semi-hostile and he says, “You’d have to leave your gun out of it.”

Brielle looks down at the gun in her hand.  After a moment of silent deliberation, she tucks it in her waistband at her back.  I sure hope she has the safety on.  I don’t think she wants to have Roman dig a bullet out of her ass.

She slumps against the opposite wall from me and says in monolog format while trying to stifle a yawn, “Look guys, I know this sucks.  I planned on helping you, not taking you prisoner, which makes me a total jerk.  Kind of, because you’re actually djinn.  I didn’t have anything to do with that.  And honestly, if I knew that ahead of time, I’m not sure I would have rescued you.  I definitely wouldn’t have brought you here if I did save you.

“You’re not the only ones having a hard time adjusting.  Grams, Zane and I have to rethink everything we thought we knew about the djinn, and that’s going to take some time.  We’ve all been thrown for a loop here and none of us quite knows what to do.”  She sighs.  “As much as I don’t want to admit it, I think you’re telling the truth about Malik being djinn.  I think I’ve always known.  He has too much knowledge of their comings and goings and their customs, and he never tells me anything about himself.  But he’s a good guy, and I trust him.  If he can be good, there has to be other djinn that aren’t so bad.  So I want to give you the benefit of the doubt, okay? 

“Gram’s been doing this for a long time, and she knows a lot of stuff about the djinn.  She’s not trying to be horrible, she’s just being extra careful.  If you guys are bound to one of us, it wouldn’t be so we could control you.  It would be to protect you as much as to protect us.  If you’re bound already, no one else can do that to you.  In that respect, you’d be safer.”

I keep blinking my eyes to make sure I’m not imagining her standing here and saying this.  Ten minutes ago we were the enemy.  Whom she wanted to shoot.  Repeatedly.  Her mood swings are crazier than a killer clown with PMS.  But, she is making sense.  That’s the part I really hate.

I do my own slumping against the wall.  “Brielle, that’s so much to ask.  Would you bind yourself to someone?”

An emotion I don’t recognize flashes on her face and is gone.  Was that guilt or embarrassment or both?  Then it hits me.  I think she’d let Malik mark her.  She really doesn’t care that he’s a djinni; she just didn’t want to admit it.  She is head over heels in love with him and would probably do anything he asked of her.  I sure hope he doesn’t know just exactly how much power he holds over her; she may end up regretting it if he does.

Instead of answering my question, Brielle says, “Why don’t we all sleep on it and see how we feel in the morning.  It’s been a hell of a long day.”

Amen to that.  I stifle my own yawn when I say, “Fine, I’ll see you all in the morning.”  I give a pointed look to Zane which earns me a smug grin. 

“You’re not shaking me that easily,” he says.  Noting the murderous tone to Roman’s demeanor, he adds, “Don’t worry, I’m not going to try anything.  I’ll throw some blankets on the floor.  You’ll hardly even know I’m there.”

I highly doubt that.  I sigh in defeat.  “Fine, but you are sleeping on the floor, so don’t act pathetic about it.” 

He grins.  “Wouldn’t dream of it.”  Uh huh.  I’m not buying that.

“Could I have a minute alone with Skye?” Roman asks through clenched teeth.  With him seething with anger like he is, I’m not sure that I want to be alone with him.  Yet, I know that his anger isn’t directed towards me.

“Five minutes?” I say to Brielle and Zane.

Brielle pushes off from the wall.  “Five minutes.”

“I’ll grab a quick shower and then I’ll be back,” Zane says.  I don’t know if it’s a promise or a threat. 

The brother and sister walk off to their respective rooms and Roman opens my bedroom door.  He extends his hand to me, and I take it.  He leads me into the room and motions for me to sit on the edge of the bed.  He sits next to me.

Pushing my hair over my shoulder, he takes a long look at my mark.  He doesn’t touch it, thank god.  “If I truly am the one who put that mark on you, I can’t image that it was down with any ulterior motive other than to keep you safe.  Brielle said that once you are marked, you cannot be taken by anyone else.”  His blue eyes are pleading with me to believe him.

“Roman, I’m really confused right now.  I can’t imagine you doing something other than protecting me either, but what if we were different when we knew we were djinn.  Malik said I was exiled to the human world to be punished for my crimes.  I can’t imagine committing any crimes that would get me exiled from my
family
.  Neither of us can know what we were like then.”

“Then judge me by how I am now,” he says softly, his voice velvety smooth.  He cups my cheek in his hand and lightly strokes my skin with his thumb.  “From the second I saw you, I knew there was something special about you.  I was struck by your beauty and the way you fought to stay alive.”

I give him a half smile.  “I was a bloody mess and missing half my skin when you first saw me,” I point out.

He chuckles.  “I looked past the blood.”  Sobering again, he says, “I don’t know what connection existed between us in the past, but I haven’t been able to think of anything except you since the night you were admitted.  I am pulled to you by some cosmic force and I crave being close to you.  It feels right to have you in my arms as I did today.  I will prove to you that I can be trusted, and that I’ll do anything in my power to keep you safe.”

“Roman, I’m so confused right now.  I want to trust you, and god knows I’m attracted to you, but I can’t go on blind faith right now.  There’re too many questions rattling around in my head and I need some answers before I can trust anybody.”

He nods in understanding.  “Of course.  I’m not asking you to have blind faith, I’m asking you to give me a chance.  I want to be with you, Skye.”  I don’t think he’s talking about being in the same room. 

I pull back from his touch.  “Roman, I…”

He puts a finger on my lips to shush me.  It makes me want to bite him.  “Don’t say anything right now.  I know you need time, and I’ll give you as much as you need.  I just wanted you to know where I stand.”

He removes his finger from my lips.  “Well, shushing me like that is not going to win you any points,” I say, annoyance ringing in my words.

He tries to look contrite.  He can’t pull it off.  “You’re right, I shouldn’t shush you like that.  I should have done it like this.” 

Before I figure out what he means, his lips are already on mine.  I want to pull away from him since he’s being an egotistical jerk, but I find my traitorous hands are snaking around his neck.  I lean my body into him and his arms move around my back, pulling me closer until there’s no space left between us.  He deepens the kiss and a small moan escapes my throat.

Somehow, my brain kicks in.  Talk about sending someone the wrong signals.  I told him I needed time and here I am getting ready to lay him down on the bed and tear his clothes off.  Instead, I tear my lips from his.  Ignoring the disappointment in his eyes that mirror my own, I put my hands on his chest and push him back slightly.  I can tell he doesn’t want to move, but does anyway.

“Roman, please,” I say while trying to catch my breath. 

He brushes a stray strand of hair behind my ear.  “I guess that wasn’t exactly giving you time.”  He leans forward and softly kisses my forehead then stands up.  “I’ll be next door if you need me.”

I nod and quietly say, “Thank you.”  My cheeks still feel flushed from the kiss.  I still can’t help but wonder how much of that is from my mark. 

As Roman strides towards the door, I just barely glimpse the smug smile on his lips.  I think that has everything to do with the fact that Zane is standing in the doorway.  I’m betting Roman knew he was there when he kissed me.  Great, I feel like Roman just marked me as his again.