Tales of the Djinn: The Guardian (18 page)

What?
Elyse thought, not liking the
sound of that. She almost clicked the “stop” button but restrained
herself.

“Here’s the thing,” he said, leaning forward
across his knees so that his face came closer. “Your life might
depend on what I’m about to tell you, so take a deep breath and
hear me out. First off, know that I really love you. Our marriage
might have started out as a way to get information—” Elyse bit her
thumbnail and kept watching “—but you’re a seriously nice woman.
You’re fun and you’re sweet and, believe me, I know I don’t deserve
you.” He pulled an ironic face. “
Didn’t
deserve you, I
guess. Anyway—”

His voice had roughened. He dragged his palms
down his cheeks, obviously working to compose himself. “There’s so
much to tell you. I guess it starts with your Grandpa Saul. You
know how weird your Uncle Vince gets when anyone mentions him? Like
he wants to say something bad but has to keep whatever it is to
himself?”

Though David couldn’t see her, Elyse nodded.
She’d chalked up the behavior to sibling rivalry.

“Your dad and your Grandpa Saul were extra
close. Kindred spirits, as people say. Even as a kid, your dad
would hang out at the Solomon bookstore and help with customers.
Vince was the younger brother and not much of a bookworm. I suppose
he felt left out, especially when Saul wouldn’t let Vince in on his
‘Big Secret.’”

What secret?
Elyse wondered. In the
video, David put on his sincerest face.

“I know this will be hard for you to believe,
but stick with me, honey. Before the brownstone was built, this
address used to be a freemasons lodge. That burned down, but one of
the Grand Poobahs held onto his hush-hush papers and what have you.
When he finally kicked the bucket, your grandpa bought his
collection for the bookstore, which is when he discovered some
crazy stuff.

“There’s another world, Elyse, just out of
sight from ours. I guess a scientist would call it an
interpenetrating dimension. The people who live there are called
the djinn—genies, to you and me. They know a lot about us, but most
of us humans—Westerners, anyway—think they’re only characters from
cartoons. Their world is sort of like ours and sort of not. For one
thing, it’s filled with riches. You could walk into a djinn orchard
and, instead of fruit growing on the trees, you might find
emeralds. The djinn have powers we’d call magic. They can change
into animals or turn to smoke and actually get stuck in bottles
when people know the right spells. If they get into our reality,
they can do magic too—not as much as in their homeland but plenty
compared to us. The thing is, they can only get through at certain
energetic points, where the separation between the dimensions
thins. One of those points is under this brownstone. That’s why
Saul bought it. The freemasons drew on its energy for their
rituals, but he believed the power nexus could do more. Your
grandfather and your father made a lifelong project of trying to
open a portal, so they could travel to the djinn world. And here’s
the God’s honest truth . . .

“Your dad succeeded.”

David looked straight at her through the
screen. He was totally serious. Elyse pressed her hand to her
mouth.

“It’s true, Elyse. Cara thinks he used his
job at Solomon Imports to search for clues in countries where the
djinn travel back and forth more frequently. Your dad certainly had
a knack for finding magical artifacts. He left quite a few hiding
in plain sight in your living room. This isn’t me getting carried
away with one of my enthusiasms. I’ve actually seen them work.

“Your Uncle Vince knows about this stuff too.
As a kid, he eavesdropped on Saul and Leo. As an adult, he did his
own research, sometimes retracing Leo’s tracks, sometimes taking
his own sidetrips. He told Cara he knew the first time Leo crossed
into the djinn dimension. Claimed he could see the excitement in
his eyes afterward. I don’t know exactly when he confronted your
dad about it. I do know your dad admitted he’d cracked the secret
to the door but wouldn’t let Vince have access. He didn’t trust
Vince not to abuse it. Leo was all about the wonder. Meeting the
different djinn. Being their friend. Learning about their world. I
don’t think he was as distrustful of Vince as your grandfather, but
Leo did accuse your uncle of wanting to steal the djinn’s
treasures, of wanting to use their magic to get unfair advantages
here.”

David hitched his shoulders. “From what I’ve
seen, that’s probably true. Your Uncle Vince is kind of ambitious.
I admit, the power angle was how Cara roped me into courting you
after your father died, to find out what you knew. She remembered
from college that I was into the paranormal. We’d stay up after
everyone in the house, talking ghosts and psychics over cheap wine.
That was all it was, though. We never did sleep together, but she
thought I was the type you’d go for. Before I met you, I’d never
had anyone just love me and not be out for their own interest. You
made me want to be decent, to be the man you thought I was. It’s no
excuse, but I was afraid if I told you the truth, those feelings
would go away. Hell, I was afraid if I didn’t keep the charm going
on the magic poetry book, they would. I’m sorrier than I can I say,
Elyse. I wish I weren’t too much of a coward to tell you this face
to face.”

He did look sorry, though Elyse had trouble
swallowing what he said. Maybe she didn’t want to swallow it. Him
saying Cara “roped” him into courting her put a big enough lump in
her throat. The David in the video cleared his.

“Ironically,” he said, “Cara figuring out I
love you is what makes me think my life might be in danger. Aside
from it bugging the hell out of her, she doesn’t trust me like
before. When I swear you don’t know your dad’s secret, I can tell
she thinks I’m lying. She thinks
we’re
in cahoots together,
and keeping it from her and her dad. She knows how much Leo loved
you, and she assumes he must have shared what he knew with you. I
think he meant to. I think he would have if he hadn’t feared the
truth would put you in danger.”

David heaved a sigh. “Please listen to this
bit, sweetie, even if you doubt everything else I said. That thing
with your dad falling into the volcano is just too damned crazy. I
don’t have proof, but I think maybe Vince arranged to have your
father killed before he got the chance to share the truth with you.
He must have thought that without your dad around to block him,
he’d be able to find the secret to controlling the door himself. He
must not have expected Leo to lock it up so effectively. You can’t
trust him, Elyse, and you can’t trust Cara either. I only pray you
trust me because, honey, I’ll love you forever.”

A single tear rolled from his eye and down
his cheek. He tipped his glasses up to rub it away. “Okay,” he
said. “I guess that’s it. I don’t know if you’ll want to try to
open the nexus yourself or get the hell out of Dodge. Either way,
if there is such a thing as an afterlife, I’ll do whatever I can to
look out for you. Bless you, Elyse. You’re the best thing that ever
happened to me in my whole sorry life.”

The video ended, leaving Elyse stunned and
crying a bit herself. She hadn’t known her husband thought of his
life as sorry. She’d understood his parents were kind of horrid,
the sort who hurt without hitting. The few anecdotes he’d shared
hadn’t been detailed.
They’re the past
, he’d said.
Not
worth ruining the present thinking about
. Maybe they’d damaged
him more than she’d realized.

She wiped her cheeks. David’s upbringing
didn’t explain a wholesale descent into delusion. On the other
hand, if this crazy account were true, David’s interest in hearing
stories about
her
father made a new kind of sense. As did
Cara pretending to dislike him. And her uncle’s offers to “help”
her manage the brownstone.

Come to think of it, Arcadius had encouraged
her to talk about her dad over dinner. Was he trying to control the
mythical door as well? Was that why he and Joseph rented the
apartment?

God, her brain was going to explode. She
snapped the laptop shut and stood. Before she could decide what to
do, Arcadius appeared on the threshold.

She didn’t think that was a coincidence.

~

Arcadius lied when he said he’d wait in the
living room. He
had
to know what was on David’s recording.
The potential fallout for himself and his city was too great.
Because of that, he didn’t feel guilty for lurking in the hall
listening. A little embarrassed, maybe, and worried for Elyse.

When he stepped into the doorway, she spun
around in the office chair. He met her accusatory glare
stoically.

“Are you after this door thing too? Have you
convinced yourself there’s a real djinn world you can steal magic
from?”

He’d braced himself for anger. Elyse’s
misinterpretation of his position momentarily tied his tongue.
“Elyse, I
am
a djinni,” he said once he recovered. “I’m here
because my city is in danger, and I need to get back to it.”

“Oh. My. God.” Elyse slapped the heels of her
palms over both her eyes. “You’re crazier than I thought.”

“I’m not crazy. I had to escape a grave
danger, one that would have rendered me useless for helping my
people. To prevent that from happening, I projected part of myself
into your world.”

“The part that, coincidentally, looks like a
regular human being?”

“I looked human before. Many djinn do in
their daily form. Unfortunately, my projection can’t get home
without your father’s door.”

“Arcadius,” Elyse said, enunciating
precisely. “There is no such thing as djinn. Consequently, you are
not one.”

Considering what had transpired last night,
Arcadius hadn’t expected convincing her would be hard. Were humans
truly this good at denial?

“Elyse,” he said. “Don’t you remember what
happened in the limo?”

“You told me what happened. There was an
accident. We were thrown clear and I passed out.”

“What about before you passed out? Don’t you
remember what you saw?”

Uneasiness crossed her face, but a moment
later it tightened stubbornly. “I saw the white van speeding toward
us down the cross street. After that, everything is blank.”

Her husband’s office was small. Arcadius
reached Elyse in two strides. Frowning, she craned her neck at him
from the swiveling chair.

“I know you’re scared,” he said gently. “But
I also know you’re not fragile. It’s important that you not run
away from your own knowledge. You saw me, Elyse. You saw me change
into my smoke form. You screamed bloody murder, as it happens.
That’s
what made you pass out. I pulled you from the limo
before the crash, which is why neither of us was hurt. I flew you
home far above the city.”

“The Chrysler Building . . .”

“Yes, I expect we passed that.”

Elyse stuck her thumbnail between her teeth.
“People don’t turn to smoke,” she said less surely than before.
“And sometimes otherwise rational people hallucinate nutty things.
They catch beliefs from each other. Like UFOs or Bigfoot. That’s
how mass hysteria works.”

He let out his breath slowly. “What if I
showed you?”

“You can’t.”

Possibly he couldn’t but he could try. “Watch
my hand,” he said, holding it out flat in front of her.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. Back
home, this would have been as easy as a human standing up or
sitting. He told himself the power was within him and ready. He
simply had to find the right metaphysical muscles to direct.

The surface of his hand tingled, heat
beginning to radiate outward. Matter was mostly empty space. Solids
and gases were simply different energetic states. He fed more
energy into his, imagining soft black smoke supplanting flesh and
bone.

Elyse gasped like a rifle shot.

He looked down. He’d done it. A dark gray
cloud-hand swirled at the end of his arm. Its shape was blurred but
identifiable. He curled his smoky fingers then opened them one by
one.

“This is my other form,” he said. “What I
look like out of my human shape.”

He reached toward her. Elyse shrank back
before he could make contact. Her eyes were huge, her lips
trembling visibly.

“This won’t hurt,” he said. “This is what I
used to carry you from danger.”

He brushed her cheek lightly. He knew she
felt the subtle magnetic touch because she immediately kicked the
rolling chair back from him.

“I can’t do this,” she said, jumping up from
the seat. “I have to get out of here.”

“Elyse—”

She paused at the threshold. “I’m sorry. I
don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but I can’t be this close to you.
I need a chance to . . . process all of this.”

Arcadius assured himself being hurt was
irrelevant. He had to focus on what mattered. “You’re not safe on
your own, Elyse. Last night’s crash wasn’t an accident. I believe
someone meant to harm us both.”

Her already wide eyes widened. “I won’t go
far,” she said, her voice almost too breathy to understand. “I just
can’t stay here right now.”

~

Elyse wanted to run screaming from the
building and hire the first cab she saw to drive her to Canada. She
settled for the shared hallway on her floor, with the door to her
apartment shut firmly behind her. She couldn’t get the hell out of
Dodge anyway.

She’d left her purse back in the living
room.

Her panicked laugh stayed mostly in her
throat.

She must be the stupidest woman in Creation,
either for giving any credence to David’s story or for not
suspecting all along.

Could her father have discovered a secret
world and not told her? Was Arcadius actually a genie? Maybe she’d
hallucinated what he’d done to his hand. People’s minds could play
tricks on them. Look how she
almost
recalled being flown
across Manhattan now that he’d planted the idea in her head.