djinn wars 03 - fallen Read online

  Just another question I’d have to ask when the world wasn’t constantly shifting around me.

  I shot him an inquiring look, and he went on,

  “Lindsay is a tough girl. I’ve seen that in her. But now she feels she can’t open herself up to any weakness.”

  “Grieving isn’t weakness.”

  “You know that. I know that as well, but what we don’t know is what might have happened in Lindsay’s past that’s informing her reactions now. All we can do is be there for her when she needs us.”

  “If she needs us,” I pointed out in gloomy tones, tightening my grip on the leash when Dutchie spied a large crow sitting on a fence post and began to charge.

  “She will.” At another time, he might have taken the leash from me, since the dog was clearly feeling her oats on this brisk March afternoon, but with his strength sapped the way it was, he knew I could probably handle Dutchie better. He added, watching as I hauled the dog back to a more manageable distance, “Or, at the very least, she’ll need someone.”

  I nodded. At the same time, I couldn’t help wondering who that “someone” might be.

  We went to fetch Julia at a little before seven. For some reason, I was feeling almost nervous, which I tried to tell myself was silly. I understood trying to distract myself and everything, but surely I had better things to do with my time and mental energy than create attractions where there were none.

  When she came out to meet us, though, I felt my eyes widen. Yes, I’d brushed my hair, put on some lip gloss, changed into a nicer sweater, but I’d never done much more than that in the past to prepare for dinner. If I’d sent the primping into overdrive this evening, Jace might have asked what prompted the extra attention. “Because we’re on a double date” didn’t seem like a very good answer.

  But Julia was wearing a long flowy skirt and a snug-fitting knit top, with some expensive-looking turquoise jewelry at her throat and on her wrists. Her warm honey-colored hair flowed over her shoulders, and although she wasn’t wearing any makeup besides mascara and gloss, she still looked polished in a way I wasn’t sure I ever had.

  “Wow,” I said.

  She brushed a hand over her skirt. “I hope it isn’t too much. Lauren came by this afternoon and asked me if I wanted to go down to the plaza with her so I could pick out a few more things. It was…fun.”

  Well, I wouldn’t argue with that. Julia Innes was definitely a person who needed some more fun in her life. And if a few hours of going through the boutiques in downtown Taos and choosing things she probably wouldn’t have been able to afford in her old life was how she needed to get her fun, then bless her. And bless Lauren for thinking of it. I was a little surprised that Zahrias had let her go this afternoon.

  Or maybe the whole thing had been Zahrias’ idea….

  “No, it’s perfect,” I said hastily. “A lot of the djinn women have pretty fancy clothes, so I wouldn’t say it’s too much.”

  “You look lovely, Julia,” Jace put in. A wicked glint entered his eyes, and he added, “Perhaps you could give Jessica a few hints. I don’t think I’ve seen her in a skirt since Thanksgiving.”

  Which was only the truth. I teased, “Gee, honey, I’m sorry I wasn’t wearing a pencil skirt and four-inch stilettos when I went out to milk the goats.”

  He laughed then and planted a kiss on my cheek. “My darling, you are perfect no matter what you wear. But now we should go, or we’ll be late.”

  “Can’t have that,” I said lightly, but it was true enough. I didn’t want Zahrias to think we were running late because of something Julia had done.

  Even so, he was already there when we got to the dining area. Because he was Zahrias, he’d taken one of the choice tables, the ones half-hidden by the trees growing in planters off to one side, giving the diners sitting there much more privacy.

  He stood when we approached. “It’s very good to see you…Julia.”

  From the way he’d tacked her first name on there at the end, I guessed that he’d almost slipped and called her “Ms. Innes.” She appeared not to notice, however, and smiled before saying, “This is a lovely dining area.”

  “Well, if you have to hole up somewhere to ride out the apocalypse, best to choose a five-star resort,” I remarked as Jace pulled out a chair for me so I could sit down. I decided not to comment on the way Zahrias had barely greeted the two of us, his attention clearly on Julia instead.

  Even though I’d thought I was being circumspect, Zahrias’ expression turned almost sour at my comment. Apparently noting how Jace had helped me into my seat, the djinn leader began to do the same for Julia. Almost at once she demurred, saying,

  “Thank you, Zahrias, but I know what Miles’s device does to a djinn’s strength. Please, sit down.”

  He didn’t protest, but instead said smoothly, “If you wish. I will confess that it’s something of a relief not to have to explain my…condition…to you.”

  She didn’t seem to know how to respond to that, so she offered Zahrias a hesitant smile before seating herself. Jace and I busied ourselves getting settled, and while I was putting my napkin on my lap, Zahrias picked up the open bottle of wine from the table and poured some into Julia’s glass. It was a red; I hoped she wouldn’t mind that, since I’d only seen her drink white wine back in Los Alamos.

  But she thanked him, and he handed the bottle to Jace so he could pour wine for himself and me. After that, we seemed to be more or less set. I wondered, as Zahrias picked up his own glass, whether he would offer some kind of toast, and what it would be. Apparently he’d decided that wouldn’t be appropriate, for whatever reason, so after a brief nod, he took a sip of wine, with the rest of us immediately following suit.

  “Although this used to be a restaurant, it no longer truly functions like one,” he told Julia, who seemed to be enjoying the red wine just fine. Or maybe it was the company that had brought the faint curve to her lips. “We are lucky enough that one of our Chosen used to be a chef, so he creates a fixed meal each evening. Tonight it is a dish he called barbacoa.”

  I felt a little pang when I heard what we were eating, then reassured myself that at least our own goats were safe in Los Alamos. Where Phillip, our resident chef, had gotten his hands on the ones that had become our dinner, I didn’t know. But it was surprising what you could scrounge within the half-mile radius allowed by the device’s field of effect.

  “Sounds wonderful,” Julia said. Her eyes seemed to scan the former restaurant, taking in the Chosen and their djinn. Except for a few cases, they mostly sat together as couples. I did notice Lindsay sitting with Dani and Lauren, and a little stir of relief went through me. It seemed like a bit of progress for Lindsay to be out and about, and I was impressed that Lauren had coaxed her into it. Or maybe that had been Dani’s doing. In his own way, he was just as persuasive as she was. “You seem to have a smooth-running setup here.”

  A shadow passed over Zahrias’ face. He was probably thinking it had been a lot smoother before some of his own kind went rogue and we had to use Miles’s device to protect ourselves. However, he only said, “We do what we can. And of course our community is much smaller than the one at Los Alamos. How many do you have there now?”

  If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought he was merely making polite dinner conversation. Jace and I had made our own reports after we returned to Taos, but of course Julia had access to far more detailed information than we did.

  And of course she was far from stupid. She knew what he was asking. A brief hesitation, as if weighing her possible responses, and then she said calmly, “It was just over a thousand at our last census. I doubt it has grown any since then, with the way your people are hunting down the few survivors who are left.”

  Zahrias’ brows drew together, but his voice was level enough as he replied, “I have no control over their actions, Ms. Innes.”

  I doubted he had used that form of address by accident, and I shifted in my seat, wondering how she was going to react
.

  Her expression didn’t change, however. “I know you don’t,” she said. But even as she spoke, her words sounded tinged with disappointment, as if she’d halfway hoped he would have been able to do something to prevent the djinn from carrying out their own final solution.

  I wished it were that easy. If Zahrias had been in charge of all the djinn, then things would have turned out very differently. Unfortunately, he held the same minority opinion as the rest of his people here in Taos. And now, without access to his powers…I supposed I should just be glad that most of the djinn in his community saw no reason to rebel against his decrees.

  Beside me, Jace stirred. “Julia, every day we think of that tragedy, and hate that we can’t do anything to prevent it. But we have to think of our own survival now.”

  She nodded, then sipped at her wine. “Yes, those other djinn have broken their pact, haven’t they? That is, it sounded to me, from what I heard, that the Chosen were supposed to be left alone.”

  “They were,” Jace said. He drank as well, although I could tell he didn’t expect the wine to banish any of his memories of the djinn who had attacked us on the road back to Taos, who had killed Evony and Ethan. “And we still know nothing of our Chosen who volunteered to go to Los Alamos to see why it was suddenly blocked from our vision.”

  “They never got there,” she told him. Her gaze flicked to Zahrias, who had been listening to them, brows knitted in a frown. He looked quite fearsome when he did that, but she didn’t seem to notice. “I’m sure I would have heard of it if Margolis had captured any human survivors. That was” — she stopped then, and I thought I saw a brief shiver go through her — “that was back when he still trusted me. I would have known.”

  I glanced upward, although it wasn’t the ceiling of wood beams and skylights I was really looking at. “It had to have been them.”

  “We don’t know that for sure,” Jace began, but Zahrias interrupted,

  “No, we don’t know, but I think it is the most likely possibility. And after what happened to Clay and Martine and Aidan….” He let the words die away. Most likely he didn’t see any need to go into detail. The memories were horrific enough.

  But Julia didn’t have those memories. Head tilting to one side, she began, “Clay and Martine — ”

  “And Aidan,” I finished for her. My eyes roved the crowd until I spotted Lilias and her consort, barely visible through the ficus trees that shielded us from the main part of the dining room. “Over there, to the left. The dark-haired djinn woman and the man with the scars on his face.”

  Julia followed my gaze. I saw her eyes widen and guessed that she’d just spotted Aidan, had noted the wounds that would forever disfigure him. “They — the rogue djinn — did that?”

  “And killed Clay, and took Martine,” Zahrias said. Right then he sounded very tired. Up to this point, he’d done a very good job of concealing the exhaustion that must haunt his every waking moment, but maybe having to revisit the horror of what had happened to three of his people had done its work in sapping his energy. “They were not here when the djinn attacked and Jessica triggered the device, so they were unprotected. You see what that bought them.”

  “My God.”

  At that inopportune moment, Phillip stepped out into the dining room to announce that the food was ready.

  “We eat buffet-style here,” I explained. “Phillip has a few helpers in the kitchen, but no one really wants to wait tables all night. It’s easier this way.”

  She nodded, even as her gaze drifted to Zahrias. “Would you — would you like me to get a plate for you? I know that exertion can be…difficult.”

  A long pause, as he watched her carefully. I didn’t know about Jace, but I was almost holding my breath.

  But then Zahrias nodded, saying, “That would be most gracious of you.”

  Jace and I looked at each other. Although I’d learned that it was considered somewhat rude for a djinn and his Chosen — or two djinn who were currently bonded — to engage in mental conversation in front of company, I couldn’t help myself.

  Jace, are you thinking what I’m thinking?

  Beloved, I am thinking that whatever you’re thinking is entirely premature.

  I flashed a grin at him, then stood up. “Come on, Julia. Let’s get the menfolk some vittles.”

  And then we both began to laugh as Jace and Zahrias exchanged a look of utter puzzlement.

  The next day was the farewell for Rafi. Since the ground had thawed slightly, we were able to bury him, earth elemental that he was, in a cemetery that luckily was located within the safe zone. Although we’d all shared a remarkably relaxed dinner the night before, this morning Zahrias seemed to take little notice of Julia as she stood with Jace and me. Then again, he was having to say farewell to a member of his community, one of his own.

  He’d positioned himself next to Lindsay, and Lauren and Dani were on her other side. Standing a little ways off from the crowd was Miles Odekirk. The bright sun glinted off his glasses, so it was hard to read his expression. Had he come merely because he’d thought it was expected? Or had he thought he might be able to get a read from Lindsay as to when she’d be ready to go back to work?

  As it turned out, that was sooner than anyone had expected. The morning after Rafi’s farewell, she headed straight to the lab. I wouldn’t have even known for a while, except that Julia had been there talking to Miles when Lindsay showed up.

  “She went right up to Miles and said, ‘I’m ready,’” Julia told me over lunch. The “menfolk” were having some sort of convo with Phillip, and so I’d been left to my own devices. We’d taken our food back to my suite, since neither of us really felt like eating in the main dining room.

  “And what did he do?”

  A grimace. “It’s Miles. What do you think he did?”

  Not knowing Miles as well as Julia did, I could only shrug.

  “He barely looked up from his laptop. Then he told her, ‘Good. I have some calculations I want you to run through the simulator.’” She shook her head and picked up her sandwich. “Which could be Miles’s equivalent of a bear hug. But I think he seemed marginally glad to see her.”

  I couldn’t help chuckling a little. “Well, here’s hoping his utter emotional cluelessness is exactly what she needs to get through all this.”

  Julia was laughing as well, reaching for her iced tea, when an unearthly hooting sound began to fill the building. She paused, frowning. “What’s that? The fire alarm?”

  It took me a moment, just because I’d only heard that sound once before. Miles had set it up only a few days after he came to Taos, saying that we needed some kind of warning system, just in case.

  Warning system….

  “Oh, my God.”

  Julia stared at me. “What is it? Jessica!”

  It was hard to form the words. I could actually feel the ice of fear working its way along my veins, seeming to prevent me from replying. But I made myself force the words out, even though saying them aloud seemed only to make the fear that much more real.

  “It’s the alarm for Miles’s device,” I told her, and watched as comprehension began to grow in Julia’s big blue-gray eyes.

  “It’s failed. It’s not protecting us anymore.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  I heard running feet in the hallway outside, and then Jace burst into the suite. “Jessica — ”

  “I know,” I told him. “What are we going to do?”

  “Protect ourselves,” he said. His gaze flicked to Julia and then back to me. “At least all of us djinn are now in possession of our powers, so we are not completely helpless.”

  “But they take time to come back all the way!”

  His mouth tightened. I could tell he didn’t care to be reminded of that fact. “Still, it is better than nothing. And our Chosen are also arming themselves.”

  “With what?” Julia asked, voice jangling with fear. “Guns? What good is that going to do against djinn?”
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br />   “More than you’d think,” I replied. “I saw it myself when our caravan was attacked on the way back from Los Alamos. Bullets can’t kill them, but they do slow them down. And if they’re hit enough times, they have to blink out of here to go back where they came from and heal.”

  “Precisely,” Jace said. “Zahrias wants us all together in the dining hall. We’ll make our stand there.”

  I nodded. My own pistol was sitting on the top shelf of the closet, so I went to retrieve it, along with as much spare ammo as I could shove in my pockets.

  “I don’t know how to shoot,” Julia said in a small voice that didn’t sound like hers.

  Jace managed a smile. “That’s all right. Plenty of other people here do. You’ll be protected.”

  She didn’t look precisely encouraged. However, all she did was nod. I called to Dutchie — maybe she would have been safer staying in the suite, but no way was I leaving her behind — and we all hurried out into the corridor and into the dining area where the rest of the Taos contingent was congregating.

  As we joined the group, I kept shooting wary glances up at the ceiling, wondering if the djinn were going to attack by breaking through the skylights like something out of a superhero movie. Everything seemed intact so far, though.

  I wasn’t the only one doing that, either — I saw other Chosen darting those same suspicious looks upward, even as they clutched the rifles and shotguns and pistols they’d brought with them. And the djinn — well, they looked worried, but also more robust than I’d seen them in weeks, color returned to cheeks, flames dancing around the fire elementals among them, an unseen wind fluttering the hair of the air elementals.

  And Zahrias, face dark with anger as Miles and a white-faced Lindsay hurried into the restaurant area. They were still at least ten feet away when he thundered, “What foolishness is this?”