“Stop.” Jai puled back, his hands sliding off her and bracing the tree on either side of her head. She felt his heavy warm breath puff against her face as he tried to gain some control. Ari’s nerves had snapped one by one, her whole body trembling, and she did not want to stop.
“I’m so over this whole going slow thing, Jai,” she complained.
He laughed humorlessly and reached down to press a tentative kiss against her lips. “Me too. But we can’t here.” He narrowed his eyes, perhaps at the thought of having to wait to be with her. “This assignment needs to be over tomorrow.”
Ari shook her head. “No, you need your own room again and I need to be sneaking in and out of it.”
Pushing off the tree, Jai rubbed a shaky hand over his head and smiled affectionately down at her. Ari could now identify that wondrous look in his eyes as love.
“When we get back to Jersey I’m getting my own place and we are teling everyone that you are mine. Okay? I don’t care who knows. I don’t care about the dangers.
I want everyone to know that you’re mine.”
Ari nodded, loving the sound of that. “Yours. And you’re mine?”
He gave her a swift kiss before throwing his arm over her shoulders to lead her back to the house. “Always. And no backsies.”
Ari laughed softly, loving this playful side of him. “You’d have to be ripped from my cold, dead hands before I’d ever give you back, Jai Bitar.”
He squeezed her closer. “Back at you, Ms. Johnson… but I would have put it more eloquently. Without the creepy imagery.”
“Oh sure. ‘Cause you’re al about the words.”
“Anyone ever tel you, you’ve got a smart mouth?” he growled, tickling her waist.
Ari tried to hush a squeal as she puled away from him laughing. “Stop,” she huffed, trying to unsuccessfuly grab at his tickling fingers.
Grinning wickedly, Jai ceased tickling her and tugged her roughly against him, his arms tight around her waist. “You gonna watch that mouth of yours?”
“You watch it,” she replied saucily.
His expression almost solemn now, Jai leaned down to kiss her, his words whispering across her mouth before their lips touched, “Oh, I’ve been watching it since the day I first saw you.”
16 - Honor does not Know of Good or Evil
The White King had never loved Sala but he’d thought of her as his. An Ifrit with powers of seduction even greater than the Succubus Lilif Jinn, Sala could entrance a human man with just one look. To be able to seduce a Jinn, a Lilif had to have something extra special, extra charm and sensuality, to penetrate the defensive magic of one of her own.
Sala wasn’t even a Lilif and she could charm the harem pants off any Jinn.
Of course her eyes, eyes shared by their daughter, had drawn White to her when he’d encountered her on a trip to Marrakesh. A fairly old and extremely powerful Ifrit, Sala of course was reluctant to give up her freedom and join him in Mount Qaf as part of his harem. That only made him want her more. She was stubborn, inteligent, chalenging. However, she was inteligent enough to know that she was no match for a Jinn King. White stole her from herself, placed her as his favorite in his harem, al the while plotting to use her against Asmodeus.
But White’s arrogance was what had gotten him into trouble, and he could admit that to himself now. So pleased with himself upon acquiring such a find as the beautiful Sala, he’d not only flouted her before Asmodeus in the hope of sparking his interest, he’d paraded her before his brothers.
And Red could not resist.
White had learned of Red and Sala’s affair. He liked to believe he knew everything that went on around him. Unable to punish his brother for the transgression, he’d beaten Sala into submission, and when she was wel again, he’d thrown her at Asmodeus, and even the lofty Lieutenant had succumbed to her seduction.
Love was the one thing he had not accounted for. It had not even occurred to White that Red would have been foolish enough to fal in love with Sala, and to then enlist the help of Glass to save her from her imprisonment. White refused to believe Sala actualy had any feelings for Red. His brother was nothing compared to him.
Nothing.
He had to find Sala. He wanted to flail her to nothing too and then stick her back in the damn bottle where she belonged. Only this time she’d be dead.
She was proving elusive, but there was that word again. Love. He had not realized that Sala had such a deep attachment for their daughter. He could understand it to a certain extent. Ari was extraordinary for a human-raised child. He liked to believe she had much of him within her. Sala loved the child. Everything she’d done up until this point was to protect the child, which meant she was stil protecting her. White was sure where Ari went, Sala would folow.
A hiss and a slight breeze blowing against the fabric swathed around his window, fabric that had only moments ago been perfectly stil, alerted White to his visitor.
He turned slowly, his insides churning with an impatience that quickly transformed to irritation when his black gaze clashed with The Shadow King’s equaly dark one.
His long black hair was wound back in a braid and his robes had been replaced by a leather vest and trousers. It was his warrior’s garb. White tried to be intrigued but… Shadow was such a bore.
“What?” he asked blandly. “I am a little busy, brother, if you don’t mind.” He gestured to the door for him to leave.
Shadow made a face at him, that petulant look of barely concealed hurt that he’d never managed to rid himself of since childhood. “Actualy I do mind.” Shadow marched determinedly towards him, his eyes glittering with some kind of triumph. “Red came to see me. He said something to me, and although I would quite like to rip his larynx out through his nose, there is a smal chance that he may have had a point.”
Growing steadily more annoyed by Shadow’s presence, White quirked an eyebrow as if to say ‘And?’
“His point being that I sit around and wait for you to tel me what to do. Wel, no more, brother. I have a stake in the outcome of this war too.”
“You intend to make me your enemy?”
“No, of course not. Contrary to popular belief I am no fool. In fact, my little spies tel me you have discovered Sala escaped from her prison.”
A flare of anger cut across his chest. White realy didn’t want to be reminded of his failing. Pretending indifference, he shrugged. “Your point?”
“Wel, my spies also tel me you were going to use Sala as a peace offering to Ari. To encourage her to help you.”
“Who are these spies of yours, and who have they been talking to?” White would have to kil them immediately.
As if his thoughts had been spoken aloud, Shadow smiled at his brother. “I wil tel you who within your palace likes to gossip if you wil listen to my idea.”
“Fine.”
“You need to kidnap Ari’s guardian. Jai Bitar. Use him to bargain with her.”
Trying not to sigh condescendingly and failing miserably, White turned away from his brother, his body language teling Shadow he was done. “If you knew anything you would know that Ari can no longer be bargained with by threatening the lives of those around her.”
“You are thinking of the sorcerer. Charlie, is it? Because Ari turned down your offer to save him at the trial?”
Strangely, White remembered her reply to his offer with an inward smile. Her strength of character was to be admired and her old-fashioned sense of honor almost made a father proud. “She has proven she cannot be swayed.”
“I believe when it comes to a certain Ginnaye, she can be.”
Casting him a wary look over his shoulder, White nodded at him to continue.
“My spies watched an intimate scene between Ari and Jai only hours ago. They declared passionate love for one another, brother.” He smirked, obviously pleased with himself. “The words that were spoken lead me to believe that your daughter wil do anything for that Jinn.”
Not one to swalow information such as this so easily, White narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Ari can feel Jinn hiding in the Cloak. How did your spy even get close enough to witness such a scene?”
“I used a human, White.” Shadow clucked his tongue disapprovingly at him. “You know for someone who is so bent on trying to maintain the balance of this world and theirs, you are awful prejudice against mortals. They have their uses you know.”
Flicking his comment aside as if it were a mere fly, White felt the tightness in his chest gain some relief. If this was true… “You are sure? Ari and the Ginnaye are secretly together? She loves him? Enough to do anything to save him?”
“I believe the words ‘I wil only ever belong to you’ were used.”
White snorted. “Sounds… serious.”
“Oh I think serious enough for our purposes.”
White sighed, thinking, “I would wait until I could get him alone but he never leaves Ari’s side. So I wil need to arrange for the two to be alone and grab him and get the hel out of there before she can command me to do stop.”
“How do you hope to accomplish that?”
“By putting them in a situation that requires him to take Ari somewhere safe. Somewhere they need to be alone.” White offered Shadow a smal smile as a plan began to form. “And I think we should irritate father while we’re at it.”
He took a moment to lay out his thoughts to Shadow. When he was done, his brother was frowning. “Is that not a little risky? Ari could come to harm.”
White shook his head. “Not if we plan this out to the very last detail. Plus, I’m counting on something I never counted on before.”
“And what is that?”
White grinned now, feeling more energized than he had in weeks. “A mother’s love for her child.”
“You’re a difficult being to find, Kadeen,” The Red King announced softly as he prowled into the cave. It was buried deep in the Tibetan mountains near Mount Kailash. Red appreciated the significance of the location. In Hinduism, Mount Kailash was considered to be a place of eternal bliss.
Kadeen realy had grown tired of the Jinn world.
Kadeen gazed back at him calmly, his pale blue eyes startling in the candlelight. Red had to give it to him, the Marid had made the place quite comfortable. The stone floors were covered inch by inch with thick Moroccan carpets and oil paintings had been nailed to the craggy wals. Old English furniture scattered the large space, including a huge, ornately carved four poster bed that sat in the middle of the room with a sort of majesty one did not expect to find in a cave. “Clearly not that difficult to find,” Kadeen answered smoothly, gesturing to the armchair in front of him.
Red smiled at his answer and sat down. He hadn’t bothered to change out of his preferred jeans and t-shirt for Kadeen. If he remembered correctly, Kadeen hadn’t realy been one for tradition. “Perhaps you were easier to find than I thought you’d be. Your daughter was most forthcoming.”
At the mention of his only child, Kadeen narrowed his eyes on Red. “I told her that if a Jinn King ever demanded my whereabouts she was to tel him the truth. My sanctuary is not worth her life.”