Wish Me Nothing Read online

  Vaughn stumbled to keep up with him, but his legs and lungs were only human. When they got to the boardwalk he stopped to catch his breath.

  “What are you waiting for? The crossing guard? Here’s a tip, Vaughn. School is out and he wants our asses on a platter!” Ar pointed to the stranger shortening the distance between them.

  Something inside Vaughn cracked. He didn’t know if false bravado or just plain stupidity urged him on, but at this point he couldn’t really care. “I have no fucking idea what you are, but I’m of the homo sapiens species and I need air!”

  “You can breathe when you’re safe, damn it.” Ar grabbed Vaughn and threw him over his shoulder. Vaughn grasped Ar’s waist with his fists, balancing to stay on the massive brute.

  He craned his neck and noticed a blur of blue gaining on them. Thank God the beach house resided just on the other side of the boardwalk, whatever good getting there would do. This guy seemed pissed enough to take the whole house down.

  Vaughn heard a loud cracking noise and then they tumbled across the floor in the sitting room. He jumped to his feet, ignoring the additional aches and pains to his body and peered out the now open doorway with the door in pieces, completely destroyed.

  “How the hell do we lock him out now? We made it here for nothing!”

  He glared at Ar, who took a step toward him, then halted.

  “Doors won’t keep him out. Did he hurt you? You okay?”

  “I’ll probably have a bruised ass, but I’ll live.” Vaughn squat— ted at the window to peek through the horizontal wood blinds.

  Yeah, ducking behind some wimpy glass eased his fear a bit. “I don’t see him. Where’d he go?”

  “It’s not where he went; it’s where we went. Back when I acquired this property for us I put an incantation on the house.

  Only humans and I can sense it and enter it. He just witnessed us disappearing in front of him on a sandy beach. He no doubt can figure what just happened, but there’s not a damn thing he can do about it. Probably on his way back to the others to plot out his next move.”

  “Spell? Others? Who are you?” Vaughn ran his fingers through his hair, closing his fist in it and tugging some to give him some focus. “No...what are you?”

  Ar closed his eyes and tilted his head up and Vaughn watched him shrink, his skin losing the dark blue hue and returning to a lickable sun-kissed tan, teeth and nails receding into his body, normal size again. In front of Vaughn, with an expression of grief easily readable on his face, stood the man he loved. Vaughn gasped and Ar turned away from him quickly. He began speak— ing, his voice low. “Not really a spell, per se, more like a secret family recipe my grandfather handed down. A few words mum— bled from a desperate monster who believed foolishly at one time that he could obtain happiness.”

  Ar turned to him again, the pain etched on this face tearing through Vaughn like a knife. “What am I, Vaughn? I’m a monster, a being that comes and plays with humans’ lives and gets rewarded when I drive them to insanity. Your libraries with your books may call us genies or Djin, but they sugarcoat our true evil.

  “And now the others have found me. You don’t just turn your back on the Djin, not without consequences. I convinced myself that with enough time, maybe I was low enough on their radar that they wouldn’t care. Tonight proves my error in thinking. They will stop at nothing to destroy their target. I’m not strong enough to fight them and win, but that doesn’t mean I’ll allow them to have you. I will protect you with my last ounce of strength.”

  Chapter Three

  “Okay. Fine.” Vaughn nodded to himself as he digested what he heard. “One thing at a time. Genies? Really?” After what he just lived through he didn’t really doubt it. But... “Like you live in a bottle and grant wishes genies? I’ve stayed at your two houses and...” He turned in a circle dramatically, taking in his surround-ings of the lavish house with a flourish of his hands. “Not really a bottle here. Plus you never granted me any wishes, and let’s face it, I’ve rubbed you every way possible.”

  “Humans have a tendency to make everything pretty and nice. You over romanticize what you don’t understand, even when you portray things as evil. Vampires, for instance, don’t fall in love with mortals and swear off drinking blood. They have to drink to survive. Why would they sentence themselves to death?

  To do something so selfless for someone whose own mortality en-sures that they will die in what amounts to only a small fraction of the vampire’s existence, that isn’t like those backstabbing leeches.

  They don’t make legions of their own kind either; they are too self-obsessed to want to share. Not to mention blood exchange really isn’t that powerful. And don’t get me talking about the devils of this dimension. Fucking imbeciles with wannabe magick, the whole damn lot of them.”

  “Vampires and devils?” Vaughn shook his head. “Hey! That genie out there said you sentenced yourself to death. Because of me? If what you say is true why would you do that?”

  Ar turned and walked over to the bar. He grabbed his favorite single malt scotch and poured himself a double shot. After tossing it back, he finally spoke. “I’m different. Always have been. When I saw you walk into that backyard, I had to have you. The idea of not talking to you again, holding you...unacceptable. If you had run into any other Djin, you would be in the mental hospital by now, but I couldn’t do it.

  “Walking away from a prospective mark, forgivable without punishment. Fucking a mortal, hell, all the Djin do that. Falling in love with one and running from the Djin, that they won’t accept.

  You don’t turn your back on the family. Um...imagine a paranormal mafia.”

  Falling in love with one... Vaughn held his breath. Did he hear correctly? Ar had never said those words to him, and he doubt-ed this actually constituted him saying them. But he really liked hearing it anyway. Yeah, his timing sucked, but it gave Vaughn reason to not go ape-shit right now.

  “Okay, so what do we do now? You said he couldn’t get in here? That’s nice and cozy, but we can’t stay here forever. If you’re a genie, can’t I just wish this all away? What if I do that, or better yet ask for you no longer to be a Djin, would that work?”

  Ar laughed bitterly. “First, stop saying that word right now.

  What do you think drew him here? Second, this isn’t a cartoon movie, Vaughn. It doesn’t work like that. Wishes are powerful magick, and as with everything else in this cosmic universe, rules govern them.”

  “You guys use wishes to drive us poor lowly mortals insane and you have the nerve to stand there and talk to me about rules?

  Who makes these fucking rules? I wish—”

  Before Vaughn could utter another word Ar stood at his side with his hand over Vaughn’s mouth. “Do not finish that sentence!

  I’m the Djin standing in front of you, but thanks to that other wish you blurted out I’m not the only one targeted on your aura. Any verbal desire you make right now could very truly get granted by the other one, and he doesn’t play nice with others. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  Vaughn nodded his understanding. After Ar removed his hand Vaughn asked, “So no saying the ‘w’ word ever again?”

  “At least not until this situation gets resolved. You might want to wait a couple decades to err on the side of safety, though. Djin have long memories.”

  “For the record, you told me to wi—” Vaughn stopped and looked at Ar’s growling face. “You told me to say it before. So don’t use me as your scapegoat. And about that whole thing about when this is finished, a time frame please? Exactly what did you mean earlier when you said you can’t fight them and win?

  Not strong enough for them?”

  Ar fixed two more doubles, handed one to Vaughn, and tossed his back. With the speed of his arm, Vaughn thought he would slam the glass down on the bar, but at the last minute he stopped and simply dropped it. “I’ve lived a long life, maybe not by Djin standards, but by your standards, yeah, maybe even an-cient. That one out there,” he pointed in the general direction of their attacker, “far exceeds my years and strength. If the fight oc-curs straight up, my death is a sure conclusion. His interest in you saved me. It’s the only reason I’m still breathing now, and before he takes my life I will make sure of your safety. I dragged you into this mess, I’ll make sure you get out of it. I just need to think and make a call.”

  “Who the hell do you need to phone about this? Who would believe you?”

  “Not that kind of call. I’ll be back in a few. Do not leave this house for anything.”

  Vaughn watched as he disappeared. No blue smoke or flashes of lightning. Just one moment there, the next not.

  “Oh yeah, a stroll down the beach sounds tempting right now,” he grumbled to himself. “Great, I’m supposed to do what?

  Twiddle my thumbs? Find religion?”

  Vaughn placed his untouched drink on the bar and headed to Ar’s office and his computer. Maybe something online would ring with some truth to it about genies and Djin. The idea of research-ing appealed to him more than doing nothing.

  He booted up the computer and began typing in some key— words for search when he heard a noise from behind him. “You know, it’s all good and well that you can pop in and out whenever you feel like it, but proper manners dictate a fucking warning would be nice.”

  “Oh, a new come-on line perhaps? Giving me permission to pop in and out of you?”

  Not Ar’s voice.

  The Wish Me Nothing *** bar’s proprietor also doubled as one of the oldest Djin, who by chance happened to also carry the title of Ar’s grandfather. Tark “retired” from the business in a way, in his way. Only because his history allowed him that luxury, a fact that right now tweaked Ar’s jealousy.

  Tark had
created the bar as a place for Djin and humans to commingle without the threat of any wish granting; hence, the name. Ar never understood Tark’s infatuation with humans until he met Vaughn. He regretted that he had had to go into hiding to keep his relationship with Vaughn safe this past year and a half.

  He’d always loved hanging out here and talking to his siblings and grandfather, especially since his father, Tark’s son, died soon after Ar’s youngest brother came into their world.

  Ar weaved in and out of the tables until he spotted his brother, Moya.

  Moya was only a few decades younger than Ar, being the second-born, but he definitely harbored a hatred for all things human. Which is why Ar knew that this brother would seat himself in the Djin-only section. No fraternizing with the enemy, so to speak. He always hated disguising himself as a human and only did it when he engaged with a mark. The Djin section actually crossed over into a separate dimension, bridged by Tark’s magick.

  Here the Djin didn’t have to hide their true selves and humans couldn’t cross the barrier and intrude on their lot.

  Leave it to Tark to fairly treat all who entered his establishment.

  “Moya, where’s Tark?”

  He sat at Moya’s table and raised his hand to Blithe, his only sister and the resident bartender. A brine ale appeared before him, and he took a huge swallow, relishing his favorite drink. Oh yeah, I missed this place. No one can make brine ale like Blithe.

  “Well, the prodigal son has returned. The one turning the whole Djin realm into a circus. What the hell did you do now?

  The alarms went off that you’re a traitor and marked for death.”

  The news that the alarms sounded in Wish Me Nothing already didn’t surprise Ar in the least. They were tuned on all of Tark’s kin. If anything threatening happened, then Tark and the rest of the family received in-depth alerts immediately. If you didn’t share blood with Tark you didn’t hear them. Not that it did anyone any good. The siblings mostly kept to themselves until asked for help, an unspoken acknowledgement between them.

  “No and yes.”

  “We expect this kind of shit from Shan. You should know better than to tempt fate and mess with Pote.”

  “Pote touched my human.”

  Moya rolled his eyes at Ar. “So what. Do your mark and move on.”Ar growled at his brother when a familiar voice interrupted him. “Moya, haven’t I taught you respect yet? Ar isn’t referring to a mark, but his boyfriend. I have to side with him on this one; no one touches his human.”

  Tark slapped Ar on the back and pulled up an extra chair.

  “Hello my grandson. I wondered when you would come visit me and talk about Vaughn.”

  No use asking Tark how he knew about Vaughn—he seemed to collect knowledge on his grandchildren and file it away for when he needed it. His activity with the Djin was greatly dimin-ished in capacity since all his magicks were tied up in protecting Wish Me Nothing and its occupants. That didn’t mean that his mind wasn’t a formidable ally, or enemy, depending on the side you aligned yourself with.

  “I couldn’t chance it, Tark. For Vaughn’s safety.”

  “You’ve fallen for a human? That’s sick,” Moya mumbled before downing the rest of his brine ale.

  Blithe slammed another one in front of Moya and glared at Ar. “You’ve brought danger to our family. I’m not happy with you, but if you need me...” She flashed back to the bar.

  “What’s her problem?” Ar stared at Blithe slamming mugs and cursing at the Djin sitting at the bar.

  “Shan happened. He came in here causing his trouble, then flashed out in the middle of their fight.” Moya chuckled and sipped at his refill. “That happened just about when the alarms blared the info about our traitor brother.” He snorted. “Guess he didn’t go to help you; there’s a shocker.”

  “It looks like you truly upset Pote this time. And he attached himself to Vaughn’s aura. That will make shaking him off your trail damn near impossible.”

  Shocked, Ar dropped his mug to the table. Reaching for some napkins out of the holder to clean up his spill, he turned to his grandfather. “How the hell did you already learn that one, Tark?”

  His grandfather just smiled and shrugged his shoulders. “I’m a weak old Djin, but I still have my ways about this world.”

  Ar snorted this time. “You, weak? Never. I need information.

  I need to keep Vaughn safe. I won’t survive this; I’m prepared for that. But Vaughn didn’t ask for a place in our realm; he doesn’t deserve this.”

  “Pote can’t take us all, Ar. I may not approve of your indiscre-tions, but I will fight by your side. The whole family will.”

  “No! This is my battle. Pote has always had an axe to grind with me; I just threw a handy excuse in his lap to bring his war public. If I face him alone, hopefully his hatred will die with me and the rest of my family may live in peace. But if you situate yourself in the middle he will have cause to go after all of you.

  Not even my love for Vaughn will let me allow that to happen.”

  “None of you kids caused this problem. Pote’s hatred bred ages before your births.”

  Ar cocked his eyebrow at Tark. “Care to explain? Because I would really like to know exactly what I’m up against, and seeing how you are withhold—”

  Ar sat up straight in his chair, a surge of energy running through him. He dropped his mug on the table and flashed out of the bar.

  “I hate when they do that...” He heard Moya’s words float after him.

  Chapter Four

  Immediately Vaughn jumped out of the chair and ran to the other side of the room. When he turned around, a Djin rested his hip casually against the corner of the desk. Without moving closer, Vaughn studied him. This one was a new one; though he resembled Ar in some aspects, he didn’t reach Ar’s height. His face also lacked the viciousness of the beach Djin. Okay, a new one.

  Great.

  “Who are you? None of you are supposed to be able to get in here!”

  “Aw, isn’t that cute. You aren’t afraid of the big blue man.

  Silly human. Ar couldn’t keep me out even if he tried, and trust me, he tried.”

  The man—no, the monster—pushed off the desk and ad— vanced on Vaughn slowly, like a beast stalking his prey. For every move the stranger took, Vaughn mimicked it in the same direc— tion, attempting to keep the distance from minimizing.

  “What do you want with me?”

  “Well, you see, the way I figure it, if you’re good enough for Ar to give up his life...well then I might as well give you a go. I’m thinking your dick shoots gold or something. Wanna show me?”

  Vaughn bumped into the leather love seat and quickly side— stepped behind it. “Let’s not and say I did.”

  “Now come on, coy doesn’t become you. I’m really quite good at it. Betcha I’m better than Ar in the sack.” He jumped over the love seat and cornered Vaughn, planting a palm on either side of Vaughn’s head flat against the wall so no escape could be made.

  “I promise to be gentle, for the first five minutes or so at least.

  Until you beg me to be rough.” He leaned closer and breathed in Vaughn’s ear, “And oh yes, you will beg. They all do.”

  Vaughn put his hands on that blue chest and pushed him away. Or at least strove to, but he concluded a brick wall would move before this Djin did.

  The stranger rubbed his chest into Vaughn’s hands and sighed loudly. “Oooh that tickles. Do it again?”

  Vaughn snatched his hands back and contemplated the likeli— hood of slipping under one of those massive arms.

  “Shan, I suggest you back away from him right now.”

  Vaughn’s muscles relaxed a bit when he heard that voice.

  “Ar?”“Jeez Ar, you’re just ordering everyone to leave your toy alone.

  Didn’t you ever learn the value of sharing?” Shan licked Vaughn’s ear. Vaughn felt his sharp teeth nip at his lobe and cringed. “Ar!”

  “Shan. The next part of you that touches him will be removed.”

  Shan huffed a chuckle into Vaughn’s now wet ear.

  “Let me rephrase that. The next part of you that touches him I will delight in ripping off with my bare hands.”