Chapter 7

OnceIgotmy new site in and my insulin pump connected, I took a look at my blood sugar readings, happy to see they were coming back up to normal. Then I finally let myself have the freak out I was entitled to. Brushing past the ridiculously slinky, hot-as-hell jinn asshole, I started gathering up ingredients for yet another restorative tea. Fucking hell, I hated that crap. But I needed my power to regenerate as quickly as possible so I could just be done with this whole damned mess.

"What are you doing now, witch?" my flaming new best buddy asked from inches away.

I stepped into his space, since he seemed to hate being touched by a dirty witch. It worked and he slid away, apparently not willing to let me make skin on skin contact. Interesting. Maybe there was a weakness there that I could use to get him to take his fucking binding marks off me.

For once, I was almost hoping I had inherited a little bit of my family"s evil, conniving blood. I could use a little deviousness to deal with this one, I could just feel it.

"I"m making a restorative tea," I answered dryly. "Since freeing you from slavery and then getting enslaved myself in thanks has been a little draining. Oh…and you tried to cook me from the inside out and caused me to go hypoglycemic. So, there"s that. Gee…why would I ever need to bolster my strength?"

I moved to fill the teapot, making him slide out of my way again to avoid my evil Lovell touch. Maybe he was afraid I"d contaminate his magic or something. Though…he had bound me to him, so I didn"t see how it would make any difference. He looked down his pert nose at me, his thick black lashes half-lowered over his molten eyes. Fuck, was he trying to get me flustered, or did he just naturally look like some sort of harem porno come to life?

"Carry on, witch," he said darkly. "You"ll need your power to free the next creature from the grimoire as soon as possible."

I turned to face him, squaring my shoulders and looking down. It was really cute, how short he was. Like…he seemed so much bigger when he was raging and setting shit on fire. But apparently it was just little man syndrome. I tried not to let the red-brown abs and lean, chiseled pecs distract me, staring into the sex eyes instead. Not really an improvement. But I tried.

"No," I said flatly.

He arched a winged black brow at me and crossed his arms. "No? Have you already forgotten who is the master and who is the slave in this situation, my plump little quail? You will free the rest of my unfortunate companions, and you will do it now. As soon as your power is restored. Otherwise I will roast you and eat you like the demon your people always accuse my people of being."

I glanced at the black claws that tapped away on his bicep in irritation. Yep. Could totally see him cooking me and eating me like some sort of feathered fowl, using those claws to flake away the crispy skin and get to the juicy bits.

"No," I repeated. "I will get the rest of them out. But I"ll do it on my own damned time. Jesus fucking Christ, so far I"ve faced a death threat every time I attempt to help. I"ve fried my powers out twice in a short time. Oh, and been nearly forced into a diabetic coma. So no, I"m not doing it again until I"m damned good and ready!"

I poured water over the herbs in my stupid Hello Kitty mug—the one with kitties wearing little witch hats on it—and waved a hand over it to activate the magical properties of the plants. "Right now, I"m going to drink my disgusting tea, take a nap, and hope my power comes back by tomorrow. Then I"m going to go back to my house in the human world and take care of shit that actually matters—you know, like the life I had before this fucked-up bestiary landed in my lap? I"ve got bills to pay, a job to try to salvage. Though I"m probably long past fired by now from all the days I"ve missed. My roommate has probably called the police to look for me. I have stuff to do that doesn"t revolve around this magic bullshit."

I picked up my tea and turned away. But the jinn just appeared right in front of me again in a light shower of smoke and sparks. "You will remain bound to me until you free every last creature from that cursed book, witch. I don"t care if you wither and die from overuse. You will free the people your family has enslaved and used." He reached out a finger, pressing a claw into my chest, between my breasts. "I am entirely capable of cutting out your heart and eating it as you gasp your last breath, witch."

I shrugged. "Go ahead. Cook me. Slice me up. Burn me out. Then you can just free the others yourself." I grinned at his thunderous black scowl. "Oh…wait…you can"t, can you? I"m willing to bet only a witch of Lovell descent can undo those bonds without killing everyone in the book. Did I get that right? Hmm?"

No one had said it, but I had felt the failsafe measures that were woven into the bindings when I was pulling them apart. The creatures belonged to a Lovell, or to no one. And their deaths wouldn"t be pretty or painless. Typical of my family to be so selfish and cruel.

The jinn"s scowl melted into something darker, something that made my skin break out in goosebumps. "Fine. Play your games. Delay. But the fact remains that I own you now, Lovell."

I snorted. "My name is Andy. Not Lovell. And whoop-dee-doo. All you want to do is force me to do something I was already doing on my own. So scary."

One corner of his mouth lifted in a dangerous smirk. "There are other uses for a binding like that," he reminded me. "You have to be alive and able to use your magic to free the others. But there"s a lot of gray area between "alive" and "well.""

I rolled my eyes and told my lady parts to calm the hell down at the roil of dark, unpredictable elemental power that came off the guy. Empty threats.

I made my way to the stairs and headed toward my room, feeling those molten, crazy-as-fuck eyes on me the whole time. I got the distinct feeling that my ancestors had done something a lot worse to him than bind him to a book for a few centuries. There was way too much rage swirling in his aura. That level of anger was usually caused by pain. A shit ton of pain.

I didn"t want to know what that was all about. I had learned early in life that I stood a much better chance of sleeping at night if I didn"t know what kind of depravities my relatives had gotten up to. The stuff that was public record from their trials was bad enough. But I knew for a fact it wasn"t the worst of it. Not by a long shot.

"What did they do to you, you poor bastard?" I muttered under my breath as I shut my bedroom door behind me.

"They exploited his most vulnerable moment, then used him terribly," a hollow voice said, cool mist brushing over my aura as Elijah materialized in the room. "More than that isn"t my story to tell."

I sighed. I had forgotten that I was never really alone. The walls had ears. And so did the floors. And the air around me. "What do you want, mist man?" I said, raising my mug of swamp water and pounding it like I was shotgunning a beer.

He floated over to examine Bis, who was sleeping on his little bed, apparently oblivious to my fucked-up life. "I wanted to make sure you were well after all that has happened," Elijah whispered.

I rolled my eyes and tugged off my socks and pants, then crawled onto the bed in my underwear and a camisole for the power sleep of the fucking century.

"Right. Because everyone needs their little witchy tool to finish the job." I flopped down on my back and stared at the ceiling. "Don"t worry. I won"t back out. But I really do need to check in on my real life, you know."

He let out a breathy ghost sound that might have been a sigh. "And what is this, then? If that is your real life, back in the human world? Is life here a pretend life?"

I let out a short laugh. "Pretty much. Some fantasy book made up by desperate humans who don"t understand what bullshit the magical world really is."

The door opened and Niamh strolled in, closing and locking the portal behind her. "Arrogant monster," she muttered under her breath, her green eyes snapping with rage.

I sighed. "Oh, hi. Yeah, come right on in. What now? Did the widdle jinny-winny call you names?"

She tossed her bow and knife onto the bedside table and gave me an impatient look down her perfect nose. "He"s unstable. Being bound in the book must have destroyed his wispy, elemental brain." She crawled onto the bed with me and flopped down like she belonged there, in my bed, at my side, one graceful hand tracing circles over my stomach. "I will find a way to get rid of him," she said tiredly. "It may take me a bit. Even a hunter of my skill must admit a jinn is not my usual quarry."

I rolled my eyes. "Just ignore him. He"ll get bored and wander off eventually. I haven"t interacted with them before, but from what I"ve read in my books, his kind are notoriously drawn to shiny new mischief. And my life is the epitome of boring."

Niamh leaned in and brushed her nose along the side of my neck, breathing me in before she dropped a kiss on the sensitive flesh there. "You are the opposite of boring, Andy. He"ll never leave. Not with such a temptation in his sights."

I shivered and rolled onto my side. "Stop that. I really do need sleep, you know."

And what was this anyway? Were we like…dating now?

She chuckled, messing around to get things just right so she could lay her antlered head on the pillow by mine, spooning me from behind, holding me close as I drowned in her green, woodsy scent. "As you wish, my witch."

Elijah floated up through the mattress from below, materializing as if he were lying on his back on the bed in front of me, one arm behind his head and his legs crossed in repose. "Aahil is a complicated creature," he said easily. As if hanging out in my bed was just business as usual. "But all he wants is to ensure the bestiary is destroyed. I doubt he"ll cause you any actual harm, as long as you prove that you harbor him no ill will and that you intend to free the others."

I blinked my eyes slowly. Sleep was dragging at me, but my mind was too wired to let rest come anytime soon. "Kind of what I figured, honestly," I said on a yawn. "I"ve met real monsters. He isn"t it. Much as he wants to seem like he is."

Niamh pressed a kiss to the back of my neck, pressing against my back suggestively. "Let me help you sleep," she purred.

I huffed a laugh at the single-minded fae. And at my stupid response to a strange creature I"d known just a few days. But I found myself wiggling my butt back against her, lifting an arm to loop backward around her head as I twisted my upper body to meet her kiss.

Those her lips were soft on mine, followed by the slight tease of sharp teeth. Her slender fingers worked their way downward, across the curve of my rounded stomach and under the waistband of my underwear, and I started to roll onto my back to give her easier access.

Then I registered the cool, otherworldly aura that was still brushing up against mine on the other side. "Shit," I muttered, grabbing Niamh"s wrist to stop her from reaching her goal. "Ghost perv in the room."

Elijah chuckled, the sound a distant, airy rasp. I opened my eyes to find him lying propped up on an elbow, those glowing blue orbs that passed as his eyes pointed right in our direction. I thought I saw a wisp of a smile cross his barely-there lips before he spoke. "Don"t mind me."

Okay, that was weird, right? Really weird. Definitely. And not…hot? No, I told myself firmly. Clearly you need to get out more, Andy. The ghost voyeur is not a turn on. But hey, I was from evil stock. Who was gonna blame me if I ended up with a weird kink or twelve?

"I don"t mind if he watches," Niamh whispered against my skin, her fingers inching lower once more. "Elijah surely longs for physical intimacy even more than the rest of us."

I groaned. "You guys are so weird."

But so was I.

I couldn"t seem to look away from Elijah"s ghostly face as Niamh"s fingers found my clit and started slowly working it like an expert. "She"s so responsive," the fae said in a conspiratorial tone, egging on our watcher.

My breath started to come in shallow gasps and I rolled, bringing her on top of me so I could capture that talented mouth.

Elijah stayed, hovering nearby while Niamh raked my camisole up and lavished attention on my tits. She suckled and licked, dragged her sharp little fangs over my heated skin. When she licked two fingers and slid them inside me, I groaned, back arching when that was followed by a little spark of her magic. My nerve endings came alive as my senses sent me little hints of wind, and grass, and moonlight nights.

Our silent companion was quiet as a…ghost. But I felt his presence all the same, a cool, misty otherness there on the periphery as Niamh drove me to orgasm, wringing pleasure from my overwrought body faster than I"d imagined possible. Maybe…possibly…probably helped by little zing of excitement I got from having an audience.

Huh. Apparently, I liked being watched. Who knew?

I was boneless, my limbs heavy and my brain about to shut down from the combo of exhaustion and pleasure hormones. "Niamh," I mumbled. This was the second time it had been all about me. I was shaping up to be a terrible lover.

She chuckled and pressed a kiss to my slack lips. "Mmm…don"t worry. I know you"re exhausted. The whole point was to stop your constant thinking and make you sleep. You"ll have plenty of time to return the favor, witch, I"m not going anywhere."

I might have been imagining it, but I could have sworn I felt something cool slide over my cheek and heard a whispered, ghostly, "Rest," before I tumbled over into darkness.