11. Cadmus

Jonas snarled, "I don't know how your brothers put up with you. I'm here because my mistress wants to see you again."

I hadn't expected that. I felt more than uncomfortable around the Djinns' Dark Lord, though I'd be damned if I'd let anyone see that. Lexa's energy drew me. In her presence, I had to constantly remind myself not to trust her. The struggle drained and annoyed me as much as her beauty dazzled me.

"What does she want?"

Jonas shook his head. "You know, when I left you here, it was with the intent of keeping you safely hidden, so that the Netharat wouldn't find and crush your sorry ass. Yet I find you've been shopping all over town, insulting Ellie's peers at the university, and who the hell knows what else."

I didn't need to read minds to know Jonas suspected the intimate relationship I and Ellie now shared. "What exactly are you trying to say?"

I rested my hip on the balcony ledge and tried to appear innocent, having fun at his expense.

When the big man's face darkened, I had to work hard to suppress a grin.

"Don't bullshit me, Earth Lord. I've seen the way you look at Ellie. I don't like it."

"You mean, as her ‘cousin,' you find my attentions offensive?"

"I am her cousin, lekharn." Jonas swept a disdainful glance over me. "Granted, I'm quite a bit older, but our tie is true enough. I won't have you hurting her, not when she's gone out of her way to help us. She has no more fondness for the Storm Lords than she does the Djinn."

Despite a niggle of relief that Jonas and Ellie were related, I felt guilty remembering how devastated she'd looked at me before I'd left her that first time. Even realizing she'd deserved some of my anger couldn't alleviate the notion I'd crushed something just beginning to grow between us. The sex had been indescribable, but the incredible intimacy we'd shared had been wondrous.

"Cadmus," Jonas growled. "Tell me you aren't sleeping with my cousin."

"I'm not." It wasn't a lie, exactly. I wasn't presently sleeping with Ellie. Later when she returned, I'd take her to bed and fix our problems. Sleep would be the last thing on our minds.

"We Djinn take our sexuality very seriously. Play is all well and good, but every interaction creates a bond that strengthens with each touch, each whisper and promise. Ellie might not want to admit it, but she's Djinn to her bones. Casual sex is not something my cousin can handle."

"Who said it would be casual?"

In the blink of an eye, Jonas yanked me into the house and slammed me into the wall hard enough to leave an imprint. I dropped to the ground with a groan.

"Shit. Now look what you made me do?" Jonas snarled in disgust, shaking the Dark energy from his hands. "She's going to be pissed."

I opened my mouth to retort, but one look at Jonas stopped me. Until I spotted a threat looming in the distance outside. "Yeah, but not as pissed as she's going to be with wraith blood all over the couch."

Backing deeper into the living room, I swore as the Netharat closed in. Ragged robes poorly concealed their skeletal frames, and their paper-thin necks barely withstood the pressure of their bulbous, bruised skulls.

Gaping maws of blackened teeth gnashed as the creatures screeched, threatened, and gurgled with malicious, maddening laughter. They stared with blank eyes while their pointed, high-set ears twitched as they searched for prey. Spying Jonas and I, a half dozen of the creatures stormed through the balcony doors, blasting blue flame with the intent of major destruction.

I drew on the earth for shocks of vibration that stunned and paralyzed the two wraiths nearest me. Calling on my connection to Tanselm, I surrounded the wraiths in the land's soil that appeared at a wave of my hands, tree roots lengthening to restrain our enemy. They struggled to breathe while I wheeled to avoid the strike of blue fire that singed my forearm.

Jonas captured a wraith in his Dark energy, then shoved two more wraiths out of the way when they would have closed in on me. Shoving my wraith into a floating mound of earth, Jonas restrained more of the enemy and then did something awesome.

Dark energy blanketed the wraiths. I would have thought the creatures, being Dark themselves, would thrive on it. Instead, they slowly withered and died while Jonas' eyes glowed brighter, twin flames of light where amber orbs used to be.

"Cadmus, look out!"

Blue flame sizzled by my ear, and as I reached out to take care of the remaining wraith, instinct stopped me. The creature looked at first like a typical ice wraith. A lumpy, hairless skull sat atop a thin neck. Its body was long and thin, bony with claw-like hands and tattered black robes that covered it from neck to toe. But its skin wasn't the typical mottled black and yellow of the ice wraiths I'd previously encountered.

This wraith possessed smooth, white skin veined with blue streaks over its exposed forearms and face. Its neck was thicker, its skull more rounded, human-like, and its eyes…

Unlike the milky whites of its fellow wraiths, this creature had pure black eyes. No pupils or irises to speak of. Its gaze was fathomless, what I imagined the voids between worlds looked like.

Just as the creature opened its mouth, Jonas flashed in truth and jumped between us. A river of red energy poured from the wraith's mouth and surrounded Jonas, trying to push through the black flames encasing me.

The familiarity of the red substance wasn't good. Not at all.

Months ago, fighting alongside my brothers against Sin Garu, I had encountered a creature of Shadow that consisted of a thick red goo that could take the shape of anything. A Nocumat. It appeared this wraith carried one within its own body.

The only way my brothers and I had escaped the creature before was with Shadow magic.

"Jonas, can you talk to it?"

"No. It only responds to those of Shadow, not Darkness." Pain bracketed Jonas' mouth, and his aura flickered as he struggled.

I needed Shadow magic, and I knew of only one woman capable of helping me now. Quickly casting an emergency spell, I caught my brother.

Aerolus answered my mental call with his own. "Brother, what plagues you?"

Startled at the clarity of his speech, I glanced around, expecting to see him close. I sent back, I need your help. We're under Nocumat attack.

He swore, then his affai spoke.

Alandra's husky voice was more than welcome. You just can't stay out of trouble, can you, Cadmus? Nocumat attack, hmm? Just repeat after me. "Afwel Sava otol."

I repeated the foreign words, relieved beyond measure when the Nocumat immediately dropped Jonas. Alarm replaced relief, however, when the thing advanced on me.

Alandra? What now?

Tell him I said hello.

This is no time for niceties. Jonas is dying!

Cadmus, tell the creature to return to Lord Sava before I report a Nocumatworking with Sin Garu. Remind him of Oxcen's punishment and he'll leave you alone.

I swore I heard her mutter, "I hope," but repeated her words anyway.

The Nocumatseemed tounderstand me and cringed, for the lack of a better description. Then it shot back into the wraith's mouth and disappeared.

The wraith jerked and glared at us, lifting its arms as it gathered a strange ball of blue energy. Bracing myself and Jonas with an energy shield, I felt sure the wraith would have attacked had it not been thrown off balance by the monster it caged inside itself.

Taking advantage, we unleashed our magic.

The wraith burst into blue fire, its body as insubstantial as the dying flame. The Nocumat had disappeared, nowhere to be found.

Panting, I bent over to catch my breath. When I could speak, I rasped, "By all that's Light, what was that thing?"

Jonas shook his head. "I have a bad feeling we've just seen one of Sin Garu's latest hybrids." He clutched his belly and fell to his knees as he flashed back into the form of a man.

"Jonas?"

"Ellie's not safe," Jonas said in between breaths. "Not if they've found you here. They'll know where she lives. They'll definitely be watching this place. We have to bring her back."

"Back?"

"To Foreia. Where she'll be safe, at least for the time being."

"She won't go." I knew she wouldn't willingly visit Foreia. Not if she held so much animosity towards her father.

Jonas wheezed, "She'll have no choice, and neither will Amanda. Fuck." He rubbed his abdomen and stood with my help. "I really hate the stupid Shadow-dwellers."

"Aren't they your people?" I walked him to the door and accepted the keys he handed me. We left Ellie's place a mess. I felt bad, but we needed to get Jonas first aid. Now.

"My people? Hell, Cadmus. That's like calling humans Light Bringers because they walk in the sun. Dumbass."

The insult relieved me. If Jonas could rail at me, he couldn't be too injured.

"So I'm finally going to meet Mrs. Ethim il Ruethe," I said as we left the house and neared his vehicle.

He chuckled then groaned upon bending to enter his SUV. "I'd love to see the expression on her face when you call her that."

"You okay?"

"It's just my stomach rebelling at the Nocumat's touch. The drive to Amanda's should give me enough time to regroup. Don't worry. I can manage enough energy to send us to Foreia."

"About that," I began. "I don't think —"

"Don't think. Lexa wants you there, you go. Besides, this might help Ellie resolve her feelings about herself. Because until she does that, she'll never have any peace in her life. Not to mention the small fact Sin Garu knows where she lives and that she's got ties to Storm Lords. She's not secure here anymore," he reminded me.

Needlessly. "Okay, I get it. Ellie has to go. And her mother too, if that will keep them both protected." I meant it. I would make sure Ellie and her mother accompanied us to Foreia.

Ellie needed to be safe, and she needed to be happy. Without quite knowing why, I made it my mission to see that joy found my little Djinn.

I only hoped the confrontation sure to follow wouldn't put me any worse in her affections than I already was.