Bound (Secrets of the Djinn) (18 page)

Putting a hand to my aching head, I feel a small lump where Jalynx hit me.  “
Physically.  I’m vulnerable physically and so is Malik.  We all are.”  I look at my brother.  “Even you can’t survive a gunshot to the head.”

Chapter 20

“At least you don’t need stitches this time,” Brielle says, watching Roman assess my head.  I just glare at her.

“I don’t think there’s a fracture, but again, we’ll need to watch you for signs of internal bleeding,” Roman says, smoothing my hair back over the
now sizable lump on my temple.

“I think she’s proven by now her head’s too thick to damage,” Brielle teases.

“Don’t you have a gun to clean or something?” I ask.

“How did you
figure out what she was doing?” Roman asks.

I shrug.  I’m on the couch in the sitting room.  Zane and Malik
took Jalynx down the hall to a spare room to recover from almost having her brain turned into scrambled eggs.  A little part of me can’t help but feel justified that she got worse than she gave.  A bigger part of me is terrified by the point she proved.  I’m still weak compared to my enemies, this is old news.  To have it proven so simply after all the work I’ve done over the last month to get in fighting shape, though, is devastating.  I didn’t even react to her attack.  I didn’t see it coming.  I try to tell myself no one else in the room did either, but it doesn’t help.  I can’t imagine Brielle just standing there and letting someone hit her in the head without putting up a fight.

“Out with it,” Brielle says, nudging me with her toe
from the other end of the couch.

I sigh.  “Because I already knew.”

Roman sits on the arm of the couch with his arms crossed over his chest.  “What do you mean?”

I give him a sour look.  “You know exactly what I mean.  I’m not a fighter.  I don’t have instincts like Brielle, I don’t have your and Zane’s strength.”

“Hey, what about my strength?” Brielle says, feigning insult.

I cock my head to the side and raise my brows.  “When’s the last time you won an arm wrestling match with your brother?”

“He’s such a baby if he loses, I just let him win,” she says with a grin.

“Yeah, that’s how it is,” Zane says, coming into the room and plopping down between me and his
sister.

“You’re not strong like they are but you make up for it with technique,” I say, continuing the conversation.  “You know how to react and you’re smart.  You can look at a situation and figure out how to use your skills to the best of
your advantage.  I can’t.”

“Gee, you’re making me blush over here,” Brielle says.  I think she is a little embarrassed
at the compliment.  Maybe because Malik has also reentered the room.

Zane puts his arm around my shoulders.  “You’re getting there,” he says.

“Strength isn’t your problem,” Malik says.  I’m about to ask him what he thinks my problem is when I feel him draw energy.  Before I even realize I’m reacting, I’ve thrown myself in front of Zane and I’m absorbing Malik’s energy. 

“What the fuck?!” Brielle exclaims, getting off the couch and stomping towards Malik.  He is no longer shooting energy across the room.  She stops in front of him and slaps him hard across the face.  “What the hell is wrong with you?”

My brother’s cheek is bright red but he doesn’t react to the slap, nor does he respond to Brielle.  His eyes are on me.  “That is your weakness.”

“Zane?” I ask, dumbfounded.  I move off Zane but I don’t move far.  He looks like he’s going to do more than slap Malik
and I’ll do my best to stop him if he tries.  It wouldn’t end well for him.

“No,” Malik says.  “Your biggest weakness is your desire to keep everyone around you safe, even if means putting your own life in danger.  If that had been a bullet instead of energy you could absorb without injury, you still would have thrown yourself in front of him.”

Now I’m getting mad.  He’s being an ass.  I rise and put my hands on my hips.  “That’s what you do when you love people.  You fight for them, you keep them safe.  You don’t throw them under the bus to save yourself or simply let them die because it’s too dangerous to help them.  I don’t see this as a weakness.  I think it’s weak to push everyone away so you don’t have to worry about them and can focus just on yourself.”

Malik crosses his arms over his chest, his own temper flaring.  “Is that what you think I d
o?” he demands.

“Yes, I do.
”  Words tumble out of my mouth I didn’t dare say before.  “I think you sent me away so you didn’t have to deal with someone who has feelings other than anger.  It wasn’t to keep me safe; it was to keep you insulated in your layers of hatred and cynicism.”

“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” he says softly, but
with an edge to his words.

“Bullshit.  You sent me away until my powers manifested because that’s all you care about.  That’s why I didn’t hear from you for all these years.  I wasn’t any use to you.”  I had no idea my resentment ran this deep, but it does. 
Feelings are bubbling to the surface and I can’t tamp them back down.  How could he just dump me in the human world and forget about me?

Malik takes a step towards me, his arms at his sides and his hands balled into fists.  “You seem to forget you committed treason.  That is what got you exiled, not anything I did.”

Treason?  My eyes dart to Roman who is standing stony faced by the couch.  I look back at my brother.  “Yes, I committed treason by falling in love like the stupid, naïve girl I was.  You let them dump me here all alone.  You could have come with me, we could have been together, kept our family together.”

“That was not possible,” Malik says, but doesn’t explain why
, of course.

“Instead, I’ve had to find my own family here.  Now, you tell me I’m weak for wanting to protect them.”

“You want to protect them because you’ve bound them to you.”

Any words that
wanted to tumble out of my mouth are choked off and all of my anger seeps out of me.  Bound them to me?  I remember what Malik asked me when I told him I could see the others while they fought.  He asked me if I bound them to me.  “No,” I say quietly.  “That’s not true.”

Malik takes a step closer, his body relaxing as his own anger diminishes.  “Yes, Skye, it is.  The only one in this house not bound to you is the old woman.  That is why I bound her to me.”

“I’m the only one bound to Skye,” Zane says, standing behind me.  I’m not sure when he rose from the couch.  “She and I are the only ones who performed the binding rite.”

Malik’s eyes leave mine and I feel like I’m at sea, drowning.  “Skye doesn’t need to perform a ceremony to bind others to her.  It just happens.  It was beginning before she was exiled.”  His eyes find Roman briefly and then he’s looking at me again.  “I suspected it was happening
here which is why I was so sure you’d be safe.  I knew without a doubt once I arrived and observed the actions of those around you.”

Tears are trying hard to forge a trail from my eyes to the floor.  “So, what you’re saying is that the only reason the people around me care about me is because I’ve bound them to me.”

“No!” Malik says, coming closer and putting his hands on my shoulders.  “No, that’s not what I’m saying.  Their feelings for you are real, Skye.  They do care about you, love you.  If they didn’t, you wouldn’t have bound them.  That’s why you didn’t bind the old woman.  You never believed she cared for you.”

“So then, when people care about me, I hold them hostage.  What a great way to repay them,” I say dryly.

Malik shakes me slightly.  “No, you protect them.  You don’t take them hostage.”

I step back from him.  “Protect them?  Do you know what torture they have suffered since meeting me?  They have the scars to prove how much I am not protecting them!”

“This is bullshit,” Zane says.  “I’m the only one who can feel what Skye feels.  I’m the only one who’s bound to her.”

“What?”  Malik’s eyes are riveted to Zane now.

Zane’s brows furrow.  “I said I’m the only one who feels what Skye feels.  No one else in the house does so they can’t be bound to her.”

“I sure as hell don’t,” Brielle seconds.  There’s fear on her face, though.

“Impossible,” Malik says.  “Nothing like that occurs with binding.”

Is that true?  Is there something wrong with the fact Zane can feel what I feel? 
Did I do something horrible to him?  I close my eyes and shake my head. 

Reading my mind,
Malik puts his hands on my shoulders again.  “Skye, you don’t hurt people by binding them to you.  There’s something different in the way you do it than the other Marid.  From what I can figure out, it means you have a special connection to them.  I’ve never been able to see those I’ve bound when they’re in danger, yet you saw everyone in this house when they were fighting.  You’ve sensed when they were in danger and put yourself in harm’s way, even before you knew you wouldn’t be hurt by my power.”  He curls a strand of my hair around his finger, a gesture I remember from growing up.  “You are the Protector.  I didn’t truly understand what that meant until now.  Jalynx was wrong.  You’re not weak and it’s not your physicality that makes you vulnerable.  The very thing that makes you strong is your greatest vulnerability.”

My head is spinning and not from my latest injury. 
Some of what he is saying makes sense.  Of course I want to protect the people I care about and yes, I can see how it makes me vulnerable.  It’s a vulnerability everyone has.  Is that the answer?  Is that the real point of Jalynx’s unfortunate demonstration?  Everyone in the room reacted to her hurting me.  What if it had been a ruse and she was just a decoy?  All of our attention was focused on her and we all became sitting ducks, lucky she didn’t have an army of djinn waiting to ambush us when we were fighting the wrong enemy.  No, I don’t think she thought it through that thoroughly, but the outcome is the same.  Malik’s blind assurance that his magic can protect us from whatever attack comes our way is a lie. 

I’m beginning to understand his pissy attitude when he came back in the room was more due to anger at himself than wanting to attack me.  I shake my head.  “You’re just as stupid as I am, aren’t you?”

To my surprise, he laughs.  “So it would seem.”  Sobering, he says, “Skye, you must believe I was devastated at having to send you away.  If I could have come with you, I would have.  I had to stay and fight.”

I nod and give him the smallest of smiles.  I want to believe him.  “What do we do now that we’ve determined we’re all vulnerable and stupid?”

“Hey, speak for yourself,” Brielle snipes.  “I think we need to talk more about this whole binding thing.  I do not want to be shackled to you the rest of my life.”  Wheeling around to Malik, she says, “And what do you mean – you’ve bound my grandmother to you?”

Guilt washes over him
.  “It was necessary.”

Brielle cocks her head to the side.  “Do I look like your sister?  Your bullshit, ‘I did it because I had to and I don’t
need to explain myself’ answers don’t fly with me.”

“Hey!” I exclaim
, but I don’t say more
.  I do let him get away with those answers.  I just did.

“
Why did you imply Skye bound me to her behind the veil?” Roman asks.  “The Saitan and Marid mark each other, they can’t bind each other.”

Zane snorts.  “Yeah, that’s so much better.”

Roman glowers at him.  “I didn’t say it was better, but it is different.”

“How do I unbind everyone?” I ask.  I am surprised by the hurt
passing through Zane’s eyes.  I reach out and take his hand, squeezing it.  “If they want me to unbind them,” I add.

Malik runs a hand through his silky blonde hair.  “Hell if I know.” 
Not the answer I expected. 

“Just fucking peachy,” Brielle growls.  “I’m sorry I ever got involved with either one of you.”  Turning on her heel, she stomps out of the room towards her bedroom where she slams her door so hard, I can’t believe it didn’t splinter.

“Should I go after her?” I ask Zane.  I hope he says no.  I’m afraid she may kick my ass if I do.

“I will speak to her,” Malik says quietly.  He turns and leaves before any of us have a chance to warn him that he may be serving his own death warrant by doing so.

Roman walks to the whiskey decanter and grabs a glass.  “I think it’s my turn to get drunk.”  Yeah, it probably is.

Chapter 21

Malik knocks tentatively on Brielle’s door.  He has no idea what he’s going to say to her. 
‘Sorry I was such a callous bastard and didn’t respect your human life enough to not put you in danger and not care if my sister bound you to her’
?  Probably not the best approach he could take.  He could always go with, ‘
Skye’s right, I am a selfish bastard who never thinks of anyone but myself.
’