djinn wars 03 - fallen (38 page)

“No, you weren’t.” I watched as she got out a soft-sided suitcase and a duffle bag, and began folding her clothes into them. She really didn’t have that much, so I could tell she’d be done in a minute or two. “And…you’re okay with this? Going back to Los Alamos? That is…I mean, I thought….”

The awkward words died away into silence. A sad little smile played around her mouth as she zipped up the suitcase and said, “Maybe I did, for a second or two here and there. Then I realized I was just being stupid. Because if there had been anything, anything at all, well…I would have been his Chosen from the start, wouldn’t I?”

I didn’t have an answer for her, because deep down I knew she was right. Zahrias would have seen her, and claimed her, back before the Dying, if he’d really wanted her.

“Anyway,” she went on briskly, “it’s good, I think. We have a chance to make something of Los Alamos, now that Margolis is out of the way. And since Miles is coming back with me, that’ll help, too. People will be reassured knowing he’s around, doing what needs to be done to protect them from the other djinn.” She paused, and then smiled again. This time, though, her expression was almost sly. “And tell me I was hallucinating, because I could swear I saw that pretty assistant of his making googly eyes at him.”

I had to smile at the mental image. “I don’t know about ‘googly eyes,’ but I think there’s something going on. Or at least she thinks she might want there to be.” I wondered how much I should tell Julia and then decided the heck with it. I was going to miss her. In the back of my mind, I’d wanted her to stay around so I could have a friend, a girl friend, to talk to. I loved Jace, and he was the center of my world, but there were some things it was just easier to talk about with a girlfriend. “I don’t think she was all that happy with her djinn partner. She mourned him when he was gone, but I think she was also relieved in a way.”

Julia nodded, and I realized Lindsay’s feelings toward Rafi probably weren’t all that far removed from how Julia must have felt about her abusive fiancé, the one she’d lost in the Dying. “How many are like that?” she asked softly. “That is, how many were claimed by djinn, but are nowhere near as happy as you are with Jace?”

If it had happened to Lindsay, it had probably happened to others. But I wasn’t sure I wanted to go into all that, and so I only lifted my shoulders and said, “I don’t know, Julia. I just don’t know.”

An hour later, and they were all gone. I could tell nothing from Zahrias’ expression as he watched Julia climb into that blasted yellow Hummer next to Brent and then drive away. She didn’t look back.

But why would she?

Margolis didn’t precisely end up at the local police station. Instead, he was placed in one of the holding cells in the local U.S. Marshals building, a far more state-of-the-art facility. He wasn’t too happy about it…not that any of the djinn set to guard him seemed to care.

After that, things quieted down a bit. Jace and I scrounged a ham radio from one of the local electronics supply stores and got in contact with Los Alamos that way. Even though Julia was now in charge and there probably wouldn’t be any more craziness from that quarter, I still thought it a good idea for the two communities to stay in touch. If nothing else, maintaining communications might make it less easy for any rogue djinn out there to cause trouble for either group.

And then it was April, and the air began to warm a bit more. The wind still had a bite to it, but the storms brought rain, not snow. And as much as I loved being with Jace no matter where I was, my heart ached for the house in the hills. I wanted to be there with him to watch the first wildflowers begin to grow. It was beautiful here in town, but it would be even better there.

“We would be safe,” I told him one morning as we awoke to an achingly clear blue sky beyond the windows of our bedroom. I was lying with my head on his chest, one of his hands lazily stroking my hair. “The Los Alamos community isn’t a threat any longer, and it seems as if the elders put the fear into any djinn who might try to mess with the One Thousand and their Chosen. So why can’t we go home?”

His hand stilled. After a brief silence, he said, “Beloved, there is no real reason why not. I suppose I had thought you were happy here.”

“I am, because I’m with you. But I want to go back to the place where I fell in love. It’s not even so very far — fifteen minutes, and we’re right back down here with everyone else.”

“Less than that,” he said, chuckling. “It’s not as if we have to drive, after all.”

Of course. I’d spent so much time around Jace when he was either hiding his talents from me or they were being blocked that I kept forgetting how much power he truly had to command. “Then what’s stopping us?”

“Nothing, my love,” he said, pulling me up to him so he could place a lingering kiss on my lips. “Nothing at all.”

Zahrias seemed neither pleased nor displeased by our announcement that we’d decided to return to our hidden sanctuary outside town. “If that is what you think of as home, then I suppose that is where you should go,” he said calmly.

Yes, Zahrias had been very calm lately…perhaps too calm.

But I was too excited by the prospect of going back to the house to really pay much attention to Zahrias’ moods, or lack thereof. We had a few things to pack, and I wondered if Jace planned to “blink” it all over, or whether we’d go the more pedestrian way, in the Land Rover we’d been given for our use, should we need it.

As it turned out, we didn’t go home either way. Just as we were finishing up our packing, someone knocked at the front door. Puzzled, I went to answer it. We hadn’t really been expecting anyone, but maybe it was Lauren coming over to say goodbye or wish us luck or something.

It wasn’t Lauren at the door, however, but Brent Sutherland, accompanied by Shawn Gutierrez. And just beyond them, parked at the curb, was a Grand Cherokee, the one I’d thought I’d left behind forever in Los Alamos.

All I could do was stand there and goggle at it, and at them. “Um…what’s this?” I said at last.

“Julia sent it over,” Brent said. “We were doing a vehicle inventory, and she found it locked up in the garage at Margolis’ house. She thought you might want it back, so she sent us over to deliver it.”

“That’s — ” I didn’t find myself at a loss for words all that often, but right then I was fighting to get them out past the tightness in my throat. Up until that moment, I would have said I’d forgotten all about the Cherokee, that it wasn’t important, but right then I realized how much I did want that car back, that last physical reminder of the family I’d lost. “That’s amazing. Tell Julia thank you.”

“We will.” Shawn glanced past me to the bags Jace and I had piled in the foyer in preparation for our leave-taking. “Going somewhere?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said. “I’m going home.”

Epilogue

Dutchie ran ahead, tail wagging. Jace and I followed at a more sedate pace, the Cherokee idling a few feet behind us. There hadn’t been any question of traveling here by djinn methods, not once I had my father’s Jeep back.

“Smell like home, girl?” I asked, bending to scratch behind the dog’s ears as she happily wuffled around in the fresh grass that had grown up in front of the gate.

Jace came over to stand next to me. His hand rested on the padlock attached to the chain I’d wrapped around the wrought iron of the gate grille. “Do you have the key for this?”

I arched an eyebrow at him. “Do I need a key?”

“No,” he replied, flashing me that grin I loved so much. He made a pinching movement with his thumb and forefinger, and the padlock fell away, the metal twisted as if a giant had wrenched it off.

“Handy. But I hope you have something a little less destructive in mind for the front door.” Because of course the keys to the home had disappeared long ago, left behind in Los Alamos with the rest of the belongings abandoned in the little house Evony and I had been given to live in. I supposed Margolis must have gotten his hands on the keys and everything else of mine, but I had no idea what he’d done with them. Locked them up somewhere, most likely, which meant Julia would probably come across those items at some point. It seemed as if she was being fairly methodical about going through the erstwhile commander’s things and disbursing them as necessary.

Would she take it upon herself to return my belongings to me? It would be a very good excuse to come back to Santa Fe….

“I’ll manage,” Jace said, interrupting my reverie.

“You always do.”

We went back to the Jeep and climbed in. Dutchie, however, decided she’d much rather run up the hill on her own power, and so she trotted a few paces ahead of us as I slowly drove onto the property.

From what I could see, nothing seemed to have changed much. The ground was muddy from a storm we’d had a few nights earlier, and the faintest mist of green was showing on the branches of the aspen trees. It wouldn’t be too long now before they really began to leaf out.

I parked the Cherokee in front of one of the garage bays, then got out. Jace did the same before going around to the back so he could pick up our luggage. It wasn’t much — a couple of duffle bags, the backpack that held Dutchie’s supplies.

He shouldered the lot of it, then said, “Shall we?”

Now that we were here, I found myself almost nervous. What if someone had broken in, despite all the precautions I’d taken?

Then we’ll fix whatever damage they might have done and get on with our lives,
I chided myself as I followed Jace to the front door. I did wonder why he’d gone that way, as it would have been closer to let ourselves in through the side entrance off the kitchen.

But then he said, “I wanted us to come here the way you did the first time. Through the front, so we can take it in all over again.”

I reached out and took his hand. His fingers were reassuringly warm. Of course, why wouldn’t they be? Miles Odekirk and his devices were miles and miles away. There was nothing here that could hurt Jace.

He smiled at me, his hand still wrapped around mine as he reached out with the other one. Just the merest touch on the latch was enough to have the door swing inward, although I knew I’d locked it all up tight when I’d left with Evony, going to Los Alamos to rescue our loved ones.

And she’d never returned.

I swallowed, blinking back tears. I didn’t want to cry. I wanted to be happy to be here. Not a day passed when I didn’t think about Evony, wonder if there wasn’t something I could have done to keep things from turning out the way they did. And I knew I would continue to do so. I just didn’t want to do that right now.

Jace’s fingers tightened on mine.
It’s all right, beloved. Let us go in.

Nodding, I followed him inside. Dutchie had already pushed past us and was rolling around on the Navajo rug, maybe trying to get her scent on it, or maybe reveling in being surrounded by items that did smell like her. The house was cold, but it didn’t smell damp or closed-up. In fact, the air was oddly fragrant.