jinn 02 - inferno (23 page)

It felt like my brain was being used as a hammer against my skull. What the fuck happened? Son of a bitch. I pressed the heel of my palm hard against my right eye, and stood up. The room waved and wobbled, but I made it to my feet. Once the initial wave of nausea abated, everything started coming back. She killed those jinn. But she passed something from them into me.

The difference was there beneath my skin. Power buzzed in my ears. All of my senses were sharper, stronger, faster.

“Shift.” The angel’s voice came from the doorway of my cell in the warehouse.

I took my time looking at her. “I’m not Baker.”

She lifted my gun and pointed it at my chest. “Shift.”

I stared back at her.

She fired; a bullet tore through my shoulder.

I gritted my teeth and forced my temper down. “Ow.”

She fired again in quick succession, this time at my head. But before her bullets met their mark, my body burst into mist and just as quickly reformed. Well, that was new. I hadn’t even thought of making it happen; it just did as a reflex to a threat.

She looked pleased, which pissed me off even more. I vaporized and reappeared in front of her, grabbing the gun and throwing the damn thing across the room. “Have you lost your mind?” I hissed.

She looked up at me, her jaw set to the same stubborn angle Olivia favored. “Shift,” she demanded again.

“I can’t.”

The door at the front of the warehouse slammed open. “Boss?” Baker shouted. “You here?”

The angel’s eyes flickered to the direction of his voice, with a dangerous glint. She started out the door and I transported to them.

“Get out of here,” I told them, but it was too late. She strolled into the room, extended her arm, then one finger at a time clenched her hand into a fist. Everyone but me froze in place, yet their eyes still darted around the room.

“Shift or watch them die,” she said pleasantly.

When I’d willingly opened myself to the weakness having friends caused, I’d figured the day would eventually come where I would have to choose, but not like this. Olivia could never live with herself if she took either of their lives. Olivia tried to teach me to shift when I first got my soul back, but nothing happened. Obviously, the angel thought it would now. “What do you want me to be?”

She smiled slightly, knowing she had me. “You won’t have a choice. A jinni can only shift into one thing. I need to know you can do it.”

I couldn’t imagine myself being anything other than what I was. “He can help me.” I nodded my head to Baker.

She loosened her fist ever so slightly.

“Don’t tell her anything,” Femi said with a strained voice.

Her fingers clenched tight again. “Do it on your own.”

“She’s not Olivia and she’s never going to let Olivia come back, boss. She’s just getting stronger. You know that.” I glared at Baker, whose face was a purplish red, his voice no louder than a whisper. “Kill the bitch.”

I looked back at her, the angelic knife mere inches from my hand. When she touched me at Xavier’s there hadn’t been a trace of Olivia. With every jinni she freed Olivia slipped further away.

“You agreed to help me even if you did not approve of my methods,” she said. “Prove it now.”

I stared at her. “Let them go.”

“It’s time, Holden,” she said. “It’s time for you to take your place beside me. This is the moment where you must choose. Me or them. They have abandoned our fight and have chosen their own path.”

In a blink I was behind her, hand on her forehead, knife pressed to her throat. “Let them go.”

“Holden?” Olivia’s voice wobbled. The part in my mind that she occupied burst into life.

“Let them go,” I repeated for the final time.

“We’re free,” Femi said. She took two long steps toward us, Baker right behind her. “Is it really you?”

“What’s happening? Why do you have a knife to my neck?” Olivia asked.

I didn’t trust the angel. She had used Olivia against me, time and time again. Doubt about whether or not it had ever been Olivia steadied my hands to do what I had to do. “Get Maggie and leave, both of you. I will find you.”

“But—” Femi kept approaching and I shot Baker a look.

He curled an arm around her waist and pulled her back. “He’s already balled up, baby. Let him handle it. He won’t bump her off unless he has to.”

“Bump me off? What is he talking about, Holden?” Olivia turned in my arms—and I let her. She looked up at me like the walking emotion my Olivia was. A fat tear dropped over the edge of her eyelid as her body took on the gentle soft glow that had become little more than a memory.
Talk to me. What happened?
she asked silently, further melting my resolve.

“Get out of here,” I bellowed at Baker and Femi who were still watching us.

Their footsteps echoed through the room as they headed for Maggie and the other vampire, then exited the building. My breath became shallow at the feel of her body pressed against mine. “It isn’t going to work. You aren’t killing any of them. You can’t hide behind her when it pleases you.”

“Holden, it’s me. Please tell me what’s happening.” Her hand caressed my cheek. “Why would I kill Baker or Femi? Talk to me.”

“You tell me. I said I would help you. Why are you threatening them?”

Her brow furrowed. “Everything is foggy. It feels like I’ve been dreaming, but I can’t quite grasp the memory. Help me remember.”

My mouth went dry. Was she playing me, or was Olivia actually back? Earlier I’d thought that if I touched the angel I could bring her forward, but this was all too convenient timing-wise. There was nothing Olivia could even say that would allow me to believe her now. The angel could know any of our secrets.

Concern, genuine concern, moved in her eyes as they landed on the bullet wound in my shoulder. She pressed her hands against it and fed light into me. “I know I’ve missed something, but please tell me you are okay.”

Seconds ticked away as I watched her. She worked her luscious lower pink lip, worriedly chewing it. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I pressed my mouth to hers. Olivia was filled with passion and life and emotion. The angel was reserved and cold and pragmatic. She immediately responded. Kissing me like I was oxygen, with her whole self. Her essence seeped into my veins. It was her.

I lifted her up and squeezed her tightly, as if it could make her stay. Her fingers ran through my hair. Reluctantly she pulled back slightly. “Please tell me what’s happening. How long have I been gone?”

“Too long.” I kissed her again and again, relief flushing through me. I didn’t want to talk. I just needed to remind myself why I was doing all of this. Everything went still. Or was the angel still pulling strings? I had no doubt this was Olivia, but the angel had only released her to remind me and put me back in line. Using love against me.

“The angel has taken over. She wants to free all the jinn and she wants me to use the Seal of Solomon to control them. She also wants to close the pathway from the underworld forever, though I have no idea how she plans on doing that. Just before you came back she asked me to choose between her and Femi and Baker.”

Olivia’s eyes widened. “How long have I been gone?”

“Six months.”

She pressed her fingers to her temples, her face crinkling. “The voice. The voice says it’s a trap.” She shook her head. “Don’t go to the mountain. It’s a trap. Does that make sense?”

I nodded. “Can you keep her pushed back?”

“I don’t think so. Even now I feel her yanking at me. She’s so much stronger now than she was before.”

I smoothed a hand over her hair. “We need you here. Stay.”

“She’s part of me. I don’t know what to fight against. I tried to blend with her, but she obviously didn’t compromise. She took over for six months and I didn’t even know it. How do I compete with that?”

I ran my fingers down her neck, unable to stop touching her. “I’m part of you too. Hold on to that part.”

“Okay. I’ll try.” She closed her eyes for a moment then whispered, “The voice says you have to let me go.”

“No.” I held onto her tighter.

A tear slipped out. “Protect them, Holden. Uriel can help. Just ask. You know what the right thing to do is here.” She touched just over my heart. “Trust that. You don’t need me to guide you anymore. Have faith we will find each other again.”

All of this was pointless without her. Since the moment we met we fought to be together. I wasn’t walking away from her now. We defeated everything else; we could defeat this too. “I do need you.”

“This isn’t goodbye.” She gave me a watery smile. “Please trust me. I will find a way to deal with her, but I can’t protect them while I’m doing it.
You
can. Take care of our friends and I’ll come back. I promise.” She waited until I agreed. Olivia was strong and I had to believe she could do this because I didn’t know how else to help her.

“I’ll be waiting.”

She pressed a kiss to the underside of my jaw. “It’s time. You have to let me go. I can hold onto the angel long enough for you to get away, but don’t make the same mistake I did. I let them use you as leverage against me once and it almost tore us apart. Don’t let her do the same now.”

I kissed her again, and released my arms from around her. I had to trust her. “I love you.”

She pressed her forehead against mine. “I love you too. I always will.”

I turned and walked away, willing myself not to look back. I couldn’t watch her turn back into the angel. I pulled the door shut so hard behind me it bent, hopefully trapping her inside for a while. I tried to call Baker and Femi, but neither of them answered. More than likely they’d ditched their phones and went off grid.

“Why so grim?” Sybil’s sultry voice caressed my ear like velvet. She trailed a finger along my bicep. “Not that I’m complaining. I’ve always liked your brooding.” Her tongue darted out to lick her fingernail.

“Did you drive?” I asked.

She pointed to a sedate rental car. I nodded and got in the passenger seat. She stood outside for only a second before she slid in too. “Where are we going?”

“Just drive,” I said. When we had at least some distance between us and the angel, Olivia dimmed in my mind, but this time she didn’t disappear into a void. She was there, just weak. I wracked my mind for a place we could go where she wouldn’t find us right away. “What do you have for me?” I asked offhandedly, not forgetting that if Sybil came to find me that meant she had something.

“Did your friends not tell you?”

“My friends?”

“Yes. Femi and Baker I believe.”

“You’ve met them?”

“We talked this afternoon. It was an incredibly inconvenient location. I’ve been driving for hours. I’m quite put out, but apparently there’s a spy among you? Having trouble controlling your woman?” She winked at me.

I smiled to myself. Baker wasn’t an idiot. If the spot was safe from the angel, that’s where they’d be. “Take me back there.”

She pursed her lips, but we wove through the streets toward the highway.

****

I eyed the old prison doubtfully. Why would we be safe here? I slipped the knife into my hand, in case Sybil had turned on us, and followed her inside wordlessly. However, it wasn’t long before I heard Femi yelling at Baker about forcing her to leave.

Sybil stopped and smiled. “Your friends?”

I went past her into the room. Femi stopped abusing Baker, but her furious expression found me. “You killed her, didn’t you?” She hurtled a knife at me. I caught it by the blade just in front of my face.

I offered her the knife back. “I didn’t kill her.”

She took the handle of her weapon and crossed her arms over her chest. “Then where is she? How did you get away?”

“Was it even her?” Baker said.

Femi pointed the knife at him. “You I will still stab. I am telling you it was her. They smell different.”

He held up his hands. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What did I do?”

“I didn’t notice the smell thing, but yes, it was actually Olivia.” I looked around the room scattered with debris. “Where are we and why are we here? Why would a human prison be warded against anything?”

Baker stood up and slipped his hands into his pockets. “I know you aren’t a pushover, but you need to trust me on this, boss. If we’re on the lam from an angel, this is the best place to be. Plus these walls don’t have ears.” He gave me a meaningful look. “What you really have to ask yourself is, is it more important to know how I know about this place, or to figure out what we should be doing now?”