Wish For Me (The Djinn Order #1) (5 page)

“It is clear you are without employment.”

The very next day, I summoned Irving again. After he’d teased me about my vibrator for a good hour the day before, I shouldn’t have ever talked to him again. But it was kind of funny when I thought about it. How Irving had even known what it was, was the question he refused to answer. Whatever, though. It was over now and I had other plans to torture the Djinn.

“That’s rude, Irving,” I said. “What makes you think I don’t have a job?”

Irving raised a brow and gestured toward my open bedroom window. Nagi was perched on the windowsill chirping at every bird that flew by. “It is the time of the day where the sun is most high in the sky. Humans are usually wrapped up in their occupations at this time. For two days now, I have found you squandering away the hours doing absolutely nothing.”

I glared at him. “I have a trust fund, asswipe. I don’t have to work.”

“What is this…trust fund?”

“Oh, check this out. Mr. Know-It-All is asking me for an explanation.”

He sighed. “Are you going to tell me what it is or not?”

I shrugged. “My grandmother left me some money in an account so I wouldn’t have to work while I was in college.”

Irving cocked his head at me as he sat forward in my armchair. “You are from a family of wealth then.”

“Wealth? Uh, no. I was just my grandmother’s only grandchild. She opened the fund when I was a baby and over the next eighteen years, she added money to it every month or so.”

“So that is your age? Eighteen?”

“Nineteen. I began living off of the fund last year when I started school. And speaking of, you’re coming with me to class today.”

“I will not.”

I so didn’t remember making a request. I pointed at myself. “
Master
.” I pointed at him. “
Djinn
. You’re coming.”

He rolled his eyes. “Is this how we are to be? You prolong making a wish so that we can…
frolic
about the human realm pretending we enjoy each other’s company?”

I bristled a bit at that. The jerk hadn’t even attempted to get along with me, so how else were we supposed to act? I shoved my notebook into my backpack. “You’re coming with me to school, Irving. So just get the fuck over it. Now—” I turned toward him. “—what are we going to do about your outfit?”

Irving laughed and it brightened up his handsome face. “My attire is my attire. If you would like me to accompany you today, then I will do as commanded. But do not attempt to dictate my clothing choices. That is out of your jurisdiction.”

I threw my hands up. “Well, you can’t go dressed like that. You’re not even wearing a shirt!”

“I can and I will. Or I will not go at all.”

“Fine,” I huffed. “But everyone is going to be staring at you like you’re out of your fucking mind and wondering why I’m even with you.”

“Or it is more likely that they will wonder why
I
am with
you
.” His smile was taunting and I took the bait.

“Hey, you’re not the only good-looking one in this duo. I’m a hot piece of ass too!”

Irving’s expression switched from humored to heated in the span of a single moment. His eyes slid down to my skull-covered leggings and red ballet flats, then back up to my shredded “
Need a vacation destination? Try Hell
.” t-shirt and the sparkly red bra that peeked through the holes I’d purposefully made. Sure, my skin-tight leggings put my curves on full display, but that didn’t warrant the fiery look Irving had in his eyes. They flashed with interest and something that could have been considered lust. But just as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. I was kind of disappointed.

“Shall we go?” he said, rising and flinging the door open to my room. Nagi shot off into the sky, I closed my window, put Irving’s Chronolier up on the shelf in my closet, and then followed the Djinn out into the summer sunshine.

As predicted, Irving drew stares unlike any I could ever pull with any of my tattoos and unusual get-ups. We took the 57 bus to campus as my moped was only built for one and I couldn’t have Irving poofing in and scaring the shit out of everybody at my school. We sat side by side, and though we pretended to ignore each other, everyone could clearly see we were acquainted. If that’s what you could even call it.

“Is this your first time on a bus?” I asked after a while. We weren’t fooling anyone so who cared if I talked to him.

“Yes,” Irving replied, smiling at a trio of old women sitting across the aisle from us. They dissolved into giggles instead of glares, which probably wouldn’t have been the case if I’d been alone. “The last time I was summoned to the human realm was four hundred and twenty-four years ago. Machines such as this did not even exist then.”

My eyes popped wide and I looked around to see if anyone had heard him. The bus was only about half full, though, so it appeared we could talk freely.

“How old are you, Irving?”

“Old enough,” he replied. When he realized that his answer wouldn’t suffice, he added, “I have been in existence for well over a millennium.”

“Well
over
a millennium?” Though that didn’t answer my question exactly, I got the picture. But what his little explanation didn’t explain was why he didn’t seem to be surprised or intrigued by all of the technological advances humans had made since he had last visited our realm almost half a millennium ago. I wanted to ask him, but if the explanation turned out to be long, I didn’t want any interruptions. So I decided to hold the question until class was over.

Campus was pretty tame due to summer break, but that didn’t stop us from drawing stares from students and faculty alike. I was only glad that I had a big lecture class that day, World History, and that hardly anyone knew me in it. That would stem the questions about who Irving was, where he came from dressed like that, and probably, if he was single.

“This reminds me of the schools in Shrinelyn,” Irving said, looking around the lecture hall. He’d taken the chair beside me in the very last row, and while I pretended to be oblivious to all the staring, he seemed to
actually
be impervious to all the eyes we had on us.

“It does?” I made a face.

“Not the appearance, but the manner in which you obtain your learning. We too gather around the guru and absorb their teachings. It is not uncommon for our assemblies to double in size in comparison to your class.”

“Guru?” I couldn’t stop the grin that assaulted my lips. “Your teachers are called gurus?”

Irving nodded once. “Why do you find this so amusing?”

I shrugged. “Sometimes humans use the term as a sort of joke. You can be the guru of anything, which just means you’re really good at whatever it is. But we don’t often use the term in any official way. We don’t really take it seriously.”

Irving shrugged. “I am not surprised. Humans do not seem to take
anything
seriously.”

I shot him a dirty look. “That’s not true and you know it.”

Irving shrugged again and gestured toward the front of the hall where my professor was standing and ready to begin his lecture. I wanted to punch Irving in the throat, but instead I faced forward and tried to pay attention.

As the minutes ticked by, I seethed. The way Irving kept downing humans was wearing my nerves to threads. What had humans ever done to him to make him hate us so much? And why did he feel he was allowed to take it out on
me
? In my opinion, it seemed like he wasn’t even really aware of what he was doing. But then again, maybe he was. Irving seemed pretty smart, and it was hard for me to believe that this Djinn had spent the last thousand years treating all of his masters as though they were the scum of the Earth. Someone would have punched the bastard in the face by now and let him know what’s up. Maybe that would be me.

As soon as class let out, I was out of the door and storming down the hall. To my annoyance, Irving followed close behind and called my name a few times. I ignored him, but by the fifth “Glory” I could sense that Irving knew something was up. I slipped down a side hallway so he could confront me without making a scene. Something told me he would have if he had to.

I stopped and turned to finally face him. He came to a stop in front of me and wasted no time getting to the point.

“You are angry with me,” he said, his accent sharper than normal. “Why?”

I glared. “Because you’re an asshole. Because you stand there and look down on me and pass judgment, and you don’t even fucking know me.”

“I have history with your kind, Glory St. Pierre. I bet I know you better than you know yourself.”

“No, you
think
you know me, but you don’t! And how dare you group all humans together as though we’re not individuals with our own minds and desires?”

“Because humans are all the same!” he exclaimed. “Even your historical guru presents the evidence. Your kind, no matter which part of this realm they are from, are greedy and selfish, and have a history of enslaving and murdering inferior people and
taking
whatever they cannot persuade one to give to them. That is
your
kind. The Djinn do not make it their mission to conquer and divide entire nations, nor would we ever force them into slavery or to submit to us. Yes, we will defend our realm with everything we possess, but we do not seek to dominate and rule the universe. That. Is.
Your
. Kind.”

I stared up at Irving and nearly got lost in his blazing amethyst eyes. But my anger kept me focused. “I don’t deny that humans are flawed beyond words, but that doesn’t justify you treating me as though I don’t deserve respect because I’m one of them. It’s rude and unfair, and as long as you keep that frame of mind, we’re never going to make this work!”

“Make what work?” Irving lowered his head to bring us closer. “What are we trying to make work, Glory?”

“This.” I gestured between us. “You and me. Master and Djinn. I get it, you know. I understand why you hate us, but I didn’t make the rules that say this is the way things are supposed to be between us and you shouldn’t treat me as though I did.”

Irving took a step back and shook his head. “You do not know what you are talking about.”

“Yes, I do and I understand. You hate being a Djinn and granting wishes, and—”

Irving’s hand shot out to grab my arm, effectively cutting off my words. He looked me dead in the eyes and said, “You do
not
know what you are talking about, human. Not at all.”

“Let me go, Irving,” I said through clenched teeth. “Right the fuck now.”

He released me, but I could tell he hadn’t wanted to. I examined my arm even though Irving had barely been squeezing hard enough to do any damage. Still, the fact that he’d felt he had the right to touch me in that way pissed me the hell off. I swore right then that if he ever tried it again, he would bid farewell to the hand committing the offense.

Irving knew he had made a mistake, too, but he didn’t apologize for it. “Are you going to make a wish today?”

I laughed at the nerve of this Djinn. “No.”

“Then may I leave?”

I laughed again, but this time out of frustration. “Sure. Run away again.”

He snorted. “I am not running away from you. You pose no threat to me.”

“Are you sure? Because the way you talk, bringing on the apocalypse is the goal of
every
human.”

“What would you know of the
kayamata
?”

“The what?” The way he gazed at me triggered every sensor in my body and not in a good way.

“The apocalypse, Glory. What do you know of it?”

I frowned. “What are you talking about? I don’t know shit about any apocalypse.”

His expression said he didn’t believe me.

“You can go, Irving,” I said, not caring to understand. “I’ll get home just fine.”

He hesitated, just like the last time. It didn’t make any sense. He didn’t seem to like me and made it clear being around me was a burden on his life. So why did he hesitate?

Irving opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.

“Go already!” I practically shouted. I wanted to punch myself in the face at the wounded way I sounded. Another student passed by at that moment, avoiding all eye contact, and that just pissed me off more. Irving was making me feel like a fool, and one thing I didn’t do was let men make a fool of me.

“Get the fuck away from me, Irving,” I growled, feeling the pissed off tears welling up in my eyes. “Now. I’m
commanding
you to leave. Go! Now!”

The look Irving gave me just confused me more. It was apologetic and angry at the same time, but he was smart enough not to try and argue me down.

“Your wish is my command, Glory,” he mumbled. Then, without a care for being seen, and damn sure without a care for me, Irving disappeared.

For a moment, I just stood there trying to understand what the hell had happened. Had I honestly let this jerk Djinn get to me to the point that I was about to
cry
? I wasn’t a crier. I didn’t shed precious tears over men. Especially men I’d just met. Even more so men who looked down on me from their fucking magic carpet with all the arrogance of a bastard who had already pinned all kinds of assumptions on me without even taking a moment to realize that he didn’t know a damn thing about me.

I wobbled on shaky knees to the bus stop and shook with rage the entire ride home. Ash was laid up watching television when I burst through the front door, disheveled and red in the face. One glance at me and she knew something was up.

She leapt to her feet and threw the remote on the couch. “You grab the trash bags, I’ll get the shovel.”

I waved her down. “Nobody’s dead…yet.” Throwing down my backpack, I leapt over the back of the couch and settled in. “Irving just pissed me off, but it’s nothing.”

“Better not be,” she grunted as she dropped back beside me. “But if it ever becomes
something
, he’s a fucking corpse.”

I grinned despite my pissivity. “Woman, you should come with a warning label.
Don’t fuck with me. No one will find your body.
”

“Damn right,” Ash said with a laugh. “Don’t fuck with me, and for damn sure, don’t fuck with my Glory.”