Hope's Wish Read online

  It was impossible. What he’d sensed from Tahlee’s laptop bag could not be right.

  It couldn’t.

  The dark magic involved to resurrect…

  He swiped at his mouth and cast Tahlee—sound asleep—a frown.

  Did she have any inkling, maybe on a subconscious level, what she’d somehow been thrust into?

  No, that couldn’t be possible, either. That wasn’t how it worked.

  But still, what are the odds?

  Fuck the odds. How was the planet not broken?

  Maybe he was wrong. He needed to talk to someone who could either clarify the impossible or laugh at him and give him grief for being so wrong.

  Shite, he hoped he was wrong.

  In the passenger seat, Tahlee snored softly.

  He’d missed the very human noise. Missed it more than he could comprehend, in fact. When she’d first started snoring—twenty minutes into the drive to the Guarded Souls safe house high in the Topanga Canyon hills—he’d forgotten the nightmare scenario trying to take up residence in his head and had, for a few wonderful moments, savored the sounds of Tahlee resting peacefully.

  Sounds he’d never forget, no matter how many centuries unfurled around him.

  Sounds he still ached for every time he allowed himself the luxury of repose. Falling asleep—such a human thing to do—to the soft sound of Tahlee’s deep breathing had been one of his favorite things. Ever. In all his eons of existence, those delicate little buzzing sounds had filled him with serenity unlike any other.

  He’d grinned when she’d first started snoring from the passenger seat, allowing himself to be lost to a fantasy so long denied him.

  Until the memory of what he’d sensed from her laptop bag interfered.

  The situation Tahlee had somehow landed in had removed the grin from his face straight away.

  He’d gripped the steering wheel hard enough to send shards of very human pain through the bones of his hand and up his arms, and kept it that way.

  Better to be in constant pain that to forget the reason he couldn’t listen to Tahlee sleep every night.

  Now, with at least ten miles to go before they reached the safe house—how did humans ever get anything done when so much time was wasted on driving?—he glared at the road.

  Taking Tahlee somewhere safe wasn’t enough. Not if what he’d sensed was correct.

  “Shite,” he exhaled, giving her another quick look.

  She was so beautiful and fierce and frustrating—and he would destroy the world if something happened to her.

  With a cold click of his fingers.

  Destroy it, resurrect it, and destroy it again.

  That’s not what you do, who you are anymore, Barqan.

  James sucked in a breath. Barqan. It had been a long time since he’d allowed that name to enter his mind. A lifetime.

  Ha. A lifetime? Don’t you mean fifteen lifetimes? Or is it more?

  Something dark slithered through him. Dark and angry. Something long buried in his soul.

  Something awoken by what he’d sensed from Tahlee’s laptop bag.

  The bones in his knuckles burned as he squeezed the wheel tighter. For the first time in centuries, he wondered if it was time to reach out to his fellow djinn.

  His gut clenched at the thought.

  Since their creation countless millennia ago, djinn were pack creatures. And yet, as the centuries passed, those who’d acclimatized to life with humans had become more solo in their behavior. And less trusting of their fellow djinn.

  There weren’t many of his kind existing in the realm of mankind. Not at the moment, at least. And only one of them foolish enough to get himself stranded here. Those who could still traverse back and forth to the djinn home realm sniggered at the one stuck in the home world.

  James hated sniggering.

  As it turned out, those who sniggered learned very quickly not to be anywhere near James.

  Fighting amongst djinn didn’t happen often, but when it did… well, he’d never started a fight, but he would always be the one to finish it.

  Which meant any help he asked for from his fellow djinn would be refused. Or more likely ignored.

  “Shite.”

  So who did he ask?

  Feathers was a possibility, but as far as James knew, the angel couldn’t tap into forces from realms different to his own or that of mankind. Need to know anything about human souls? Nathanial had it covered. Need to know when a water sprite was planning to cause a drowning? The angel could likely shrug those magnificent wings of his and find the answer.

  The temporal plane and the ethereal plane were no match for Nathanial, but the djinn realm? Now, that was a different story.

  Nim? The wiccan might be able to tap into the djinn realm. She’d have no luck navigating it though, which meant seeking another djinn to help her—which, again, would be futile.

  She might, however, be able to detect what he’d sensed from Tahlee’s bag. It was intrinsically entwined with dark magic, after all. The darkest, in fact.

  Too dark for Nim? Will it put her existence at risk?

  Could he do that? Risk Nim for Tahlee?

  The answer to that clenched his heart.

  For Tahlee, he’d—

  “We there yet?”

  He blinked at Tahlee’s mumbled question, forced a loose grin to his face and let out a low chuckle. “I forgot how much you snore.”

  “I do not snore.” She shifted in the seat, dragging her hands through the thick curtain of her hair, before stretching like a cat and yawning like a hippo.

  Sucking in a long breath, he fixed his focus on the dark road.

  You are in so much trouble, James.

  “We’re about fifteen minutes away. Maybe.” He forced out an unperturbed laugh. “The GPS thingy stopped talking to me a while ago. But I remember where we are now. It looks familiar.”

  The “GPS thingy” would never be able to navigate directly to the Guarded Souls safe house, given the different levels of magical wards and security spells cast upon it. When it came to keeping the place off anyone’s radar—human and nonhuman alike—Kade didn’t mess around.

  James had never driven here before, but the tingling in his djinn soul told him exactly where they were and where to go.

  Want something? Think about it, contemplate it, and either get it or get to it. That was the djinn way.

  Tempering that power so he could maintain the illusion of being human was easy. Frustrating to be sure, but easy.

  What he should have done was click his fingers and transport them to the safe house the moment Tahlee fell asleep. Of course, Tahlee being Tahlee, she would have immediately noticed the time leap and demanded answers.

  And while he loved when she demanded answers about corrupt CEOs and public servants and medical practitioners for the articles she wrote, demanding answers about anything to do with him…

  Yeah, well, he was already in danger of her noticing his weird behavior since their unexpected reunion, so driving all the way to the safe house it was.

  “So when we get there,” she said, narrowing her eyes at the dark bushes and trees outside the car, “you’re going, right?”

  “What?” He raised his eyebrows.

  “I’ll be safe there.” she said. “Safe. House. You don’t need to hang around. I can take care of myself. And I’m pretty certain you don’t want to be forced to babysit me. Given our… history.”

  “You heard Kade. I’ll be hanging around until the threat to you is neutralized.”

  Or, if it’s who I think it is, annihilated. Decimated. For starters.

  Silence answered him.

  He risked a quick glance at her.

  She frowned at him, bottom lip caught between her teeth. “In that case, we’ve got two obvious options,” she finally said. “We can talk it out, finally lance the festering boil that was once our happy relationship before you fucked it up. Or we can pretend it never happened—we never happened—and the on
ly relationship you and I have is that of protector and reluctant protected.”

  “Hm, let me guess which one you want to pick.”

  “Schrodinger’s Conversation be damned!” she burst out. She spun to face him, grabbing at the dashboard with one hand and stabbing the index finger of the other into his biceps. “I’m going to pick the first flipping one. And seeing as you’re instructed by your boss to constantly look after me, anytime you think of trying to dodge the conversation by walking away from me, I’m going to duct tape you to a chair. And don’t even think of going to the toilet without me tagging along. Oh no. Once bitten, a million times shy when it comes to you ever going to the toilet mid-conversation again. If we’re stuck together in a flipping safe house, then I’m making the most of it. I’m not letting you out of my sight until I’ve got—”

  “We’re here,” James stated, pulling to a halt at the front of the safe house.

  Tahlee snapped her mouth shut, stare locked on the dark building nestled amongst dense bushes and towering trees. “Well,” she said, frowning. “It’s not exactly how I pictured it.”

  “Kade has…” He scratched at the scruff on his jaw. “How shall I put this? Farking expensive tastes.”

  Kade had more money than he knew what to do with. Came with being a vampire older than dirt with a good head for business and stocks and investments. Plus, it helped that he’d spent centuries cultivating relationships that ultimately paid out. Christen and Daku had started a pool on how many famous figures from history Kade had known. Of course, the wight and the ancient dreamwalker had differing opinions on what kinds of relationships he’d had with said famous figures, one opinion being far more explicit than the other.

  Christen—being a Norse nature spirit—tended to be more wholesome in his ideas. Dak, well—the dreamwalker veered more toward the debauched. He did, after all, spend an inordinate number of hours submerged in the dreams of others.

  “This is really the safe house?” Tahlee let out a low whistle. “The bodyguard business obviously pays well.”

  James laugh. “You have no idea.”

  The money some Guarded Souls clients threw at Kade made James wince, which was saying something, given all he had to do was click his fingers and he’d drown in money.

  Money, however, had never been alluring to him. Why would it? When he wanted something, he just thought of the item and he got it. For as long as he wanted it.

  Yeah. Except for one thing.

  The only true desire he had, the one thing he wanted, was denied him.

  Forever.

  Thanks to the farking iniquitous, heinous—

  Clearing his throat, James opened the Jeep’s driver-side door and climbed out.

  He needed clarification. Before he unraveled and did something foolish.

  And allowing yourself to be in Tahlee’s company around the clock isn’t?

  Closing his door, he moved to the passenger side. Fast.

  Too fast.

  Damn it, he needed to control himself.

  How many years had he lived with her? And not once had he ever come close to revealing what he truly was.

  Well, if he didn’t count the time on the dance floor in the pub in Covent Gardens.

  Still, even that incident paled next to one second being on the driver’s side of the Jeep, and the next, being on the passenger’s side, opening the door for Tahlee.

  Who frowned at him now.

  Confusion warred with surprise in her eyes. “Wow. That was… quick. Really quick.”

  He dropped her a wink and dipped a little at the waist. “Expect only the best from your Guarded Souls personal bodyguard, Hope. That’s the company motto.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “Actually,” he tapped a finger to his lips, “I think the company motto is ‘Back off, bad guys.’”

  Gripping the strap of her laptop bag, she climbed out of the Jeep. “One of these days you’re going to take something seriously, James Hastin, and I wish like flipping hell I’ll be there to see it.”

  He let out a silent sigh. If only she knew she already had.

  “C’mon,” he said, closing the passenger door, and waving a hand toward the dark safe house. “I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

  “Good. We can continue our conversation over a cuppa.”

  Shite. He should have known he hadn’t been that lucky.

  Wishes for other people, he could grant. Wishing Tahlee would make this easy? That was beyond even his phenomenal cosmic powers. He was good, but not that good. He couldn’t perform the impossible, no matter how much he wanted to.

  “Yay,” he said.

  Tahlee chuckled. “And you thought you’d distracted me.”

  He couldn’t help but smile. “I was hoping.”

  “You know what they say, James. If wishes were horses.”

  “You want a horse?” If he clicked his fingers right now, if he made a horse—a Clydesdale? Or an Arabian?—instantly appear in front of the safe house, maybe then she’d stop asking why he’d taken off three years ago.

  Yeah, and that’s the solution to the problem.

  “I want answers.” She nudged his shoulder with her fist, her smile part playful, part cutting, before she began walking toward the safe house. “And then maybe after that you can buy me a horse.”

  James rubbed at the back of his neck. This was not going to be easy.

  “I’m assuming you can get in?” Tahlee called to him from the front door.

  “Yeah,” he called back, striding toward her. “The lock is a proximity system. It’ll open to my phone.”

  The system had nothing to do with such a thing, but it was an easier explanation than the truth. At least the truth for James.

  Climbing the low stairs leading up to the front door, he clicked his right fingers, low, beside his thigh. The door unlocked, swung open a little, and all the lights in the house turned on.

  “Impressive.” Tahlee folded her arms beneath her breasts and leaned her hip against the doorframe. “If a tad ostentatious.”

  James chuckled. If Kade had been there, he would be grumbling under his breath about bastard djinn and their complete disrespect for protocol.

  Who needed a key and a code when you had a thumb and a middle finger?

  He grinned. “Why, yes, I am. Thank you.”

  Rolling her eyes, Tahlee stepped over the threshold and into the safe house. “Let’s get on with it then.”

  James swallowed, watching her walk. Hips swaying with a natural grace, dark hair tumbling down her back in a thick, wavy curtain, long legs carrying her farther away from him with confident strides.

  It was too easy to remember what those legs felt like wrapped around his hips. Too easy to remember the feel of her hair brushing his face as she straddled his hips, smiling down at him just before kissing him, her hands pinning his wrists to the mattress beside his head, her low, throaty laugh vibrating through both their bodies.

  “Shite,” he ground out, rubbing at the back of his neck before clawing his fingers over his scalp.

  Of course, he could just tell Kade to stick this job. He didn’t need to work. None of the nonhumans did, really. But he liked hanging with the Guarded Souls team. He liked the rush he got from keeping defenseless humans safe—even the annoying wealthy ones. It didn’t come close to the rush of granting wishes, but it sometimes felt more real.

  He didn’t need to work, and he didn’t—strictly speaking—need to do what Kade instructed him to do. Stay with Tahlee.

  But he wouldn’t ignore her.

  He never could.

  Which damned him to an existence of torture and torment. Exactly what the farking sorcerer had intended.

  Perhaps you’re finally going to get the chance to fix it?

  Raking his fingers over his scalp again, he closed the door behind him, locked it—in both the traditional and magical senses—and followed Tahlee into the house.

  He couldn’t allow himself the luxury of believing
such a thing. If what he’d sensed from her laptop bag was accurate, there was no silver lining in the nightmare.

  If the sorcerer who’d summoned him to mankind’s realm over fourteen hundred years ago was alive once again, and Tahlee had inadvertently caught the malevolent bastard’s attention, everything he knew was threatened.

  Including himself.

  You need to be sure.

  “I’m just going to take a quick look around,” he called, striding away from Tahlee, who was making her way to the living room. “Make yourself at home.”

  “Ha,” she called back. “So you want me to whip off my bra, strip down to my undies and T-shirt, and watch reruns of Coronation Street?”

  An image of Tahlee doing just that in their old flat back in Wimbledon filled James’s head, and he bit back a groan. She’d come home from work, pull her bra off from beneath her shirt, toss it at him, strip off whatever she was wearing on the bottom half of her body, drop onto his lap, and kiss him senseless before they’d settle in for the night, relaxing, watching TV, making love…

  Shite, he missed that life.

  Stop it.

  “Dare you, Hope,” he called back. The trouble was, with a response like that, Tahlee was the kind of person to do it. Just to get under his skin. She had the moral upper hand right now and would play dirty to keep it.

  Yeah, he truly missed his life with her.

  Stop. It.

  He hurried toward the back of the house, into a room set up like a private cinema, complete with luxurious leather reclining armchairs, a massive screen and a fully stocked bar in the corner.

  Kade had too much money. Way too much money.

  Swinging the door shut behind him, he stopped in the middle of the space between the chairs and the screen and let out a slow breath.

  He needed to do something. Quickly.

  Did he risk narrowing his thoughts onto the presence he’d sensed on Tahlee’s laptop bag? If he did, and the impossible was, in fact, possible, he risked either going straight to the bastard sorcerer or bringing the bastard sorcerer to him.

  Both could possibly put Tahlee at risk.

  And what about yourself? What would Syrin do if he came face to face with you after all these centuries?

  He needed help.

  Okay, he’d ask Nim. If nothing else, the wiccan would be able to clarify if a powerful sorcerer walked the earth. Again. When he should be dead. Deader than dead. Unmade.