Jinni's Wish (Kingdom, #4)

Danika had told him he was Tristan Black. Jinni hadn’t understood it then.

He grabbed the man’s wrist and had to strain to lift him in a dead man’s hold across his shoulders, his weight significantly more than hers had been.

Other bodies were slowly milling out, but Jinni had to leave them to fend for themselves. The plane was going to blow soon and he needed to reach safety now.

He was just entering the clearing he’d laid her in when the plane finally gave one final shudder and exploded in a nova of orange and blue.

Dropping to his knees, Jinni dumped the man and gathered the woman in his arms. She smelled of smoke and fuel, but she also smelled like lavender and roses. He ran his nose through her hair, breathless with wonder at his ability to hold a woman again. To feel alive in her presence.

She whimpered and gripped his waist, digging her fingers in.

He looked at the man who bled from the wound in his neck. But the bleeding wasn’t normal, it was thick and oozing, and a red so deep it appeared black. But of course he wouldn’t bleed like a normal mortal, the man was a golem.

What had Danika done?





Chapter 3





Doctors hovered around her fragile form. She was pale, her honey skin bleached out, her lips almost blue. Nurses ran through the room, sounds beeped and stirred, it was an obnoxious wail in the background Jinni fought to ignore.

His eyes were solely for her. Who was she?

Black hair, dark as moving shadow, framed her heart shaped face. Long lashes feathered and flexed as her eyes danced behind the lids.

“Code Blue,” someone shouted. “Code Blue.”

More people rushed the room, a swarm of white coats and humans in colorful scrubs.

Jinni cocked his head, reaching out a blue hand and trailed it down her cheek. He felt nothing, no firmness of flesh, no heat off her body. Just the static of energy buzzing along his vaporous body.

“Damn it, we’re not equipped to handle this,” a deep voice growled, “we’re a small clinic. Dana, you’re gonna have to call Anchorage, we’ve got to get the worst ones air lifted out of here, stat.”

He heard the voices, the sounds of panic, but it was white noise in the background. The woman took up his vision, all he saw was her. The soft rising of her breaths as the machine worked her lungs up and down, the unflinching beauty of a woman in sleep.

Jinni hadn’t meant to follow, he’d thought to stay in the woods and await Danika’s return. To show her he was unmoved, unphased by the woman Danika had chosen for him. But as his temporary form had faded, and she’d slipped softly through his hands, a part of him had felt irrevocably tethered. Like she’d taken the last shred of his soul, trapping it within her soft, soft body.

She’d felt so wonderful. Flesh firm, hot, and smooth, and he’d shuddered, having forgotten the sensation hundreds of years ago. The feeling of touching skin to skin, of holding a beautiful woman in the crook of his arms, feeling her breaths roll gently along his flesh. Making him burn with something close to desire.

Jinni had no idea how long he’d waited with her in the woods. Long enough for his body to fade to nothing but a glowing mist again, long enough for the emergency crews to arrive, long enough for him to completely change his mind.

When the E.M.T.’s had grabbed her, pronouncing her in critical condition and strapping her to a rolling gurney, he’d not given it a second thought. It wasn’t that he wouldn’t stay behind. It was that he couldn’t.

Out of curiosity he’d glanced at the second ambulance housing the golem’s body, wondering what the hospital would do when they realized how unhuman he was. The golem would bleed, could heal, and even on occasion … could talk. But the golem couldn’t feel. Because there was no life to it. A golem was a form without a soul. A shell with no emotions. Purely magic, which begged the question, why was it here?

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Ironic that the beeps should be soothing. But they were the sound of her heart, he timed his own to them. Was this his mate? This nameless woman with molten brown eyes?

Beepbeepbeep…

He cocked his head. The beeps seemed to be getting stronger. Was that a good thing?

Jinni glanced back, but none of the nurses seemed phased. They were grabbing packets, ripping them open to reveal long red tubes. Others were rolling in a large silver stand, hooking a clear bag of fluid to it, then twisting the tubes into the bag.

Beepbeepbeep…. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

A nurse finally glanced up, her face grew red as she shoved blond bangs out of her face. “Ah, hell. She’s flat lining. Grab Doc, Marshall. Now!” She zipped around the side of the bed, stepping right into Jinni.

Her energy mingled with his own, making sparks shoot through his form. She shuddered, but didn’t stop. The blonde opened the woman’s eyelids. “Honey, honey, can you hear me?”