Burning Hearts (13 page)

She widened her eyes for emphasis. “These
Jinn are beyond bad. They can talk people into doing bad things…to
themselves or others. They can cause natural disasters like
tornadoes or earthquakes. They can travel far distances at will.
They’re super strong.” She flexed the barely-there muscles of her
upper arm. “I am too. That helps me match them in a fight with the
added bonus of healing quickly if I get knocked about.

“
With that knife I showed
you, I have to stab them in their hearts. This causes their bodies
to catch on fire and turn into ashes.” She paused to quickly reread
a section from the middle of the journal that she’d been keeping
bookmarked with her finger. “The best way to explain what they go
through is like a trial by fire. I’m their judge; it’s their
Judgment Day. They’re guilty and I’m their executioner. It’s not
gonna be easy; the Jinn aren’t gonna stand there and lemme kill
them.” She flipped to another page, showing them a crude
pencil-sketch illustration of the necklace. “If I wanna go into
stealth mode, this amulet lets me stay invisible.

“
Now none of this weird
stuff these past few days would’ve happened without a catalyst, so
to speak. My powers were awakened when a Jinni came to Oasis; his
touch sparked a revelation of sorts.” She showed them the back of
her hand and raised three fingers. “Any guesses who this Jinni
is?”

Everyone furrowed their brows, refusing to
guess.

She did a countdown of three-two-one on her
fingers anyway. “Malcolm.”

Kylie gasped. “Your boyfriend’s a demon?”

This was no doubt a shocker to her friends,
but Jenna had already accepted who he was.

Maybe she knew all along…

“
A
part
of him is,” Jenna made sure to
defend, albeit gently to her startled friends, and then flipped to
a page near the end of the journal. “There’s a section here on
‘Blue-Eyed Jinn.’ Apparently, they’re rare. Malcolm is half-Jinni,
half-human. He has powers like the Jinn, but limited. He has a soul
that borders on doing good or doing evil. He chooses who he wants
to be. Right now he seems to be good, although he told me he was
bad.” She shook her head. “I think it was his way of warning me to
stay away, even though he wants to be with me.” She allowed herself
to smile. “I can’t explain it, but it’s like we have this
connection.”

“
Yeah, like your knife to
his heart,” said Riddick in a caustic tone. “Look, before when I
talked to him, I…well, I liked him. I was happy that y’all were
together, but now…I dunno.” He shook his head. “Malcolm’s a demon.
They’re bad. And what’re you gonna do? You’re supposed to kill
demons.”

Pru clasped Jenna’s hand. “Can you kill your
boyfriend?”

Jenna squeezed Pru’s hand, and then retreated
from her concern. “I don’t wanna kill anyone—demon or no.” She
paused, and then confided, “But when I held the knife, it
felt…good. And I felt ready, eager, but…is that my future, my fate?
To kill?”

“
Well, they’re bad,” Caleb
reasoned. “And you’re the only one who can see them for who they
truly are. Are you gonna be able to see a fiery-eyed demon and let
him go when you know he can talk someone into hurting themselves,
or I dunno, make it rain hail, or bring down the ten plagues of
Egypt or something?”

“
I agree with Caleb,” said
Kylie.

Jenna chuckled, but felt far from happy. “Of
course, it’s easy for y’all to agree. Y’all won’t be the ones out
there, killing. Not to mention my boyfriend’s the very thing I’m
destined to destroy,” she noted sourly.

“
Do you think he’d catch on
fire?” Riddick inquired. “Or just like die from blood loss ’cause
he’s half-human?”

Jenna’s face contorted in disgust. “Ugh!
Gory-much?!” It upset her to think about Malcolm, bleeding out,
dying.

Riddick held out his hands. “Hey, you’re
gonna be the murderer!”

A few people turned in their direction.

“
Shut up!” she warned
him.

“
And besides, it’s not
murder,” said Pru in her quiet voice. “It’s…justice,
right?”

Caleb nodded. “Yeah, justice. It’s just that
Jenna’s way will be quicker than the courts…if there were courts to
try demons…”

“
But what’re you supposed to
do?” asked Kylie. “Go out there and find these Jinn? And kill
them?”

Jenna held up the journal. “Well, that’s what
my grandpa did—sorta like a bounty hunter—except that he didn’t get
paid—and he didn’t capture, but kill…my point is: he made a life
for himself that didn’t involve killing demons. He was married to
my Grandma Dottie. He had a son, my dad, Jacob. When I was little,
I remember my grandpa leaving unexpectedly, but I never asked, and
he never said where he was going, or what he was gonna do once he
got there.”

“
Do you think your parents
know?” asked Riddick.

Jenna shook her head. “Nah, no way! They’d
freak if they knew what my grandpa had left me. Even the tunics and
caftans are weird.”

The ground shook beneath their feet, lasting
only a few seconds.

“
What was that?” asked
Kylie.

“
Felt like a mild
earthquake,” Riddick said casually. Then his eyes widened. “Like an
earthquake,” he repeated, turning to Jenna. “Do you
think?”

Jenna looked around. The crowd had felt it
too, but no one was panicking. Not yet. Everyone looked…good. No
demons. No Jinn. No one with eyes wreathed in flame except for
Malcolm’s blues. He was looking at Jenna from the field. He knew
something was wrong.

“
Do you see any of them?”
asked Pru, panicking.

Caleb held Pru’s hand. “It’s okay. Jenna will
take care of them.”

“
With what?” Jenna held out
her bare hands. “I don’t have my weapon.”

The ground shook again, not
so mild this time. The bleachers swayed, drunk, knocking people off
balance, as the metal made a horrible
screeching
sound.

Then several voices yelled in panic,
“EARTHQUAKE!”

KISMET

There was a shrill laugh in the distance, and
then the ground shook terribly. It started to break down and sink,
until finally a chasm opened up, running the length of the field
and wide enough to swallow fleeing attendees.

Jenna and her friends held onto each
other.

Kylie panicked, clutching Pru’s arm. “What’re
we gonna do?!”

“
Kids, kids!” Ms. Daphne
yelled from above. “Let’s get outta here!”

Riddick, Pru, Kylie, and Caleb followed
Malcolm’s aunt to her SUV while the ground continued to tremble
beneath them. Everyone else had scattered too. The Deadfall
Vultures had flown away. The Oasis Scorpions had skittered off.
Game over. And the Scorpions were actually ahead for a change.

“
Jenna!” Malcolm ran faster
than she’d ever seen him. He caught up to her in no time. “We need
to get out of here!”

Somehow, he’d miraculously changed from out
of his football uniform and into a pair of black jeans and a white
tank, perfectly showing off his sculpted caramel muscles.

There was still some sweat in his black hair.
“We need to hurry,” he urged, gently grabbing her arm.

She didn’t want to leave until she knew her
friends were safe; she breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed
that they were already gone in Ms. Daphne’s SUV. Next, she turned
her attention to the field. She and Malcolm were the only ones
left. At least, they were the only ones she knew about. In the
darkness, she tried to find a pair of fiery red eyes, but only a
sweeping blackness met her gaze.

“
What’re you waiting for?”
he asked, impatient.

“
I wanna see if—”

She was interrupted by another tremble,
almost knocking her to the ground; Malcolm’s grip on her arm held
her steady.

“
Now can we go?” he urged
again.

“
Lead the way.”

They ran to his car, the only one left in the
lot. It was a red Dodge Challenger.

“
You drive this?”

“
Yeah, why?” he asked,
opening the passenger door for her.

She got in and strapped the seatbelt on. The
black leather seat felt nice and smooth against her bottom that’d
been sore from sitting on a hard metal bleacher all evening.
“Nothing. I just figured you more for a Jeep or something.”

He shook his head, laughing as he closed her
door. Then he ran around to his side and got in beside her, not
bothering to put on his belt. He turned over the engine. It purred
to life.

“
Well, when I was in Egypt,”
he began casually, “I traveled by Jeep all the time as I explored
the pyramids.”

“
Really?”

He chuckled. “No.”

She gave a mild grunt. “All right, clearly,
you’re in a jokey mood, but let’s talk about something less
humorous: that was no ordinary earthquake. It was a Jinn,
right?”

“
Jinni, actually. The male
ones.” He smiled. “Did you already forget your grandfather’s
descriptions?”

She gasped and motioned to her backpack on
the floorboard, near her feet; amidst all the chaos, she’d been
clearheaded enough to hold onto and secure her grandpa’s
heirloom.

“
How’d you know about his
journal?”

He tapped at the outside corner of his fiery
blue eye. “I have excellent vision. I saw you reading in the
stands. Was the game that boring?” he teased her.

She shooed him with a wave of her hand. “Just
drive before the ground opens up and we get sent down into
Hell.”

He put the car in gear and took off, out of
the lot, and onto the road, named Scorpion Way.

“
I’d never let you fall into
Hell,” he said in a serious tone.

“
I was just
joking.”

He kept his eyes on the road; his face was
tense. “You should never joke about Damnation.”

Well, this conversation was going off the
road. She decided to bring it back between the lines. “Okay, let’s
talk about something else: when were you gonna tell me you’re part
Jinni?”

His jaw relaxed as he continued to stare
ahead at the road. “When you learned more about your destiny.”

“
Did you know about me?
Being a Mage?”

He finally smiled. “Not until you asked me
about my eyes in chemistry.”

“
Well, technically, we’re
enemies, right? I mean, I supposed to kill you.”

He decelerated, and then stopped at a red
light. “And I’m supposed to torment you.” He turned to her. “But
I’m not going to. Are you going to kill me?”

Jenna thought this had to be the worst
beginning of a relationship. Ever.

“
I don’t wanna. I…like you.”
She swallowed, nervous. She didn’t hate him anymore. He’d done
nothing to deserve her condemnation. Her initial reaction must’ve
been the slayer side of her talking. “It’s not like you’ve hurt
people, right?”

The light turned green. He went back to
facing the road and accelerated. “Well, I’ve never killed anyone,
if that’s what you’re asking.” He paused, and then added, “No, I’ve
never hurt anyone.”

Phew
, she thought.
What a
relief!

“
That Jinni who created the
earthquake—is he planning on killing in Oasis? Why’s he
here?”

He sighed. “I’m afraid he’s followed me here.
When I left Egypt, I went in secret. I suspect he wants to bring me
back, believing I abandoned my kin.” He shook his head, blowing out
a breath of exasperation. “Like I’m some kid who ran away from
home.”

“
Why’d you come
here?”

“
My human side sort of
called out to me. It wanted to be around other humans…lonely,
perhaps. My mother grew up in Oasis, and my Aunt Daphne was here
so…I came home, so to speak.”

“
Did you know Ms. Daphne
took care of my grandpa before he died?”

“
No, I didn’t.”

“
Your aunt’s very nice. She
treated my grandpa well.”

He smiled, appreciative of Jenna’s praise.
“She welcomed me into her house even though she’d never met me
before. Not many people would do that. At first, I was very
nervous, especially being around so many strange humans in such a
little place. He turned to her and winked. “But then I met
you.”

She was glad he couldn’t see her blushing. Or
maybe he could. She tried to hide by casually brushing her red hair
against the side of her face, creating a makeshift veil.

“
I’m not strange?” she
pondered.

He turned back to the road. “Strange is a bad
word. Humans are more…oblivious. But you always have this look on
your face as if you’re searching, trying to unravel the mystery of
the world.”

“
But…I’m human.”

“
Yes, you are, but you’re
also more than that. You’re a Mage. You have super strength and
fast healing. You can’t be influenced. Those traits will come in
handy when you’re slaying the Jinn of the world.”

“
I dunno if I wanna do
that,” she confessed, tucking her hair behind her ear, removing the
wall she’d put up between them. “I dunno if I wanna embrace my
destiny, even though I feel it’s the right thing to do.”

They’d finally stopped, outside her house.
She didn’t ask how he’d known. It wasn’t exactly a secret where
Jacob and Rachel Love lived, the only ones who legally buried and
cremated dead people.

He turned to her. “That earthquake was
nothing. Child’s play. The Jinn can do so much worse.” He shook his
head. “I’m sorry I brought him here. Hopefully, he’s the only
one.”