djinn wars 04 - broken (9 page)

“Must be nice,” Julia remarked, trying not to sound envious. After all, she knew that everyone in Los Alamos was lucky to have electric lights and warm showers — even if those showers were limited to five minutes each.

“It is…on the surface. But it’s also a crutch. The djinn have taken this world for their own, but they don’t seem too eager to live in it with any respect for its resources.”

“Besides,” Jessica added with a grin, “chopping wood and herding goats has given Jace some awesome muscles.”

“I had those already,” he protested, and Jessica chuckled.

Watching them, Julia felt another stab of envy. They seemed so easy with one another, even more so than the djinn she’d seen with their Chosen in Santa Fe. Maybe it was because Jace and Jessica interacted with one another as equals, not as a magical being and the mortal he’d deigned to choose. Whatever the reason, she knew they were both damn lucky, for multiple reasons.

And Julia — well, she supposed she’d get her life figured out sooner or later. Being around Zahrias had been difficult, but she didn’t think she’d done anything to arouse his suspicions or make him believe that she saw him as anything other than a colleague. True, he’d asked to have dinner with her tonight, but he’d quickly added that he thought it would give them the opportunity to discuss how their respective communities were faring. Nothing in his voice or expression had seemed to indicate he expected anything more than that.

“So,” Jessica said, abandoning the topic of Jace’s muscles, “you’re having dinner with Zahrias tonight. What are you going to wear?”

“What I have on,” Julia replied calmly. “We’re just going to discuss business.”

“Uh-huh.”

Jace chuckled, then sobered as Julia lifted an eyebrow in his direction. After retrieving his wine glass, he settled back against the sofa cushions, apparently content to let the women argue this one.

“Zahrias is a very formal person,” Jessica said. “I don’t know how he’d feel about a dinner guest showing up in jeans.”

“Well, that’s all I brought,” Julia told her, feeling irritated. “Have you forgotten the reason why I’m here in Santa Fe in the first place?”

The smile faded from Jessica’s lips. “No, I hadn’t forgotten,” she said quietly. “But you’ve done everything you could on that front, so you might as well make a good impression tonight. Hang on.”

She got up from the sofa and headed down the hall that led to the bedrooms. Once they were alone, Julia turned to Jace. “Do you know what she’s up to?”

“Not at all. But I suppose we’ll find out in a minute.”

As they did, because Jessica returned a few minutes later carrying some lengths of teal-colored fabric draped over one arm. In her other hand, she had a pair of high-heeled brown boots. Julia stared at them for a moment, and then shook her head in recognition.

“Where on earth did you get those?”

“I rescued them after I saw that you’d left them behind when you went back to Los Alamos.” Jessica laid the top and its matching skirt down on the cushion of the love seat where Julia was sitting. “And the jewelry. I stuck it in the skirt pocket.”

“Jessica, I — ” Breaking off, Julia could only shake her head. Yes, she had left the lovely outfit behind when she vacated the townhouse where she’d been living in Santa Fe. She hadn’t seen any reason to bring the clothes with her, since she’d known she’d be too busy running Los Alamos to worry about having any fancy outfits.

Besides, she could recall all too well the sudden flash of admiration, quickly hidden, that she’d seen in Zahrias’ eyes when he first saw her wearing those clothes.

“Just take them,” Jessica said. “You don’t want to offend Zahrias, do you?”

No, Julia supposed she didn’t.

Chapter Five

During the warm summer months, Zahrias had enjoyed sitting at the table in the courtyard and consuming his meals there, but he knew the nights now were too cold for such an arrangement to be comfortable for Julia. Instead, he planned to sit down with her in the dining room. The table seemed small and somewhat mean to him, as it could only accommodate twelve and no more, but since it would only be the two of them, he supposed that didn’t matter.

He recalled that she had enjoyed the meals Phillip prepared, and so he enlisted the mortal man to create the menu and prepare the dishes. Not wishing to impose too much on that worthy individual, Zahrias made sure that Phillip could do all the cooking during the afternoon and be done in time to prepare another fine meal for Julia’s party so they wouldn’t feel too abandoned. It would be easy enough to keep everything warm until the appointed hour.

Besides that, Zahrias made sure the table was covered in a fine cloth of ivory linen, and two place settings of porcelain were laid out just so, along with oversized goblets of blown glass. The dining room had a fine sideboard of dark carved wood, and he collected candle holders from throughout the house and set them there.

Would she think it too much? Difficult to say. He always dined by candlelight because he enjoyed it, but he couldn’t guess what Julia’s reaction might be. Humans seemed to think of candles as “romantic,” rather than as a useful alternative to harsh electric light. Ah, well. In his heart of hearts, he rather hoped she might get the wrong impression.

Jace had promised to bring Julia back to her hotel once she was done with her visit, and so Zahrias had little to do except wait for the appointed hour. He revisited the dining room several times to make sure that everything was just as it should be, and spent a great deal of time deciding on the best wine to accompany the elk tenderloin Phillip had prepared. The people who had owned this house were long gone, but they had left behind a very impressive wine cellar.

In the end, Zahrias chose a cabernet franc and opened it to let it air. Just as he was setting the bottle down, the doorbell rang.

Djinn had no need of watches, for they sensed the passage of time as easily as they breathed. Mortal divisions of time were more difficult, but Zahrias had become accustomed enough to them to know that Julia was right there at the hour he had specified.

He went to the door and opened it, then did his best to keep from staring. For Julia was not wearing the jeans and leather jacket she’d had on earlier, but a flowing ensemble in a dark teal tone that brought out the burnished highlights in her golden hair. It looked vaguely familiar to him, and he realized he’d seen her wear that outfit once before, back in Taos before the community had relocated here to Santa Fe. Had she brought it with her? No, that seemed unlikely. Julia had thought she would be back in Los Alamos by now. She certainly wouldn’t have packed anything so impractical.

“Good evening,” he said, relieved that his tone sounded smooth enough. Perhaps she hadn’t noticed anything amiss about his reaction.

“Good evening, Zahrias,” she replied calmly, stepping into the foyer as he moved aside to let her enter. Once he’d shut the door, she added, “I hope you don’t think this is a bit much. Jessica was reading me the riot act about showing up for dinner in jeans.”

“Not at all,” he assured her. “It was kind of her to think that a dinner here required more formal attire. How are she and Jace?”

“Very well. That’s quite the setup they have out there.”

“Yes, they’ve made quite a success of their little farm.” Zahrias realized that they still stood in the foyer, and so he gestured toward the dining room. “If you would follow me — “

Julia trailed along behind him as he led her toward their destination. Although she was silent, he could sense the way she was looking around her, taking in her surroundings. According to Jessica, this was quite an impressive house, as things were reckoned here. It seemed small compared to his residence back in the djinn world, but he still would never go back there willingly. At least the sky above this house was blue, and the air fresh to breathe. No wonder his people had coveted this world so much. For himself, well…he would not lie to himself and say that he had not wished to live here, but never at the price the human race had paid.

Her eyes did widen as she entered the dining room. “It’s — it’s beautiful.”

“I’m glad you like it.” He went to the place where he wished her to sit and pulled out her chair. Human etiquette; a djinn would have moved the chair with the power of his mind, but he didn’t want his actions to discomfit her.

At least, not any more than he had to. After they were both seated and he had poured a measure of wine into each of their glasses, he snapped his fingers once, and the meal Phillip had prepared appeared on the table before them.

Julia blinked. “Now I see what Jace was talking about.”

“Indeed? And what did Jace say?” Zahrias was fond of his cousin, but Jasreel did have some very odd notions.

A slight flush tinged Julia’s cheeks. “Oh, just that the djinn like to make things easy on themselves.”

And what, pray, is wrong with that?
But because Zahrias didn’t wish to provoke his companion, he replied calmly, “That does sound like something Jasreel would say. Would it make you feel better to know that Phillip prepared this meal? All I did was bring it here from the kitchen.”

“Oh, well, in that case….” She reached for her wine glass, then paused, slender fingers wrapped around the stem.

Zahrias thought he understood her hesitation. He lifted his own wine glass and nodded toward her. There were many things he wished he could say in this moment, but he settled for the one he guessed she would find the least worrisome. “To the continued health of both our communities.”

“To our health.” She raised her glass and drank, giving perhaps the faintest of appreciative nods before she set the glass back down. “Speaking of which, how is Lauren doing?”

He was surprised Julia had thought to ask, but then he realized that she had been communicating with Jessica for many months before returning here to Santa Fe, and so probably knew more of the doings in his community than he had guessed. “Well enough. She has been confined to her bed, since our healer thinks it best that she doesn’t exert herself, but her health is good, and the baby seems to be faring well, if somewhat reluctant to make an entrance. We had thought he would be here by now.”

“He?” Julia asked. “So you know the sex of the child?”

“No. A slip of the tongue. Perhaps it is only that I think the child will be a boy, as we have few girl children in my family.”

She appeared to consider that reply, then nodded. “Well, it would be convenient.”

“Convenient?”

Her lips curved in a smile, even as she reached for her wine glass once again. “We just had our first baby in Los Alamos, a girl. So if Lauren and Dani were to have a boy….”

She didn’t complete the sentence, but Zahrias understood. By necessity, the two communities must keep their distance for now, but perhaps one day it would be possible for the mortals and djinn and their half-blood children from his community to mingle with the children of Los Alamos, and create a new society that was not either/or, but which included all.

He thought he liked the sound of that.

“It could be a good thing for all of us,” he said. “But now, perhaps we should eat.”

“Oh, yes. I wouldn’t want Phillip’s food to get cold.”

There was no possibility of that happening, but Zahrias didn’t bother to object. Instead, he speared several of the elk medallions with the serving fork and placed them on Julia’s plate, then added some of the delicate, thinly sliced potatoes layered with cream and cheese, and long spears of asparagus braised in a sweet wine-based sauce.

“This all looks amazing,” she said, staring down at the food on her plate. “So, did Phillip’s djinn choose him specifically because he’s a Cordon Bleu chef?”

“I know nothing of this Cordon Bleu,” Zahrias replied. “But I believe she chose him because she thought he was the mortal in this area best suited for her.”

“And all the rest of you benefited from that.”

Zahrias couldn’t argue with that. Before he had come here to live in this world, he hadn’t thought he could eat anything more appetizing than the delicately seasoned dishes of his own people. After sampling Phillip’s food for the first time, however, Zahrias realized he might have to admit he’d been wrong in thinking mortal cuisine could never match that of the djinn. “Yes, we did benefit, a great deal.”