Stone Chameleon (Ironhill Jinn #1) (15 page)

From what I knew of the fae, they didn’t enter the human plane lightly. “So we deserved to die?”

Amun didn’t answer right away. “Some of us deserved it, but most didn’t. We’re mostly a gentle, loving race.” His flexing jaw suggested he had something more to say, so I bit.

“And?”

“It takes a strong will to keep power like ours, which comes from nature itself, in check. Extreme circumstances could make any of us explode.”

I shivered at that revelation. Vampires and fae could be deadly to one or a few people at a time, but jinn could wipe out a whole country in a matter of hours by drowning, burning, ripping up the earth with a tornado, or causing an earthquake so monumental entire cities would disappear into the ground. Although it shouldn’t have shocked me, the notion of combined jinn power scared the living daylights out of me, so I changed the subject. “How did you survive?”

The pain stirring behind his eyes told of the unimaginable horrors he’d endured. “When word spread about the fae’s declaration of war against us, those with young ones hid them in caverns far to the north, with supplies enough to last a year. Out of the forty of us hidden there, the six of us are all who survived that first year, five from my pod, and one from another.”

“I’m so sorry, Amun.”

“Don’t be. Our trials have made me stronger than I ever would have been without them.” While holding a basket in one hand, he loaded freshly baked rolls into it with the other. “We’re almost ready. I just have to check the gravy to see if it’s thick enough.”

Fighting to overcome the discomfort growing in my chest, I asked the one question I most wanted to know. “Do you know who my father was?”

Amun’s whisk stopped mid-circle of the pan. “You don’t?”

“Before Mum went into Mayvern with her illness, she said little, only that he was jinn. I don’t know his name or what he looked like, only that he died three days before I was born.”

Resuming his work at the stove, Amun’s stare turned inward. “That would make his death on April 3rd during the war. I’ve had my suspicions about who fathered you, but knew nothing for certain. The date of his death might help me narrow it down for you, if the entry made it into one of the diaries I saved.”

Some of the tightness went out of me at his admission. Perhaps I wanted to like Amun, and knowing he’d kept information about my father from me might have damaged that possibility. “If you can look into it, I’d be grateful.”

Feeling silly for talking to him from across the room, I moved to one of the wooden stools at the island separating the kitchen from the living room. “I know you have power over the air, if I really did see you turn into a tornado. Due to your sleight of hand with the soda, the events of that night are a little foggy.” I pointed my best stare at him, earning me another mesmerizing smile. “Do the others have talents like yours?”

“Oh. It hadn’t occurred to me you didn’t know everything about us, given your degree, but with most of our records destroyed, that was silly of me.”

After pouring the gravy into a stainless steel serving cup, he carved the chicken, staring intently at the knife. “I’m a wind walker. You, on the other hand, are my direct opposite on the metaphysical compass, an earth caller. I didn’t know which element you had an affinity for until the tiles in the main office looked as if they wanted to break free and come to you in the ladies room that night.” He turned to me with obvious interest in his gaze. “I’d love to know what you said to the earth to evoke such a reaction.”

“A reaction, by the way, that caused enough seismic activity to raise suspicion among the scientific community.” At my glower, he gave a sheepish shrug. “And I didn’t ask it anything. When I evoke my magic, the earth always sings to me.” I stared at him a moment. “Are you saying you’ve never seen that happen before, with the tiles, I mean? There must have been, or maybe still are, others like me?”

“All jinn talents come in varying degrees. I can call the wind, and become the air itself, as you saw that night. Connor, though he is also of the air, can control all aspects of the weather, but he can’t take the form of our element.” As Amun passed by me holding a platter of sliced meat, he paused. “Are you a chameleon, Baylou?”

Years of running from that name caused me to cringe before I remembered I was in safe company. Theoretically. “I assume you’re not talking about curly-tailed lizards.”

Amun deposited the platter on the table and went back to the kitchen, returning with the bowl of mashed potatoes and one of steamed vegetables, silver spoons poking out of each. “Can you take on the form of your element? Become one with the earth, as if it remade you in its image?”

The words turned sideways in my throat, refusing to come out. It was hard to talk about my oddities, as I accepted I’d never be able to, but it was strangely cathartic as well. “I can transform into any stone I touch. The soil will listen if I speak to it and will usually do what I ask, but I can’t assume that form. I can use seismic vibrations to see shapes and listen across short distances.”

His whimsical smile sent my heart pitter-pattering. “A stone chameleon. Incredible. I’ve never met an earth caller who was also a chameleon. Earth is the most difficult element to emulate and stone itself even more so.”

“Are you saying I’m the only earth caller left?”

“There’s one from our pod who can make plants grow with what little magic he possesses. He’s happy enough working in our gardens, one of the business we own collectively as a pod.”

“Elias, the one who delivered the tulips. You mentioned he made the plants in his mother’s hospital room grow even as an infant.” That explained the magnificent tulips—a jinn had grown them.

“Yes. I see you’re as taken with him as he is with you.”

A giddy thrill swept me away as I imagined the conversations I could have with Elias, what I’d learn from him about our kind, and what I’d teach him about the dangers of the world. “And the others?”

“The others are flames of varying degrees. Romiel is a chameleon and can take the full form of fire, but he needs a source flame, like a match or a candle. Sebastian can only manipulate fire that already exists, and as for the other flame, he came from a pod that wasn’t mine, and let’s just say he’s not exactly forthcoming with his talents. The southern pod is made up entirely of fire and air, and as for those overseas, I don’t know what factions make up their numbers.”

We sat down at the table Amun had set with stoneware plates glazed in deep blue. A small collection of white candles in the center cast a halo of flickering light around us. As I scooped potatoes onto my plate, a thought struck so hard my hand jerked, flinging hot clumps halfway across the wooden expanse.

“Water.” I stood, gripping the edge of the table.

He picked up a crystal jug with ice cubes clinking against the sides and filled up my glass.

“No,” I said, shaking out my hands. “You mentioned earth, air, and fire, but not water.”

The jug clunked down to the table. “As far as I know, none survived. It was them who were provoking the fae, and the first of us who fell. They kept to their own kind, unlike the rest of us.” He glanced up at me as though it took a great effort. “Why do you ask like it’s important?”

From the sadness weighing on his expression, I gathered he’d cared for one of the water elementals who hadn’t survived.

“I’m not sure how much I can tell you about the case I’m working on with Isaac.”

Amun’s eyes spread wide, and I caught a flash of fear before it made a swift transition to anger. “Tell me he doesn’t still suspect you.”

“I’m the only link between the crimes. There have been five murders, and the only description I have of the perpetrator is something that appeared to be a person made of water. It didn’t occur to me that it could be a jinn until listening to you talk about chameleons. Do you think it’s possible there’s an elemental out there you don’t know about? A water chameleon?”

Without sparing me a glance, Amun took the cloth napkin from his lap, threw it on the table, and left the room. A door clicked shut down a hallway beyond my sight.

I
waited more than ten minutes, lingering near Amun’s unlit fireplace, uncertain what to do. Had I insulted him? Broken jinn etiquette or committed a grievous faux pas? When I’d waited as long as I cared to, I ventured down the hallway and knocked on the only one of the three doors that stood closed.

“Amun?” I knocked again. “I’m sorry. It’s just…” I almost told him my life depended on solving the case, but thought better of it. “I’ve been trying to figure out this puzzle for days, and it’s been driving me mad. When I saw a possibility, I jumped on it. It was insensitive, I’m sorry.”

The knob turned, and the door opened a crack. I pushed against it enough for me to see into the bedroom paneled with pine and upholstered in shades of navy blue. Amun stood beside the bed holding a picture in his hands.

Feeling even worse than I had before entering, I edged closer, unsure if I should. It seemed as though I’d intruded on a private moment and bore witness to deep-rooted pain spilling up from within. A group of young women and men stared back from the photo, flashing smiles of white teeth.

One stood out in the forefront. Her braided hair, the powder blue shade of a robin’s egg, lay over her slender shoulder. She wore a yellow sundress and gold sandals. A twinge of something caught me in the belly, a gritty, nasty something I didn’t much like.

“She’s beautiful,” I said softly, so as not to startle him. “You loved her.” It wasn’t a question. The only one who could hurt a man that much would have been someone who’d found her way into his heart.

He replaced the gold frame in his drawer and closed it. “Only a childhood crush, one she didn’t return. I don’t care for her still, at least not in a romantic way.” Amun massaged his temples. “You have to understand, jinn females are key to our survival. They’re rare and precious to us, as much so as our young. Losing a female is something we, as a people, mourn for a long time after they’re gone. And now there are only five left, including you. It reminds me how close we are to extinction, how much we’ve lost of the proud nation we once were.”

“I’m sorry I brought it up.”

Passing a hand over his face, he spoke absently. “She was a water chameleon, a talented one. She was the most devious person I’ve ever known and fiercely devoted to her own elemental kind, but she was intelligent and funny.” A sad smile claimed his lips. “She had a terrifying temper on her, and she valued power and status over love, as most of the water pods did. She claimed another of her kind as her
Taru
instead of me even though I was promised to her.”

If I didn’t fear reopening the wound that appeared to be closing, I’d have asked him what
Taru
meant and questioned him about how to track a water chameleon. “But you were only eleven when the war began. You were far too young to be spoken for.”

“We were often paired up with females when very young in promise only, and once we came of age, ceremony would make it official.” He seemed to shake off his melancholy. “Listen to me, burdening you with the ghosts of my past. When you mentioned…it brought back memories I’d forgotten about. Forgive me for being such a terrible host.”

Arranged marriages? Oh, bloody hell. “There’s nothing to forgive. This is a new world for me, and I need to learn the etiquette so as not to go asking things I shouldn’t.” Sighing in relief, I gestured toward the kitchen. “Shall I heat up dinner? I’m starting to get hungry now that I don’t feel so much like a lousy wretch.”

“Don’t apologize for your curiosity, I find it endearing. It may take me a while to get used to talking about all of this again, though.” He offered his arm. “Dinner, take two?”

* * *

Amun cooked a mean chicken, the skin crisp and flavorful while the meat remained moist and tender. “This is delicious,” I said. “I figured you for a man who’d have a dozen servants doing this sort of thing for you.”

“I like to have a place where I don’t have to hide what I am. Having outsiders in my home would cause me to deny my true nature in case I might slip and blow away in front of prying eyes. It isn’t worth it to me.” He shrugged. “Besides, I like the satisfaction of cooking a hearty meal.”

I raised another forkful of potatoes and gravy to my mouth, staring at the stranger wearing the Amun suit. He’d been nothing but an arrogant lout who liked to push my buttons, but the man before me had depth, feeling, and a solid root of pride running through him about who, and what, he was.

One corner of his lips quirked up. “Why are you staring at me like that? Have I got a wolf bat on my head?” He made a mockery of patting his curls.

Grinning, I shook my head and pushed my mostly empty plate aside, wishing my face would stop burning. “It’s just that I’m usually a pretty good judge of character and…” I raised my hand in surrender.

“You’re thinking maybe you’ve misjudged me as a lowlife, unfeeling, self-centered scoundrel?”

My lips twitched as I tried and failed to stall my grin. “Well, not the lowlife part.”

He broke into his heart-warming laughter, and I let it carry me away. Mum would have liked him. Perhaps I’d blackmail him into coming to visit her the next time, so if she still believed I was dead, at least I’d have someone to talk to about it afterward.

A buzzing sound came from behind me. Still chuckling, I went to check my purse, certain I recognized the sound of my phone. I put the device to my ear and answered. “Lou Hudson.”

“Thank God you’re there,” Harper said in a voice tinged with panic. My back stiffened as I pressed the cell closer to my ear.

Amun must have noticed, because he was suddenly in front of me, hand raised to steady me.

Good lord. “What is it? What’s happened?”

Harper uttered a streak of curses before answering. “Dom’s missing.”

“What? No, you must be mistaken.” I slumped against the back of the sofa and rubbed my eyes. “I’ve been trying to reach him, but I thought he was just spending time with his grandmother after what I put him through Friday night.”

“She called me all frantic because he didn’t come upstairs for Sunday dinner with her tonight, and because of her leg she couldn’t make it down the stairs to check on him, so I went over there.” Harper drew in a shuddering breath. “Lou, it’s completely flooded, like all the way to the ceiling before it drained, and the place is trashed. There’s shit broken and imbedded in the walls like a hurricane blew through.”

It couldn’t be. “Flooded?” A swallow brought no relief to my tight throat. “Mercy, no.” I picked up my bag and rushed for the door. “I’m coming home now. Meet me at my apartment so we can gear up, and we’ll figure out what to do next.”

Amun must have caught the gist of our conversation, because he beat me to the exit with his keys in his hands. “What can I do?”

“Just get me home as fast as you can without wrapping us around a tree.”

“Done, but if you think I’m letting you do this alone, you’ve misjudged me again.” He took my arm, and we jogged across the gravel to the Camry as fast as I could on my spiked heels.

No matter how fast he drove, the twist of terror in my gut assured me it wasn’t fast enough. “Please let him be all right,” I muttered to the dark store fronts sailing by beyond the window.

“Is he a good friend of yours?”

I caught a note of hesitation that drew my attention to the man at the wheel. “Are you jealous of my communications expert?” If I hadn’t been so worried, I might have laughed. “He’s barely more than a teenager who still lives in his grandmother’s basement. His greatest joys are video games and cheesy chips.” I blinked away the sting in my eyes. “Although he’s new to my team, I already care deeply about what happens to him. I feel responsible.”

“This wasn’t your fault.” Amun’s warm hand covered mine, where it had a death-grip on my clutch. “Maybe he ran off with a woman for the weekend, or had a little too much to drink?”

“Dom doesn’t date, nor does he drink that I’m aware of, other than soda. Someone destroyed his apartment, and it was full of water to the ceiling.” I shot him a hesitant glance to see if he reacted to my insinuation.

Only his strangulation of the steering wheel betrayed his state of mind. “I can’t believe a jinn did this. It would be a death sentence, maybe for all of us. If they find even one survivor, the hunt will begin again.” Shaking his head, he added, “No, I won’t—I
can’t
believe one of ours would cross the hive lord this way, or take your man. It has to be something else.”

My teeth sought my lower lip. “I don’t think it’s Isaac the creature is trying to hurt.”

He pulled into the parking lot of the antique shop and turned in his seat, lips drawn down tight. “Tell me you’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”

“I found water on my stairs this morning that contained skin cells from something that doesn’t exist in our database. This creature, whoever and whatever it is, knows where I live, and as I said, I’m the only constant in these crimes. I think it might be trying to set me up and expose me to the powers that be.”

My mind spun the same scenarios around in circles again. “And why only kill vampires? And why take the hearts? Good lord, what if it has Dom?” An image of the young man with his chest torn up turned my stomach into a knot of pain. “I know he’s twenty-one years old, but he’s still just a boy in many ways.” Perhaps my jinn instincts were to blame for my quick attachment to the young man.

I jumped out of the car and ran for my door.

“Wait!” Amun shouted, rushing up behind me. “Have you checked the cells from the water against your own? Even though we have different talents, we have the same basic physiology, from what I understand.” His audible swallow sounded like it hurt. “That way you’d know for sure if your theory’s correct. For all our sakes, I hope you’re wrong.”

I halted, feeling like an idiot for not having thought of it myself. “You’re brilliant.” I spun, running into him, his face close to mine. Some deep-rooted instinct moved my hand to rest against the right side of his throat, while his did the same on mine. “There’s so much I didn’t get to ask, but I have to go.”

“I’m coming with you.” His lips moved from hovering near mine to pressing against my cheek. “And that you didn’t get to ask everything just means I’ll have a second date some night when there’s no crisis in your life. If there is such a time.”

The simple touch awakened previously dormant parts of me, leaving a pulsing warmth in my soul when he stepped away. “You can’t get involved.” At his pursed lips, I held up my hand. “You said you have business with Isaac. If this goes badly, I will not risk exposing the rest of your—our—people. I just discovered all of you, and I won’t jeopardize another life, especially not yours.”

“What kind of man would I be if I walk away and leave you to who-knows-what kind of danger?” His arms became ramrods at his sides.

“A man who protects the many before the one. A man who realizes that if he wants to be my friend, he must accept that my job holds many dangers I’m adept at handling.”

“You are so stubborn.” He tilted his head forward in defeat, turning toward his car. “Will you at least call me when you return so I know you’re safe?”

“I’m a big girl, Am—”

“Please?” The force of his plea knocked the wind out of me. “I’ll go only because you’ll hate me if I don’t, but you don’t understand the…” Groaning, he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Just…please.”

What didn’t I understand? “All right, I will.” I flicked my fingers. “Off with you, I have to go.” I ran up the stairs as fast as my heels allowed. In need of something to ground me, I snatched my black ebony from the bookshelf on the way to the bedroom.

While peeling off my clothes, I considered what to do. Isaac’s name kept floating to the top of my thoughts. I’d fought to protect his people for ten years. Helping me protect mine would also bring him closer to the murderer. He was strong and smart, two qualities I needed at the moment.

Only…if the perpetrator was jinn, I couldn’t tell the hive lord what I’d found, or he’d know some of us survived.

Damned if I did.

Dead if I didn’t.

Bloody hell.

I’d have to deal with the situation on my own and make Isaac believe I’d done so. Because he was so willing to take me at my word.

Before I sorted my way out of that one, I noticed the red light flashing on my phone on the dresser. Hoping it would be from Dom, I pressed the play button on my machine, palming the stone that vibrated with my worry.