Page 13 of Forsworn By The Vampire
My blood ran cold, and for a moment, I couldn't even respond to that. "The djinn? The one that took Kenya?"
"And Alex. Yeah." He pulled the blanket closer around himself, as if all that soft fluff would somehow protect him from the big, bad monsters in the world.
"Why would she be messing with the djinn?"
His expression set into stubborn lines, and for a minute, I thought he wasn't gonna tell me. If I could get inside the apartment, I'd already have him up against the wall by the throat. But one, I hadn't been invited in, and unless his name was on the lease too--a thought that made me grind my teeth together--Leeloo had to be here to do it. And two, from the way the creepy crawlies were prickling my skin, she had some kind of ward set up to protect this place.
Either he read the look on my face or just happened to have a good sense of self-preservation, because he took another step back. "Have you ever been here before?"
He knew I couldn't get in without an invitation, but I wasn't about to give that away. "Where exactly is she, Mike?"
He shook his head. "I don't know."
"Jesus fucking Christ." I scrubbed my face with my hands as I tried to get a grip on my patience. Dropping my arms back to my sides, I stared at him. "Did she say she was going to meet the djinn? Those words exactly?"
Again, he shook his head. "She wouldn't tell me anything about where she was going or what she was doing."
"Then how do you know she's fucking with the djinn?"
"I just do."
"And you didn't think to maybe, oh, I don't know, try to fucking stop her?"
"She’s a witch, Jamal."
"And?"
"And you know damn well I wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it if she has her mind made up to do something."
As I waited for him to say more, I dug into his mind. Not too far, I didn't want to see anything I didn't want to see--if you know what I mean, just enough to see if he was telling the truth.
He was.
"Satisfied?"
I focused my vision in on his face to find him giving me a disgusted look. "Yeah," I told him. "I am." Surprisingly, I felt no shame for breaking my number one rule of staying out of the heads of others.
I stared at him a while, hoping an explanation would appear from his mouth. But after a minute, I gave it up. This was getting me nowhere. I turned to leave.
"Jamal."
Swallowing my impatience, I stopped and gave him my attention.
"She's been gone for days. I'm scared..." He broke off, unable to finish what he was obviously thinking. "Please. Find her."
Crossing my arms again, I leaned against the doorframe. "Why aren't you out looking for her if you're so damned concerned?"
His mouth twisted in frustration. "That's a long story, but I also promised her I'd stay here."
I could see I wasn't going to get anything else out of him, so after running my eyes over him in a way that left him with no doubts at all about what I thought about him cowering in her apartment while she was possibly in trouble, I shoved off the doorframe and stalked back down the hall, not stopping until I was out in the fresh air.
Taking a few deep breaths, I tamped down my anger and refocused. Looked like Leeloo didn't have anyone else coming to her rescue. So that left me.
All right, then.
My phone buzzed. Pulling it out of my pocket, I glanced at the screen. It was Lizzy.
Any luck?
