“I want you to make me a human, and then I want to turn into a half-blood. But just so you are aware,” I continued, “I already tried to turn back into a human. I don’t know if you know of the cure to vampirism that was discovered eighteen years ago. It involves consuming the blood of an immune and then being exposed to the sun for several hours. I took that same cure that had worked for countless vampires before me, but it failed to turn me back.”
Aisha looked a little lost. “I… I don’t have experience with this kind of thing. Something like this… you’re asking me to permanently alter your very identity…” She paused. “I’m going to have to talk to my aunt about this.”
As I suspected…
My eyes shot toward the entrance of the dining hall. It was my good luck that Nuriya was exiting just as we stood here. Aisha called to her and beckoned her over.
Nuriya first looked at River. The queen had a genuine look of apology and regret on her face. “I am very sorry for what happened,” she said, clasping her hands around River’s shoulders. “How are you feeling?”
River nodded stiffly.
Then I repeated what I wanted to the queen. After I’d finished explaining, she didn’t respond for several moments. She just remained quiet, eyeing me closely.
“Benjamin,” she said finally. “There is a lot we jinn can do—we can work magic and miracles, and we can influence the mind unlike almost any other creature that exists—but what you are asking is for us to alter the very fabric of your being.”
“‘Fabric of my being’? What are you talking about?” I asked, alarm and frustration taking hold of me. I’d just sold myself to these creatures with the belief that they could solve any problem I had. “I was born a human. If anything, that is the fabric of my being. That is my true identity.”
Nuriya shook her head slowly. “You are different, Benjamin…”
“Why don’t you just try?” River butted in, clearly sensing my temper.
“My dear,” the jinni replied, “as much as I can help Benjamin in a thousand different ways, I am, after all, not God.”
I swore beneath my breath.
Great. That’s just great.
“But Ben and I have already seen that you can transform people and change their identities,” River continued. “We saw you turn our witches into birds!”
“That was an entirely different scenario, my dear,” she said, shaking her head again. “There’s much about Benjamin that you don’t know.”
“So you do know what is wrong with me at least, don’t you?” I said, trying to reel in my frustration. “Those weeks that I was away from The Oasis, I heard your voice in my head, telling me that you knew who I was and knew what I wanted. Then you gave me that vision of myself as an infant.”
To my relief, Nuriya nodded. “Yes, indeed.”
“So if you’re telling me that you can’t turn me back into a human, and you’re not willing to even try, then at least you can explain the vision that I had. You can tell me why I am like this, and what happened. Who was that Hawk exactly? Where did she take me?”
Nuriya’s face lit up. “Of course, we can tell you everything that happened in your past. Aisha is fully capable of doing that. Aren’t you?”
Aisha nodded enthusiastically. “Oh, yes.”
“Then I will leave you with her, my son…”
“No! Wait—”
Brushing a hand against my cheek, Nuriya vanished in a puff of smoke.
I stamped my foot in frustration. I’d been about to insist that the queen at least grant me my wish rather than the insufferable Aisha. The damn jinni had given me no chance.
Infuriating woman.
“So now we know what we’re doing,” Aisha said briskly, clasping her hands together and setting her focus back on me. “But before I take you back in time and give you more visions, I suggest you take some time out.”
“What?”
“The visions I’m about to impart on you will be a lot to take in. You’ve had a stressful past twenty-four hours. Your mind needs to rest and unwind. Relaxation will help it to open up.”
I brushed her aside. “Forget that. Just give me the visions now.”
“Benjamin, I must insist on this. If you don’t, you won’t have a clear mind, and you won’t be able to retain all the information you desire.”
River squeezed my hand. “Maybe you should do as she suggests,” she said quietly.
I breathed out sharply. “Okay. I’ll return to my apartment and sit in a chair for fifteen minutes.”
“No, no, no,” Aisha said, looking amused. “You need at the very least one hour, and sitting in a chair is no way to unwind. I will show you exactly how you must do this…”
Not waiting for my approval, the jinni transported River and me to a softly lit chamber filled with a light blue mist and a heady aroma of frankincense.
There were six round steaming pools that looked like a cross between jacuzzis and hot tubs. The stone walls were a warm earthy color, as were the floors, giving the whole place a rustic feel.
“Relax in one of these baths for an hour,” Aisha said.
In the few moments I’d been in the room, breathing in the exotic-smelling incense, I could already feel my head becoming lighter.
“There is a changing room over there,” Aisha continued, pointing to the far corner of the room. “You’ll find everything you need in there.” Then she addressed River. “If you’re staying here with him too, the women’s changing room is on the opposite side.”
I looked up at a large clock that was fixed near the ceiling, noting the time. “I’ll stay here for sixty minutes,” I told the jinni, “and not a moment longer.”
“All right,” Aisha said. “And by the way, when you need to summon me, you don’t have to come looking for me. You have your amulet.” She gestured toward the gold band around my wrist. “All you need to do is brush the snake’s head.”
“Okay…” I said, eyeing the band. Aisha gave River and me one last look before taking her leave.
I headed toward the men’s changing room, while River headed to the women’s.
The men’s was a ridiculously large room for a changing room—and lavishly decorated, as with the rest of this place. The floor and walls were made of marble, and the embroidered towels were the softest I’d ever touched in my life. I found a stack of crisp folded swimshorts. I took a pair and slipped them on. Heading back into the spa, I was surprised to see River already waiting for me. My breath hitched as I took in how stunning she looked in a thin red bikini. She had bunched her long, rich brown hair over one shoulder, and this was the first time I’d seen so much of her curves. I found myself slightly speechless.
“Uh, shall we?” I pointed to the nearest bath to us and we both slipped inside.
The water was warm and fragrant as it bubbled against my body. We sat opposite each other against the walls of the pool. Then River left her spot and glided toward me. At first she moved slowly, timidly, but when she reached me, her hands gripped my arms and she pulled herself onto my lap. Her chest pressing against mine, she moved in to kiss me. As her luscious lips were a split second from touching mine, a voice called from the women’s changing room.
“You said something, Ben?”
It was River’s voice.
I looked in confusion toward the door of the changing room. Then back at the girl sitting on top of me. I swore. Inches away from my face was no longer the vision of River, but the gleaming face of Aisha.
She burst out laughing hysterically. Then, before I could grab her neck, she vanished.
Curse that girl!
The real River stepped out of the changing room, in the same thin red bikini, and looking just as breathtaking.
“You said something?” she repeated, moving toward my pool.
As she slid into the water and took a seat next to me, I told her what just happened. She flinched slightly as I described how Aisha had come on to me.
“She was going to ki
ss you?” River said, an unmistakable hint of jealousy in her voice.
“She would have,” I said, “if I hadn’t heard your voice calling from the changing room.”
River caught my arms, the same way Aisha had done. She sat on my knees, facing me.
“She sat on you like this?” she asked.
A slight smile curved the corners of my lips. I could already see where she was going with this. I placed my hands on River’s hips, sliding her down my knees until she was sitting on my thighs.
“Like this,” I replied. “But how do I know it’s you this time?” I dropped my voice to a whisper.
She closed the distance between our faces and kissed my lips. When she drew away, she had a cheeky smile on her face.
“Do you think anyone else could kiss you like that?”
I paused, feigning thought. “I’d need you to do it again for me to be sure…” I ran my hands up her back before closing my lips around hers, more slowly this time, and more deeply. I didn’t give her my answer for another five minutes. I got too lost in her, her soft tongue, her full lips, the contours of her body melding with mine as we held each other so closely.
No. I doubted there was a woman in the world who could make me feel the way River did.
She drew away from me in the water, her lips flushed red and slightly swollen. She cocked her head to one side. “Well?”
“Hmm… I think you’re River.”
She grinned, nudging me in the shoulder. She submerged herself in the water and reappeared, her hair slicked back. Her bikini clung to her chest, pearls of water dripping from her hair and eyelashes, making trails down the shape of her body. Damn. River looked beautiful in water.
I couldn’t keep myself from joining her in the center of the pool. I placed my hands on her thighs, drawing her toward me again. I guided her into wrapping her legs around my waist. She placed her hands on top of my head.
“Come down with me,” she said.
I dipped the two of us underwater. Her mouth pressed against mine. I’d never made out underwater before, and it was an odd experience. But making out with River was something I’d relish anytime and anywhere.
“You’re beautiful,” I said, as I lifted her up again.
She rested her forehead against mine, staring so closely into my eyes that I lost focus. “So are you,” she whispered. “Prince Benjamin.” A playful smile crossed her lips. “If we got married one day, would that make me a princess?”
I chuckled, unable to keep myself from responding with: “You don’t need me to be a princess.”
She giggled. “You’re so cheesy.”
She ran her hands through my hair. I wasn’t quite sure what she was doing with it—it felt like she was trying to make it spike upwards. Apparently failing in her endeavor, she cast her eyes around the chamber. Her face lit up. She pointed toward what appeared to be four massage tables lined up along one of the walls.
“Aisha said that you need to wind down, right?”
“You’re winding me down just fine…”
“Well, I have another idea,” she said.
She detached herself from me and climbed out of the pool. I admired her graceful form as she walked across the room. She bent down when she reached the massage tables and removed three bottles from a little cabinet next to them. She returned to me and set the bottles down in a row at the side of the pool.
“Move to the steps,” she said.
I did as she’d requested, and sat down on one of the steps, my back facing her. She picked up the first bottle. When she opened it, the scent that drifted out was divine. Planting her feet either side of me, she sat behind me, one step higher, and started to massage the back of my neck with the oil. Her hands, wonderfully firm, kneaded against my muscles, releasing tension I hadn’t even realized I’d had. I was surprised by how good she was.
“Did someone teach you?” I asked.
“In another life, my mom was a sports injury therapist,” River replied. “She studied massage, and I learnt a few tips from her.”
She massaged me for the next ten minutes, and I was sure she would’ve continued for the rest of the hour if I hadn’t caught her hands and stopped her.
“Okay,” I said, raising myself from the step, and guiding her to sit in my place. “Now it’s your turn.”
Pouring some oil into my hand, I began massaging her back. I doubted I was doing as good of a job as she had with me, but she seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly. She closed her eyes, her head lolling back slightly as I worked my way around her shoulder blades. Every so often, I leaned in to kiss the side of her neck or the backs of her shoulders. I relished the slight tremor that ran through her body each time my lips grazed her.
When we were done, we both slipped back down into the pool to rinse off the oil.
Then I looked up at the clock. “Just five more minutes until an hour is gone,” I said. “Any final requests?”
“Final requests,” she said thoughtfully. “Hmm… Could you wish for Aisha to banish herself from The Oasis?”
River was joking, but there was a part of me that actually considered requesting that of Nuriya. Unfortunately, I guessed that that would be another thing that was off boundaries—requesting punishment or harm to be done to a member of her own family.
After indulging myself in another round of River’s sweet kisses, I led her out of the pool where we split to get dried and changed.
I found a clean pair of clothes to wear—a loose shirt and pants—and, not bothering to dry my hair, I left the changing room to find Aisha already hovering by one of the pools. I was disappointed that she was here already because I’d been hoping that I could practice summoning her with the snake band.
If it hadn’t been for the hour of bliss I had just spent with River, I would’ve let loose my anger at what she’d almost tricked me into doing. But I was feeling too relaxed and content to want to drag my mind there, so I let it go.
“You’re certainly looking more relaxed now,” Aisha said, eyeing me from head to foot, a glint of amusement in her gaze.
“Thanks to my girlfriend,” I said.
That seemed to sour the jinni’s mood. She pursed her lips, and paused for a moment before saying, “So are you ready for the visions now?”
“One moment,” I said, walking toward the women’s changing room. I stood outside the door and was about to ask River how much longer she’d be when she stepped out. She wore the same cotton dress she had taken from my bedroom and had tied her damp hair up in a bun.
We walked back to Aisha.
“Yes,” I said to the jinni. “I’m ready.”
“River shouldn’t be with you for this,” Aisha said.
The calmness River had managed to induce me into stirred.
Whatever crush this jinni had on me was turning into a serious problem. It was becoming clear that she was barely able to have a single interaction without her bias against River coming into play in one way or another.
I took a deep breath, trying to maintain my calm.
“River stays with me,” I said steadily. “I’m not letting her out of my sight while she’s in this place.”
“I’m serious, Benjamin,” Aisha said. “Another person in the room, other than you and me, will simply be a distraction.”
“River was lying with me in the same bed when I had the vision of myself as an infant,” I shot back. “I assimilated the information in that vision just fine.”
“But you don’t know how much more you might have gleaned had you been by yourself,” Aisha said, crossing her arms over her chest.
River heaved a sigh. “Look, Ben,” she said, tugging on my hand for me to face her. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll just… hang around until you’re done. If there’s even a chance—”
I shook my head. “No,” I said, “I don’t—”
River placed her hands on my shoulders. “If there’s even a chance that Aisha is right, I should sit out of this. I’ll be fine. You alrea
dy made clear that I’m not to be harmed.”
“Oh, yes,” Aisha said, butting in as usual. “You don’t need to worry about River. She will be perfectly safe. Besides, if you’re really worried, I can take her to wait in Queen Nuri’s quarters. Nobody would dare do anything to her there. I’ll take her to the same room where her brother was staying.”
I paused, clenching my jaw. “How long is this going to take?” I asked. “How much do you really have to show me?”
“I suspect we will be an hour or two,” Aisha said.
“That’s not long at all,” River said, trying to reassure me.
“All right,” I said. “But Aisha, I’m coming with you to drop River off at Nuri’s place.” I need to be sure that’s indeed where you plan to take her…
“Of course,” Aisha said. “We’ll go there now together.”
The spa vanished and we reappeared in the same stately bedroom where River had been taken to meet her cured brother. River moved toward the bed and sat down on the edge of it. She offered me a warm smile. “I’ll be fine,” she said. “Just go now.”
I walked over to her and kissed her cheek. Still aching with the thought of leaving her, I stepped away to allow Aisha to transport me to wherever it was she planned to reveal the missing pieces of my past.
Chapter 19: River
After Ben left the room with Aisha, I leaned back on the bed. A smile formed on my lips as I recalled the hour of sheer bliss I’d just spent with Ben. Benjamin Novak. My boyfriend. The word sent tingles down my spine. I’d never had a boyfriend, and the idea that someone as gorgeous as Ben could be my first… I felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
I played back every detail of our time in that spa, every lingering kiss, every slow caress, every flirtatious comment… I felt breathless as I relived it all again. That hour I’d just spent with the vampire had lifted my heart to such a height, it was hard to believe that it would ever come down again.
The heat he sparked in me just from his mere touch, it was unlike anything I’d experienced in my life. It felt like I could never be satiated by his company. I just wanted him, all of him, all the time.