Her expression went blank with amazement. It amused him, but it also twisted him up a little. “But—but…”
“No ‘buts.’ Humans are always in such a hurry.” He took her hands and looked deeply into her turbulent eyes. “There is more than enough money. You now have resources in your bank account, and the Djinn will never allow you to suffer a lack of funds. I have funds too, quite a lot, last time I looked. There is more than enough time. There is nowhere you need to go, and nothing you need to do right now unless you choose to do it. You and the children are safe, Grace. You are safe now.”
Her gaze flooded with moisture. She looked stricken.
He stroked her hair. “You did not even need to decide what to do with all of your possessions right away or what to do with the house. It just seemed to help you come to terms with everything that happened. I’m only sorry there was so much loss.”
“Vacation,” she said slowly, as if it was a word in a foreign language.
“Yes. You have three choices. We can join the children at the Four Seasons in Houston. We can check into a hotel suite here in Louisville. I do not recommend that one, since I do not believe you will actually relax if we stay local.”
She wiped her cheeks. “What is the third option?”
“Carling and Rune called yesterday evening,” he said. “You were so sound asleep, you didn’t even hear your new cell phone ring, so I answered it. They have leased a beach house just outside of Miami, with the option to buy. Three bedrooms, two baths, a family room, a living room, a fenced-in yard and a deck that faces the ocean. It’s furnished, but Carling said the furniture can be removed if you want your own. They have invited us to use it for as long as we like.”
“Beach,” she said blankly.
Of all the strange fortune that had befallen her, it appeared that good fortune was what brought her to a total halt. He said in a gentle voice, “Beach. If you like.”
“You would come with us?” She searched his gaze.
“I will always come with you,” he said simply.
“Where would you like to go?” she asked. “Is there some place you would enjoy?”
He smiled. He liked Paris in the first blush of early morning and snowfall in St. Petersburg on a winter’s night. He liked the hot desert winds of North Africa and the wild open spaces of the Colorado and Mohave deserts, where the Djinn went to dance in the sun-drenched air. He adored following the plunge of water over Niagara Falls and swimming along the serpentine twists of the Amazon River, and he loved contemplating the top of the world along the peaks of the Himalayas, where the air grew thin and riotous infinity lay everywhere.
But it would not do to overwhelm her too soon. He told her, “I like the sun.”
She frowned as she studied him. “If we go to Houston, you may not get a real vacation either.”
He admitted, “That is a good point.”
Her frown didn’t ease. She said slowly, “I would love to take a vacation, but I also made a promise to a couple of people that I would help them.”
His eyebrows rose. “Who are they?”
“You know the petitioners that came the day Therese babysat? They weren’t able to go through with the consultation. They weren’t ready, and the cavern made them uncomfortable. I told them I would be available if they wanted to return.” Grace rubbed the back of her neck. “I need to keep my promise to them. I want to keep my promise.”
“This is not an issue,” Khalil said. “We will get in touch with them. Whenever they are ready, we’ll get a babysitter, and I can transport you to wherever these people live. That’s assuming you can do without a cavern.”
“I really think I can,” she said. She met his gaze and smiled. “I like the thought of being able to make a house call. If, that is, they are open to it too.”
They would discover that Grace could indeed make house calls. She had practiced more with Khalil by the time Don and Margie e-mailed her to ask if she might be available for another consultation. Ismat became the children’s first Djinn babysitter, and Khalil transported Grace to Margie’s home in southern Indiana. Once there Khalil kept a tactful silence and moved into the background as Grace interacted with the middle-aged siblings. Margie invited them into her comfortable home, and they sat at the kitchen table and talked over coffee until both Don and Margie had relaxed. When Grace finally channeled the ghost of Don and Margie’s father, it felt like a natural, gentle progression, and the session was quite healing.
She was a natural, Khalil thought, pride swelling as he watched her with the two humans. She was warm and compassionate, and she knew how to listen. More than that, she handled the Oracle’s Power with an assurance that had to be a comfort to the others. She had not only taken the Oracle’s Power for her own, but now she claimed the position for her own as well.
But all of that came later. For now, Khalil felt a deep satisfaction as he regarded his Grace, who knew the importance of keeping her word, taking care of those who were her responsibility, and holding to her side of a bargain. No matter what.
He told her, “We appear to have narrowed down our choices of where we will go.”
A grin broke over her face. “We’re going to Florida?”
“Indeed, we must be.” He knew that in Florida, Carling and Rune would try to convince them to stay, but he was not at all interested in that. He did not have a preference for a geographical focus and was happy to abide wherever Grace might wish. He tapped her on the nose. “But we will not leave for Florida until the children arrive on Sunday, so for today, I have decided we shall go on our second date.”
Her expression froze. “We will?”
“In fact, I know exactly what we shall do.”
Her eyes widened. “You do?”
He contemplated her with satisfaction. “Yes, I will take you somewhere special.”
She said cautiously, “What do I have to do to get ready?”
“Whatever you like.” He paused. “Dress casually.”
“All right…when do you want to leave?”
His satisfaction dissipated. Really, she did not look as excited as he had expected about the prospect of this date. “Whenever you like.”
She looked down at herself, then back up at him. “Maybe we should just go and get it over with.”
He scowled. “Fine.”
He stood and held his hand out to her. She stood as well, more slowly, and walked into his arms, and they blew away.
Away from Louisville. Away from Kentucky. Away from the Northern Hemisphere.
From Earth.
Khalil had studied Grace’s needs and practiced, until he was confident he could keep her wrapped protectively in the right pressurized temperature, provide her with the right UV filter, and the perfect air for her to breathe.
He brought her to the moon with a flourish. The near side facing the Earth, not the far side, since he thought they should take the trip in stages. She turned in his arms to look around at where he brought them.
“W-wha…”
“I told you it would be somewhere special,” he said, in the invisible bubble he had created for them.
She screamed.
He smiled smugly. Yes, this second date destination was worthy of a happy scream. Very few humans had walked on the moon. He knew how rare this opportunity was. Surely it should make up for what had happened on their first date.
Grace kept screaming. She turned and clawed at him. “Oh, my God. Oh. My. God. OHMYGOD!”
His smile vanished. He tried to get hold of her in a gentle but tight grip. That was more difficult than he expected. She seemed to have acquired a half-dozen arms and legs. He informed her, “You may stop making noise any time now.”
Somehow she had climbed halfway up his body before he managed to grasp her waist. He plucked her off and set her on her feet. She started to climb up his body again.
“Are you having fun?” he asked suspiciously.
“We’re on the fucking moon!” she shouted. “There
’s nothing here!”
He stared at her. “I don’t think you’re having fun.”
“No air!”
He shook his head. “Think about that logically. Could you have possibly said those words if there truly was no air? Of course there’s no air or atmosphere outside this bubble—”
“Ofcoursethere’snofuckingairhereorfuckingatmosphereonthefuckinggoddamnMOONyouGODDAMNFUCKINGCRAZYMORONICDJINN…”
“Grace,” he roared in her face.
He put so much Power into his shout, her screaming snapped into silence. Her breathing hitched as she stared at him. “Look at me,” he said. “Keep looking only at me. There is no danger. You’re perfectly safe. I’ve got you. I’ve always got you. You’re mine. I will never let go. I will always protect you. You are my life now. Do you understand anything I’m saying?”
Her breathing hitched again. “I’m breathing,” she whispered. “On the moon.”
“Don’t look away!” he ordered, as her eyes started to slide sideways. Her gaze snapped back to his. “I’m sorry I scared you. I wanted to show you somewhere special that I love to go. I thought you would love it here too. Do you need to leave?”
“I d-don’t know, give me minute,” she said faintly. “I’m having some serious instinct issues. You always make me feel like Darrin, and I’m not Darrin, dammit.”
“All right.” He rubbed her arms. “But I don’t know what any of that means.”
“Soon as you said ‘date,’ I knew something calamitous was going to happen. You are never, ever—ever—going to surprise me like this again, or I swear, I will throw my expulsion spell on your ass for a week.” Hitch. “And I mean hard, Khalil.”
“Never again. I promise you, I am never doing anything like this again. Just tell me if we should leave.”
“Hold on.”
He watched, bemused, as she took several deep breaths, as if she were about to dive under water. Then she slowly, slowly turned. He pulled her back against his chest, wrapping his arms tightly around her. Her whole body was shaking.
“Oh, my fucking God, I’m on the moon,” she said. After all of that, she sounded almost conversational. “No helmet. No spacesuit. No oxygen tank. Just you.”
Khalil had learned caution the bitter way. He asked carefully, “Is that a good thing?”
“It’s the most.” She shook her head and sucked in more air, gripping onto his forearms as they crossed her chest. Tilting her head, she looked up at the immense, graceful orb that was Earth. “It’s the most gloriously insane thing I’ve ever seen. You crazy Djinn.”
Well. That had to count for something, didn’t it?
He rested his chin on the top of her head with a deep sigh. This whole dating thing wore him to a frazzle.
Grace could only take a few more minutes on the moon. Then after such an extreme adrenaline rush, she felt as if someone smacked her on the back of the head with a two-by-four.
He was speaking, calmly, in that gorgeous pure voice of his, while he rubbed her arms with his hot, big hands. “The far side is pretty spectacular too.”
“I will go anywhere with you, anywhere at all,” she said. “With a little warning. And in increments. But right now we’ve got to leave.”
“As you wish.”
She turned in his arms, clutching his waist as the cyclone took her.
Khalil rematerialized them in the guest bedroom they were using at Isalynn’s house. As soon as the ground had firmed underneath her feet, Grace turned away, took three dizzy steps and collapsed on the bed.
“Kiiiick in the head,” she said into a pillow.
The bedsprings creaked as Khalil sat beside her. He rubbed one of her legs.
“I love you like crazy,” he whispered.
Her breath caught. Like crazy. Yes, that was how she felt too. Crazy outside of herself, like when they had made love and she literally left her body. She reached behind to grip his hand. His long fingers closed over hers, hard.
“What you did with my father—that was bloody magnificent, Grace. Few creatures have been able to face Soren down like that and win.”
“I did have something of an inside scoop,” she said. “And forty or fifty Djinn to back me up.”
For a while on Sunday, the visions of possible futures had never left her. Then they had passed as the Oracle’s moon had passed, leaving her anchored where she belonged, in the here and now. But she still remembered some of those possibilities, glittering strange horizons she hardly dared to contemplate.
She sensed him leaning over her, an impression of bulk and strength. Something happened, a tight compression of Power, like when he had pulled all of his rage into himself, only this compression was deeper and harder, a diamond being pressed out of thin air.
Frowning, she lifted herself up on her elbows and started to turn over. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder blade. The sensation lingered on her skin after he lifted his mouth away.
“Promise me something,” she said.
He traced the hairline at the nape of her neck lightly with the tip of one finger. “Anything you like.”
“Don’t change,” she said. “Not permanently, not without talking to me first.”
His finger stilled. He said nothing.
This time she did turn onto her back.
While he was still dressed in the same T-shirt and jeans from that morning, he wore his human skin again, those regal, elegant features with the touch of beard along his lean jaw, and the trace of laugh lines at the corners of his muted eyes and unsmiling mouth. His long hair was loose, still shining and black, but indefinably different. She put a hand to his chest, and there was the blaze of his Power, hidden deeply inside his body like a gleaming pearl.
She reached up to touch those amazing laugh lines. He shuddered and closed his eyes, turning his face into her palm.
“Promise,” she said. “Khalil, you have the ability to fall into flesh, but a goddess in a dream told me I can leave my body again if I want to badly enough.”
His eyes flared open. He stared at her, tension in every line of his massive body. He put his hand around her throat, his thumb caressing the line of her jaw. “‘What will a mortal do with an immortal Power?’” he breathed.
She lifted her shoulder and said awkwardly, “Well, it was just a dream. I don’t know if it could really happen. We need to take time to experiment with all of this. All I know is I don’t want to try to become something different from the kids while they’re growing up, because they’re never going to be able to change, and they deserve the best human life I can give them.”
“They deserve you alive,” Khalil said. “Gods—if you could change, you would be stronger, harder to kill.” He swallowed hard. “You’re all so fragile.”
“That’s part of what being human is,” she said. “We’re pretty damn tough, too. Besides…” She smiled. “I’m perfectly safe, remember? I’ve got you. I’ve always got you.”
“Please always stay mine,” he whispered.
“Always.”
She stroked her hand down his back, and he arched and shuddered. He reached behind him, bicep flexing, and grasped his T-shirt to pull it over his head.
Oh, my God, he had a sprinkle of dark hair on his chest. She ran her palm over it. It was as silken as it looked. He stared at her in naked surprise, and there was the hunger again, washing over her in a sheet of flame.
“Take everything off,” she hissed.
He arched away from her to tear off his jeans. She had meant to do the same; she really had. But the sight of Khalil’s nude body as he flexed free of his clothing tore almost every coherent thought out of her mind.
Except two. The same—different—the same—they were like two sides of a coin flipping in midair. She saw her lover in every line of Khalil’s body, but the newness of his more humanlike form made him almost a stranger. Silken black hair arrowed down his long stomach to his genitals and sprinkled long, muscle-corded thighs. His testicles had drawn up tight under a taut, large
erection. She stared at the broad mushroom head and thick length of his beautiful penis.
He turned to her and growled in frustration. “You were supposed to take your clothes off too.”
She gave him a stricken look and whimpered, “I forgot.”
Laughter and affection creased his lean face before his expression turned sensual and wicked. “Do not trouble yourself in the slightest,” he murmured. “I will help you.”
He stretched his long body beside her and eased the buttons of her shirt open one by one. She could not stop staring at him everywhere. That cock. She took hold of the warm, hard length in both greedy hands.
A sound broke out of him, a short, sharp cry of shock, and he bowed over her hands almost as if she punched him. Worried, she started to draw back. He grabbed her wrists. “No!” he gritted. “That wasn’t bad. That was because it’s so damned good.”
She flexed her hands along the soft skin that covered his distended flesh. The pleasure of it shuddered through his entire body, and she wanted him so badly she could barely breathe.
Love you.
She gave into the feeling, gave into him. She arched her back and wiggled haphazardly down the bed, until she reached his waist. Then she rolled toward him and pulled the thick tip of his penis into her mouth. A groan wrenched out of him. Every line of his body, everything she could sense of his presence, roared astonishment. His erection jerked in her mouth. She closed her eyes and felt his hands fist in her hair as she sucked him in.
Love you like crazy.
He pushed his hips, growling as she worked him. She lost herself in his touch, in his taste and rhythm. The sheer physical pleasure of him was blinding.
When he jerked his cock out her mouth, she blinked up at him. His expression was a crisis of need. “Not that way,” he muttered. “Not this time.”
He hauled her up the bed, she lunged up to a sitting position and together they tore off her clothes until she was as naked as he was. He cupped a hand at the back of her neck, and as he eased her back down, he rose to cover her body.