Oracle's Moon
Page 37

“I remembered,” she told him, truthfully enough. “I just got busy.”
“We will talk of that later.” He bowed over her. She could feel what a maelstrom he was of out-of-control emotion, pain, a terror that was too slow to fade, and a twisted up, overwhelmed sense of wonder. He could barely hold on to his physical form. “Do you realize what a miracle you are? You scared me so much this time.”
A glowing drop of liquid streaked down and landed on her dirty T-shirt where it lay like a shining jewel for a moment before it was soaked into the material. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She touched the small damp spot wonderingly. It still had a tiny spark of his Power that slowly faded. “I didn’t mean to.”
Someone approached; it was the woman who had been examining Max. She knelt beside Grace with a smile. “I’m Dr. Lopez. You’re looking better.”
“I’m feeling better, thanks,” Grace said.
“I scanned you when you were a little out of it earlier. You’ve strained your knee, but I don’t think you’ve done any further lasting damage. Wear your brace for a couple of weeks and baby that knee. Hot and cold compresses, and ibuprofen. I’m sure you know the drill. Be sure to see your orthopedic surgeon if it gives you any trouble.”
“I will.” Grace twisted around to look at the kids. One EMT rubbed Max’s stomach, talking soothingly while the baby sucked his thumb. The other EMT smiled at Chloe, who was showing him the toys in her bucket. “How are they?”
“They’re doing really well,” Dr. Lopez said. “Chloe had a shock, and she’s still shaken. I don’t see or sense any evidence of injury. Max had a couple of healing potions like you did, and he’s calmer and feeling better. The pink to his skin is gone, and his concussive symptoms have disappeared. I don’t sense any further injury when I scan him, no pressure or swelling in his head or spine. If you would feel better, we can admit him to keep an eye on him overnight, but to be quite honest, I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“Who are you and where are you from?” Grace asked. She glanced at Khalil. He looked focused and suddenly calm.
The doctor’s direct gaze was friendly and understanding. “I work at the Children’s Hospital in Boston.”
“She teaches at the Harvard Medical School,” Khalil said. “We wanted to get the best.”
Like pancakes from the Russian Tea Room? Grace gripped Khalil’s forearm. “And the EMTs?”
“They’re from the Children’s Hospital in Boston too.” Dr. Lopez did not quite smile, but she looked like she might want to. “Our trauma unit does not often see several Djinn appear to demand medical care for two human children.”
“Try never,” said one of the EMTs from behind the doctor. He had walked over hand in hand with Chloe.
Dr. Lopez said, “They volunteered to come.”
Chloe flung herself at Grace and Khalil. She wailed, “Our house broke!”
“I know, sweetie.” Grace snatched her close, and Khalil’s arms closed over them both tightly, while Grace kissed and rocked Chloe. So fragile, so precious. A spasm of shaking rattled Grace.
Gram, I don’t deserve your pride, she thought, because even with the dream and all the ghosts yelling at me, I almost didn’t figure it out.
“Do you think you could give me some big-girl help?” she said in Chloe’s hair.
Chloe said timidly, “I dunno. It might be too big for me.”
Oh, ouch. Grace’s throat closed up, and for a few moments she couldn’t talk. She felt torn in two.
Khalil put a hand to her back. I’m right here. Tell me what you need.
Her two pieces aligned, and she grew calm and clearheaded. She said to him, The children need to be with someone they feel safe with tonight, and it can’t be me because I have things I need to do. Normally that would mean Katherine, except right now I want them out of Kentucky altogether.
Why is that? Khalil asked. He looked sharp, and for the first time since she had met him, truly predatory.
She met his gaze. Because the trucker that caused the car accident in the spring didn’t fall asleep at the wheel.
Arrangements for the children happened much quicker than she thought they could. Two of the Djinn took Dr. Lopez, the EMTs and their equipment back to Boston. Khalil sent a third spearing into the air to find Katherine and John and explain what had happened, and what was needed from them. Grace hated for Katherine to find out everything that had happened that way, but she needed to focus all her attention on the children. The fourth Djinn made travel arrangements for a suite to be made available for Katherine, John, their children, and Chloe and Max at the Four Seasons Hotel in Houston, in the heart of the Demonkind demesne.
That caused Grace to pause as she tried to figure out how to finance the trip for all six. The check from Carling and Rune hadn’t cleared the bank, and she didn’t have a credit card. While she knew Katherine and John would do anything to help, she certainly couldn’t expect them to foot the hotel bill. Sitting with her back against a shade tree while cuddling Chloe on her lap, she brought the question of financing up with Khalil.
Khalil held the exhausted baby against his shoulder. He paced slowly, so he didn’t wake Max up. He had chosen, of all things, to wear jeans and a T-shirt again. The outfit brought to mind their date, which seemed like it had happened ages ago, except now the clothes looked shockingly exotic against his more inhuman physical form. He held his energy under such tight control, it made Grace’s bones ache just to look at him.
Max wasn’t aware of any of that. The baby had begun to snore. He sounded like a squeaky toy. Khalil put his cheek against Max’s head, rubbing his small back.
“Do not trouble yourself in the slightest over paying for the trip,” Khalil told Grace quietly. “It will all be taken care of.”
Grace jerked as suddenly the ebony-skinned Djinn appeared and knelt beside her, diamond eyes intent. The strange Djinn said, “I will pay for all of it.”
If anything, Khalil grew even quieter, yet this time a thread of steel ran through his voice. “Now is not the time, Ebrahim.”
“I understand,” the other Djinn said, just as quietly, while pain flared in his expression. “Just know I will pay for everything.” He looked into Grace’s eyes and whispered, “Anything you need.”
“Thank you?” Grace kissed Chloe’s temple and tilted her head sideways to see the little girl’s face. Chloe was sleepy but still awake, and sucking her thumb. Grace said to the Djinn in a gentle, perky voice, “You need to back up and give us some space now. Actually, if you really want to help, you could get the children something to eat since our kitchen blew up.” Grace murmured to Chloe, “Are you hungry?” Chloe nodded. “What would you like to eat?”
Chloe slipped her thumb out of her mouth. “Cheese.”
Ebrahim looked at Max.
Khalil said promptly, “Similac formula. Not the powder. Ready to feed bottles with ni**les. A package of Pampers disposable diapers, a dozen jars of stage two baby food—get a variety of things, and remember, he loves applesauce—and a small spoon, some baby wipes, and a diaper bag. A soft stuffed toy suitable for a nine-month-old and a cotton blanket. That should meet his immediate needs.”
Grace stared at Khalil, her mouth open. If she hadn’t fallen in love with him already, that would have done it. Twice.
Ebrahim’s intensity had splintered into confusion. Khalil told him, “Ask a store attendant to help you pick it all out. And hurry.”
The other Djinn dematerialized and blew away. Grace asked, He was a bit intense. What was that all about?
Khalil told her, His mate is damaged. He saw Phaedra and heard us talking. He is hoping you can help his mate. I didn’t remember that when I called on him to pay his debt.
She pushed the heel of one hand against her temple. Oh, criminy. I can’t promise anything to anyone. Khalil, what I did was a fluke. Honestly, Phaedra did most of the work.
He squatted in front of her. Max looked so tiny nestled against his chest. I know. And now really isn’t the time. But when the time does come, would you at least be willing to try—for him or any of the others? He gripped her shoulder. No matter how you answer, I will support your decision.
And if she hadn’t already fallen in love with him, that would have made the third time today. Of course I’ll try, she said. I couldn’t say no.
He looked into her eyes, took her hand and pressed his lips to her fingers. Indeed.
Just then the two Djinn that had been exploring the house assumed physical forms and walked toward them. They wore the shapes of identical women, tall, blonde and strong looking. Grace looked at them with her mind’s eye. Their presences were almost an exact carbon copy of each other; they really were twins. Khalil’s expression darkened as they came near, his face hard. He asked, “What have you discovered?”
“We have shut off the gas,” said one of them. “There is nothing magical in the ruins.”
“And the cause?”
The other twin held out her hand. In her palm was a piece of damaged metal. “We think it was this piece of the stove. It is part of the gas regulation and ignition process called a flame failure device. It appears quite faulty.”
Grace said, “We used that stove hundreds of times, and it worked perfectly.”
Khalil looked at Grace. “This was the first time you used the stove since yesterday’s work day, wasn’t it, when you had so many people over?”
“Yes.” She went a little numb.
The twins looked at each other. One of them asked, “Did you leave the house for any length of time?”
Twelve people, not including Olivia, who knew each other well. They looked her in the eye and ate her food and mowed her lawn. Did twelve people do this?
She nodded and whispered, “For about forty-five minutes.”
Khalil’s rage flared red-hot against Grace’s senses. His face was vicious. “Brandon Miller has metal devices like this in a hidden workshop. Along with tools with which to alter them.”
Chloe knuckled her eyes. “Did our lunch break the house?”
Grace’s arms tightened. She shook her head at the others, silently warning them to stop the conversation, as she said, “It seems so, baby girl.”
The Djinn returned from their various errands. The first to arrive were the two who had gone to Boston. Then came the one who made the travel arrangements. Ebrahim was the fourth, laden with packages. He had the new diaper bag, stuffed with everything Khalil had requested, and a large plastic shopping bag filled with three different kinds of cheese, crackers, juice, pudding, fruit and animal cookies. Grace opened packages of food so Chloe could nibble, and she ate too, mechanically, because she needed the fuel.
The messenger to Katherine and John was the last one to return. The Djinn wore the form of a reed-thin girl with a gleaming fall of chocolate-colored hair.
“They are coming,” she said, her voice as light and airy as a flute. “Katherine told me to tell you, of course they will come. She is shocked and saddened and extremely angry.”
Khalil said, “Make sure they arrive safely.”
“Yes.” She vanished again, and two of the others went with her.
Khalil spread out the new cotton blanket beside Grace and Chloe, and he eased the sleeping Max onto it. Then he went with the rest of the Djinn to look at the house. He returned soon with her knee brace, the hated cane, and Chloe’s Lalaloopsy doll.
“They will see what is salvageable of your possessions, and if possible, they will work on repairs,” he said to Grace, his voice softer than ever, for Chloe had fallen asleep too. He set Chloe’s doll on the blanket beside Max and knelt to help Grace buckle the brace into place.
“They must be in a lot of debt to you if they’re still working to cancel it out,” Grace said.
“None of the Djinn owe me anything anymore,” Khalil said. “Now they’re working for you.”
Her eyes rounded. “No pressure, right?” she muttered. “That’s a hell of a burden of hope they’re piling on my shoulders.”
“I have been talking to them. I promise you, nobody will expect anything more than you can give.” He brushed at her face lightly with the tips of his fingers, eyes burning. Then he leaned forward to kiss her with tautly controlled passion. His hand dropped to circle the base of her throat. I think this time you scared the immortality out of me.
I’m sorry, she said again.
He leaned his forehead against hers, and he said in her head so softly she barely heard him, Grace, you almost died. I don’t want to know what that’s like.
She didn’t need to say that she was going to die sooner or later while he wasn’t, because the fact hung over their heads like the sword of Damocles that dangled by a single hair. She stayed silent and stroked his face, her eyes closed, and absorbed the hot comfort of his presence.
But because the Oracle’s moon could be a freaky bitch too, it didn’t care if there were only so many epiphanies a girl could take at a time. The endless day wasn’t done with her yet, as the dark sea took her again, the riptide filled with beginnings and endings, all potential futures and the past.
This time the vision that took her was sharp as a blade’s edge, and she saw that the real sword hanging over their head was not her mortality, but something else entirely. Image upon image of possible futures bombarded her. She flinched back with a gasp.
Khalil grabbed her shoulders. His touch snapped her back into the here and now. He studied her with a sharp concern. “What’s wrong? You’ve gone completely white.”