Awoken

Chapter 2-2

Even as he noted her beauty, however, Hasan also realized that her cleanliness left something to be desired. The long hair could use a washing — as could the rest of her, judging by the faint odor of perspiration that clung to her clothing.

“I am going to get up now,” he said. “Do not attempt to flee.”

Her mouth twisted. “I think you’ve already proved that running away really isn’t an option.”

“No, it is not,” he agreed, and pushed himself up to a standing position.

A moment later, she rose as well, brushing at the grass that clung to the knees of her jeans. Now they were badly stained, a detail that didn’t escape her, because he could see the way she frowned as she took in the damage to her trousers. She shot a wary look at him up through her thick lashes, then asked, “So what now?”

“Now, you come back to the house. And bathe,” he added. “You’re filthy.”

Traces of pink tinged her cheekbones. “Sorry if I offend,” she retorted. “Most people aren’t exactly at their best after being on the run in the wilderness for days.”

He wondered how long she had been running…and what had precipitated her flight in the first place. From the way her mouth had tightened — wounded pride, or fear, or a combination of the two? — he could tell this was not the best occasion to ask. He would wait, then inquire at a more opportune time.

If she had any secrets, she would not keep them from him for long.

Just six inches to the right, Jordan thought bitterly as she followed the djinn back to the house. Just six inches, and I would have gotten him in the heart. I doubt even a djinn could have bounced back so quickly from that kind of wound.

As it was, she’d hit him in the arm, and although he’d wrapped some of the silk of his robe around the affected area, he certainly looked none the worse for wear. She supposed she should be glad he hadn’t snapped her neck in retaliation. He certainly had the opportunity…and the justification.

In grim silence, she let him lead her back into the house, and then up the stairs to one of the rooms she hadn’t explored yet, clearly a secondary bedroom, not as large as the one he’d taken as his own. However, it had its own en suite bath, making it more private than the other two bedrooms upstairs, which had to share a bathroom.

“You will use this room,” said the djinn.

If she’d found this house on her own, she would have been thrilled to find someplace so comfortable to crash. The bedroom had a queen-sized bed and a spectacular view of the mountains. However, since the djinn obviously expected to use the room as a makeshift prison cell, Jordan found herself less than thrilled by the accommodations.

“I need my backpack,” she said. “My spare clothes are in there.”

“You have no need of that,” he returned, not blinking. “I will provide something.”

“But — ”

“You will bathe, and you will remain in this room. Don’t bother trying to escape. I will sense you, human, wherever you go on my lands. Do you understand?”

All Jordan could do was offer a sullen nod. Where did he think she would go — out the bathroom window?

Actually, if he hadn’t already proven that he was more than capable of catching up to her, she might have considered squeezing herself out the window and somehow making her way down to the ground. But she had a feeling such an attempt would be beyond futile.

“I will be back to check on you,” he offered as a final warning, then went out into the upstairs hall and closed the door behind him.

Because she had to prove to herself that she truly was trapped in here, Jordan went to the door and tested the knob. Sure enough, it didn’t budge, even though it looked like a typical interior doorknob and therefore didn’t even have a lock.

Some kind of djinn trick, apparently. She frowned and went into the bathroom, turned the taps in the shower. At once water shot forth from the showerhead, strong and gloriously warm.

As horrible as the situation was, Jordan couldn’t help feeling a rush of anticipation at the thought of a hot shower. She closed the bathroom door and locked it, then quickly climbed out of her dirty clothes and got in the shower enclosure, let the water beat down on her head. Oh, the feeling of having all those weary miles washed away, of getting truly clean for the first time in God knows how long. In Pagosa, they’d used the hot springs to bathe in the summertime, and queued for five-minute showers at the houses that had solar water heaters during the winter, but it had never really felt like enough.

Where was all this water coming from, though? Did the djinn’s house have a well? Probably, just as it most likely had a solar water heater to supplement the huge solar panel that provided the electricity here. Whoever had owned this house clearly had been into off-grid living.

They also believed in high-end toiletries, since the shampoo and conditioner that sat on the shelf in the shower enclosure were an expensive brand that Jordan couldn’t have afforded back before the Dying had forever changed the landscape of the future. She washed her hair twice, let the conditioner do its magic while she soaped the rest of herself, used the razor to get the scruff off her legs and away from her underarms. By the time she was done, she felt like an actual human being and would have been almost optimistic about the future — if it weren’t for the djinn who waited for her downstairs.

Jordan got out of the shower and wrapped one towel around herself and one around her hair. A quick survey of the cupboards didn’t turn up a hair dryer, but she did locate some moisturizer and some serum for her hair. It should dry just fine on its own anyway, since it was fairly straight and didn’t tend to frizz.

You’re trapped here by a djinn and you’re worried about your hair frizzing? she asked herself as she hung up the towel she’d used to blot her hair to near-dryness. I think you need to reexamine your priorities.

Actually, she knew her priorities were just fine. Right now, she was only trying to distract herself by focusing on trivialities. To have survived this long, to have escaped not one, but two djinn attacks, only to walk right into a house owned by one of those bloodthirsty supernatural beings…well, she could only conclude that the universe had a fine sense of humor.

She kept the other towel wrapped around her as she went out into the bedroom. The djinn had said he would provide clothing, but he could have been lying. He might have told her that just to see if she’d walk out of the bathroom stark naked.

No, that was crazy. Djinn might look like humans — extremely perfect humans — but the ones she’d encountered sure as hell didn’t have s*x on their minds. Murder, yes.

The bedroom was empty. Or rather, the djinn wasn’t there, but the clothes he’d promised her lay on the bed. Jeans identical to the Levi’s she wore, only clean and dark and new-looking. A dark green cotton top, a sort of Indian-looking garment with embroidery around the neckline. Black leather flats. It was the sort of ensemble she might have worn to class back at college, or for a casual Friday night. How the hell the djinn had come up with it, she had no idea.

And there was also a stack of women’s panties, lace and satin, and several matching bras in various colors. Jordan wondered where the hell the djinn had gotten the lingerie — until she went closer and picked up a pair of pale blue bikini underpants, and saw the Victoria’s Secret tag still attached. So, what…had he simply snapped his fingers and summoned these things here from the closest abandoned mall? Wasn’t that the sort of thing genies were supposed to do? She didn’t know a lot about the djinn, because communications with the Los Alamos group had been cut off before much information was exchanged, but she’d learned enough to know that djinn were basically the same thing as the genies from folklore and fairytales.

Jordan had to admit, however, that the djinn who’d captured her was a lot better-looking than the Mr. Clean type of genie you usually saw in cartoons and illustrations.

Then she wanted to mentally beat herself up for harboring such a thought. What difference did it make whether he looked like a Greek god? He was evil, just like all the other djinn.

Once she was done getting dressed, she slipped into the flats the djinn had provided —which fit perfectly, as did the rest of the clothes; she didn’t quite know what to make of that — and then finger-combed her hair one last time. She hadn’t worn any makeup except lip balm for the past two years, so it wasn’t as though she precisely missed it, although she guessed the outfit would look better with a face that was a bit more polished. Like it mattered. Even back before the Dying, she’d only bothered with anything more than mascara and clear lip gloss when she had to go to work at the bar and grill.

Now what? The djinn had said he would be back to check on her, but when Jordan put her ear to the door and listened as hard as she could, she didn’t hear anything. Maybe he’d only said that to put her on edge. She didn’t have too much trouble imagining one of the evil elementals engaging in those kinds of mind games.

Fine. The last thing she wanted was for him to appear just as she was attempting to listen at the door, so she stepped away and went over to the window seat, where she sat down and stared out at the view, trying her best not to be scared out of her wits. She hugged her arms to herself, suddenly cold, although the room was warm enough, the sunlight slanting through the windows helping to make it comfortable. If anything, the place felt a bit stuffy. No point in trying to open the window, however. She had a feeling the djinn would be up here in a heartbeat if she tried anything that remotely resembled an escape attempt, and at the moment she was feeling too shaky to attempt anything drastic.

What did he intend to do with her? Surely it would have been easier for him to kill her outright rather than make her his prisoner. But if he wanted her dead, why bother with the shower and the clean clothes? So she could make a better-looking corpse? From what she’d seen of djinn on the attack, they weren’t too worried about the damage they caused, as long as all the humans in their immediate vicinity ended up dead.

Those memories only increased the chill in her body. A harsh shiver went through her, and she wrapped her arms even more tightly around herself, wishing she could somehow do over this afternoon, could go back in time and tell herself to stay far, far away from the big house and its falsely welcoming porch. How could she have been so stupid?

No matter what the djinn had said, Jordan couldn’t help thinking that her foolishness would surely cost her life.