Bad Luck Genie: An Urban Fantasy Folly Read online

  “Do you still have a human family?” I tossed the empty bottle and opened a new one.

  “Yeah. Pops is still alive.”

  Mom slid Mal an unreadable look. “So you’re pretty young, aren’t you?”

  “For a djinni.” Mal stretched and pinned me with his eyes. “Okay, you’ve wasted enough time. Let’s get back on track for tomorrow.”

  I swallowed a groan. I should’ve known trying to sidetrack him wouldn’t work for long.

  “Shifting to smoke is a natural part of your body.” Mom stood and touched the stopper to my bottle. “What did it feel like when you left or returned to your bottle? Thinking about that could help you shift easier.”

  I took a long gulp, not wanting to discuss it, but maybe she was right. Maybe I needed to keep reliving that moment so I could do something to help them. Otherwise, I’d be a hindrance. And I couldn’t do that anymore.

  “Ugh, I wish I could go back in time and never meet Reese.” I took apart the shaggy braid my hair was in. “Then we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

  “That kind of power requires being bottled, honeybee,” Mom said sadly.

  Mal shook his head, set his beer aside, and rose. “Take my hand. I’ll shift to smoke. Since I forced the change on you in the cave, I can do it again.”

  “Looks like that djinni silk is coming in handy,” she muttered.

  “Yeah, Mom, it’s not as awesome as it seems.” I gripped Mal’s hand and met his gaze. “Do your thing.”

  Mal shifted into a churning twist of green and tan smoke as tall as him. My hand grew numb, and tingles spread up my arm and into my chest. It grew painful. I could stop it; I felt how to do it. But my arm was disappearing in his smoke. I yanked away.

  Mom crossed her arms. “Honeybee, you’ve got to try.”

  Mal solidified and clapped my shoulder. “It only hurts because you’re resisting.”

  Yeah, because it hurt.

  His brows furrowed. “Did it hurt in the cave when I carried you in smoke?”

  Mom’s eyes narrowed at the djinni silk, then at us.

  “No, but I’m watching my hand disappear, and it prickles, like I’m gonna get shocked to death unless I let go.”

  “Close your eyes.” His cheek dimpled. “Let’s try again.”

  We did. My hair lifted off my neck. I peeked an eye open. I was in a whirlwind of not-quite-navy smoke. Green and tan smoke twirled together, melding with my own. I laughed, wind rushed into my lungs, and I choked. The smoke ripped away from me. I sucked in air, but hot damn. I’d done it. I grinned at them.

  “Good job, Luce!” Mal high-fived me. “Let’s try again, but I’ll let go this time. Oh, I don’t recommend opening your mouth as smoke.”

  We held hands and shifted to smoke. He let go of me, and I fell out of smoke. Each time we shifted to smoke and he released my hand, my twister churned around me longer and longer. Like wrapping a smoky blanket around my shoulders, I held on. The sensation didn’t stress my body, but I had to solely concentrate on remaining as a twister. I let go of the smoke, breathless and excited. I could do this. Mal smiled at me, and it felt so good not to let him down.

  “I like the shade of your smoke, honeybee.” Mom rubbed her temple, and I wondered if she had a headache from the pistol-whipping earlier. “See if you can shift without him holding your hand.”

  I tried, I really did. Picturing myself surrounded in smoke made my lungs constrict, even if I clenched my eyes closed. My head began to throb.

  “You’ve almost got it,” she said, a smile in her voice. “You’re doing great.”

  Mal laced his fingers with mine, and I felt the change take me. The sound of the wind in my ears wasn’t as awful as it had been the first time, and my heart felt calm. I pulled away and concentrated on the feeling. It didn’t feel like my head was going to explode any time soon, so that was a plus. But was transforming into a twister natural? A part of me said yes, and I guessed that was all I needed for now. There were two sides to every coin, and one day, I’d learn how to use magic without causing a disaster. The smoke dissipated from my body.

  I flopped onto the bed. “I don’t want to sound like I’m fighting my djinni nature, but I’m worn out and all this cider is making me sleepy.”

  Mom yawned. “A good night’s sleep will make this easier for you.”

  A clear, corked bottle appeared in Mal’s hands and he set it next to mine on the dresser. “Things will be easier tomorrow, even if I have to help you shift. I’m gonna get some rest, too.”

  He puffed into a twist of camouflage smoke, and flowed into his bottle. The djinni silk strained like we’d reached the limit of how far we could be apart, but it didn’t hurt.

  Fingers combed through my hair, and I opened my eyes at Mom watching me with a faraway expression on her face. “What’s wrong?”

  “I just feel like I missed out, is all.” She kissed my forehead. “Get some sleep, honeybee.”

  I pulled back the covers, kicked off my shoes, and climbed into bed. Nothing could be as crazy as today was, and tomorrow didn’t sound so scary anymore now that I could pull some of my weight.

  Chapter 18

  Inside a dingy slot machine gas station in Keystone, Lucy hesitated before the door leading to Gamblers’ Road. Penny and I had helped her shift to smoke, so it’d be easier on me. I’d have to carry her eventually. Being fresh to traveling as smoke, she wouldn’t have the stamina to do the entire distance. But if she could put in some time, it’d make the trip to Manila faster. We only had two nights left.

  “Just remember, it’s a natural part of your body,” Penny said.

  I understood why Lucy was doubtful. While she’d accepted she was a djinni—getting shackled had a way with that—she still didn’t think it was normal.

  I dropped a hand on her shoulder and met her pale blue eyes. “Imagining you were surrounded in smoke helped last night, right?”

  Lucy nodded. “I’m just nervous. I’m not as fast as you or Mom.” I might get us all killed.

  I scanned around us, making sure hovering beside a slot machine wasn’t drawing attention. The store clerk remained busy with a customer. I gripped her shoulders and pitched my voice low. “It’s a risk taking Gamblers’ Road so soon after the auction, but Penny and I prepared clips with gold bullets from my bottle. Neither of us will run out any time soon.”

  “We’ll cover you, honeybee.” Penny sidled closer. “You just focus on traveling.”

  At least gold bullets will stop those goons if we come across them again. Lucy rubbed her arms, and I caught a faint whiff of flowers. She gripped the straps to the backpack I’d loaned her for her bottle and nodded. “I’m so nervous I could puke. Okay. Open the door.”

  I opened the side panel to the slot machine. Instead of gambling mechanisms inside, it was a gateway to a long stretch of a neon pink and magenta road. Lucy’s eyes widened at the sight. Penny glanced around, stooped, and shifted to money-green smoke as she crept through.

  Lucy crouched and screwed her eyes shut, her forehead wrinkling in concentration. I’m smoke. I’m smoke…

  The clerk peered at us.

  “You’ve got this, Luce.” I sidestepped in front of her and called on my blending powers. The clerk returned his attention to the gas pumps outside.

  Luce softly hummed the “Dust in the Wind” chorus in her head.

  A heady mixture of spring and summer flowers permeated the road stop. I checked over my shoulder in time to see a pillar of not-quite-navy smoke slide inside the slot machine. My ears became plugged along with hers—we should’ve bought gum. Our bond strained between us. We had nearly a mile-long length of silk. Even though she was only a few feet from me, she was in another realm, and it stressed the silk. I couldn’t wait to ensure the clerk wouldn’t notice. I shifted in a swirl of green and beige and billowed into Gamblers’ Road.

  Doors to all kinds of betting vices stretched before us along Gamblers’ Road. Penny zipped ahead. She’d scout and circle bac
k, then I’d take the lead. We’d planned to trade off like this while Luce concentrated on traveling as smoke. She moved like a drunk djinni, ping-ponging against electric blue rails.

  We moved at a sedate pace for smoke. Penny and I boomeranged back and forth, checking the path ahead of us. Someone was always with Lucy, whose weaving became less erratic. The chimes, clatter of dice, the rattle of shuffling cards, and bawdy laughter coming from behind the doors leading into casinos were louder—or perhaps I only noticed them because the wind wasn’t rushing through my ears.

  In the Lantern, the djinni silk bond stood out like a dark tripwire between us. My gut tightened painfully, and the moment of trapping Luce with my body replayed in my head. The feelings coming off her last night had been potent. I hadn’t known they were influencing me so heavily until Penny walked in on us, and I woke from a daze of pinning her against the wall. And I still hadn’t wanted to stop. I would’ve kissed her, taken it further and further until neither of us could recover, and I wasn’t even sure if I felt that way about her. I wasn’t sure if I was attracted to her or if it was her attraction to me that made me behave like that.

  Lucy, while certainly cute, wasn’t my usual type—I was drawn to runners, especially blondes. Yet whenever she had a moment, my thoughts were focused on me and how I make her feel. If our bond had fully formed instead of a one-way link, would I still feel like this, or would it have evened everything out? I needed to be careful and straightforward with her, otherwise, I’d hurt her more if I gave in to emotions that didn’t belong to me.

  I’m doing it! I’m really traveling like a djinni. This isn’t so bad at all.

  Excitement brushed against me on all levels through our bond. Here in the Lantern, her emotions weren’t so much more basic as merely easier to define. She was using magic willingly, and it wasn’t hurting anyone. The road enthralled and confused her, and the more her worry abated, the quicker she swirled. She still weaved like an inebriated djinni, but she held her own. My smoke billowed larger, brushing against hers. We’d get through this.

  We slipped through a sub-section of Gamblers’ Road into Nebraska’s betting grounds. The moment Lucy’s smoke crossed, the neon lights flared alarm red and pulsed. She tumbled out of smoke to her knees. Oh no! Was she hurt? But I didn’t feel anything. I blew out and crouched beside her. Penny zipped back to us, the smoke cascading from her.

  “Someone linked Lucy to an alarm.” Penny pulled her gun and checked the clip.

  “The Pit Boss probably charmed an alert to her bottle. He was… intense over what he could make from her auction.” I straightened and offered Luce a hand up. “You okay to keep moving?”

  “The Pit Boss?” The color drained from Lucy’s face, and she clutched the djinni silk to her chest like a security blanket. “He’s gonna bottle me, isn’t he?”

  “He can smoking try,” I growled.

  Penny curled her lip. “We’ve got company.”

  I looked down the road. Twists of gold, red, and purple smoke charged for us. Fear spiked through the bond. Everything in the Lantern was more visceral than the Iron Realm. I only wanted to soothe her, so I wrapped her in my arms.

  “Don’t worry, Luce,” I whispered. “We’ll protect you.”

  “We gotta make tracks.” Penny smacked my arm. “Get her going. I’ll slow them down.”

  I gathered her closer and shifted to smoke. We didn’t have the time to sing a song first, and I could carry her until she calmed down enough to shift on her own. I zipped past the oncoming twists of smoke. Maybe it was our bond, but I’d never been able to carry another djinni before.

  Shots rang out behind us. Right as I was about to set Luce down, she became smoke. I propelled her ahead of me. She hadn’t fully shifted, so I could make out the outline of her body, but she still was faster as half-smoke. I ripped the smoke from myself. Penny faced down the Pit Boss, the Curator, and a couple of djinnis.

  I yanked my gun free, thumbed the safety off, and fired. That got their attention. Penny shifted to money-green smoke and raced past me. The Pit Boss and the Curator drew their own guns. I fired again, striking one henchman in the foot, who yowled. Now they knew we had gold.

  The silk bond strained. I couldn’t stand off for much longer. I shifted to smoke and zigzagged back to Luce and Penny. As I raced by, I grabbed our djinni silk and tugged Luce closer, pushing her before me.

  Gunshots sounded behind us. Worry spiked through the silk. I wished I could soothe her, but talking and smoking at the same time were difficult no matter how experienced a djinni was. Bullets pounded into the pulsing red road beside us, breaking the static color. The bottom of my stomach dropped out. They had gold ammunition, too.

  Penny flanked Luce. I reluctantly released the silk, blew out my smoke, and whirled. The Pit Boss and the Curator barreled toward us. They broke smoke. I wasn’t sanctioned to kill them, so I aimed for the ground at their feet. Bang! Bang! They danced backward.

  “Just give us mastery over the djinni, lightlighter, and I’ll forget you spoiled my auction,” the Curator called.

  “We can work something out.” The Pit Boss lowered his gun. “What are you wishing for?”

  “I wished for her to have freewill.” I fired into the road near his shoes.

  “You wished a djinni freewill?” the Pit Boss roared. “You idiot!”

  He lifted his gun, and my heart raced. I puffed to smoke and high-tailed it back to Lucy. A bullet whizzed through my smoke, and I crashed to the pulsing red road. He might’ve missed me, but gold dissipated djinni smoke faster than a stiff wind.

  I scrambled to my feet. Penny raced around me, materialized, and fired at the Pit Boss. I ran toward Luce. Her twister was too fast for me to keep up. I called for my smoke, but it was out of reach. Smoke and mirrors, gold always screwed with timing like that.

  Spinning around, I emptied my clip. My aim was awful, but accuracy hadn’t been my point. I needed them to scatter to buy time for my smoke to return. Penny billowed past me in a green cloud. I yanked another clip from my belt, reloaded my gun, and racked a round.

  Something was wrong. The minor close contact I had with the magazine didn’t feel like I was playing with fire. I checked the bullet in the chamber. Brass jackets. Shit! I’d loaded five magazines with gold bullets last night. I’d used kid gloves to keep the burns minor and my fingertips still stung. How had I clipped the wrong magazines to my belt this morning? I needed to summon my bottle and switch out, but Lucy didn’t have that time. Her bad luck must think this was hysterical. The djinni silk strained. Luce and Penny had crossed into Colorado.

  Hoping the Pit Boss and the Curator would assume the brass jackets were gold, I fired into the road around them. They retreated. I called for my smoke. It swirled around me in tans and greens, and my legs loosened. Thank the glass. I raced for Luce. Once I crossed the border, the road returned to pink and magenta, but the walls flashed red and orange.

  Penny materialized and aimed behind us. I kept pace with Lucy as we passed her. Shots fired. Bullets plugged the walls, disrupting the warning flashes. It surprised me we hadn’t been hit yet. I hoped she didn’t have the same thoughts, though right now she concentrated solely on staying smoke. I liked her one-track mind.

  We zipped diagonally across Colorado toward Arizona. Penny and I yo-yoed back and forth between Lucy, firing uselessly at the Pit Boss and the Curator. The shooting range never felt this crazy. Adrenaline made me shaky, and my aim was off. I assumed Penny had relied heavily on having Frankie Avalon’s legendary good luck and wasn’t a great shot to begin with.

  I skirted Lucy farther south, away from Nevada. The Pit Boss had major backup there, and we’d be toast if we let one smoke curl drift into that gambling den state. We diverted to the southern point of Nevada and made a beeline for San Diego. Penny pushed around me and Luce. I fell back and blew away my smoke, aiming at the Pit Boss and the Curator.

  They didn’t hesitate. They must’ve realized I had brass jacket bullets instea
d of gold plated. We were so close to California and out of the lower forty-eight—the Pit Boss’s territory—I could almost taste the salty Pacific Ocean. We didn’t have time to stall—Sigvald was closer to gaining unlimited power every second that ticked by.

  “Give it up,” the Pit Boss said. “You don’t have the power to outrun me, lightlighter.”

  “I’ve got power in reserve.” I fired at their feet again.

  They didn’t shrink away.

  The Curator curled a lip. “You’ve got balls, but no gold.”

  “And your henchmen are missing.” Sweat trickled down my temple. “Get hit with gold?”

  Ice-cold fear stabbed through our bond. There was a struggle behind me. I could hear grunts and growls, but I didn’t dare take my eyes off the Pit Boss or the Curator.

  “Mal!” Luce cried. The shuddering of her body vibrated through our djinni silk.

  My heart sank. Traveling this close to Nevada had been a bad idea. The Pit Boss had called in reinforcements. We should’ve dipped into Mexico, but that was another can of worms we didn’t want to open. I checked over my shoulder. A green-skinned djinni had Lucy in a headlock while another grappled with Penny. Her gun dropped to the road and skittered out of reach.

  “All three of you will make a good contribution to my client.” The Curator retrieved what looked like an RPG and hefted it in his silk-gloved hands. “Having extra djinnis should make up for the delivery delay.”

  Smoke and mirrors, they have a shackles launcher! Adrenaline surged through me as I took a step backwards. I summoned my bottle, searching for the gold bullet magazines. Sweat trickled down my back. I only had brass.

  Penny spat. “No one can be a master to more than one bottle at a time.”

  The Pit Boss snorted and flicked his eyes at the Curator. “Don’t draw this out. Orpheus is upset enough.”