“You should probably get out of here before things get ugly,” Raffe said, turning to me with a sad expression. Every few seconds, the muscles in his face twitched, revealing the changeling version of himself that lurked beneath. He was losing the fight. Pretty soon, he wouldn’t be able to hold back the swell of his foul mood, the snap of his patience giving the djinn the gateway it needed to jump through.
I’d been fascinated by Raffe’s Jekyll-and-Hyde disorder ever since I’d come to the coven, though I hadn’t fully understood it at first. I knew about djinns, but I’d never actually seen one attached to a person before. Not everyone knew about his condition—Harley was still in the dark, I suspected—and he didn’t like to let a lot of people know, but he’d confided in me. That trust meant a lot.
“Please, Santana, you should go.” He was fighting hard, sweat pouring down his face. Grasping for the key on the chain around his neck, he jammed it into the padlock on the glass box and opened the door. As soon as it was open, he hurried over to a small table at the far side of the room. He took off the key and chain and dropped them in a bowl, before pressing a button on the wall. It glowed red, piquing my curiosity.
“What does that do?” I wondered.
“It alerts Tobe to my state,” he replied rapidly. “He’ll come and let me out in a few hours.”
“Are you kidding? You do this on your own?” My stomach twisted in knots for him, having to deal with all of this by himself. A steely resolve settled in my mind.
“I have to. Besides, I prefer it this way.”
I shook my head. “Well, I’m not leaving you on your own. I’ll stay and keep you company.”
“Santana, you can’t,” he urged desperately. “I can’t keep the djinn under control for much longer. He’s about to manifest. You need to leave, now!”
“No, I’m staying. I’ll keep my distance, but I’m staying.”
“I don’t want you to see me like this.” He raced toward the glass box, stepped inside, and slammed the door behind him, the padlock locking automatically in place as soon as he was within the perimeter of the box. A moment later, a forcefield of some sort shot across the box, making it glow dimly. There was a small hole by the door, protected by the forcefield. I figured Raffe was meant to use it if the lock ever failed to close automatically. Until Tobe came to release him, Raffe was going nowhere. I could always let him out, but I guessed Tobe had more idea of when it was safe than I did.
“Raffe, I’m not worried about seeing that side of you. I saw the djinn when the gargoyles took over Balboa Park; it’s not exactly new to me,” I replied, putting on a show of confidence. He needed it right now. “Honestly, I don’t care if you want me to go. I’m not leaving you. You’ll be better off with some neutral company while Hyde has his moment, instead of pacing about on your own like a depressed zoo animal, with only him for company.”
He looked at me with glittering eyes that were slowly turning redder. “Please go.”
“Not happening.”
“You’re so stubborn,” he muttered.
“That’s what you love about me.”
He smiled shyly. “Not in this particular situation, I don’t.”
“Tough. You’re going to have to get used to it.” I pressed my hand to the glass and smiled as he raised his palm to meet mine. I couldn’t feel him, but it was close enough. He knew he had me here for moral support.
“Fine… but don’t take anything the djinn says seriously,” he warned. “He tends to get a little vicious after my dad and I have a fight. Please, remember that it isn’t me. He might look like me, but he isn’t me.”
His words sent a chill of unease through me. Not that I was going to show it. Demons and spirits and djinns and ghouls didn’t scare me… I just had to keep reminding myself of that.
“Okay, okay, I won’t hold anything against you,” I relented.
“Oh, but I wish you would.” Raffe cackled as he slammed his hand against the glass, grimacing. I stepped away from the box, startled by the sudden change. “I’d like nothing more than to hold you against me, before stripping the flesh from your bones, piece by delicious piece.”
He hurled himself at the glass, the violent impact shuddering through the ground toward me. Staggering back, he grinned a nasty grin. Every feature of Raffe’s face looked wrong and unfamiliar.
“You don’t frighten me… djinn.” I shrugged off my initial fear, knowing the glass box would hold him.
“Want to see a cool trick?” he purred.
I frowned at him. “Not really.”
“You demanded to stay here. I have to keep you entertained.” He laughed coldly, the sound echoing as though it was coming from somewhere other than his mouth. It was similar to the way my Orishas sounded when they spoke through me. I guessed it was the same kind of deal.
His skin rippled, pockets of flesh bunching and swirling as though he had a snake trapped beneath the surface. It took every ounce of willpower I had not to throw up my lunch. A moment later, his entire body set alight, flames licking from his toes to the top of his skull, turning every inch of his skin an alarming shade of crimson. Fire burned behind his eyes.
“Very impressive,” I choked, hoping the real Raffe was okay in there. Weirdly, no smoke filled the glass box, the flames burning clean.
“I’m not done yet,” he growled. Heaving in an enormous breath that made the glass walls shake, he exhaled a violent gust of wind that extinguished the flames. Black smoke billowed around his red-tinged body, clinging to him like a magnet, before swirling upward and disappearing into thin air. Hunkering down, he tilted his twisted face skyward and let out a spine-chilling roar. It shivered through every nerve in my body, setting the Orishas on edge. They didn’t like being so close to a creature like this. I could feel them wanting to rush to my aid, and it was taking a hell of a lot of energy to keep them at bay.
Through a few of the gaps in his clothes, where the heat of his body had burned holes in the fabric, I could see some of the taut muscle underneath. My throat tightened, my eyes widening in appreciation. He might’ve been a demon, but the body was all Raffe’s. If a little on the scarlet side.
“Like I said, impressive.” The body, too. Dios mio, that’s nice!
He grinned, returning to his smokeless form. “I thought you’d like that. Besides, I needed to stretch out these pathetic limbs. Everything is wound up so tight,” he murmured, shaking his body like a wet dog. “Tell me, sugar-lips, do you have any idea what kind of self-discipline it takes not to punch Daddio in the jaw when he’s acting like a total asshat?”
“I can imagine.”
He laughed, the sound sending a shudder through me. “I could devour you whole, do you know that? I bet your skin tastes of spice and caramel, seasoned with the baking heat of the Mexican sun.” His eyes rolled back into his head as he licked his lips, a smirk twisting up the corner of his mouth.
I stared at him in complete shock. I’d only ever seen the djinn from a distance, like the day Raffe let the monster loose so he could round up all the gargoyles in Balboa Park. This was a different ballgame entirely, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. The way he spoke to me… that wasn’t Raffe at all. I might’ve wanted Raffe to be a little more forthcoming with a much-needed bit of flirtation, to let me know he freaking liked me, but this wasn’t what I meant. This was, for lack of a better word, horrifying.
Everything I knew about the guy I adored, and everything standing before me… I couldn’t bridge the gap between them. I couldn’t make sense of it. This monster was wearing Raffe’s skin, this monster inhabited Raffe’s body, this monster was part and parcel of who Raffe was, but this wasn’t him.
In that moment, for the first time in my life, I wanted to run away from something. I wanted to get as far away as humanly possible so I wouldn’t have to hear another voice slithering out of Raffe’s mouth.
Come back to me, Raffe, I pleaded. Come back to me.
Seven
Harley
Lying on the bed in Astrid’s room, I skimmed the emails Jacob had sent me. A few words from this place and that place, letting me know he was okay. Never too much information, never too specific, but enough to keep me from going out of my mind with worry. Wherever the two of them were, Isadora and Jacob had each other. They were safe… for now.
Yeah, until you bring them back out into the open, where they’re vulnerable and exposed.
I shook off the dark thoughts, knowing my personal feelings were getting in the way. This was for the kids and the coven. A calculated risk, for the greater good.
“Any luck?” Tatyana asked from the corner of Astrid’s room. She flipped absently through a textbook on the Children of Chaos, looking for anything that might relate to Katherine Shipton’s insane plan to become one.
“I keep running the emails through this program of yours, Astrid, but every single one is bouncing through a million different servers and VPNs,” I replied miserably. “Isadora’s phenomenally good at this. I guess being on the run for years gives you a lot of practice in covering your tracks.”
Astrid nodded. “I had a feeling it might be a fruitless task. Looks like Isadora can jump through space, time, and the internet.”
I chuckled. “Annoying in this scenario, but oddly comforting.”
“Are you having second thoughts about Alton’s request?” Tatyana asked.
“Not so much second thoughts as panic-inducing worry that Katherine is waiting for me to sniff them out so she can swoop in and snatch them.”
“They’ll be safe in the coven,” Astrid reassured me. “We’ve got all these extra people guarding just about everything, and everyone is on super-high alert. It’s probably the safest place for them, aside from where they are right now.”
I pulled a face. “See, it’s that last part that gets to me. They’re already safe, but we need their skills. They’ll have to put themselves at enormous risk for a coven they don’t even belong to. I’d like to think they’re that selfless, but we’ll have to wait and see.” I rolled onto my back and stared up at the glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to Astrid’s ceiling. “Besides, the coven isn’t safe anymore. There’s a mole in our midst, and we have no idea who it might be.”