When he would have passed the door to his room to escort her to her own, the next door down the hallway, Alessandra stopped, pulling at his arm.
"No." She told him. "No, we are not ending this wonderful day like this." 
She felt a fierce determination sweep through her as he turned to face her, the deepened blue of his eyes revealing his frame of mind. His sadness was there to be read, the frustration and anguish, but even worse, the resignation, the defeat in his slumped shoulders. She thumped her hand on his chest.
"You're inviting me in, and then you're going to call Jacinth."
Those mobile brows flew up, both of them this time, and a reluctant smile tugged at his lips. "I am, am I?"
"Yes." She nodded, and raised up on tiptoe to kiss him softly. "You are. And then you can twinkle up some of that marvelous champagne and more strawberries, and we're going to celebrate some more."
He slid his card into the slot on the door, pushing it open and turning to her. "Would you care to enter?" he inquired gravely, the faintest suggestion of a twinkle in his eyes.
"Yes, thank you," she responded with suitable gravity, passing him to step into the long, narrow living room area of his suite. It was a match to hers, the long room opening onto a curtained door to a balcony opposite the door. A long comfortable sofa was against the right wall, facing a long counter holding a massive flat-screen television on the opposite wall. To one side, a wide doorway opened from into a spacious bedroom. 
"This is just like mine. Really, just a room in the Marriott was enough," she commented, looking around with appreciation. "You didn't have to get me a suite also."
"I wanted to." He came to her, taking her face between his hands, looking at her with such longing that her heart seemed to turn over in her chest. "You deserve it, and so much more."
"Oh, Julian!" Her heart broke all over again for him, for them both. She drew back a little, giving him a minatory frown. "Now. Do whatever you do to call Jacinth."
He turned his head, looking toward the counter that supported the television. She followed his glance, and saw the perfume bottle, placed by her in a safe place on the shelving unit in her living room, pop into view. He went to it, cupping both hands about it, his eyes closing.
A moment later there was a tingle of frisson in the air, and Jacinth appeared before them looking, Alessandra was interested to see, perfectly normal in a pair of faded jeans, a neat white blouse, crisply ironed, and sneakers. She seemed pleased to see Alessandra, but her face darkened as Julian explained, in brief sentences, what had occurred. It was easy to see the indignation in the flash of her usually gentle brown eyes, and the soft mouth tightened in anger.
"This is not right, Julian. But this is beyond me," she said. 
As Julian had, she closed her eyes, her face tilting upward.
Having experienced Jacinth's cheerful nonsense, nothing prepared her for the Being that materialized before them. Alessandra took an involuntary step backward, one hand going to her throat as her heart pounded. Beside her, she was aware of Julian straightening, coming to alert attention. 
He was a tall, erect figure, dressed all in black, a sumptuous velvet tunic embroidered with some strange design in silver thread. Long hair of purest, gleaming white streamed down his back, straight and smooth. It was pulled back at the temples, tucked behind pointed ears that swept upward. Piercing eyes of glacial blue studied them from under dark brows set in a pale, narrow face. About his neck was a silver chain, with glowing sapphires woven into the ornate scroll work. The color of the stones was reflected in the Djinn's eyes, but the jewels burned with an internal fire, while the eyes were as cold as ice. He seemed almost carved from stone, so cold and still he was, only his eyes, a pale, dangerous blue, seeming alive as they flickered from face to face.
Alessandra’s hand tightened on Julian’s convulsively, and he gave her fingers a reassuring squeeze. He bent his head before the Djinn.
"Amri. Thank you for coming.”
Not by a blink did the Djinn acknowledge the thanks, his attention turning to Alessandra. She felt herself identified, and weighed, by the ageless knowledge in those ancient eyes. He looked again to Julian.
"Why am I called?"
"We were at the Washington Mall and encountered my former Sahiba."
Not a single muscle twitched in the Djinn's face, nor did his gaze for one instant change. The silence drew out a long moment.
"Show me."
Bewildered, Alessandra looked questioningly at Julian, but his expression reflected her own puzzlement. Beyond him, she saw Jacinth's eyes widen just a fraction. 
"I am aware of the facts surrounding the woman's last two wishes." The Djinn made a very brief gesture toward Jacinth, who nodded, her expression solemn. "I give you the ability to show me that occurrence."
The tall Djinn stepped forward, pressing the palm of his hand to Julian's forehead a moment, then let his hand fall. The expression on Julian's face was mingled surprise, respect, and something bordering on awe as he regarded the taller man. 
Julian lifted his hands slowly, holding them cupped before him. Above his palms appeared a flickering sphere, about the size, Alessandra estimated, of a cantaloupe. Swirling mist seemed to fill the sphere. As they watched, slowly the mist cleared, fading away to reveal a hospital room with a bed by a large window. In it sat the woman that they had encountered earlier today, a swaddled newborn cradled in her right arm, her left hand clutching a familiar blown glass bottle, its purple tint accentuated by gold leaf trim. Beside the bed, motionless, stood Julian.
"I should have a trust fund for my son, he's going to grow up to be a doctor, and he'll need money for college." 
The Julian in the image was as immobile, his face as expressionless, as the tall Djinn in the room with them. "Your wish?"
"I wish for a million dollars," the woman told him. 
Julian bowed slightly from the waist. When he straightened, he extended one hand, a ticket held between his fingers. The woman gave it a look laden with suspicion. "What is that?"
"It is a winning lottery ticket."
Alessandra snuck a glance at the Djinn male watching, wondering if he noted what she did, that the woman laid down her son to take the ticket from Julian, rather than let go the bottle she held in such a tight grasp.
She saw the spectral Julian's shoulders tense, an infinitesimal movement, as his attention shifted, his gaze moving briefly to the window beyond the hospital bed. The window that, Alessandra knew, looked across the courtyard to the pediatrics wing, and the room where Bobby had lain. The woman's gaze followed his to the window. There was knowledge there, in the woman's eyes, and a kind of avid expression, like a... a vulture, Alessandra thought. She shuddered, and tore her gaze away, hiding her face against Julian's broad shoulder, unable to watch. She thought she might be physically ill if she kept watching. This wasn't about money, or wishes. This ... this was some kind of perverted need to control, maybe even, to give pain. Enjoying the pain she was causing.
Emotional vampire.
The words were there in her head, but she had not thought them. As she raised her head to look around wildly, she thought the tall Djinn's eyes touched her face, only for an instant, before returning his attention to Julian.
"And your final wish?" Julian's voice intoned, a slight echo to the words as they emanated from the sphere.
"I wish..." that hateful voice paused... drawing out the moment? "I wish for a diamond necklace, one that's really fancy, with lots of diamonds. And set in gold. Like the kind from one of those expensive places that the high society women go to."
Alessandra couldn't bear to watch, her face turning again into Julian's shoulder, but she felt the tension in him, his anguish as he relived those moments.
"Now today." The older Djinn's voice intruded, cool and expressionless as ice.
Alessandra had no need to watch the replay of that little scene either, but she lifted her head to study the Djinn man's face as he observed. Who was he? Someone important, clearly. Even Jacinth, who seemed perfectly comfortable in his company... which Julian was clearly not... kept her apparently natural exuberance to a minimum, her manner toward him friendly yet respectful. Like one might regard a tiger that lived in the same house. 
There was a brief gleam in the Djinn's eyes, almost humor, as if he were silently laughing, although his attention remained fixed on the scene playing out in the glowing orb that Julian held. Oh good lord, was he able to read her mind?
The scene ended with Julian's spell that hid them from the woman, and the mist returned to the sphere, swirling about it, and then both mist and sphere disappeared. Julian lowered his hands to his side. Silence filled the room in the hotel suite for a long moment, as if none dared to speak, all attention on the tall Djinn.
Finally the Djinn stirred. "This woman's behavior is unacceptable. She will be dealt with." He gave Julian a formal bow. "You need have no further fear of being accosted by this creature."
Jacinth's pretty features arranged themselves in a pout. "I didn't know we could do that... with the orb."
Those glacial eyes seemed to warm fractionally as they rested on Jacinth's piquant face. "We can't," he stated. "I can."
"There isn't anything you can do? For Julian, I mean?" Alessandra blurted out.
The Djinn's gaze swept past Julian, settling on Alessandra's face. She stood straight, returning his look, but her hand slid down to Julian's, feeling his reassurance in the squeeze of his fingers about hers. The Djinn's eyes bored into her, as if he could not only read her mind, but look straight into her soul. She realized she was holding her breath, and forced herself to breath. Then, incredibly, one corner of his mouth twitched in something that might almost be a smile, and he inclined his head to her in something very like respect.
"Two magics have combined, the magic of the Djinn and the magic of the Magi," he told her. "What has resulted is something that is both yet neither; a hybrid, if you will. To our knowledge, nothing like this has happened before. There is not much we Djinn can do, beyond offering guidance in regards to the rules and boundaries of our own kind."
Then he was gone. One moment he was there, one moment... not. Alessandra drew in a deep breath, only then realizing she'd forgotten to breathe again. Her knees were wobbly, threatening to give out on her, and she sank onto the sofa behind her.
Jacinth laughed softly. "Kieran does have that effect on people."
Alessandra leaned into Julian as he sat beside her, one arm coming about her waist to pull her close. 
"He scared me to death."
Jacinth dimpled. "Everyone is afraid of Kieran." She appeared very cheerful about it, as if it were a great compliment.
"You weren't."
Jacinth made herself comfortable, curling like a cat in an armchair near the balcony door. She pulled her long hair over one shoulder and, conjuring a hairbrush from nowhere, began to brush the heavy mane. "Of course not. But I have known Kieran since I was a baby. He was one of my mother's suitors."
"Wait!" Alessandra held up one hand. "Okay... just one thing at a time, alright? I'm on overload here. Who is he? You call him Kieran, but Julian called him something else... when he first arrived."
"He is a prince of the Djinn," Julian explained. "Amri means my prince, in Arabic."
Jacinth nodded solemnly. "Kieran is one of the oldest and most powerful of all Djinn. Also he is on the ruling council."
"Council?" Alessandra repeated weakly. She looked to Julian for confirmation. "Djinns have a council? Wait, don't answer. That goes on the list of questions, along with dogs and suitors."
Jacinth paused in her grooming of her hair, looking up with alert interest. "Dogs?"
"Never mind that for now. But about what happened, with the... the Sahiba, is that the word? This Kieran said Julian wouldn't have to worry about her again."
"Kieran must have liked you," Jacinth told her, looking slightly awed. She tilted her head regarding Alessandra, her eyes slightly narrowed as if considering her with a new perspective. "Because he never explains anything, to anyone, ever, yet he did to you. But about the Sahiba, you can be sure neither you nor Julian will ever see her again."
Alessandra gave an exasperated huff of breath. "But... but what will happen? This is so frustrating, to not know."
"Oh, that." Jacinth lifted her hand, as if waving away her concern. A satisfied smile pulled at her lips. "There's all sorts of things that could happen."
"You really, really do not want to make a Djinn mad at you," Julian affirmed, nuzzling against Alessandra's hair. "Especially not a prince of Djinns."
Jacinth nodded solemnly, her dark eyes sparkling with apparent delight.
Alessandra gulped. "He won't... won't hurt her, will he? Or anything like that?"
"Of course not," Jacinth hurried to reassure her. "Djinn are not permitted to harm humans, no matter what the human may have done. But, for instance, that new house that she bought could turn out to be haunted."
Julian's lips curved in satisfaction. "Hot water coming out of the cold tap, or vice versa."
"Mysterious tapping on the ceilings or windows at night," Jacinth put in.
"Poltergeists." Julian nodded. "Smoke detectors going off in the middle of the night."
Alessandra stared at them, then gulped as an unwelcome thought came to her. "There's ... there's really such a thing as poltergeists! No! Wait! Don't answer. I really, really do not want to know."
"Then again," Julian added, "all the neighborhood dogs could start taking all their dumps on her lawn."
Jacinth straightened in her chair, looking pleased. "I have a better one than that! All the female cats around in heat come to mate in their yard at night."
Julian's delighted laugh filled the room. "Oh, yeah. I like that one."
"Another thing you can be sure of is that Kieran will remove from her memory all knowledge of Julian, and Djinn, and the wishes." Jacinth nodded, her dimples fading into an unusually stern look that suddenly somehow made her seem considerably older. "We cannot permit someone that unstable to retain memory of us. In general we do not, but sometimes it is needed. Only those of the Council have that power and they are called when it is necessary to do this task."
As Alessandra watched, fascinated, Jacinth's hairbrush disappeared, and the television remote flew across the room to land in her hand. The serious expression was gone, replaced by the charming dimples and bright-eyed eagerness.
"Okay, now that's taken care of. What shall we watch?"
Julian's arms came around Alessandra, and he drew her close, their lips meeting a long moment. Julian lifted his head to look at Jacinth. "We," he stressed, "are going to watch nothing. You are going off to Qaf, or your bottle, or wherever, while Alessandra and I spend some time alone."
The full, soft lips turned down in a pout, and the pathetic brown eyes could have wrung sympathy from a Scrooge. "But I wanted to watch movies together."
Alessandra suppressed a laugh. "Why don't you come visit at my home, once we're back in New York? We could have a proper movie night, or go out somewhere one evening."
Jacinth visibly brightened, and she unfolded herself from the chair. "Ohhh, a movie night! I like that! Yes, let's do it! I'll be in touch."
She leaned into Alessandra, lowering her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, despite the fact that Julian couldn't possibly fail to hear her. "And be sure to bring your little dog, too."
With a cheery wave, and a slightly suggestive wink at Alessandra, she poofed.
Alessandra couldn't help it. She tried to hold back her amusement, but fell back against the sofa cushions, laughing until she cried, her arms wrapped about her middle to hold her aching sides.
"Oh, my!" She wiped tears from her eyes. "She is just precious!"
Julian grinned in sympathy, producing a handkerchief and drying her cheeks. "She's something else, alright."
She moved suddenly, pushing him back so he lay prone on the sofa, following him down to lay atop his long, lean form. Nose to nose, she gave him her best schoolmistress look. 
"Okay. You're going to explain about the dog now."
One mobile brow flew upward, and Julian's eyes danced. "Now?" He ran one fingertip lightly along her lower lip, tracing its fullness. "You mean, like, right this minute?"
His hand slid around to cup the nape of her neck, drawing her head down until his breath whispered across her lips. "Are you sure?"
Staring into his eyes, so blue she could almost fall into them, a coil of desire stole through her. Quivering, she could scarcely breathe, waiting for the touch of his lips on her. "Um, what?"
Then he was kissing her, and all thought fled. Her fingers dove into his hair, sliding through the thick strands. His mouth was all warm velvet, his tongue tracing her lips, sending shivers of delight through her. Somehow she was on her back, the weight of him pressing her into the firm leather cushions of the sofa. Her breath came more quickly, and she was aware of a strange fluttering in the center of her very being, an aching longing. She'd never felt like this before, never known it could be like this, needing someone, yearning to merge everything that she was into everything that he was, to lose herself in him, immerse herself so fully that it became impossible to tell where she left off and he began. She could feel the thundering of his heart, every bit as frantic as hers, and she could feel, too, the heaviness of his arousal against her thigh. 
"I didn't know it could be like this," she whispered against his lips. She lifted a hand to his face, stroking back a heavy lock of ebony hair that had fallen forward. His eyes, darkened to a midnight blue, held such tenderness, such love, it took her breath away. "I never wanted to love anyone. To need anyone like I need you. And now, there's nothing I want more. "
His hand caught hers, brought it to his mouth, and a soft moan formed in her throat as he placed a warm, lingering kiss in her palm. "Coure mio, my heart." His voice was deep, husky. "Alessandra. You are everything I wanted, everything I hoped for."
"Then love me, Julian," she whispered. 
“Alessandra,” he groaned, burying his head against his shoulder. “We can’t.”
Putting her hands under his chin, she lifted his face, stroking the lines of pain away. 
“Yes, we can.”
“Don’t you understand?” Pain flickered in his eyes, indigo-dark. “I have nothing to offer you. Nothing! God knows, I would give my soul to spend my life with you, but it is not in my power. We have no future, Alessandra.”
She could hardly bear the thought of it, that he would one day disappear, and she would never see him again.
“No,” she agreed. “We have no future, but we do have now, Julian. Let’s take it, so we don’t ever look back with regret for what we could have had for even a short while.”
A memory intruded, and she smiled in remembrance. "Let me share something with you. There used to be an advance columnist, Ann Landers. It was before my time, but Elspeth was always quoting things she'd said. And she told me once of a woman who had written to Ann Landers. The woman was forty-five, and her children were all grown and gone, and now she wanted to go back to college, get her degree. But, she said, what was the point? She'd be fifty by that the time she got it. And Ann wrote back saying something like, in five years you will be fifty years old. You can be fifty with a college degree, or without one."
Seeing the smile begin to creep back into his eyes, her own lips curved, and she kissed him, her lips lingering softly. 
"We have both accepted you must leave. You want me, and I want you, so let us enjoy what time we have, fill our time with enough memories even for your lifetime." She paused a moment, her gaze on his, questioning. "If we were here, now, and you were just an ordinary man... No Djinn, no spells... would you hesitate?"
Julian groaned, his eyes closing, and he dropped his forehead to rest on hers. "God. Must you ask? We would not even be having this conversation, and my ring would be on your finger already."
She poked him. "That's assuming I accepted it."
The tension left his shoulders as he chuckled, and the strong arms about her tightened, drawing her closer. 
“Alessandra mia.”
“I love the way you say my name,” she whispered. “I always hated it... Alessandra... it sounds exotic, overblown. When you say it, it makes me think of silk and satin.” 
Julian touched her face with gentle fingers. “You are silk and satin.”
Their lips met, shaped to each other. His mouth was firm, his breath spicy. Heat flashed through her, a spreading warmth through her veins, and she pressed closer. Julian’s tongue was at her lips, demanding entrance, and she opened to him. For a long moment he explored her mouth, heat building with each stroke of his tongue against hers. He shuddered and drew back, resting his forehead on hers.
“God, Alessandra!”
She clung to him, her legs trembling. The desire for him was consuming. “Julian!”
One minute they were standing in the living room of the hotel suite, the next they were atop her bed, the covers thrown back. Her clothes were gone, as were his, but she scarcely noticed as Julian’s mouth descended, scorching. With her fingers she explored the silken skin of his bare chest, the strong muscles of his shoulders. 
She felt him against her thighs, hard and eager. She opened to him without hesitation, wrapping her legs about his hips. She arched up, and he entered her with a single thrust. Ecstasy boiled over her, a wild excitement she'd never felt, ever. She panted, clinging to him as he pushed deeper, tossing her head on the pillow. He captured her face between his hands, claiming her with his lips, his body. Tension mounted unbearably with his rhythmic thrusts, and suddenly culminated in the surging peak that had her tearing her mouth away, crying out wildly as she drowned in the incredible torrent
As if triggered by her wild cries, Julian surged into her deeply, and giving a hoarse exclamation he stiffened, straining against her, his seed pouring into her.
"Ah, my God!" He exclaimed, shuddering as he moved convulsively against her. "Ah, my God! Alessandra! Alessandra!"
Spheres of pleasure still streaking through her like lightning, Alessandra locked her legs fiercely about him... she thought she would die if he left her now. But Julian wasn't through with her yet. He kissed her again, softly, his lips feathering across hers with a light touch. He braced himself over her, lifting up on one elbow, his free hand going to her breast. With a gentle touch he caressed her, molding and plumping the soft mounds, teasing her peaked nipples with nimble fingers, while he devoured her with hungry eyes.
Alessandra felt her breasts swell under his ministrations, incredibly, he was still hard within her, and she couldn't hold back the small moan that escaped her lips. His eyes fixed on hers, Julian leaned down to capture a rosy peak between his lips. Heat flashed through her, and the muscles tightened about the hard shaft buried so deep in her, gripping convulsively. The shaft expanded even more, and with a groan, Julian's tightened his lips, and sucked strongly, his teeth scraping lightly over the taut bud. Alessandra felt a whimper growing in her throat as Julian's breath began to come faster, his hips moving now in a slow, rhythmic pumping. Then without warning, he latched fiercely on, shaking her breast back and forth.
Alessandra's world exploded. She screamed aloud as lightning forked within her body, although rendering her apart with intolerable pleasure.
"Yes, my Alessandra." He whispered hoarsely. "I have waited so long for this, to give you pleasure, to see you come apart in my arms."
"Julian," she panted. "Julian, I.... Julian!"
Another wave of incredible pulsing pleasure swept her body and, whimpering, she arched her hips upward as his tempo increased, the lazy thrusts coming quicker, a pounding rhythm that left no room for words, only panting breath and ecstatic moans, until once more the passion exploded, their cries filling the room as they climaxed together.
A long time passed. Alessandra couldn’t think how long they lay, arms and legs entangled, Julian’s body draped limply across hers. Together their breaths finally slowed to normal, the sweat drying on their bodies, cooling. 
At long last Julian stirred, sliding to the mattress beside her. He pulled her against him, cradling her head against a broad shoulder. Then, seemingly of its own accord, the sheet lifted to cover them. Candles sprung up about the room, leading the room with the faint glow.
"Never," Julian whispered, stroking long hair away from her face. "Not in six hundred years has it been like that. Never have I been more content. Only with you, my Alessandra."
She opened her eyes and gazed up at him, at his beloved face in the flickering candlelight.
"I never knew it could be like that."
“Nor did I.”
She looked around the familiar room, her lovely old-fashioned bed, the curved dresser with its mirror, the nightstand. 
"Um, Julian?"
He lifted her fingers to his mouth, nibbling lightly at the tips. "Hmm?" 
"We're in my bedroom."
His lips twitched. "We are," he replied solemnly. 
"Since I don't remember a drive back from Washington... and I'm sure I would remember a five-hour drive... I can think of only one other way we could have gotten here."
He chuckled then, pulling her tight against him, inhaling the sweet scent of her hair. "I did not wish our first time together to be in a hotel room, however expensive, however luxurious.
"Your car is in Washington!"
"Jackson can drive it back."
Satisfied, she snuggled into him, and his arms tightened, pulling her close against him. 
“I love you.” The agony in his voice was almost too much to bear. “I love you so much, my Alessandra. How can I bear to leave you?”
She didn’t think she could bear it either. She slid her arms up his long, lean back, soothing. She stroked the long ebony hair that fell across his neck, clinging to his shoulders, mingling with her blonde strands.
“Shhh. Don’t give up, Julian. We’ll find a way.”
“Don’t.” Stark pain darkened his eyes to indigo. “Don’t have hope, Alessandra. I don’t want to hurt you more than I must, and if you begin to hope, it will be a thousand times worse when I have to go.”
“I’ve been trying to think of ways to help you,” she confessed. She chewed on her lower lip, wondering if he would think her foolish. “I don’t know how the magic works, but... could I wish for you to stay here, with me?”
A sound escaped him... she wasn’t sure if it was a groan or a laugh. 
“Mia Alessandra.” He kissed the corner of her mouth. He lifted his head, looking down at her, a faint smile turning up the corners of his beautiful mouth. “You are wonderful. But no... that would be against the rules of the magic.”
She loved that she could make him smile, banish the darkness from his soul, the pain in his eyes, however briefly.
“Then I don’t suppose my other idea would work either...”
He looked at her questioningly.
“Well...” she ran her fingers across his chest, exploring the dips and ridges she found, reveling in the satiny feel of his bronze skin. “I thought what if... what if I just didn’t make my other wishes, Julian?”
Somewhat to her surprise, he pursed his lips, staring across the room with a distant gaze as he considered what she’d suggested.
“I thought of that,” he admitted slowly. “But... the rules are not laid out in so many words, Alessandra. Even the Djinn do not know exactly how the magic binding me to them works. Many times I learned what I could and could not do by being wrong, and bearing the punishment. I had to learn to consider what was in the spirit of the spell, the magic that binds me, rather than having hard and fast rules to go by.”
The eager hope that had leaped at his first words, died an agonizing death. 
“Not making the other wishes would definitely not be within the spirit of the spell.” She didn’t even make it a question, the answer was there in the depths of those deep, deep blue eyes.
“No, my Alessandra. Perhaps we could get away with it for a while... weeks, a few months. But eventually, somehow, the magic would intervene.”
Something he’d said earlier came to mind. 
“You would be... punished?” 
Julian pulled her toward him, holding her close. His breath stirred her hair.
“I don’t mind that,” he said. “I would take any punishment to be with you just one more day... one more hour.”
“I’ve waited all my life to find you,” she whispered, her voice breaking. “I don’t want to lose you now.”
“And I’ve waited centuries for you. But know this, Alessandra. I will love you always. No matter where I am, no matter when I am, you will be in my heart, my soul. I will always remember you... always love you. Always.”

Copyright 2019, Allie McCormack