Oracle's Moon (Elder Races #4)(16)

He wore a dark crimson tunic and trousers, his raven hair pulled ruthlessly back from that elegant, inhuman face. His ivory skin was luminous against the rich red, and his diamond eyes shone brighter than the backlit computer screen, casting the shadowed office into even deeper darkness.

Yeow. He seemed bigger when he was angry.

He snarled, “You dare?”

Well, that experiment went well. She raised her eyebrows and pinched her lower lip again. “Would you rather give me a cell phone number that I can call?”

He gave her an incredulous glare. “How did you know to do that?!”

“I’m good at what I do?” she offered. What exactly had she done? She patted the air, found the thread of connection and gave it another small, experimental tug. Sulfurous anger boiled the air. Okay. Whatever it is, it must be like pulling the tail on a cat.

He bared his teeth and hissed at her. “Stop doing that!”

She muttered, “Also? Apparently sometimes I can be kind of stupid.”

Maybe he had been, well, having sex with his date. Mate. Mates. How inopportune was that.

If Djinn had sex. If they didn’t, it might explain his perpetual bad mood. Driven by a compulsion she couldn’t control, she asked, “Do you ever watch TV?”

Suddenly he was across the room and bending over her, huge hands clenched on the arms of her chair. “What do you want, human?”

She frowned, starting to get angry herself. “First you butt in where you don’t belong. You trespass and visit with my kids without permission. Now you yell at me simply because I want to have a talk with you? You are an inconsistent, irascible son of a bitch, aren’t you?”

He cocked his head, his eyes narrowed, and growled, “Baiting me is more than kind of stupid.”

She threw up her hands. “I’m not baiting you! I called but you didn’t answer! If you didn’t want to be interrupted, why did you leave that thread? I had no idea Djinn were so fragile. I certainly didn’t mean to hurt you when I yanked your chain.” She shrugged and made a mea culpa gesture. “Okay, maybe that bit was baiting.”

Somewhere in the house, one of the ghosts chuckled. Khalil didn’t seem to notice either the ghost’s presence or Grace’s digs. Instead he lifted his head and stared in the direction of the hall. “Are the children all right?”

Her angry sense of mischief melted into a confused twist of emotion. This glorious, strange entity really cared about the welfare of her kids. She said quickly, “They’re fine.”

Those fierce diamond eyes came back around to her. “You will now tell me why you summoned me,” he said in that low, pure voice of his that held not a hint of softness, “or I will make you sorry.”

She lost her breath. She felt as if a five-hundred-pound Bengal tiger had padded up to growl in her face. In a way, it had. Her gaze turned wary as she searched his hard ivory face. “I…summoned you? I didn’t realize that’s what I was doing.”

Khalil’s penetrating eyes searched her expression. “You have no idea what you did,” he said, his tone suspicious.

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Are you telling me you have no truthsense?” she said. “Because if you are, I’m going to ask you to pull the other one.”

“Pull the other what?” he said, his face going blank.

“Pull the other leg?” He still looked mystified. She shook her head. “It’s a human saying, never mind.”

“I can tell you are telling the truth,” he said. “I just find it hard to believe. Humans are conniving and always on the search for greater Power.”

“Wow, that’s pretty bigoted,” she said, taken aback. He had made no secret of his dislike for her, but she’d had no idea that dislike might be part of a bigger picture. “If you think that badly of the human race, why did you promise to keep the children safe?”

“They have not yet been corrupted,” he said with a scowl. “They are innocent.”

Grace’s neck was beginning to ache from tilting her head so far back, but she didn’t want to look away for fear Khalil would take that as a sign of deception. She needed to remember what she was supposed to be eating here, and serve herself a big, delicious helping of humble pie. “Yes, they are, and I’m grateful for what you did when you promised to keep them safe,” she said. “Both this morning and this evening when the Vampyres came.”

Somehow what she said made him angry again. He scowled. “There is no need to thank me. You paid with a favor, and you still owe me.”

She frowned. “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I’m not grateful too—because I am. Maybe the Nightkind King and del Torro really didn’t intend any harm, but I couldn’t risk that. Chloe and Max are so vulnerable. They can’t defend themselves.” Bending over her chair as he was brought him too close, and his energy surrounded her. She felt like she sat in the middle of a pure argent flame. The sensation was exhilarating and uncomfortable. She broke down and put a hand to his broad, too-perfect chest and pushed lightly. “Do you mind? I could use a little space.”

He frowned but straightened and backed away from her chair. It didn’t help much. His physical form was the smallest part of him, like the visible tip of an iceberg. At least she could sit up in her chair and ease the pressure on her neck. Still working on swallowing that piece of pie, she said gravely, “Thank you.”