Jack and Djinn (The Houri Legends, #1)(38)
“Well, that seemed to scare the angry one, because he got into his car and drove away. The other boy, the one who crashed his motorcycle, he was just fine, which shouldn’t have been possible, because I’ve seen wrecks like that before, and people die from injuries like he must’ve had. Well, he and the girl were standing together in the rain and they kissed, and oh my, was that ever romantic.
“This is the weirdest part, though, because then the fire that was coming from the girl got really bright and then they both just vanished, just like that handsome magician, what’s his name from the book…David Copperfield. Only, they were really gone. It was no trick, I swear. I watched out the window for a long time, but nothing else happened. They were just gone, and that motorcycle stayed there by the side of the road for a while until someone came and took it away.”
Carson felt exhausted just listening to the old woman talk, because she never seemed to pause to breathe. But her story, however unbelievable it may have sounded, struck Carson as making a very strange kind of sense.
Another piece of the puzzle rattled around in his brain, and something told him the pieces were going to fall into place before long. He was so close; he just needed a few more facts, a few more witnesses. And, of course, he had to find Miriam and get her side of the story.
Chapter 12
Miriam
Five days earlier
Miriam tugged at the hem of her dress, wishing it were a little longer. She wasn’t used to wearing dresses, especially not ones this…skimpy. She was most comfortable wearing her waitress uniform—a pair of black jeans and a bar T-shirt.
“Stop fidgeting, Miriam. You look amazing,” Jack whispered in her ear.
“I look like a skank,” she whispered back. The dress barely came to mid-thigh, and the filmy coral-colored material was cut low between her breasts, showing a strip of skin nearly to her navel, and was cut the same in the back. She had bought it for the wedding because Jack had really liked it. Modeling it for him in the dressing room and in her apartment was one thing. His hungry, admiring gaze had made her feel sexy and beautiful, and he’d spent half the drive to the church telling her how amazing she looked. But that hadn’t prepared her for the looks she’d gotten from Jack’s family when they’d walked in to take their seats on the hard wooden pews of the church.
“You do not look like a skank,” Jack said, a little too loudly. “My cousin Shannon, now, she looks likes a skank, but then, she is one.”
Miriam slapped his arm, shocked that he’d talk about his own cousin like that. She tried to spot who he was talking about, and he nodded behind them, at a short, voluptuous girl with elaborately coiffured black hair. She was wearing a red dress even shorter than Miriam’s, her large, pale breasts pushed up to nearly overflowing. Miriam’s eyes widened a little, and Jack sputtered, trying to contain his laughter.
“She’s a skank, Miriam. She’s my cousin, and I love her, but that guy she’s dragging with her is the third boyfriend she’s had in the last two months. She goes through men faster than outfits.” Miriam was giving him a disapproving glare, so he lifted his hands in a defensive gesture. “I tell her she’s a skank to her face and she calls me a fancy-nancy bastard, and we laugh. It’s how we are.”
“You insult each other?”
“Well, yeah. We tease each other. It’s how we show love in our family.” Jack shrugged. “I guess it’s weird, now that I explain it out loud, but it’s just the way we are. No one means any harm by it, and we all know it.”
“I don’t get it. Will they tease me?” They were whispering now, because the priest was rising from his seat and approaching the lectern. The organist played the “Wedding March,” and everyone stood to watch Jack’s younger sister Mary stride with slow, measured steps down the aisle.
Jack answered without taking his eyes off his sister. “Not right away, no. But the more time you spend with us, yeah, someone will probably tease you about something, just to see how you take it. It’ll probably be either Gramps or my cousin Joe. Just remember they don’t mean nothin’ by it, and they expect you to rib ’em back. The better you can tease and be teased in our family, the better you fit in.”
Mary was a beautiful girl, resplendent in a simple but stunning A-line dress and long veil covering her shimmering auburn hair. She took her place beside her fiancé, clasped his hands in hers, and fixed her eyes on him. Miriam, only a few rows back, could see the bride swallowing, fighting back tears already. Miriam wondered what it would be like to stand there like that, in a white dress, facing the man she loved, promising to stay with him forever. She just couldn’t picture it. She stole a glance at Jack, who was watching his soon-to-be brother-in-law with an odd expression on his face. Jack turned to look at Miriam at the same moment, and their eyes met; Miriam couldn’t help picturing Jack in a tuxedo, watching her walk down the aisle to him—
Miriam clamped down on that image with a ruthless ferocity.
He’d showed up unannounced at her door the previous day and had taken her to breakfast, where he informed her that his sister was getting married the next day, and he wanted Miriam to come with him as his date. She objected, saying that she didn’t really have any wedding-appropriate clothes, and Jack had just shot her that knowing smirk of his that both irritated her and made her heart beat like a drum.