31. A Fire Inside

{Uriel}

Uriel had nothing to hide.

After Naya confirmed that this was what she wanted, Uriel let the rest of his walls fall and focused on giving himself to her completely. Now that Naya's hair had returned to its free, unbothered state, he allowed himself to trap his fingers between her roots and bury his face in the wild midnight. He left a combination of harsh and delicate kisses from her temple down to her collarbone.

There were times when Naya attempted to remove his shirt or shimmy out of her own, but Uriel wouldn't let her go that far. In the end, he had to pin her to the refrigerator and fasten her hands above her head.

"Why are you torturing me?" Naya exhaled, fighting back little by little against his hold.

Placing a firm kiss on her jaw, Uriel said, "You have taught me a lot of things, Naya. But now there is something that I want to teach you – patience."

Naya tossed her head so that most of her hair fell in his face. Uriel held firm, ignoring the ever growing tightness of his jeans.

From between the curtain of dark coils, she smirked. "I don't want patience. I want your –"

The sound of knocking at the front door drowned out Naya's words.

"Ugh. Did Ritsu order pizza again?" she grumbled in a tone that had lost nearly all of its huskiness from before.

Uriel gently rocked his pelvis against hers. "Who cares?"

The djinn were locked into each other for only a few more seconds before the abrupt knocking sounded again. When it showed no signs of stopping, Uriel bit back a growl and he tore himself away from Naya to answer the door. Naya hugged herself and leaned against the fridge, wearing a blissful grin.

Uriel ripped the door open. "What do you want?"

There was nothing particularly frightening about a thirty-something blond man standing in the doorway. But despite what Uriel saw on the surface, every alarm in his body went off without him knowing why.

"URI! HELP ME!"

Uriel backed away from the door and rushed into the kitchen.

A creature of darkness had phased through the refrigerator and taken hold of Naya. Uriel almost didn't believe it at first.

An ifrit?

Their appetites were often insatiable. Worse, they were cunning and could be so very cruel.

If there was an ifrit wrestling Naya in the kitchen, then that could only mean one thing.

The man in the doorway had to be a collector.

+++

{Janus}

Janus was pleasantly surprised at how well the young djinni mastered the mortality exchange contract. To the untrained eye, the boy would look like any other human. But Janus could see right through his false exterior to the suppressed fire within.

Janus took advantage of the djinni's stupor and invited himself inside the apartment. He grimaced when he saw Sabur misbehaving in the kitchen with the djinni's hostage. Once again, Janus was intrigued by what he saw. The girl's body had taken much better to the exchange than expected. Most humans rejected the spell so harshly that it wound up killing them.

But look at this one. She has her own little fire going and everything.

Growing annoyed with the girl's screams, Janus snapped his fingers. "Sabur, I said restrain her, not treat her like a rag doll."

"Get the hell out of my house!"

Janus turned his attention to the djinni-made. Before he had a chance to respond, the changeling reared his head back and belched forth a molten fireball. It was coming Janus's way, fast.

Shit.

"Sabur."

The ifrit was just in time to cancel out the attack. As soon as Sabur teleported to his master, the changeling's blazing rock popped into a million harmless shards.

Both the djinni and his hostage gaped at the collector in disbelief. Janus cleared his throat and adjusted his purple ascot. "Well, that was rude."

The djinni tried to make his way over to the girl, but Sabur blinked back to his original position, blocking him from his ward. It seemed that the girl had gotten over her initial hysteria and replaced her terror with anger.

"Uri, what the hell is this thing?"

Janus snickered at the djinni's attempt to remain in control. Plumes of black smoke escaped from between his lips and nostrils as he tried to calm her. "No one's going to hurt you. I'm going to get us out of here."

Enough of this chaotic chit-chat.

"Ahem!" Janus purred, bringing the attention back to him. The djinni cast a reproachful look.

Janus wagged his finger. "No more fireballs, changeling. We civilized sorcerers have rules."

The djinni didn't answer him, but he altered his position ever so slightly to show that he wouldn't attack again.

Janus gave a tender smile before finding a spot on the nearest couch and folding his hands across his lap. With sincerity, he said, "My ifrit cannot bring any harm to your human as long as you do not attempt to hurt me. And it works the other way too. I cannot attack you as long as the girl does not try anything with my ifrit. See, you almost broke the spell just then, but thankfully, I was proactive."

The djinni stepped forward. "A restriction spell? Why?"

Janus folded his legs. "To grant you the respect of course. Because once I capture you, you won't ever experience such a thing again."