4. The Monkey Demon

{Naya}

I spent the rest of the day crying, sleeping, and pigging out on pistachios. In that order.

The guitar and the books remained untouched in their respective corners of the room. The bowl of pistachios that I threw earlier had righted itself onto its pedestal and refilled anew. When I emptied the bowl – this time into my stomach instead of on the floor – it magically refilled a second time.

I was close to surrendering to another nap when Uriel appeared on top of my cushions.

Staring up at him from the floor, I muttered, "I'm not sure if you djinn know anything about nutrition, but people can't survive off of nuts alone."

"Djinn do not need to eat," he said with a trace of a grin. "But I knew that you were fond of them, so . . ."

He crouched down near my head. I ignored his gaze, deliberately locking my eyes on the mosaic geometry carved into the domed ceiling.

"So . . . what?"

"I wanted to make you comfortable." He glanced at the untouched books and guitar. "But I'm beginning to think that music and literature offend you."

I sat up.

"Do I look like I can read anything other than standard American English? And as for the guitar –" I glanced at it. "I don't play anymore."

Uriel's eyebrows turned downward. "But at the club, you told me . . ."

"Look, I still don't remember everything from our conversation from that night," I snapped. "Thanks to your hocus pocus."

The corner of his mouth twitched. "The only thing that impaired your memory were those shots that you took."

I leaned towards him and flicked the edge of his chin. "Do you mean the shots that you purchased for me? I remember that much."

Uriel caught my finger between his and twisted my hand down and forward, making it impossible for me to avoid tumbling into his lap.

"Then you should remember that I only bought you the first drink. The rest were on you, Naya."

I pushed myself off of him and fought to yank my hand away. It wasn't any use. He had his fingers intertwined tightly through mine and an impish glimmer in his expression. He was getting too much enjoyment out of this.

I gave one last effort and another groan before I relaxed my arm and said, "I was having such a good time with my pistachios until you showed up. What do you want?"

His lip turned into a pout. "Giving up so easily?" He released my hand and reached behind his back. I gasped at the small, lifeless mammal that he brought into the open.

Uriel said, "Don't worry. He's not dead."

I kept staring.

It sure looks dead.

"Why are you handing over an unconscious squirrel monkey? Please don't tell me that during our little conversation at the bar, I said that I was into exotic pets."

Uriel chuckled. "He's a white-faced capuchin, not a squirrel monkey. And in fact, he's not really a monkey at all. I just caught him and bound his spirit to this form. It may be a while before he's conscious again."

"You made another human fall for this crap?"

Uriel snorted. "What? Of course not. Ritsu is a lesser demon."

I blinked.

Demon?

Demon.

DEMON!!!

"What am I supposed to do with a demon? Last time I checked, they were – uh – not good for you."

I was trying to hold it together and convince myself that compared to what had happened in the last two days, this should not have struck me as hard to believe. If there were thousand-year-old djinn walking around Atlanta with the intention of sealing people inside of hookah pipes, why wouldn't there also be demons that could be trapped inside adorable pet monkeys?

Uriel set the monkey aside on one of the cushions and explained, "Ritsu doesn't come from the crop of demons you're thinking of. He's mischievous for sure, but otherwise he's harmless."

I'm not going to let him off the hook that easily.

"So in other words, you captured an innocent demon without his consent."

Uriel rolled his eyes. "Naya, one of the most common duties of a djinni is to supervise the presence of supernatural entities in the modern realm. What I did was more humane than most djinn, who would have eaten Ritsu's essence."

"But you turned him into an animal? Why?"

Uriel shrugged. "I thought that you'd want someone to talk to for the duration of your contract."

"So you just thought we'd be best buddies and I'd just forget all about this trapped-in-a-hookah scenario. Did I get that right?"

Uriel was less than amused by my sarcasm. He glared at me, no doubt searching for some sort of comeback, but in the end, he stood up to leave.

I sprang up faster than he did and grabbed his elbow. "Uriel, wait."

"What?"

I groaned, "Look I'm sorry."

Ugh. I can't believe I'm apologizing to this freaking djinni right now. But I don't want to spend a month of my life cooped up alone in this hookah bowl.

"I was rude before. You went through all this trouble to find things that I like. That was –" I stole a look at his face. His stupid, yummy face. "That was sweet."

Uriel relaxed a bit before saying, "The books are not in English, but you should be able to read them. Arabic, Farsi, Greek. It doesn't matter. You are a djinni now."

"Djinni powers, right. Speaking of which." I tugged his arm closer and balanced my chin on his shoulder. "Can you show me how to turn back into smoke?"

Uriel looked at me sideways. "So that you can escape?"

I thought long and hard about my answer. "You expect me to show you how to be a human, but didn't you say that you would also teach me some things about being a djinni?"

Uriel arched his eyebrow at my words. I did the best I could to prevent the heat from rising in my face, but I could tell by the look in his eyes that he detected my reaction. I let go of his arm and stepped back.

Uriel sighed. "Give me your hand, Naya."

Hesitantly, I reached for him. Uriel guided my hand up and positioned his body behind mine. It took a lot of concentration on my end to control my breaths.

"Simple charms can be performed through willpower alone, while more complex wishes require written incantations combined with your touch."

Uriel painted the air with my finger while he spoke, leaving a glowing trail of light in the path of each stroke. He wrote a word in Arabic, which I recognized as smoke. Then he pressed our hands against the glowing calligraphy and I felt my body fade into an amorphous cloud. An unknown force drew us upward.

The illusion of the ceiling gave way to reveal a dark shaft – the pipe connecting to the bowl. After traveling through the metal tube, I materialized in a room that I had never seen before. I was standing in a studio apartment filled with natural light. The windows reached the ceiling and the kitchen was open and spacious.

Uriel appeared beside me.

"This is where you live?" I asked, wandering over to a wall that doubled as a bookshelf.

"For now."

I peeked out the window. Hold on. I knew where we were! "Uriel, this is Virginia Highlands! I didn't realize we were so close to Portia's apartment. Oh, crap. Portia!"

Uriel folded his arms. "Have you figured out your lie yet?"

Crap.

The djinni snickered. "I'll take that as a no, but we cannot afford to waste any more time. Let's go."

Why couldn't I just keep my mouth shut?

What Uriel didn't know was that I could not lie to Portia. It was physically impossible for me and not to mention, that girl always knew when I was being completely full of it.

I would have been better off telling her that I had swallowed fire and became a djinni. 

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Note: Uriel's name is pronounced YUHR – EE – EHL.