49. Sila

{Ritsu}

Ritsu imagined Naya's reaction if she were to find him spying on her and Uriel from just outside the window. Balancing his weight on one of the rafters overlooking the inside of the library, he had a clear view of Naya undressing the djinni.

Ritsu intently kept watch over their private exchange until Uriel's hands firmly took hold of her ass. Ritsu turned away, sickened by the fact that Naya didn't seem to mind and perhaps even welcomed such contact.

As much as he would have loved to watch Naya's clothes come off, the djinni's presence ruined everything. Ritsu turned his back on the couple – not out of respect or shame, but out of disgust. It was times like this when he truly abhorred his current form. He cared for Naya just as much, if not more than, the djinni. But Ritsu knew that all Naya saw when she looked at him was a perverted little primate.

As if that djinni hasn't had the same thoughts towards my mistress. The only difference is that I'm not bound to keep quiet or stay away from what brings me pleasure.

Ritsu assumed that this foreign aversion to sexual expression was a human proclivity.

A stupid one at that.

Ritsu descended from the rafters, retracing his steps to the inside of the mansion. He wanted to forget about Naya and Uriel, lest he wind up convincing himself to interrupt them as he had so many times in the past. Doing so now would no doubt result in a royal ass-kicking. Still, Ritsu couldn't ignore his concern regarding Uriel's suit of fire.

The monkey demon was convinced that Naya was not completely aware of how potentially dangerous Uriel's inner fire was. Ritsu had been around djinn long enough to understand that their fires functioned almost exclusively on emotion. If a situation got too out of control, there was rarely anything the vessel of a fire could do to reason with it.

It seemed that Zayn Naim had worked with Uriel long enough to help him manage the suit of fire. And it appeared that the human cloaking spell he was under helped tremendously. Still, Ritsu's instincts responded negatively to Uriel, though he was no creature of fire himself.

Even in my proper form, I could not defend Naya against Uriel if his fire were to lash out at her.

Yet, Ritsu figured, it would be better than nothing – which, by his estimation, was what his present form truthfully amounted to.

"Sin!"

Ritsu scampered behind a hallway sculpture at the sound of the high pitched giggle. He peeked around the statue and spotted Naya's friend, Portia, tangling and untangling herself with Sinbad.

Ritsu watched them stumble down the dark, empty corridor. They ruined the silence with their loud, uneven footfalls and drunken laughter.

"Ack!" Portia shrieked in the process of tripping over her heels. Sinbad caught her and they both erupted into another cacophony of giggles. Ritsu rolled his eyes.

"I am so drunk," Portia confessed as Sinbad helped her stand upright. Once she was stabilized, the storybook pirate leaned against the wall and pushed his hair out of his dreadfully handsome face.

"So am I. No thanks to you."

Portia gave an unapologetic shrug. Then she said, "I'm surprised I survived the night in this dress. What was I thinking?"

Sinbad's eyes passed over her. "Whatever you were thinking, you made the right choice."

As she tugged down the hem of the sparkly dress, she snorted, "Yeah right. This thing is so short, you've probably seen my ass several times."

Color touched Sinbad's high cheekbones. "I didn't! I mean . . . I didn't mean to stare."

If Portia was trying to feign disapproval of Sinbad's actions, she failed miserably. Nearly bent double from laughing so hard, she managed to gasp, "You are so adorable!"

Sinbad's face only reached another level of color.

"The whole point of buying this dress was to get your attention." Portia collected herself and moved closer to Sinbad. "Remember yesterday in the garden? You said that you'd only consider kissing someone who made you speechless. So . . . did I earn that kiss?"

Ritsu left before registering Sinbad's response. But if the soft smacking sounds echoing in the hallway indicating anything, he assumed that Portia had earned what she sought.

***

Ritsu found himself under one of the dining tables, picking at a selection of stolen leftovers. The hem of the tablecloth was short enough for him to have a partial view of the ballroom and even some of the courtyard. The crowd had thinned out by about half. The guests that had stayed were still drinking, dancing, and riding the elephants, though at a more relaxed pace compared to some hours ago.

There were very few, Ritsu noticed with chagrin, people who were not coupled. Whether they had arrived at the party with a date or had met someone there, pretty much everyone was paired off.

Ritsu was not quite sure why he chose to punish himself in this way. He could have easily found a quiet spot in the mansion where he could pig out on scraps from the kitchens. He could have disappeared inside one of the several enchanted hookah pipes and requested it to conjure him a private belly dancer.

But no.

Instead, he chose to watch while everyone else indulged in the very thing he desired. More than anything, Ritsu wanted companionship, preferably one that led to unconditional sex.

"You are one sad, little demon."

This was the second time something had snuck up on Ritsu in mid-thought and he was becoming fed up with it.

He assumed a protective crouch over his leftovers and glared in the direction of the voice. Staring back at him were a pair of intelligent yellow eyes. They lived inside of the body of a cat, who based on size alone, could have easily been mistaken for a dog.

Ritsu immediately recognized the female djinni from Portia's apartment.

"What do you want, sila?"

The maine coon lifted a massive paw and licked the back of it. "This sila has a name."

"Oh right," Ritsu said as he looked away. He popped an olive in his mouth. "Ochre, right?"

The djinni purred. "Usher."

With her recently cleaned paw, the cat swiped one of Ritsu's samosas and devoured it.

"That's mine!" Ritsu growled. He took an empty plate and used it to cover the rest of the food. He drew the plates against his chest and spat, "Hey Usher, why don't you escort yourself the hell out of here and leave me alone!"

Usher went back to cleaning her paw. "Question. You're not a djinni, correct? But you can sense that I'm sila. Explain that to me."

Ritsu found that most people recoiled whenever he bared his teeth at them. The feline, however, did not. Her tail swished from side to side as if she was watching a grandfather clock.

Ritsu loosened his grip on the plates. "I'm a half grown shinigami that was ripped out of my natural habitat and compelled to serve maniac sorcerers. I managed to escape, but was too weak to assume my true form. Uriel found me, bound me to this monkey, and charged me to look after his human. It seemed like a safe gig. No whippings. No one was forcing me to carry out their sick fetishes. I got to sleep in a cushy hookah bowl . . . . Only," he set the plates aside, "I didn't expect to become so attached to my mistress."

"Naomi," Usher whispered, finally lowering her eyes.

Ritsu glared at her. "By the way, why didn't you do anything to help her get away from the djinni? You've known her much longer than I have."

Usher returned the glare. "You think I didn't want to? Let me tell you something, death lord. I am a free djinni. And what's more, Portia is my mistress." She rose on all fours and stalked in Ritsu's direction, treading over his leftovers. "The last thing I want is to get the both of us wrapped up in the same world that I worked so hard to escape from. I don't even feel comfortable with her being at this magus's house. It's why I'm here. I may have forgone most of my powers, but I won't hesitate to intervene if my mistress comes into any real danger."

Ritsu had backed away until he collided with the legs of a chair. The sila came to a halt inches from his face. He suffered through her low, scrutinizing purrs. Finally, the cat turned away, sweeping his nose with her bushy tail.

Ritsu didn't protest as she dined on the rest of his smashed leftovers. While she ate, he said, "You and I are a lot alike. I'd do anything to protect Naya, even if it means being at odds with Uriel."

Usher burped before sitting on her haunches and redirecting her attention to the monkey.

"I've grown fond of Naomi over the years. You have to understand that I wanted to help her when I learned of what that djinni did to her. But I have my own human to look after."

There was sincerity in her yellow eyes as she added, "It's comforting to know that there is someone looking out for Naomi."

Out of habit, Ritsu bared his fangs. "Even if it is just a demon trapped inside of a monkey?"

The yellow eyes burned with amusement. "Yes. By my judgement, that's better than nothing, isn't it?"

One would think.

Before Ritsu could voice his reply, someone bent down and poked their head under the table, once again dissolving the monkey's thin layer of privacy.

"Ritsu? Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you."

Ritsu didn't expect to see Naya on her hands and knees, reaching for him under the table.

He pointed to his left to demonstrate the cat and explain himself. But when he and Naya followed the path of his finger, there was nothing there besides a pile of leftover crumbs.