Chapters 1 23
Make A Wish
Chapter 1
“Ooo, don’t you think it’s cute, Bry?!” a light voice squealed happily.
Bryan Lindquist smiled at his friend Trey. “Sure it is, Trey,” he replied.
Trey held up the porcelain cat figurine that he’d just bought. The cat in question was playing with a ball of yarn, and he thought it was one of the most adorable things ever. He’d loved ransacking that odds and ends store, on the lookout for bargains. It was just like when he’d used to buy boxes at auction; although that had been even more exciting because he’d never known what he’d get before he opened the boxes to see what was inside. And what had been inside of one of them had been a brass bottle, the contents of which had changed his life forever…
Inside of that peculiar brass bottle had been a centuries old genie named Azhim Bakhal. Trey had wished for the genie’s(djinn’s, actually) freedom from his eternal slavery granting people’s wishes, and in return Azhim had made himself Trey’s servant for life. While he hadn’t been particularly happy over that, because he didn’t think that Azhim should be anybody’s slave anymore, the djinn had insisted. And that was how he’d first met his servant/lover, the supernatural creature that had made him so very happy.
Speaking of Azhim, he and Hajji(the djinn who had been set free by Bryan, and was now Bryan’s servant/lover) were trailing after them down the sidewalk. They both wore illusion spells that made them look like large, bald human males, not the djinni they actually were. The magic concealed their strange eyes, fangs, claws, and pointed ears. While he knew that it was necessary that they do so in public, Trey liked it better when the djinni were just themselves. They were naturally exotically handsome that way. He especially liked to look at Azhim’s natural form when they were having sex; it turned him on immensely to see sweat shimmering on the bronzed skin and the pale flash of fang as Azhim snarled down at him lustfully.
Trey’s cheeks turned a little red at this thought, which he didn’t voice aloud to his best friend. It would be too embarrassing to do so. “Anyway, now that we’re done in that store can we go and get something to eat, Trey?” Bryan asked hopefully. “It’s been a long time since breakfast.”
“Sure, Bry,” he said. “Where do you want to go?”
“That diner on the main drag. They make excellent beef stew,” Bryan replied. “If that’s okay with you?”
“Of course. I think I’ll get a BLT. Hey, Axzhim!” he called, turning his head to talk to the bald ‘man’ trailing after him down the sidewalk like an ambulatory mountain. “We’re gonna go eat! Any objections?”
“No, Trey. We can do whatever that you and Bryan wish to,” Azhim told him, and Hajji nodded.
Trey beamed at him. “Great! I’m starving. I know you guys probably aren’t hungry, but you could eat, right?”
“We have no objections to eating,” Azhim rumbled.
They ended up in in a booth at the diner, and Trey bounced happily on the red leather. “I love places like this,” he said. “It’s like an episode of Happy Days.”
Bryan propped his elbows on the table. “Yeah, except for the fact that Fonzie’s not going to come in at any moment and say: Ayyyee,” he remarked.
Azhim lifted a single brow and looked at his friend and former lover Hajji. The other djinn grinned. “It is a TV show, Azhim,” he explained. “About life in the 1950s in a place called Milwaukee. One of the characters on the show wears a leather jacket, greases his hair, and is very attractive to the females of the time. He is called ‘Fonzie’, although his true name is Arthur Fonzerelli.”
Bryan lifted his hands at the djinn sitting next to him in the booth. “Ta da, Hajji the walking catalogue of TV shows,” he said, making Trey giggle.
“I believe that you watch too much television, Hajji,” Azhim said rather severely.
Hajji shrugged. “There is often little for me to do besides housework and watching television, Azhim,” he pointed out.
“Next he’ll be eating bon-bons and sitting on the couch all day,” Bryan quipped.
Azhim frowned. “If you would learn to use the human device called a ‘computer’, Hajji, you would have more variety of entertainment,” he said.
Hajji looked sheepish. “I do not like such complicated devices, Azhim,” he replied uneasily.
Bryan laughed, patting him on the back. “Telly here is about as technologically oriented as my grandma,” he remarked to Trey. “And she can’t even program her DVD player. It’s sad.”
Hajji looked rather harassed, and Trey took pity on him. “It’s okay, Hajji,” he told the djinn earnestly. “Not everybody is cut out to be a tech wiz. I mean, I can use the internet and everything, but if something goes wrong I have to call Bry to fix it.”
Bryan snorted. “Yeah, I think that Trey’s cat is better with computers than he is,” he said teasingly.
Trey laughed at this, because his cat Cara(Short for Caramel) had walked on the keyboard of his computer the other day and had managed to do several things to it which he hadn’t been able to undo. Bryan had had to come over and fix it for him, commenting that the kitty was a natural programmer.
The waitress arrived just then, and they all gave their orders. Bryan ordered the beef stew, Trey a BLT, Azhim a chicken fried steak, and Hajji a club sandwich. When she left with their menus, Bryan took a sip from his water glass. “I’ve been thinking that Yul and I,” he remarked to Trey, “Should get a pet too. Then Hajji could be a slave to TWO creatures instead of one,” he shot a gleaming look at his own personal djinn, who kept his face blank.
Trey giggled. “What kind of pet?” he asked curiously.
Bryan shrugged. “Maybe a dog. Not a little yappy one - maybe a rottweiler or something.”
Trey’s brows shot up. “A rottweiler?!” he said incredulously. “Aren’t those kind of dangerous? And what if it attacks Cara?”
Bryan pursed his lips. “You have a point. Maybe an iguana?”
“A lizard? How can you love a lizard?” Trey said doubtfully. “You should get a cute pet, something fluffy. Like a hamster or a kitten.” he leaned forward over the table. “Besides,” he said softly, “There’s nothing funnier or cuter than watching a djinn get walked all over by a kitten.”
Bryan’s lips twitched as Azhim folded his arms over his massive chest and looked rather irritated. Trey’s cat Cara adored him, much to his chagrin. The beast had claimed him, and there was nothing that he could do about it because hurting or killing the creature would make Trey very angry and upset with him. If he wanted to annoy Hajji(and Bryan thoroughly enjoyed doing so as often as he could), getting a pet that irritated the djinn was crucial. Besides, he’d often laughed at the sight of Azhim walking around with Cara sitting on his shoulder like a furry shoulder ornament. Especially when the cat’s loud purring went along with Azhim’s faintly disgruntled expression…
“I’ll think about it,” he said, and Trey nodded.
After lunch, they left the diner and headed for Bryan’s car. They’d decided to all come in one vehicle rather than bothering to bring two, and Trey cradled his new cat figurine in his hands carefully. He’d carry it rather than put it with the rest of their shopping in the back of the SUV that Bryan had bought(Needing a vehicle big enough to be able to hold two djinn as well as he and his friend Trey), because he didn’t want it to get broken.
As they walked along, none of them noticed a sleek black vehicle pull up to the curb across the street. A single figure got out of the back and stood on the sidewalk stretching a little, before adjusting the cuffs on the very expensive dark suit that he was wearing. Then he ran a hand through his perfectly coiffed hair, smoothing the grey wings on either side of his head.
This man stepped away from his car, and as he did so he glanced around casually. Suddenly he came to a halt, an expression of shock on his face. His eyes were riveted on the people across the street, not on the two humans but on the two large, bald ‘men’ walking behind them. Then, as the shock passed, his eyes narrowed and a small smile slid over his mouth. “Well, well, well,” he murmured in a deep, cool voice. “What have we here? I never thought to see any of your kind again. Hmm, this is indeed fortuitous…” his eyes took on a devilish gleam, and deep in their depths a reddish light began to glow, “It seems that I have ‘hit the jackpot’. Excellent.”
He began to murmur under his breath, and at the same time twiddled his fingers in the air a bit. His smile never wavered as he pointed his forefinger at the slender human with the strawberry-blonde, wavy hair, and spoke a single Word. The spell raced toward its target, striking the human dead center in his chest. He stumbled a little, and the man’s smile widened slightly. “Bingo,” he rasped. “Dead on target, as they say,” then he turned around and got back into his car, speaking to his driver. He ordered the man to follow those humans wherever they might go.
Trey felt a sharp pain in his chest, and he stumbled. Bryan caught at his arm. “Hey, Trey. Are you all right?” he said anxiously, wondering why his friend had gone pale.
“I-I think so,” Trey said, a hand over his heart. “I’m okay now, Bry. I just…for a second there…I got a little dizzy.”
Azhim had come up behind him and set his hands on Trey’s shoulders. “Are you sure that you are well, Trey?” he asked, his brows furrowed.
Trey straightened up. “Yeah, I’m fine now,” he said, and it was(mostly) true. The weird pain and the accompanying dizziness had passed, leaving him feeling a little strange but not bad.
“Are you sure? We could take you to the hospital,” Bryan said in concern.
Trey shook his head. “Don’t be silly. Whatever it was, it was just a passing thing. I feel better already,” he said, lifting his head.
Azhim and Hajji exchanged skeptical looks behind his back. Bryan crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay, I’m not going to ask here, Trey. I’m taking you to the hospital. I just want to make sure that you’re all right,” he added.
Seeing how concerned they all were, Trey sighed. “Okay, Bry. Let’s go to the hospital,” he said, clearly humoring them.
An hour later, they all emerged from the local hospital as Trey said: “I told you guys I’m fine. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me.”
Bryan smiled and touched his arm. “I’m really glad that they didn’t find anything wrong, Trey,” he said. “We were just worried, that’s all.”
Trey nodded. “I know you were. Thanks for caring, everybody,” his eyes traveled over his friends and his lover as he said this.
Bryan patted his arm. “How could we not? Now let’s go home.”
Trey nodded, and they all headed for the SUV. Bryan started the engine as the djinn settled into the back seat. He pulled away from the curb, and none of them noticed when a sleek black car slid away from the curb farther down the street and followed them as they set off for home.
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Make A Wish
Chapter 1
“Ooo, don’t you think it’s cute, Bry?!” a light voice squealed happily.
Bryan Lindquist smiled at his friend Trey. “Sure it is, Trey,” he replied.
Trey held up the porcelain cat figurine that he’d just bought. The cat in question was playing with a ball of yarn, and he thought it was one of the most adorable things ever. He’d loved ransacking that odds and ends store, on the lookout for bargains. It was just like when he’d used to buy boxes at auction; although that had been even more exciting because he’d never known what he’d get before he opened the boxes to see what was inside. And what had been inside of one of them had been a brass bottle, the contents of which had changed his life forever…
Inside of that peculiar brass bottle had been a centuries old genie named Azhim Bakhal. Trey had wished for the genie’s(djinn’s, actually) freedom from his eternal slavery granting people’s wishes, and in return Azhim had made himself Trey’s servant for life. While he hadn’t been particularly happy over that, because he didn’t think that Azhim should be anybody’s slave anymore, the djinn had insisted. And that was how he’d first met his servant/lover, the supernatural creature that had made him so very happy.
Speaking of Azhim, he and Hajji(the djinn who had been set free by Bryan, and was now Bryan’s servant/lover) were trailing after them down the sidewalk. They both wore illusion spells that made them look like large, bald human males, not the djinni they actually were. The magic concealed their strange eyes, fangs, claws, and pointed ears. While he knew that it was necessary that they do so in public, Trey liked it better when the djinni were just themselves. They were naturally exotically handsome that way. He especially liked to look at Azhim’s natural form when they were having sex; it turned him on immensely to see sweat shimmering on the bronzed skin and the pale flash of fang as Azhim snarled down at him lustfully.
Trey’s cheeks turned a little red at this thought, which he didn’t voice aloud to his best friend. It would be too embarrassing to do so. “Anyway, now that we’re done in that store can we go and get something to eat, Trey?” Bryan asked hopefully. “It’s been a long time since breakfast.”
“Sure, Bry,” he said. “Where do you want to go?”
“That diner on the main drag. They make excellent beef stew,” Bryan replied. “If that’s okay with you?”
“Of course. I think I’ll get a BLT. Hey, Axzhim!” he called, turning his head to talk to the bald ‘man’ trailing after him down the sidewalk like an ambulatory mountain. “We’re gonna go eat! Any objections?”
“No, Trey. We can do whatever that you and Bryan wish to,” Azhim told him, and Hajji nodded.
Trey beamed at him. “Great! I’m starving. I know you guys probably aren’t hungry, but you could eat, right?”
“We have no objections to eating,” Azhim rumbled.
They ended up in in a booth at the diner, and Trey bounced happily on the red leather. “I love places like this,” he said. “It’s like an episode of Happy Days.”
Bryan propped his elbows on the table. “Yeah, except for the fact that Fonzie’s not going to come in at any moment and say: Ayyyee,” he remarked.
Azhim lifted a single brow and looked at his friend and former lover Hajji. The other djinn grinned. “It is a TV show, Azhim,” he explained. “About life in the 1950s in a place called Milwaukee. One of the characters on the show wears a leather jacket, greases his hair, and is very attractive to the females of the time. He is called ‘Fonzie’, although his true name is Arthur Fonzerelli.”
Bryan lifted his hands at the djinn sitting next to him in the booth. “Ta da, Hajji the walking catalogue of TV shows,” he said, making Trey giggle.
“I believe that you watch too much television, Hajji,” Azhim said rather severely.
Hajji shrugged. “There is often little for me to do besides housework and watching television, Azhim,” he pointed out.
“Next he’ll be eating bon-bons and sitting on the couch all day,” Bryan quipped.
Azhim frowned. “If you would learn to use the human device called a ‘computer’, Hajji, you would have more variety of entertainment,” he said.
Hajji looked sheepish. “I do not like such complicated devices, Azhim,” he replied uneasily.
Bryan laughed, patting him on the back. “Telly here is about as technologically oriented as my grandma,” he remarked to Trey. “And she can’t even program her DVD player. It’s sad.”
Hajji looked rather harassed, and Trey took pity on him. “It’s okay, Hajji,” he told the djinn earnestly. “Not everybody is cut out to be a tech wiz. I mean, I can use the internet and everything, but if something goes wrong I have to call Bry to fix it.”
Bryan snorted. “Yeah, I think that Trey’s cat is better with computers than he is,” he said teasingly.
Trey laughed at this, because his cat Cara(Short for Caramel) had walked on the keyboard of his computer the other day and had managed to do several things to it which he hadn’t been able to undo. Bryan had had to come over and fix it for him, commenting that the kitty was a natural programmer.
The waitress arrived just then, and they all gave their orders. Bryan ordered the beef stew, Trey a BLT, Azhim a chicken fried steak, and Hajji a club sandwich. When she left with their menus, Bryan took a sip from his water glass. “I’ve been thinking that Yul and I,” he remarked to Trey, “Should get a pet too. Then Hajji could be a slave to TWO creatures instead of one,” he shot a gleaming look at his own personal djinn, who kept his face blank.
Trey giggled. “What kind of pet?” he asked curiously.
Bryan shrugged. “Maybe a dog. Not a little yappy one - maybe a rottweiler or something.”
Trey’s brows shot up. “A rottweiler?!” he said incredulously. “Aren’t those kind of dangerous? And what if it attacks Cara?”
Bryan pursed his lips. “You have a point. Maybe an iguana?”
“A lizard? How can you love a lizard?” Trey said doubtfully. “You should get a cute pet, something fluffy. Like a hamster or a kitten.” he leaned forward over the table. “Besides,” he said softly, “There’s nothing funnier or cuter than watching a djinn get walked all over by a kitten.”
Bryan’s lips twitched as Azhim folded his arms over his massive chest and looked rather irritated. Trey’s cat Cara adored him, much to his chagrin. The beast had claimed him, and there was nothing that he could do about it because hurting or killing the creature would make Trey very angry and upset with him. If he wanted to annoy Hajji(and Bryan thoroughly enjoyed doing so as often as he could), getting a pet that irritated the djinn was crucial. Besides, he’d often laughed at the sight of Azhim walking around with Cara sitting on his shoulder like a furry shoulder ornament. Especially when the cat’s loud purring went along with Azhim’s faintly disgruntled expression…
“I’ll think about it,” he said, and Trey nodded.
After lunch, they left the diner and headed for Bryan’s car. They’d decided to all come in one vehicle rather than bothering to bring two, and Trey cradled his new cat figurine in his hands carefully. He’d carry it rather than put it with the rest of their shopping in the back of the SUV that Bryan had bought(Needing a vehicle big enough to be able to hold two djinn as well as he and his friend Trey), because he didn’t want it to get broken.
As they walked along, none of them noticed a sleek black vehicle pull up to the curb across the street. A single figure got out of the back and stood on the sidewalk stretching a little, before adjusting the cuffs on the very expensive dark suit that he was wearing. Then he ran a hand through his perfectly coiffed hair, smoothing the grey wings on either side of his head.
This man stepped away from his car, and as he did so he glanced around casually. Suddenly he came to a halt, an expression of shock on his face. His eyes were riveted on the people across the street, not on the two humans but on the two large, bald ‘men’ walking behind them. Then, as the shock passed, his eyes narrowed and a small smile slid over his mouth. “Well, well, well,” he murmured in a deep, cool voice. “What have we here? I never thought to see any of your kind again. Hmm, this is indeed fortuitous…” his eyes took on a devilish gleam, and deep in their depths a reddish light began to glow, “It seems that I have ‘hit the jackpot’. Excellent.”
He began to murmur under his breath, and at the same time twiddled his fingers in the air a bit. His smile never wavered as he pointed his forefinger at the slender human with the strawberry-blonde, wavy hair, and spoke a single Word. The spell raced toward its target, striking the human dead center in his chest. He stumbled a little, and the man’s smile widened slightly. “Bingo,” he rasped. “Dead on target, as they say,” then he turned around and got back into his car, speaking to his driver. He ordered the man to follow those humans wherever they might go.
Trey felt a sharp pain in his chest, and he stumbled. Bryan caught at his arm. “Hey, Trey. Are you all right?” he said anxiously, wondering why his friend had gone pale.
“I-I think so,” Trey said, a hand over his heart. “I’m okay now, Bry. I just…for a second there…I got a little dizzy.”
Azhim had come up behind him and set his hands on Trey’s shoulders. “Are you sure that you are well, Trey?” he asked, his brows furrowed.
Trey straightened up. “Yeah, I’m fine now,” he said, and it was(mostly) true. The weird pain and the accompanying dizziness had passed, leaving him feeling a little strange but not bad.
“Are you sure? We could take you to the hospital,” Bryan said in concern.
Trey shook his head. “Don’t be silly. Whatever it was, it was just a passing thing. I feel better already,” he said, lifting his head.
Azhim and Hajji exchanged skeptical looks behind his back. Bryan crossed his arms over his chest. “Okay, I’m not going to ask here, Trey. I’m taking you to the hospital. I just want to make sure that you’re all right,” he added.
Seeing how concerned they all were, Trey sighed. “Okay, Bry. Let’s go to the hospital,” he said, clearly humoring them.
An hour later, they all emerged from the local hospital as Trey said: “I told you guys I’m fine. They couldn’t find anything wrong with me.”
Bryan smiled and touched his arm. “I’m really glad that they didn’t find anything wrong, Trey,” he said. “We were just worried, that’s all.”
Trey nodded. “I know you were. Thanks for caring, everybody,” his eyes traveled over his friends and his lover as he said this.
Bryan patted his arm. “How could we not? Now let’s go home.”
Trey nodded, and they all headed for the SUV. Bryan started the engine as the djinn settled into the back seat. He pulled away from the curb, and none of them noticed when a sleek black car slid away from the curb farther down the street and followed them as they set off for home.
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