Free djinn wars 02 - taken by Christine Pope

your things in from your car,” Lauren said, leading me down a hallway that clearly led to a block of hotel rooms. “She’s already set in her own room, and you’re just a few doors down.”
    “So are all of the Chosen staying here at the resort?” I asked.
    “Not all. There are a few more up the street at the Taos Inn. We were a lot more scattered around the town, using vacant houses and B&Bs and whatever was most appealing, but then Zahrias was concerned after four of our Chosen disappeared when they went to Los Alamos, so he made us all move where we would be closer together.”
    From a tactical standpoint, that made sense. You wouldn’t want your forces spread out all over town. On the other hand, nice as this hotel was, it had to feel sort of cramped to be stuck in a single room after having a house all to yourself.
    “Here we are,” she went on, opening a door for me. “We’ve disabled the outer locks because we didn’t want to mess around with key cards, but you can still lock the door from the inside.”
    Seeing the room that had been waiting for me, I thought I might have to revise that “cramped” judgment when it came to these hotel rooms. I had no idea how much they varied from room to room, but mine was very large, much bigger than the apartment I’d lived in over my parents’ garage, and had a kiva-style fireplace in one corner, a little sitting area with a chair and love seat, and an enormous carved bed. Gazing at it, I wished with all my soul that Jace could be here to share that bed with me.
    He will, I told myself fiercely. You’ll find him, and rescue him, and then you can test out that bed and see how it compares to the one back in Santa Fe.
    For some reason, though, that thought made me worried rather than hopeful. What if I couldn’t rescue him? After all, it wasn’t as if Zahrias had offered me any helpful advice on the subject. No, more the reverse. I could tell he didn’t think I would be successful, that I was intent on carrying out a fool’s mission.
    Well, I looked forward to proving him wrong.
    Something must have shifted in my expression, because Lauren gave me what she probably thought was an understanding smile. “It must be hard, being separated from your partner. But we’re having a big dinner in about a half hour. Please come and join us. It’ll help take your mind off things.”
    I sort of doubted that a turkey dinner would soothe my woes, but I’d already resolved to eat a good meal and get some rest, so I didn’t bother to contradict her. Summoning a smile of my own, I said, “That sounds great. Where are you having the dinner?”
    “In the restaurant here, De La Tierra. You can follow the signs to find it. And one of our Chosen was actually a chef down in Santa Fe, so it’ll be good. Philip is awesome.”
    Right then, any kind of hot meal sounded awesome, especially one I didn’t have to prepare myself. “Great,” I told her. “I’ll get myself straightened up a little, and then I’ll come find you all.”
    “Perfect,” she said, with another one of those bright, blazing smiles, then let herself out. I had no idea what her story was, and I didn’t know if I’d have the time to find out, but clearly she wasn’t having too many issues with being Chosen, with having a djinn lover.
    Or maybe she was just one of those people who happened to be really good at hiding what she was actually thinking.
    Either way, it wasn’t really my problem. More pressing was the realization that all I’d brought for a change of clothes was another pair of jeans and a bulky gray sweater. I hadn’t really been thinking I’d need a party wardrobe on this trip.
    Oh, well. As I’d told myself earlier, I wasn’t here to impress anyone. I’d packed things that were warm and serviceable. If the Chosen here couldn’t handle that, it was their problem, not mine.
    Someone knocked at the door as I was brushing the tangles out of my hair. I went to see who it was and nearly