Free Burn With Me by R. G. Alexander Page B

Shit. I’m going with you. Whatever the hell this is? He is? I’m in or it’s no deal.”
    She looked up to find Greg kneeling beside the both of them, his hand on Penn’s knee, offering comfort. “This is too crazy. Too dangerous. I can’t ask.”
    He nodded, his face still on the pale side, but his gaze determined. “You’re my best friend, Aziza Jane. I made a promise, so you don’t have to ask. You never have to ask.”
    His temple pulsed with restrained frustration. “This is not the way I imagined this leg of our trip turning out, you know. I was going to have Penn convince you to go to your family’s property so I could selfishly take a break from your usual brand of nerve-wracking fun and get some work done. I didn’t see spirit possession or fire starting anywhere on our itinerary. I didn’t see Jinn .”
    He was trying to lighten the mood for Penn, she knew, but it fell flat. None of them had been prepared for this. It still didn’t seem real. Invisible lovers who followed you home, hands that caught on fire but didn’t burn, people that simply vanished before you could blink…this was a movie. A novel. This wasn’t real life.
    Jinn were her mother’s demons? Jinn? Ram hadn’t seemed anything like a Jinn. Genie? However you said it, it didn’t seem real. How could any of it be true?
    What did seem real was the danger. She held her aunt closer. “Penn, you should go there now. The Stewart place. Take Hillary and get out of the city. You shouldn’t be around this. If I’d known—I swear if I’d known I wouldn’t have come here.”
    Her mother had told her not to come. Had warned her.
    Penn shook her head and pushed away from Aziza’s embrace. “Are you having me on now? Telling me to run off with my girlfriend, quick as you like, while you and Mr. Prophet go and sort it all out, is that the plan? You don’t even know where he wants to meet.”
    She stood abruptly, wiping her tears away while Aziza and Greg looked on in silence. “But I do. I’ll ring Hill and send her up on holiday. She loves the place, and if I tell her it’s important, she’ll listen. She’s been dying to spend more time at the house anyway. But I’m not leaving you behind.”
    Penn pointed out the window, her voice growing louder and more adamant with each moment that passed. “I don’t know what’s happening. I saw it with my own eyes but…I will not be scared off by that thing. Not now when I know that Emma was…well, she was right, wasn’t she? You’re family, Aziza. The only one left I care to know. I can handle this.”
    “Penn, I’m not sure I can handle this. And I know I can’t handle seeing anything happen to you.” Aziza looked to Greg for help and he nodded in understanding.
    “We’ll call,” he promised. “We’ll tell you everything that happens. And I promise, the second we figure this out we’ll join you.” Penn opened her mouth to argue, but Greg stopped her with his words. “You’re all she has left in the family department. If you stay, come with us, that’s the only thing she’ll be thinking about.”
    Her aunt sighed. “She has you, though, doesn’t she? No matter what she decides to do, whether you agree or not, whether you understand or not, you’re stuck to her side. Aziza’s big American bodyguard.”
    “Damn straight.”
    Penn made a sound of frustration and stomped one booted foot, but Aziza could see she wasn’t as vehement as she’d been a moment ago. Greg had made his point. Aziza needed to know that Penn was safe and taken care of in case anything happened to her tonight.
    She reached up to touch her new accessory, trying not to think about the fact that—whether Ram was a demon or Jinn—he hadn’t been a dream. What they’d done to each other hadn’t been a dream. She pressed her thighs together when the image of him flipping her onto her back, his eyes brilliant with lust and demand, flashed in her mind.
    After she found out what was going on, she