Free Possessed by Desire by Elisabeth Naughton Page B

being left out. But he’d never done anything to prove himself worthy of inclusion, now had he?
    Not until he’d gone looking for them and had been taken prisoner himself. And look how that had turned out.
    “Ashur, we need to talk.”
    His jaw clenched. He especially hated that the angel was behind him right now, when he was dealing with all this shit and couldn’t get away from her. “No, we need to leave.”
    “I understand you’re upset with Tariq, but things are not what they seem.”
    He whirled on his heel, and all that anger he’d been saving for Tariq was unleashed on her. “How do you know him? Why did he call you? Start talking, noor , because I’m not feeling all nice and agreeable like I was before.”
    Her blue eyes held his, luminescent eyes that seemed to sparkle under the moonlight, but he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. Doubted he’d ever be able to. “Mira was bound to the firebrand opal. She came to me, months ago, because she wanted to know if there was a way to free Tariq.”
    “Why you? Does she know what you are?”
    She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “No, none of them know, not even Tariq. I’m a history and folklore professor at a university in Florida. She found me through the Internet, knew I’d published research about djinn.”
    His eyes narrowed. “Why? What is your fascination with my race aside from wanting to steal our powers?”
    She breathed out a sigh and folded her arms over her breasts. “I don’t want to steal your powers, Ashur. I told you that. Not all celestial beings have ulterior motives.”
    “And not all Ghuls are depraved.”
    One corner of her mouth curled. “Nasir’s mate is Ghul, and she didn’t look overly depraved to me.”
    She hadn’t looked depraved to Ashur either. She’d looked timid and nervous and as shell-shocked as he felt.
    He shook off the thought. No matter how she’d seemed , she was still Ghul, and he’d spent enough time in Zoraida’s dungeons to know Ghuls scraped the bottom of the djinn gene pool. “So she found you. What does that have to do with my backstabbing brother?”
    “Ashur.” She tipped her head, and pity crept into her eyes. “He didn’t forget about you. When Mira discovered a way to free Tariq from the opal, Zoraida showed up to claim Mira’s soul. There was a battle, but they won, and they trapped the firebrand opal—this opal” —she touched the gem at her neck— “along with the sorceress in a bottle. But it fell overboard and washed out to sea before they could stop it. Yes, Tariq chose to give up his throne and stay in the human realm so he could be with Mira, but he also stayed for you. Because he was desperate to find that bottle and figure out a way to free you. He couldn’t have done that from the djinn realm.”
    Ashur had a hard time believing what he was hearing. But then he was still having trouble comprehending the fact Nasir was alive. He had so many questions about that—about how his brother had escaped from the Pits of Jahannam and why Zoraida hadn’t yet called him back.
    Claire moved a half step forward. “Every moment Tariq stays in the human world, he loses his djinn powers and becomes more human. Soon he won’t be able to cross back to your realm at all. He’s been frantically searching for that bottle since it was lost.”
    Ashur thought back to the surprise in Tariq’s eyes when he’d stepped in the room. Then to the fact his brother hadn’t once fought back when Ashur had attacked him. Doubt pushed against him from every side.
    Then he remembered the guilt he’d seen on Claire’s face when Tariq’s voice had interrupted them back on that island. “Why were you the one to find it? And if you know of my brothers and the sorceress, why did you act like you didn’t know who I was?”
    Unease rushed over her face, and she looked down at the pine needles beneath her sandals. “Because I honestly didn’t know who you were when you showed up on my beach. I