Chapter 4
"Little One," the voice in my dreams sounded delectable, desirable and delicious enough to make me moan. "We have much to achieve."
I rolled over, moaned again and refused to open my eyes. A finger stroked along my wrist in a tantalising caress. It felt so damn good.
"More." I might have mumbled my thoughts aloud.
"We do not have the time. I apologise, but I must awaken you."
The stroke on my wrist began again, until it became a sharp, jolting stab of pain. I sat up with a screech and clutched hold of my arm.
"Ouch!" I howled as I stared at my arm and rubbed at the sore spot.
"Little One, we must begin your introduction to the Realm, and we cannot waste any time." That damn, delectable voice that I prayed was only a dream spoke to me.
"You don't exist. You're just a dream." I tried to convince myself.
"I am no illusion, Little One. You promised to help me retrieve my lamp, so we must start your introduction into the Realm."
I glanced at him, and realised he had told me the truth. A groan echoed around me. It took me a moment to notice that the noise came from me. I so didn't want to face this new reality of mine. My hopes of having a nap, and pretending that I'd never met a genie called Jene had been a high priority for me. Unfortunately, it didn't seem a possibility that I could avoid the truth.
"Ugh!" I shoved a hand into my strawberry blonde hair.
"Little One, ignoring me will in no way make me disappear." Jene started talking again.
I dared a glance at him, and I had to admit that he overwhelmed me. He still had on that genie gear of his. It took me a moment to look past that broad, mostly naked chest of his.
Ever since I'd met him earlier that day, I had somehow managed to ignore that outfit. Now I couldn't. Maybe it was a way to avoid dealing with the strange reality thrust at me today.
"I can't deal with this when you're dressed like that." I waved a hand towards him.
"What bothers you with my outfit? This is our most traditional dress." He appeared offended.
"For me, you look ridiculous." I pointed to his costume.
"Little One, my dress is the least important issue we need to deal with today."
"It is to me!" I declared in a louder voice than necessary.
"Fine, will this aid you to accept me?"
I blinked and when my eyes reopened, Jene stood in front of me a changed man. He wore dark blue jeans that smoothed over his butt in the most perfect way. His collared shirt was the same colour as his eyes and barely fit against his broad chest. My mouth flopped open.
In all honesty, normal clothes only managed to emphasise his perfection. His eyes shone brighter against the blue of his shirt. I sat there admiring the handsomest man I'm sure I've ever seen in my life.
"You need to change back. It's much harder to focus on you when you look normal." I declared in a throaty voice that I had to clear.
Once I'd done ogling him, I swished my hands his way. His eyebrows raised as he considered me with an unnerving stare. When a cheeky smirk filled his face, I had to try hard not to let it affect me.
"You find me attractive, Little One." It wasn't a question. He knew, and that made me need to stifle a moan.
"That's not what this is about." I denied as I made another desperate swishing motion.
"Are you certain?" his voice turned even silkier and irresistible.
For a long second, I could only stare at him. This man or genie or whatever the hell he was, by God, he was just too much for me to deal with. Too handsome, too perfect, too everything that I didn't need in my life.
"Just change back, and tell me about this mysterious realm of yours." I tried to keep my voice bland, but by his smirk, I knew he didn't believe me.
In another blink, Jene returned to his apparently traditional genie garb. I didn't know if it was worse or better. It made him look more unreal, so I guess it was better for me. The last thing I needed was to find this hunk of genie too attractive.
"If you are willing to listen, then I shall talk." Jene said.
"I need to eat, so you can talk to me while I cook." I gestured to the kitchen.
Grabbing the ingredients from the fridge and pantry turned into a great distraction for me. Noticing the rice, I decided to whip up a risotto. Aunt Chloe was the one who had taught me how to cook. That made me think of earlier.
"How did my aunt know you?" I swivelled around to ask Jene.
"Your aunt. How do I explain her?" Jene mused to himself for a long moment. "She had a curiosity about how your stepbrother came to have an involvement with your family." As Jene spoke, his left hand twitched. His words sounded like someone grasping for an impossible answer.
"She never liked Harrison, but then neither did I."
"That truth I have understood for quite a while," that amused him, although I didn't know why. "She enquired about why such a... now what was the word she used?" he went quiet for a moment. "Ah, yes, turd. She enquired about why such a turd would continue to have the use of my lamp. Once I explained the situation, I realised that she wanted to know about the well-being of her family."
"It's good to know that she's still looking out for me. She was the closest I'd ever come to having a mother. My mum died soon after I was born. It's always been the three of us. Dad, Aunt Chloe and me." I reminisced.
"About your aunt." Jene went back to appearing as green as he did when we discussed my name.
"What about her?" I gave him my full attention.
"Perhaps we should discuss it another time." Jene cleared his throat.
"You're starting to worry me with that look." I pointed at his pained expression.
"Try not to concern yourself. We should start our discussion of the Realm." Jene quickly changed the subject.
"Fine, get on with it." I said as I started to chop up mushrooms.
"The Realm is on another plane of time from your known world. Before you can go there, I have to apply a barrier of spells around you for your protection." He paused the moment my phone beeped.
I grabbed hold of my phone, waved a hand for him to continue, and glanced down at the text. 'You ready for us tonight?', my friend Tammy Lee sent me, and I groaned.
In a few hours, my life had gone belly up in the most obscure way, and I wasn't sure how to answer her. My friends expected a party with it being the end of another term. I had always offered my place as our party residence. Now what was I going to do?
"Whatever is the matter?" Jene asked, disturbing the rush of thoughts that had overtaken me.
"I promised my friends that we'd have a pool party to celebrate the start of summer holidays." I replied.
"It was never my plan to interfere in your life. We do not need to rush our visit to the Realm. You may do whatever you desire, Little One. Due to the wish made, I must stay close to you often, which is my only issue." Jene explained.
"What exactly was Harrison's wish about me?"
Jene snapped his fingers and once again, the huge scroll appeared in his hands, "the wish states: I wish for you to keep my sister amused all summer by acting as me. He then followed with his next wish: I wish you'd cause that bitch so much trouble that she stops badgering me." Jene then clicked his fingers again and the scroll disappeared.
I went silent as I mused over those wishes. Truthfully, I did annoy Harrison a lot. Mostly with text messages when I saw ads for his stupid show, and the behaviour he flaunted to the world.
I avoided seeing him in person because he always made me angry. I blamed him for the terrible shows that dad directed now. It seems I had a good reason to assume the worst too. That stupid show had to be one of his dumb wishes.
"Are you well, Little One?" Jene asked.
I pursed my lips and considered him, "how long has Harrison had your lamp? I figure he wished to be a part of a rich family, which is why we ended up with the idiot.
"At age fourteen, your stepbrother... please, hold that thought. He requires more of my time." Jene disappeared with a huff.
With Jene gone, it gave me time to think. I continued cooking, and that repetitive motion opened my mind to the events of today. My mind kept wanting to return to how handsome he appeared, even in his ridiculous outfit. Pushing those thoughts aside took a great deal of effort.
"It will never cease to amuse me." Jene said as he reappeared in front of me with his puff of smoke.
"What's that?" I asked with a cough as I swished at the smoke.
"I apologise, but I always appear as such."
"That's okay, what's amusing you?"
"Humans." He chortled.
"Hey! I'm human." I had to try to defend my species.
"If only you were just human." He made a clicking noise with his tongue.
I stopped stirring the food and stared at him. What was it about him that distracted me so easily? It wasn't that he criticised humanity, or that he thought I wasn't all human. That clicking of the tongue, something was so darn sexy about the way he did that. It swivelled my thoughts into a far too naughty area.
I cleared my throat, and tried not to think sexual thoughts about the genie who took up too much of my kitchen. Recalling our discussion of the magic carpet ride earlier made me shiver in delight. It was so hard not to think sexy thoughts with him standing next to me.
"Humans are as fickle and fleeting as a breeze. They have no fortitude. The greed of them exceeds anything I have ever known before." Jene declared, but I had trouble focusing on anything but the movement of his lips.
"If you've dealt with Harrison since he was fourteen, then I understand why you have that opinion. He's a terrible example of humanity." I agreed.
"Now I shall answer your previous question. At age fourteen, your stepbrother found my lamp at a garage sale. He didn't know what he held until he started to clean the lamp. The boy had hoped to sell it, instead, I appeared to make his wishes come true. His first wish you deemed quite correctly, he did wish to be a part of a rich family." Jene started to tell me his tale.
"Why did you choose us?" I asked as I turned my attention back to the risotto.
"Time in the Realm runs differently to the human world. I can pause time here, and investigate the best answer to a humans wish before I deliver the wish." He avoided answering my direct question.
"Why did you pick me and my father?" I firmed my voice, and he paused for a long moment.
"Sometimes, I must appease others." He replied before his face hardened.
"What does that mean?" I stopped stirring and stared at him.
"I cannot answer your question." He turned aloof and stared out over my head.
"Don't act all evasive. If you want my help then you need to answer my questions." I pointed my spoon at him.
"Fine, I had no choice. Your family were the chosen ones, and I could say nothing against the choice." He admitted as he slashed an irritated hand through the air.
"It's your wish, why don't you have a say?"
"Little One, I am not the only one involved in what happens to human wishes." He crossed his arms and focused those intent blue eyes on me.
"Then why did you have to kill all of those people from the first human who got a hold of your lamp?" I pointed out.
Jene deflated, almost turning in upon himself, "soon after that massacre, the rules changed. For large wishes that involve other humans, a decision requires discussion before the genie grants the wish. The She-Gen can overrule a genies choice. That, Little One, is what happened with your stepbrothers first wish. She-Gen insisted yes. I stated no, and she overruled me. Your family became the first wish." Jene sounded matter of fact, but I saw his eyes narrow.
"Why did you have a problem with us?"
Jene started staring over my shoulder again and that annoyed me. I knew he wanted to evade me, and to avoid answering my questions.
"Don't answer then!" I snapped feeling quite rejected.
"Little One."
"Don't patronise me because that'll just piss me off." I continued snapping because I didn't want to admit that Jene ignoring me had hurt me.
"What would you like to know about the Realm?" he changed topics.
I wondered if it was worth arguing my point when he had clammed up and said nothing. I didn't want it to hurt when this odd, too gorgeous for his own good, genie wouldn't tell me the truth. The trouble was it kept stinging. The one thing I wanted was honesty, but he kept offering evasion.
"What do you need to tell me? Tell me what I need to prepare myself for in this Realm of yours." I packed my words with sarcasm, but he chose to ignore my tone.
"The Realm is a mystical place that humans either fear or disbelieve."
"Sounds wonderful." I drawled.
"It has a magnificence all of its own."
"Jene, you don't have to sell it to me as if I want to buy it. What do I need to know about it to survive?" I asked once again.
He winced a little, gulped and made another pause before answering, "you need to know." He trailed off and twitched a little bit.
"Why does this make you so uncomfortable? You're the one who said you needed to tell me about the Realm, so get on with it."
"When we go to the Realm, you must watch me and never look away from me. There are beings over there who hunt and steal from any genie. They will do anything to take a genies possessions, especially their lamp." He explained with the most serious expression.
"What happened to the lamps only friend being the genie?" I interrupted.
"You had to let me finish talking." He chided.
I held my hands up before focusing on serving my meal, "it's all yours."
"Taking the lamp or something valuable to a genie to gain wishes is quite a normal, but deplorable state of affairs. Many will still attempt such a feat. Very few in the Realm have magic. Many are also unhappy with the balance. This is why I must stress the importance of you doing as I tell you when we are in the Realm." Jene explained.
"Sounds exactly like human kind." I had to point out.
"There are many similarities, I must agree." Jene nodded his head.
Sitting down at the table, I both considered his words and started consuming my delicious meal. Jene watched me with a growing intensity, and it started to unnerve me.
"May I ask what that tastes like?" he enquired.
"Sorry, did you want some?" I realised how rude I'd been and I winced.
"I cannot consume human food without becoming ill. I have great curiosity over something with such a delightful aroma."
I relaxed and faced him, "that's why you didn't try the orange juice earlier." I clicked the events together in my mind.
"Correct."
"How to describe mushroom risotto? Hmmm, it's creamy but the mushrooms give it an earthy quality. I like it a lot," I told him before scooping more into my mouth. "Do you have to go to your elusive Realm to eat?"
"Yes, I shall perhaps leave to quiet my hunger." He mused.
"Okay."
Before the word had left my mouth, he disappeared. I could only wonder how long it would take me to get used to having Jene's constant disappearing act in my life. With a sigh, I continued my meal and considered my much more confusing life.