A Shade of Vampire 24: A Bridge of Stars Read Online Free PDF Page A

the power of jinn to imprison their slaves. It was no surprise as she glanced at her tattoo.
    “We are bound by a curse… at least, those of us left.” A sob escaped her throat.
    “What do you mean?”
    She brushed her leaking eyes with the back of one hand. “Cyrus, he… he k-killed Bahir. In front of us. In front of Nuriya.”
    Learning of Bahir’s demise came as a blow. I owed my life to that jinni. Poor man. I’d never even gotten a chance to thank him.
    “I-I have to go,” the jinni breathed, glancing around anxiously and beginning to move away.
    “Wait,” I whispered. “Are you really telling me there’s no way for you to escape? There must be some way.”
    She cast one last fleeting glance at me, her eyes wide with fear. “There’s only one way to free us and that is… to slay Cyrus.”
    After dropping that pile of bricks, she hurried away, leaving me staring after her.
    Slay Cyrus.
    Great.

Ben
    R eturning to the others waiting by the portal, I explained to them what I’d learned from one of the female jinn, albeit leaving out the details about how the Nasiris’ family were being treated, for Aisha’s sake.
    “So,” I concluded, “we need to kill Cyrus.”
    My words were met with silence. Jeriad, disappointingly, didn’t have any advice to offer. Even Aisha had pursed her lips.
    “Well?” I asked the shifter and the jinni. “Don’t you have any ideas?”
    “He would kill you first,” Aisha said.
    “But jinn can be killed?” I pressed.
    “Of course they can be killed,” Aisha said, rolling her eyes as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. “They can be killed, just like any supernatural can be ended, but only while they are manifested in their physical forms. Flesh and bone. You could stab one in the chest, chop off the head; there are boundless options, but… Cyrus? Not only does he possess powers above all other jinn, his physical prowess is second to none.”
    I paused, mulling over her words. “What if I just snuck up on him while he was asleep and slit his throat? That would kill him?”
    “Yes,” Aisha said. “But I assure you, it would not be that simple.”
    “It’s the same with ghouls,” Marcilla murmured behind me. “They can only be killed when they’re in their solid state.”
    “So we need to pick a moment when Cyrus is in his solid state,” I said, thinking back to when I had seen him just now. At least his top half had been manifest—and seemed solid. The thought gave way to another question that had been at the back of my mind ever since I’d first laid eyes on jinn.
    “Why are your bottom halves perpetually covered by mist?” I asked Aisha. “Or do you not have bottom halves?”
    She sighed, glancing down at her own wispy lower body. “We do. But we keep them covered because, well, it’s just the way of the jinn. Tradition, if you like. We keep our lower half hidden from everyone but our sworn life partner. In most cases that means a husband or wife.”
    I never would’ve guessed that was the reason. If chastity was their concern, I wondered why they could not just cover up with clothes, like humans did. But who was I to judge? “I see,” I said, my eyes roaming her smoky trail. “So you do have legs and feet, just like humans?”
    “Uh-huh,” Aisha said.
    “Okay.” My curiosity satisfied, I shook away the thought and turned my mind back to more important matters. “So I will need to follow Cyrus around and wait for him to turn his back, or something… I guess…” I was grasping at straws.
    “Remember that you will also have to assume a solid form in order to kill his,” Aisha said. “And I suspect that, like jinn and ghoul, fae can also be killed in their physical bodies.”
    That was something I had not even considered yet. Of course, I would need to be solid in order to assault him in the first place.
    “Remember his superlative powers,” Aisha went on. “While you… well, to be honest, I don’t even know if fae