A Shade of Vampire 31: A Twist of Fates Read Online Free PDF Page B

waved nervously back—before turning and running into the desert.
    I was still a man. I considered turning into a werewolf, but since jinn also had the appearance of men and women, I decided to remain as I was. Perhaps it would make dealings easier with them.
    I ran and ran, until the ocean was long out of sight. I traveled up and down steep dunes, gazing around at the desolate landscape and wondering where in this place I could find the jinn.
    I began to shout out into the night. “Help! I need help! I have come seeking a jinni! Please, someone, reveal yourself!”
    As I traveled, I found myself crossing a number of strange, eerie creatures that lurked in the dark. Lots of snakes, poisonous-looking beetles, and strange hopping creatures that I struggled to even describe. Two long legs. Thin arms that extended into flat, webbed hands. Their heads had bizarre frills attached to their sides. They looked somewhat like lizards and yet they were quite different. My shouting drew a pack of them close to me. They tried to launch at me while flailing horrifyingly long, white tongues, but I was able to outrun them and shake them off my trail.
    I continued my venture throughout the night until finally, as the first signs of dawn lit up the horizon, my wish was granted.
    A jinni manifested before me, a man with ebony skin, a broad chest, and a proud face. He looked down at me, quirking a brow.
    “And who are you to roam the land of The Dunes?”
    “Sir,” I said, bowing my head in respect. “My name is Bastien Blackhall.” I still found it difficult to use the name Mortclaw. “I am a werewolf. Excuse me for intruding on your land, but I have come to seek a favor.”
    The jinni’s brows knotted as he looked me over. “You have come seeking a wish to be granted?”
    “Yes,” I said, eyeing him warily. “You could put it like that.”
    “What have you to offer in return?”
    My heart lowered. Although I wasn’t naïve enough to think that all people were as charitable as those who lived in The Shade, I had held out a small hope that perhaps someone here might just do me a favor for a favor’s sake, without expecting something in return.
    What could I offer such a creature in return? I had nothing. Nothing but my skin and bones.
    I ran a tongue over my lower lip before replying tentatively, “What would you seek of me?”
    “That will depend on what kind of service you wish to be rendered.” He glanced around the desert. “But let us not linger up here. Let us go somewhere more comfortable. You might be a stranger, but since you have ventured into Drizan territory, we will hear you out.”
    Drizan? We? Territory? What territory? All around me for as far as I could see was nothing but desert. Desert and dunes.
    The jinni began to sweep across the sand, leading me onward, until I caught something glinting in the moonlight on the ground. A giant, golden medallion depicting a scorpion. As the jinni stooped down and opened it up, he revealed it to be a trap door. He gestured to me to step inside and follow him down a staircase.
    “For now,” he said, his dark lips parting in a courteous smile, “be our guest.”

Bastien
    I did not trust this man. Not in the slightest. But I had come all this way to seek out a jinni, and I had finally found one. I was hardly going to back down now. I just had to pull through this, and hope that it would lead me somewhere better than where I had started.
    “I will take you to see my king,” the jinni announced as he led me down into an entrance hall whose beauty had me gaping. Diamonds and gems shimmered in every corner. I had never even dreamed of such luxury.
    As the jinni led me deeper into what appeared to be an underground palace, my mind only continued to be blown away by the sheer extravagance of the way these creatures lived. How had they even gathered such wealth in the first place?
    We traveled down countless hallways, passing many other lavishly dressed jinn along the way—jinn