Loretta of the Lamp

I'll be fine

[Akil's POV...sort of...]

Akil woke. It had taken him an age to get to sleep, and now he was wide awake again, staring at the decaying roof above him. Bennou was fast asleep on the far side of the fire, and Loretta had curled up in the space between the fire and the balcony, eager for the warmth. And eager to be as far away from him as she could comfortably be, just like always.

He stretched and turned to move his back from the heat of the fire.

Loretta was not on her blanket. He started with surprise when he realised she was sitting on the edge of the balcony.

He got up quietly and walked over to her, "Loretta," he whispered.

The last thing he wanted to do was startle her while she was perched on the edge of a two hundred foot drop.

She turned as he called her name.

"Loretta, what are you doing?"

What he did not expect when she looked at him, was the radiant smile across her face.

"What?" he asked, of the smile.

She blinked silently and turned back to her view of the desert.

"Loretta, come off the edge," he was hesitant to take hold of her for the unexplained magic between them when they touched. He knew she disliked how it felt even more than he did.

She pulled a curl out of the messy bun on her head and began to twist it through her fingers. It was a thing he had not seen her do before.

"Loretta?" he repeated, his voice full of question.

"Is she sleep walking?" Bennou asked quietly, appearing behind him.

Akil shrugged, "I wouldn't like to think so." He knew he shouldn't be surprised that Bennou was awake.

"Well, get her off there!" Bennou whispered back.

"You do it," Akil gestured.

"Me?"

Akil sighed, "She really doesn't like it when I touch her, and if she is asleep, it will be a rude awakening."

Bennou smiled and shook his head, "That is the strangest story I've ever heard."

Akil looked him straight in the eyes, "We are not what you think," he said, his voice hard.

Bennou rolled his eyes, "I know."

Akil turned back to Loretta, and followed her silent smile out into the desert to see what she was looking at.

His voice changed in urgency as he reached out a protective hand in front of her chest, "Grab her now Bennou. This story is about to get even stranger."

Bennou moved quick, wrapping both arms around Loretta' waist and hauling her off the edge.

Unexpectedly, Loretta screamed.

In the valley below, the three shadows she had been watching all turned their faces up to the top of the tower.

Akil watched with horror as they began to move toward the rocks. He turned to Bennou, "They are coming!"

Bennou couldn't respond, he was struggling to hold Loretta.

"Let me go," Loretta begged, her face still plastered with the ridiculous smile.

Bennou winced as Akil slapped her smartly across the face.

"Wake up Loretta!" He shook his head at her, "You said I could trust you!"

"She doesn't know what you are saying," Bennou warned him.

Akil nodded, "I know. It doesn't change that I want to tell her. She lied, because clearly she was kissed by it."

Bennou shook his head, "I give you my word Akil, I did not see it happen."

"You were not there the whole time."

"I saw when it attacked her. I stopped at the top of the dune where she fell asleep and I woke as soon as she screamed. I swear the creature did not kiss her."

"But I wanted it to!" Loretta announced.

Bennou held her tighter around her waist and Akil just looked at her, lost for words.

"We need to do something!" Bennou shouted at him. In the valley below the three Jin were already starting to climb the rocks at the base of the hermitage.

Akil took her face between his hands. She screamed with the pain of his touch, struggling against Bennou wildly. "Loretta! Look at me. You said it didn't kiss you." She continued to writhe and struggle, and finally the feeling was too much even for Akil, and he let her go.

"Did you enjoy that?" she asked in a mocking voice when she looked back up at him. Her face was glistening with sweat, and the loose tendrils of her hair clung to her skin.

He glared at her while he struggled to manage the electrical pulses still running through him. "You said the Jin did not kiss you!"

She closed her eyes and inhaled a desperate lungful of air through her teeth.

Akil shook his head at her and walked back to the edge of the balcony to look down. The Jin were climbing the towers, straight up the rocks on all fours.

"Let me go Bennou," Loretta said, suddenly spinning in Bennou's arms and turning to face him. She wrapped her arms around his neck, exposing the white mark of the kiss on her arm.

"Your arm! Loretta!" Bennou exclaimed. "Uh, Akil–" he turned his face away from her awkwardly as she nuzzled into his neck. "Akil!" he repeated desperately.

"Don't let her go!" Akil commanded him, as he extracted a burning log from the fire and rolled it towards the balcony with his foot.

"They are climbing up the outside of the tower?" Bennou asked in wonder as Akil frantically smashed the log into bricks of burning charcoal and began to place them onto the edge of the balcony with Bennou's cooking tongs.

"They want me," Loretta told Bennou, pulling back from him and looking up into his eyes. She tilted her head to the side and watched him with a smile.

"Akil!" Bennou yelled again, "I'm really not comfortable with this. She is not in her right mind."

"It was only a tiny kiss," Loretta whispered to him.

"She sounds like she is drunk," said Bennou.

"Have you ever had to deal with someone who has been kissed by a Jin before?" Akil asked him.

Bennou shook his head.

"Well neither have I."

"Still, you deal with her," he spun her back around to face Akil, and she tumbled to the ground, taking Bennou with her.

Akil knelt to help them up. Loretta bit her lip as she looked up into his face, and her eyes smouldered. "Just let me go, Akil," she reached out her free hand to place it confidently on his thigh.

He pushed her away. She was so desperate to answer the Jin's call that the shock of their touch did not even seem bother her now.

Bennou sighed as Akil got up and walked back to the balcony. "Please Akil, I would rather fight the Jin than deal with this."

Akil looked at him, "Tie her to the column, and tie her tight. We will both need to fight if we are going to survive this."

"Don't tie me up!" Loretta begged, "I'll be fine!" she shouted as Bennou wrestled her to one of the three columns that held up the door frame of the balcony. Akil took a rope from his pack, and they bound her to it.

"I'll behave!" she cried.

"If we leave her like this, she doesn't have a hope if we cannot beat them back." Bennou warned as he tested the knots.