Chapter 1

 

 

A long black satin ceremonial robe covered her naked body as Clarissa carefully painted, in blood, the seal of Solomon on the hardwood floor. The grimoire was very specific that everything was to be done as instructed for the invocation to be successful. If done incorrectly it could 'at best' not work. But, at worst... Clarissa wasn't about to consider the 'at worst' scenario. It was going to work. It had to.

Clarissa had followed the directions right down to the most miniscule of details. She had not lain with a man since the previous full moon. That part had been very easy since she hadn't lain with a man in over two years, not since her husband's untimely death. She had just gotten out of a bath sprinkled with a dozen distinct herbs and oils, having waited four months to perform the ritual on the third full moon of the new year.

The seal consisted of two interlocked triangles, one upright and one inverted. Inside the triangles were a number of symbols, Arabic words, and names, all used by King Solomon himself, centuries ago whenever he required the assistance of the Djinn.

Once she completed painting the final of the markings she took a step back to inspect her work. Consulting her grimoire she verified that she had indeed made it as perfect as it could possibly be, considering it was human blood, not paint, that she was working with.

Human blood, thick and tacky, proved to be a challenging medium to paint with. In order to obtain the blood she'd had to pay someone a thousand dollars to 'retrieve' two blood bags from the local hospital. Buying stolen blood wasn't the proudest moment in her life, but she was forced to take drastic measures. Most people never contemplate the lengths to which they'd go if they were out of options and out of time.

Clarissa was out of options, and seriously low on time.

Once satisfied with the seal, she began to inspect it, ensuring that the circle was completely intact. Any break in the circle could allow for a number of undesired things to happen; including possession or simply death to the summoner if the particular Djinn or, the Gods forbid, a demon were to be invoked if an error was made during the ritual.

A ring of salt also outlined the circle. Salt also helped protect entities from entering a circle. It was better to be safe than sorry. As the old saying went: an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure. The circle itself was exactly six feet in diameter, so there was plenty of room inside for herself, her grimoire and writing materials, in the event that she might need them.

All the lights were out in the small house she owned in a quiet little residential area of Boston, Mass. She ensured that anything electrical was unplugged as it could interfere with the mystical energy she was about to give off, by opening the portal between this world and the world of the Djinn.

Finally satisfied all was in order, Clarissa loaded her arms with all she would need inside the circle, took a deep breath and entered. Six black candles were placed, one at each of the six points of the seal. Taking a match she quickly lit all six of the candles. When finished with the candle lighting she seated herself exactly in the middle of the two intersecting stars.

To say she was nervous would be an understatement; she felt as if her heart was about to explode in her chest from the anxiety. Taking a number of deep breaths, she attempted to calm herself. From what Clarissa had been told, Djinn were very perceptive; one would easily see her as an easy target if she couldn't keep her emotions under control and her wits about her.

I can do this, I can do this, she thought repeatedly as though the words were on a sound loop within her head, until she was breathing normally, her mind clear.

Once she had herself under control she produced a black satin pouch from an inside pocket of her robe. Carefully she opened the pouch and shook the contents into her hand. It was a silver ring with a large oval onyx stone. This is what she planned to bind the Djinn to when it arrived. She looked the ring over one final time. Satisfied with it, she dropped it into a bowl of earth, dug up from the local cemetery. Again, the retrieval of the earth from hallowed grounds was far from one of her shining moments.

She was ready to begin the invocation.

Despite having the grimoire in front of her to read from, she had memorized the Arabic words that were required to bring about the Djinn. Closing her eyes she began to concentrate her energy on the vision of opening a portal. She continued to recite the words until the reciting turned into a chant.

She could feel a strange energy build up in the room. The air became heavy, almost suffocating. She felt nauseated, but pushed on. Chanting, she willed the Djinn to appear.

She heard a whooshing sound and felt a warm rush of wind. Opening her eyes she gasped in surprise to see the room had filled with thick black smoke. The flames from each of the candles easily reached two feet in height.

It's working!

Her nervousness was overtaken by her excitement. She pushed the hood of the satin robe back from her head revealing long blonde locks and excited bright blue eyes. The smoke seemed to develop a dense mass roughly five feet away from her, before her very eyes. It began to swirl as if it were a miniature tornado easily seven feet in height.

After several minutes the center of the 'tornado' suddenly burst into flames. Despite the fact the flames were easily seven feet high she couldn't feel any heat coming from them; she could only see it.

From the flames he emerged.

What walked out of the flames was a man of massive proportions, easily six foot three in height. He had a lean, muscular build. The muscles in his broad, bare chest were well defined, which she could see perfectly well considering he was only wearing a pair of black trousers hung low on his hips. A red stone hanging from a silver chain around his thick neck immediately caught her attention.

But it was his eyes that really captivated her, making her gasp in shock once she was able to tear her own eyes from his magnificent physique. His eyes were a dark, glowing, menacing red. They actually glowed red, as if fire lived within them! It was then she took notice of his eyes, how cold and savage they were and she realized that she might well have gotten herself into something way beyond anything she could handle.