Idrak's clawed hand combed through her hair, brushing against her scalp soothingly in silent answer.
Seeing that she had his attention, she pressed on. "Tell me more about the other magical beings of the world like witches, dragons…warlocks."
Idrak's chest heaved up, lifting her head, and dropped back down as he let out a deep breath. "Warlocks are the worst of them all though," His voice was like black velvet on a cold winter's night. "Most of them may be weak in comparison to a witch or a djinn, but they have a type of insurance that cannot be ignored. A type of failsafe that stays your hand when you intend to kill the worthless shit, and that is their mother," he explained grimly. "Because if you kill a warlock, know that just as the sun rises and sets that their mother will find you. She will hunt you down through time and space and find you and make you beg for death." The words were said with such a sober deadliness, Nadira wanted to bury herself somehow closer to him. Instead, she shifted until she could see his face as he spoke again. "What I will never understand is why they don't just kill the worthless whelps?"
Shocked, Nadira blinked before pushing herself up onto one elbow so she could glare down at him. "Idrak, how could you say that?! They cannot kill their babies."
"They should," he muttered darkly. "You have no idea the horrors those men have cast on this earth. Do you think it was just my enslavement?" he said, turning to look at her directly, his eyes serious. "Do you think their depravity has never turned towards innocent women? There is something inherently wrong with all of them. They resent their mothers after being raised like spoiled princes, but at the same time, they're obsessed with them. And since they cannot take that resentment out on their mothers or even their equally powerful sisters, who do you think they turn to next?" Idrak could see the dawning understanding light in her eyes and sneered. "Yes, mortal women. Since their creation, women have been at the mercy of men: used, bred, and killed at their pleasure—warlocks are no different, even worse."
Sinking back down to the covers beside him, she tried to find a glimmer of hope somewhere. "Surely, not all of them are like this?"
"No, not all," he conceded dourly. "But I have never met one of those rare exceptions. I have heard it said that the warlock who does not seek power, naturally claims a small portion of it like their mother's and sisters; while the son that hungers for it is left with nothing."
His words felt heavy and oppressive and while it was all so darkly fascinating, she wanted to steer the djinn's thoughts back to something lighter "Are there such things as wizards?"
He frowned in thought, the angry lines on his dark face fading. "Yes, I believe those are human men with no natural powers who study the arcane magics and occult and are able to perform restricted spells. They mostly rely on sources of energy they do not understand and oftentimes require lots of sacrifices to ensure their spells can be cast."
Nadira shuddered at the thought but she was no less fascinated by it all. To think that everything she read and heard about growing up, thinking it was all myth and fairy tales, was real. A playful thought occurred to her suddenly. "What about unicorns, are those real?"
An image appeared around them of a wooded forest, after a few moments a black and white unicorn stepped out of the thick brush.
"They are rare of course, but they are real."
*
Nadira shifted deeper into her pillows that night, enjoying the cool cushioning softness enveloping her head. Vaguely she could sense that she was on the precipice of sleep and waking. Frowning, she tried to relax her mind and body and delve back into the peaceful abyss. A faint, almost whispering feeling tickled at her senses, setting alarms off in the back of her mind. Slow scrawling motions whispered over her back and arms. What was that? Annoyed but compelled to know, Nadira turned her head to look over her shoulder and saw a set of large white teeth ready to snap.
Nadira jolted awake. Sitting up, she placed a hand over her thrashing heart. Blinking through the darkness of the room, not even the nocturnal light from outside shined through the windows, she was completely blind. The curtains must have been closed before they went to bed, she realized. Blindly she sat for a few minutes completely blanketed by the oppressing darkness and her memories of her nightmare. What was that? Surely, she would not have dreamed of Idrak like that, but who else could it be? She didn’t know any other being with teeth like prehistoric animals. Taking a few calming breaths, Nadira patted for the empty space behind her and began to lower herself down when the two white eyes appeared in the dark, like two fallen stars.
"What's wrong?" he whispered, his voice sounding as if it were surrounding her instead of coming from beside her.
Blindly, she looked up at the empty white eyes hovering in the darkness and gave him a tired smile as she shook her head. "Nothing, it was just a bad dream."
Strong hands surrounded her and she shuddered at the gentle scrape of his claws gliding across her ribs as he pulled her to him. "Come," he coaxed, easing her down beside him again. "Sleep."
***
Sitting at the linen-covered table, Nadira smiled at the young waiter who poured her a glass of deep red wine. Idrak, who was in his human glamor, was speaking to another waiter who nodded with wide vacant eyes at whatever the djinn was telling him. Taking the heavy glass in hand, Nadira turned to look out over the cathedral's ledge to the breathtaking city of Tbilisi below. With just a whisper, Idrak had taken her from their living room that evening to the rooftop of an ancient cathedral halfway around the world. Lights from the stair-stepped houses that lined the sloping city landscape reminded her of a picturesque postcard. The Kura river that flowed through the city eventually spilling out into the Caspian Sea twinkled with reflected lights of its residents. It was all breathtaking, but yet her mind could not stop from wondering about her dreams.
For the past few days, she had dreamed the same dream over and over again. Claws, familiar long black claws, scrawling unknown symbols across her body, but when she woke, nothing was there and the images faded like a dream. But the lingering feeling never went away. Even now, if she closed her eyes, she could feel the tracing claw run down her neck and arms.
Artfully she had tried to ask Idrak about it, asking if he had maybe touched her in his sleep or had maybe tried to wake her but each time she hedged and danced around the question, Idrak simply smiled and shook his head.
The sound of Idrak's footsteps next to her stole her attention from her worries and brought them back to him. Two men now carried silver trays covered with aromatic dishes. One by one, they sat the platter brimming with food down before them until there wasn't an inch to spare. With a dismissive wave from Idrak, the vacant-eyed young men left through the metal door on the other side of the roof, leaving her and Idrak alone.
Waving his hand from the food to the enchanting view of the city around them, Idrak gave her an expectant grin. "How do you like it?"