Three Wishes Chapter 9

Once again, rage filled Tom Morgan as he proceeded to destroy his hotel room. He’d been caught off guard. Not once did he consider that Christine would call Tariq to her.

“That bitch!” Tom growled as he levitated a chair and then sent it flying through the air to slam against the wall.

Christine would pay for her betrayal. Tom was almost positive that Christine had slept with Tariq and when he had Tariq buried, he would torture Christine slowly. It was too bad he couldn’t figure out a way to bind Tariq so he would have to watch the torture. The thought brought an evil smile to his face. Could it be done? If there were a way, Tom would find it. He would make them both pay! It was time for him to consult the books in his library. Grabbing up his coat, he vanished from the room.

“Geez, Tariq, there must be hundreds of books in this library on witchcraft and casting spells. It could take us forever to look through all of them,” Christine complained as she sifted through the card index.

They’d arrived 15 minutes ago and Christine had been flabbergasted at how many books the library actually had on the subject. Tariq looked over her shoulder at the thousands of small index cards in the small drawer and sighed.

“I guess the best we can do is just start at the beginning and work our way through until we find what we need.” He didn’t sound very encouraging, Christine thought to herself. Christine grabbed the pad of paper and pen she’d brought with them and began jotting down some book titles and the number the library assigned to each of their books indicating where to find them.

After jotting down about 10 titles, Christine closed the drawer and turned to face Tariq. “Okay, this is a start. Let’s locate these books and go find a comfortable place to sit and sift through them.” Christine sounded defeated already. With only 6 days left, how could they possible find a way to free Tariq from his lamp as Amid had been freed from his?

“We will find a way, Christine,” Tariq replied as if reading her mind. He reached up his hand and traced his fingers along her jaw, then curled them around to cup her chin and tilted her face up to his. He brushed his mouth across hers and sighed. Closing his eyes, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I will not return to the Lamp without putting up a fight, my love. Trust in me!”

Christine nodded and stubbornly swiped at a tear that had escaped through her lashes. She gave Tariq a brave smile and turned to locate the first book on the list. After about 15 minutes, they’d located all the books and found an empty table nearby. They split the books between them and began to sift through page after page of witches spells and curses. After a while, Christine looked up and noticed that several women around the library had stationed themselves close by and were staring at Tariq. He was quite oblivious to the attention these women were giving him, his nose buried in the book before him. Christine studied his features from across the table and was once again taken back by his masculine beauty. He was an incredibly handsome man and he had an incredible body. And apparently she wasn’t the only one who thought so. Christine suddenly felt a mixture of pride and insane jealously. She suddenly wanted to turn and scream at these women to stop staring at her man!

“Did you know that the green in your eyes deepens when you are angry?” Tariq said softly, breaking into her silent jealous rage.

Christine blushed furiously. She couldn’t believe the thoughts and feelings that had just swept through her. She had never been a jealous person and she felt ashamed of herself for behaving that way. She looked over at Tariq and started to open her mouth, when she heard a very feminine voice.

“Excuse me, aren’t you that guy from The Mummy?”

Christine looked up to see a stunning blonde standing before them. Her hair was full and fell around her shoulders in soft waves. She wore a soft blue dress that clung to her curves and ended about mid-thigh. She was very tall and Christine thought her legs probably went up right to her neck.

“I beg your pardon?” Tariq asked, clearly confused. Christine watched him looking at the beautiful blonde. She wondered if he’d realized that the woman was hitting on him.

“The Mummy. Aren’t you the guy who played the Arab leader?” Christine thought her voice sounded like warm honey. Warm honey? Christine thought to herself. God, she read way too many romance novels!

“Tariq, she is referring to that movie we saw on TV the other night. The one you liked so much,” Christine reminded him.

Recognition lit his face and he smiled up at the woman. “Oh yes, that movie was really good.”

“So, like you are him, the guy from the movie?” the woman pressed on. She shifted her weight to thrust out her hip toward him seductively.

Christine groaned inwardly. Tariq still looked confused and he turned to Christine for help. “Tariq, remember I told you, you could pass for the guy’s brother?”

“Oh yes, I remember now to whom you refer.” Tariq turned back to the woman and dazzled her with a kilowatt smile. “I’m afraid to disappoint you, but I am not the man to whom you are referring to.”

The woman faltered a little, but was clearly not entirely convinced. “But you look just like him; you even have the accent.”

Tariq shook his head. “Think about it for a minute. If I was this guy do you really think I would be here in this small town sitting in a library looking at books on witchcraft?”

Christine groaned and hid her face in her hands. She wanted to laugh. She wanted to fall on the floor into a fit of hysterical laughter. This was too much.

The woman seemed to think about what he’d said and finally nodded. “I guess your right. I’m sorry to have bothered you.” She turned and sashayed away.

Tariq turned his smile on Christine. His eyes danced in merriment. “This guy must be really popular with the ladies, huh?”

Christine tried to glare at him, but couldn’t quite pull it off. “Just read the damn book, Genie!” she commanded.

Tariq winked at her. “As you wish, princess.” And he returned to studying the book before him with a grin.

Three hours later, Christine slammed her last book with a loud thump. Tariq looked up at her startled a bit, and then frowned slightly. “We knew this would be difficult, Christine. There is no sense in beating the book up.”

Christine glared at him. “Why not?” she snapped. “At least the book can’t feel it!”

That made Tariq smile. “Well, you got a point there.” Tariq studied her a moment, then said, “Why don’t we take a break and go get some lunch. I’m about done with this book.”

Christine nodded with a sigh and pushed her small stack of books off to the side. Twenty minutes later found them eating hamburgers at a fast food restaurant near the library. Tariq studied the food before him and thought that the food of the 21st Century was definitely different. Good, but different.

“We still have time, Christine,” Tariq told her, trying to lighten her sullen mood. “If Amid was able to find the information, then we can too. Do not give up on me, my princess.”

Christine lifted her eyes to meet his. She smiled at him lovingly. “I’ll never give up on you, Tariq.”

The love that shown so brightly in her eyes nearly blinded him. His heart swelled in his chest and he suddenly wanted to be alone with her, stripped naked and pleading for him to touch her. He clenched his hands as his body responded to his lustful thoughts.

Christine shook her head with a grin. It was obvious to her where his mind was at that moment. “Really, Tariq. You’d think you were a young randy teenager, instead of a 3,000 year old Genie.”

Tariq choked on his soda. Coughing, he began to laugh. Several people in the restaurant looked over at them, but neither Tariq nor Christine really cared.

It was nearing dark when Christine finished looking through the last book in her stack. They had been at the library for the past four days searching book after book after book. They had only two days left and they were no closer to finding the information they sought than they were four days ago.

“I feel so helpless, Tariq. There has to be an easier way of doing this. I mean, this is the Century of “instant” everything. You would think that . . .” Her voice trailed away as she had a sudden thought.

“OH! I’m such an idiot!” Christine smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. “God, I can’t believe this!”

Tariq watched her curiously and was beginning to think that staring at books all day had finally sent her over the edge. He waited patiently for her to explain her frustration with herself.

“The internet! We should have checked the internet!” Christine stood quickly. “Come on, we are going home.”

Tariq was up and following her through the library, completely unaware of the heads of the women in the library turning to follow his departure. “What is the internet, Christine?” he asked, catching up with her as she exited the library.

“You will see, it’s kind of hard to explain. I’ll show you when we get home,” Christine answered as they climbed into her car and headed home.