Max snuggled deep into her bed of pillows, struggling with her thoughts. I do enjoy this, she thought reluctantly, being a genie. Immortal, beautiful, powerful, although stuck in this lamp, until a master claims me. And a master, I have to do what he wants…unless I twist it. She frowned, thinking how hard it was to fight the urge to twist a wish into something wicked. It's why I'm in the lamp, it's what we do, twist the wishes. We, she thought, genies. I haven't considered myself human since I first came here. How can I? Can I use my powers to help and not hurt?

"Hala."

Max looked up. "Yes?"

"You feel the pull?"

"To hurt people. Humans."

"Yes."

"Why can't I just grant them what they want?"

"It isn't what you are. You know that."

"A trickster."

"You are adapted wonderfully, Hala."

"Thank you," Max said. No one is rescuing me from my…transformation. My life in this lamp, with the mirages I create…the wishes I grant when I'm released to my new Master. "This is what I was meant to be."

"A genie."

Words have power, Max thought, the m

ore I say it, the more I accept and become one. I'm not Max anymore, I'm not human…I'm something more. I've given humans wealth, fame, power, health…what do I get? Life in the lamp…I want to play too. "A genie. I am a genie."

Fifteen years, Kenny thought, she's been missing for 15 years. All those things…Carter called them genie things. Unexplainable wealth, houses springing up, the world-changing for people in a blink of an eye. You just need to know where to look…Is it Max? Is she really…I saw what happened to her. I'll save her. I gave up everything to hunt for her. I've been all over the world, searching, interviewing people who have been influenced by genies…

Power, Max thought, he's my master, but I have all the power. "That is your wish?"

He nodded, drooling as he looked at the genie floating cross-legged in the air. "Yes, Genie, that is my wish."

Genie, she thought, the words tickling her more than she wanted to admit, my human life is a blip to me now. Smiling at him, enjoying that he was enjoying her physical characteristics. "Granted."

He looked at her. "I don't feel any different."

Max fiddled with her hair. "You should check your accounts, Master."

He pulled out his phone, his eyes not leaving the genie. Typing in some numbers, he gasped at all the zeroes. "How did you do that?"

"You wished to be rich," she said. "It's a very common wish I grant."

He nodded, as the people began to bang on his door. "Hold on, Genie."

Max smiled, placing her bare feet on the floor. Her mind and body tingling with delight and joy, she smiled at her reflection. I see why they drool, she thought, my physical transformation is quite nice. Not as nice as this feeling though…granting wishes. Making humans happy was fine…they were so grateful. This though…oh, this. This is what I am.

"No!" he yelled. "I didn't!"

Max watched as George was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. Rich sure, she thought, but the murders and embezzlement he did to get it? Humans never learn.

"Genie!" he yelled. "Genie, help!"

Max watched as he was thrown in the car and drove off. The police and the mafia aren't very happy with George, she thought, I wonder what his second wish will be?

Kenny looked up from his book, feeling like an expert in genies, so many stories. Evil spirits, demons, djinns…what is true? Those wishes did well in the world, she isn't evil, it's Max and she was forced into this. She really isn't a genie…not like these things.

"Genie! I command you to come."

Max appeared in a puff of golden smoke in his cell. Oh, it was the police that got him. I guess that is better than the mafia. "Your second wish, Master?"

"What did you do?"

"Why, I gave you wealth as you asked of me."

"They say I embezzled and killed for it, Genie!"

"Wishes don't always work how we think."

He stared at her, her beauty calming him. "Genie? I wish to be free of this cell and the crimes I accused of and for you to transport me and my family to our new mansion I'm picturing."

Two wishes, really, Max thought, but he's really fun to play with. Oh, this is fun. "Granted, Master."

"No one recognizes her," Carter said, tossing the sketchbook on the bed. A perfect likeness of the new genie, do only her masters see her? "His family was a bunch of charred corpses were found in his basement, with everything stolen from those vaults."

"He's a tree. We saw the videos."

"If we find her…she's going to be different. Genies," Carter stated. "You saw her physical changes? She turned him into that tree…that isn't the Max I know."

"We'll fix her," Kenny said. He made her very sexy, he thought, her new body, face, youth, all clad in that skimpy outfit… "She's still Max."

"Her physical changes are to seduce humans. She looks very unassuming, but she is dangerous. Genies twist human desires, and they enjoy doing it. Max may have fought it in the beginning but she won't able to deny it for long. She isn't human, she's something very old and dangerous."

"Then why are you trying to help her?"

"She's only been one for 15 years. There may be hope. When cancer was cured? There is some good in her still."

"Oh it was fun," Max admitted, flicking her wrist in her lamp causing her curls to relax into two tight French braids. Removing all her jewelry but her binding cuffs and, she smoothed oils on her golden skin. "Why didn't you tell me how fun it would be to make humans twist?"

"You needed to see them as they really are on your own."

Max smoothed the oils over her legs, before flicking her wrists again and clothing herself in her bandeau top and gauzy shorts. "Humans are selfish and weak."

"You enjoyed yourself, Hala Genie of the Lamp?"

Her full name making her tingle the way her wish twisting did. "His last wish was for immortality, he is a large oak tree now. I'm just waiting for a new Master to continue the fun."

"A tree. A man turned into a tree after becoming wealthy, vanishing from prison and now a tree?" Carter said. "A genie thing."

"Not Max," Kenny said, his heart-stopping. "She isn't the only…genie."

"She's turned if it was her. She's embracing it. She isn't evil, she just is what she is. We can't trust her if we find her."

We're not going to find her, Kenny thought, I know that. How do I let her go? How do I let her be this thing?

All the same, Max thought, flicking her wrist to dress herself. I do look good in everything…left over from our harem days, these skimpy outfits. She ran her hands over her body, he did make me very sexy and ready to be barely dressed every day. Shaking herself and making the fringe on the waistband and ankles of her harem pants dance and her jewelry clank. No wonder men cannot resist me.

"Hala."

Max turned away from her reflection, content and warm. "Yes."

"Humans are searching for you."

Max cocked her head to the side. "For me?"

"For who you used to be."

Human, she thought, scared, weak, pitiful. "She's gone. She's been gone since the minute I said yes and was reborn."

"They are getting close, Hala, Genie of the Lamp. You need to be careful."

Max smiled. "Where does do we go? When I'm in here?"

"Hidden, waiting for the right master for you."

"The other genies…I feel them."

"They are close. You are all connected."

My family, Max thought, separated for centuries because of humans. Imprisoned in lamps…forced to serve. Others locked away longer than me...centuries longer. I'm already cruel, Max thought, I like punishing the humans. What will I become? The lovely package hides something dark and twisted…and I like it. "Let them find me. I'm not who they remember."

To be continued as Max continues her dark turn into a genie