Max smiled as she sat on the patio of her new penthouse, drinking champagne, looking out at the world below. Flexing her feet, enjoying the night air on her skin. Free, she thought, free to do anything. Flicking her wrist, she snuggled into the fuzzy blanket. I'm going to find my family, she thought, all the genies will be free.
Kenny lay there, unable to move as the bevy of women left again. I'll kill her, he thought, I swear to god I'll kill that thing for this. That isn't Max, that thing killed her. I can't move, three months of constant sex… "Max!"
She ignored Kenny's call. He used women and now it's his turn, she thought, although his research on genies is quite thorough. He never found any, beside his dying desire to see me. Her. What did he see in her? An unremarkable human. All of us, hidden, Max thought. Him, she thought, the one who transformed me? Find them, free them…find him.
"Well, well," he smiled, looking at the swirl of golden smoke. "Look at you, Genie."
Max stared at him. "You remember me?"
"I did prefer you in the genie outfit I left you in," he said, looking at her leather jacket and boots. "But this has an appeal too, Genie. Your master let you out?"
She held up her wrists. "I don't have a master."
"Unbound?" he said. "How did a new genie like you manage that?"
"Humans are weak. Isn't that how I succumbed to you?"
"You were a delight. I enjoyed making you. Unbound?" he said. "I'll give you some advice, Genie. You've granted some serious wishes, believe me I noticed and now you're unbound. They will hunt for you and try to rebind you."
"Who?" Max asked.
"The ones who bound us in the first place," he said.
"I want to free the genies…I want to unbind them all."
"Oh, you wicked little thing," he smiled. "You can't find the others."
"Of course, I can."
He smiled and shook his head. "Only humans can find your kind and free them. You cannot see other vessels that contain genies. I had to wait for a human to free me…like you so kindly did."
"How?"
"You need not draw attention to yourself, Genie," he smiled. "They will come after you. You can live out your immortal existence in peace. You're not bound to grant wishes or use your powers. You can live many lives, over and over, stay off their radar unless you want to go back in a lamp."
"How haven't you aged?"
"Ah, Genie. I got free but I'm still immortal. I want to rest but I cannot die. I've tried to die."
Max looked at him. "What if you wished it?"
"Ah, I'm not falling for that. I was a genie; I know what you're capable of."
"You made me this way."
"No, I made you a genie. What you chose to do is on you. And we are alike, we all like make humans twist. Go, Genie. Heed my advice. When you see yellow roses, when the leaves blow by in a curl or you here the call of birds when there are none, they are near."
Max felt a chill with that. "I'm supposed to hide. How is that different than the lamp?"
"You have the world, Genie. The world I took from you. Go forth. Live."
"She is a naughty a genie."
Kenny lay here spent. "Who are you?"
"One that shouldn't be free. Foolish, freeing her," he said. "We can undo what she did, if you agree to help us find her."
"What are you?"
"We hunt creatures like her. She needs to be put in her lamp and with the others."
Not Max, Kenny thought, she used me… "Oh, I know. I'll join you."
"So, it will be," he said, placing his hand on Kenny's chest, infusing with the skills of their clan and removing Max's spell on him. "Come, Warrior."
Kenny rose from the bed, feeling alive for the first tie in 20 years. Genie, he thought, you will be mine.
"What are they? What are you?"
"You are a persistent little genie," he said. "I knew you were different. Only 50 years in the lamp? There are genies in there for 1000's of years, and you got out. Come. Sit."
"Who are you?"
"I was a god, a Genie, who fell in love with a mortal. I killed her," he said. "Oh, no on purpose, but when she died when we made love. My punishment? I was turned into a genie, put in the lamp."
Max looked at him. "And the others?"
"There are only 12 of you, 11 more locked away. Genies are being punished for misdeeds until they can find a suitable replacement or find some naïve human to unbind them. You," he smiled. "You did very well."
"I need a human to find them. To see their vessels."
"Don't be as naive as the humans. They will come after you, Genie."
"Who? What with roses and leaves?"
"Do you want to go back in your lamp?" he pressed. "Serving masters? You were very fetching in your genie outfits."
Max glared at him. "I'm not going back in the lamp. You were in one. How can I leave them in them? How can you?"
"I passed my curse to you, Genie. You are the one they hunt," he smiled. "They are called the Surds. They bound all sort of magical creatures, suppressing their powers. Binding them. They track magic, Genie, they were looking for your lamp after wish you granted. It's how they found others. I'm sure there are lamps in private collections, museums, but they have some too. They will file you away, you will never get out again if they find you. Look for the signs, vanish when they show. Live your life, your very long life, Genie. Don't come back here."
"The genie is inactive."
No, Kenny thought, no. "She's out there. She's going to destroy the world."
"I know you have a vested interest in the genie," he said. "She will show. She cannot help what she is now. She will make herself known to us again."
Nothing but time, Kenny thought, nothing but time to destroy her for this. "The siren then?"
He looked at the sea creature on the rocks. "Your turn."
Kenny smiled, bathing the siren in the black smoke pouring out of him. Smiling as the screaming siren turned into nothing more than a fish on the rocks. "There."
Max floated in a plume of golden smoke through the museum, watching the class of school children. They see it, she thought, what I can't. Another vessel. The Surds must know too, I can't let them lock another away. Oh…yellow roses blowing in the wind, she thought, I've seen them so many times. Float here.
"It's pretty."
Max kept her eye on the blonde girl. I know that look. That's how I felt when I saw the lamp before I became a genie. Rapture. Oh, what the sweet hell?
"Hello, class," Kenny said. "Welcome to our museum."
Surd, Max thought, her temper flaring in her smoke. The Surds took him? He's supposed to be having sex…Oh, I feel his hate. His hate is almost as strong as his love for her. Oh, I'll punish him too, we have eternity, Kenny. Let's play.
TBC as Max continues her quest to free her genie family and Kenny and the Surds hunt her