"Well, well," Quinn said. "Look at you."

Max leaned back. "You don't knock?"

He looked at her, still so young, he thought, just 15 years of this for her. Such a naughty Jinn, he thought, she does enjoy herself these days. "Knock, knock, Max."

"I've missed you."

"You are welcome any time."

Sex, she thought, all the Jinn…sometimes all at once. Quinn though, I really like it when it's just Quinn. "Is that why you're here?"

"I'm always willing with you," he smiled. "I like what you've done here. No, you've been busy."

"You don't approve?"

"Oh, I more than approve," he said. The stubborn human, he thought, she clung to that part of her before she let herself embrace her new life and powers. This naughty Jinn, who punishes the bad and rewards the selfless. "Come with me for a bit."

"Where?"

"Anywhere."

Max smiled at that, and let herself vanish into the smoke with him.

Kenny frowned, looking at his wife and three kids. Not right, he thought, looking at Kim…it wasn't always her. Pulling the battered picture out of his wallet…Max. She vanished on me after I told her I didn't love her. We were together… When did I stop loving her? She was all I ever wanted.

"Kenny?"

He looked at Kim. I married her three months after Max left. "Sorry."

We've been married for 15 years, Kim thought, and he still does this. He loves me now, he loves our family…he can't still think about her. "I think we need Daddy over here."

He slid the picture back in his pocket and tried not to think about 15 years ago. Where did she go?

Kaitlyn Bey-Brock pushed the food around on her plate, looking through her bright blonde hair at her parents. Not my parents she thought, her head hurting at that like it always did. Not my step-siblings...Ow.

"Do you not like it? It's your favorite?" her mom said.

Not my mom...Stop. Max did this to me. She turned me into a baby, Laurie Bey adopted me and married my husband. My husband who thinks of me as his daughter. "I'm just not hungry, Mom."

"You look pale Kaitlyn."

Kaitlyn, she thought, I'm not Kaitlyn. A genie...how is Max a genie? She needs to fix this. I love Jimmy, not as a dad, and he sees me as his 15-year-old daughter. "Can I be excused? I have homework."

"You're my favorite."

Max let her hair blow around her and smiled over her shoulder at him. "Is it because I'm new?"

"I liked you when you were human. When we were deciding to choose you. I wanted you to be my pet if you weren't going to be the new Jinn."

"Your pet?"

He nodded. "Not like Carter. My companion."

"Where I would have been subservient to you?"

He nodded. "You would have been very well taken care of by me. But you were meant to be a Jinn, it's what you were born for, Max."

"What would have done to me as your companion? A totally devoted companion?"

He smiled, enjoying her lace shorts, bandeau top, and wild hair. "I would have made you sexually insatiable."

She smiled at that, straddling his lap. "Like this?"

He waved his hand, making her skimpy top disappear. "More like that."

Max giggled and snuggled in closer to him. "Then what? If I was your devoted companion?"

"Oh, I would have trained you," he smiled. "Fun training, Max, to satisfy my every physical need. There would have been some physical and mental modifications to prepare you for your role."

"You don't like how I look?"

"I more than like how you look. Your human form was very nice, but you did change when you became a Jinn. Immortality, Max. Mentally? You were very stubborn and resistant when you became a Jinn. You would have been made more accepting of your new life. I would have kept you feisty, you would have been devoted to me."

My hair growing into this wild mane, body curvier, she thought, my perkier breasts, and how I barely look old enough to order a drink. Even more so after I left my human life behind. "Devoted, huh?"

"You would have wanted for nothing as my companion. You would have been very sexually satisfied. Lived a life of luxury and magic, but I prefer the naughty Jinn you've become."

"You think I'm naughty?"

"For a Jinn of 15? Very naughty. Let's play."

She followed his gaze to the wedding on the beach. So many desires and wants… "Oh, this is going to be fun."

I loved her until I didn't, Kenny thought, I kicked her out. Memories sparking, he took a pull of his beer and looked up at the sky. She changed, there was something so incredibly sexy and irresistible about her all of the sudden. Carter called her a monster and killed himself. Jill vanished. I ran to Kim, I married her and…My Max. The love of my life and I tossed her away. I'm going to find her again.

"Kenny?"

He turned to see Kim in the doorway. "Sorry, I couldn't sleep."

"Are you okay?"

Max, he thought again, she just vanished. No one talked about her, I barely thought about her until now. She was everything to me, we were getting married and we had so many plans. "Yeah. Just work stuff. I'll be up in a minute."

Liar, Kim thought, I saw that picture. Max. It's always Max. I'll make him forget about her again. I know how to bring that genie back.

She made me pretty, Kaitlyn thought, I didn't look like this when I was a teenager before. I can't say it out loud. No one knows I'm Jill and that...why did she do this to me? My kids think I'm just a silly kid. Kim is 33, Matthew 28, and Zach 24...I'm a grandmother trapped in this body. I feel like Kaitlyn, the soccer player, student, 10th-grade class president. I'm not her...Max hasn't ever come back. I've called her so many times and...I can't watch Jimmy be happy with my mom. Laurie isn't my mom...she is. I'm Kaitlyn...No, I'm Jill. I need to be Jill again.

"See, naughty," Quinn laughed, handing her a piece of cake. "Very naughty, Max."

She smiled at him. "I have so much fun with you."

Humans have always been selfish and silly things, he thought, and we've always been here. I do enjoy Max, more than any of the others, her joy at discovering what being a Jinn means...even if she would have been a perfect companion to me. "We never have to stop."

Immortal, Max thought, we'll be here even after humanity destroys itself. Looking at the bunnies on the beach that used to be wedding guests. "They couldn't just be happy for them."

He brushed back her wild hair. "That's why we're here. Come home with me, Max."

Not love, she thought, I'm incapable of love, but enjoyment and fun and sex. "Always."

"Max?" Kaitlyn whispered. "I know you're real. Please, I need you."

"Genie!" Kim hissed. "I need another wish! Where are you?"

TBC