I love my husband but not when he's constantly over my shoulder. x_x
"Cousin," Marcus answered, staying right where he was and letting the other man put distance between them. Magic or not, the way Prasad had shut down and backed off when pushed was familiar. Marcus didn't know that it was constrictions of whatever containment spell that the genie was under, rather than size-based intimidation, but it wouldn't have mattered. In his role as security at the Door, Marcus had threatened meaner looking entities... if none that were quite as baffling. Very few called his bluff, and Marcus had seen this slinking dog look before. Enough to know that it certainly wasn't a win. Marcus wasn't dumb. He knew that the genie was powerful, and that building resentment with something powerful would very well be arming a time bomb.
So his expression didn't change. There wasn't a trace of a gloat in his voice or posture. He was just watching the other man intently as the lizard was handled and placed in the glass enclosure. Marcus had reptiles tattooed over much of his body, and had seen more than his share of them growing up in the desert, but he'd never actually kept any as a fucking pet. In that, he actually unconsciously agreed with the genie. Marcus had no business taking responsibility for any other living things, especially not lesser living things that couldn't take care of themselves.
"You got family, cabrĂ³n?" He asked, eyebrows lifting. "I got a fucking big one. Not many of them worth a shit, but she's one I happen to like." Honestly, there were much better candidates for lizards on his father's side. Several half-brothers who took after the old man would have benefited from the change. Marcus actually snorted at that thought, but then his expression darkened. It wasn't a joke, and as much as it might feel like one it wasn't a crazy dream. This was real. Happening now. And he couldn't begin to wrap his head around how that was possible, let alone what to do about it.
"Fuck, I thought she was coming off a bad trip, you know? Brought her here to detox." A hand curled back into a fist automatically, but there wasn't an easy target now, if the genie wasn't the culprit. Punching through drywall might be momentarily satisfying, but the walls were even less capable of magical transformations. There was nothing within reach to break that would be marginally helpful. "People don't just turn into fucking lizards! How the fuck can this happen?"