Excerpt: Seven Days in Eternity

My name doesn't appear in too many spell books. I did that on purpose. I mean, who wants to be summoned by some pompous old magician and set to work? Not me… But apparently I missed a book with my name in it. The first few times I was summoned were nothing special, but the fifth time… That was spectacular.
The first time I was summoned, my master was a twit Earth Magician. All he wanted was to show-off to his fellow magicians… "See, look, I've summoned a Demon!" Heh. Little did he know that I wasn't a Demon, but a Djinni, and when he addressed me to give me my orders, he said, "Now, Demon! I charge you to retrieve my reward and bring it to me!" Well, let me tell you, I didn't do quite as he wanted me to… The Earth police couldn't find any evidence of murder besides the dead body on the floor. Well, he got his reward.
The second time was a simple "do these house chores" assignment. He was a youngin' and didn't want to push his luck. A good thing, too. He was an insignificant boy and died not too soon afterwards from an unexpected plague of roaches in his kitchen. They are still confused as to how the roaches caused his death.
The third was a man in London who needed me to help him re-unite his brother with his long-lost memories. Let me tell you, that was a curious deal: they'd been sealed in a---
Well, let's just save that for another time, shall we?
The fourth was a woman who tied me to service in a war, which was smart on her part, and silly of me not to destroy the damn book with my name in it the first time I was summoned.
It has only been most recently that I have been able to return to the Void, my home, to await the next summoning. I was wrenched out of my home again about a year ago and thrown into the strangest situation that ever happened to a Djinni or even an Imp.