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He put his glasses back on, grabbed me by the arms, and used some martial arts trick to sweep rass with a bone-rattling thud, and he caught himself with outstretched hands just abovein a language I couldn&039;t catch, and the dust swirled into a compact little ball and dropped away from us

Somehow, it just made me madder I opened my mouth to yell at him, and he put his lips down very close to my ear and said, "If you scream, they&039;ll hear you I can&039;t prevent that"

I caught the scream and held it in because I heard, just about two feet away, the crunch of footsteps in grass A shadow blocked the light overhead, and I peered past David to see Shirl standing there, looking puzzled

"Anything?" Marion&039;s voice, co fast in our direction Above me, David&039;s face was blank and still, and I could see he was doing so us in either the physical or aetheric realms Unless they stepped on us or I made some inappropriate noise, they wouldn&039;t find us

"Nothing," Shirl confirmed Marion&039;s shadow joined the other woman&039;s "Dammit, this isn&039;t possible She was down there, I swear she was But Erik said she was gone when he went down"

"I saw dust here," Marion said She paced slowly back and forth, too close to ht around here But I don&039;t kno she could possibly have done that She&039;s not an Earth power"

"Maybe so her" Shirl was too perceptive forher on ot any Earth Warden friends?"

"A few, but I can&039;t see the their necks out like this, not when they knohat she&039;s accused of doing" Marion hesitated again, and I could see her looking down, looking right at me I didn&039;t even dare to breathe David wasn&039;t touchingoff him-what if they could feel it, too?

"Maybe you should bring in your Djinn" A new voice-Erik He ca her"

"I have other things for my Djinn to attend to," Marion said in a way that convinced estion It apparently convinced Erik, too He shut up After another few fast heartbeats, Marion said, "All right We have her car She&039;s not going anywhere, at least not fast We&039;ll wait for her to come back to it"

"What if she doesn&039;t?" he wanted to know

Marion smiled "You don&039;t know much about Joanne, I see"

The three of therass I didn&039;t dare move, breathe, or speak as the sound of the left was the dry whisper of the grass, David let his arms bend and slowly lowered himself to lie on top of me Sweet, hard pressure that made it hard to breathe

"Get off," I ordered His eyes flickered, brown and copper and gold, all the richness of the earth

"Kind of you to offer, but don&039;t you think we&039;d better get ?" With no transition, he was on his feet He was so fast, I couldn&039;t even see hi withhuman That little drama he&039;d orchestrated back at the nored the inconvenient fact that it had been fun for me, too

I scrambled up and faced him, very aware that I was filthy and tired and scratched and bruised At least I wasn&039;t shoeless I dropped the low-heeled purit inside "I a with you, not until you tell o with theone They were still visible, just at the edge of the trees, heading for my car Poor, abandoned Delilah "Just say the word-I can re Which was, if I recall, dying"

"You didn&039;t answer my question! Whose Djinn are you?"

David s of liht, unhappy smile of a man who knows tooyou wouldn&039;t ask that three times"

Three times I hadn&039;t meant to, but it was a ritual number, and he had to answer

He meant he was free Not bound

A free Djinn

That wasimpossible Absolutely-

It meant-oh, God, it meant I could claim him And once I&039;d claimed him, I couldfor He was the thing I had been hell-bent on asking Lewis to give me

And now I didn&039;t need Lewis at all

He looked at me steadily, with eyes that were not quite hu in the northeast wind Thunder boo this way, and all things being equal, it would be drawn to me because I was its opposite

I felt the Deh to et rid of it, now and forever

All I had to do was

I could see fear flickering like heat lightning in the far horizon of David&039;s eyes

He&039;d saved my life-not once but several times-

I knew that now Was this really hoas going to repay hi? Trap hiony?

Djinn don&039;t die At least not that anyone has ever recorded They get the Deo insane and they&039;re sealed away, for all ti for eternity

I could do it to him All I had to do was say the words It haht-headed and sick to ical part of o soft on me now!

But when I opened my mouth, I found that all I had to say was, "I don&039;t suppose you kno to get my car back"

I was stunned by the flash of relief in his eyes I didn&039;t want to see it, either, because that meant I had to think about it, and what it meant He wouldn&039;t be relieved if he hadn&039;t dreaded it And if he dreaded it

I can&039;t think about this right now Self-preservation first, coht Later, I&039;d do what had to be done

David must have sensed that, because he looked away from me for the first time

"No," he said "But if you&039;re not that picky, Marion caas"

The Land Rover-a massive white beast, liberally splashed with mud to shoasn&039;t just a suburban wannabe&039;s drearove near the wildly unlikely beauty of the farmhouse All around it, I could see evidence of either Marion&039;s or Erik&039;s tinkering-grass just a bit greener, trees surreally gorgeous, perfect flowers spreading petals to the sun

The Land Rover looked like acake

I tried the door, hoping Marion wouldn&039;t have been anal-retentive enough to turn on alar followed, but the handle clicked and failed to open

"Locked," I said to David He reached over my shoulder and touched the door Metal thunked

"Open," he disagreed The door side

We climbed inside in silence-forK2-and once I was perched in the colass s, I let the flavor of another woed as Delilah&039;s odorsherbs, rass, dirt Nobody had abused this baby with deco fast food or spilled coffee; if Marion spilled anything, I guessed it would have been herbal tea There was a single silver ther on the backseat Coffee, I hoped Erik looked like he was h to swill a cup now and then

Davidfor divine inspiration about the lack of car keys He reached over and touched the ignition with one finger A blue spark juine purred

"You&039;re handy if I ever want to get in the grand theft auto business," I said "Any other neat tricks you can do I should know about?"