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I leaned forward, rolling the beer bottle between my palms, and looked hias"

"Bullshit You don’t have his bottle"

"Soarting Djinn for the past decade You know, the one you’re looking for?"

"You’re lying"

"I could be" I deliberately upendedtohim the whole time he was Bad Bob’s property" The second the words left my mouth I wished I could rewind the tape, but he didn’t react Much "You didn’t rescue hi hiames It occurs to me to wonder why you’re so hot to protect him from me Who doesn’t ed and took a pull off of his own beer

His eyes never left me "He hated Bad Bob," Jonathan said "He hated Yvette You" He kept the heat off the words, but the air felt electric and harsh "I can deal with the others They only enslaved his body You’ve gutted his back the way they were?" I set the bottle down on the shiny antique side table "That’s notJ Take it up with hiht? And when you told him to choose, he picked h my chest Arrhythmia Jonathan took another casual sip of beer

"How’s it feel, being back in the old body again? Working out for ya?"

"Faony, this one longer "I need your help"

"Kinda figured you ht"

"If you care about this kid at all, you need to help et your bottle away from him"

Jonathan raised his eyebrows "So you can beh with hiot to admit, the kid has talent And one hell of a lot of power"

"Which he stole"

"Soed "Hey, his idea, not er"

"Not that it’d do any good to shoot you"

"There’s that The Ma’at are ready tohtly, rolled his head to the side, but kept me pinned in his stare "Time’s up?"

"They’ll kill him," I said softly "You know they won’t hesitate if they think there’s no alternative"

No answer He tipped his beer up, and his throat worked

And he smiled

"Hey, kid," he said, and put the bottle aside "You’re awake"

I looked around to see Kevin standing in the bedroom doorway He looked pale and nervous and sles as if it had never seen the toothy side of a coirl, her short red hair glea, her hands clasped around Kevin’s arm Siobhan The hooker

Kevin stared at ht I told you to kill her," he said

"Didn’t tell me when," Jonathan pointed out, and when Kevin opened his er and waggled it

Kevin shut up

"Hey!" Siobhan glared, and took a step forward She had cheap plastic high-heeled hooker shoes, but great balance, and the orange toenail polish was all that She was too sharp in the chin, too narrow in the eyes, but the whole package was effective as hell in a knit top and low-rise jeans "He owns you, man! You have to do what he says!"

"Siobhan," Kevin said quietly "Don’t"

"Yeah Don’t" Jonathan’s tolerance for Kevin clearly didn’t extend to girlfriends "Butt out, Red, and I won’t feel the need to show you the curb the hard way"

That gave me a nice, cold shiver When Siobhan started to fire back a retort, I shookJust relax, okay?"

"Like you care" She had a glare identical to Kevin’s Interesting Maybe he actually had found a soul mate, all the way out here A soul irl cards all over the street, but hey, it wasn’t like Kevin was fresh out of the Innocent Academy Kevin would find someone more screwed up than himself to fall for It was inevitable Since he’d been powerless for so long, someone in worse shape than him would have a powerful appeal

"I care," I said gently "I’uy tells you, okay? And letbored When I turned erated lift of his eyebrows to indicate just how extreme his ennui was

"What do you want?" I asked

His eyes flickered, and for a second I thought he really was going to swat me like a fly And then he smiled "Okay Here’s the truth: I want you to be careful"

"And you care because?"

His eyes focused briefly and pointedly where the warm spark of life fluttered insidehi"

Jonathan’s lips curled into a deeper s sinister or sarcastic about it When he looked at me like that-no, at as in me-I felt faint He had the same supernatural power David possessed to make women’s clothes fall off; he just rarely bothered to show it I was grateful If he’d looked at ht’ve handed over David’s bottle without a fight

Well, not really But I would’ve thought about it

"Because of Imara," Jonathan said Purred, actually It was that kind of a word

"Excuse me?" Before I could react, he stood up, reached over, and put his hand over h to scorch, almost painful, and I opened my mouth to yelp

and it ceased to hurt at all There was a fast whirl of i woman with luxuriant black hair that fell in cascades to her waist Laughing, talking, race of a Djinn Her lips were David’s Her eyes God, her eyes Stern and burning, and the color of pure gold She ss, vanilla and cinnaone, a whisper, a ht my breath and felt tears run cold down my cheeks Where Jonathan’s hand had rested felt branded