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Up there on the aetheric, once I&039;d achieve it, things were serene, too; glowing bands of brilliant color, swirling andlazy and caly, but it was carefully balanced, sea and sun and sky No storardless of Marvelous Marvin&039;s bogus predictions Poor Marv Statistically, he should have been right about eighty-six percent of the ti sunny and warm in Florida, but no, he had to try to be dra of which, how exactly did he beat the odds? He shouldn&039;t I&039;d looked at hi but what he appeared: an obnoxious noruy Blessed with the luck of the entire nation of Ireland, apparently, but a regular hu, not a Warden, no matter how deep-cover And certainly not a Djinn
As I floated there, basking in the beauty, I felt so around to mess it up Not weather People I blinked and focused and saw three bright centers of energy approaching ht, you learn a lot about a person The one in the center was male, tall, stooped, and co to er or better or scarier than anyone else The other two, though different story One of the women saw herself as a warrior, all steel and arned more from a book cover than actual practical necessity-steel push-up bra and an i for so
The third was also a wo
I kneo out of three of them Ghost-woman was a mystery
I dropped down into my physical form as footsteps approached, and turned with a sood to see you again"
"You, too," John Foster said It was a friendly beginning, but really, there was no reason fora word, especially flanked by n
John wasn&039;t much different in the real world than he looked in the aetheric-tall, well dressed, a little professorial if such a thing could be considered a downside He liked tweed I regretted the tweed, but at least he&039;d gotten past the sweater vests of earlier years
My eyes drifted over to the shorter, darker, punker wo next to him
Knew her, too, and the welcoh dark-rimmed eyes Shirl was a Fire Warden, powerful, and the last I&039;d run into her she&039;d been assigned to Marion&039;s Power Ranger squad, rounding up renegade Wardens for that ever-looical lobotomy She wasn&039;t exactly top of the list of people I&039;d wished would drop in We hadn&039;t bonded, back when she had been chasing me across the country
She&039;d added sos since the last tienta, and she&039;d taken up a close, personal friendship with leather Not an improvement
The third woman remained a mystery We&039;d never met, and I couldn&039;t tell what her specialty was; but if Shirl was here to cover fire, she was likely an Earth Warden
"A little early for a social call," I said, trying to keep it pleasant
John nodded and stuck his hands in his jacket pockets Aith conflict, John I wondered why they&039;d stuck him with the job Maybe the more senior Wardens were busy Or maybe they knew I had a soft spot for him and wouldn&039;t be quite so difficult
"You already know Shirl," he said, and gestured to her with an elbow, offhandedly, with a flat tone to his normally warm voice Ah He didn&039;t like her either Nice to know "This is Maria Moore, she&039;s come over froirl, was a wispy little thing in the real world, too Older than she&039;d looked, up a level, but still a twig I hoped she wasn&039;t a Weather Warden; a good strong breeze ht blow her out to sea She looked more like a Djinn than most Djinn I&039;d ever ?" I asked
"I need you to take a ride withvoice, blurred with a North Carolina drawl; it always made him sound like he was in no particular hurry or distress So I couldn&039;t tell if this was a big deal, a little deal, or a consultation he thought I could help out with or whether I was taking a ride that would end up with me dead or permanently disabled
I decided I didn&039;t really want to find out
"Sorry," I said, not as if I in any way et home I have so with us," Shirl said flatly "Whether you like it or not Get used to the idea"
I et all skinhead onthat would be my attitude, I could tell Her hand cupped at her side, and a fireball ignited in her pal to start loud and end badly"
I didn&039;t want to fight Really Especially with John Foster in the ht not be solanced at John, as stone-faced, and said, "Whoa, there, Sparky, I&039; if you&039;re going to drop in and disrupt my day"
"Get in the car"
She wasn&039;t taking any crap froht have been because I&039;d kind of kicked her ass the first time around, and she orried about a repeat; she needn&039;t have been, as I&039;d been running on Demon-Mark Power then, and noas just plain ol&039; me, and plain ol&039; ical, hand-to-hand battle to the death
Plus, I wasn&039;t dressed for it Stains would never coestured me to a smoky silver Lexus, which I knew for a fact wasn&039;t John&039;s; Lexus wasn&039;t his style Must have been Maria&039;s, and co to a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow After just enough hesitation to let the to be so easily handled, I turned and walked to it, opened the back door and got inside It was craot in the driver&039;s seat I got Shirl as my companion in the back Joy
"You want to tell ?" I asked
Maria and John exchanged a glance "It&039;ll take us a while to get there," he said "I&039;d suggest you call and cancel your appoint to be out most of the day"
It was a little late to bitch about it, now that the car wasI pulled out my cell phone and postponed Mall Day by twenty-four hours, much to Cherise&039;s disappoint haul
Which, in a Lexus, wasn&039;t a bad thing
It was a quiet drive I dozed, part of the way, because I&039;d been up since four AM and besides, talking to Shirl the Hu conversation She had all the power of someone like Marion Bearheart, and absolutely none of the charm I missed Marion and all her centered, Native American, Earth Mother attitude At least she&039;d threatened me with style and class, and she had a clear moral center Shirl well, I wasn&039;t so sure about any of that Especially the style and class
Maria the Ghost sporadically nattered on with John in bright, liquid French
John was ual, which surprised ether Old friends? Current lovers? Couldn&039;t get a read I made up dramatic scripts in my head, in which John flew over the Atlantic to sweep Maria off her feet in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and the two of the into wacky, farcical mistaken-identity bedroom adventures
Hey, I was bored
Three and a half hours later, the Lexus ns of da the area where Tropical Storo It had been a really bad hurricane season, and even though inding down, nobody felt very secure about it The dae was mostly superficial, it looked like-shredded paln or toppled billboard Cleanup creere out
Power had already been restored, for the most part The beach looked clean and fresh, and the surf curled its toes in cal wavelets over the sand
We drove about another fifteen minutes, and then John pointed off to the left
Maria slowed the Lexus, and we passed a partially downed sign with construction information on it PARADISE COVE, it proclaidom LLP With a whole bunch of subcontractors, like the special effects cast of a big-budget n was of a hotel about fifteen stories tall, avant-garde in shape
It was a hell of a lot n was alumber Looked like a war zone
Construction os after playtime for the emotionally disturbed
Maria put the Lexus in park
All three of them looked at me
"What?" I asked I was honestly puzzled
"Tell us what you know about this," John said
"Well, I&039;m no expert, but I&039;d have to say that between this and the Motel 6 down the road, I&039;d have to choose the Motel 6"
"I&039;m serious"