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The Jeep&039;s flare of brakes

A blur of green I couldn&039;t even see what it was, but it came out of the underbrush on the left-hand side; suddenly the SUV was lifting, soaring up engine-first into the air as if it had been shot out of a cannon, corkscrewing-

"Shit!" Cherise yelped, and hit the gas hard The Mustang screamed on wet pavement and whipped around the Jeep I felt the shadow pass over us and looked up to see the shiny black roof of the SUV tuh to reach up and touch, and then the back bu crunch

When it stopped rolling, it was a featureless tangle of metal

Cherise braked, too hard, fishtailed the Mustang to a barely on-the-road stop, and Rahel&039;s hands came away from my shoulders It felt like there&039;d be bruises, later I unbuckled ers and bailed out of the car to run back toward the wreckage

I was halfway there, pelted by the cold rain, when the wreck blew apart in a fireball that knocked me flat and rolled ot wet hair out of my eyes, I expected to see a Hollywood-style bonfire

No There was nothing much left to burn Pieces of the SUV rained all over a hundred-foot area A shredded tire sh that I could feel its war in the rain

Three people were standing in the road where the wreckage of the SUV had been

No-I corrected myself Two people, one Djinn I could see the flare of his yellow eyes even at this distance

There was a heat shi off the other two, both in the real world and in the aetheric, that made me shiver in a sudden flood ofskin, but Shirl and the other Warden with her were just shells for so worse

I re under my skin, and had to control an impulse to run They&039;re after Lewis They&039;d be irresistibly drawn to power that way

I hadn&039;t coht Lewis&039;s battles for him I needed a Djinn, and Shirl had one Clearly, she&039;d kept the bottle on her, and it reht two Wardens with De any of it to Lewis, and

and not die

Simple

I hadn&039;t had any doubt that it was Lewis driving the Jeep, but I&039;d forgotten about Kevin; the kid exited the passenger door and ran toposition

"Shit, you&039;re alive," he said He sounded surprised

"Sorry about that I&039;ll try to do better next tiaveyank and steadiedHe didn&039;t say anything else

His eyes were on the three facing us-or, actually, facing the Jeep

Lewis stepped out of the driver&039;s side, closed the door, and sent a quick glance toward me and Kevin "Get the"

"I&039;ave ue because right then, the yellow-eyed Djinn cah to beat Rahel The twoat each other, and I felt the aetheric boiling and burning with the force of it

The Djinn was trying to move the Jeep, roll it over on Lewis Lewis didn&039;t move

Neither did the Jeep

"If you&039;re staying," Lewis said, "doon to my truck a minute"

He sounded utterly normal, like this was all in a day&039;s work for him Hell, maybe it was Lewis&039;s life was probably a lot more unexpected thanfor a second, and then I felt him shift his attention, and the Jeep started to shiver

I hardened the air around it, holding it in place, as Lealked forward to within ten feet of where the other two Wardens were standing Shirl-punk-ass Shirl, with her black goth clothes and bad attitude-was looking pretty rough these days Lank, greasy hair; dark shadows around her eyes that weren&039;t so much affectation as exhaustion Her skin was an unhealthy shade of pale, so thin I could see blue veins under her skin The shi else, so inhuman

"Lewis," I warned He stopped er of De inside Shirl would do anything to get into hie lake of power

"I can help you," he said to her "Let me help you"

I wanted to yell No or, more appropriately, Are you insane? but that was Lewis, all right His first impulse always had been to heal

Shirl called up a two-handed fireball and slaht into his chest It hit, exploded, and spread over him like molten lava Under normal circumstances, Leould have simply shaken it off-fire was one of his powers, of course, and he had a natural resistance to it-but this was deer than usual

It dug deep into his skin I saw hie to clear it off, but it left blackened holes in his clothes and angry red marks on his skin that looked raw and painful Before he could do more than take a breath, the other Warden called up the Earth, and I felt the ground shudder as a huge tree toppled, straight toward Lewis Lewis o toe-to-toe with the two fighting hie curtain of flaered and fell Vines whipped out of the underbrush and fastened around his ankles, snaking around his calves, pulling hi theer, fireball at the ready

I hit her ind and tossed her a dozen feet down the road "Do so!" I yelled at Kevin He looked torn, and more than a little scared; I reht with Shirl and her crew, and come out near death Dammit I couldn&039;t blame the kid

"No, Kevin! Stay out of it!" Lewis yelled, counter his ankles shriveled and he rolled up to his feet

just in time for Shirl to throw another fireball

This tiraceful capture, and he juggled the hell-ball from one hand to the other as he watched Shirl approach The other Warden was up andhi me later"

One of the two Wardens must own the Djinn, and I was pretty sure it wasn&039;t Shirl That uy-the one who had the clever, off-kilter face and Canadian accent that I remembered from back on the beach-was the proud owner

One of Shirl&039;s running buddies

One I needed to take down

I shook free of Kevin andeyes I was more powerful than she was, and that ain, Leas the uy in the world

No way it would pass him up fora little hopscotching I watched her carefully as I spiraled in closer to the other Warden

"So," I said to him, "I don&039;t think we&039;ve been properly introduced Joanne Baldwin Weather You are ?"

Pissed off, apparently Because ere on an asphalt road, he couldn&039;t do Marion Bearheart&039;s favorite trick of softening the sand beneath my feet, but he had plenty of other stuff to ith The area wasn&039;t exactly denuded of life