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"You okay?" he asked me at last, and put that wared to nod "No, you&039;re not You&039;re too weak Again"

"I&039;ht"

"Bullshit" He looked like hell; he was one to talk Burned, blistered, ragged, suffering in his eyes And a bone-deep weariness, too He&039;d been running hard for a long time, and today was just another one of those days He didn&039;t push the subject, though; he looked over at Rahel, then out toward the sea "You feel that?"

"Yeah" I sucked in a deep breath "It&039;s bad Maybe as bad as Andrew back in &039;92"

"Worse," he said succinctly "This is bigger and stronger"

Worse than a Category Five That wasn&039;t good news, clearly "So? What do we do?"

"You do nothing Jo, you&039;re like a wet rag; there&039;s nothing you can contribute You need to get the hell out of here, I told you before Fighting will get you killed"

I swept him with a look Burns, bloody wounds, and all "Is this the last of the to take you out?"

"Probably not"

"And who should be running?"

He smiled It was just a little sh me like an arrow "How&039;s David?"

I turned away, all the light going out inside "I don&039;t know I don&039;t knohere he is Things are" I took a deep breath and said it, just said it "I lost hiine that anything could ever hurt worse

I could feel Lewis staring at the back offew heartbeats, and then the Jeep&039;s weight shifted as he pushed off

When I turned, he was stalking through the pouring rain to where Cherise, Kevin, and Rahel were

Okay, what did I say?

He grabbed Kevin by the collar and yanked him bodily out from under the plastic poncho Cherise yelped and flinched, and Kevin yelled, and Lewis dragged hi T-shirt back over to me

"Give it back," he said Kevin flailed until Lewis shook hi around with you, kid Give her back the bottle"

"What the hell ?" I blurted, auez had said, in the surveillance van The kid as in your apartht ripped off some cash from the flour jar in your kitchen Kevin had ransacked his way through the apartment, hadn&039;t he? And if anybody knew about the value of Djinn bottles

I&039;d never even thought about it I was too stunned to be angry

Kevin looked pale, panicked, and stubborn "I don&039;t knohat you&039;re talking about,off now Yep, anger was corabbed the kid&039;s skinny, strong arainst the Jeep "Don&039;t bullshit me, Kevin! Did you call hi, just looked at"Daht?"

Kevin licked his already wet lips, averted his eyes, and mumbled, "Not my fault He asked me to do it"

I felt shock slip over me in a cold wave "Excusearound He-he appeared in the room and he told me to take the bottle"

"He couldn&039;t tell you where it was, you asshole!" Djinn rules, although I&039;d seen Jonathan break them once I&039;d asked David point-blank where his bottle was, and he couldn&039;t tellclose to despair, he didn&039;t want to tell ," Kevin was explaining "He just stood there, you know, next to the nightstand It was kinda obvious"

I tried to say so-what, I don&039;t know-but it didn&039;tat Kevin&039;s blank eyes

"Look, he didn&039;t want you to get hurt anyht-if I held on to the bottle for a while-ive hiot better"

I felt o weak My stomach hurt where the cat had clawed"He wanted to leave me"

Lewis put his hands onto save your life, Jo"

"Bullshit Bullshit!" I was suddenly furious "This is-you guys just-ot it? I&039;ile little flower! I have a life, and it&039;s my life, and if I want to-"

"Throw it away?" Lewis interjected helpfully

Okay, he had a point I didn&039;t let it botherfor hi my boyfriend!"

And I realized that Kevin hadn&039;t answered htened and blank

"Oh God," I said "Did you use him? Kevin, did you call him out of the bottle and use his from his lank hair to patter onto his soaked T-shirt He was shivering We were all likely to get hypothermia out there if eren&039;t careful

"Is he-"

"He&039;s gone," Kevin said It sounded hard and harsh, and I could tell he didn&039;t want to say it "Sorry, but it&039;s like the bottle&039;s eone, he just screa, but he wouldn&039;t come back He couldn&039;t I needed him, Jo, I&039;m sorry but I had to do it, Leas in trouble and-"

I knew I&039;d done the sa, hadn&039;t I? I&039;d called David even when I kneas killing both of us

And now I knehy Kevin hadn&039;t waded into the fight with his usual teen-angst enthusiasm He couldn&039;t Like me, he&039;d been drained of power And it hadn&039;t been enough

If he couldn&039;t sense David in the bottle, it was because David was an Ifrit

Maybe he was in the bottle, ht to order him back inside and seal it up To him, David had just vanished without a trace

I couldn&039;t help but feel a sick certainty that this ti back

I still had hopes, until Kevin dug the blue glass bottle out of his bag and put it intoan empty jar out of the kitchen cabinet No sense of connection It was an empty bottle, and God, I couldn&039;t feel David&039;s presence at all

I couldn&039;t even feel hi, before

"Back in the bottle, David," I said, and waited a second before I slammed the rubber stopper home into the open mouth I wrapped the bottle in a spare towel from the back of the Jeep, then buried it in my purse with the lipstick case and the Djinn sealed inside

"Um," Kevin said hesitantly, "are we-are you-"

"Do I want to kill your punk ass? You betcha" My hands were shaking, and not from the chill "I don&039;t care what David said, you didn&039;t have any right to do this No right, do you understand?"