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I spent so popular songs, and trying to iine what the new Wardens seal should look like I was currently going with a shiny circulararound the outer edge, featuring a graphic of a nuclear oes with everything, even an apocalypse

Bored withstock The infirles Maybe it had been e; they&039;d been out for blood, and they were nothing if not focused on theany huenuine threat to the under the red-eyed influence of the Earth Or if it had been Ashan&039;s little eneral principles

Either one would have been horrific, in these close quarters I didn&039;t want to i up when I closed ination could hold off exhaustion, and I surrendered to a need to be horizontal I pulled a waffle-weave cotton blanket up over ain--for a shower I was too tired even to take off h these clothes needed to be burned, not just laundered I stank to high heaven, and was ruining a perfectly good bed, but as soon as I closed my eyes, all those concerns slid away like oil off Teflon

I was asleep so fast, I had no tied darkness that wrapped war without fear and without limit

and then, without any sense of transition, I was sitting in a nice, co in the hearth Curled up like a cat on a soft cotton-covered sofa, ainst the pillowed ar in the infirmary

"Hey, kid," said a low voice I blinked and focused across the room

"Jonathan?" I asked, and slowly sat up "Am I--? Aren&039;t you--?"

"Dead?" the mack daddy of the Djinn supplied, and popped the tops on two brown, label-free bottles of beer He held one up, and it floated toward me Heavier than I expected I nearly furabbed it out of the air Cold It felt heavy and real

"Aren&039;t you? Dead?" I asked "Yeah, well Kinda"

I blinked again and sipped the beer See to do Jonathan looked exactly the same as he had last ti Tanned He earing khaki pants and a loose off-white T-shirt, not tucked in, and his booted feet were crossed at the ankles He sipped his beer, uns

I put my bottle down on the polished wooden coffee table after shoving aside issues of nize to make room for it "You&039;re dead," I repeated "So why are you in my dream?"

He raised the bill of his olive drab ball cap with one finger "Good question Morbid, isn&039;t it?"

"What?"

"Drea about dead people Creepy You ever see a therapist about that?"

"I&039;u here?"

Jonathan took off his cap, tossed it toward a coat-tree (and missed), and leaned forith his elbows on his knees HeDreahtless, lis I could never understand in my short human lifetime Stars were born and died in those eyes "I think the real question is, what are you doing here? This is the end of the world, kiddo Or the beginning Tough to tell the difference It&039;s all one big turning circle, and where we are depends on e are"

I clutched the blanket closer "I--don&039;t understand"

"Yeah, didn&039;t figure you would But I thought I&039;d give it a shot" He took another swig of beer, but those inhuman eyes never leftthe blanket with me wrapped around et up from that obscenely co to do just what he wanted me to do No real will of my own My hand reached out for the drapery pull, and I yanked, and the heavyfield of nodding yelloers Blue sky A few clouds drifting lazily over the horizon

I turned to look at hi," he said "Little more to the picture than meets the eye"

I narrowedup in to the aetheric, only I never leftitself as it cae resolved into so else entirely

Death

I was looking at the skeletal remains of a city Whatever skyline shape had once one, so I didn&039;t know if I was looking at Paris or New York or Dallas; it was a twisted barebeaten down by the gentle, remorseless rain and wind That was how the planet triumphed, in the end With patience With stillness Withoutthere," he said "Closer"

And he was closer, too--across the rooht behind ainst him I didn&039;t want to see, but it ca deeper into the hungry ground Flesh liquefying and returning to the soil, bones taking longer to flake away into bleached splinters

Bones were all that was left of hu remained Not a city untouched, not a fa out the disaster We&039;d been completely, utterly removed from the Earth

"You see?" Jonathan&039;s voice rasped, soft as velvet againstWhen the match is over, you have to return the rented shoes Sorry, kid Game over"

Six billion lives, snuffed out I wanted to fall toers dug into o all weak on me now," he scolded me "Bones and dust That the way you want it?"

"No," I said, and firmed up my knees and spine Weak? I wasn&039;t weak, and I wouldn&039;t let him see me that way "So you tell me, how do I stop it?"

"What ?"

I shook free of his hands and whirled to face hiht id and emotionless as a leather uish, all together

"I didn&039;t bring you here," he said "You think you&039;re Miss Special Destiny of the year?"

"No," I shot back, furious "And I don&039;t damn ant to be, any more than you wanted to be--whatever the hell you are But soht?"

"Careful You ht accidentally make some sense Ruin your reputation"

"You are infuriating!"

"Yep," he agreed "It&039;s been said"

Arguing with hi I controlled my temper with a tremendous effort of will "So hoe stop this?" Because I was not going to sit by and let a future roll toward us that contained six billion corpses turning to petroleu," Jonathan said, and stepped back He tugged his cap more firmly in place, one hand at the back, one on the bill "You want to survive, you need to convince Her that you&039;re worth the favor"

"How?" I practically yelled it "You&039;ll knohen you see it But first you have to get yourself to the right place"

"Which is?"

"Someplace you&039;ve already been," he said "Once Neat little place, kinda quaint You&039;ll think of it"

"Don&039;t do that Don&039;t go all vague on me just when I need--"

"Not my business to save your ass," he pointed out "Hell, I&039;m kinda dead anyway Not my problem And you look so cute with your face all red"

"Jonathan--" I was all out of smart-ass "Please"

He cupped an ear toward ?"

"Well, it&039;d be nice, but nah Can you sing?"

"What?"

"Sing Notes Usually up and down, unless you&039;re into that rap thing, which"--he eyed me--"I wouldn&039;t recommend A little too much vanilla in the ice, if you knohat I mean"

"Believe hed "Hu on around them"

He stopped in ain, but not as if he was trying to conceal anything this ti beyond the two of us

There was a sound It started as a kind of ot louder Stronger Becale of whispers

No, not whispers So musical

I reached for the latch on the , suddenly desperate to hear what it was Jonathan clapped his hands down over riht him I had to open theI had to know I could feel it colorious and terrible and beautiful as liquid fire, and it was going to burn me to ash where I stood with the fire of creation and joy Spiritupon the earth

I clawed at thelatch, got hold of it, and yanked up

Stuck I screalass, but it didn&039;t break, didn&039;t even rattle

Jonathan ht have been a curse, if I&039;d understood Djinn, and he spun , breathing Seduced by the power of the song outside Longing to join with it, lose itself in that joyous, terrifying chorus

Pieces of it hirling away Jonathan stayed focused on ot to leave," he said

"Aed by the sound He sertips to the tip of my chin "Didn&039;t see aveforce Pain blocked out even the screa

I sailed backward into the dark, falling, lost in shrieking winds and wind that grabbed and tore atin my ears

I jerked awake on the bed in the infir uncontrollably, and fureen glow told me that I&039;d been asleep for exactly six hours

I sank back with a sigh, cradling the clock and hitting the buttons, and then realized that it wasn&039;t the alar for attention Datone

I fumbled it out of ed and disoriented as I felt

"You stupid slag" I knew that rich tenor voice, sharpened noith anger "You called the police on me"

I flopped back into the comfort of the pillow and threw an arm over my eyes "Yes, Eamon, I called the police on you You threatened my life, tried to kill me, and abducted my sister--"

"I saved your bloody life!" He sounded livid I could al in his neck "I could&039;ve left you out in that hurricane to die, you know I put myself out for you!"

"Yeah, you&039;re a prince--Please tell me you&039;re not, by the way I h, but--"

"Shut it," he snarled "Alerting the local constabulary isn&039;t going to get your sister back"

"Can h, I&039;ll bet"

Silence I could hear hiripped in those long pianist&039;s fingers The inner Eah he could pretend with the best of theant, and he wasn&039;t cultured He was a total bastard, and the fact that ht still be, for all I knew--made me feel more than a little nauseated

"Look," I said "I know that you expect , but I&039; to kill ot ti few beats, and then, "Is there a problem?" he asked Which wasn&039;t what I&039;d expected

"Why do you care?"

"Because--" He paused for several long beats "Because what I want fro that affects that goal, I need to know"

"You have no idea how otten you the hell out of our lives," I said I remembered the bloodstains in the conference room Not that I wished disround was so fast "The situation has changed I can&039;t get my hands on a Djinn anymore No one can" "Won&039;t, you mean"

"I don&039;t have tiave you a Djinn bottle, it wouldn&039;t do you any good The--the reement&039;s been broken They don&039;t obey us anymore And they damn sure wouldn&039;t obey you"

"I see," he said slowly "That&039;s very unfortunate For your sister, at any rate"

"Where&039;s Sarah? If you&039;ve hurt her--"

"Don&039;t be ridiculous Why would I hurt lovely Sarah?" That sly hint of a to play along with her fantasies You&039;d be aets up to in the privacy of her--"

"Shut up!" I shouted it, heardinin the knife It was part of his game No matter what he said, I&039;d seen the way he&039;d touched her, and his hands didn&039;t lie about that, at least He was gentle with her Gentler than he had any reason to be It was even possible he really liked her, as o There&039;s no reason to keep her I already told you, I can&039;t give you a Djinn Please Just--let her go"

"Are you coive me what I want? Because if you are, there&039;s no reason for me not to put a bullet in the head of your beautiful sister, pose her in a coht of the tabloid media, and be on my merry way" He listened tooff the phone, like radiant heat "I was thinking so like the classics"

"You fucking son of a--"

"I want a Djinn I don&039;t care about your technical issues You&039;re thoroughly resourceful when you need to be--I&039;ve seen that firsthand No, your lovely sister stays with h for me In the meantime, she suffers whatever I see fit to ressively worse the longer you take to satisfy et me what I want, well you&039;ll follow the breathless coverage about her bad, sad end on the news"

My free hand was in a fist, clenched tight I didn&039;t re it, and deliberately relaxed until the white knuckles loosened up "You won&039;t get anything by threatening her There are other things happening, in case you&039;re not aware Bad things I can&039;t just--"

"Yeah," he interrupted "Dead Wardens littering the landscape, very sad, I&039;er your probleive you exactly two days to settle your little difficulties and et me what I want, and no tricks, or I swear to you, your sister will not leave a pretty corpse, are we understood?"

"Yes," I said "Yes, we&039;re understood"

"Then it&039;s been a slice, love, and you watch yourself Wouldn&039;t want anything to happen to you before I get what I want Now, if you&039;ll excuse o do your sister"

He hung up before I could fire off anything I&039;d regret later The nuain, exhausted and aching and angry as hell, with nowhere to put all that nervous dread Not like my sister&039;s life could count for any er, or the ure out how to ain

Bones and dust, corpses turning to petroleuraveyard Had I just been drea to tell h ti

I felt tears co to let that bastardin that stea beads of water from my sister&039;s naked back while she smiled innocently at hi to think about that at all

Okay, maybe I was

I curled up on the bed, hurled the alar crunch of plastic, and put my pillow over my head to sob out my fury and pain That was supposed to be cathartic, butmuscles, sinuses packed with fluid, and raw, abused eyeballs

I needed to blow my nose When I reached for a tissue froersone over

I liftedeasped

"Aren&039;t you going to take that?" David asked I looked down My fingers were clenched on the tissue in his hand, but I hadn&039;t made any move to claim it I slowly pulled it towardin a chair a couple of feet aatching me with his head tilted a little to one side His eyes wereround glasses Relaxed He earing a familiar outfit of a blue checked shirt and faded jeans and battered hiking boots, and God, he looked good enough to eat Relief flashed through , and then recent history caught up tothunder I sat up in a hurry, heart thu so hard, I saw red spots, because my brain finally saw fit to reo, had been intent on killing me

"Easy," he said, and reached out to draw a fingertip over the tender, sensitive skin on the interior of et "It&039;s all right I&039;m myself, at least for now Blow your nose"

He wasn&039;t a dream; he was here Really here, physically

I really did need to blow my nose I did so, in as ladylike a fashion as I could, wishing all the while--, that I&039;d been able to shower or to brush

I tossed the tissue at the trash can nearby He gave er, not even looking Two points

"I didn&039;t know if you were alive," he said softly "Not at first I re I thought I&039;d hurt you Killed you"

The look in his eyes--God, it s over the side of the bed We were close enough that our knees brushed David leaned forward,slowly, the way animal trainers do with skittish creatures, and he slowly extended his hand toward ," he said quietly "But I want to try to protect you, as much as I can Help you Will you let me?"

I couldn&039;t say no to him, not when he sounded like that Soft and a little desperate I stayed where I was I didn&039;t reach back to hih every cell in my body screamed for me to do it; I just watched him, until he drew his hand back He put his elbows on his knees and focused on my face with an intensity I remembered from the first tiht then, at first sight? I&039;d fallen in lust, for sure Lust had been no problem at all Still wasn&039;t Butback on it--I&039;d lostthe way

And I couldn&039;t regret it Even now

His fingers e to reach out to ht?" he asked "Not hurt?"

"No I&039;ht" Minus a few dozen cuts and bruises andto speak of, really "What the hell happened?"

His face went still Masklike, the way Jonathan&039;s had been in the dream His eyes turned dark and filled with secrets "Jonathan decided to play god," he said "He&039;s dead"

I had a sudden, aching suspicion "Did you kill hiuish, before he locked it down again, was answer enough David had been an Ifrit for a ti on Djinn for his life force Damned and doomed and broken dead, in every way that htest power source available to survive, and that had been Jonathan Driven by the basic instinct to feed, he had turned on his own best friend

Just the way his best friend intended, the coldhearted, calculating, manipulative bastard

"David, don&039;t," I said "You knoanted to die He just--used you Suicide by Ifrit"

"No, it washis thoughts to himself for a few seconds before he continued, "What Jonathan was, is--necessary Someone needs to stand where he stood Nature abhors a vacuum" He attempted a smile, but it looked painful "I was the closest Djinn to him in power, so what he was--it flowed into me In a real sense, I&039;ve become--"

"Jonathan," I supplied

He looked agonized about that Guilty Horrified "No Jonathan was special I don&039;t think any of us could really take his place and do the things he did But I&039;ve become the conduit, the pipeline from the Mother to the Djinn The only upside is that I&039;ve stopped pulling the life out of you, the way I did when I was an Ifrit If I&039;d kept on"

"You wouldn&039;t have killed me" I wasn&039;t sure of that, but I wanted to be

"I came damn close" He stared atI don&039;t know if I can control this I&039; apart from her needs, her e I could say about that wouldn&039;t make him feel worse about it "Look, you told me on the beach that the Wardens need to stop the Earth froht? Give you back free will?" "No, not really" He was already shaking his head "We never have completely free will It&039;s not the way it works"

"Even now that Jonathan&039;s agreeone?"

"Even now We just changed hands, so to speak Went back to our original master Mistress You saw When it happened--I wasn&039;t prepared to handle it I didn&039;t kno to try to hold it back, and it spilled through ht red, and bright red was not a color I associated with anything good, except in fashion Having red eyes staring at you was downright terrifying Still, it hadn&039;t been only the Goth-bright gaze that had unnervedbeen emptied out of his own skin, stripped of individual consciousness and responsibility

"When she&039;s angry," he continued, "when she feels threatened, she can take control of h me, all the others In a sense, we&039;re her antibodies And if she wants to destroy you"

It would be terrifyingly easy for Djinn to do it They were predatory at the best of tihter No hu, and there dao around anyway

"So what are we supposed to do? It&039;s a little late to build a rocket ship and evacuate," I said, "no matter what the science fiction ot a ss we love so much about you?"

"What?"

"Your stories You remake the world with stories I don&039;t think you understand hoerful that is, Jo"

"A story isn&039;t going to fix this"

The sht about that"

"Then tell me what to do"

"No"

"No?"

"You have to understand--"

"Well, I don&039;t I don&039;t understand"

"You&039;re being obstinate"

"I&039; such a riddle with you guys? Why can&039;t you just coht out and--"

"--tell you how to destroy the Djinn?" he asked, and arched his eyebrows "Sorry, but I&039;m not quite ready to sacrificeto find a way that it doesn&039;t come down to that choice That&039;s what Jonathan left me Responsibility It sucks, but that&039;s the way it is"

I sedin his eyes "So what can I do?" I asked "I can&039;t just wait around for the final epic battle and er and warmer "You never could, you knoays in ht Basic principles of physics Objects at rest tend to stay at rest Things in motion require less effort to overcome resistance"

"I love your mind"

"Is that all?" I arched my eyebrows back at him, and his eyes sparked bronze

He smiled, and then the smile slowly faded "We can&039;t do this"

Daan to fade "Why not?"

"Because it&039;s dangerous You begin to trust in to think you can trust me That&039;s a very bad idea" He stood up "I shouldn&039;t have come here"

"Then why did you?" I demanded, out of patience "Dammit, don&039;t coh to lick--don&039;t just show up and tell me that I can&039;t trust you, because I do trust you, I always have, even when I didn&039;t have any reason to do it! Don&039;t do this to us! It hurts!"

My vehemence shook him He honestly didn&039;t expect that outburst--I could see it in the way he drew back inside hilints died in his eyes, forced back He looked like a man A tired, vulnerable, sorrowful man "I want to help," he said

"Well, pony up, cowboy! Now&039;s the tiht" He closed his eyes, as if he couldn&039;t stand to look at me while he said it "You can&039;t cut the Djinn off from the Mother Oh, there&039;s a way, but if you do, you only guarantee your own destruction The Earth would gowiped away, it would be every living thing in the world She would just--reset the game and start over What you have to do is become Jonathan Become the conduit for hu somewhere "And how exactly do I do that?" He opened his ain No answer "David, half an answer is worse than none Tellyou at risk like this"

"Dammit, how could I be more at risk? I saw--" I stopped, because I intuitively knew I shouldn&039;t tell David about the dream At best, he&039;d dismiss it At worst, it would raise false hopes that Jonathan was somewhere out there "I&039;m a Warden, and I&039;et the job done"

His head jerked up, and he fixed on me with such intensity that I flinched, a little "I&039;m not sure it won&039;t kill you"

"Well," I said after a shaky second of a pause, "that&039;s a &039;been there, done that&039; situation, and anyway it&039;s not your choice tosecond of pause, from both of us Precarious and painful

"No," he finally adht about it "All right I can&039;t tell you how to do it--I&039;m not even sure how Jonathan did it, in the first place But I can tell you where" Henow, Djinn-bronze flecked with ruddy amber "You&039;ve been there once already Seacasket" "Seacasket?" I tried to re rush of pain and panic

Once upon a time, I had been a Djinn, and I had been sent to Seacasket by my master (if you could call a punk like Kevin a master, which was a stretch) to destroy the town In fire

David had stopped me that time And somehow, Kevin&039;s stepmonster Yvette had known that he would It had been the trap she set for hiet him back in her power

"Seacasket&039;s special," I said "Yvette knew"

He nodded "It&039;s a--thin space in the aetheric One of two or three places in this country where a huht be able to reach one of the Oracles"

"Oracles?" I&039;d never heard of Oracles, other than the ancient Greek kind Or the software coretful look that flashed across his face, it wasn&039;t so any human had probably heard before Or that the Djinn ever intended ould

"They don&039;t exist here, on this plane They&039;re--different And Jo, they&039;re dangerous Very dangerous, even to Djinn I--can&039;t ierous they&039;d be to a huet one to allow you contact Which isn&039;t likely"

"Can&039;t you--I don&039;t know, introduce me?"

"It doesn&039;t work that way," he said "I wish to heaven it did, because this would already be finished and I&039;d have done this for you The way I&039;m connected is subordinate The Djinn are part of the body, not apart froed "There&039;s no way to describe this, really It&039;s not a hu"

I let out a slow breath "Okay Leaving all that on the table, is there anything you can do about all of the--the chaos out there? Weather, fire, earthquakes?"

"I&039;ll do what I can" David leaned forward and extended his hand again This time, I took it His skin was firm and hot and smooth, and ly tactile, always touching, and even as I thought it his fingersin er without ht?"

My heart began to pound I wanted to forget all of this The wreckage outside of the infirree end of the world The future of bones

I wanted hi ht it was a kind of insanity, Djinn loving huht We have to face losing e love so often, and the urge to keep you out of danger is overpowering, soer And the truth is, you can&039;t really trust me, from this point on Promise me you&039;ll be careful of me"

"David--"

"I mean it, Jo Promise me I love you, I adore you, and you really can&039;t trust htened on ers twined, and he leaned closer and fitted his lips to o of his hand and wrappedfire of his hair, and deepened the kiss Willing hi it wasn&039;t

He made a sound in his throat, torture and despair and arousal all at once, and his hands fitted themselves around my waist and slid me off the bed and onto his lap My chest pressed to his, every point of contact a bonfire Our bodies, beyond our control, , sonderful friction that reminded us anted, e needed For the first time in months, ere both healthy, both whole, both

both too aware of what this ht cost us in the end

I don&039;t knohich of us broke the kiss, but it ended, and we pressed our foreheads together and breathed each other&039;s air without speaking for a long ti

"You&039;re right," I finally whispered My lips tasted of him "I can&039;t trust you I damn sure can&039;t trust myself when I&039;m with you"

He sirl" He kissed irl Remember that"

And then he lifted ot the impression he was about to leave, and panicked just a little "Wait! Uain"

"MapQuest," he said "The modern world is full of conveniences even the Djinn can&039;t match"

"Do I--?" I bitto have to fight uard?"

"Take Ily sweet "She&039;s astonishing, isn&039;t she? Our child? I wish you could see her the way I do, Jo, she&039;s--a reed With all my heart "I don&039;t want to take her with er--"

"I have faith in you to keep her safe"

"David, she&039;s two days old!"

"What she is can&039;t be measured in days, or years, or centuries," he said "She&039;ll be fine Just--take care of yourself You&039;re the one I&039;m worried about"

A sloarone Not a one Except for the le of eneral state of treht it was all another dream

I walked over to theandredness