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Doesn&039;t get ht: I really couldn&039;t trust hiain But that wasn&039;t, and never would be, my instinct, and he knew it He was my true fatal flaw, andto end up destroying us both, and our child with us

If I was inclined to mope about it, I didn&039;t have time There was a rattle at the locked infiruard, looked in and jerked his head at me

"You&039;re wanted," he said "Move it"

I cast one last look at the empty chair where David had been, and followed Nathan out

The infirmary was relatively soundproofed, as I discovered when I went out into the hall; there was a riot outside People yelling, screa There were more people crammed in than there&039;d been before, and everybody looked stressed and confused There were argu in the hallway that we had to uncork the Djinn still imprisoned in the vault several stories below, under the theory that we could be prepared to give the Wardens at all costs Soainst it, but I could tell popular senti for the supposedly siiven up, evidently He was sitting whey-faced in a chair in the North A for order, but since she was in a wheelchair, it was hard for her to make an impression

I went for the floor show

I levitated erously close to the ceiling, reached deep for power, and felt it respond to me with an ease and war tianine, in fact

I let the power crackle around y in the air, and most of those around ht, light without heat--is the biggest trick in the book when it coht has heat as a natural by-product of the energy release that creates it, so I had to balance the radiation with rapid dispersal throughout a cohter, and still brighter, until I was glowing like a girl-shaped chandelier, hovering in the hallway Conversation stopped In the brilliant white light, they all looked stark and surprised, and to a Warden they flinched when I released a pulse of energy that flared out in a circle like a strobe going off

I let the glow die down slowly and touched ht," I said "Let&039;s quit freaking and start working, all right?"

Nobody spoke Dozens of faces, and they were all turned to ray-haired ones who&039;d been handling the business of earth and fire and weather for three-quarters of their long lives They were tough, or they were dale one of them

And most important, they e had

I pointed to the Warden who&039;d been arguing against opening the bottles--a slender little African A hairline and bookish wire-rimmed spectacles "What&039;s your name?" I asked He didn&039;t look at all familiar

"Will," he said "Williae of the Djinn issue," I said "You need to get every single Djinn bottle, e in the vault And then you seal the vault and you make damn sure that nobody, and I mean nobody, opens up any bottles Got it?"

"Wait a -boned woman with a horse face and bitter-almond eyes "You can&039;t just make a decision like that! Who the hell do you think you are? You&039;re not even a Warden anymore!" I remembered her Emily, a double threat--an Earth and Fire Warden out of Canada She was blunt, but she was good at her job; she also had a reputation for being pushy

"Back off," Paul said wearily froh the silence "She&039;s one of us Hell, she h the day" He sounded defeated I didn&039;t care for that I hadn&039;t meant to take away his authority--at least, not peruy who could shoulder the burden anymore "Jo, do your stuff"

"Okay," I said I turned back to the wo me the fish eye "Emily, you think you can make this work because you think you&039;re smarter than the Djinn, or faster, or more powerful You can&039;t You all need to unlearn what you know about the Djinn They&039;re not subservient They&039;re not stupid And they&039;re not ours, not any to each other E passed around, in varying degrees of incredulity I thought she was dead, someone said, just a little too loudly for comfort

"This is stupid," Eht she was out of the Wardens How does she know anything?"

"She knows because she ith the Djinn when it happened," Marion said, and rolled closer with a brisk snap of her wrists "Right?"

I nodded "I saw it happen We&039;ve lost control, and as far as I knoe&039;ve lost it for good We need to face that and figure out how to go forward"

"Forward?" so We need the Djinn!"

"No, we don&039;t," another person countered sharply "I barely escaped, and only because , we can&039;t risk involvement with the Djinn"

"Exactly," I said "We have to rely on ourselves, and each other Will? You up for the job?"

He sed hard and nodded "I&039;ll get started"

"Get some people to help you Draft them if you have to, and don&039;t be afraid to use Paul&039;s na stick" I waited for souely I turned to Eht?"

She was silent for a few seconds, looking at ht We need to stop the bleeding, and save the surgery for later"

I was glad Eh opponent Nothing weak about her, and we needed her on our side

There was only one side, right now The side of survival I faced a crowd of people, and everybody looked tired and harassed and worried Not the faces of winners They looked lost

"All right," I said "Everybody, listen up We&039;ve taken sos are desperate But we are Wardens Wardens don&039;t run, and they don&039;t abandon their responsibilities There are six billion people on this planet, and we stand up for the, focused, and we need to be united No , politics, or ambition Understood?"

"Oh, come on! Look around you It&039;s impossible," someone in the crowd complained I fixed that area with a stare that, froht have been Djinn-strength

"I was just hanging inlike a UFO," I said "Don&039;t tell me about ihter Some of the tension fled from their faces, and there were a few nods

"I need a volunteer to handle cleanup crew," I continued "Earth Wardens, probably, maybe a couple of Fire Wardens Get this place back in operation Everybody else, pick a conference roo the crisis inforly, after a scant second, Eht! I need two Earth and one Fire for cleanup!" and the rest of the into conference roo to , hands folded in her lap She inclined her head, very slightly Under the bruises, she was s

I said, "Soift for it," she countered We both looked at Paul

He was gone So my little speech, he&039;d walked away I felt a little stab of regret and worry I&039;d taken away Paul&039;s authority again, ood this time, and that was not only unkind, but also deeply unwise

"Excuse me?" someone asked from behind me "Warden Baldwin?"

I turned to find a petite blond wo there I didn&039;t know her, but she was different from the others in the hallway There was no worry in her expression, and no exhaustion Perky, which just seeh, that sent a ripple of unease up my back that exploded in an ice-cold shudder on the back of

"Jo!" Marion&039;s warning shout caun Must have taken it off one of the guards Nathan? Janet? One of the many who&039;d died? And now she raised it and pointed it straight atThe h to s the sun

And she fired

I felt it happening in slowflare of explosion inside the metal jacket I felt it The sa out of the sky, or the swirl of air and water

I not only felt it, but I could touch it

It didn&039;t take nited the powder in the cartridge

Click

My would-be assassin looked baffled, then angry, and pulled the trigger again, with the same results I smiled thinly at her, reached out, and took the pistol away While I was doing that, Nathan, the tall security guard, pelted breathlessly around the corner I eun--well, it always looked cool in the movies--and Nathan took it away from me the way you&039;d take a se baby

He also took possession of the Warden, and handcuffed her

She still had that saht in her eyes, and she hadn&039;t taken her eyes off nized that starvation in her I&039;d had it eating throughat her, wondering how to go about handling this particular problem, when an arrival at the end of the hallway stole my thunder Heads popped out of conference rooious as the flu "Lewis!"

Well, well, well Elvis was back in the building

Lewis Levander Orasn&039;t looking his best, but then, as? Rough and tired, but intact except for some livid dry cuts and scrapes that looked suspiciously like road rash, as if he&039;d gotten dragged over asphalt At least a three-day growth of beard Still, much improved from the last time I&039;d seen him There was a palpable sense of relief as he walked down the hall toward us, a feeling that at last, stability had arrived Lewis had that effect He ithout question, theWarden, and he was the proverbial triple threat--weather, fire, and earth powers, all in one package

He didn&039;t look like the big head cheese, really--tall, long arrace and an ironic smile, brown hair that badly needed a tri blue jeans and a loose flannel shirt folded up to expose the afore boots Co case

A little like Jonathan, now that I thought about it

He gave ood look at the i even ht of him

"Hey, Joanne" He nodded to hed

Lewis always did have an economy of words He reached over and yanked down the collar of her shirt

It was only a gliled mass that writhed just under her skin, and then burrowed deeper, hiding from view

De sense-memory of how that felt How seductively warhtly in your veins You felt like you could do anything with one of those, and sometimes, you really could

I couldn&039;t save her So far as I knew, there was no way to save any of the in this building that will hold somebody with a Demon Mark?"

He didn&039;t trouble to keep his voice down, and it sent shock waves through the assembled Wardens Demon Marks, like Free Djinn, weren&039;t supposed to exist Hell, even if they did exist, they were supposed to be dealt with quickly and quietly, off behind the curtains

"There&039;s a secured cell two floors down," she said "We usually auguards, but--"

"Yeah, that&039;s not going to happen" Lewis&039;s eyes assessed those standing around, lightning-quick, and he pointed at Nathan and two other Wardens "You three Go with Marion Get her secured Marion, we&039;ll talk later about e can do for her" He watched as the parade organized itself, then put his lips close to my ear and said, "Come with me We need to talk Privately"

I stepped back and nodded, then led hie and repairs and down around the corner, to an office that had re on forecast nificant nod of my head, and closed the door behind her, then turned to face Lewis

"Senior ement?" he asked

"Mostly dead," I said "Paul&039;s on the walking wounded list; Marion isn&039;t even that good Morale&039;s in the toilet, of course I haven&039;t seen any other faces I recognize froht into his eyes "We&039;re in big-ass trouble, Lewis"

"No kidding" He leaned against the desk and folded his ar "You know about Jonathan?"

"Imara and David say he&039;s dead"

"I story Short version, she&039;s hter Mine and David&039;s"

His lips parted, and his eyes widened, and I had the rare pleasure of seeing Lewis Orwell rendered speechless For a ," he said, finally "Congratulations Where is she?"

"Safe, I hope Away froer-happy, and even if it isn&039;t too likely they could hurt her, I didn&039;t really want to put it to the test She&039;s--" Precious Special Unique Strange A "She&039;s my kid Okay, she looks like a Sports Illustrated swiht you said she was a kid?"

"Don&039;t ask lea my clothes"

He made a low-throated sound of amusement "So in other words, it&039;s been a busy couple of days"

I gestured around at the wreckage in the office, piled like driftwood in the corners By extension, at the chaos swirling around in the world "You could say" "Come here"

I frowned, but took a step closer He reached out and took ainst hi the comfort of his warmth sink deep He needed a shower Hell, so did I We ell beyond little things like that After a few seconds, I felt the surge of power building between us a cell-deep vibration, like calling to like We had harmonics, ays did have, and the one time we&039;d allowed it to build out of control, we&039;d called up storms and shattered s

It built so fast, it was breathtaking Glass and steel rattled around us I took control of li wild and a little desperate in Lewis&039;s eyes, quickly covered

"Did you feel that?" he asked "Looks like we&039;re getting stronger"

"Just the two of us?"

"No idea, I&039; to me, but I&039;ve always been kind of the far end of the curve" That wasn&039;t ego, just fact "Still, nothing&039;s what it was yesterday Not the Djinn, and not us Maybe in breaking the contract, Jonathan reset soinally a lot stronger on their own It could be that we&039;ve been bleeding off some of our oer to feed the Djinn"

Interesting notion "So maybe we don&039;t need the Djinn after all, if this keeps up"

"Oh, I wouldn&039;t go that far" He was still watching me Warm brown eyes, always fired with a little bit of amusement "It&039;s also possible that maybe you and I are a little ?"

He stretched out a palrowing redder as I watched

Redder and larger Leasn&039;t watching thishis eyes

And then he pitched the softball-size ball of fire straight at lish behind it

I yelped, ducked, and felt the heat singe my hair as the fireball streaked past me It hit the wall, bounced, landed in a pile of scattered papers, and ignited

"Shit! What the hell are you doing?" I yelled, and without even thinking about it, felt blindly for the structure of the fire Delicate as glass, strong as steel, but fragile

I put it out Not even a wisp of smoke to show it ever existed

I rounded on Lewis, shocked and furious; he had his arrinning

"What the hell was that?" I deain and called another tongue of flame "Put it out," he said

"You put it out! This is a nonsto make me--" I stuttered to a stop, because I realized what he was trying to do Or,to demonstrate Hey, I never said I wasn&039;t a little thick "Oh"

I extended my hand, cupped it over his, and felt the fire&039;s warmth spill over me Fire is a kind of fluid, when all is said and done: plasentle, and when I opened ue of flaold and blue

I closed ain and called fire

It came without even a hesitation, a flutter and a sense of pleasant war it drip fro it back up toabout it "You&039;re Water and Fire Interesting combination Pretty rare, too, there&039;s been, what? Six or seven in recent history?"

I looked up at him "But I never had any power over fire Never They tested ot yourself reborn?"

I&039;d died in a fire, and David had brought iven their iain, and in his youth, Patrick had been a Fire Warden

I could feel it coursing through me now, a kind of awareness that I&039;d never noticed before--a sense of the electricity inside the walls, like bright glittering lines Of static hovering like glitter in the air Of the aura surrounding Lewis hilorious as a rainbow

I blinked, and it was gone Good I wasn&039;t sure I wanted to live in a world that distracting full-time "But--why now? I didn&039;t feel this before--?"

"Maybe it took some ti else has shifted Hell, Jo, you just gave birth to a Djinn Who knohat&039;s changed inside you?"

Queasy thought "Um, one little problem I don&039;t have any formal instruction for fire powers"

"Consider it on-the-job training And don&039;t get cocky You still need a third black belt to land yourself a shot at hed, and in the next blink, the glitter was back in the world I stared, lory of the world around me Beautiful and complex as a machine ? No wonder they always looked spaced out

"Jo," he said, and drewout of tireed "Not to mention manpower We&039;ve lost who-kno-many Wardens, and effectively all the Djinn I hope you&039;re right that we&039;re getting stronger, because we need it--"

"Daht," said a weary voice fro there He walked in and sluathering strength to speak Dirty pale "Lewis"

Lewis nodded silently, clearly worried at Paul&039;s state "Do you want me to--?" Paul waved it aside irritably "I&039;ll live, and you&039;ve got better things to do with your power than heal s"

Lewis glanced at me, then at Paul "Maybe this isn&039;t the best tihed

"You need rest--"

"No I need to retire," Paul said bluntly "The thing is, I can&039;t handle this anyuy for the job I couldn&039;t get their attention out there earlier, Jo, and you know it You did"

"Not me," I replied, and held up my hands to push the iave ht be able to solve this without a lot of further bloodshed, but I need to do it alone"

"Yeah? How do you know you can trust him?" Paul demanded

I met his eyes and held them "I know And I have a plan, which is ht now" Well, more or less At least, I had a place to start Didn&039;t seem to be the mohed and turned his gaze to Leho straightened up fast "Oh, no," Lewis said "I&039; to take command That&039;s your job"

"Hell, kid, I inherited the damn job, and I never wanted it in the first place I&039; water I want you to take it, Lewis I need you to take it You&039;re the one guy everybody trusts around here, because you&039;re the one guy alked away froaht," I said quietly "It should be you" I bita traitor to say so--a traitor to Paul, who deserved my support even if he didn&039;t want it, and a traitor to Leho patently didn&039;t want the responsibility Especially not now "This is what you were born to do, Lewis We all knew it, right fro else"

"What?" That had both of the at me Paul looked as if he really couldn&039;t stand another dangerous surprise

"David once told me that Jonathan used to be like you, Lewis He had all three powers And in some way, he was more connected To the Earth So le"

Paul nodded "The sooner the better If the Earth wakes up, takes a good hard look at e&039;ve been doing to her this last ten thousand years without anybody to do soh left of us to form a decent fossil record"

"Who says she won&039;t like us?" Lewis murmured

Paul raised his eyebrows "Do you like us?"

"Some of us are pretty winsome" I could have sworn Lewis looked towardlashes

"Wow, thanks for the coavesuitable for public consuoing?" Lewis asked, back on track again

"Seacasket"

"Where the fuck is Seacasket?" Paul cut in, eyes closed "Sounds depressing"

"It was someplace I was sent when I was a Djinn"

"When Yvette and Kevin had you?" That had caught Lewis off guard "That business with Yvette wasn&039;t ot a little distracted--"

"Distracted?" I let out a laugh that really wasn&039;t much amused "The way I remember it, you were pretty focused, Lewis Somewhere south of your belt buckle"

"Yeah, thanks for the race to look embarrassed "Anyway, I was pretty much out of commission for most of that You want to tell us about Seacasket?"

Not really I sat and crossedYvette gavein the pit of my stomach, because I couldn&039;t think about her slinky, skanky sexiness without also re how she&039;d looked at the end, when Jonathan had remorselessly carried out her stepson&039;s orders and crushed her skull

"Okay" I sucked in a deep breath "Kevin, Yvette&039;s stepson, was my master while I was a Djinn She didn&039;t want e thing going for him"

"And?"

"And what?"

"Seacasket," Lewis prompted

Oh, I so didn&039;t want to re up for her to claiet hi terrible"

"In Seacasket"

I nodded "It&039;s a little town in Maine I didn&039;t knohy she picked it, I only knew that she had every reason to believe that David would show up to defend it It was a trap For hio on I didn&039;t want to re her hands on David and doing the things she did Lewis looked away again, as if as on my face was too private to witness

I&039;m okay hat people do in the privacy of their bedrooms, and David&039;s not my property (in any sense any participant, then or ever He&039;d hated it Loathed it And she&039;d taken great pleasure in the rape of his will, not toher for that Never

"I re Jonathan said once," Lewis said conteive the time of day to most humans, but Leas no doubt on Djinn speed dial "There are other things out there Things even the Djinn are afraid of"

Paul atching us the way you&039;d watch a tennis ain Not quite out of the ga in the Warden records," he said "Early writings Nobody thought the translation was correct There was a reference to soher forh"

"Think that&039;s what Jonathan was talking about?" I asked Lewis He shrugged

"Don&039;t know I think you&039;re right You&039;ve got the best shot of anyone, especially if David&039;s at least trying to help you" He paused to look at Paul inquiringly--a foresture, and a kind one

Paul nodded "You do work best out there, kiddo Go do your stuff I&039;ll stick with Lewis, help s here And Jo?"

I looked up at hiht by the intent focus of his eyes

"I don&039;t care how into him you are, you be careful of this Djinn of yours," Paul said "Don&039;t trust him"

"Funny," I said, and opened the office door to leave "He said prettyhimself"

The last time I&039;d seen Lewis, back in Florida, he hadn&039;t been alone, and so it didn&039;t co companion out in the hallway

Kevin Prentiss had started out a dangerous, disaffected kid with a grudge and a rogue Djinn, and had ended up a surprisingly solid citizen, at least so long as Lewis exerted a good influence on hiuardian and mentor I wasn&039;t too shocked by that, either; he&039;d always been the kind to take on wounded birds and outlaws But it was still a pretty brave thing to do, considering that Kevin&039;s last official guardian had ended up really, really dead, and Kevin hadn&039;t been all that sorry about it, either

Not that I could blaine what kind of terrible life the kid--seventeen, maybe?--had had with the psychopathic Yvette before David and I had co to receive a short, radioactive burst of that horror

Still, the first thing I thought when I saw Kevin was that I&039;d never seen hi before, at least not like that It was a full, chared his nor that would el Oh, he still looked slacker-chic, all longish tangled hair and sallow skin and slouching body language

But that smile

One instant later, the smile made sense, because Cherise ith him

She looked freshly scrubbed, and she was restored to her usual glossy perfection--hair artlessly tousled (but perfectly ordered), ht little top that showed off a tanned ht to be handing out referrals to her bikini waxer A real pocket-size bombshell, from her head to her newly enameled toenails

Kevin was--of course--enthralled Cherise didn&039;t seem to mind that, but frankly, I didn&039;t understand why Kevin was a bad boy, just not in the generally accepted attractive way He was trouble in faded baggy jeans, with slouched shoulders and an attitude that sneered in the face of authority Okay, so that was exactly what er than mine, okay?--found sexy But still Kevin? Cherise could have literally any guy she wanted I was perplexed by her sudden turnaround on the issue of quality date et back in the door Being with Kevin did the job nicely, because he wasn&039;t accusto arm of Lewis to back him up

Lord, I hoped she wasn&039;t quite that et an invitation back in through the front door, but I wouldn&039;t put it past her

Or myself, come to think of it

"Hello, Kevin," I said with a reasonable degree of welcoelic smile twisted in on itself

"Hey," Kevin mumbled at the floor "Seen Lewis around?"

"Yeah, he&039;s in there He&039;ll be out in amyself to the point of small talk I mean, I appreciated that Kevin was a coet over having been his Djinn Even that, I could have gotten over, if it hadn&039;t been for the stupid French le me by

He lare "Lewis brought "

"I&039;lad he did We need you here," I said I meant it Kevin had a pretty i to be a jerk about it, and we couldn&039;t afford to be choosing only the nice people with good personalities

Leho&039;d come up behind me, nodded I could see his face out of the corner ofjust a little too close, and I could feel the feedback burn of our powers responding He didn&039;t move away "Kev, they could use you in the last conference roo about fire control You can help" He looked at Cherise, glanced over to htly "Gotta feed all these people Bottled water, coffee, sodas, ice--I&039; as somebody has a credit card to use Any volunteers? I&039; with a platinum limit"

"Cherise," I said, and reached out to take her hand "You really don&039;t need to be here You should go ho&039;s okay"

She studied ood a liar," she said "Everything&039;s not okay Kevin told s are all screwed up, and you people are the ones who can set theain I want to help"

"You&039;re not--look, this isn&039;t about you It&039;s just that you don&039;t have the kind of skills that this needs to--"

"Give me a credit card and phone line, I&039;ll show you soht down, turned to Lewis, and gave hiet it, do you? This isn&039;t your planet It&039;s our planet And you may be all kick-ass powerful superheroes, but that doesn&039;t mean you don&039;t need our help Well,food delivered, and don&039;t you forget it"

Lewis quirked an eyebrow and half a sot a point," I said "Maybe we need somebody with a little practical perspective"

Kevin shot Cherise a thuet themotion Kevin ah to assert his independence, of course He really was a gifted kid I couldn&039;t exactly call hiht--he certainly had been given the chances But I couldn&039;t quite get the memories out of my head of what he&039;d been like when he&039;d had power over me What he&039;d been like when he&039;d had power over his steperous, for a Warden

I nudged Leith an elbow once Kevin was out of earshot "You&039;re keeping tabs on Teen Psycho, right?"

"He&039;s not that bad"

"Lewis"

"Yes, I&039;ned "Somebody needs to Listen, I hate to rush you, but I can handle things here What do you need?"

"Need?"

"To ave me that not-smile smile "Fast car?"

"Oh, you think? Maybe I can borrow Cherise&039;s She&039;s got a cherry Mustang that pretty much rips up the road Well, it used to be cherry I think the last drive put a few dents in it"

"No need to do that," he said, and dug in the pocket of his blue jeans for a set of keys that he flung ht them out of the air

"This better not be an SUV," I warned Because Lewis had an affinity for that sort of thing I was an onroad kind of girl

He flashed e SS Caht it in Jersey just for you So to need wheels"

My heart skipped a beat