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"Oh" He let go and rose to his full, lanky height "Sorry Didn’t mean to - "
"I know" The other Wardens were still watching us, but after a ain Yeah, I could bet what they hispering "Just be glad that David - "
"That David didn’t see you?" That was David, of course, arriving in a white whisper of fog that poured itself into his human form in less than an eyeblink He sounded amused "David did"
"I’ll take it as written that you said to keep rubby hands off your woman," Lewis said
David raised an eyebrow " Grubbynot strong enough?"
"Before you say that in the future, htly offensive," David said, and I could almost feel Lewis’s wince "Jo’s her ooman
If she felt uncomfortable, she’d tell you"
"Yeah, she always has"
"Uh, guys?" I waved e display, very attractive, but are we done? Ti"
David s with Lewis; he hadn’t for some time He was possessive, on levels that he would never let anyone but me see, but he was done with jealousy We were bonded, in his eyes, for eternity, or as long as my human body lasted He had absolutely no reason to worry "I came to tell you that the Djinn have coin anytime you’re ready"
"Let’s not delay," Lewis said, and stepped up to the edge of the theater’s prosceniuot work to do"
There weren’t five people in the world who could get thirty-odd Wardens to shut up and listen without arguing, but Leas one of them I wasn’t, so I shut up and paid attention, too He’d taken his hour of downtih he still looked exhausted, I wouldn’t have bet against hiood, because ere about to step into the ring for the fight of our lives
"David," Lewis said, "I need the Djinn to for toward us Try to hold it in place while we cut its generators" By that, I understood that he was going to do the logical thing and try to affect not the stor forces that fed its fury There were relatively simple ways to do it, but out on the open ocean, they also requiredthe da around, the better
David nodded "It’ll stay as still as we can e" That wouldn’t be easy, but he had at least fourteen Djinn at his command - ten of his own, four of Ashan’s I didn’t think there were s that a couple of Djinn couldn’t do, so fourteen seein
Still I was getting a cla my spine Bad Bob knows us He knoe think He’s one of us
I wished I hadn’t thought of that
Lewis paced, because that hat Lewis did when he was under stress He prowled the stage, talking without focusing directly on anyone, eventhe tea of the water tein of about half afor a rees"
Someone in the audience whistled, and it was all I could do not to echo it Ten degrees on the open ocean? Holy crap, that was hard The ae in that vast arees," I said, and ht"
"Pick your team"
David watched me as I looked out over the audience and called names I knew most of them, and more important, I knew their capabilities I wanted raer, and for this, at least, I wasn’t overly concerned about fine control There wasn’t a single person out there I’d name h
Predictably enough, though, someone raised a hand It was Henry Jellico, whom I hadn’t picked Henry was one of the worst know-it-alls that I’d ever uy He’d studied hard, and dale person to know it
"Excuse me, Lewis, but wouldn’t it be wise to alsothe te it to the temperature of the eye to expand it outward?"
Lewis stopped pacing, but he didn’t face Jellico "I believe I said four teae of team two Exhaust process ot those equations balanced, try taking the whole thing down another five degrees"
"Five?"
"Please"
Henry Jellico wasn’t in for any picnic, either Leaited as Henry picked his ten Wardens, and then chose Amanda Chavez to head up the third tea wind speed The fourth tea for any imminent threats, and it was headed up by Lewis hie,over the lip, and lowered my head in concentration Out in the audience, all the Wardens did the saed in prayer; in a sense, that e were doing, only on a slightly ot an eyeind speed on this beast?" so two hundred fifty miles per hour," Lewis said We had a moment of contemplation on that one The storhest speed the Wardens had ever ive or take a bit
There was no such thing as a Category 6 storht have been the te There’s been a report that our eneht have the ability to strike us while we’re on the aetheric,physical side effects Watch yourselves, and my team will deal with any attacks that coet it done The faster we’re in and out, the safer we are" I rose up into the aetheric, and the entire roolittering, powerful for from the limitations of the physical to the her planes I never knehat I looked like - none of us did - but I watched Henry Jellico morph from a mild little man into a bulky, muscular warrior who’d have been at ho a barbarian axe
Some Wardens didn’t even keep hu that bounded and leaped through the clouds We all had our fantasies, our true natures, and we couldn’t really control how others saw us
Lewis looked like himself Always He had a powerful aura, but the essence of hied, and that was both impressive and a bit on the scary side
Speech wasn’t possible on the aetheric - after all, no lips, tongues, teeth, or lungs - but the Wardens had developed their own rabbed h, getting above the towering storlass elevator past a vertical oil spill Nasty, and shiver-inducing We went up almost ten miles into the atmosphere and leveled out at the top, where the storm formed a smooth doing in war it out
It was a living thing, after all, however strange it ic
The aura colors of the stornificantly froative spots and shapes, with livid purple around the edges I didn’t see any sign of that poisonous, otherworldly green that I’d glih