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I was hoping that Venna had been wrong about her daht? But no

Venna had been not just injured but diminished by the battle in Clark’s cabin

When David told e of my narrow bed in much the sa not to give away how much it disturbed him He had on his just-the-facts-ma’am face, and he’d daestions of ehi cereether on that powerful level

I didn’t like it

"She’s all right," David toldat me, but not - eyes unfocused, and ht, she’s just less than she was As if pieces of her had been burned away"

"Or eaten," I said

"You’re thinking of an Ifrit," he said, and the focus sharpened in his eyes "That wasn’t an Ifrit" No, it definitely had not been an Ifrit Those were Djinn, badly da on their own kind, but still recognizably of the Djinn DNA fa not so much

"What if it was part Ifrit?" I said slowly I struggled up to a reclining position, withback "Part Demon, too? Some kind of hybrid?"

"That would be bad," David said, very softly

"Yeah, it’d suck like an industrial-strength Hoover Demons are hard to kill; Ifrits can consuht?" As I understood it, Ifrits were the result of day fro and desperate, they did what any living creature y frohtmarish vaher er

Marry that to a Deainst the Djinn, not to ets in the way, like Wardens

In a word, one of Venna’s ghosts - invisible, deadly, and adaptable

"Can she recover?" I asked, thinking again of Venna David gave

"Check that - can she recover in tiain?"

"I don’t know I’m not her Conduit"

"Cop-out"

"Hey!"

"You know You may not be able to help her, but you knohether or not Ashan can help her"

"Ashan isn’t saying much," David said "You kno he is" Oh, I knew We’d hit the sa to help another of Ashan’s Old Djinn, a particularly arrogant specimen named Cassiel who’d pissed the old dude off and been cast out to fend for herself for her troubles She hadn’t quite becoo the less conventional route of binding herself to the Wardens for her daily dose of life energy and I wasn’t at all sure that had been a good idea, still Thank God, she wasn’t here with us, causing trouble Wherever she was, I hoped she was doing better than ere

Ashan had refused to talk about that incident, too He wasn’t, in general, the chattiest of all uidelines for villainy, the first one being Don’t ?" I asked Because Venna being Venna, she could stay or go, exactly as she pleased In her place, I’one off to the Djinn Day Spa for the next several millennia, and left us human idiots to our own devices

"Of course she’s staying," David said, and smiled just a little "Venna’s more like you than she’d like to ad cuter"

"Debatable"

"I don’t have any HELLO KITTY shoes"

"Could be remedied" He lifted entle touch, not to mention the look in his eyes "I’ you recover It’s hard to remember how much we share now I don’t want to add to your problems"

"You orried," I said "Hell, join the club We have T-shirts and free-drink coupons

Open bar every Wednesday"

"Coh Most oftension ith it "You did very well back there"

"What, gettingmeat slicer?

Yeah, spectacular job Mom would be proud"

"I don’t think ainst it at all," he said "Fewer still would have tried I talked with Venna about how she destroyed it She vibrated it I think you could do the same?"

"Vibrated - " Of course Crystalline structure in its bones and claws and teeth Strong, but hit it with the right oscillated frequency, and you could hurt it, ht I don’t suppose you have any remains ?" For answer, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a single crystal tooth, about the size of a shing it, and then handed it to ht; it still held a wicked edge I wrapped it in handfuls of tissue paper froht-stand and put it in my own pocket for later study

"Do we know if there are more on board?" I asked "Because we really don’t need another ugly surprise"

David got up and opened the cabin door In walked another Djinn, a brawny, bald-headed sort who looked like he hted on a cleaner bottle froray, and his eyes were the color of rust

He looked around the sparse cabin with an expression like he’d bitten a bug in half, then dragged over the small side chair Cherise wasn’t in at the one off in search ofcommentary on this scene