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"This is Lyle," David said

"Seriously?" I blurted They both shot me an odd look "I mean, come on Lyle? " Lyle smiled He’d filed his teeth into sharp little points "You got a proble Deep South accent, slow and war me, either

Another oddity

"Uh, no, no problem," I said "It’s just not exactly the kind of nas A little too - "

"Human?"

"Country," I said "Not even a little bit rock and roll" David decided it was time to intervene before my conversational skills costone of the World Wars"

"Which one?"

"They coether," David said "First?" Lyle nodded "I kept my human name A lot of Djinn don’t bother Sorry it doesn’t meet with your approval, Warden"

"No, you’re not," I said, and he sain This time, he’d put away the scary teeth, and his dentition was blindingly white and perfectly hu, that eirder

"Lyle was checking for energy signatures," David said "Did you find anything?"

"Yes Weaker than the one you two tripped across, though, and well hidden" Lyle’s rust-colored eyes darkened just a shade "They’re hiding as humans"

"How many?"

"Two"

"Two more ?" My throat threatened to close up around the words, and Lyle sent me a sharp look I needed to work on my poker face "What do we know about the skins," Lyle said "The skins used to be people, so they have history and weight in the aetheric They took care not to kill the skins I think they kneas a good disguise Good enough to foolto describe soine "These people - can we save them?"

"Not people," Lyle said "Like I said, they’re just skins now Nothing inside" I wished he hadn’t said that Or at least, hadn’t sounded so matter-of-fact about it

"Why haven’t they attacked us already?" I asked "They probably know their big brother’s gone, right? What are they waiting for, the all-you-can-eat-buffet light to go on?"

"They’re definitely waiting on sonal, if they haven’t struck at us yet," David said "They can afford to bide their time We don’t even really knohat they’re capable of doing, not yet"

"No," I said slowly "They did strike already They killed the Djinn we found in the hallway outside my old cabin We just don’t knohy, because we can’t figure out who she was or what she was doing at the time"

It was the perfect dead end, and it asted on David and Lyle, who looked at each other as if silently thinking that I’d gone just slightly nuts Huoes on in their tiny heads?

"We need to backtrack and figure out why they felt threatened by that Djinn," I said "Or why they had to stop what she was doing David - " He was still giving ure it out Anyway, one good thing about it - they’re probably worried about hoe est monster already" I sed "Please tell est one"

"It was," David said I heaved a deep sigh of relief

"We should kill them now," Lyle said

"How? Just one of the David to a standstill, and halfway destroying Venna," I said "So I’ on two of them at once Any other options?"

Lyle cocked one thin eyebroim back to shore"

"Just run away"

"Unless you want to wait for them to strike first"

"You weren’t serious about the running away, right?"

"Oh, he was," David said

Lyle nodded Lyle was turning out to be the least confrontational supernatural being I’d ever met Under nore, but considering that I wanted a bunch of fire-eating, hard-charging badasses to back ht now not so much

We both looked at David, who seeed himself back with an effort "We bide our tiht now Venna can’t be used against theain, and we need to know ot it Find out the right frequencies to do daet everybody up to speed on the info, quietly Oh, you probably should tell , here Not Wardens?" Because I’d hate to have missed that inas a stoay in the ship’s hold He will be difficult to reach, and harder to trap"

"Let thee, any indication so, report it as soon as you can If they try to sabotage the ship - " I hadn’t even thought of that, and the idea twisted ut "Could they?"

"Of course But not easily, and probably not fatally With the Wardens and Djinn aboard, e can be repaired immediately" David sounded a lot lad soave a very hu snort "Why would I?"

"Because Joanne’s right," David said "One of these things nearly won against two Djinn and a powerful Warden Don’t let your confidence blind you to the possibility of losing spectacularly" At that ht he sounded a whole lot like his predecessor, Jonathan - calht so too, because he inclined his head a bit and looked contrite

"Their names," I said

"What?" Both Djinn looked at me

"The people I’d like to know their names"

"Why does it matter?" Lyle asked "They’re skins I told you, they’re empty"

"You also told me the skins used to be real people Real histories Fa I’d had practice with that, because Lyle had the eerie Djinn thing down pat "I want to know because it’s the only e can honor their ineer’s o He had a wife and three children in New Orleans, and a elo Marconi, from Naples His sister owns a restaurant there His family thinks he’s still away at school"

"School," I murmured "How old - "

"He is dead, Warden"