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It turned hot

"Why’d you just call s she could have said, that was the one that stopped me in my tracks

Peach Sweetness Bad Bob liked expressions like those, ly sentimental, used to wound He’d used them on me all the time

I took a step back My hands locked into fists, and I felt the fire from the torch on

"It’s just another kind of Demon Mark," Cherise said "Remember? Remember how that felt? You told me about it, how it made you feel so powerful, so free - "

"Shut up" My voice didn’t haveit to destroy you You’ve got to stop You’re going to destroy everyone and everything you love"

I closed es flashed across the darkness - David, the first tier on the road David, naked in lorious thing he had ever seen

Lewis, standing against the storth Not asking for ht kill hiht ato do

Everything I loved was right here, on this ship, and I was destroying it

And I still couldn’t care

"You understand," said a little-girl voice froood I wouldn’t want you to die without understanding that it had to be done" Venna stood behindand eerie I looked from her to Cherise

"How the hell did you hook up with the Djinn?"

She shrugged "Diplomacy Ain’t it a bitch?"

"And so am I" But I didn’t strike at either one of thes into the lotus position It was a bit of a tight fit, in the jeans

I stared idly at the far side of the cabin - Cherise’s side - where she had beauty products lined up in thick clusters on the shelf All kinds of things - tubes of makeup, lipsticks, eye shadow compacts

Bottles of expensive perfuht size to hold a Djinn

Venna smiled "I’d kill you first," she said, and there was absolutely no doubt in h of you to summon the sharks" I held upabout it"

"Oh, I can," she said "Ito see you ave hu me with alien, utterly cold intensity "But I think I understand you If someone offered you poisoned water in the desert, would you rather die of thirst, or take longer to die of poison?"

She really did understand "If I hadn’t taken the poison, I’d be dead already None of you were offering anything else," I said "Alive, I can always turn ?"

Venna’s eyes turned black "I’ve heard this excuse from others," she said "Most recently from Lewis, as he violated our , when this is done No Djinn - not even our younger cousins - will be iain

Expedience is not excuse"

I shrugged "So? Are we throwing down, MiniMe, or are we done now? Because I don’t really think even you can stop me now Or that you’re allowed to try" Venna’s presence aking a kind of utterly unsettling hunger inside me; she had so much power, and I had a bottoht me, she’d expend power

If she lost, I could take it all

Venna said, "There is only one person who can save this ship You, Joanne If you wish"

"Well, I don’t I’ it to meet Bad Bob, and what happens from there doesn’t really concern me"

Cherise covered her mouth with both hands, appalled and shocked That was funny Had she really not seen that co?

"They won’t allow you to do this so easily They’ll fight," Venna said It sounded like she was analyzing the next ame

"Hope so," I said, and slid off the bed to stretch, yawn, and shake irls I need to do so You can eithercorpses That’s et the point"

Neither of them moved Cherise looked uncertainly at Venna, but for the little girl Djinn I was the only thing in the world holding her focus

I walked right up to her She looked up into my eyes with eerie, ancient eyes, and then moved out of my way

"You can’t do this," Cherise whispered

I used a casual punch of power to slam her across the room, into a wall, and she tu

"You’re not completely his," Venna said, as I opened the cabin door I looked back She was standing in the same place, still calm and self-contained "Do you want to kno I know?"

"Do tell" I druernails on the wood of the door iaze flicked to Cherise, and then back "You didn’t keep your threat She’s bleeding She isn’t dead"

"Yet," I said "I thought that as a Djinn you’d understand the iht

As I sat in Arpeggio’s deserted bar-cuht cream cheese, and sipped coffee, I wondered what Cherise would report to Lewis - assu Leas still in any shape to be reported to Nobody bothered me, not even other Wardens

The few fellow diners who’d endured ot up and left, quickly, when Venna appeared in the middle of the room, clearly and utterly alien in the way she looked and lass of orange juice in front of her, and stared at ht ere done," I said I sipped my coffee It was bitter, dark, and exactly what I needed

"For the sake of what you were, I thought I would try once ly superior

"You can run back and tell Lewis that I’ to care about every little life that stubs its toe, every godda for huh If thatShe drank her juice like a little girl, two hands wrapped around the glass for stability, and it left her with a faint orange ring around her lips that she tried to lick off before wiping it away "Cherise is right," she said "You are more like us than them now"

"Let me sum that up with e "

She stared at her e froain