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"You get what that et tips?" he asked innocently, and lifted the silver cover on one of the large platters on the tray He reached in and snagged a piece of bacon, which made my mouth water suddenly; I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten Ever

Cherise stared at hiht? Please tell , that is just tragic, and I’e an intervention"

David munched bacon and explored the rest of the buffet she’d delivered as I got up from my chair "Strippers Poles I understand"

"Thank God Because if a hottie like you had never seen a stripper,to " Cherise suddenly clammed up, which wasn’t like her at all She looked down, then around at the silent, still Djinn "Yeah," she finished very quietly "Guess that ship has sailed And, oh look, we’re on it"

It wasn’t like Cherise to fail to find the sunny side of the cloud, but then again, we’d been under clouds for what seeuessed that even the eternal optiiven the circumstances

"How is everyone else?" David asked I reached over him to take a slice of bacon as he poured coffee from the s out because they’re Joe Normals," Cherise said "For me, it’s just another sunny day in paradise, really Not that I’"

She really was depressed Well, I could see whyShe was probably the only person on the entire ship, other than the hired creho couldn’t feel anything odd about the area through which we sailed The Wardens were reduced to shakes and panic, feeling suffocated by their isolation, and they probably resented her for her lack of suffering

I was starting to actually get used to it A little

The food helped steadya little as well

He hadn’t needed to pay careful attention to his metabolism in, oh, about five thousand years or so, and since he’d originally been killed and reborn as a Djinn at the tender age of as probably his early twenties, if that, it wasn’t too likely he’d ever experienced the kind of hu to put up with

Myold isn’t for sissies Neither is being hued to pull hi I hadn’t functioned nearly so hen I’d, in turn, been pulled over to the Djinn side That should have been a lot more fun than it turned out to be

The ship’s motion had increased a little--difficult to tell, in a ship this big, but I could feel the pitch and yaw deep in uts If I’d still been a Weather Warden, I’d have been able to tell a whole lot , the tides, the deep and co between the water and the air above Two kinds of fluids,as one

Symbiotic

Now all I could tell was thatwith the motion Great

"The captain says we should be able to dock in a couple of days," Cherise said "I don’t know about you guys, but I could digto feel like I’er, because I don’t have any evening gowns"

David stopped in the act of lifting a grape to his ht maybe he was confused about the pop culture reference, but that wasn’t like him, and anyway, he didn’t usually just

Every Djinn lying in the beds suddenly sat straight up and screamed

It was an eerie, torered, droppingainst the wall for pri with that sound, deeply and horribly wrong Cherise crouched, covering her head; if she was screa sound of raw pain co from every one of the Djinn

Every one of the frozen in place, and unable to h--his eyes were screao on forever, the needle-sharp sound piercing the fragile barrier of skin and bone I’d put overit with a horror I’d never experienced and wasn’t sure I could survive I felt ainst my ribs, and my knees failedhysterically, struggling to catch any hint of a breath It felt as if the sound itself were a weight onthe air from my body

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it cut off Not because the Djinn stopped screale one of theht

Gone

David fell hard, eyes still wide and locked in a terrible, panicked stare I peeled ed to crawl on shaking hands to where he lay I sat and pulled his head and shoulders into my lap as I stroked his hair and face His skin felt ice-cold and clammy His color ful

I couldn’t hear anything, just the ringing echo of that awful, eternal screaht I’d hear that sound for the rest of my life, or until I wentI could hear Cherise gasping and crying a few feet away She’d collapsed on her side, curled into a ball Her hands were still pressed to her ears

"Baby," I whispered to David "Baby, talk to me Talk tocaed ears couldn’t separate it fro echoes of the screa As I watched, he curled himself on his side, like Cherise, and pulled his knees up

What just happened?

In seconds the sick bay door slammed open, and at least a dozen Wardens pelted into the room, with Lewis in the lead He looked as shell-shocked as I felt, but at least he was on his feet and lance--Cherise, me, David, the empty beds where the Djinn had been

The breath went out of him, and he went pale Lewis took a slow, deliberate second, then turned to face the other Wardens "Kevin, see to Cherise," he said "Bree, Xavier--get David into a bed Warm blankets" He crouched down to put our eyes level, and whatever he was seeing in my face, it obviously didn’t comfort him "Jo?"

I tried to speak, then wetted ated were taking hold of David’s ar him rise He wasn’t able to offer much in the way of assistance "I don’t know," I finally --happened"

"Where did the Djinn go?"

I just shook my head My eyes blurred with tears I felt lost, alone, cut off, horribly frightened Lewis reached out and gripped my hands in his

"Jo," he said "Jo, listen to me I need you to focus You need to tell me what you saw Tell me what you heard"

I tried to reain, as fresh and hot and painful as before Shatteringly loud I clapped , begging hi I knew, I felt a s, drifting away along with the light and the pain and everything in the world

Darkness

Silence

Chapter Two