Page 33 (1/2)

"Ashan," I gasped, and spat out a et him"

I couldn’t tell if she knehat I was saying, or if she sensed his presence, but she let out a shriek that vibrated at the very li, and disappeared

Seconds later the dust devil collapsed in a confusion of sand and clattering license plates, barbed wire, and pieces of broken brush Its demise left drifts of brown sand and chips of red sandstone littering the road in concentric circles around me

I dropped the shield and spent the next several seconds just breathing

My whole body was shaking with effort, and sitting down see to do, really

Down the road, about a hundred yards away, Ashan was screaular spikes into his pseudobody When he tried to hed and tasted blood The bottle was in , ready to be slammed back in place All I had to do was recall Venna before it was too late

Ashan screamed, and screamed, and screamed, and I didn’t call Venna back to the bottle until his pale, shrieking face had dissolved into bloody htmarish alien forreasy ray, then white, and reforirl in a pinafore dress, crumpled on the pavement

"Venna!" I could barely stand, but soed to run to her side Her eyes were open and blank I touched her face, and she felt cold "Venna, can you hear me?" I wasn’t sure that she would be stable in this fory and reverted to the primitive form

But not Venna She lay there, broken and defenseless, and when I saw her finally blink it brought tears to et up I pulled her into my lap and held her, and she felt like a child, like any child Her arms slowly rose and went around me, and I felt her body start to shake

I realized after a few , very softly Her voice was a thin, anxious thread "I didn’t want this He was my brother; I didn’t want this "

Ashan was dead, killed in one of the only ways possible for a Djinn She’d ripped away his life energy to save herself, and--as a byproduct--me I couldn’t feel nearly as bad about that as she did, but I didn’t have to gloat, and I didn’t I just held her and rocked her gently Even Djinn need help, froive it

Until I looked back, and saw

"Ven," I said then, and nudged her head off my shoulder "Venna

"

Her eyes cleared a little, and she regained so in her "Joanne," she said "You putfor her to be realizing right now

"I had to," I said "You were Ifrit You could have killed David"

She nodded slowly, processing the inforroup of chi up the road toward us She frowned "Those aren’t right," she said, and extended her hand One by one, the creatures blew up in gouts of blood and so, but effective In seconds, not one of theaze back on me "You put me in a bottle" I didn’t repeat my answer; she already knehat I had to say The only question hether she’d actually accept it I knew I could blow up just as grueso the road out there, and I knew better than to think Venna wouldn’t do it, if she thought it was the right thing to do

She stared at me with Djinn-fired blue eyes, and finally said, "His powers came to me I’m the Conduit for the Old Djinn"

I should have seen that co, but somehow, I didn’t I blinked at her, and bit back an autoratulations

"I’"

"Yes," she said, and looked moodily out at the land around us "Yes, I can see that She’s trying to reachas you have h you"

"Venna--"

She made some kind of decision, and stood up I waited as she dusted off her dress--not that it would ever get dirty She could just be ore when she exploded ht side

"Are you going to sit there?" she said "Or do you want to see Lewis?"

"I want to knohat happened to David," I said "So must have He would have coreed "That’s in his nature Come" She extended her sht as well have been a linebacker When I started to drop the grip, she held on

"We’re going through the aetheric," she said

"Wait, that’s not--"

"Trust ht, a feeling of being destroyed to a cellular level, pain

, and then, suddenly, I was facedown on the carpet of a casino floor, gasping for breath

Slot , just like the world was still norh had been a terrible, passing nighthetti, and I wasn’t sure I could get to ave , level look and said, "You should put er I’y I burn You can’t afford it now"

I cleared my throat and nodded "Thank you"

"There will be a price," she said coolly

That was positively chilling, but I tried not to let her see how ot to me as I said the words, she ht The second the cork slotted in place, I felt better, stronger, and al on my own But, since there was a handy wall to lean on, no sense in pushing it

I heard thereadied, and peered around to see a line ofme with serious weaponry, and eventhe tailored blazers of security for the Luxor hotel

All of the readied against anything I ht try to throw at them

I was too tired for this crap I held out er than I was inclined to show them--and said, "Take me to Lewis"

Venna hadn’t answered me about what had happened to David, but Djinn were like that

Leould answer, or I’d beat it the hell out of him with my bare hands