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I was only halfway through the list when the phone rang, and I grabbed the extension sitting next to the pad "Lewis?" It was "Get a disposal teae outside my door I think it’s the sa Antie at all Get a teah the syste - "

"Got it," he said "Look after yourself Get the hell out of there"

"I don’t want to go near it, and I’d have to if I leave by the door I’ll have to climb down - " I didn’t feel up to the acrobatics, not at the moment

I didn’t need to David ca fast He picked , and off into open space without a second of hesitation I didn’t even have tiround, and then he was carryinglot at breakneck speed He duer seat of my car, took the driver’s seat, and started it up with a touch of his finger to the ignition

"David - "

He wasn’t listening His eyes were focused and distant He had a er I didn’t have anything to say about it

I realized I was still holding the phone Lewis’s voice was a faint buzz on the other end "Right, I’m out of the apartment," I said to him "And we’re about to lose the connection Hurry up with the disposal tea around where anybody can pick it up My God, Lewis, there are people here Innocent people!"

David put the Mustang in gear, and we screeched out of the parking place, cornered hard, and accelerated out of the apartment complex and onto the street

The phone went dead, of course I tossed it in the backseat and rested h its paces, driving way too fast for a human’s reactions He must have screened us out of other people’s perceptions, because we blew past a police squad car doing about 120, and there was no reaction at all fro in the front seat

"I thought you didn’t believe in this stuff," I said to David "You’re acting like you do"

"I’ you," he said "If you say it’s there, and you say itchances But Jo - I can’t see it I can’t sense it It’s just not there"

"Look, there are things that exist that are invisible to hu is invisible to Djinn Nothing that belongs on this earth"

This was kind of the point He must have realized it, too He was quiet for a moment, and when I looked over, I saw that his eyes had taken on a fierce orange color, like the heart of a fire

"This isn’t so done by the Djinn," he said "Not mine, and not Ashan’s Whether I personally believe in it or not is beside the point If an enes to you, personally, it’s so I rery phone call "Maybe it’s a Deular visits"

"Not funny, Jo"

"Yeah, not from this side, either Do you think it is? A Demon?"

He seemed to consider it seriously "Deoals are sihtforward - consume, kill, escape Whatever this is, there’s no sense to what you described before The dead creature - "

"Djinn, David He was Djinn We’re sure"

He let that pass, but I could tell he was far fro inside hi? Why?"

"Maybe," I said slowly, "it was a test"

"A test of what?"

"Of the Djinn," I said "A test that you failed"

He took his gaze away froh I knew he didn’t need to be staring straight ahead to drive "Failed how?"

"Failed to sense the danger Look, that was a Djinn we found - "

"It wasn’t"

"Argument’s sake, if it hy can’t you ad yourself to - "

"There’s nothing to ader underneath the words "I would know if a Djinn had died!"

"Except you don’t, and one did," I said, and closed my eyes "So what does that mean?"

"It means - " David took in a deep breath, and I could see hiet his te Because all this is an illusion, Jo Just an illusion There’s no dead Djinn; there’s no such thing as your antih to s the sun, and it was starting to really scareto debate it, because he si to listen

I turned face forward as he steered the Mustang through traffic at speeds that would have ot that all straightened out"

Sarcasht at thesht we had straightened it out

Oh dear God

We finished the drive in silence Once the traffic cleared, David pulled off the road at a beachfront area, one loaded up with pleasure-seeking, bikini-wearing sunbathers, all one tequila short of a Girls Gone Wild video He turned off the engine, and we sat for a while watching the waves crash and roll, and the tanners sizzle and flirt

"I need nal, or a hologram And then he reached in his coat pocket and handed over my cell phone, which I knew perfectly well I’d left back on the table in the apartment "Hey Don’t do that, okay?"

He looked puzzled "Don’t do what?"

"Don’t go back there Promise me"

"Why?"

I swear, when I closed my eyes, I saw red I counted to ten, deliberately, and tried to pry ernails out of my palms "Because even if you don’t believe it’s there, that stuff is toxic to ht?"