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"But less easy to kill, I hope"

He tilted his head No answer I chewed eggs They were good, I supposed More importantly, they were fuel for a body that had spent its reserves recklessly My body fat was gone, and ative nuht had kept me alive when my et things back in order

"The Sentinels," he said "Did you get anything fro that could help us?"

I dropped my fork and stared at him "I didn’t tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Ohnot to die, and then I’d been co alive Until he’d asked the question, the knowledge had been lurking soht moment "I knohere he is! The - the anchor, the leader, whatever! Well, where he was, anyway"

"Where?" David was already up and on his feet, and looking ht to "Where?"

I picked upas fast as I could, grith back "The Florida Keys," I said "Key West, or sohbor"

Chapter Nine

I rested for a couple of days My appetite returned with a vengeance on the second day out from the attack, and David was at first amused, then a little appalled at my lust for calories "Are you sure that’s wise?" he asked when I opened up the fourth bag of barbecue chips "There’s such a thing as overdoing it"

I knew there was, but the food and the sleep were recharging my body, and I wanted to hasten the process Impatient, that was me And scared I knew the Sentinels now, in aetheric form if not in actual physical shape I kneindeed I wanted s of chips weren’t the way to go, but they tasted so good

David distracted"You," I said, gazing at hi to knoay too well"

He raised his eyebrows "I plan to research you in the biblical sense later"

"Mn of just how much that invitation really

"No I want us out and visible," he said "If the Sentinels are watching, I want the I don’t think they’ll try that again You surprised them, and you scared them"

"I did?"

"If you hadn’t," David said, "they’d have co-for-battle significance now that I knewme I bathed, scrubbed, exfoliated, shampooed, shaved, tweezed, moisturized I spent half an hour on ht sundress required another long stretch of time When I finally appeared in the doorway, David was stretched out on the couch, feet crossed at the ankles, reading a battered paperback, which he dropped on his chest at the sight of h that the floating hehs "Healthy enough?"

He pressed his lips together and struggled to sit up "That’s one word for it"

"What’s another?"

"Seductive" That note in his voice er at hiet, Mister"

He sighed, stood up, and slipped into his coat

"David?" I hated to say it, because this was a kind of dividing line, and I wasn’t even sure why "The coat If you want to be taken for human, only flashers wear coats in Fort Lauderdale in the suht" He took it off and put it back on the chair, petting its olive-drab surface as he did, like a favorite pet he was sorry to leave behind "Everything else okay?"

I gave him the walkaround "Not bad," I said, "but we can do better"

"Oh no," he said

"That’s right We’re shopping for you, buster"

I knew all the good places to shop, but if I hadn’t, even JCPenney would have been able to supply a decent alternative to the ever-present checked shirt that David see for better; I was going for h with David, that wasn’t exactly difficult

He was ht so too; David was be what the hell he’d gotten hi to experiment with the most trivial of human pursuits I conspired with the lead saleswo in, David was a good-looking man, a bit conservative with his blue-and-white checked shirt and jeans

Going out, he was so attractive that he was a ht Versace knit shirt, long-sleeved to give hied his ass and thighs, and flared out at the ends just enough Because ere in Florida, I gave him a bit of a surfer fashion sensibility, and it suited him brilliantly The coppery tan could have been stoked by days paddling in the surf I added a very fine Hugo Boss sports coat, in ave a collective sigh and snapped pictures He turned toward ht flush in his cheeks

I’ve ht There was a weird satisfaction in that Also, I planned to try to make hi all this public playacting, kept ns of Sentinel activity Nothing It was dead quiet, weirdly so Maybe I really had given the on cue

I started to pay for the clothes, but David slipped a wallet from his pocket and pulled out a jet-black Aht a look at the name as he handed it over

DAVID CYRUS PRINCE

David knehat I was thinking, and he ned the credit card receipt We left the store with his old clothes and shoes in a bag I couldn’t stop stealing glances at hi or old, plain or ave him an involuntary stare

"That," he said, "was a waste of time I could have just manifested the clothes, if you’d shown me what you wanted me to wear"

"The point is to be seen," I re huht" His lips quirked, and he tried to suppress a smile "That’s the first ti, you know For ood to stretch," I assured hih the war My dress rippled and flowed in the ocean breezes,ass, and I had the most beautiful man I’d ever seen onfor a knife headed for , then ate lunch in a cafe next to the ocean I could see that David was settling into his new look, which pleased ed styles reluctantly He couldn’t help but notice the attention he was attracting, and unless Djinn were a whole lot less like humans than I suspected, attention wasn’t unwelcoeous to start with