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"I know," I said softly "I won’t"

Cherise cleared her throat "If you need so and - "

"No," I said flatly "Not this ti bolt, a car, or a ball of fire the size of Cleveland I don’t want you anywhere near Bad Bob"

She looked disappointed, but not really surprised Despite the chaos of the day, there wasn’t a se on her Kevin put his arm around her and looked down; elfin and lovely and entirely hued ?" she asked hi else planned for the day My Nintendo’s busted"

"Watch your ass," she told hi love

"Ready?" Lewis asked me I nodded I still wished I could live a normal life, have what I wanted, be at peace I should have taken all ofto see the wisdoet David to help at all?"

I shookaway"

Lewis looked very, very grim "You mean, he’s walled himself off on the aetheric The way Jonathan used to do"

"I can’t be sure He’s not givingback about where he is, but it would make sense" David could save hi hies, if need be

Lewis pulled in breath to say so, then decided that discretion was the better part of valor; he held up his hands and walked away to confer with the others

He didn’t have to say it I’d already figured out that if David had really withdrawn into his stronghold on the aetheric, I ood-bye

To say that there was a military operation at work on the beach e arrived was an understate out in public was that we no longer had to make do with covert ops-style equipment No, this tiuard boatseverything but the dancing bear and big top

I was pretty sure that none of it was going toto Bad Bob, in the end Mortal firepoas beyond insignificant to him, except as an inconvenience, and with the Djinn off the board, we had very little left to counter hied white queen, with a little fleck of black to betray her true allegiances

Lewis and I sat in a surveillance van, the tricked-out kind, watching monitors in all different spectrums There was no one into position, stealthily rounds It wouldn’t help them Bad Bob knew they were there; he had to know He probably just didn’t da, and in fact they

"Nothing on any of the monitors or sensors," one of the Wardens reported "Maybe he’s not there"

"He’s there," I said I atching the house itself I couldn’t sense or see anything, and I had absolutely no basis for believing what I’d said, but soot ways to conceal hi Rahel"

"We need physical recon," Lewis said

"I think that’s my cue" I didn’t wait for them to approve; I didn’t wait for the protests I just juates I looked up at the perihost all aroundto order me back

"For what?" I asked him, and he had absolutely no answer to that I read it in his eyes, though

He wanted , to make this easier But I didn’t have it, and neither did he

So I went on

The gates creaked open, and I walked alone, shadowed by the SWAT co path I rea was still alive then, still delighting in all his lovely things I hadn’t feared Bad Bob, except as a ghost safely sealed in ht was cool, and there were clouds blowing up at the horizon A natural front, nothing sinister about it Overhead, the stars were chips of ice, sharp enough to cut

If I’d been walking with ical I love you, I whispered to hi the bond between us I will always love you I’ in response

I walked up the steps,steadily and without hesitation I reached for the knob, and opened the front door It was unlocked I’d known it would be

Bad Bob was sitting in a leather wing chair next to the fireplace, feet up, puffing on a cigar He had a bottle of liquor next to him - scotch, this time He raised the bottle, and I levitated it to old burned the roof ofburn in the cold pit of my stomach

"It’s not poisoned," I noted, and sent it back He caught it effortlessly out of the air and chugged a few ood scotch Or good poison," he said "Wouldn’t kill you, anyould it? Nothing kills you Goddamn cockroach, you are You’ll survive a nuclear winter"

"Look who’s talking," I said I sat down on the edge of the couch across fro, not hostly Outside the s, the beach was dark, the water slick and almost flat - a calm sea "You’ve been dead a few times, I hear"

He chuckled "Hurricane Andrew should’ve killed me," he said "Came damn close, actually But there was always just oneto do One more life to save You kno it is"

"That’s your story? That you were in the business of saving lives?" I leaned back and folded ainst anybody’s Including yours"

"You killed people!"

"How es have you had over the past few years, girl? What the fuck makes you the hero of the story? No, more to the point: What makes me the villain?"

I stared at hi I’d co to make him kill me, or to destroy him in the process, if that was possible; to wound hih that Lewis could finish him off I hadn’t expected his, his record as a good guy