Page 11 (1/2)
Too bad for me that nobody see et me to keep up with hila their own damn business
"Like it?" Kevin had noticed ned it "I coulda stayed anywhere, but this was the best"
Like he was paying for it "How do you know?" I asked hi that spoiled the elegance of the Bellagio’s ie, it was the constant musical chatter of slot machines Beyond the lobby stretched the casinoand it stretched, filling aslots and quiet harbors of blackjack tables, roulette Dark paneling gave the place a quiet nineteenth-century elegance Lack of sBars-and there were three I could iht of a steadying drink made the back of my throat ache C’mon, Lewis, help me out here Throw me a bone I had one faint hope: Lewis had so ot thrown My snarky superego was probably right; the Wardens- including Leeren’t interested in my troubles at the moment I was a distraction, and I was onwith a purpose This was a very bad place to try a confrontation, which was probably Kevin’s point in choosing it Or Jonathan’s Sounded like Jonathan logic to round and pulled it in after hieyman Jonathan was the one who’d think of all of the defensive possibilities of a very public, high-profile establishment
Kevin steered me off into the casino area, and we strolled past one bar, heading past slots, more slots, keno, blackjack We passed a room ht a glimpse of a poker table and some intensely silentfor high stakes, pals Try ?" I asked Kevin didn’t answer We turned left at the T intersection, away from the casino area and into what looked like (to h-class shopping mall Only he didn’t lead me that direction; he steered me toward a massive bank of elevators, complete with polite and flinty-eyed security h when I fumbled out my card key
We stepped into the lift and enjoyed a silent, efficient ride up into the stratosphere
"How’d you get in?" Kevin finally asked, as the lights flickered past the twenty-fifth floor "Just curious"
"I was dead"
"Oh" He stared, waiting for the punch line "Kind of extre , but it didn’t much matter; the elevator topped out, and we exited one floor fro enough for the chariot race fro open for hie of power Fire, this ti e Nice bit of control, that; he’d been largely untrained last tirab phase of things
I took a step in and realized that Kevin had appropriated the presidential suite, or at least the vice-presidential one It was huge, sue I was pretty sure the furniture was antique, for the most part; if it was reproduction, it was in the best of taste
Kevin let go of me, shut the door, and shuffled over the wine-colored Aubusson to a fully appointed bar He poured hi hi hie
I looked around "Where’s Jonathan?"
He rattled crystal "Around" Which meant he had no idea, probably
"You keep his bottle on you?"
"You s you where I keep it"
"Not asking you to," I said "Hey, would you lass and handed it over, and I took a sip Wow Liquid heat, turning into burning lava somewhere midthroat Well, it was happy hour somewhere in the world
I nearly splutteredyour stay?" It ca leather ar the white spray of fountains I set the glass down and took a couple of steps to et a better look
Not that it was any surprise, really, to see Jonathan sitting there He looked relaxed Fully at home Head back, eyes half-shut, feet up on a virtually priceless Federal table that really shouldn’t have been mistaken for a footstool under any circu seconds It wasn’t a chore or anything; he appeared ray The wiry, strong build of a habitual runner, dressed in faded blue jeans and a forest-green fleece pullover So feet The kind of casual cool that the trend-driven shoppers downstairs could never hope to imitate
He was the only Djinn I’d ever lance His were dark I happened to know, because I’d looked pretty deeply into them at one point, that they weren’t just dark; they were black, they were infinite, and they were dangerous
Jonathan didn’t have to work to impress anyone All he had to do was show up
"Well," he said without looking in o all huive you that So Life treating you okay?"
"Yeah, not too bad" I was shaking inside, vibrating on levels I didn’t know I could still feel Maybe there was some Djinn left in me, after all "You?"
He quirked a funny little s personal You know And incidentally, way to work the angles He said I couldn’t let in any living Warden Dying for the cause-strategically sweet" He tipped back a bottle and sed a ive you some kind of performance bonus for that?"
"Gift certificates and a special parking space," I said "Mind if I sit?"
He shrugged and indicated an elegant brocade chair a few feet away I eased down on it, s my skirt with sweaty pal his Ji defiant about it
"So," Jonathan said, and smiled I didn’t like the suess they sent you here to ht want?"
As if his ave me the shivers I’d known the kid wasn’t up to the task of owning and operating a border collie, ," I said "Except I can call off the Wardens and give Kevin a chance A better one, anyway, because you and I both know that his days of surviving this are shorter than the shelf life of a loaf of bread"
Preaching to the choir Nothing moved in Jonathan’s pleasant expression, in the i I care about that," he said "Maybe there’s souess "You still want David’s bottle I don’t have it anymore"
It occurred to me, rather too late, that if I didn’t have David, Jonathan had no reason to keepIn fact, he had a pretty nice incentive to et over it, things would-on the Djinn scale-go back to relative normalcy; eventually Jonathan would be able to rescue hio