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I wiped blood and sweat from my arms with the blanket and saw that he’d done it perfectly-no cuts, not even faint scars to ized He’d puo into overdrive Dangerous, but effective

I looked down at the rest of ings, and Siobhan-who had a professional understanding of the i around and pulled out a pair of low-rise blue jeans and a crop top that would, with ie to be decent

I accepted the jeans, and found a red n to cover up the crop top Since I’d gone without a bra thisbra froio had thoughtfully provided a lovely stained-glass screen in the corner, probably just for decoration, but I went behind it and changed The jeans fit, barely; I had to bite et them zipped up The crop top felt like hookerwear, but the mesh top redeemed it When I stepped back out, Kevin had turned on the plas knot of bodies on screen

"Get your head out of Penthouse Letters; it’s never gonna happen," I said, and reclaiain, leaned elbows on blue-jeaned knees, and looked from one of theot exactly three options You can give up-"

"Never gonna happen," Kevin said

"Or you can die, because those guys out there, they will kill you And believe me, they want to do it sooner rather than later"

Kevin’s throat bobbed as he sed He must have read the sincerity in my eyes "You said there were three options"

"Yeah" I leaned back "You can help me"

"Help you do what?"

I smiled slowly "Save the world"

He hesitated just exactly the right amount of time to indicate how cool he was, and then said, "Yeah, whatever"

NINE

First things first I picked up the hotel phone, dialed a number from memory, and when Marion answered, I said, "Hello, pizza delivery? I’d like to order a large special"

I listened to the buzz of cell phone static for a few seconds, and then she said, "Are you in trouble?"

"Ain’t I always? Just look for the biggest pile of crap; I’m usually neck-deep in it You know that" I rolled my eyes, for Kevin and Siobhan’s benefit "You never answered as?"

"The saht add, I’rees withabout her that I just couldn’t help but like "I’io, and Kevin’s ready to talk Look for us downstairs in the casino, the far end near the restaurants It’s quieter there"

"Fifteenup

I replaced the phone in the cradle and looked over at Kevin "Don’t start anything," I warned hiive me the stopper"

"What?"

"The stopper for Jonathan’s bottle" He looked wary, but there was nothing to be gained fro it back He fu It hardly see like Jonathan

"You’re not gonna screw ht?" he asked I shook my head He dropped the stopper into o nuclear on your ass"

I walked out into the living area again, which was drenched in early-ht The place smelled faintly stale; they hadn’t let the ht for the wet bar, picked up the bottle of Jim Beam, and poured myself a splash in a crystal tuo pallid-more than usual-and then try to cover up

"Pour ave him a lovely, warm smile "No" I screwed the cap back on the whiskey and put it aside, turned to the bar, and letarray of crystal "Your idea? It’s not a bad one, kid, really Purloined-letter stuff Classic"

"Jonathan!" he yelled, and I hardened the air in a thick shell around hi a thick, opaque bubble that kept sound fro He’d break it, but it would take hie I still had over hi out decanters, one after another, and shaking thelass on crystal I put the decanter down, took a firh sieve as I poured the (no doubt expensive) booze down the stainless-steel sink

A glass bottle hit ers with a wet, heavy impact

Kevin snapped the bubble around hih shatter theI ducked, al Jonathan’s naain

Not that Jonathan could respond Kevin had clearly told him, Don’t come out until I say so, and he hadn’t said so, not in so many words It would require a direct coave

which, of course, I did, as Siobhan tackled ainst the hard edge of a cabinet, the crystal decanter thulass bottle about as big as a purse-sized perfued for it My turn to tackle She pulled my hair, which hurt, and I rolled her over and reached for the crystal It slid greasily underanother four inches away Kevin was still desperately yelling for Jonathan, not quite coht on the floor and he was kind of liking it

I kicked loose of Siobhan’s grabbing hands, rolled, and took the decanter with me

"Jonathan, come here!" Kevin yelled frantically, and ju fist I upended the decanter

My fingers closed around the slick, wet glass of Jonathan’s bottle, and the world changed

He was nowstopped, crystal-clear-Kevin, suspended inher way across the carpet towardfor the floor

Everything just stopped

I sucked in a deep breath and held it, felt my muscles and tendons and blood and bone and tissue as if they were all new, brand-new, made in this second Then the world formed around me Air, in its co in waves and eddies, a life-for crystal perfection of the bottle in , so wondrous in its clockwork precision

The enor in every pulse beat, every breath

And there was Jonathan, standing before me Not in his norrace; no, this was soht and unknowable and wild in its ic

The seduction of it

The next breath, Jonathan was back in hu at Siobhan and Kevin, ere still frozen in tileamed in his brown-and-silver hair, and the darkness of his eyes was the darkness of the end of things

"I don’t like you," he said, without even glancing e, ed "Well, that’s the way the world cruet surprised"

And he turned and pulledheat of David’s skin, but the scalding burn of an open flame I tried to pull away, but that wasn’t possible here, now He put one hand at the small of my back and moved the other to splay an open palm across my stomach