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"I can see it in you," she said "It&039;s burrowing" She ue that sounded dry and insectile

"Paul didn&039;t see it"

"Wardens don&039;t," she murmured "Unless they ask us to show theht question to ask"

Oh "Want to take it off me?" I asked

She smiled "You know the rules," she said "A Djinn doesn&039;t do favors A Djinn takes orders from her master You, sistah, are not my master"

"What if Paul ordered you to take if fro it would destroy lasses back on "You&039;re already corrupted, I can s wound"

"Cheercanines shohite in her s to make the border?"

"If you don&039;t fuck around withI do aht at least "

She seee my curiosity as we cruised in on I-95 toward Philly "Must be a bitch, being enslaved and all"

"Enslaved?" she asked It didn&039;t seem to bother her "We are not enslaved"

"That&039;s what they teach us in school"

She sniffed and drulass I hoped she wasn&039;t leaving scratches "Your school is sadly free of knowledge Djinn are the children of Fire We serve as we must serve, as Fire serves when chained and devours when freed"

"Freed? I thought you were-sort of eternally- um, damned" Which wasn&039;t the best way to put it, but I couldn&039;t think of a politically correct phrase

She shrugged "Fire serves no one forever It is always ready to burn the hand it warms"

The Djinn were rare-we all knew that Precious resources One Djinn per lifetime, no more, and when a Warden died, his or her Djinn just went back into rotation, assigned a newfreed

She gaveto die I rather like you A favor, then Ask a question"

"Did Paul tell you to kill me if I don&039;t make it out of his territory?" I blurted

She sain? Secrets of the universe? Lotto numbers? Whether your true love will be tall, dark, and handsoift Djinn in the ain, and even though I didn&039;t look at her, I could feel the pressure of those horrible, beautiful eyes She was a dangerous pet to keep, a sleek predatory beast with bloodlust kept in check only by a constant flow of Kibbles &039;n Bits and a great big ical leash

"You already know the answer," she purred

"Oklaho in Oklaho so?" She practically steamed with contempt "One of these days, it will cost him"

"Can we cut out the middleman, here? Just take me to Oklahoma?"

Teeth flashed "Your favor has been spent, Snow White Choose better next tiet favors Got any advice?"

"Be kind to your Djinn"

"I don&039;t have a Djinn"

She shrugged "You will, if you survive I can smell that on you, too"

"Wait!" I sensed she was about to poof again She slid her sunglasses back on and sat, politely bored, swinging one hand in tis "Can you give Paul a reed "It remains to be seen if I will, Snow White"

"My name is Joanne"

"I like Snow White better I am Rahel," she said, and pointed toward herself with one neon-yellow talon Were they longer than they had been? Her teeth flashed into a smile "Speak"

"Tell Paul that I&039;m sorry And that I still love him"

She shuddered delicately "I try to stay out of the sexual business of mortals"

"Yeah, well, we&039;re just friends"

"So say you," she said, and cocked an elegantly shaped dark eyebrow "You did not see hi about, not when driving a speeding car Rahel flicked her fingernails together in a dry, yellow clatter and disappeared

I tried not to feel quite so relieved

I didn&039;t know the Warden in Philadelphia, and I was just as happy to breeze by withouthis acquaintance, but I needed a pit stop I pulled off the highway for gas at the Independence Hall exit After taking care of the bladder proble, I scouted around for a likely spot to grab a quick cheeseburger for the road Weariness was starting to liquefy the edges ofnap in a Motel 6, but I was taking Paul seriously I needed to get out of Philly on ti any power over

Independence Hall would have reat place to stretch s, but I wasn&039;t about to risk another lightning bolt in a crowded place What I saw of it was nice As I cruised by, I couldn&039;t help but notice that Ben Franklin-little specs and all-was sitting on a bench reading to a group of absolutely spellbound children There was no way I wanted to bring my problems into that world That world didn&039;t know the sunshine was provided for them, just like the rain, or that somebody had to protect them daily from the fury of the earth and the weather

It was a nice world to visit, even if I couldn&039;t live there

On the way out of town I checked both the horizon and the weather forecasts; the stor inland instill to do I could relax and enjoy the drive

Hopefully

It was a good seven hours to my next safe haven in Columbus; between here and there lay cities with Wardens I barely knew, not likely to be friendly toward me The Sector Warden from Philly to Coluht years older than ht arrow and conservative both in weather and everything else you could name For some reason, most Weather Wardens were conservative; it was the tie-dyed hippie Earth Wardens who&039;d cornered the liberal ht, Earth Wardens on the leftthat left Fire Wardens in the middle My friend Estrella had been a Fire Warden, once upon a ti Like Rahel said, fire is always ready to burn the hand it warut as I passed the city lin of Philadelphia and America stretched out before me I was out of Paul&039;s jurisdiction

When I checked the rearviewher cheerful neon talons, watching me with beast-yellow eyes She waved