"Fighting can lead to other things." It had before. Our first real lovemaking had happened as the result of a fight in a hotel. I saw the memory move in him, too.
"No need to fight to have that." His voice had dropped an octave, gone even quieter, but there was a tension behind it that made him seem even more alive, even more intense. The light glide of his touch on me took a left turn, followed the line of my collarbone.
"Close the curtains," I whispered. Behind him, the curtains snapped shut, all on their own, blocking out the frowning clouds and the steady, mournful pulse of rain. It occurred to me, late and with an electric jolt to the spine, that David was under the covers with me, and he"d already done away with the bother of clothes. His gla.s.ses lay carefully folded on the nightstand, next to the fragile blue glitter of his bottle.
Nothing between us but skin, mine real-whatever that meant- and his manifested by will and magic. And all the more real for that, because he"d chosen this. Chosen me.
I felt cold. As if he knew it, he put his arms around me and pulled me close to his heat. His lips pressed a burning kiss on my forehead, a benediction I didn"t deserve, and slowly traveled down to my mouth. Sweet, slow, leisurely kisses, gentle as the rain outside.
Healing the chill inside me, filling the empty places.
He murmured something into my open mouth- words I didn"t know, in a language like liquid fire. I pulled away a little, looking into his eyes. So much pa.s.sion in him, constrained by so much will.
"What did that mean?" I asked him. He traced the line of my lips with his fingertips like a blind man memorizing the shape of my face, and didn"t answer. "David, what did that mean?"
I felt him go tense against me. The lazy focus of his eyes sharpened. "Don"t," he warned me.
"What did that mean?" I was being very specifically repet.i.tive, and I felt the surge of power as the Rule of Three kicked in. He was compelled to answer me truthfully, but of course, the truth with Djinn could be fluid. It wouldn"t be outside the boundaries for him to reply to me in another language. We could play this game all day, if he felt inclined. Owning his bottle didn"t mean I owned his soul.
But he didn"t try to avoid it. His eyes went the color of dark, tarnished bra.s.s, almost human, and his hand went still against my cheek.
"It"s part of a ritual," he said. "The literal translation is that I will mourn you when you"re gone. Because you"re mortal, and you take stupid risks, and I"m going to lose you. I hate it, but I know it"s going to happen. Because you won"t be sensible."
There wasn"t a breath between us. Skin on skin, sealed together with sweat as body heat rose. My whole body was aching and throbbing for him, but my mind kept struggling.
"What kind of ritual?"
"Joanne-"
"What kind of ritual?" No answer. "What kind of ritual?"
This time, the words were in that liquid-fire language again. The language of the Djinn, but with a rough edge to them that sounded human. He pulled me to him again, put those burning lips to the column of my throat, and made me arch uncontrollably against him.
It wasn"t exactly clear in this relationship who owned who, I thought when I was capable of thinking. And he wasn"t going to answer me.
Not in words.
His hands were everywhere on me, shivering my skin into goose b.u.mps, making me moan with need and delight. Too long, it"s been too long. . . . He rolled me over on my back, settled his weight on top of me, took hold of my wrists, and pinned them on either side of the black spill of my hair, tormenting me with kisses and friction that didn"t put him where I needed him to be.
"G.o.d, David, please ..." I whispered. I wasn"t sure what I was asking, whether it was for the white-hot surge of flesh between us or the answers to my questions. Or something else entirely. I felt like crying, and I didn"t know why. My heart hammered like a cheap toy, fragile and unreliable, one beat at a time between me and the end of things. I hadn"t faced the crashing, intimate knowledge of my own mortality, because I couldn"t. I was always hiding from it in action, chasing after what came next.
Not David. He"d faced it. He"d been afraid of losing me, of having every moment between us threaten to be the last. I"d made a being of fire and power afraid.
He looked merciless staring down at me, except for the vulnerability in his eyes. The odd, unexpected humanity. "Please don"t ask me what it means."
There was something in it that made my heart break. I whispered, "I won"t," and felt the tension ease out of him. "Because you"re going to tell me."
"You have to trust me."
I choked on a laugh. "Who"s on top here?"
He let go of my wrists, sat up on his knees. The sheet slid away.
The lamps gilded his skin, and I felt my breath catch and tear something inside of me. Some last shred of resistance.
His hands, hot on my thighs. Moving them.
"You have to trust me," he repeated. It was only a whisper now, and his eyes had kindled a bright new flame. "Can you do that?"
"Yes."
"You"re sure?"
"Yes!" I pushed myself up on straight arms, looking into his eyes.
Slowly bent my knees and drew them up, drawing him in with the motion.
His teeth lightly grazed the skin of my shoulder. I put my arms around him, holding him, feeling the waves surge and break. Waves of power, transforming and pure.
He whispered words against me that broke me apart, destroyed me, rebuilt me as we moved, and I didn"t recognize a word of it, and it no longer mattered, because now I understood. The way flesh accepts touch, or lungs accept air.
He was telling me he loved me, the way Djinn say the words, and it was more beautiful and more terrifying than the banners of war.
I fell asleep in his arms, safe and warm and untroubled, and there were no dreams.
I woke up to thunder. Reflex action: I checked Oversight, and found nothing out of the ordinary out there, then realized that the thunder was knocking, and there were people outside of my hotel room.
"Jo!" A man"s voice, rough and authoritative. "Open the d.a.m.n door. Right now!"
I knew the voice. I let my head fall back against the pillow of David"s warm skin, and said what he already knew. "Great. The boss is checking up on us."
David pulled away from me and I could feel the fury burning through him, see it boiling in his eyes. This could get very unpleasant.
"Go," I told him. "Let me handle it."
His hot eyes scorched me, just for a second, but behind the anger I saw worry for me. I kissed him, fast and hard, and felt him mist away.
The door slammed open. I yelped and crawled backward, clutching the covers over myself, until my naked back met the cold headboard.
My boss, Paul Giancarlo, flanked by three other Wardens. One of them was Marion Bearheart, the woman who scared me most in the world; nice lady, frightening powers, and the right and responsibility to use them.
I flipped up into the aetheric plane to get a quick reading, and saw Paul in his avatar form-his outline had the unmistakable suggestion of a knight in armor, sword in hand. In the real world he looked more like a refugee from The Sopranos, complete to gold chain peeking through dark chest hair, and a stretch golf shirt that didn"t make him look like anybody who chased a ball around the back nine for fun.
s.e.xy, and dangerous as h.e.l.l.
Marion"s bronzed features were expressionless here in the real word, turned sharper by her gray-and-black hair being pulled back in a thick single braid. She was wearing a black leather jacket with fringe blurring the edges, blue jeans, black cowboy boots. Up on the aetheric, I caught the flare of eagle wings in her aura.
I didn"t know the other two except on a nodding acquaintance.
Both were seniors, both from outside the country. One was from Canada, one from Brazil. Their presence in my hotel room was not rea.s.suring.
Paul gave me his most impersonal look, and that meant something really, really bad. Paul always took time to notice and appreciate the little things, like a naked woman in bed.
"Get dressed," he said. "Hurry."
He turned and left. Marion stayed behind, shutting the door after the others. She crossed her arms and watched me. I watched her right back.
"A little privacy?" I asked. She c.o.c.ked her head to one side, eyes bright as a raven"s, and smiled a refusal. I threw the covers back and walked naked across the floor to pull open drawers on the dresser.
David had left my clothes neatly stacked.
As I dressed, Marion kept her eyes on the bed I"d just abandoned, and finally she said, "It"s wrong, you know."
I didn"t play dumb. I just asked, "Why?" as I fastened my bra.
"He"s at your mercy. Even if he loves you, Joanne- and I have no doubt he does; I"ve seen enough to know that-inevitably, it"ll turn to something else. A slave doesn"t love a master. A slave endures a master. This will twist and sicken. It can"t do anything else." Her voice dropped lower. "You"ll lose him. And even if you don"t, it makes you terribly, terribly vulnerable."
"It"s not like that." Even as I said it, I felt the lie turn in my mouth, sticky and sour. It"s what I"d been afraid of in the beginning. Why I hadn"t ever wanted to claim him as a Djinn. What was between the two of us was fragile, and I was human and stupid. It was easy to screw it up.
She transferred her gaze to me. The look was too wise, too compa.s.sionate, and it made me feel cheap.
"Not yet, maybe," she said. "Give it time. I do speak from experience, you know."
Interesting. I"d never seen Marion"s Djinn; I didn"t know of anyone who ever had. She had one, of course; at her level, it would be impossible for her not to. And yet . . . she was extremely private about that relationship. Those short sentences were, from her, a bombsh.e.l.l confession. I knew, without looking over my shoulder, that David was manifesting behind me. Not afraid to show himself now that he knew the game was up. I felt a little better for the support, though I knew there was only so much he could do in this situation.
Only so much either of us could do, actually.
"Thanks for the advice," I said. My chilly tone was a little undermined-and m.u.f.fled-by the fact that I was pulling my black knit shirt over my head at the time. I tested my shoes and found them dry-another silent gift from David. I stepped into them and headed for the bathroom.
Marion, who"d taken a step farther into the room, got in the way. I stopped and frowned. "Look, no matter how urgent this is, it"s not so urgent that I can"t pee and swig some mouthwash, right?"
She looked doubtful. That scared me.
"I"ll be thirty seconds," I said, and ducked around her.
Just to be rebellious, I took a full minute.
The saving-the-world confab took place downstairs in the Holiday Inn lobby, next to the tinkling artificial fountain where I"d first met Chaz. Paul had taken the liberty of rearranging the furniture, pulling sofas and chairs into a tight little group. Circling the wagons. The desk clerks looked oblivious; I guessed that Paul had used his Djinn to put a glamour around us, make us unnoticeable. (It was, as David constantly reminded me, a h.e.l.l of a lot easier than making us invisible.) I clopped down the lobby stairs, following Marion; David was no longer visible. I never could tell when David was gone, or just pretending to be gone. That was a sense I"d lost along with my Djinn union card.
Paul was pacing. Not good. When Paul paced, it meant things were getting serious. I could see that responsibilities were already wearing on him; a month ago, Paul had been content to be a Sector Warden, overseeing a big chunk of the East Coast, reporting directly to the National Big Cheese. But the events that had taken a hand in making me a Djinn, and then unmaking me, had changed the landscape of the a.s.sociation. So far as seniority, Paul was one of the few left standing who could take on the additional work. And there was, G.o.d knew, a h.e.l.l of a lot to do. The stress had already given him shadows and bags under his eyes, and I didn"t remember the fine tension lines at the corners of his mouth.
I was shocked to see him out here, chasing after me. The situation with Kevin was bad, no doubt about it, but he had a national organization to run, and it wouldn"t run itself. I hoped he wasn"t putting personal feelings ahead of business.
I took a seat on the couch, next to Marion, and Paul stopped prowling long enough to say, "Joanne Baldwin, you know Marion.
Meet Jesus Farias and Robert West. Brazil and Canada."
Two heads nodded at me. I nodded back. Neither looked happy to be here.
"The kid you"re after-" Paul continued.
"Kevin," I said. Paul"s eyes fastened on me for a second, then moved on.
"Kevin," he corrected. "He"s got wards up around Las Vegas. Great big ones. He"s been f.u.c.king with weather systems across half the country to play keep-away with you, and that can"t go on. We"re killing ourselves trying to keep the peace out there."
"Sorry," I said. I was. "There"s not a lot of choices to this, Paul.
Either we leave him alone, or we go after him. But either way, it"s not going to be good news, and I thought we agreed-"
"We did," Paul interrupted. "We agreed that you should come out here and stop him, but Jo, you haven"t stopped him. You haven"t even gotten close. Your Djinn doesn"t have the power to go up against this punk nose-to-nose, and all that can come out of this is disaster if you cowboy around out here any more."
The Canadian, West, put in, "Your boy Kevin is destabilizing more than the weather. We"re reading a huge pressure buildup along the Cascadia Subduction Zone. If we can"t stop it, your problems out here will seem very small indeed."
Oh. Right. He wasn"t Weather; he was Earth. "How bad?"
"At current levels, we think we can expect a mega-thrust earthquake along the Cascadia line. That"s offsh.o.r.e, around Vancouver and Oregon. It could potentially be as small as a nine- point quake, but we think it"s probably going to be worse. A lot worse."
As small as a nine-point quake? The one that had just killed 25,000 in Iran had been a 6.5. "How much worse?"
"The amount of energy increases by a multiplier of forty times for every point on the Richter scale. This is probably going to register higher than the scale counts. Hypothetically, perhaps an eleven.
Using the Mercalli intensity scale, it"s a twelve, total damage, buildings thrown into the air-"
Big enough to scare the holy s.h.i.t out of the Wardens, in other words. "I don"t mean to tell you your business, but what about using smaller quakes to-"
"Bleed off energy? Useless. That amount of energy can"t be bled away, not without spreading the devastation farther." His eyes were chilly. "And you"re right. You shouldn"t tell me my business."
The Brazilian weighed in. His English was excellent, spiced with a slight musical intonation. "Also, we estimate that the temperature all over this region has been raised by a mean of five degrees since this boy began his attacks; he has no conception of how to bleed off energy and balance the system. If it continues to rise, we won"t be able to hold the network. Things will shift. And with the equations already so far off scale . . ."
Paul stopped pacing and looked directly at me. "We"re talking about melting icecaps, Jo. Floods. Climatic devastation. Earthquakes worse than we can possibly control, even with Djinn. Which we have too few of, by the way. I don"t know if you"re aware of it, but things are getting critical on that front. We lost Djinn we couldn"t afford to lose, back there in the vaults. We barely have enough to keep things together as it is, and we keep on losing them. Wish to G.o.d I knew where they were going. . . ."
Marion shot him a look, a clear we-don"t-talk-about-that message.
I covered a flash of surprise. The Wardens were losing Djinn? I knew they were in short supply-they always had been-but I"d been under the clear impression that they knew exactly where their Djinn were, all the time. Of course, it made sense that there would be attrition.
Once a Djinn"s bottle was shattered, it disappeared. For all the Wardens had ever known, they left our plane of existence for someplace more exotic and safe . . . they"d never known what I knew, that many of them stuck around as free-range, unclaimed Djinn.
Hiding in plain sight.
I wasn"t about to tell them.
"All this could be followed by another ice age," Farias continued somberly. "One which we may no longer have enough trained personnel to stop. We"ve lost too many, both human and Djinn."
It sounded wacky. A teenage kid raised the temperature in Las Vegas by a few degrees, and boom, ice age. But weather"s funny like that. The point wasn"t the amount the temperature was raised; it was that it caused chain reactions. Altered rainfall. Shifted wind patterns.
El Nino on a global scale.
The last time a serious, out-of-pattern weather shift had happened, the Mayan Empire died of thirst, and crop failures in Europe sparked chaos that killed millions. Some say it caused the Dark Ages. It had taken the Wardens generations to control things again, put the systems back in balance. Or some semblance of it, at least. When the entire world system wobbled, it was the work of several human lifetimes to correct it.