Cape Storm Page 0,71

moaning on the deck, with a black burned patch on the wood that stretched a dozen feet around her in a blast pattern.

I felt an odd tug at my leg and looked down. The decking was growing green shoots, and they were twining up my leg in thick, twisted strands. I hissed in frustration and snapped the plant off at the root, but while I was occupied with that, more fast-growing tendrils erupted up around me, anchoring me in place. It was stupidly annoying, and I finally summoned up a pulse of fire to burn them away from me.

Then I pushed the wave of flame out at the Wardens.

A Fire Warden named Freddy Pierce stepped out and shoved the attack back at me. Then, surprising me, he rushed through the flame and hit me in a low tackle. As attacks went, it wasn't subtle, but it caught me completely off guard, and the man was stronger than he looked. I slammed down on my back, and Freddy flipped me over and held me down with one sharp knee digging into my spine.

"Come on," Lewis said, and stepped through the guttering flames to stand over me. His voice was low, kind, and a little sad. "You're not going to kill us. You won't, Jo. And that makes things tougher, because I can't kill you if I know you're still in there somewhere." I laughed and turned my cheek to one side, staring up at him through a mask of tumbling hair. "Do you really think so?" I asked, and blew Freddy off my back.

I blew him off the ship.

Into the water.

Then I lunged up, wrapped my hands around Lewis's throat, and called fire. It wrapped around me in a dripping mantle, and Lewis's clothes ignited instantly. He controlled that, but I was attacking him on multiple fronts; while he was putting out the flames, I was turning his breath toxic in his lungs, turning his blood to sludge in his veins. Earth Wardens knew a million painful ways to kill, and it was hard to fight, especially when you were on fire.

But Lewis managed, somehow. He batted me away, sending me reeling back to crash against a metal rail. Somewhere out in the churning iron gray sea, Freddy - a Fire Warden, with no power over either the water or the living things in it - yelled for help with panic in his voice. Something about sharks.

As Lewis staggered and fell, the bottle that held David's soul entrapped fell out of his pocket and skittered across the deck. I reached out for it.

Cherise got to it first.

She backed up, fast, both hands clenched around the small glass form. She pulled it in to her chest.

The Wardens closed ranks between her and me.

"Back off," Kevin said, pushing his way to the front - and Cherise.

" Youback off," I snapped. "I saved your life, you rancid little murderer. You owe me."

"I owe Joanne," he said. "I don't know who the fuck you are, and I don't care. You make a move against Cherise and - "

"And what?" I asked, and took a step forward. "You'll cut me? Oh, shut up. Get out of my way if you want to live."

Venna misted into place next to him. She didn't speak. She didn't have to. I got the message well enough.

"I've fought you before," I said.

"You lost," she pointed out. "The poisoned water may sustain you, but it's still poisoned.

Don't make the mistake of thinking you're my equal. Ever."

" Booyah, bitch," Kevin said. Someone else, with more sense and better self-preservation instincts, muttered for him to shut up.

"I'm going to kill you all," I said. I meant it. I felt it coming, a kind of inevitable darkness.

"I have to." I was still just a little sorry about that, but it really was necessary. Lewis had been right that somewhere deep inside me, the old Joanne was still struggling - poisoning my thoughts, driving my actions.

No more.

I flung my arms wide, felt the storm roar and answer, and shouted, "Now!" The Djinn Rahel erupted from out of the ocean.

No, not Rahel - Rahel as commanded by her master, Bad Bob, the Black Warden.

Rahel was as large as the cruise ship. Her hair was a nest of writhing eels. Her face was distorted, pointed into an extreme triangle, and her mouth was full of rows of teeth. She was dressed in rags and weeds and pearls and fish scales, and in both hands she held swords