Cape Storm Page 0,78

on my heart, drowned my brain. This was the pure white light of the Djinn, bathing me from the inside out. And where it met the fading black tangle of Bad Bob's tattoo... the silver light went out.

There was still a deadly core there, hiding inside me. Under the skin. Not even death had taken it away.

I took in a convulsive breath and sat bolt upright, still held in David's arms, and then I relaxed against him, even through the pain. My eyes spilled over with tears of agony, liquid screams that were the only thing I had to give voice to what was raging inside.

If I couldn't come back all the way, come back clean, I didn't want to come back at all.

I shuddered, and my eyes rolled back in my head, and for a precious moment I blacked out as my nervous system simply refused to conduct any more pain.

I returned to consciousness slowly, with the distant awareness of pain but unable to feel it directly. My back was numb again, all the way down to midway on my thighs. I couldn't feel the back of my head, either. Or the tops of my shoulders.

Out of nowhere, I felt the soft press of lips against mine. I felt the exhale of David's trembling sigh. I felt the burning drops of his tears on my face. "That's all I can do," he said. "Jo. Please. Come back to me."

I blinked, and my eyes slowly focused on his.

"It's all right," I whispered. It wasn't. I felt sick and wrong, and the light seemed too bright for my eyes. "I'm so sorry."

David's eyes widened. Instead of bright copper sparks dancing in them, there was ash, as if something inside him had burned itself out. "Nothing to be sorry for," he said. "You saved their lives. If they'd let you die..."

The look he gave Lewis was utterly black with fury. I couldn't imagine being on the receiving end of that much hatred. David really wanted to kill him, slowly and horribly.

Even now, I felt the conviction of that echoing inside him.

I wound my fist in David's shirt, pulling back his attention. "No," I said. "Don't you dare.

Don't use me as an excuse." My voice was a parody of its usual tones, and I had no doubt he could see the sincere fright and dread in my eyes. "No matter what happens. Promise me.

He did that for a reason. "

He lifted a hand and traced the line of my cheekbone, light as a breath. "No."

"Promise me, David."

"No."

"Promise me."

This time he said nothing at all. He was serious about this. Very damn serious indeed.

Lewis was still holding David's bottle. Now, he gestured to Kevin and handed it over. As Kevin's fingers closed over the glass, David's body shattered into mist and re-formed.

Taking on the appearance imposed by his new master.

As he re-formed, I saw the differences, not the similarities: His hands were too broad.

The arms were too muscular, and stained with colorful flaming skull tattoos. His jeans acquired leather motorcycle chaps, and his shirt vanished to reveal a broad, muscular chest beneath a fringed leather jacket.

His head was shaved.

The only things about him that didn't really change was his face, and his eyes. Those remained his.

Those remained the ones that I knew.

Kevin cleared his throat. "Okay, order number one, you will not kill, or allow to be killed, any Warden not actively fighting with Bad Bob Biringanine in the current war. That includes Lewis. Order number two, you will not kill any human, or allow one to be killed, for any reason, unless saving them would put more people at risk. Three - " He sighed.

"Especially don't kill me, yo. And get back in the bottle." David took all that without a flicker, and then he was gone. His eyes were the last thing to leave, and they never wavered from mine.

I felt sick down to my soul. He had come so close, so close to doing worse than I could imagine... and for me.

Just for me.

"So what now?" I asked Lewis. My voice sounded scratchy and uncertain. I felt stretched as thin as rice paper, and just as fragile.

Lewis slid down to a sitting position and rested his head in both hands. "I don't know," he said. "He's put blocks around the mark to keep you from being taken over, but it won't be enough, not for long. This thing is vicious, Jo. It's fatal. We're back where we started, and I think