Cape Storm Page 0,92

their teeth, but they were seated cross-legged on the deck, clearly happy with slack-off time.

Josue had donned a ridiculous coat. A tuxedo jacket, obviously ripped off from some prior victim on a yacht. I hoped I wouldn't notice any bloodstains.

"Hurry your asses up," he said. "We don't have long." Not exactly the wedding march, but it would do. I exchanged a look with David, and he gave me his hand, and we walked the short length of the deck to the bow, where Josue was standing. The sun was behind clouds again, and the air smelled heavy with brewing storms.

David's best man - and, I supposed, standing in for my maid of honor - was the Fire Warden, Brett Jones. Big and foreboding as a Djinn, only armed like a pirate and watching Josue and everybody else, including me, with smart, cold focus.

I felt both protected and unsettled.

"I don't have no holy books," Josue said. "So I make it up as I go along. You don't like it, you go get married in hell."

"As long as you get the important stuff right," I said. "Go ahead."

"I get paid first."

There was a brief pause, and then David reached into his pocket and brought out a small handful of very large bills. Josue grabbed them and flashed a highly inappropriate smile, then asked, "What's your name?"

"David Prince."

"David Prince, you come here with this woman to be married. Right?" I didn't dare throw a glance at David, because there was something so weirdly hilarious about this that I was already choking on it. After a beat, he said, "Obviously." I coughed.

"You sure you want to do that?" Josue said. "Because you got to take care of her, love her, never look at another woman. Even if she's sick or gets old and fat." My coughing turned into a full-fledged fit.

"If you mean will I stand by her in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for all the days of our lives - yes, I will," David said, very quietly. The urge to laugh left me suddenly, and I squeezed his hand. "I vow that I will."

I felt no corresponding surge from the aetheric, the way I had the first time we'd done this, but then, David had completed his side of the vows the last time we'd done this.

I hadn't, not officially. Which was why Lewis and I had decided to go through with this. It was an experiment - probably doomed to failure - to see whether or not it would make any difference in the way Djinn and humans were bound together... if we were bound together by ritual, completely.

"You're sure about this," Josue said. He continued to stare at David. "I give you some time to think."

David didn't smile. "I'm sure. Move along."

"Well, okay." He turned to face me. "How about you?"

"You suck at this," I told him. I got a slow leer in return. "Come on, at least make an effort!"

"You dump this guy, come back to my cabin, I'll make an effort."

"To clean up the toenails off the floor?" I asked sweetly. "Come on, Josue. Today." He clasped his hands, and tried for a pious expression. I doubted he'd ever seen one, except maybe in the DVD collection belowdecks. "Do you - what's your name again?"

"Joanne Baldwin."

"Joanne Balderwin, take this - uh, Prince David, to be your husband? Do you swear to honor and obey him, and to never look at another man, even if this one gets - "

"Sick, old, and fat, yes, I know."

"What would that matter? He's a man, yes? It is the prerogative of a man to get sick and old and fat." The crew laughed raucously behind us. "Do you swear to honor and obey him, even if this one gets poor and lazy?"

I closed my eyes and fought a cage match with my temper. "Ask it right." He heard the echo of darkness in my voice, and the laughter of the crew died away. "I mean it." Josue cleared his throat. When he spoke again, the mocking tone was gone. "Do you take this man as your husband, forsaking all others as long as you both live?" Close enough. I felt something happening, a stirring in the aetheric like a soft breeze. It swirled around me, lazy and gentle, and then solidified into a silver mist.

"Yes," I said. "I vow it."

The mist fell like soft silver rain on the aetheric, and I felt it sliding over my skin in warm