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can do anything to stop me."

He looked past me, to Lewis. "You're that guy. The one she was so afraid of. The one with the big mojo."

Lewis didn't blink. "Maybe."

"Huh." Kevin swept him up and down with a look. "No shit. Thanks, man. For saving my life."

"You didn't have to pay me back by killing her."

Kevin's face flushed a dull, mutinous red. "You don't know anything about it." He turned to Jonathan. "Can you get me out of here?"

Jonathan's eyebrows quirked over his empty stare. "Where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere." Kevin, under the stress of the moment, was forgetting the rules. He looked at Jonathan, who stared back, waiting. "Anywhere but here!"

"You have to be specific," Jonathan said. And, as Kevin's mouth started to shape something-something I was pretty sure would have been home-Jonathan said, "Might as well make it someplace fun. Disneyworld. Las Vegas. Something-"

"Vegas!" Kevin crowed. He looked pleased with himself for seizing on it. "Hell yeah. Definitely Vegas."

Jonathan, I thought, what the hell are you doing? He could have detailed the kid to death, could have asked him to define his designation down to a few square inches of ground, but I could see that he'd gotten what he wanted. "You have to order me," he reminded.

"Oh, right. Uh, take me to Las Vegas-Wait!" Kevin threw up a hand. "What the hell are these things?"

He was looking at the barely visible Djinn swirling in the air. Jonathan didn't shift his gaze. Probably didn't want to look at them for long. I wouldn't have.

"Djinn," he said. "They're sick."

"Yeah? Fuck me. Well, let them go, they're creeping me out."

"No!" I yelled, and lunged forward. Too late. The barrier holding the Djinn back popped with an almost physical sensation, and the infected, tormented Djinn vanished. Kevin looked around the vault art all of the bottles lining the shelves. The ones on the right were all sizes and shapes, unsealed; the ones on the left were marked in black with the glyph that signified a demon infestation.

He grabbed some of the black-sealed bottles and stuffed them into his baggy pants pockets. "Let's go," he said to Jonathan. "Vegas. Move your ass."

Lewis said, very grimly, "David, stop them from leaving."

I was looking at David when he said it, and I saw the flicker of agony that crossed his face; Lewis didn't know what he'd just asked him to do. Fight Jonathan. Fight someone he had loved and respected for a thousand years or more.

Someone he knew he couldn't beat.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Kevin threw a sideways look at Jonathan, clearly realizing that Vegas, move your ass didn't qualify as a proper command. Which meant David had the upper hand. "You. Mojo guy. You think you can take me?"

Lewis said, "I didn't save your life to arm wrestle with you."

"But you're strong, right? Stronger than anything?"

"Not anything."

"But almost anything." Kevin looked sly, shot a greasy look at Jonathan. "Hey, I've got a better idea. We can do Vegas anytime." He looked over at me, and the craziness in his eyes made me feel weightless and sick. "You should've been nicer to me, bitch."

I think I knew, somewhere deep inside, what he was about to say, but there was no way to stop him. No way any of us could have stopped him.

Kevin pointed at Lewis and said, "Give me all his power. I want it all."

A clear, unequivocal command, one Jonathan wouldn't have any choice but to follow.

Lewis cried out, arched forward, and a river of white light flooded out of him, slammed across the empty space and into Kevin's narrow T-shirt-clad chest. David, still held by the previous command, couldn't act, and this was so far outside of my area of expertise that there was nothing I could even think to say, much less do.

Lewis went utterly limp. Unconscious. Out of the fight. Which meant that David was powerless.

Kevin opened his eyes, and smiled. Smiled. Flexed his arms like a weightlifter striking a pose.

"Kevin, don't do this. You can't hide," I said. My voice was shaking. I gathered Lewis's limp body in my arms and felt how hot he was, how fragile. How human. Like me. "Kevin, they'll never forgive you for this. Humans or Djinn. They'll hunt you down. They'll destroy you."

He lowered his arms and looked like a sixteen-year-old