Thin Air Page 0,41

us."

"Trust me, it sounds more high-minded than it is in practice," Marion said. She seemed annoyed. "I always meant to ask, are the Ma'at your creation? Because their manifesto has that just-out-of-school, disillusioned, fight-the-power feel to it, and only someone young could come up with something so idealistic. And base it in Las Vegas."

Lewis shrugged. "Doesn't matter who formed it, or how. What matters is that it works."

"Sometimes," she shot back. "Guess what? The Wardens work sometimes, too."

"Less and less often. You have to admit that."

The van reached a freeway, and the ride turned smooth as glass. The van rocked slightly in wind gusts, but for the most part we sped along so easily we might have been flying. I began to feel just a little safer. Safer? some part of me mocked. You think a little thing like distance is going to matter? When are you going to mention that the Demon looks like you?

Later, apparently.

"I'll talk to them," Marion was reluctantly saying. "It's possible the Ma'at have Demon trackers. I'll see what we can horse-trade for the privilege."

"One other thing," Lewis said. "I want you to check Joanne over thoroughly when we get to the clinic."

Marion raised an eyebrow and glanced at me, as if she'd forgotten I was there, clinging to a handhold and swaying to the hiss of the van's tires. "For?"

"Anything. Everything." His face was closed and suddenly unreadable. "I found her in the forest, half-dead from the cold. Naked."

"Naked," Marion repeated. "Any injuries?"

"Nothing frostbite couldn't explain."

"You checked-"

"Of course I checked. But you're better at that kind of thing." He shrugged slightly, shoulders hunched. "Maybe I don't know what to look for. Or I didn't want to find it. I was under a little bit of pressure. And she's displayed some...unusual effects."

His voice was as dry as sand on that one, and I remembered David bouncing him like a basketball. Yeah, a little bit of pressure. And unusual effects didn't much cover what I'd been able to do to bring Cherise back from the nearly dead.

"I'll do a thorough scan," Marion said. "Anything else?"

Lewis raised his head to lock eyes with me for a second, then said, "Yeah, actually. I'd like you to test her for the emergence of Earth abilities."

"Thought you might," Marion said, and leaned back in her wheelchair. Her smile was full and yet not very comforting. "I can feel some change in her latent abilities. One of you was bad enough. I have no idea what we'll do with two of you."

The clinic was a modest-sized place up a winding road in the hills, and I'd have frankly mistaken it for anything but a medical facility. It looked rustic, but industrial in its square shape. Couldn't have been intended for long-term care, at least, not for many patients.

The faded, paint-chipped sign on the building said, WARDEN HEALTH INSTITUTE, EXTENSION 12. There were four cars in the small parking lot, and the van made it five as the still-unseen driver pulled in and parked under the whispering shade of a large pine. It was cold outside-my breath fogged on the window-but the overcast sky was breaking up, and the snow had stopped. I saw wisps of blue through the clouds.

"Need help?" Lewis asked Marion. She shook her head as the rear doors popped open, and the Handi-Lift's operation was engaged to move her and the wheelchair safely out and down. The rest of us disembarked the old-fashioned way. The snow here was only a couple of inches deep, and melting fast on the parking lot's warmth-hoarding surface. My face stung from the icy wind, and I thought wistfully about being warm again, really warm, but somehow the building that was ahead of us didn't seem that inviting, centrally heated or not.

I glanced over at Kevin. He looked sullen and shaky. "It'll be okay," I said. He shot me a filthy look.

"Shut up, Pollyanna," he said. "In my world, every time I let anybody else get me under lock and key, I get fucked."

I shut up. Clearly, comforting people wasn't my calling.

Once Marion's chair was down and moving, Lewis was the one who made sure the path was clear and ice-free on the ramp. I didn't even think about it, and Kevin obviously couldn't have cared less about doing public service. Lewis held the door, too, as Marion's chair powered inside, and kept holding it for me and Cherise, then Kevin.

So Lewis was the last one inside before the lock engaged behind us.