Cape Storm Page 0,14

outnumbered by its service staff by about two to one.

Which I've got to say would have been potentially amazing had I not regarded every single one of them as another weight of guilt on my conscience.

Three staff members and three sets of directions later, I arrived at the ship's movie theater. I was late, of course, but not very. The lights were up, revealing opulently layered velvet curtains in the traditional dark reds and purples on the walls, some lovely Art Deco sconces, and seats for a couple of hundred people and their snacks.

There were thirty-eight Weather Wardens on board, and as I swiftly counted heads, I realized that I was one of the last to arrive.

Lewis watched me move down the stairs toward the stage, and I knew he was noting the way I slightly favored my newly funky leg. "Did someone forget to tell you to watch your step?" he asked in an undertone. Not that anyone was paying attention. The Wardens were talking among themselves, probably arguing the finer points of weather control.

"Funny," I said. "Am I on time for the matinee of A Night to Remember ?" He wasn't sidetracked. "What happened?"

"I got smacked on the aetheric. Hard. And I couldn't see anybody doing it - not a trail, not a wave, nothing. No trace. And it hurt."

That got his attention. "Hurt?"

"Like, ow, crap, damn . And when I came back down, my leg went out on me, like a power failure. It came back, but not right away."

"Hmmmm." Without the slightest self-consciousness, Lewis got down on one knee and put his large hands around my thigh. The conversations out in the auditorium came to a stammering halt, and I felt every pair of eyes in the place turn to focus on us.

I jumped a little, and there might have been a gasp involved, but he wasn't interested in naughty groping at the moment. I felt his power slowly filter into me, rich and warm as sunlight. It followed the nerves in a slow glide down my leg, into my foot, and out.

You could have heard a pin drop in the place.

Lewis finally sat back. "I'm not finding anything except some strains in your muscles.

Normal stuff." He realized that everyone was staring and, for a moment, looked completely vapor-locked about it.

I cleared my throat. "Thanks for the laying on of hands. You might want to stop now, being that it looks a little odd."

"Oh." He let go and rose to his full, lanky height. "Sorry. Didn't mean to - "

"I know." The other Wardens were still watching us, but after a moment they started whispering together again. Yeah, I could bet what they were whispering. "Just be glad that David - "

"That David didn't see you?" That was David, of course, arriving in a white whisper of fog that poured itself into his human form in less than an eyeblink. He sounded amused. "David did."

"I'll take it as written that you said to keep my grubby hands off your woman," Lewis said.

David raised an eyebrow. " Grubbynot strong enough?"

"Before you say that in the future, most Djinn find the concept of owning someone else slightly offensive," David said, and I could almost feel Lewis's wince. "Jo's her own woman.

If she felt uncomfortable, she'd tell you."

"Yeah, she always has."

"Uh, guys?" I waved my hands. "Thanks for the macho plumage display, very attractive, but are we done? Time's a-wasting."

David smiled. He wasn't competing with Lewis; he hadn't for some time. He was possessive, on levels that he would never let anyone but me see, but he was done with jealousy. We were bonded, in his eyes, for eternity, or as long as my human body lasted. He had absolutely no reason to worry. "I came to tell you that the Djinn have completed preparations. We can begin anytime you're ready."

"Let's not delay," Lewis said, and stepped up to the edge of the theater's proscenium.

"Everybody focus. We've got work to do."

There weren't five people in the world who could get thirty-odd Wardens to shut up and listen without arguing, but Lewis was one of them. I wasn't, so I shut up and paid attention, too. He'd taken his hour of downtime to shower, shave, and change clothes, and although he still looked exhausted, I wouldn't have bet against him in a fight.

Which was good, because we were about to step into the ring for the fight of our lives.

"David," Lewis said, "I need the Djinn to form a perimeter