Gale Force Page 0,63

bound in human form. I couldn't see his features, but I could see where he was, in the instant before he cut off his attack and disappeared into the boiling mass of confusion stirred up by the attack like the smoke in the apartment.

I'd won.

I pitched forward to my hands and knees, gasping in thick, tainted breaths, coughing and wheezing. My mouth was full of blood, and my coughs brought up more of it. I was hemorrhaging from my lungs, too weak to save myself, too weak to control the fire taking hold around me, or cleanse the air I was breathing. No. You can't die now. You won!

Winning isn't everything. You need to have something left, in the end, to move on. This was the very definition of a Pyrrhic victory.

I realized that I was staring at David, still on his knees, held pinned and helpless by Ashan. His face was the color of ashes, and his eyes an unholy, almost demonic red, consumed with pain and pent-up fury.

"She survived," Ashan said, and I heard a note of pure surprise in his voice. I felt a surge of power move through the apartment. The siren cut off; the air turned sweet again. No more sparks. Before my watering eyes, the curtain knitted itself into its original unburned form, and the carpet healed itself.

That wasn't David's doing. I could tell that he was blocked by Ashan here, completely cut off. Helpless. The bodyguards wouldn't have dared take that kind of initiative, which left only the last person I'd have ever expected to do me a kindness.

Ashan was staring at me with half-closed, thoughtful eyes. I couldn't read his expression. I was too tired to even try.

"Go on and finish me off," I said hoarsely. "I can't stop you."

"I know," he said. It was the first time I'd heard him speak with such a level tone, no trace of hate or contempt. "You fought well. Almost like a Djinn. But you're not a Djinn anymore, and you never will be again." After another pause, I thought I heard him say, very quietly, "Pity."

He let David go and stepped back. David didn't hesitate. Ashan ceased to exist for him the instant the barriers fell, and he lunged to me and gathered me in his arms. I felt healing power cascade through me in burning, almost painful urgency, and I shuddered and buried my face against his neck.

"Jo?" He whispered it with his lips against my skin. His hands were everywhere on me, frantic, protective. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

I felt tears welling up, and whether they were shock or relief or the delayed effects of fear, I couldn't tell. I didn't have any defenses left, not even against myself. I wanted to lie down on my side, curl up, and weep myself into unconsciousness in his embrace, but instead, I lifted my head - which felt as if it weighed about a hundred pounds - and focused on Ashan. His expression was closed and still, but I thought I saw something in it that hadn't been there before.

"It was necessary, you know," he said. "Necessary you stop before it's too late." Which wasn't an apology, but the fact that he felt compelled to explain himself was an enormous change.

David growled, deep in his throat, and I stilled him with a hand on his cheek, still looking at Ashan.

"Thank you. I won't expect it again," I said. I saw a flash in his cool eyes, and he bent his head a fraction of an inch.

And then he misted away, and his bodyguards followed, giving me a range of stares from curiosity to anger.

One faded in. Venna, still in black. I curled closer to David, taking comfort in the heat of his body, the strength of his embrace. I was shaking all over, and couldn't seem to stop. It wasn't just physical injury. I'd come close, so desperately close - in some indefinable way, I felt more fragile now than I ever had, despite the fact that I'd won.

I wouldn't have wanted to show so much vulnerability to Ashan, but it was different with Venna. She'd seen me crying, filthy, beaten, broken. She'd never made judgments, not in the way that Ashan would.

I felt the soft touch of her hand stroking my hair.

"You had to win alone," Venna said. "I am sorry. I couldn't help. It was a human matter, not for the Djinn."

I gulped air and nodded. David wasn't so understanding. He let