Gale Force Page 0,64

out that low, vicious growl again, and Venna sat back on her heels, clearly taking the warning very seriously. I couldn't tell if it angered her, but I doubted it. She seemed to understand his desperation.

She studied the two of us with a sorrowful and composed expression, like a graveyard angel. "Your enemies are much worse than you are. You should be prepared for the fight."

I croaked, "Who? Who are they?"

"You know," she said, and stood up. "You knew before, and you will again. You saw him. You just won't allow yourself to see."

I reached out and grabbed her hand. She looked down, frowning a little, and pulled free without any difficulty - but she did it gently. "I hope you survive. And I hope - I hope you are happy."

I laughed hollowly. "I hope so, too. I don't suppose we can count on you for a little help along those lines?"

Venna raised her eyebrows. "What do you expect?"

Nothing, I supposed.

Which was, as Venna performed her dramatic Djinn exit, exactly what we got.

David picked me up and carried me into the bathroom. I might have passed out for a while; when I woke, I was naked, and the two of us were in the bathtub, stretched out and facing each other. He was gently sluicing hot water over my chest, and when he saw I was awake, he switched to a washcloth, which he used to sponge blood from my face and mouth. There was a lot of it, which was alarming in a distant sort of way. I was too weak to really feel panic.

He pressed his lips to my forehead.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm sorry I left you. I won't leave you again."

"Not even for - "

"No. Not even for the Mother."

It had the feeling not of seduction, but of ritual, and the heat of the water eased something cold and small and terrified inside of me. We stayed in the bath until I felt sleep overtaking me, and then he carried me to bed, where I fell into a black, dreamless pit.

Sleep wasn't without its horrors. I woke a few times feeling phantom fingers scrabbling for my heart, but it wasn't an attack, just raw unfiltered panic. David was there to drive it away. Hush, he told me, and soothed the fear with gentle strokes of his fingers. I won't leave you. You are safe in my arms.

When the phone rang, he answered, and I drifted back to a dark, quiet sleep for the rest of the night.

In the morning, I woke up stronger than I'd felt through the night - though that really wasn't much of an improvement, since I'd started from a baseline of near death. I found out from David, who was up bright and early fixing coffee and eggs, that the phone call had been from Lewis. The aetheric dust-up had been witnessed by hundreds of Wardens, though nobody could tell what had been going on or who had been the target. Lewis had decided to check in, just in case. A team of Wardens had been put on smoothing out the effects of the fight, which was good, because it was well beyond me. Sitting up for more than an hour was beyond me.

David poured me a cup of coffee and slid into the chair beside me. "How do you feel?" he asked.

"Like I survived. Barely," I said. "You want the truth? I feel fragile. And glad to be alive." I sipped without really tasting the nutty brown richness, though the smell of the coffee warmed me. "Why did Ashan make you watch?"

His hands went still on the table. He didn't look up. "Punishment," he said. "I didn't have permission to leave the Mother. She wasn't pleased. She - she can cut me off from her, and she did it, to prove the point. That's why I didn't have the power to stop him."

He'd disobeyed the Mother for me. I almost dropped the china cup, and it rattled when I managed to get it back to the saucer. "David - "

"If you're about to tell me that it was stupid, I already know," he said. "But don't ask me to promise not to do it again."

"But - what did she want?"

"Djinn business." His tone made it clear that it wasn't any of mine. "You wouldn't understand even if I tried to explain."

Because of me, David had already lost his status as the sole conduit for the Djinn; Ashan had taken on responsibility