Ill Wind Page 0,26

Paul ordered you to take if from me?"

"I think he would not, considering it would destroy me and he would never get another Djinn." The Djinn put the glasses back on. "You're already corrupted, I can smell it on you like a rotting wound."

"Cheer me up some more," I invited.

She smiled. Long canines showed white in her smile. "Would if I could. You going to make the border?"

"If you don't fuck around with me."

She laughed. "Now why would I do that? Everything I do must be in my master's best interests. Rules of the game. Although if you'd slow down, you might at least make it interesting."

She seemed oddly talkative, for a Djinn. I decided to indulge my curiosity as we cruised in on I-95 toward Philly. "Must be a bitch, being enslaved and all."

"Enslaved?" she asked. It didn't seem to bother her. "We are not enslaved."

"That's what they teach us in school."

She sniffed and drummed yellow talons on Delilah's window glass. I hoped she wasn't leaving scratches. "Your school is sadly free of knowledge. Djinn are the children of Fire. We serve as we must serve, as Fire serves when chained and devours when freed."

"Freed? I thought you were-sort of eternally- um, damned." Which wasn't the best way to put it, but I couldn't think of a politically correct phrase.

She shrugged. "Fire serves no one forever. It is always ready to burn the hand it warms."

The Djinn were rare-we all knew that. Precious resources. One Djinn per lifetime, no more, and when a Warden died, his or her Djinn just went back into rotation, assigned a new master. Nobody had said anything about them ever getting freed.

She gave me another cool smile. "Too bad you're going to die. I rather like you. A favor, then. Ask a question."

"Did Paul tell you to kill me if I don't make it out of his territory?" I blurted.

She smiled. "That was a poor question," she said. "Care to try again? Secrets of the universe? Lotto numbers? Whether your true love will be tall, dark, and handsome?"

I thought about it. Never look a gift Djinn in the mouth. "Where's Lewis?"

She took her glasses off again, and even though I didn't look at her, I could feel the pressure of those horrible, beautiful eyes. She was a dangerous pet to keep, a sleek predatory beast with bloodlust kept in check only by a constant flow of Kibbles 'n Bits and a great big magical leash.

"You already know the answer," she purred.

"Oklahoma? What the hell's he doing in Oklahoma?"

She looked away. "Saving someone. Is that not what he is always doing?" She practically steamed with contempt. "One of these days, it will cost him."

"Can we cut out the middleman, here? Just take me to Oklahoma?"

Teeth flashed. "Your favor has been spent, Snow White. Choose better next time."

"Great. Forget favors. Got any advice?"

"Be kind to your Djinn."

"I don't have a Djinn."

She shrugged. "You will, if you survive. I can smell that on you, too."

"Wait!" I sensed she was about to poof again. She slid her sunglasses back on and sat, politely bored, swinging one hand in time with Ozzy Osbourne belting out a ditty about war pigs. "Can you give Paul a message for me?"

"I can," she agreed. "It remains to be seen if I will, Snow White."

"My name is Joanne."

"I like Snow White better. I am Rahel," she said, and pointed toward herself with one neon-yellow talon. Were they longer than they had been? Her teeth flashed into a smile. "Speak."

"Tell Paul that I'm sorry. And that I still love him."

She shuddered delicately. "I try to stay out of the sexual business of mortals."

"Yeah, well, we're just friends."

"So say you," she said, and cocked an elegantly shaped dark eyebrow. "You did not see him later."

That led to things I shouldn't be thinking about, not when driving a speeding car. Rahel flicked her fingernails together in a dry, yellow clatter and disappeared.

I tried not to feel quite so relieved.

I didn't know the Warden in Philadelphia, and I was just as happy to breeze by without making his acquaintance, but I needed a pit stop. I pulled off the highway for gas at the Independence Hall exit. After taking care of the bladder problem and filling up the Mustang, I