Ill Wind Page 0,7

had said when I asked him if I was getting fat. You're not fat- you're my friend! Well, at least it had made me go on a diet.

"Actually ... I wasn't being completely honest before. Something's kinda wrong. I have to find somebody. It's important."

"Somebody around here?"

"Last I heard, he was somewhere close." I was reluctant to say the name, but hell, Star was right; she knew everybody and everything that went on in that part of the world. "Um, it's . . . Lewis."

"Que?" she blurted. "You know, I was only kidding about the crack, but seriously, are you high? You got any idea how many people have been looking for him since he disappeared?"

"Yeah, I know. Pretty much everybody in the upper circles."

"What the hell you gonna do when you find him?"

Not anything I could admit to, certainly not to Star. "Look, let's not get into it, okay? Let's just call it catching up on old times."

"Sure. Okay." She banged more metal-probably skillets. Star was a hell of a cook. "So I'll watch for you, then."

I sensed something on her end, something she wanted to ask, so I waited. She finally said, "Hey, you haven't heard anything, have you? About me?"

"From who?"

"Forget it."

"No, really? From who?"

Another long hesitation. It wasn't like her. Star was a do-it girl. "I just get worried sometimes, you know? That they'll change their minds. Come and finish the job."

That hit me hard, in unguarded places. I hurt for her. "No, baby, that's not gonna happen. Everybody agreed, you deserve to hang on to what you have. You know that. Why would they change their minds?"

"Why do they do anything?" She forced a laugh. "Hey, no worries, I'm just freakin' paranoid-you know that. I listen to the little voices in my head too much."

I would, too, if I were Star. Which led down paths of speculation where I didn't want to follow. "Well, now I'm all jealous. I wish I had little voices in my head. Guess I'll just have to settle for people really being out to get me."

"Bitch," she said cordially.

"Bimbo."

Three or four uninspired insults later, we mutually hung up. I tossed the phone back in the passenger seat. Star would give me shelter, and she'd never rat me out to anyone looking for me, but she was really, really vulnerable. A few years ago, Star had taken a tremendous hit, both physically and emotionally, and she'd been forced to leave the Wardens. Usually, when people leave, they get blocked-a kind of magical lobotomy, to ensure they can't go rogue. It had been a close thing with Star, but they'd let her keep what little she had left. Provisionally.

And Star was absolutely right-that didn't mean that somebody wouldn't show up on her doorstep with official sympathy and orders to rip the essence of power out by the bloody roots. They'd damn sure hop to it if they found me conspiring with her, what with me bearing the Demon Mark and all. God. I shouldn't be dragging her into this, but there were only a few people in the world I could trust with my CD collection, much less with my life. In fact, there were only three.

Lewis and Star and Paul.

It'll be okay. If I found Lewis, if he did as I asked, if everything worked out okay ... I wouldn't need to put her at risk.

If. If, if, if.

It was a small word to hang the rest of my future on. Star's, too.

When I was fifteen, my mother fell in love with a guy named Albert. First of all, I ask you-Albert? I guess it could have been worse. He could have been named Cuthbert or Engelbert, but at fifteen it was still a crushing horror to me. Albert the Bear. Big, hairy guy, with a laugh that sounded like a rusty chain saw and a fashion sense second only to Paul Bunyan for addiction to flannel.

Albert wanted us all to get closer to nature. Even then, knowing next to nothing, I knew it was a really bad idea, but Mom thought he not only hung the moon but painted it, too, so we all packed our outdoorsy equipment and flannel shirts and hiking boots, and headed off into the Big Empty.

Actually, it was Yellowstone National Park, but same diff.

All right, it was