Chill Factor

Through the bathroom door, I saw a huge Jacuzzi tub facing the windows. "I'll give your side this: You know how to imprison a girl in style."

"You're not a prisoner," Qui

I took the cool, smooth plastic. "If I do?" Qui

"You don't need to worry about the boy."

"The fact that you can say that just proves to me that you don't know dick about that boy."

Qui

… and he came out with another card, this one a different color of plastic.

"Have fun," he said, and handed it over. "That's worth five thousand in chips. Go crazy. I've got to get back to work."

"Qui

He patted my hand, removed it, and walked to the door. "If you don't," he said pleasantly as he opened it, "I'll just have to break your ankles. That'd keep you from wandering."

He shut the door with a quiet click. I chewed my lip, counted to thirty, then went to look out.

He was gone. When I raced to the window, I saw the inclinator crawling back down the face of the pyramid, and Qui

I went to the telephone, got a dial tone, and called a number from memory. Long distance, but I wasn't particularly worried about the charges at the moment. Let the Ma'at pay for it, the crusty old Republicans.

Three rings. Four.

"Bearheart," a low female voice said. I let out a gasp; I hadn't realized I'd been holding my breath.

" Marion! Don't talk, just listen. I'm inside, but there's something wrong here. A whole different set of-"

Click. The line was dead. I rattled the posts, banged the receiver helpfully against the nightstand, then hung it up.

"You know," I said to the empty air, "this would be a whole lot easier if I had some help from a friendly neighborhood Dji

There was a heat blur in the corner. I focused on it, and watched Rahel sculpt herself out of shadows into glittering hard angles and cutting edges. Not that the Ifrit was recognizable as Rahel, of course, but I didn't really think that any other half-Dji

"Can you help me?" I asked her. No answer from the black, insectile statue in the corner. "Look, you went to big trouble to come here with me. I can only assume you had a reason. Can you tell me what it is?"

She stirred. That was unsettling, because she no longer moved like either a Dji

"Do I have any allies here?" I asked her. "Anybody I can trust?"

I wasn't sure, but that kind of looked like a nod. Maybe.

"Who?" Useless question. She couldn't speak; she didn't have enough power left from her gorging feast earlier.

An arm of hard right angles and coal-black glitter extended. Claws extruded pale as crystal from something that vaguely resembled a hand. I resisted the urge to crawl back across the bed; if she wanted me, she could get me.

I felt something tug deep inside. Panic spiked deep, and I tried to move but it was too late.

Her glittering diamond claws plunged into me. Not me, exactly. There was no damage to my human flesh, but as I flashed up to Oversight to view what was happening on the aetheric, I saw what she was doing.

She had hold of a glowing white-hot core centered in my abdomen, just above my pelvis. Cradling it in her claws, carefully.

I caught my breath, staring down through the crystal lattices of my aetheric body at this revelation, this glowing strange visitor inside me.

"Oh, my God," I heard myself whisper.

I'd never seen anything like this before, and yet I knew exactly what it meant. I was pregnant.

I freaked.

First, I threw myself back across the bed, putting distance between me and Rahel's claws, instincts screaming. She didn't try to follow. I couldn't seem to get my breath, couldn't think, and as the world did a Tilt-A-Whirl spin I put my back against the hotel room door and slid down to a sitting position, head in my hands.

Impossible. This is totally impossible. I haven't… I couldn't…

I remembered Jonathan's sharp reaction to me, in the room at the Bellagio. His cryptic words: If he told you it would guarantee I wouldn't hurt you, he lied. Jonathan had assumed I knew about this spark of life inside me.

I gasped and looked up. Rahel was frozen across the room, still in a crouch, claws extended. Still as a black statue in the soft, filtered afternoon light. Alien as something out of H. R. Giger's nightmares.

"That bastard," I said. My voice sounded strange. "He knew, didn't he? David knew he was doing this to me. You guys don't do anything by accident."

I knew that because I'd been Dji

I knew with an absolute and unexplainable certainty that the Dji

Of course, he'd forgotten to ask me first. Or even tell me after the fact.

Memory flashed hot. David saying, You have to trust me, his eyes flashing copper. And me saying, like an idiot, Yes.

Rahel made a move. I flinched back against the door, and she froze back into stillness, claws working as if they weren't really co

"You know what's going on," I said. Nothing. "Guess we need to find you something to eat if I want any more help out of you."

Something to eat, other than the glowing nucleus of energy inside of me. Which, to her credit, she hadn't tried to consume. Maybe it wasn't even the equivalent of an after-di

"Any Dji

She didn't confirm or deny, like Qui

I let my aching head fall back into my trembling hands.

Oh, Jesus, I was pregnant.

I was going to kill him so very dead.

To pass the time while I worked out a plan- because nothing was immediately jumping up and down, waving its little arms-I took a long, hot shower, washed my hair, dried it, applied skin moisturizers from the complimentary selection in the bathroom, then slipped into the Jacuzzi tub to bubble away my troubles for a while. I stared out at the horizon, remembering how it had looked to see a black roller crest on that flat sandy plain.