Thin Air

Ashan abruptly reached out and put his hand on the back of my neck. I yelped at the cold shock against my sweating, hot skin, and then felt the ice sink in like winter.

“This will hurt,” he said. That wasn’t a warning. That was a promise.

And then I came apart, screaming, in a red haze, and he rebuilt me, cell by cell, neuron by neuron, in a brutal, fast, cruel process, and I felt every single nanosecond of it like an eternity.

My memories returned with it.

Every one.

I heard the Demon cry out and knew that what she’d stolen was being ripped away, leaving her the shell, making her the excess baggage of the universe, and even though I hated her for what she’d done (and tried to do), I couldn’t help but hate Ashan more.

Because he was enjoying it.

He let go and stepped away, wiping his hand fastidiously against his gray coat. “That fulfills our bargain,” he said, and met David’s eyes with absolute menace. “Finish this, or I’ll finish you.”

And then he just…left. And half the Dji

Then he crouched down to eye level with me and touched my face. “Trust me?”

I nodded, but I really didn’t have a choice. And if he had to destroy me to end this, well…then I knew he’d do whatever was necessary. Because David had responsibilities that were greater than his love for me.

I love you. No matter how this goes, that doesn’t change. His words to me on the plane, and they were echoing in the stark, primitive confines of this place. I couldn’t stay here much longer; the heat was suffocating, and the flames blazed hotter every moment, sucking moisture out of my fragile human body, flirting with igniting my hair into a fireball. I didn’t have the time or concentration to spare to protect myself, and I wasn’t sure, with this fire, that I’d be able to in any case.

I blinked sweat from my eyes and managed a smile. “Of course I trust you,” I said. “Do whatever you have to, but she can’t leave here. She can’t live.”

Evil Twin’s eyes widened, and she said in a surprisingly soft, vulnerable voice, “David, no. Please, no.” He hesitated for just a second. Long enough for her to continue. “I’ll leave if you’ll send me home. But please don’t kill me. I’m not like the other Demons you’ve destroyed-they didn’t know; they didn’t understand. I know what’s going to happen. Please, you can’t torture me like this!”

“You want me to send you home,” he repeated without inflection. And tears rolled out of her eyes, vanishing into steam in the superheated air. My skin was agonizingly painful, already begi

“Please,” she said. “With this many Dji

“No,” he agreed. “What would be on my hands would be the risk that you would come back, and this time you’d lead an army. That’s exactly what you’re pla

The tears cut off instantly, and the Demon’s voice hardened. “You’d do the same.”

“Trust me,” David said, “I’ve done far worse. And I’ve done it to people I loved.”

And he broke the seal from the bottle, opened it, pressed the heel of his hand to her jaw to pry apart her lips…and fed her a Demon.

I let go. It wasn’t conscious, just instinct; I felt the raw menace of the thing as it snaked its way out of the bottle, and I just had to get away from it in an awkward scramble. David’s face was like cast metal, no softness there, and no mercy. My doppelgänger was screaming, but it was too late; he held her down, slammed her mouth shut to lock the thing inside, and I watched as the Demon shed her human disguise in the extremity of her fear and rage.

The skin simply shredded into a mist of blood and tissue, and underneath red muscle hardened into black, crystalline shell. Insectile and unsettling.

Her eyes stayed blue. My eyes, and she defiantly focused them on me as she struggled to throw off David’s hold and expel the poison he’d just forced down her throat.

But not even the strongest Demon could fight Mother Nature-their Mother Nature, not mine. Theirs dictated that they hunted by territory, and they’d hunt each other if forced together, to the exclusion of other prey.

Two Demons, one body.

I watched them rip each other apart, screaming, into a black shredded mist, and didn’t realize I’d fallen down until David cradled me in his arms, partly shielding me from the heat. I was shaking all over, partly from dehydration, partly from the horror of what I’d seen. Partly from realizing that she’d just been destroyed by the same thing that had once killed me, and my mind had blocked out the details until Ashan had brought it all back.

A stream of blue fog poured from the mouth of the open bottle, and a Dji

David didn’t speak. He tossed the bottle to another Dji

It fought hard to stay out, but gradually it was pulled in, a steady stream of black fog condensing and rushing into the open mouth.

As soon as the last of it had vanished, the Dji

The Dji

“Where’s he taking it?” I asked. My lips were dry and cracked, and my tongue felt like old paper. I didn’t recognize my own voice.

“Someplace safe,” David said, and frowned at me. “Let’s get you out of here.”

But when he opened the door of the mausoleum and we stepped out into the cool, soft air, we had a surprise.

The graveyard was full of Dji

And then his gaze focused on something in the midst of that crowd of several hundred, and a path formed to let two people walk out of the center.

Ve

And, holding her hand like a father taking his favored child for a stroll, Ashan.

David didn’t speak. Neither did Ashan nor Ve

Finally David shook his head. “Let her leave,” he said. “She’s got no part in this.”

“But she does,” Ve

“Not the first time that’s happened, Ashan. Is it?” David was growing brighter, more Dji

Ashan’s eyes had turned silver, and they looked like cold pools of mercury, still and uncaring. “Yes. Because I’m older,” he said. His voice resonated with assurance and cool, still energy. If other Dji