Thin Air

“Stop that,” I said. Not with a lot of strength.

“Stop what?” He reached for my hands, and I shivered as a breeze moved across my back, which was left mostly bare by the sky blue halter top I had on. Florida had been kind to me, for a change; lots of sun, lots of untroubled cloud-free beaches. It was as if the Wardens themselves had conspired to make my vacation uneventful, at least on the weather front.

And that had been okay, for the first couple of days. And then I’d gotten a little bit…bored.

Not that David couldn’t make that go away; he was promising to, just with the gentle pressure of his fingers moving up my bare arms.

“Stop making me want you,” I said. That got the eyebrows again, and a slightly wounded frown.

“Making you?”

“You know what I mean.”

“No, I don’t, actually. You think I’m manipulating you?”

“You’re Dji

“You want to be taking action,” he said. “Yes. I know.”

“What I don’t need is a vacation.” I stepped back from David and dropped grumpily into a deck chair, stretching my long, bare legs out in front of me. The tan was coming along nicely. Great accomplishment. Everybody else is saving the world, you’re golden-browning.

“Oh, I think you definitely do,” David said, and draped himself over the other chair, curled toward me, chin propped on his fist. “I have never met anyone who needed to learn to relax more than you.”

And that was saying a lot. I still didn’t have any clear idea of how old David really was, only that his birth date was so far back in history that the idea of calendars had been newfangled. He’d been around, my lover.

The fact that he was hanging around here, letting me be bitchy to him, was kind of amazing, now that I thought about it.

Before I could apologize to him, the phone rang again. I picked up the cordless extension, pressed the button and said, “Yes?”

A businesslike voice on the other end said, “May I speak with Joa

“Speaking.” I rolled my eyes at David. Another attempt to sell me flood insurance or steel hurricane shutters. I readied the I’m in an apartment speech, which usually served to put a stop to these things.

“Ms. Baldwin, hello, my name is Phil Garrett. I’m an investigative reporter with The New York Times. I’d like to speak with you about the organization known as the Wardens.”

I blinked, and my expression must have been something to behold, because David slowly straightened up in his chair, leaning forward. “You-sorry, what? What did you say?”

“Phil Garrett. The New York Times. Calling about the Wardens. I have some questions for you.”

“I-” My voice locked tight in my throat. “Got another call, hold on.” In a panic, I hit the END button and put the phone down on the table, staring at it like it had grown eight legs and was about to scuttle. “Oh my God.”

“What?” David asked. He looked interested, not alarmed. Apparently, I was amusing when panicked.

The phone rang again. I didn’t move to pick it up. David took it and said, pleasantly, “Yes?” A pause while he listened. “I see. Mr. Garrett, I’m very sorry, but Miss Baldwin can’t speak to you right now. What’s your deadline?” His mouth compressed into a thin line, clearly trying not to smile at whatever my face was doing now. I could hardly breathe, I felt so cold. “I see. That’s fairly soon. Miss Baldwin is actually on vacation right now-maybe there’s someone else you can-” Another pause, and his eyes darted to mine. “You were referred by the New York office of the Wardens.”

I mouthed, blankly, What? David lifted one shoulder in a half shrug.

This could not be happening.

“I’ll have her call you back,” David said, hung up, and put the phone back on the table. He leaned forward, hands folded, watching me. “You’re scared.”

I nodded, with way too much emphasis. “Reporters. I hate reporters. I hate reporters from little weekly papers in One Horse, Wyoming. How much do you think I hate somebody from The New York Times?”

“You don’t even know him. Maybe this is a good thing.”

“Are you on crack? Of course it’s not a good thing!”

I grabbed for the phone and dialed Lewis’s cell. It rang to voice mail. “Lewis, call me back, I don’t know who stuck me out as the sacrificial goat for the media, but I am not-”

David took the phone and hung it up, very calmly. “You don’t need to flail around. You know what to say,” he said. “Deny everything. They won’t have proof. They never do. And even if they do, refer them to the government and the UN. It’ll go away.”

“What if it doesn’t?” I chewed my lip in agitation, tasting tangerine gloss. “Look, it’s the Times. It’s not the Weekly World News-jeez, those people practically have us on speed dial. This is different. I’m worried.”

David cocked his head, looking bemused now. “I’ve seen you face down monsters, hurricanes, and tornadoes, and you’re scared of a phone call?”

“It’s bigger than that.” I felt it in my guts. “There was a reporter a few months ago-when I was on my way to Sedona with Ve

He leaned forward and took my hands. His felt warm, strong, calming. There was love in his eyes, deeper than the sunset.

“I have a question that will scare you even more.”

I frowned at him. “No games.”

“No. A serious question.” He slipped off the deck chair, and one knee touched the concrete balcony floor. He never looked away from my face as he did. “One that’s going to need a serious answer.”

My heart froze, then skipped to catch up on its beats. “I-” I couldn’t begin to think of what to say. I just waited.

“Will you marry me?” he asked.

My lips parted, and nothing, absolutely nothing, came out. Was he serious? He couldn’t be serious. We were comfortable together, we had love, we had partnership, we had-everything.

Everything except this.

It didn’t even seem possible. He was a supernatural Dji

But he was immortal.

I wasn’t.

And I was achingly aware of that, every day that passed between us.

“David,” I began, stricken, and came up against an absolute blank wall. “I-can we talk about this later?”

“Why? So you can come up with reasons to justify your fears?” He wasn’t angry; he didn’t mean it to hurt. It was matter-of-fact and, strangely, even gentle. “Jo, I need to know that you feel as I do. I need to have you with me. And…it’s mortal custom.”

“Have you been married before?” There, I’d asked it. We didn’t go into his past a lot, but I knew it was ancient, and there had been plenty of relationships. Dji

He gave me a slight, aching smile, and raised my hands to his lips. “Yes,” he said. “Ages ago. Before I knew what I was waiting to feel.”

I stared at him, frozen. “And now you know.”

“I was waiting for you.”

The phone rang. My eyes cut to it, startled, but I didn’t move to get it. One ring, and it cut off. I wasn’t sure if the caller had thought better of it, or David had cut the co

“If you say no, it’s all right. I will stay with you as long as you want me to stay,” he said. “You won’t lose me. You don’t have to agree if it’s not right.”

“But it’s important to you.”

“Or I wouldn’t have brought it up.” David looked troubled for a second, as if he was unsure of how much-or little-to say. Then he plunged ahead. “When humans make their vows to each other, it’s the closest they can come to the depth of commitment from a Dji