Gale Force

I'd just killed my friend.

Kevin paused, just for a second, eyes wide, and then he attacked when he realized that I wasn't

capable of doing anything else at that moment, too frozen in shock to move or even defend

myself. The Sentinels were in confusion; Bad Bob was smiling at me, oblivious to anything but

my horror, and the rest of them had no idea what they were supposed to do. Like the Ma'at, they

were a collective mass of power, and without a guiding force, they fell apart.

Even so, if it had been just Kevin and me, we'd have been lost. Each of the Sentinels had more

power than we did, drawn from that black well of energy the Unmaking created when it

destroyed things; they'd have killed us on their own, given time.

They didn't have time.

An explosion rattled the entire building from outside. I saw a flaming car roll by the doors at the

far end of the hall.

The cavalry had arrived with a bang.

I felt the aetheric popping and crackling with the arrival of more Wardens-some on the scene,

some pouring power in from remote locations. I heard the sound of fighting from outside, and

then something massive crashed against the outer wall, smashing a hole the size of a Buick in the

brick, and through it I saw . . . the Apocalypse, or at least, as much as could fit in the parking lot

of a condemned motel.

A tornado skimmed past the opening, sucking and howling, sparking lightning against every

metallic surface. Cars rolled and disintegrated under the assault, then caught fire as Weather

Wardens clashed with Fire. I couldn't tell the good guys from the bad guys, at least until the rest

of the wall came down with a heavy slam, and Lewis walked in over the rubble, leading a small

but heavily kick-ass army, and joined me and Kevin.

''Surrender,'' he said flatly to the group of Sentinels at the end of the hall. ''Do it now and we'll

let you live to see a trial. Otherwise, you get buried today.''

He meant exactly what he said. Lewis was giving no quarter today, if they pushed him into a

showdown. There was no trace of hesitation in him at all.

Bad Bob must have known it. He winked, jolly as a leprechaun, and blew me a kiss. Then he

went to Ortega and wrenched the black spear out of him with his bare hands.

As it came out, it grew, adding inches more to its length. With every death it was fed, it grew

more malevolently, horribly powerful.

Ortega was a dessicated corpse. A husk.

Bad Bob reached down and yanked up a small female form that lay huddled at his feet, tied with

glittering black ropes. Cherise's big blue eyes were wide under the confusion of blond hair, but

the fury in her was all Rahel.

''You don't want to risk this one, do you?'' Bad Bob asked, and yanked hard on her hair.

''Come on, Lewis. I know you better than that. You're one of the good guys!''

Lewis's expression didn't alter by a flicker. ''She's human. Humans get hurt when Wardens

clash; you know that. It's on your head, not mine.''

''My son, you've really learned how to operate in the subzero, haven't you? Well, very fine, but

we both know that despite this very pretty shell, what's inside is no more human than that.'' He

jerked his head toward Ortega's body. ''Probably a whole lot less human, actually. She's a wild

one, isn't she?''

Rahel was playing Cherise for all she was worth, and it broke my heart to see my friend so

scared, shaking, and crying. ''Please,'' she choked, ''I don't know who you think I am, but I'm

not-''

''You're a Dji

spear in his other hand, and he raised it, prepared to thrust it into her guts.

Lewis let out a low, almost inaudible moan.

Rahel flowed out of her disguise, dark and commanding and imperious, but still restrained by the

black ropes. Her eyes snapped violent yellow sparks as she struggled to get free. She subsided,

panting, dreadlocks wild around her hawk-sharp face.

''That's better,'' Bad Bob said. ''Do tell David that we'll be in touch, Jo. If he wants to stop me

from continuing to kill his people, he should consider giving himself up to us. Very soon.''

The Sentinels crowded around him. Bad Bob grabbed Rahel, and each of them touched the black

surface . . . and vanished. All of them together, Rahel included.

He'd taken her.

Kevin collapsed against one of the left-standing structural walls, gagging for breath. He looked

terrible. I must have looked a hell of a lot worse, because Lewis took one look at me, gestured,

and suddenly there were two Earth Wardens at my side, pouring warm, sticky power into me like

syrup.

I felt a rush of presence around me as I started to fall, and David's arms caught me and held me

close. ''Oh God,'' he whispered against my hair. ''Are you crazy? What were you trying to do?''

''Save you,'' I whispered back. ''Always.'' I wanted to tell him that everything was all right

here, too, in this warm, soft place I'd reached where nothing hurt. But I couldn't stay in that

place, even though it was so tempting to just give up and let shock take over.

Instead, I forced my legs to stiffen, and I pulled away from him. David let me go. He saw what

was in my face, and he let me go.

I walked toward Ortega. When Lewis tried to stop me, I shook him off. When he tried again, I hit

him with a lightning bolt. I was insane, but not quite that insane; I pulled the charge at the last

moment, feeding just enough through him to knock him back a step.

Ortega was dead. His eyes had gone black, burned and lifeless, and his skin was a dull, dusty

gray, as if he'd turned to stone. David joined me, standing close but not touching.

''It's not your fault,'' I told David. I could only imagine that he was thinking about ordering

Ortega to come here, because he'd known there was a chance. . . .

But that wasn't what he was thinking at all. David cocked his head slowly to one side, staring at

the dead Dji

Chapter Twelve

None of the Dji

whatever beach resort Ashan had decided to take his people to for the duration of the crisis. I

wasn't sure that Ve

changed just because Ashan thought it had. He might be her Conduit, but he'd never own her.

Ve

studying him closely. It was eerie, seeing that kind of detachment packaged in the body of a little

girl who almost radiated i

She and David were the only ones allowed near the body at all. The entire room had been

cordoned off in space-age-looking shielding, and all of the rest of us were being thoroughly

checked out by a radiation team. Not surprisingly, we'd all gotten a dose. ''Not that it's as

unusual as people think it is,'' said the Chatty Cathy in the hazmat suit who was drawing my

blood. ''The average American gets about three hundred fifty millirems a year, just from the

environment. Hey, want to know the weird part? Forty millirems of that comes out of our own

bodies. We're little fusion reactors, you know. Potassium-40 in the brain, Carbon-14 in the

liver.'' She was chatty because she was scared, though her hands were steady enough. She must

have realized it, because she sent me an apologetic glance through the plastic visor of her space

suit. ''Sorry. I jabber when I'm nervous. This is just-well. They don't exactly train you for this