Gale Force

Walls roared, cracked, and shattered. The floor rippled like liquid, then, the carpet shredding, it

broke into jagged fragments. Dust became a mist, then a storm.

The roof joists snapped, and the entire thing inverted into a V, crashing toward us.

Bad Bob never stopped gri

single mighty pull, and vanished.

I dropped like a discarded puppet, rolled into a ball, and felt the first heavy piece of debris hit

me. It was the wing chair, tipping on top of me. I curled underneath it for protection and

screamed as the entire house came down in a rush of smoke, sparks, and crushing chaos.

The chair might as well have been made of plastic.

Breathe.

I couldn't. Something was on my chest. I couldn't get enough room to allow my lungs to expand.

My diaphragm fluttered, trying vainly to pull in air. I choked and tried to reach for power, but it

felt slippery, greasy, elusive. All my strength was gone.

You have to stay calm. Master your panic.

I had a house on top of me. Not that easy to stay calm.

You're alive.

And dying fast.

David-

I heard the distant groan of wood being moved. Rising noise, scrapes, the tortured scream of

metal.

Can't breathe. I concentrated on putting my body into a state of meditation, to minimize oxygen

burn. Slow and steady, wait, wait . . .

Something shifted, and I felt a piece of debris as heavy as the fist of God slam down on my

lower chest. Ribs snapped in hot little starry snaps. I heard myself whimper, and then the weight

shifted again, vanishing in a cloud of dust, and the pressure against me was gone.

''Oh Christ,'' someone said. It sounded like Lewis. I tried to open my eyes, but it was too much

of an effort. ''We're losing her.''

A warm hand was under my head, cradling it. I felt a strangely comforting sense of cold creeping

through my limbs, tu

to fight the chill, but the chill was stronger. Harder. More determined.

''No.'' It was David's voice, choked and despairing. ''No, no. Jo, hold on-''

I pulled in a delicious breath and let it out, one last time. I wished I could open my eyes and see

him, but in my mind I saw him as he'd been at the wedding, alight and golden and perfect.

I hadn't wanted to hurt him this way.

It didn't hurt at all, slipping away on a tide of darkness. It felt . . . peaceful. Hello again, I said to

death. I was resigned, if not ready.

And then I was caught by a sharp, red-hot hook. The tide tried to pull me, but the hook-burning

through my body, back to front, on my right shoulder blade-held fast. Heat flared and blazed-

not the gentle healing of Earth power, something else. Something wild and dark and harsh,

burning black in every nerve.

The next breath I took I let out in a raw, thin scream. I opened my eyes, and saw Lewis leaning

over me, and David, and Marion Bearheart. Kevin was standing in the background, looking

helpless and oddly vulnerable. Dozens of others were behind him. The sky ripped open with

lightning, and rain began to fall in a cold silver curtain.

I laughed. My body put itself back together in hot, agonizing snaps and jerks, every nerve

carrying every second of the pain to my brain.

And the pain felt so good.

Lewis let go of me, staring in bafflement that was turning fast to grim horror.

David didn't move, but I saw the same thing in his face-the same revulsion and sickness.

''You think I'd let her go that easy?'' It was Bad Bob's voice, but coming raw from my own

throat. ''You think I'd let any of you go that easy? She's the future, boys. My future.''

The laughter that exploded out of me was like a black, nauseating cloud, and this time even

David flinched away from it. I rolled up to my hands and knees, covered in fine dust like flour

where I wasn't streaked in blood.

Alive. Whole. Even the radiation sickness had been flushed out of me.

The torch on my back burned, burned so hot. . . .

''So who's the bad guy now?'' I taunted. He taunted.

There wasn't any difference now.

I turned my face up to the rain, and laughed, and for the first time, I understood why he was as

he was, what about this was so intoxicating. No ties. No worries. No burdens. Just power, as pure

as it came. People didn't matter. All that mattered was wi

I didn't care about David, or Lewis, or any miserable little collection of cells walking the planet.

They were all just meat and fuel for the engine.

And it was so . . . beautiful.

Then Bad Bob let me go, once he'd shown me the world as he saw it, a landscape where flesh

and blood were as meaningless and desolate as sand and rock. I felt the fire gutter and die on my

back, and my whole body jerked and folded in on itself.

Mourning for what I'd just lost.

I felt tears burning in my eyes and knew that the worst thing of all this was that I couldn't be sure

anymore that if he offered me the choice to feel that again, of my own free will, that I wouldn't

take it.

So who's the bad guy now?

The circle of people around me waited tensely. I lifted my face again, and said, ''He's gone.''

My words were almost lost in a blast of wind flying in from the ocean, blowing dust and debris

and tattered palm leaves into the air. ''I have to go after him.''

The Wardens shifted, looking at each other, at Lewis. He slowly shook his head. ''We're not

doing that,'' he said. ''Christ, Jo. What just happened to you?''

David knew. He reached around and pulled the back of my shirt down, and I saw Lewis's face

turn a sick shade of white. ''Oh God,'' he said. ''We need to get it off you.''

''I don't think laser removal is going to cut it,'' I said. I felt hollow, cored out. Beyond anything

but gallows humor. ''It's deep. I don't know how to shut him out.''

''Then you can't go,'' Lewis said. ''We need to keep you safe. If he can use you-''

''He can use me here. Against you. I need to-I need to finish this.'' I swallowed hard. ''He's

still got a Dji

next time he puts the Unmaking into the Earth, do you really think any of us is going to survive

it?''

I turned and looked at the night sky. Impossible to see how much damage had been done, but I

saw fires, heard sirens in the distance.

''I can block him,'' David said. ''If you'll let me. But it will hurt.''

He hadn't said a word about being bound, about my almost killing him in the beach house; I

supposed there would be plenty of time for that later. But for now, I nodded.

David put his hand flat against my bare skin on my back, and I felt power surge up from beneath

me, racing through my body, concentrating in a red-hot ball around the torch tattoo. Burning. I

trembled and felt David's other hand close around mine, sending me strength and support.

''I'm here,'' he whispered. ''I'm here, my love.''

I stood it for as long as I could, and then turned with a cry and threw myself into his arms. The

white-hot pain in my back faded slowly, but it didn't go away. I couldn't see what he'd done, but

it felt as if the mark had been overlaid by something else. Contained.

Masked.

''It won't last,'' David said, and stroked my hair. ''I'll have to renew the block when it

weakens.''

Joy. ''How often?''

''That depends on how hard he's trying to reach you.'' His arms tightened around me. ''I'm so

sorry.''

That covered . . . everything. For now. I took a deep breath and stepped back, smiling despite the