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She wasn't laughing now, or smiling, either. Whatever I'd expected to see in those hot yellow eyes, it wasn't compassion. "The thing about being alone?" she said softly. "So many choices. So many possibilities."
"Yeah, I'm fucking blessed. Want to drop me a clue about what to do next?"
She shrugged. "Whatever I tell you, you will not do it. Why should I burden you with advice for you to doubt and pick at like an unhealed sore?"
"Well, that's pretty."
She leaned back, put one foot up on the dashboard, and examined her neon-yellow toenails, which were displayed to advantage by a lovely pair of designer sandals in—of course—neon yellow. "I'm no one's Dji
"You're like David." Saying his name hurt, and hurt, and hurt, turning a razor blade in the marrow of my bones.
She shot me a narrow, amused look, and her black cornrows rustled over her shoulders as she shook her head. "Nothing like David, in fact. Nor do we share lineage."
"You both belonged to Lewis, and you're still trying to protect him, wherever he is."
She shook her head and sighed. She stroked her fingernails over her long, shapely toes, and where they touched, silver rings took form and glittered.
She examined the effect critically, cocking her head to one side. "You understand nothing. It amazes me, still. Lewis did not free David. You did."
I did? No way. No…
My heart thumped hard and stuttered.
Oh, God.
I had been on my knees in Bad Bob's house, fighting for my life…. I had taken hold of an ancient wine bottle… and I'd smashed it into pieces.
Bad Bob's wine bottle.
Bad Bob's Dji
When we were fighting at the hotel, David had said, I've tried to help you, I've tried to make up for… for holding me down at Bob's order. For ripping away my defenses and putting the Demon Mark inside me, a kind of rape that could never heal, could never stop.
That was why he'd shadowed me. Why he'd stayed with me. Why he'd dared me, begged me, and nearly forced me to allow him to take the Mark.
Because he'd done this thing to me in the first place.
I'd been waiting for him to betray me all this time, and the truth was, he'd done it from the very first second. He'd lied to me, kept lying, was still lying about it.
I swallowed a mouthful of acid and bitter truth. "So he sent you in his place."
She sniffed. "Hardly. I have other… responsibilities."
"Tell me, was I ever even close? Lewis's Dji
"The Dji
She stared hard at her toenails, then out at the road unrolling in the headlights. Sunset was leaving the west, leaving a gorgeous trailing band of royal blue edged with early night, sprinkled with new stars. Somewhere the storm was looking for me, and I knew it would find me, if the others didn't find me first.
"So if he didn't lie to me, Lewis did come to Oklahoma."
"Yes. As I told you."
"So where is he now? And why isn't he helping me?"
She sighed, put-upon, just like the human being she almost resembled. "Fool. You have everything at hand, and still you don't read the signs. Star has used the book before, yes? To claim a Dji
I realized, with a hot jolt, that Star had been baiting me, trying to see if I knew where Lewis was, and if I'd come to help him stop her.
"Then where is he?" I asked. Rahel shook her head.
"You already know."
And I did. Nothing else made sense. "Star. Star has Lewis."
Rahel beamed at me as if I'd finally taken my first toddling steps. "See? You're not such a fool after all."
FIVE
Extremely violent weather is expected in and around the Oklahoma City area for the next few hours, with hail and tornadoes possible. In the event of a tornado emergency, take cover immediately.
Star had Lewis. As in, had Lewis prisoner.
The words "well and truly screwed" skipped through my mind, strewing flowers in their path.
"Can you grant wishes?" I asked Rahel bluntly. She looked faintly insulted. "Well? Can you?"
"Please. Don't be ridiculous."
"Ritual third. Can you?"
She smiled thinly. "Can I what?"
"Grant wishes."
"Thank you for playing, but you must put it in the form of a—"
"Question, I know. Skip the rules and just tell me, okay? I'm not getting any less demonic here."
That zapped the fun out of her. "If I wished."
"Well, I wish you would all just stop screwing with me!" I put all my frustration and anger and terror into the scream, and even Rahel looked disturbed. She took her foot off the dashboard and sat up straight, staring at me. "Look, I've done nothing, okay? I got screwed by Bad Bob—" And David, oh, God." — and by you and by Star and now you're telling me the one man I was counting on to save my ass is in bigger trouble than I am. Please. Kill me now."
"Stop the car," she said.
"It's not a car. It's an SUV." I had a bad thought. "That 'Kill me now, that was metaphorical…."
Her turn to bellow, and believe me, the bellow of a Dji
I swerved off the freeway. Luckily, there was an off-ramp about twenty feet ahead to the two-way service road; I bumped over hillocks and got tires back on tarmac, and exited with something like control.
"What the hell?" I asked. Rahel was looking behind us. There was a reddish glow gathering back there.
"Out," Rahel ordered.
"Out's not such a good idea. Driving is a good idea—"
"Get out!" This was a yell, not an order, and before I could even think about responding, she was out of the car, yanking the driver's-side door open. She dragged me over center console and leather seat and out onto gravel, and she kept dragging me, faster than I could get my feet moving. When she paused for a fraction of a second, I tried to get my balance, but then I was weightless, flying, and I had no idea how I could do that in the real world, but there were things moving so fast and a huge pressure at my back…
… and then I was down, flat on the ground, tasting blood and feeling numb. I rolled over and saw the fireball belching orange and black into the sky, and for a blank second, I didn't even co
Rahel was standing, untouched, a few feet away, staring at the inferno. Dji
Something was forming out of the wreckage of the fire and smoke. Something—
Something bad.
She turned her head, and her eyes were enormous, full of power and fury, the color of boiling gold. In an eerily practical voice, she said, "You need to run now."
"What is it?" I scrambled up without much regard for bruises and cuts. Her face was calm and set.