by Rachel Caine
Joanne finished the rest of her water. I hoped she wouldn't make herself ill with it; she'd drained it too quickly. I wasn't so concerned for her as I was for my own fastidiousness; human bodily functions, including vomiting, were still very distasteful to me. "Who else is coming our way?" she asked.
"Not sure. Cops, fire, every federal agency still operating? Maybe the military. This wasn't some small-time target, you know. It's going to get a lot of attention, as much as circumstances allow."
"So I suppose we should...?"
"Seal up the tunnel, contain the radiation, and get the hell out of Dodge? Yeah. That'd be a good plan." Luis--who also had finished his water too quickly--tossed his empty plastic bottle down into the tunnel, where it rolled into darkness.
"Bad recycler," Joanne said, but tossed her empty in as well.
"Jo, you brought down the whole fucking complex and cracked open a few nukes. I don't think a couple of biodegradable water bottles really count at this point."
He rose to his feet, and I rose with him, as if we'd been pulled by the same string. Our hands fit together as if it was the most natural thing in the world, and for a moment I remembered David cradling Joanne in his arms, and smiled. There were partnerships, and partnerships, and what I felt for Luis....
It was not the time to analyze what I felt, and I shook my head to clear it as Luis began to call power.
Collapsing a tunnel was far, far easier than building one, or keeping it open; a little application of force, and the smooth, even structure began to come apart... in streams of dirt at first, and then, as the surface tension holding the earth together broke, an avalanche of soil and rock. Luis pressed down on the wrecked room where we'd found Joanne, and the last remaining roof supports collapsed, burying it in a roaring thump.
Dust erupted out of the mouth of the tunnel, gray and cloudy, turning darker as the collapse raced up toward us.
Then the entire pit sank down another ten feet, and silence fell.
"If we had time, I'd recommend covering this whole place in concrete," he said. "The radiation's contained, and I accelerated the decay, but it's going to take a while to cool off.... Damn--here they come." Luis turned slightly toward the horizon, and I heard the far-off wail of sirens. "Right. Time to go. Who needs a ride?"
Joanne--who'd taken my last bottle of water and somewhat wastefully used it to rinse herself relatively clean--shook her head. She was busy plucking the bottles out of the padded case where I'd put them, and wrapping them in a dense wad of material, which she then stuffed into my nearly empty backpack and handed to me. "You're the official keeper of the Djinn. Try not to fall on that," she said. "That would be bad."
I took the pack and adjusted the straps on my shoulders to let it ride comfortably. "What was wrong with the box?"
"One thing about carrying boxes--you tend to drop them in a fight," she said. "Wearing them is a much better option." She studied me for a few seconds. "You don't look happy about it."
I hated that she'd made me responsible for my tethered, imprisoned brothers and sisters, hated it, but I couldn't articulate the reasons. Nor would I, to her. "We need to go. The Djinn will be back on us soon, and we don't need more entanglements with humans." I knew, better than she did, that the rest of the Djinn would make us a priority now--we weren't merely annoying Wardens to be squashed; we were annoying Wardens with prisoners who knew that the accords between Djinn and Wardens were back in place and that it was possible to enslave the Djinn again. That was knowledge they would very much want to destroy at its source before the rest of the Wardens began to try to act on it.
Joanne was asking where we wanted to go. Luis said, "It's all pretty much apocalyptic at this point, so take your pick. I'd suggest heading to Sedona. That's where Orwell was taking the rest of the Wardens, if they didn't get held up on the way. It's a fairly good, protected place."
We headed for the vehicles, and Luis stopped dead as he stared at his truck. "Damn," he said, and kicked the front tire. It was sitting in mud--mud that stank of oils and mechanical fluids. "I must have busted a line. This thing ain't going anywhere." He could fix it, given time; Earth wardens were gifted at that kind of repair, but the sirens were keening close now.
"Then you're with me," I said, and pulled him with me toward the motorcycle. He let loose a string of Spanish obscenities under his breath.
"I ain't riding bitch," he said.
"Then you're walking," I said, "because it's my bike." I was not concerned for his macho sensibilities, and after a furious look at the now-visible flashing lights on the horizon, he climbed on behind me. I smiled--since he couldn't see the flash of teeth now--and gunned the Harley in a sand-spouting roar.
Joanne and David had their own transportation, a solid-looking car that seemed capable of good speed when required. Oddly, there was already someone in the car that was parked a short distance away, covered with the inevitable blurring curtain of dust... and that was the car that Joanne and David entered, in the backseat. No sooner did the door close behind them than the car spun tires and headed for the road. "Who's driving the car?" I asked Luis. He shrugged.
"Knowing her? Satan."
I let out the clutch and followed. A few moments later, power shimmered the air, and I felt something passing over us like a hot gust of wind. "Veil!" Luis shouted in my ear. "We're hidden, so don't expect anybody to get out of the way for you from now on!"
I gunned the engine and passed the Mustang, slowing down to take a look at the driver, purely out of personal curiosity. He was a Djinn--or at least, that was my first and vivid impression, but then I had to wonder, because there was something not quite... right. The form of a Djinn, but when I checked in Oversight I saw no sign of a Djinn presence inhabiting that form. It was like a lifeless robot--the kind of hollowed-out shell that Mother Earth was using to deliver her plagues, but this one showed no such signs of infection.
Merely... emptiness.
As I was staring, the creature turned its head and met my gaze. Not vacant, after all. It was definitely being--piloted, I supposed, was the only word for it.
The Djinn's lips moved, and I shouldn't have been able to hear the words, but they came through clearly. "Don't you worry about it," said a clear, Southern-accented feminine voice. "He's not connected to the Mother. He's connected to me."
"And who are you?"
"Whitney," she said. "Djinn conduit for the younger side of the family. Pleased to meet you, Cassiel. I've heard all about you."
I'd heard little to nothing of her, but there wasn't time for chat. I just nodded, accelerated, and pulled smoothly into the lead.
We stood to make good time, I thought. It would not be too comfortable for Luis on the backseat of the bike, but he had a high padded back support, at least. He wasn't holding on to me, because that would have put his face in range of my loose, whipping hair, and the backpack I wore prevented closer contact in any case; it would be tiring for him to keep adjusting his balance and keep his alertness up for any emergencies.
As for me, I knew I'd enjoy the ride, no matter how dangerous it might become.
I checked the gas. We had an almost full tank; the Mustang that Joanne and David used would burn through fuel much faster; but then again, with a Djinn driver they wouldn't need to stop to refuel. Neither do I, I realized with a start. While as a Warden I could extend the life of the fuel, I couldn't necessarily create it... but a Djinn could, and I now had one uncorked, and ready for my call.
Rahel wouldn't be at all pleased with being put on such mundane duties, but that was hardly my concern now; I'd be dealing with the revenge of my fellows for a human lifetime, if I didn't manage to recapture my Djinn status... or, of course, for much longer, if I did. Now didn't seem to be the time to worry about it.
We negotiated roadblocks, both police and military, several times as sunset blazed red and faded to purple, then blue, then black. The desert night was chilly as we raced onward, following the Mustang... which seemed to be head
ing in the right direction, at least. The vibration of the engine beneath me soothed and invigorated me, although Luis seemed to doze behind me as he rested his head against the padding of my backpack.
Just when I'd begun to feel complacent, Rahel appeared in front of me, cross-legged, her back to the road. Floating mid-air, easily keeping pace three feet from the front tire of the Harley as it bit the asphalt in a blur. She was wearing a particularly objectionable color of lime green, something that made me think of the radiation we'd left behind us and cleared off our persons and equipment. Perhaps it had all been drawn to her clothing.
"Sistah," she said. "Or should I call you mistress, Cassiel?"
"As you like," I said. I didn't raise my voice; I could whisper and she'd have no difficulty hearing me, despite the engine noise and wind. "You do enjoy showing off, don't you?"
"Utterly," Rahel said, and laughed. "You should try it sometime. Being Djinn doesn't mean you have to lack a sense of drama. Or humor." The wind blew her thin braids into a clacking, twisting, eerily snakelike mass around her head, and in perhaps conscious mockery of popular culture's idea of a proper Djinn, she'd crossed her arms. I half expected her to give a nod and a wink, but the sharp amusement in her smile faded, leaving something more serious. "I have a message for you."
"From whom?"
"From your big, bad boss man," she said. "Ashan. He's still a bastard."
"Why would he speak to you?" I didn't mean it in a dismissive way, but it sounded so as I spoke it; I meant only that Ashan was a True Djinn, a conduit, and the True Djinn had little interest in, or interaction with, the New Djinn unless forced. The idea that he would seek out Rahel, speak to her, seemed... highly unusual.
"Perhaps because with the end of us all imminent, our family squabbles mean little these days," Rahel said coolly. "It cost him a great deal to regain enough control, even for a moment, to summon me and speak. You might at least have the courtesy to listen to what he felt was so important."
I nodded stiffly. It wasn't that I was unwilling to hear her, more that I was dreading what the words would be--and the trouble that they'd bring with them.
I expected her to simply recite the message, but as Rahel had pointed out, she did not lack a sense of drama. Her eyes flashed through with a sudden gleam of color... a faded teal blue, then a moonlit steel. Ashan's colors. And Ashan's voice issuing from her mouth, in an eerie puppetry. "The time is coming for you, Cassiel," he said, and that was Ashan, looking out from the shell of Rahel's form. Ashan's cold, certain voice, speaking to me from beyond time, from another place altogether. "Your little vacation from duty is almost over. Face your fears now. Face yourself. See what I know to be true about you... that you are not one of them, and never will be. If you value the continued existence of the Djinn, you will act. Soon. Unless you've grown too weak with your love of humanity."
He smiled, and it was not a pleasant expression, or a kind one. It woke rage in me, and fear, and a desire to throttle him blue, not that in his case it would make much impression on him at all.
And then, with just as much speed as he'd appeared, Ashan was gone, and Rahel was back in her own form, cocking an eyebrow at my expression. "I see you didn't care for what he had to say," she said. "How surprising. And you're usually so good-natured."
"Silence," I snapped. "Go do something useful."
"Not unless you have a highly specific order for me." She stretched herself out sinuously on thin air, propped up on one elbow, and yawned, showing pointed catlike teeth. Her eyes slitted vertically, and the pupils glowed an unnatural green in the Harley's headlights. Her skin had a warm matte glow to it, and in her own way she was as beautiful as anything I'd ever seen.
I wanted to rip her to pieces, and she knew it, and it amused her deeply. Anything I ordered her to do, she'd pick it apart, pull it to pieces, bend it all out of meaning and to her own benefit--and she'd waste my time, endlessly, in definitions.
"Please yourself, then," I said, and gritted my teeth as she rolled over to float on her back.
Then she began to sing obnoxiously cheerful popular songs to the burning stars and rising, orange-stained moon.
It was a very long ride.
Chapter 11
DAWN WAS STILL A HINT on the horizon when we began to pass signs that led not to Sedona, but Las Vegas; a course correction that mattered little to me, since there were also Wardens in that city, and people to defend from attacks. It surprised me that the Djinn had failed to discover us during the night, until Luis woke up with a raw, startled cry and surprised me into a wobble that I quickly got back under control. Losing control of a motorcycle at this speed was a very poor idea.
Rahel had stopped singing some time back, and vanished. I hadn't thought much of it, except that her boredom had finally outweighed my torment, but now Luis leaned forward and said in a raw voice, "The Fire Oracle's been turned loose. He's burning cities. I saw it. I can feel it."
He said it quickly, but with utter certainty, and I twisted to look over my shoulder. His face was set, his eyes shadowed, and I had no doubt he meant what he'd just said. "How is that possible?" I asked. "Oracles don't leave their positions, except the Air Oracle, who isn't confined...."
"I'm telling you that he's walking, and burning. The destruction--" Luis looked ill and shaken. "I saw it. I was dreaming, but it was real. I know it was real. I saw--people--Cass, it's happening. It's really happening. She's going to kill us all."
He'd known that from the beginning, but something--some instinct for self-preservation and sanity--had withheld that knowledge from him on a gut level. Now he knew, with all the certainty that I'd always carried.
There were tears in his eyes, I could see them in the reflected light of the dashboard in front of me. "We're not going to win," he said. "We can't win, Cassie. We can fight all we want, but--"
I don't know if he would have gone on, or could have, but there was a sound from the Mustang behind us--a harsh metallic grinding sound as its engine seized and suddenly died. We were topping a hill, and below us the city of Las Vegas shimmered in a sea of light. The area seemed eerily normal, oddly quiet. I wondered if people were still gambling in the casinos. It seemed likely. People sought comfort in the oddest things.
I let off the throttle to fall back to the now-coasting car... and then the same thing happened to the bike's motor. A rattle, a cough, and then nothing.
I coasted it to a stop at the side of the road.
"Tell me we ran out of gas," Luis said.
"No," I replied. "It's not a mechanical problem. Get ready. Something's coming for us."
We had just gotten off the motorcycle when the Mustang's doors opened, and Joanne and David joined us; the Djinn in the driver's seat didn't move. He simply sat like a lifeless mannequin--as I supposed he was, unless Whitney decided it was necessary to move him. Each of them had canvas bags in the backseat of the car; Joanne dragged hers out and unzipped it. She pulled out a shotgun, loaded it with neat efficiency, and tossed it toward David, who fielded it effortlessly.
"I didn't think you needed weapons," I said to him. He looked up and gave me a fleeting smile.
"That depends on what's coming," he said. "And I never turn down an advantage. Not these days."
Joanne was loading the semiautomatic pistol when I felt something stirring around us, a surge of Earth power that made me draw in a sharp breath of warning--but it was already too late.
Joanne must have had an instant's warning, because she fell backward as a truly enormous eagle dropped out of the darkness overhead and extended its claws to rake her face. Light blazed out from a lantern that appeared in David's hand, and I saw the eagle beat its wings and correct it course to strike at her again. She rolled out of the way. David tracked it with the shotgun, but didn't fire.
I stepped in, focused all my attention, all of Luis's tethered power, on the eagle, and called it to me. It was a wild creature, and there was no malice in it, only fear and hunger twisted by the will of anoth
er out there in the darkness. It did not deserve to be used this way; the bird was a thing of terrible beauty, and I would not have it hurt.
It glided toward me, but at the last moment the power out there in the desert ripped at its mind, forced it to see me as a dangerous enemy, and the eagle shrieked out its rage and aborted its landing to rake claws across my chest. It caught leather instead of flesh, and sliced it cleanly apart as it wheeled and fled...
... Toward a sky full of hunting birds, all coming together in an unnatural mixed-breed flock to circle overhead.
Luis turned his attention not up, but out. "We've got more trouble," he said.
"More birds?" Joanne asked as she climbed to her feet and dusted herself off. "Jesus, I used to like them."
I shook my head. "Not just birds. What's coming is far more than that. They will catch us. We have to run now. No time for the vehicles."
Joanne raised the pistol she'd held on to. "We're armed."
