David’s power was acting in self-defense, because I was now part of him. Flesh of his flesh.
I heard his breath rush out, and then he put one hand on the back of my neck and said, “Hold still. It’s coming out.”
I felt blood sheeting over my back, and heard the pirates scrambling backward to get away from the thing that was thrashing its way out of me.
I had enough control left to block the nerves before the pain got unbearable. I couldn’t see what was happening in the real world, but on the aetheric there was something that looked like a cross between a squid and a virus flailing its way out of my silver-shining body.
David fried it into grease and smoke on the deck beside me, and then burned it again.
The change was immediate, and dramatic. Calm flooded me, and confidence, and power—the power of the Djinn.
I directed it to my back, and sealed the ravaged muscles and torn skin—something not even Lewis could have done, as powerful as his talent for things like that was.
I’d just become something else. A bridge between the Wardens and the Djinn . . . and something of both at the same time.
And Bad Bob’s mark was gone.
I was free.
David picked me up and cradled me in his arms. I felt warm and relaxed, contented as a drowsy cat in the sun.
“It worked,” he said. He sounded surprised. “You were right.”
“Damn straight,” I said. “It’s why he wanted to stop us at the wedding. Bad Bob knew that once we exchanged vows, he wouldn’t be able to control me anymore.” I felt drunk on silver bubbles, and I laughed. “Free. We’re free of him.”
David captured my hands and kissed them.“Not quite yet,” he said. “He can’t control you. That doesn’t mean he’s helpless.” He pulled me back to my feet. My shirt was a disaster, so I tied the rags together in a makeshift halter top. Not so bad, really, all things considered.
Josue had prudently retreated as far as he could from us. Brett Jones was still standing there, looking focused despite the sight of an alien critter ripping out of my flesh.
I nodded to Josue. “Finish it.”
“Hell with you, crazy bitch!”
“Finish it!”
From all the way across the deck, he made the hasty sign of the cross. “Then I declare you married,” he said. “ Mazel tov.Kiss the bride before we do.”
He picked up a half-empty bottle of cheap rum, pulled out the cork, and swigged down a gulp, then passed it around. Our version of cheap champagne.
David pulled me into his arms, and what would have been a symbolic kiss turned deep, hot, and thoroughly suggestive. I helped with that part, thinking of nothing except the moment, the sensation of his body against mine.
We’d won. At the very least, we’d won my freedom from becoming Bad Bob’s slave.
Now I had to make sure that David didn’t suffer that fate, either.
We broke the kiss and clung together, panting. He was whispering things to me, quiet wonderful things. Promises.
And then he closed his eyes and said, “I don’t want to do this. Not this way.”
“I know,” I said, and kissed him again, gently. “But it’s important. Tactics and strategy, right?”
“Tactics and strategy.” He sounded resigned, not happy. “All right. I’m ready.”
I nodded over his shoulder to Brett, who unzipped a pocket on his tactical vest and pulled out a small glass bottle with a cork. A little more ornate than I was used to seeing—probably something they had in the stores on the cruise ship, although the cork would have been a new addition.
“I’ve got your agreement to do this, right?” Brett asked. He was asking David. After a long moment, David nodded. “Be thou bound to my service. Be thou bound to my service. Be thou bound—”
“Wait,” I blurted, and took both of David’s hands in mine. “If this is the last time I see you, I need you to hear this.”
He waited, amber eyes glowing like suns. I fumbled for words. “I—just—David, if something happens to me, if this doesn’t go right, you have to promise me, vowto me, that you will look out for humanity’s good, not just the Djinn’s. Don’t punish the Wardens if I die. Please.”
He knew why I was asking that. “Lewis tried to kill you,” he said. “He didkill you. Are you asking me to forgive him?”
“I’m not going to ask the impossible. I’m asking that you not take revenge for something that turned out not to work anyway, that’s all.”
There’s something very unsettling about a Djinn that doesn’t blink when he’s talking to you—even one you love with a deep, desperate intensity. “You areasking the impossible,” he said. “Lewis hurt you. He did it as part of a plan. I can’t allow that to go unanswered.”
“You have to,” I said. “Please. I need a vow.”
“You know that I can’t say no to you, don’t you?” He wasn’t smiling, though. “Yet this time, I have to. The answer is still no, Jo. He can no longer be trusted by the Djinn.”
That really wasn’t good. “But you’ll still work with him? With the Wardens?”
“To a point,” he said. I could tell he wasn’t going to be more specific about where the point was.
That was all I was going to get from him, even now, even at this most vulnerable moment.
I nodded to Brett, who repeated the binding phrase again—three times, just to be sure.
David’s hands misted out of mine as the binding took effect. I felt the hammering blow of it shatter the aetheric between us, and then he was exploding into mist, and the mist was sucked into the bottle in Brett’s hands. He corked it with calm efficiency, and I watched him put the bottle in a special padded case, and then into the pocket of his tactical vest.
“With your life,” I told him. “You know that, right?”
“Yes,” he said. It was a simple answer, and it left no room for doubt at all. He’d do it. I couldn’t ask for better than that.
I fried the ship’s engine with a burst of pure Earth power, fusing metal parts together, gunking up everything that looked remotely important. The Sparrowsputtered and began to drift, dead in the water.
Josue stopped looking afraid and started looking alarmed, then angry. “You do something to my ship?”
“Why, is something wrong with it?” I kept my expression as innocent as possible. That was probably what made him glower at me as if he’d like to take me apart but wasn’t sure it was safe to try. “My friends on the cruise ship will help you. Oh, and I wouldn’t try any other guns you might have stashed. Serious mistake on so many levels.”
He gave me his most dangerous look. In earlier days, I might have actually been intimidated by it. Today . . . not so much. “Worst day of my life, the day I fished you out of the ocean, mermaid.”
“Really? The sad thing is, it wasn’t the worst day of mine.” I stepped up on the railing at the vee of the bow, balancing on the balls of my feet. He backed away, watching me. Not quite certain of what I was doing. “Good luck.”
He crossed himself. “Go with God, so long as you go.” His sudden piety didn’t convince me he wouldn’t stab me in the back if he could get a clear throw when I turned around. I gave Josue one last look, and then I dived from the railing of the Sparrowinto the open ocean water, heading south.
Bad Bob wasn’t on an island, after all. Well, to be accurate, he wason an island—but the island was floating and he was moving it wherever he wanted.
Neat trick. First, most islands aren’t all that prone to float, since they’re really the tops of underwater mountains. This one was able to drift, withstand the full force of a Category 5 hurricane, andnavigate at will.
It also explained why he was so crazy hard to track down. I wasted time and frustration until I figured out that I was heading not for a specific spot in the ocean but a mobilespot. I found it as the sunrise spilled over the long, rocky key of the island, which was moving away from me at a fairly rapid speed. I had an embarrassment of choices for first impressions, but you’ve got to be kidding mewas certainly in the hunt for first place.