Heat Stroke(72)

“So you come here and warn me?” She was regaining her composure. “Not likely.”

“I’m not all that eager to be Kevin’s little love slave, either,” I said. Everything I was saying had the ring of truth, because, well, it was. “I’m here to offer you a deal.”

She blinked. Deals were made from positions of power. We both knew I didn’t have any. “Don’t be ridiculous. You were entertaining for a few seconds, but you’re getting boring. I hurt things that bore me.”

When I smiled, I borrowed a trick from Rahel. Shark teeth. The flinch was well worth the discomfort. “There’s something you want more than David,” I said. I was guessing, of course, but with someone like her there was always something else. Toys got old the instant she had them in her hands, and besides, she’d had David before. No thrill of corruption there. “I can give it to you.”

She actually froze for a few seconds, considering me, and I saw the hot light of greed flicker in those green eyes. “And what exactly would that be?”

I shrugged. “You know well enough.” Ah, the Djinn talent for misdirection. Still serving me well, thank God. “If you want to waste me on a fool like your stepson, that’s your right. But think how much more you could accomplish, if you had me.”

She didn’t know. To her mind, I was already assuming legendary powers and proportions… a human reborn as a Djinn. She couldn’t have any idea of how much of a handicap that was. In fact, she probably thought that was what I was offering her. Life as a Djinn.

Over my dead body. Spirit. Whatever.

“Not very loyal to him, are you?” she asked. “Why should I think you’d be any more loyal to me?”

I shrugged. “The kid’s weak. You know that.” So was she, in a totally different way. Weak and greedy and sick. “You want to use David as some kind of cheap toy, that’s your prerogative. I just thought you should expand your horizons a little. The world’s a little wider than your bedroom.”

“You think I’m not ambitious?”

I didn’t have to fake the cynical smile. People like her were always ambitious.

“You made a mistake,” I said. “You could have had Lewis on your side. Now you’ve made a bad enemy. You’re going to need help to stay alive once he gets back on his feet.”

“Lewis?” she asked blankly, and let go of David. She’d completely forgotten about him.

“Lewis Levander Orwell? Yeah. That guy. The one you were rubbing like a magic charm to get your hands on me. You traded down, honey. Having Lewis would have been quite a feather in your cap. Talk about advancement… Only now, of course, you’re just the bimbo who bashed his head in, not the one who brought him back to the Wardens.”

That shook her. She’d had victory in her hands and walked away, and that had to hurt.

“You’re a lying, treacherous bitch,” she said, low in her throat, and wrapped her hand around David’s bare arm. “You really think you’re going to make a deal with me? I don’t deal with the likes of you. Ever. You serve me, or you suffer. Your choice.”

Kevin’s instructions to kill her were starting to look really, really tempting. Maybe if I just hurt her a lot… no, I’d seen the look on her face as David threw her down to the floor. She’d probably think it was foreplay.

“Serve me or suffer.”

“Already got a boss,” I said, and spread my hands. “Such as he is.”

She didn’t like being denied. “Take her,” she said, and released her hold on David.

He lunged for me, and God, he was strong. I yelped and tried to break free but his hands were crushing my arms, holding me still, shoving me back against that wall that, in Oversight, still dripped psychic blood. I wanted to mist away, but Kevin’s command earlier effectively prevented that. Trapped. Blue sparks zipped and swirled around me, thicker now, thick as a bag of glitter dropped from the ceiling. I blinked to clear my eyes. The things were swarming over David, too, clustering on his skin.

“David!” I whispered. Nothing sparked in the dark, dead eyes. I wondered what she’d told him to do to me. Wondered if it was anything I’d be able to stop. The things that had happened in this room… they crowded like phantoms, brushing at the edges of awareness, given strength by my fear and David’s aggression. I could almost see some of them, and just the hints made me feel weak and ill. What had David told me? She and Bad Bob had tastes in common.

Like Kevin, he’d been made to do things, probably here in this room. Things I couldn’t begin to understand, even with the ugly hints I’d already been given.