I’d also just gotten married, even if the minister hadn’t quite gotten around to saying the words before he’d fled to the hills, along with most of the others.
The Djinn snapped a glowing shield of power over us, brilliant as shimmering gold. It covered not just the two of us, but all of the Palms—hell, it went so far out that it might have been covering all of Florida. Whatever the Sentinels were doing, they quit doing it, fast, rightly recognizing that they had just been dealt a very serious blow. It would take them time to figure out exactly what had happened.
“Did you know?” I felt giddy, halfway to heaven. Endorphins kicking in. “Did you plan that?”
David grabbed me and kissed me, long and hard, with a good deal less restraint than most bridegrooms would have shown under similar circumstances. His hands roamed, stroking down the silk, crushing it to my hips, his fingertips brushing over the skin left exposed by the open V of the corset at my back.
“Absolutely,” he said, deadpan, when he pulled back.
“You had no idea.”
“I knew.”
“You liar. You guessed!”
He laughed and buried his face against my neck, picked me up, and whirled me around in the deserted gazebo. A storm wind lashed surf against the rocks, and a wild cascade of lightning slashed out of the sky and grounded spectacularly out at sea. It was the joy of the Djinn, made real.
David sobered, but the light stayed in him, burning fiercely. He kissed me again, this time more gently, with a promise of things to come, and I felt the curling smile on his lips. “I need to go,” he said. “Things to do.”
“Same here,” I said. “They’ll be looking for an explanation of what just happened.”
He stepped back, and his gaze raked me from head to toe, ravenous and warm. “Don’t change,” he said. “I’ll be back. I want to take that off you.”
I shivered, nodded, and watched my lover—no, I supposed I was going to have to get used to the idea of husband—mist away on the hot, humid breeze.
I couldn’t see any other Djinn, but there were plenty of hired security, all looking grim and efficient as they herded guests to cover. I had a whole contingent of them stationed near me, all facing outward. I reached up and tapped the nearest one on the shoulder. “Hey!”
“Ma’am?” He angled in my direction a huge ear that looked as though it had been badly mangled in some kind of sculpting accident, but didn’t turn to face me. “You ready to go?”
“Guess so. Looks like the wedding’s over!”
He snorted. “Right. Let’s get you to the safe zone!”
“Sure,” I said. I felt giddy. Almost invincible, actually, but even if bullets might bounce off me, I was pretty sure they wouldn’t do the dress any good. Priorities. “Hey, didn’t you notice all the cool stuff going on? Supernatural stuff all over the place?”
“Lady,” he said wearily, “I’ve guarded the Rolling Stones. Trust me, you guys are amateurs.”
When the phalanx of guards closed in around me, it was like being in a moving tank of body armor; I clutched the train of my dress well out of reach of their boots, and hustled along down the path, up the steps, and into the narrow hallways I’d come through before. No staff were smiling at me this time; they were probably busy toting up the damage charges. I hoped David’s black AmEx was up to the job.
My security detail arrowed me straight past Lewis and a group of Wardens all huddled together; I tried to bail out to talk to them, but clearly that wasn’t in the plans. No matter how loud I yelled, we continued moving straight for the elevators. The guards broke up there, facing outward in an arc while the guy in charge—Mr. Squishy Ear—took my elbow in one massive, scarred hand and escorted me firmly across the threshold and into one of the lifts. He punched in a key card, and away we went, just the two of us.
“Where’s Cherise? My maid of honor?” I asked.
“Cute little thing? ’Bout this high?” He marked off a height just above the waistband of his ripstop pants. “Blond?”
“That’s the one.”
“Yeah, she’s already upstairs. We got her out ASAP. She wasn’t any too happy about it. Said she wanted to see you kick some ass.” He sent me a sideways look that doubted my ass-kicking abilities. Sucker.
I smiled sweetly. “Not in these shoes. They’re rentals.”
The elevator lurched and came to a stop, and when my bodyguard came to alert, I held out a hand and launched myself up into the aetheric, searching for trouble. A Sentinel was in the woodwork, trying to short-circuit the brakes and snap the cable. Nice. I didn’t even have to act; the Wardens and the Djinn swarmed in a golden blur, smothering the unfortunate enemy combatant. I smiled serenely at the guard, who looked tense and prone to frowns, and leaned against the polished wood of the elevator wall. “So,” I said, as the lift trembled and started up again. “Rolling Stones, eh? Crazy?”
“Hard to believe, I know”—he shrugged—“but I gotta say, lady, in the crazy sweepstakes, you and your wedding are coming up fast.”
“I wouldn’t bet against us.”
The doors dinged at the penthouse level, and I strolled majestically out into the foyer. More bodyguards, equally grim and serious looking. I wasn’t asked for ID; apparently, the dress was a big tip-off.
I went into the suite, walked straight to the bar, and poured myself a stiff, two-fingered shot of tequila. No lime, no salt, none of the party trappings. This was about serious alcohol, delivered in its purest form at maximum impact. It was like getting slapped with an agave cactus; I gasped and bent over the bar, tingling all over.
“Wow,” Cherise said, watching me. “It’s like Brides Gone Wild. Impressive.”
I held out my arms, she ran into them, and we hugged. “Glad you’re okay,” she whispered. “I was so scared. . . .”
“I wasn’t,” Kevin said. He was stretched out on my nice beige jacquard sofa, ruining a perfectly good tuxedo and getting his nicely polished shoes all over the fabric. Unlike Lewis and David, he wasn’t improved by formal wear. He looked like a hoodlum who’d mugged a groomsman. “I was betting you’d be barbecued.”
“Asshole,” Cherise said. It sounded like she meant it for a change, and Kevin’s perpetual slouch straightened a little. “Her wedding just got blown all to hell. You could at least not be a total wad about it. For once.”
He sat up completely, brushed the hair out of his eyes, and looked a little less smug. “Sorry,” he said, and almost meant it. “I mean, I knew it was going to come out the way you wanted it to. You wanted to draw the Sentinels out; you did it. Most of them got obliterated, right?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “The plan was to force them out in the open so we could identify them. That seems to be working pretty well.”
“It wasn’t just the wedding,” Kevin said. “All the shiny pieces were here, right? Ashan? The Oracles?”
Yeah, as if I’d actually planned that part. “Sure. The better to get them to step out and show themselves. ”
“So you got him. The old guy.” He meant Bad Bob. I didn’t answer. I poured another shot glass of tequila and downed it.
“You might want to leave,” I said. “Because this isn’t over.”
Both Kevin and Cherise looked taken aback, looking around at the calm, orderly luxury of the penthouse. Out at sea, the storms were dissipating; there was still tension in the tectonic plates, but it was being bled off in harmless ways by the Earth Wardens. The Ma’at were all over the whole balancing problem. It all looked . . . calm.
“Leave,” I said, even more softly. I poured two shot glasses and put the bottle aside. “Go now.”
Kevin grabbed Cherise’s hand and dragged her, still protesting, toward the door. I didn’t raise my head to watch them go. I stayed focused on the silvery glitter of the alcohol in crystal, and when I heard the door click shut, I said, “You might as well show yourself. I know you’re here.” I could feel his presence now. I couldn’t believe how it felt—how cold, how empty.