suppose, your Djinn pouring poison down her throat the way I did it to you in the first place.
Never been much for poetry, myself.'' He stretched out a hand. The bottle of tequila left the bar
and arrowed across the room to smack into his palm. He swallowed one mouthful, then two, and
licked his lips. ''Down to us, isn't it?''
''Is it?'' I cocked my head and smiled back at him, trying to be as winter cold as he. ''So what're
you going to do, Bob? The Djinn have twice the power they did an hour ago, and none of the
restraints they used to have. You can't command them. You can't trick them. And you damn sure
can't scare them anymore. The Wardens know you now, and the ones who thought the idea of
the Sentinels made sense are learning better, fast. You can't threaten to go public. What's left?''
''Same thing that's always left, girly-girl.'' He shrugged. ''Death, horror, destruction. No matter
how good you are, you can't stop it all. I'll push you until you break, you, the Wardens, the
Djinn. Until you make a mistake and I come for you.''
''You don't think coming here was a mistake?'' I asked. '' 'Cause I have to admit, ballsy. Not
real smart, but ballsy.''
''Oh, I'll be gone well before help arrives,'' he said. ''Might surprise you, but I can do the Djinn
thing now-blip around through the aetheric. Handy when you want to visit old, suspicious
friends.''
I felt the atmosphere shift, slide toward the darker spectrums. ''Okay. Nice to see you, Bob.
Now, fuck off.''
''I always did love your sharp tongue,'' he said. ''I'm not going to fight you today. Be a shame
to destroy that dress.'' The bastard winked at me. ''No, I'll just go home, play with my new
friends. You know them, I'll bet: Rahel, that rascal, pretending to be all soft and human like that.
Oh, and my new friend. Someone very special.''
He reached into the shadows, and he pulled out my daughter.
Imara stumbled and fell to her knees, the brick-red dress she normally wore now fluttering and
writhing around her. He'd bound her up with black ropes of twisting, glittering power, and where
they touched her, they burned. No, I thought numbly. Impossible. She was safe; she was taken
back to the chapel; Ashan was guarding her. . . .
''Ashan never did like this one,'' he said. ''Figures on appointing a new Earth Oracle in short
order. Nice friends you have. Maybe you ought to reconsider which side of this you're on, girl;
what do you think?''
I lunged for Imara and slammed into a barrier, one that blew me back across the room to slam
full force into the glass tiles of the bar. I saw stars and darkness, and sank to an awkward sitting
position on the floor, surrounded by fallen shards of mirror.
''Oh, don't fuss. She's not really here. Just thought I'd give you fair warning, because it's going
to hurt you a whole lot worse than it hurts me when I do get around to taking your kid.''
''Stop,'' I said. I felt light-headed, sick, hot. I no longer felt in the least invulnerable. ''What do
you want?''
''I want to make a deal,'' Bad Bob said. ''Your daughter's life for David's. Fair trade.''
''No.'' I snarled it. ''You don't even have her, you bastard; you already said so!''
''I said I don't have her now. Not that I wouldn't have her by the time your little rescue party
fails to take me out. Sorry, kid,'' he said to Imara's image. ''Mommy doesn't love you all that
well, looks like. Too bad, you're a cutie.''
He showed me what he was going to do to her, to my child, and I didn't look away. I wanted to,
desperately, but something in me that was far colder, far wiser than my heart made me stay
strong.
''When I'm finished,'' he said, in a whisper as black as the Unmaking itself, ''then I'll reach
through her to destroy you. But not before. I want you to feel every moment of it, Joanne. Every
. . . single . . . moment.''
The Wardens and the Djinn had finally arrived, no doubt summoned by Kevin and Cherise. I felt
the flare of power outside the doors; they were out there, but Bad Bob was keeping them shut
out. He could do that. He had power to burn . . . but he wasn't doing it alone. I recognized the
signature behind it.
Ashan. Ashan was still interfering, throwing up barriers, trying to get me killed. He'd consider
his problems solved, if I just disappeared from the face of the earth. After all, the vows David
and I had exchanged had elevated the New Djinn in power-made them, I suspected, a match for
the Old Djinn. Maybe even more than a match.
''You don't have my daughter, and you're not going to have her,'' I said, with an icy calm that I
was far from feeling. ''The Djinn would be all over you right now if you'd harmed a hair on an
Oracle's head. You're a fool if you think anything else-and that includes Ashan, by the way.
He might be using you, but he'll never stand with you.''
Bad Bob stared at me for a second. The grisly vision of Imara vanished into mist. Gone. He lifted
the tequila bottle to his lips and drank. Drank it dry. Then he tossed the bottle back to me, and I
snatched it out of the air.
''You come on, princess,'' he said. ''You find out what I've got. Call my bluff.''
I didn't blink. ''All right,'' I said. ''I call.'' Anything, anything to buy time. My backup didn't
dare come at him unprepared, any more than I dared a direct assault against him; they had to be
sure he was cut off from his support, and that they could get to him before he got me. Bad Bob
had it in him to slaughter me, right here, right now. I felt it in the air. David needed to counter
Ashan's influence first.
We'd wanted this. We'd asked for it. I only hoped that we were prepared to actually deal with it,
now that the moment was staring us in the face.
''Good girl.'' That smile, that evil, dark smile, grew wider still. ''So give me your expert
opinion: Do you think this is just another illusion?'' He reached aside, into the shadows, and this
time he pulled out a book: the book, a twin to the one, bound in leather and wrapped in iron, that
I'd last seen in the vault in Ortega's Miami mansion.
I felt the pull of it from here, and the whisper of power. Nope, that was not an illusion. And our
time was running out. I reached through the golden thread that welded me fast to David and
whispered, It's here; he has it here, and felt the Djinn surge in response.
They slammed hard into a black shell of crackling power that Bad Bob threw up so fast it made
me shudder. The Wardens backed off, and the Djinn melted away, circling, looking for
weakness.
I was trapped.
Bad Bob took the iron peg out of the latch with a flick of his finger, opened the book, and flipped
pages. ''You have any idea what's in here, sweetheart?'' he asked. ''What kind of havoc I can
wreak? Ah, here's a good one. . . .'' Words spilled out of his mouth, strange and liquid, and
something in my brain trembled and screamed an alarm.
I froze as the last syllable left his lips, and felt something seize control of me, and a burning
sensation high on my right shoulder blade, like a brand being pressed deep into the flesh. I
couldn't flinch. Couldn't scream. I smelled my own skin burning, and couldn't so much as cry.
This shouldn't happen. This can't happen!
''Hush,'' Bob murmured. ''Sooner done, soonest over. There. Now I own you, sweet little Jo.
The way it was meant to be.'' He snapped the book shut and dropped it; it vanished into mist
before it hit the floor. He was storing it in a pocket universe, somewhere in the aetheric. No way