Total Eclipse

It kind of pissed me off. So instead of retreating back into the dark and hugging David, I stood there in front of the glass window, practically daring the storm to do its worst. If I'd still been a Warden, it probably would have taken me up on it, too--but a normal human? It didn't even know I was there. That wouldn't keep it from killing me, just as it would ants, birds, cats, or anything else that got in its way, but it wasn't personal.

I would officially be collateral damage. Which really pissed me off.

Another eye-searing flash of lightning, and this time I saw the blue pop of a transformer blowing on a pole not far away. The pole caught fire, blazing like a creosote-smeared torch even through the driving rain. It gave the whole thing a hellish glow that was really, really unsettling.

"I think we need to get out of here," I said. David was already out of bed and dressing in the dark--cursing softly in a language I didn't recognize, mainly because he probably hadn't had to dress himself in the dark for, oh, about five thousand years, and in those days, there weren't quite as many challenges to the process anyway. "Is the phone working?"

His cursing got louder as he knocked the receiver off, but paused when he checked the line. "Yes," he said, and handed it to me to continue his fight with pants. I dialed Cherise's room number by touch. She picked up on the first ring.

"Holy crap, we need to go!" she said breathlessly. "That's what you were going to say, right?"

"That's what I was going to say."

"So glad I didn't unpack the luggage from the trunk. Let's do it. But you go first and unlock the doors, okay? Because I am not standing out in that."

She hung up before I could tell her that the castle had called and wanted its princess back. She was right, actually. I had the keys. I was the point person for this little expedition.

"Stay here until I get everything open," I told David, and tossed a towel over my head as I opened up the door. The wind promptly blew the wood back against the wall with a crash, and knocked me back two steps by sheer force before I got control and leaned into it.

Then I stepped outside, into the teeth of the monster.

I didn't dare look up, or around, or anywhere but at the Boss, sitting there with its chrome blazing in the flashes of lightning. Water was running off it in silver strings, and I lunged for the driver's-side door, got in, and manually unlocked the passenger side before diving out again, honking the horn. Cherise's door opened, and Kevin ran out, heading for the other side of the car.

Cherise followed him, staggering in the buffeting wind like a post- happy-hour drunk on her clunky platform shoes. The wind definitely made that flirty little South Beach dress not safe for anywhere, but in seconds rain had flattened it securely down against her body. It was the next best thing to a swimsuit, really. Not that my shirt and jeans weren't waterlogged and streaming.

I didn't feel it coming the way I would have as a Warden. I felt the hairs rise on my arms, as if trying to escape my body, and for a blank second I wondered, What the heck is that?

And then a pure white bolt of power hit Cherise.

The force of it blew me over, and if it made a sound I don't remember hearing it. The shock lasted for at least three heartbeats, and then the cold rain brought me back around and I realized that Cherise had just been struck by lightning.

I staggered up. Cherise was still standing there, exactly as she had been. Wisps of steam curled off her bare arms and legs, up from her hair, and I screamed and closed the distance fast, waiting for her to collapse into my arms.

Instead, she opened her eyes, looked at me with a drugged, blissful expression, and said,

"Wow. That felt ... great."

I stopped, fighting for balance in more ways than one. She looked utterly relaxed.

Unafraid. Maybe it was some weird side effect ... ?

No, I realized. No, it wasn't, because over the two of us, the rain had stopped falling. It was running off a clear shield that enclosed us in a warm, still cone of air.

I knew what that was. I'd done it myself, many times.

Not Cherise. Cherise doesn't have Warden powers... . She can't ... She never ...

The shock was slowing me down, obviously, because I should have known already. David did, as he threw open the door of the Mustang and got out again. I saw the sudden, rigid set to his body, and the way he went completely still, even pounded by the rain.

Kevin got out, too, and in the next lightning flash his face looked ghostly and haunted, his eyes gone huge as he stared at Cherise. He looked empty. No, he was empty, I realized; he had gone up into the aetheric, and for a few seconds his body was just a waiting shell. Then he flinched and shook his head. "It can't be," he said.

"She's--she's--"

"She's got Warden powers," I said flatly. "What are the odds that they came from someone else but me?"

Cherise smiled, warm and sweet and lovely, and said, "And it is awesome, by the way. Just so you know. It feels so--big! Like I'm part of everything, everywhere in the world--there's all this energy, and--"

"Cher!" I grabbed her by the shoulders, hard, and shook her until the bliss faded from her eyes. "Cherise, listen to me. You're not trained. You have no idea what you're doing. Don't--"

Electric shocks zapped through my hands, straight up my arms, and knocked me back with a stunning blow all the way to the Mustang. I found myself on the ground, skin tingling and aching, shaking all over. My muscles were buzzing.

David no longer moved at Djinn speed, but he was just as fast as any man seeing a threat to someone he loved, and as I tried to shake off the shock he did a classic cop roll over the hood of the car and went for her.

Kevin summoned up a fireball and dropped it neatly between David and Cherise, sending my husband stumbling back. "Don't try it, man," Kevin said. "It's not her fault."

I wasn't the only one in shock. Cherise hadn't moved since she'd given me the zap, but now, as the fire flamed unnaturally high between her and David, she let out a sharp, horrified cry and dropped to her knees next to me in the filthy water. "Oh my God, Jo, I didn't mean--I just--I just wanted you to let go of me, I--" She reached out to touch me, then hesitated, staring at her hands.

I coughed and sat up. My ribs ached. I could feel residual trembles in all of my long muscles, but my heart seemed to be ticking along, if rapidly, and I was in control enough to be able to push dripping hair back out of my eyes. Even if it felt like a lot of effort to do so. "I think that proves my point," I said, and then had to pause for a racking round of coughing.

David tried to get to me. Kevin moved the fire in front of him, and I saw David really get angry--angry enough to do anything.

He was only human now, but that kind of anger was nothing to fool around with. There was still a trace of Djinn in there somewhere; I could just feel it--even if it was only a memory of power. It made him fearless, and a little bit crazy.

He plunged through the fire.

Kevin yelped, surprised, and damped the flames down quickly--including the ones that had taken hold of David's clothes even in that brief instant of contact. David ignored the burns. He grabbed Kevin and slammed him back against the car with a hand around his throat, and I saw his muscles tighten. Kevin's eyes widened, and he clawed at David's hand, wheezing.

"David, don't," I managed to gasp, and got my coughing under control. There was something unpleasant in my mouth. I spat it out and tasted blood, but not a lot. That was good, right?

Not a lot? Some part of my brain was grasping desperately for good news. "We don't have time for this."

"Don't," David said, attention still locked on Kevin's face, "ever do that again. Do you understand me?"

Kevin managed to nod. David let go, shoved him away, and knelt down to gather me in his arms. The look he turned on Cherise was black with fury.

"It's not her fault," I told him. "Kevin's right. She got slammed with a ton of power, and she has no idea how to use it. She's like a baby with a nuclear bomb and a big shiny red button."

"Hey!" Cherise said, in almost her old tones. "I'm right here! Have a heart."

"No offense," I said, "but Wardens get trained. They get trained a lot. And even then, we make massive mistakes, and people die. You don't have that luxury, Cher. You're too powerful, all at once. Your learning curve means death tolls. Now take down the shield."

"What?" Cherise seemed blank. I pointed up at the invisible umbrella she was holding over us. Rain was pouring off of it in silver sheets. "I'm not--oh. I guess I am, huh?"

"Instinct. It'll kill you. Or actually, other people," I said. "Drop it. I'll show you how to build it right."

"I--don't think I know how to drop it. I mean, I didn't know how to put it up in the first place."

"Talk later, flee now," Kevin said, rubbing his throat and glaring at David. "Seeing as how we're going to die

if we hang around here in Lightning Central."

I looked up at David, and saw his fierce love and anger and desire to lash out. And protect me. He was taking this being human thing harder than I was, after all. "Kevin has a point," I said. "Let's work it out in motion."

He didn't like it; I could see that, but he nodded and helped me to my feet. I was shaky but serviceable. Wetter than a sponge on the bottom of the ocean, but maybe I could get Cherise to dry me off as a training exercise. Then again, she'd probably desiccate me completely and leave me a dry, dead husk, so maybe not such a great plan after all.

"Maybe you shouldn't drive," David said.

"Ha! The day I can't drive the Boss is the day that you need to wrap me in plastic and leave me by the side of the road for the buzzards."

"Jo, I'm serious."

"So am I," I said. "Nobody drives it but me. Those are the rules. Now get in the car. Please. I don't need to argue, I just need to drive."

He didn't like it, but he nodded and helped me in. Cherise was maintaining the rain shield above the car, which was convenient even though it worried me in a Warden sense. There were all kinds of ways to power that kind of defensive capability, but the best ways, the ones that would ultimately have the least impact on the world around us, were the most difficult to learn. Cherise was, without a doubt, just grabbing raw power and slamming it into a form without regard for how out of balance the equations fell.

The storm had already noticed her. And it was going to get very interested now.

Everybody piled into the car, and I found the keys and started up the Boss. His engine caught with a fierce grumble, and I threw it into reverse as another lightning bolt slammed home, this one torching a tree near the corner of the parking lot. Combined with the still-burning telephone pole, the place was starting to look like it needed to be renamed the Disaster Drive-In.

"Sorry," I whispered, and peeled out of the parking lot. Once I hit road speed, I began to really start liking Cherise's shield, even if it was an energy suck monster. It was like driving under a mobile bridge, and it kept the rain from hammering the windshield, which was excellent. I opened up the Boss as we gained the access road for the freeway. When we reached the top of the ramp, I glanced over and saw three stabs of white-hot light smash down from the boiling clouds into the roof of the motel.

The trees weren't the only thing on fire anymore, and now there were innocent lives at risk--not just ours. The roof was burning, and it was possible that even with the rain, it would spread. The tree and telephone pole weren't showing any signs of going out.

"Kevin," I said. "Get that fire out."

"The rain will take care of it. I don't need to--"

"Did you hear me ask? Because I'm pretty sure I put it as an order, not a request for your opinion. Just do it. Now, Kevin!"

Kevin shut up and looked toward the burning roof. Seconds later, it snuffed itself out. He ended the blazes on the telephone pole and tree for good measure. Show-off. "Anything else, boss?"

"Yeah. Be quiet."

He shot me the finger, which did not shock me, and slumped back in his seat with a mutinous, pouty expression. Still not out of his teen angst, I saw. Or maybe he'd just grow up to be a pouty, petulant man. Yeah, that was going to be attractive.

I took a deep breath and looked over at David. "Are you okay? Not burned?"

"I'm fine," he said. "He put it out before it did any damage."

I made sure I had the Boss aimed straight and steady on the nearly empty rain-slick highway, and focused on the blurring lane markers for a while. Finally, I said, "Cherise, I need you to think how it felt when you put up the shield. What made you do it?"

"Um ... I guess ... I was getting wet. I didn't like it."

"Okay. Are you getting wet now?"

"Obviously not ... Oh. Right. Okay. But I'm still wet. And kind of cold."

I turned up the heater and directed the blast toward the back, although I was cold and shivering, too. "Once your body is convinced you don't need it, you'll be able to let go," I said. "Your instincts are controlling your power, and that's a very bad thing, Cher." The other bad thing, although I didn't dare say it, was that in my experience, regular people weren't Wardens for a reason. There were changes in body chemistry in Wardens: different nerve conduction times, subtle differences that allowed us to handle and channel the kinds of power that would destroy--sooner or later--non-Wardens who tried to handle the same forces.

I didn't know whether the transfer of powers from me to Cherise--if that was what had happened--had also given her an upgrade on the physical side. If it hadn't, it was like putting jet fuel in a car's gas tank. It would run for only a short time before it exploded under the stress.