Firestorm Read Free Page B

worth, and then she shook her head. “No. I can’t tell. He’s shut me out. They’ve all shut me out.” She sounded wistful. “I think he did it for my protection. This way she can’t get to me.”
    She , meaning Mother Nature. The Earth. One very ticked-off planet, who was coming slowly out of an eons-long slumber and wondering blearily what the hell had happened with the human race while she wasn’t looking. After all, in the tradition of surly teens everywhere, we’d taken the opportunity to throw loud parties and trash the place while she’d been out. It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature. It’s even worse to fool with her.
    I focused back on Imara. “So…you’re not connected to the Earth? The way the rest are?”
    She looked away, and after a few seconds I realized that she was embarrassed by what she was going to say. “It’s a little like hearing music coming from the car next to you—you can hear the bass notes, but you can’t make out the tune. It’s not all Father’s doing. There’s a lot of you in me, and it holds me back.” Her eyes flew back up to meet mine, stricken. “I didn’t mean—”
    â€œI know what you mean,” I said. “I’m a handicap.”
    Even though I was, of course. I’d worked out fairly quickly that Imara wasn’t fully Djinn…. Right now, that was an advantage, with the other Djinn more or less susceptible to control by the waking Earth, and pretty much unreliable in the free-will department. But what did it mean for her, long-term? How would she be accepted by the other Djinn? And what would happen if—God forbid—she ever had to go up against them in a real battle?
    I couldn’t think about that. I couldn’t stand to imagine her going up against someone like Ashan, who had the morals and kindness of a spider.
    She was watching me steadily with those bright, inhuman eyes. I had a cold flash. “Can you tell what I’m thinking?” I asked.
    Her eyebrows rose. “Will it make you angry if I say yes?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œYou’re lying to me.”
    â€œWhy would I do that?”
    â€œYou really are David’s child, you know that?”
    She smiled. “He really loves you, you know. I can feel that, too. It’s the warmest thing in him, his love for you.”
    â€œI thought you said he’d cut you off.”
    â€œHe has. But short of killing me, he can’t cut me off completely.” She shrugged. “He’s my father.”
    I felt my throat heat and tighten, and tears prickled my eyes. I swallowed and blinked and drummed my fingers on the steering wheel. “Right. So, am I doing the right thing here? Heading to New York?”
    In the absence of any other ideas, I was heading for the relative safe haven of Warden Headquarters, where those of us who’d survived the last few days were sure to gather. All hell had broken loose among the Wardens, with wholesale mayhem from the normally compliant and subservient Djinn. I just hoped that I wouldn’t be coming back to find…nothing. The last thing I wanted was to be the last Warden standing, with the Earth waking up and Djinn running crazy. Granted, it would be exciting. It would just be a very short story, and a very ugly ending.
    â€œI don’t know if it’s the right thing to do or not,” my daughter replied solemnly. “I’m only a day old.”
    Great. I had no idea whether I was doing the right thing, I had a smart-ass immortal kid, and Cherise for a wingman.
    Yeah, this was going to end well. No doubt about it.
    Â 
    Four hours later, it was dark and I was exhausted. Twenty-two hours in a car, even a Mustang, will do that to you. The Mustang purred around me like a contented tiger. Not the Mustang’s fault that I was so tired that I wanted to weep, or that my world was falling apart,