“Yes!” Chloe screamed. She hit a perfect high C, which was like a needle going into the brain. She grabbed the bucket’s handle and raced out the back door.
Grace and Max looked at each other. “Come on, you too, little man,” she told him. She scooped him up, grabbed the towels and the sunscreen, and went outside too. She stripped Chloe down to her panties, left Max in diaper and diaper cover, liberally sprayed both of them with sunscreen and then sprayed herself. The kids went into the pool with the toys, while she eased down onto a towel.
She could actually relax for ten minutes or so while the oven preheated. Yowzer.
Max’s wonder and Chloe’s delight were a joy to watch. Grace let her mind fill with clouds as she watched them play in the pool. She caught herself up with a jerk as she almost fell asleep. Ugh, dammit, not when the baby was in the water. He was only sitting in a couple of inches, but still.
Time to put the casserole in the oven. But not without the baby.
She stood first and pulled him out of the pool. Max, who was normally so placid and easygoing and an all-around cool guy, stiffened in outrage and yelled. “Whoa,” she said. “It’ll only be for a minute, buddy.”
Unfortunately he didn’t have the language to understand, but he did have object permanence, and he had developed some mad love for that little pool. He kicked and screamed. The sound scraped against her already abused eardrums. She said loudly to Chloe, “We’ll be right back.”
Chloe nodded without looking up. Grace walked toward the house while she tried to control Max’s chunky, protesting body. She couldn’t even hear herself think, let alone figure out why all the ghosts of the old women rushed at her, their indistinct, transparent forms loud with distress—
You’re going the wrong way.
Which was ridiculous. That was from her dream. She was only going to the kitchen.
The wrong way.
Confused, she stopped, looking down at Max’s reddened little face while she tried to sort through the clouds of hungry tiredness in her head.
Wrong.
An enormous, invisible fist punched her. She lost her hold on Max and slammed into the ground. The back of the house disappeared in a rolling ball of flame that blew out an inferno of boiling heat. She thought there was sound too, a gigantic roar, but maybe that was all inside her head.
Max.
Oh gods, she had dropped the baby.
With an immense effort she rolled onto her stomach, looking for him. He lay on his stomach too and pushed himself up on stiffened arms. He looked utterly panicked, his mouth wide open and his face purpled as he screamed.
She came up on all fours and lunged for him. Burning pain flared in her knee. She snatched him close and ran her hands down his arms and legs then clenched him tightly, twisting to put her back between him and the ferocious blaze.
Chloe. Grace looked for her. The swimming pool was thirty feet or so farther away from the house. Chloe sat frozen in the water, clutching her bucket. She stared at the fire, her face contorted. Grace couldn’t hear anything aside from the gigantic roar, but she could clearly read the little girl’s lips.
“I need my mommy! I need my mommy!”
Grace fumbled. There had to be a connection somewhere in her ringing head. She swept out with her mind, did a wide, blind scoop, and yanked with all of her strength.
That was when the earthquake hit Louisville.
19
A supernova blasted toward Grace. The sense of oncoming destruction blocked out everything else. She huddled around Max, trying to cover him with her body.
Later she would find out that her property was the epicenter of an earthquake that registered 5.8 on the Richter scale. She never even felt it. Nearby streetlamps warped and bent like they were sticks made of soft wax, trees fell, the cavern caved in and her car was thrown to the street, where the pavement buckled. Luckily, the surrounding area was not as developed as more urban areas and damage was minimal, although a roof and part of a stone wall collapsed at a nearby cemetery. And it was luck, not intention: that was how out of control Khalil had been.
Instead of destruction, what she felt was a gentle black smoke that swirled around the yard, blanketing her and the kids. It blocked out all the heat and noise. At the same time Khalil covered the burning house with Power. The fire died with an eerie suddenness.
Grace gripped Max in one arm and glanced around, dazed, as she tried to scoot awkwardly toward Chloe, hampered by having only one free hand and her goddamn useless knee.
Strong arms lifted her and Max. She blinked as Khalil formed around them. His expression was stark and shaken. Her gaze lowered to his moving lips. She made out his words. “Stop. I’ve got you.”
“Chloe,” she said. She couldn’t hear herself speak, and the only way she could control her dizziness was by tilting her head. She tried to say Chloe’s name again. With both her and Max in his arms, Khalil spun toward the swimming pool.
He froze, staring.
A Djinn was wrapped around a sobbing Chloe, the presence so gossamer thin she was transparent. It was Phaedra. When Grace called Khalil, she must have pulled both connections by accident.
Max’s body was rigid and shaking in her arms. She turned her attention to him. He was still screaming with such lusty energy his face was a darkened red.
She decided right then and there that screaming was awesome. Screaming meant you were alive. If you had the strength to scream, hopefully you had the strength to recover. But still.
“We need a doctor,” she said to Khalil.
He looked at her again, a sparkling crisis in his eyes, while his jaw flexed.
She was making sound when she talked, wasn’t she? She put more force into the next words. “A pediatrician. Tell them it’s an emergency.”
His Power flared. A strange Djinn appeared. Khalil said something in a sharp whip of a voice that she heard as if from a distance. After one wide-eyed glance around, the Djinn nodded and whisked away.
Oh, good. That meant a doctor would be coming. She looked at Max again. He wasn’t bleeding. That had to be good too. She had no idea what to do for him. There were classes for that sort of thing, what were they called? Whatever they were, she should take some. Her head was pounding, her ears hurt, and her skin and knee felt like they were on fire.
Then Khalil knelt, and Chloe was there, still sobbing and wrapped in towel, and he simply enfolded them all. Grace leaned against him while she wrapped her arms around the children, and Khalil put his face in her hair. She thought he and Phaedra said things to each other, but she wasn’t sure, because it was such a strain to focus on anything, so she just concentrated on holding those poor, scared babies.
Black clouds like smoke filled her head, or maybe it was the dark sea. This time the vision came to her so softly, it was as if she fell into a dream.
She was surrounded with people.
Petra touched her hand and looked at her with such gratitude. Thank you for looking after them.
Of course, Grace said. What else would I do?
Gram smiled proudly and said, I knew you would figure it out.
Then a strange, angry man told her, Check the insurance again. I would never fall asleep at the wheel.
Grace stared. She recognized him from photographs in the newspaper. He was the independent trucker who crossed the meridian line and caused the head-on collision. But that’s what I was told.
It’s a lie.
The trucker faded back into the sea, and suddenly the world snapped back into place. Khalil knelt in front of her. He cupped her face, handling her with a tense care that was in sharp contrast to the banked violence of emotion in his elegant face. She startled badly when she realized the kids were no longer on her lap. She grabbed his wrists.
He shook one of his hands free to hold a vial up to her mouth. She watched his lips as he said, “Drink it.”
She could feel the magic in the vial even in her dizzy confusion. It was a “cure-all” healing potion, expe
nsive and rare. When she opened her mouth to ask where the kids went and how he had gotten the potion, he tilted the precious contents of the vial between her open lips, and she had no choice but to swallow.
An intense golden glow filled her body and drove back the dark sea. The Power from the potion pulsed in her skin, her knee and her head. Khalil wrapped an arm around her shoulders and nudged the rim of another vial between her lips. “Drink another one,” he said.
By that time her dizziness had lessened, and she heard him for real. She didn’t waste time on asking how he had gotten them or how much they cost. Instead she drank, and that time the Power in the potion blew away the clouds in her head. She said, “The kids.”
“Right over there.”
She looked where Khalil pointed. Somehow the backyard had filled up with people. Max was lying on a stretcher, attended by a man and a woman, EMT equipment on the ground nearby. Chloe sat on another stretcher, wrapped in a blanket. She was being examined by another man. Four Djinn stood nearby, watching the EMTs alertly.
Power swirled behind her. She glanced over her shoulder. At least two other Djinn were in the blackened wreckage that had been the back of the house, although they weren’t in physical form. As she turned back to face Khalil she caught sight of a seventh Djinn, who wore the form of a muscular ebony-skinned male. He stared fixedly at her.
Whatever was up with that particular Djinn, it was definitely not her problem. She had enough on her plate at the moment, thank you. She turned away from the puzzle. As she focused on Khalil again, he said, “The kids are all right.”
“Are you sure?”
His jaw was clenched, diamond eyes filled with radiant wetness. She put a hand to his face, and he snatched her to him so tightly she grunted. “Yes,” he said hoarsely. “You’re all going to be all right. But gods damn, you almost weren’t. Gods damn, I saw my daughter. I talked to Phaedra. She said you healed her.”
“I didn’t heal her. I just showed her who she used to be.” She leaned against him, resting her head on his chest. “She made the choice, and—I don’t know what else to call it—she repatterned or realigned herself. I didn’t mean to call her when I called for you. I just couldn’t tell what I was doing. My head was all fucked up.”
“The EMT said you had a concussion, and Max probably did too.” Khalil ran a finger lightly down the bare skin of her arm, and his mouth twisted in a quick sharp spasm. “And first-degree burns. A pediatrician is with him now.”
Grace glanced gratefully over at the people working to help the children. She said, “Phaedra looked so threadbare after she changed, I was really worried about her. She said she needed to rest. Is she still here?”
“As soon as other help came, she left. She needs time, maybe a lot of time, and nourishment, and I don’t think she can ever be quite the same as she was. But her essence is true again, not warped. She made a connection with you, and she answered it.” He glared. “You were supposed to call me if she showed up again.”
“I remembered,” she told him, truthfully enough. “I just got busy.”
“We will talk of that later.” He bowed over her. She could feel what a maelstrom he was of out-of-control emotion, pain, a terror that was too slow to fade, and a twisted up, overwhelmed sense of wonder. He could barely hold on to his physical form. “Do you realize what a miracle you are? You scared me so much this time.”
A glowing drop of liquid streaked down and landed on her dirty T-shirt where it lay like a shining jewel for a moment before it was soaked into the material. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She touched the small damp spot wonderingly. It still had a tiny spark of his Power that slowly faded. “I didn’t mean to.”
Someone approached; it was the woman who had been examining Max. She knelt beside Grace with a smile. “I’m Dr. Lopez. You’re looking better.”
“I’m feeling better, thanks,” Grace said.
“I scanned you when you were a little out of it earlier. You’ve strained your knee, but I don’t think you’ve done any further lasting damage. Wear your brace for a couple of weeks and baby that knee. Hot and cold compresses, and ibuprofen. I’m sure you know the drill. Be sure to see your orthopedic surgeon if it gives you any trouble.”
“I will.” Grace twisted around to look at the kids. One EMT rubbed Max’s stomach, talking soothingly while the baby sucked his thumb. The other EMT smiled at Chloe, who was showing him the toys in her bucket. “How are they?”
“They’re doing really well,” Dr. Lopez said. “Chloe had a shock, and she’s still shaken. I don’t see or sense any evidence of injury. Max had a couple of healing potions like you did, and he’s calmer and feeling better. The pink to his skin is gone, and his concussive symptoms have disappeared. I don’t sense any further injury when I scan him, no pressure or swelling in his head or spine. If you would feel better, we can admit him to keep an eye on him overnight, but to be quite honest, I don’t think it’s necessary.”
“Who are you and where are you from?” Grace asked. She glanced at Khalil. He looked focused and suddenly calm.
The doctor’s direct gaze was friendly and understanding. “I work at the Children’s Hospital in Boston.”
“She teaches at the Harvard Medical School,” Khalil said. “We wanted to get the best.”
Like pancakes from the Russian Tea Room? Grace gripped Khalil’s forearm. “And the EMTs?”
“They’re from the Children’s Hospital in Boston too.” Dr. Lopez did not quite smile, but she looked like she might want to. “Our trauma unit does not often see several Djinn appear to demand medical care for two human children.”
“Try never,” said one of the EMTs from behind the doctor. He had walked over hand in hand with Chloe.
Dr. Lopez said, “They volunteered to come.”
Chloe flung herself at Grace and Khalil. She wailed, “Our house broke!”
“I know, sweetie.” Grace snatched her close, and Khalil’s arms closed over them both tightly, while Grace kissed and rocked Chloe. So fragile, so precious. A spasm of shaking rattled Grace.
Gram, I don’t deserve your pride, she thought, because even with the dream and all the ghosts yelling at me, I almost didn’t figure it out.
“Do you think you could give me some big-girl help?” she said in Chloe’s hair.
Chloe said timidly, “I dunno. It might be too big for me.”
Oh, ouch. Grace’s throat closed up, and for a few moments she couldn’t talk. She felt torn in two.
Khalil put a hand to her back. I’m right here. Tell me what you need.
Her two pieces aligned, and she grew calm and clearheaded. She said to him, The children need to be with someone they feel safe with tonight, and it can’t be me because I have things I need to do. Normally that would mean Katherine, except right now I want them out of Kentucky altogether.
Why is that? Khalil asked. He looked sharp, and for the first time since she had met him, truly predatory.
She met his gaze. Because the trucker that caused the car accident in the spring didn’t fall asleep at the wheel.
Arrangements for the children happened much quicker than she thought they could. Two of the Djinn took Dr. Lopez, the EMTs and their equipment back to Boston. Khalil sent a third spearing into the air to find Katherine and John and explain what had happened, and what was needed from them. Grace hated for Katherine to find out everything that had happened that way, but she needed to focus all her attention on the children. The fourth Djinn made travel arrangements for a suite to be made available for Katherine, John, their children, and Chloe and Max at the Four Seasons Hotel in Houston, in the heart of the Demonkind demesne.
That caused Grace to pause as she tried to figure out how to finance the trip for all six. The check from Carling and Rune hadn’t cleared the bank, and she didn’t have a credit card. While she knew Katherine and John would do anything to help, she certainly couldn’t expect them to foot the hotel bill. Sitting with her back against a shade tree while cuddl
ing Chloe on her lap, she brought the question of financing up with Khalil.
Khalil held the exhausted baby against his shoulder. He paced slowly, so he didn’t wake Max up. He had chosen, of all things, to wear jeans and a T-shirt again. The outfit brought to mind their date, which seemed like it had happened ages ago, except now the clothes looked shockingly exotic against his more inhuman physical form. He held his energy under such tight control, it made Grace’s bones ache just to look at him.
Max wasn’t aware of any of that. The baby had begun to snore. He sounded like a squeaky toy. Khalil put his cheek against Max’s head, rubbing his small back.
“Do not trouble yourself in the slightest over paying for the trip,” Khalil told Grace quietly. “It will all be taken care of.”
Grace jerked as suddenly the ebony-skinned Djinn appeared and knelt beside her, diamond eyes intent. The strange Djinn said, “I will pay for all of it.”
If anything, Khalil grew even quieter, yet this time a thread of steel ran through his voice. “Now is not the time, Ebrahim.”
“I understand,” the other Djinn said, just as quietly, while pain flared in his expression. “Just know I will pay for everything.” He looked into Grace’s eyes and whispered, “Anything you need.”
“Thank you?” Grace kissed Chloe’s temple and tilted her head sideways to see the little girl’s face. Chloe was sleepy but still awake, and sucking her thumb. Grace said to the Djinn in a gentle, perky voice, “You need to back up and give us some space now. Actually, if you really want to help, you could get the children something to eat since our kitchen blew up.” Grace murmured to Chloe, “Are you hungry?” Chloe nodded. “What would you like to eat?”
Chloe slipped her thumb out of her mouth. “Cheese.”
Ebrahim looked at Max.
Khalil said promptly, “Similac formula. Not the powder. Ready to feed bottles with nipples. A package of Pampers disposable diapers, a dozen jars of stage two baby food—get a variety of things, and remember, he loves applesauce—and a small spoon, some baby wipes, and a diaper bag. A soft stuffed toy suitable for a nine-month-old and a cotton blanket. That should meet his immediate needs.”
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