Текст книги "Total Eclipse"

Автор книги: Rachel Caine

Соавторы: Rachel Caine
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Total Eclipse
(The ninth book in the Weather Warden series)
Rachel Caine

To all the wonderful people whove supported Joannes adventures through this seriesTHANK YOU. You all rock.

But Ill single out one, because she was the first to tell me that the idea forIll Wind was a good one.

Thank you, Sharon.

Okay, I lied; I will single out two, because about the time I was going to give up on this whole writing gig, I talked with fantastic writer Joe R. Lansdale, and he gave me the encouragement I needed to keep on defying gravity. Thank you, Joe. And hey, thanks for Bubba Ho-tep, too, while Im at it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Joe Bonamassa

Lucienne Diver

Sheila Hanahan Taylor

Felicia Day

P. N. Elrod

Jackie Leaf

Heidi Berthiaume

Charles Armitage

Jackie Kessler

Richelle Mead

Patricia Anthony

R. Cat Conradalways

What Has Come Before

My name is Joanne Baldwin, and I used to control the weather as a Weather Warden. These days, I can also control the forces of the earth, such as volcanoes and earthquakes, and the forces of fire. Dont askits a long story. Just go with it, okay?

Controlling all those awesome forces sounds like fun, eh? No. Not when it makes you a target for every psycho world-killing danger that comes along.

Good thing Ive got my friends at my backLewis Orwell, the most powerful Warden on the planet; Cherise, my best (and not supernatural) friend; a wide cast of sometimes dangerous allies whove got their own missions and agendas that dont always match up with mine.

And Ive got David, my true love. Hes also a supernatural Djinn, the fairy-tale-three-wishes kind, and hes now coruler of the Djinn on Earth.

But not even the most powerful friends in the world can help when real devastation hits. And it hit me and David, dead center, in our final battle with my old mentor and enemy . . . and it took our power away.

For me, thats an inconvenience.

For David, its fatal.

I have to find a way to fix this before its too late to save my belovedand maybe even humanity, because Mother Nature is waking up . . . and shes pissed.

Chapter One

Black corner.

It was the name Wardensand Djinngave to a section of the world that had been scorched by something unnatural; a place where the basic energy that coursed through the world, the pulsebeat of the Earth, no longer existed.

A black corner lookedfine, but to anyone with sensitivity to power, it was desolate and sterile. Wardensthose who controlled the basic powers of naturesuffered when they were trapped inside one of these dead zones. Still, we got off better than the Djinn.

Djinn died.

Wed been trapped in the massive black corner, sailing hard for the horizon, for days, and it was taking its toll at an increasingly horrible rate.

It was so hard, watching them suffer. It was slow, and painful, and terrifying to watch, and as our cruise ship sailed ever so slowly through the dark, empty seas, trying to get outside the supernatural blast radius, I began to wonder whether we would make it at all. The New Djinnthe Djinn whod been born human and had become Djinn during some large-scale disasterswere in a lot of pain, and slipping away.

Still, they fared better than the Old Djinn. Original, eternal, with no real ties to humanity at allthey declined far faster. In a very real sense, they couldnt exist on their own, without a direct connection to powera connection that was nowhere to be found now, even though we were many miles out from the site of the disastrous ending to our fight with my old enemy. Hed opened a gateway to another dimension, and what had come through had almost destroyed me and David; it had definitely blasted the entire area for hundreds of miles in all directions.

I couldnt imagine what the consequences of that were going to be. It was a terrible disaster, and I felt responsible. Hell, who was I kidding? I wasresponsible, beyond any shadow of a doubt. I was recovering from the aftereffects of the long battle and the injuries Id gathered along the way, but that was secondary to the guilt I felt about how Id handled things.

I should have been better. If Id been better, none of this would have happened. I wouldnt be watching my friends and allies suffer. I wouldnt be watching helplessly as the best of them, the ones whod given the most, lost pieces of themselves.

Dying in slow motion.

Lewis Orwell, the head of the Wardens, my old friend, the strongest human being Id ever met . . . Lewis had developed a perpetual, deep-chested cough that sounded wet and thick. Pneumonia, maybe. He looked as if he hadnt rested in weeks, and he probably hadnt. His reserves were used up, his body beginning to shut down in protest.

And still he was up in the middle of the night, sitting with the Djinn. Offering them what little comfort he could. There werent so many of them . . . not now. Wed seen three of them die in the past twenty-four hours. The ones who were left were sinking fast.

Djinn were exotic and beautiful and unbelievably powerful. Seeing them laid so low was heart– wrenching. I didnt know how Lewis could stand it, really. The misery hit me in a thick, sticky wave as I limped into the small infirmary, and I had to stop in the doorway and breathe in and out slowly to calm myself. No sense in going overwrought into this mess. It wouldnt help anyone.

Lewis was sitting in a chair next to a bed that held a small, still human form the size of a child. Vennawhod always borne an uncanny resemblance to the famous Alice, of Lewis Carroll renownwas still a pretty thing, with fine blond hair and big blue eyes. The supernatural shine that usually seemed a few shades too vivid for human eyes was missing now. She looked sick and afraid, and it hurt me deeply.

I sank down on the other side of her bed and took her hand. Her gaze, which had been fixed on the ceiling, slowly moved to rest on me. She felt cold. Her fingers flexed just a little on mine, and I felt rather than saw the faintest ghost of a smile.

Hey, kid, I said, and smoothed her hair back from her face. How are you?

It was self-evident how she was doing, but I didnt know what else to say. Nothing I could do was going to help. Like Lewis, I was utterly helpless. Useless.

Okay, she whispered. It seemed to be a great effort for her to form the word, and I saw a shudder go through her small body. I tucked the blanket closer around her, although I knew it wasnt going to help. The chill that had sunk into her couldnt be banished by warm covers and hugs and hot toddies.

Wed tried putting the Djinn on the deck of the ship, hoping the sunlight would help revive them, but it had seemed to make things worse. Vennawho had been alive as long as the Earth, as far as I could tellhad criedfrom the sheer, desperate agony of being in the sun and not being able to absorb its energy.

It had been awful, and here, inside, she didnt seem as distressed. That was something, at least.

We were no longer trying to save them. We were just managing their decline.

Vennas china blue eyes drifted shut, though it wasnt exactly a natural sleep; she was conserving what energy remained to her. The Old Djinn burned it faster than the New Djinn, it seemed. Wed already lost the only other Old Djinn on boarda closemouthed sort Id never gotten to know by name.

And, in truth, I loved Venna. I cared about her deeplyin the way youd care for a beautiful, exotic, very dangerous animal whod allowed you to become its friend. Id never thought of her as fragile; Id seen her slam tanker trucks aside with a wave, and fight monsters without getting so much as a hangnail.

It was hard to see her look so helpless.

Lewis looked almost as badworn down and fighting to keep himself together. I met his eyes, which were bloodshot and fever bright. Go to bed, I told him. Ill stay with them for a while.

And do what? he snapped, which hurt; I saw the flare of panic in his face, quickly tamped down. He hadnt meant to say it, though of course hed been thinking it. They were all thinking it. Sorry, Jo. I mean

I know what you mean, I said softly. But the fact is that youre just as handicapped as I am right now, and youre punishing yourself by wearing yourself down to nothing. Lewis, you cant. You cant.When we get out of this, the Wardens will need you more than ever. You cant be running on fumes when the rest of them need you. This is going to get a lot worse. We both know it.

I could see that he wanted to tell me not to preach to him, but he bit his tongue this time. He knew I was right (not that it would stop him from arguing), and on some level, he was aware that he was hurting himself as punishment. Like me, he felt that he deserved it.

He looked down at Venna. I saw it in his face, all that weariness, that guilt, and a fair amount of bitter self-loathing.

Lewis. I drew his gaze and held it again. Go to bed. Go.

He finally nodded, rosehad to steady himself against the walland left. I looked around the room, with its sterile high-tech beds and medical facilities that could do nothing about the problem we were facing. Every bed was filled by a Djinn.

And every Djinn was, to a greater or lesser extent, dying.

The Djinn Rahela New Djinn, and one of the oldest friends I had among their kindturned her head slightly to look toward me. Rahel had always seemed invincible, like Vennapolished, wildly beautiful, with her elaborately cornrowed ebony hair and lustrous dark skin, and eyes that glowed as if backlit by amber.

Now she seemed so diminished. So fragile. Her eyes were still amber, but pale, faded, and . . . frightened. She didnt speak. She didnt have to. I patted Vennas hand, then got up and went to Rahels side. I put the back of my hand against her forehead. She felt hot and dry, consumed by some bonfire inside.

Well, she whispered with a shadow of her old, cocky charm, isnt this peculiar? The lamb caring for the wolf.

Youve never been the wolf, Rahel.

Ah, sistah, you dont know me at all. She heaved a slow, whispering sigh. I have played at being a friend to you, but Im nothing buta wolf. We all are, even your sweet David. Djinn are born because we are too ruthless to accept our own deaths as humans do. It suits us ill to face such an end as this.

Its not the end.

I think it could be, she said, and closed her eyes. I think it will be. And so I will tell you something Ive never told you, Joanne Baldwin.

I swallowed hard. What?

Her lips took on the ghost of a smile. I am glad that we have been friends. You remind me of someone I knew long ago. My cousin, in breathing days. You have her soul. And I am glad to have looked on that brightness again.

Stop it, I said, my voice unsteady. Just stop it. Youre not going to die, Rahel. You cant.

All things can. All things should, in the end. She didnt sound angry about it, or sad, or afraid. She just sounded resigned. The world is changing. That is not a bad thing, you know. Just different.

Maybe she had the perspective of millennia, but I didnt, and I was sick and tired of things being changed. I wanted it all to go back to the way it was.

I wanted peace.

But I didnt say anything else to her, and she lapsed into a quiet, waiting stillness, conserving her energy. The room was eerily silent, all those immortal creatures counting the minutes until they ceased.

And it was my fault.

I put my head down on the crisp, clean sheets next to Rahels hand, and silently wept.

I felt a hand touch my hair, and thought at first that it was Rahel. But no; her hand was still exactly where it had been, limp and unmoving on the covers. I took in a deep breath and sat up, swiping at my eyes and sniffling.

David looked down at me, and for a moment we didnt say anything at all. He looked almost as bad as the Djinn lying in the beds, although hed been spared that particular fate; his decline was slower, more insidious.

There was still a connection between us despite the hit wed taken when Bad Bob had done his worst at the end. Our powers were gone, and David was trapped in mortal flesh, but on some level he was able to bleed off just a little power from me. Enough to survive, at least temporarily.

The difference was that when we sailed out of the black corner, the Djinn would get better. David wouldnt get his powers back that way. Neither of us would. And if he couldnt reconnect to the aetheric, he would get weaker.

I read the misery and concern in his eyes, and took his hand in mine. Touching flesh would have to do; we couldnt touch in all those familiar supernatural ways. It felt oddly remote and clumsy.

You okay? he asked me.

I nodded. As long as youre here. You?

That won me a faint smile from him, and a widening of those honey brown eyes. He was still beautiful, even contained in human form. Hed lost that glowing, powerful edge, but what was left was pure David. As time went on, I had the sense that I was seeing the David hed once beena friend, a lover, a warrior in days that had come and gone well before any history we knew.

Not a good Djinn, but a good man.

Still, he hadnt been just a man in so, so long. And I wondered whether he could go back to being just that, just human, without dying inside of regrets.

Davids smile faded as he looked at Rahel, replaced by that intense focus I knew so well. He didnt speak, but I knew how deeply he was feeling his own helplessness. I was feeling exactly the same thing. I leaned my cheek against his warm, strong hand, and his thumb gently stroked my cheekbone.

Small comforts.

Lewis left you alone here?

Yeah, there was no part of that that didnt sound accusatory toward Lewis. I made him leave. He was exhausted, I said. And theres nothing he can do except what Im doing. What youre doing.

Stand here and watch my brothers and sisters die? He paused, shut his eyes for a second, and then said, That sounded bitter, didnt it? I measured off an inch of air between my thumb and forefinger. He sighed. I feel that there ought to be something. Something we can think of, do, try.

We have, we did, and we will. But were not exactly at the top of our game, honey.

I dont know what this game is, David said softly. I dont like the rules. And I dont like the stakes.

Well, at least you have a good partner, I said. Later, we can kick ass at table tennis, too.

He bent and kissed menot a long kiss, not a passionate one, but one of those sweet and lingering sorts of promises that comes from deep, deep down. Passion we had, but we also had something else. Something more.

Something that mattered to me more than my own life. Im not going to lose him, too, I told myself. I wondered whether that panic and determination showed in my face. I hoped not.

Just as David was pulling up a chair next to me at Rahels bedside, the door to the ships hospital opened, and Cherise staggered in, burdened by a tray so huge that it should have come with wheels and its own parade clowns. She was a tiny little thing, drop-dead gorgeous even under the ridiculously stressful conditions. Somehow shed found the time to shower, make her hair shampoo-commercial shiny and full of body, and scrounge up clean, attractive sexy-girl clothes, which today included shorts and a striped shirta look I was sure I couldnt have pulled off without looking like a very sad Old Navy reject. She had no makeup on, but then again, Cherise didnt really need any. She had that kind of skin.

I got to my feet to help, but David was already there, taking the tray and setting it on a side table. Cherise let out a long sigh and shook her hands and arms to release the stress. Man, she said. I forgot how hard it is to be a waitress. Remind me not to work for tips again, unless it involves a pole. She looked up at David and flashed him an infectious smile. You get what that means, right?

Do pole vaulters get tips? he asked innocently, and lifted the silver cover on one of the large platters on the tray. He reached in and snagged a piece of bacon, which made my mouth water suddenly; I couldnt remember the last time Id eaten. Ever.

Cherise stared at him with a wounded expression. Thats a joke, right? Please tell me you are joking, because if youre not joking, that is just tragic, and Im going to have to stage an intervention.

David munched bacon and explored the rest of the buffet shed delivered as I got up from my chair. Strippers. Poles. I understand.

Thank God. Because if a hottie like you had never seen a stripper, my faith in God was going to . . . Cherise suddenly clammed up, which wasnt like her at all. She looked down, then around at the silent, still Djinn. Yeah, she finished very quietly. Guess that ship has sailed. And, oh look, were on it.

It wasnt like Cherise to fail to find the sunny side of the cloud, but then again, wed been under clouds for what seemed like years at this point. I guessed that even the eternal optimist had to reevaluate, given the circumstances.

How is everyone else? David asked. I reached over him to take a slice of bacon as he poured coffee from the small thermal pot.

The Wardens are all freaking out because theyre Joe Normals, Cherise said. For me, its just another sunny day in paradise, really. Not that Im in the mood to tan or anything.

She really wasdepressed. Well, I could see why. . . . She was probably the only person on the entire ship, other than the hired crew, who couldnt feel anything odd about the area through which we sailed. The Wardens were reduced to shakes and panic, feeling suffocated by their isolation, and they probably resented her for her lack of suffering.

I was starting to actually get used to it. A little.

The food helped steady me, and I could see Davids body language easing a little as well. He hadnt needed to pay careful attention to his metabolism in, oh, about five thousand years or so, and since hed originally been killed and reborn as a Djinn at the tender age of what was probably his early twenties, if that, it wasnt too likely hed ever experienced the kind of human trials I was already starting to put up with.

My mother used to say that getting old isnt for sissies. Neither is being human, for that matter. And the fact that David had managed to pull himself together so fast, and so gracefully, was humbling. I hadnt functioned nearlyso well when Id, in turn, been pulled over to the Djinn side. That should have been a lot more fun than it turned out to be.

The ships motion had increased a littledifficult to tell, in a ship this big, but I could feel the pitch and yaw deep in my guts. If Id still been a Weather Warden, Id have been able to tell a whole lot morehow the air was moving, the tides, the deep and complex breathing between the water and the air above. Two kinds of fluids, moving as one. Symbiotic.

Now all I could tell was that my stomach was rolling with the motion. Great.

The captain says we should be able to dock in a couple of days, Cherise said. I dont know about you guys, but I could dig my toes in some sand. Im starting to feel like Im lost on Gilligans Island. And I cant even be Ginger, because I dont have any evening gowns.

David stopped in the act of lifting a grape to his mouth. Just . . . froze. And I thought maybe he was confused about the pop culture reference, but that wasnt like him, and anyway, he didnt usually just . . .

Every Djinn lying in the beds suddenly sat straight up and screamed.

It was an eerie, tormented, unearthly wailing sound, and shockingly loud. I staggered, dropping my glass, pressing both hands to my ears, and setting my back against the wall for primal protection. There was something wrongwith that sound, deeply and horribly wrong. Cherise crouched, covering her head; if she was screaming I couldnt hear her over the incredible, deafening sound of raw pain coming from every one of the Djinn.

Every one of them but David, who was pale, standing frozen in place, and unable to make a sound or movement. His eyes, thoughhis eyeswere screaming.

It seemed to go on forever, the needle-sharp sound piercing the fragile barrier of skin and bone Id put over my ears. It shattered into my brain, filling it with a horror Id never experienced and wasnt sure I could survive. I felt my heart racing, thudding in panic against my ribs, and my knees failed me. I slid down the bulkhead wall.

I was weeping hysterically, struggling to catch any hint of a breath. It felt as if the sound itself were a weight on me, driving the air from my body. . . .

And then, as suddenly as it had started, it cut off. Not because the Djinn stopped screaming.

Because the Djinn, every single one of them except David, had vanished in a flicker of cold blue light.

Gone.

David fell hard, eyes still wide and locked in a terrible, panicked stare. I peeled my hands away from my ears, gathered strength, and managed to crawl on shaking hands to where he lay. I sat and pulled his head and shoulders into my lap as I stroked his hair and face. His skin felt ice-cold and clammy. His color was awful.

I couldnt hear anything, just the ringing echo of that awful, eternal scream. I wondered whether Id gone deaf. I thought Id hear that sound for the rest of my life, or until I went mad, but I realized it was slowly fading. I could hear Cherise gasping and crying a few feet away. Shed collapsed on her side, curled into a ball. Her hands were still pressed to her ears.

Baby, I whispered to David. Baby, talk to me. Talk to me.

He tried. His lips parted. Nothing came out, or if it did my damaged ears couldnt separate it from the still-ringing echoes of the screams.

He was shuddering. As I watched, he curled himself on his side, like Cherise, and pulled his knees up.

What just happened?

In seconds the sick bay door slammed open, and at least a dozen Wardens pelted into the room, with Lewis in the lead. He looked as shell-shocked as I felt, but at least he was on his feet and moving. He took it in at a single glanceCherise, me, David, the empty beds where the Djinn had been.

The breath went out of him, and he went pale. Lewis took a slow, deliberate second, then turned to face the other Wardens. Kevin, see to Cherise, he said. Bree, Xavierget David into a bed. Warm blankets. He crouched down to put our eyes level, and whatever he was seeing in my face, it obviously didnt comfort him. Jo?

I tried to speak, then wetted my lips and tried again. The two Wardens hed delegated were taking hold of Davids arms and helping him rise. He wasnt able to offer much in the way of assistance. I dont know, I finally managed to say. Somethinghappened.

Where did the Djinn go?

I just shook my head. My eyes blurred with tears. I felt lost, alone, cut off, horribly frightened. Lewis reached out and gripped my hands in his.

Jo, he said. Jo, listen to me. I need you to focus. You need to tell me what you saw. Tell me what you heard.

I tried to remember, but the instant I did, that soundfilled my head again, as fresh and hot and painful as before. Shatteringly loud. I clapped my hands over my ears again, and dimly heard myself screaming, begging him to make it stop.

The next thing I knew, I felt a small, hot pain in my arm, and then the sound was fading, drifting away along with the light and the pain and everything in the world.

Darkness.

Silence.