Thin Air

Oh, crap. Crap!



"I didn't mean-"



"It doesn't matter," he cut me off, but I could hear the anger under his veneer of calm. "I need you to rest. Your scans are still far from normal. We'll talk about all this later."



I jerked at the restraints. "Can you take these off?"



"No," he said. "As soon as you're able to be moved, you'll be transferred to a facility where you can be properly examined and controlled."



Meaning I was under arrest. The security guards, grim and well-armed, more than confirmed that. I didn't like it, but there was really nothing I could do about it.



And really nothing I should do about it.



"Can I talk to Lewis?" I asked, very respectfully. Lee shot a glance toward the security people.



"I'll let him know you're asking for him," Lee said. "I'm going to give you a sedative now, all right? Just something to help you sleep."



He used drugs instead of the Earth Warden-patented hand-on-forehead; I wanted to do something to stop him, but I controlled the impulse. Clearly, it wasn't going to be a good idea for me to start fighting, not with the odds as they were.



David, I thought. David will help me.



I wondered where the hell he was, but before I could do more than wonder, the fog swept in, rendered my mind cool and blank, and I drifted away.



When I woke up, it was dark, and there was someone sitting in the chair next to me, snoring. I blinked and tried to rub my eyes, and remembered the restraints only when they clicked and rattled the bars.



Which cut off the snoring. A light clicked on, and I saw Lewis's tired but freshly shaved face in the pale glow.



"Hey," he said, and reached out to wrap his fingers around mine. "How do you feel?"



"Pissed," I said. "I'm tied to a bed, in case you hadn't noticed."



"I noticed," he said, and yawned. "Trust me, the restraints are there for a reason."



"What reason?"



"Your protection," he said. "I know you. If you had half a chance of breaking out, you'd already be blowing the door and running for the exit, and that will get you killed right now. I'm trying to help you, Jo, but you've got to help yourself."



"Fine," I said. "What exactly did I do?"



He blinked a couple of times. "You don't know?"



"Look, I know that Marion's in a coma, but-"



"You screwed around with things that you weren't ready for, and you put her in that coma. Then you went after me."



"I-I what?"



Lewis didn't change his expression, not at all. "You heard me. If I hadn't put you down, hard, you'd have ripped my brain apart like a piñata."



"But-why would I do that?" I felt bewildered, alien in my own skin.



"Post-traumatic stress, I'm guessing. The point is, you were a danger to everybody around you."



"But...not now." I said it like I believed it. Lewis didn't grace me with agreement, but he didn't disagree, either. He just sat, gently providing reassurance through the contact of our hands. "Lewis, I don't want to hurt anybody. Really. You have to believe that."



"I do," he said. "But the best thing right now is for you to rest and get your strength back. I had to put you down pretty hard. Harder than I'd have preferred. You need to heal."



"Lee said I'd be moved somewhere else," I said. "It sounded like prison."



Lewis's thumb stopped stroking my fingers. I wasn't sure I liked that.



"It's not prison," he said. "But it's a medical facility, and it's run by people from Marion's division. If they can't find a way to stop you from misusing your Earth powers, they're going to have to block the channels to stop it from happening. I don't want to see that happen, so you need to concentrate on staying calm and steady, okay? No overreactions. No attacking people. And quit trying to eat peoples' brains."



I laughed, but it was shaky, and so was his smile. "I swear, I'll try," I said. "Has David been here?"



Lewis looked away. "Not yet," he said.



"Is it normal, him being gone this long?"



"You know it isn't. But there's no way we can check on him, so we'll just have to wait."



There was a discreet knock at the door, and it did the buzz thing. Lewis leaned back as a security guard leaned in. "You're wanted on the phone, sir," the guard said. "Conference call."



Lewis nodded, then gave me a distracted kind of grin. "Politics," he said. "Marion was right. There's always time for politics. Rest, okay? I'll come back."



I didn't trust myself to say anything. He left without a backward glance, and I tried to close my eyes and damp down the panic inside.



I'm trapped. They're taking me to prison. No, worse-they were taking me to screw around with my head, to keep me from hurting people.



I was, in Warden terms, mentally ill. Crazy with a capital K. Except somehow, I knew that I wasn't-and that if I let them mess with my head, that would be bad. Very, very bad.



A monitor beeped somewhere near my head. My heart rate was up, and getting faster. Some other electronic alarm joined the chorus-blood pressure? I felt sick all of a sudden, almost dizzy. There was a hissing sound in my head, like interference, and this terrible pressure inside my chest...



In the corner of the room, a shadow stirred. I couldn't see who it was for a second, and then once my bleary eyes focused I felt a jolt of sheer terror driving away what was left of my drugged sleep.



I had a visitor, and the visitor was me.



No...the visitor looked like me, right down to the nasty hospital gown and unkempt hair. But there was something cold and inhuman behind her blue eyes, something that wasn't me at all.



It just stood there, looking at me, and I could feel space warping between us, see the air shimmering and turning dark and thick.



We were drawing each other closer, but at the same time, I could feel the sickening drain on my life.



"Help!" I tried to scream it-Lewis hadn't gone far, he couldn't have-but my voice was a weak, choked squeak in my throat. Oh God. It took a step toward me, and I felt a corresponding surge of dizzying weakness sweep over me.



"Quiet," the Demon whispered, and moved even closer. I gasped for breath, but it was like breathing at the bottom of the ocean. I was drowning in the dark. "We're nearly there. Nearly there. You need to let go, let go and give me what I need."



I knew in a flash that this was why Jonathan had come to warn me. Right now, the Demon was missing something, something vital. Something I had.



And against all odds, I needed to hang onto it.



I needed to fight for my life, because I was the only one who could.



Of course, I was also drugged and tied to a bed, but nobody promised it was going to be easy.



David. God, David, please.



If he could hear me, he couldn't respond. Maybe he was hurt, or imprisoned, or just cut off and unable to get to me. I could almost feel him out there, feel his frustration and fear, but...



Look inside.



It was a whisper, and I didn't know where it was coming from, but it steadied me. I got my breath and reached deep within, reached in for something I didn't even know I had.



Power flowed up through me, thick and honey-sweet, slow as the heartbeat of the Earth herself.



Yes. There. Just like that.



The restraints were leather and metal, both things that Earth Wardens could manipulate and control. I dissolved them into sand, pulled my wrists free of the gritty pile, and rolled painfully up to my knees to face the Demon.



She stopped moving, staring at me. If I scared her at all, I couldn't tell it from her expression.



"Back off," I panted. "Right now." As a threat, it was pretty empty...I didn't have a clue how to hurt this thing. But she was standing there, waiting, frowning just a little. Maybe she didn't know much about me, either.



Maybe she was just a little bit afraid.



She said, with an eerie flatness, "There you are. I've been searching for you. It's time to finish this." She held out a hand toward me, and I felt the shimmering, sickening blackness sink deeper into me. "Do you know who I am?"



My voice was barely a whisper. "Demon." I didn't doubt that, not at all. There was something so utterly wrong about her...



"No." Something changed in her expression-no longer doll-blank, but a glimmer of something else. Life. Personality. My personality. "Not anymore. I'm becoming something else. I'm becoming you."



I swayed on my knees, too sick to move, too terrified to do anything. She came closer, and with every step, she was...more me. Expression, body language, confidence. Even the smile.



"Why are you doing this?" I managed to whisper. Her fingers were moving toward me, and I knew, knew without the shadow of a doubt, that if she touched me, it was all over.



"No choice," she said. "Your memories changed me. I have to complete the process. Only one of us in this world, and it will be me. You're weak. I'm the stronger."



"No." My breath felt thick and stale in my lungs already, as if I was gone and didn't know it. "David-"



That smile was definitely mine, right down to the lopsided twist at the corner of her lips. "He won't know. Nobody will know, because I won't be pretending-I'll be you. Completely."



I fell backward as her fingers moved toward me; I rolled over and used the cold metal bars of the hospital bed to pull myself to a sitting position. I lashed out with Earth powers, feeling for the cold, solid structure and heating it at the atomic level; the metal sagged, turned liquid, and hit the floor with a hiss.



I rolled off the edge of the bed, avoided the molten mess, and backed away. I was in a corner, and the Demon was between me and the door. My head felt like I'd slammed it in a door a couple of times, and my whole body seemed cold, on the verge of giving up.



The building was made of concrete and metal and wood, and under normal circumstances that might have posed a problem, but I was beyond panic, and I was beyond controlling the surging, deadly flow of the Earth power in my body. I lashed out and felt the concrete soften. I liquefied the metal struts in the wall, and blew a hole in it with a compressed ram of air that manifested so suddenly it made my ears pop from the pressure.



The wall collapsed in a hail of debris and sparks, and I stumbled over it, barefoot and dazed. All I wanted was to get away, to get to Lewis and find some kind of protection if nothing else...



Lewis wasn't in the next room. Dr. Lee, two nurses, one security guard who fumbled for his sidearm at the sight of me. I must have been pretty scary; he took his time.



And then the other me stepped through the rubble behind me, and I saw Dr. Lee and the others perceive, if not comprehend, the impossible.



My double made an annoyed sound. "Now you've done it."



I didn't know what she was going to do before I felt the balance of power in the room tilt-tilt drastically-and before I could even try to grab for it everybody in the next room exploded into flames, screaming. Dr. Lee. The nurses. The armed security guard, who whirled in a confused blur of combustion, trying to smother the blaze. I stared numbly at them, unable to react for a second, and then grabbed the oxygen from around their bodies to smother the fire. They dropped, but only one was still screaming. Even though I'd reacted, it hadn't been fast enough; they were badly burned, maybe dying.



I whirled to look at the Demon, but there was no sign of her. I could feel her, though. She was here, somewhere just out of sight. I felt the sick surge in my chest, and knew she was very close.



I couldn't do anything for the victims. I ran for the door, sobbing for breath, and clawed it open. Beyond was the waiting room, empty of everyone. I heard alarms screaming, and as I got my bearings I heard a door open to my right.



Kevin looked out.



"Inside!" I screamed, and reached out with a blast of hardened air to push him back, grab the door, and slam it shut. I melted the lock, too. "Don't come near me!" I kept replaying it in my head, those startled people turning toward me, then the flames...that had been my fault. I hadn't realized how ruthless she was.



I couldn't take the chance she'd hurt someone else.



I heard Lewis's voice, and the temptation to run toward him was very strong, but I thought about what could happen. I can't. I can't risk him. I need to get out of here, now.



I felt the blackness pressing in again, close and thick, and stumbled drunkenly against a coffee table. I looked down at it, picked it up on a cushion of air, and hurled it full force against the plate glass window on the other side of the room.



It bounced off. Hardened glass.



I forced myself to think. Even hardened glass was silica, and silica was something Earth Wardens could manipulate. I started to unravel its chemical structure, returning it to its base elements. Given time, I'd have just dissolved it into a pile of sand, but that wasn't fast enough. As soon as I got the process fully started, I launched the coffee table at it again with the force of a battering ram, and this time, the whole window shattered with a tremendous crash.



I scrambled up, heedless of the broken shards, and was just about to jump when something hit me with tremendous force, right in the back, and slammed me face-first into the ground outside. I tried to roll over, but it felt like a freight train was parked on my back.



That was it. I was about to die. I decided to commemorate it by cursing the Demon's heritage, its hygiene, its sexual habits...



And then a very soft, high-pitched voice, right next to my ear, said, "I'm trying to save your life. Please shut up now."