Read Online Heat Stroke by Rachel Caine - Free Book Online

partnership.”
    He was still facing the control panel, deliberating not looking at me. “I’m responsible for your safety, Jo. You have to let me make the decisions about what’s too dangerous.”
    â€œWhat’s dangerous about letting me know where we’re going?”
    â€œNothing. But you need to keep in mind that whatever Lewis is going to talk about, it’s to do with the mortal world. You need to be very, very careful right now about keeping separate from it.”
    â€œSo whatever Lewis wants, we’re going to say no, unless it has to do with the Djinn.”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDoes he know about that? Because if he does, I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t bother wasting the—”
    The elevator hadn’t stopped, and I was sure it had been empty when we’d gotten inside, but all of a sudden a third voice behind me said, “Ah, there you are.”
    I yelped and went south until I collided with an elevator wall; my body threatened to break up into mist, but I held it together. There was another Djinn in the elevator with us, leaning casually against the back wall. I knew her instantly, if nothing else for her neon-bright wardrobe. Today’s was a kind of electric eye-popping blue: flared pants, low-cut vest with no shirt beneath, beautifully tailored jacket. Blue was a good color on her. It accented the rich dark-chocolate shade of her skin. Her elegantly tiny shoulder-length braids were plaited with matching neon blue beads, which clicked like dry bones when she tilted her head.
    Rahel had always known how to accessorize.
    Djinn, I was coming to understand, had a flare for the dramatic, so popping in unannounced wasn’t necessarily threatening. Rahel had done this to me before, in the days when I still had a pulse and ahuman lifespan. The first time I’d met her, she’d blipped into existence in the passenger seat of my car, which had been doing seventy at the time. I’d barely kept it on the road.
    She’d enjoyed the joke then, and she was clearly enjoying it now. She crossed her arms, leaned back against the elevator wall, and took in the reaction with a smile.
    Unlike me, David didn’t seem surprised at her sudden appearance. He slowly turned to face her, and his expression was a closed book. “Rahel.”
    â€œDavid.”
    â€œNot that I’m not happy to see you, but . . .”
    â€œBusiness,” she said crisply.
    â€œYours or mine?”
    â€œBoth. Neither.” Not really an answer. “You know whose business it is. Don’t you?”
    No answer from David. Rahel hadn’t paid the slightest attention to me, but now her vivid gold-shimmering eyes wandered my direction and narrowed with something that might have been amusement, or annoyance, or disgust. “Snow White,” she said. “ Love the perm.”
    Defending my hairstyle was the least of my worries. “Rahel, what the hell is going on?” Because there was no question that trouble was brewing. No coincidence that Lewis was trying to get me, and then Rahel popped in with urgent business. I could feel the gravity, and we were right in its center.
    She didn’t answer, not directly. She turned her attention back to David and shrugged. “Tell her.”
    David shoved his hands in his coat pockets andleaned against the wall, considering her. “Oh, I don’t think so. If Jonathan wants to see me, let him come find me. I don’t come running to him like a kid to the principal’s office.”
    â€œDo you imagine I’m giving you a choice?” she asked, silky as the finish on a knife. The tension already swirling in the air between them turned thick and ugly. “This is a bad place for you to fight me, David. And a very bad time, don’t you agree? He wants to see you. It’s not an invitation you refuse, you know that.”
    The elevator dinged to a stop on the third floor. Doors