Heat Stroke (weather Warden, Book 2)

HEAT STROKE BOOK TWO OF THE WEATHER WARDEN SERIES Rachel Caine This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Heat Stroke: Book 2 of Weather Warden series A ROC Book / published by arrangement with the author All rights reserved. Copyright © 2005 by The ROC Publishing Group. This book may not be reproduced in whole or part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. Making or distributing electronic copies of this book constitutes copyright infringement and could subject the infringer to criminal and civil liability. For information address: The ROC Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014. The Penguin Putnam Inc. World Wide Web site address is http://www.penguinputnam.com ISBN: 0-7865-6153-X A ROC BOOK® ROC Books first published by ROC Publishing Group, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New Yor- 10014. ROC and the "ROC" design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Putnam Inc. Electronic edition: September 2005 The author wishes to thank: Cat Conrad Joanne Madge P.N. Elrod Kelley Walters Annie Wortham Leah Rosenthal Sharon Sams Glenn Rogers Michael Shanks Joe Bonamassa Kenny Kramme Eric Czar ORAC SDJ Lucienne Diver Laura Anne Gilman . . . not that she personally knows all of them. But they’re deserving of gratitude anyway. Said the Lion to the Lioness—‘‘When you are amber dust— No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun (No liking but all lust)— Remember still the flowering of the amber blood and bone, The rippling of bright muscles like a sea, Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws Though we shall mate no more Till the fire of that sun the heart and the mooncold bone are one.’’ Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of Time— ‘‘The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun Is greater than all gold, more powerful Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes Like all that grows or leaps . . . so is the heart More powerful than all dust. Once I was Hercules Or Samson, strong as the pillars of the seas: But the flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind Is but a foolish wind.’’ ..................... —Edith Sitwell, ‘‘Heart and Mind’’ PREVIOUSLY . . . 6 My name is Joanne Baldwin, and I used to control the weather. No, really. I was a member of the Weather Wardens. You probably aren’t personally acquainted with them, but they keep you from getting fried by lightning (mostly), swept away by floods (sometimes), killed by tornadoes (occasionally). We try to do all that stuff. Sometimes we even succeed. But I ran into something bad—something that threatened to destroy me from the inside out—and when the Wardens turned against me too, I ran for my life. I spent a memorable week looking for a man named Lewis Levander Orwell, who I thought just might be able to save my life. I picked up a friend named David along the way, who turned out to be way more then he seemed. I found Lewis. It didn’t help. I died. Luckily for me, David didn’t let it end there. But now I’m still on the run—only now I’m one of them. A Djinn. At least I still have a really fast car. . . . ONE 6 There was a storm brewing over Church Falls, Oklahoma. Blue-black clouds, churning and boiling in lazy slow motion, stitched through with lightning the color of butane flames. It had a certain instinctual menace, but it was really jus