Every window in the building was now belching white smoke. And the picture seemed to have gone washed-out and pale, because there were no more vivid orange flames against the darkness.
The fire was simply gone.
"I really don't know what's happened, Regina.... I think I can safely say that everybody here is very thankful. ..."
The camera zoomed in on the face in the window. It was still difficult to make out features, but Jez could see coffee-colored skin and what seemed to be a calm expression. Then a hand reached out to gently pick up one of the melted plastic buckets and take it inside.
The picture froze. Morgead had hit Pause.
"They never did figure out what stopped the fire. It went out everywhere, all at once, as if it had been smothered."
Jez could see where he was going. "And you think it was some sort of Power that killed it. I don't know, Morgead--it's a pretty big assumption. And to jump from that to the idea that it was a Wild Power-"
"You missed it, then." Morgead sounded smug.
"Missed what?"
He was reversing the tape, going back to the moment before the fire went out. "I almost missed it myself when I saw it live. It was lucky I was taping it When I went back and looked again, I could see it clearly."
The tape was in slow motion now. Jez saw the burst of orange fire, frame by frame, getting larger. She saw it crawl up to engulf the window.
And then there was a flash.
It had only showed up as a flicker at normal speed, easily mistaken for some kind of camera problem.
At this speed, though, Jez couldn't mistake it.
It was blue.
It looked like lightning or flame; blue-white with a halo of more intense blue around it. And it moved. It started out small, a circular spot right at the window. In the next frame it was much bigger, spreading out in all directions, fingers reaching into the flames. In the next frame it covered the entire TV screen, seeming to engulf the fire.
In the next frame it was gone and the fire was gone with it. White smoke began to creep out of windows.
Jez was riveted.
"Goddess," she whispered. "Blue fire."
Morgead ran the tape back to play the scene again. " 'In blue fire, the final darkness is banished; In blood, the final price is paid.' If that girl isn't a Wild Power, Jez ... then what is she? You tell me."
"I don't know." Jez bit her lip slowly, watching the strange thing blossom on the TV again. So the blue fire in the poem meant a new kind of energy. "You're beginning to convince me. But-"
"Look, everybody knows that one of the Wild Powers is in San Francisco. One of the old hags in the witch circle-Grandma Harman or somebody- had a dream about it. She saw the blue fire in front of Coit Tower or something. And everybody knows that the four Wild Powers are supposed to start manifesting themselves around now. I think that girl did it for the first time when she realized she was going to die.
When she got that desperate."
Jez could picture that kind of desperation; she'd pictured it the first time, when she'd been watching the fire live. How it must feel... being trapped like that. Knowing that there was no earthly help for you, that you were about to experience the most terrible pain imaginable. Knowing that you were going to feel your body char and your hair burn like a torch and that it would take two or three endless minutes before you died and the horror was over.
Yeah, you would be desperate, all right. Knowing all that might drag a new power out of you, a frantic
burst of strength, like an unconscious scream pulled from the depths of yourself.
But one thing bothered her.
"If this kid is the Wild Power, why didn't her Circle notice what happened? Why didn't she tell them, 'Hey, guys, look; I can put out fires now?'"
Morgead looked annoyed. "What do you mean, her Circle?"
"Well, she's a witch, right? You're not telling me vampires or shapeshifters are developing new powers like that."
"Who said anything about witches or vampires or shapeshifters? The kid's human."
Jez blinked.
And blinked again, trying to conceal the extent of her astonishment. For a moment she thought Morgead was putting her on, but his green eyes were simply exasperated, not sly.
"The Wild Powers... can be human?"
Morgead smiled suddenly-a smirk. "You really didn't know. You haven't heard all the prophecies, have you?" He struck a mocking oratorical pose. "There's supposed to be:
One from the land of kings long forgotten; One from the hearth which still holds the spark; One from the Day World where two eyes are watching; One from the twilight to be one with the dark."
The Day World, Jez thought. Not the Night World, the human world. At least one of the Wild Powers had to be human.
Unbelievable... but why not? Wild Powers were supposed to be weird.
Then she thought of something and her stomach sank.
"No wonder you're so eager to turn her in," she said softly. "Not just to get a reward-"
"But because the little scum deserves to die-or whatever it is Hunter has in mind for her." Morgead's voice was matter-of-fact. "Yeah, vermin have no right developing Night World powers. Right?"
"Of course right," Jez said without emotion. I'm going to have to watch this kid every minute, she thought. He's got no pity at all for her-Goddess knows what he might do before letting me have her.
"Jez." Morgead's voice was soft, almost pleasant, but it caught Jez's full attention. "Why didn't Hunter tell you that prophecy? The Council dug it up last week."
She glanced at him and felt an inner shiver. Suspicion was cold in the depths of his green eyes. When Morgead was yelling and furious he was dangerous enough, but when he was quiet like this, he was deadly.
"I have no idea," she said flatly, tossing the problem back at him. "Maybe because I was already out here in California when they figured it out. But why don't you call him and ask yourself? I'm sure he'd love to hear from you."
There was a pause. Then Morgead gave her a look of disgust and turned away. A good bluff is priceless, Jez thought. It was safe now to move on. She said, "So what do the 'two eyes watching' mean in the prophecy?" He rolled his own eyes. "How should I know? You figure it out. You've always been the smart one."
Despite the heavy sarcasm, Jez felt a different kind of shiver, one of surprise. He really believed that.