Weather Warden 1
Rachel Caine
CHAPTER ONE
Joanne Baldwin leaves a business meeting behind in Florida to race up to Connecticut. She doesn’t know how long she has to live. The storm seems to have been chasing her the whole way. She goes off into the suburbs and arrives at a well maintained house. As she approaches, she can feel the wards that are protecting the house. She knocks on the front door and rings the doorbell, but the house seems empty. She goes around to the back door and knocks there and tries to peer in the window. She tries to throw a rock through the window, but it bounces off the wards. A djinn answers the door and is not happy to see her. She asks to speak with Lewis Lavender Orwell The djinn doesn’t find her worthy of being dealt with. Joanne uses her ability to summon wind to keep blowing him back until he gets fed up with her. He picks up a cell phone and makes a call. He says she can expect a call when Lewis is ready.
Joanne drives her 1961 Mustang southwest away from the Easter storm. She wishes she had a chance to pack some things before she left her home in Florida. She has a credit card for emergencies, but she knows it could be used to track her. A message comes through the radio in clips of voices. It tells her to go to Oklahoma City. She asks if she can have proof the message is from Lewis, but she is given a “no” and the. The radio turns off. She decides she will take her chances that the djinn is messing with her as payback and starts heading for OKC where at least she has a friend.
Lewis already had his JD by the time Joanne met him at Princeton. He wanted a backup plan of the magic didn’t out. He was recruited at 15, but people had trouble seeing what his abilities where until one day he was growing rose bushes in the middle of the snow. He ended up having an affinity for earth and fire (a rare combination). One night, they went to a party at a fraternity with a girl that played flute. Paula Keaton and Ed Hernandez went with them. The flute girl wandered off once drink. When Lewis accidentally spilled a drink, six guys started beating him up. Joanne was in such shock (and a bit intoxicated) that she couldn’t react in time to do anything. He called on water and wind and flung the six guys against a building 30 feet high with bone crushing force and let them fall. The association arrived and three of the most powerful wardens escorted him away.
Pulling her cell phone out of bag, Joanne dials Estrella Almondovar, AKA Star, who is not happy to be woken up at six am. Joanne tells her she is heading her way because she is looking for Lewis, who no one has been able to find since he disappeared. Star asks if she is in trouble and says that was what Joanne brought her last time she visited. Star asks if she has heard anything about her; she worries minds might have changed. Joanne tells her they decided to let her keep what she has left. Usually when people leave the Wardens, they strip them of their powers. Joanne wouldn’t be surprised if someone showed up to take her powers sometime down the line, but she doesn’t tell Star that. Joanne wants to keep her as uninvolved as possible. Star, Lewis, and Paul are the only people she trusts. Joanne bears the Demon Mark and knows it can get anyone who helps her in trouble.
At fifteen, Joanne’s mom was dating a guy, Albert, and they all went to Yellowstone National Park for camping and hiking. Joanne can admit it was beautiful, but it was also boring and she wanted to go home to her friends and TV. One day, they are hiking and reach the top of a peak. Joanne says it is going to rain. With the sky being bright blue, Albert doubts her and makes fun of her. Joanne tries to explain how weather works. Her mom thinks they should head back and they do. They don’t make it and the storm hits just before they reach the weather station. Joanne can feel the storm is trying to get her and she drops to the ground to avoid a lightning strike. Someone grabs her and gets her into the ranger station. She sees her mom and Albert are already inside. Star introduces herself and asks if Joanne has already recieved her letter from the association. She says she has, but they won’t accept her until she is eighteen. Star suggests she start learning before then. She is in Yellowstone for an internship and then puts out the tree that is on fire from the lightning strike. Her affinity is for fire. They were best friends after that until Yellowstone burned.
Continuing down the road in Delilah the Mustang, Joanne knows she can’t just stop the storm from happening because it could have worse consequences. When she was a Weather Warden, she was very good at being subtle with her work. She makes small changes to the air as she drives to break up the storm that has made a turn towards her. She finally feels like she can stop and pulls over at the Kountry Kafe. Before going in, she travels in Oversight. She looks at her own aura and sees mostly blue with some green, but there is some red streaked through that not a good sign and from the Demon Mark. She checks out the vibe of the restaurant and decides she doesn’t want to eat there. She the. Checks on the storm and sees it has calmed down. She goes back into her body and continues driving.
Down the road, Joanne stops at a place called Vera’s. The owner, Molly, serves her and suggests pie afterwards. When she is leaving, she is almost struck by lightning, but is able to get into her car just in time to avoid it. She realizes someone is trying to kill her, not just nature. Though nature is a vicious predator that tries to kill the human parasites. Weather Wardens (control air and water) try to lessen massive storms. Earth Wardens try to keep planet-crushing catastrophes from happening. Fire Wardens try to keep the world from burning everything to ash. There is a bureaucracy in the Warden Association (High Wardens make up the World Council, then National Wardens, then Sector, Regional, and Local Wardens). When Lewis emerged with the ability to control all four elements, it seemed natural to put him at the top. He was experimented on, constantly asked to prove himself, and questioned. He ended up stealing three djinns from the Warden Association’s vault and went into hiding. As Joanne changes the charges of the air and water on the ground to protect herself, the strikes keep coming. Two days ago, Bad Bob died and Joanne was there. She is afraid she will be blamed for it and they won’t believe her once they find the Demon Mark on her. She calls up Paul Giancarlo who is a Regional Warden from Montpelier down to around Philadelphia. At first, he thinks she is causing the storm, but she explains it is after her and a lighting strike came almost too close. He says it wasn’t an order from the higher ups and tells her she needs to come in to see him in Albany. They are looking for her because they think she killed Bad Bob who had a lot of powerful friends. He says he isn’t going to turn her in.
At 18 Joanne had her interview for the Warden’s Association. Paul welcomed her into the room with the panel already inside. Martin Oliver, Marion Bearheart (Native American and State Warden for Florida), State Wardens for Texas, Montana, and Arkansas, and Bad Bob. They are a bit skeptical about letting her in because she tends to react before thinking. They bring up the storm she diverted from her house and how it totaled six other houses. Bad Bob tries to blame her for the death of two parents, but Paul reminds him the storm wouldn’t have been as bad if Bad Bob hadn’t made a mistake in the first place. They ask if property is ever worth saving over people. They then question her about scenarios with nuclear plants hunger centers and how losing them could impact more lives. They summon a storm in the room and she is scared. She tears it apart, windows shatter, and electric outlets smoke. Three vote against her being aloud in. The vote is tied at three and three and the decision comes down to Paul. He knows they all made mistakes when they were young and untrained. There is some concern about her level of power. They explained if she is not let in, she will go with Marion whose people will try to dampen her powers. Many don’t live through the process. Paul decides she will be a great Warden someday and voted her in.
Joanne arrives at Paul’s house but refuses to get out of the car. He tells her she will be safe, but she points out her door where the last lightning bolt came too close for comfort. He tells her they will work it out with Marion, but hoanne knows she can’t take that risk. He can see the red in her aura when he goes into oversight to look at her and asks if she is sick. She says she is and doesn’t know how long she’s got. Paul gets in her car to talk and tells her she has five hours to get out of his territory. She kisses him and he asks where she is going to go. She tells him she went to Lewis’ house and one of his Djinns answered. She is going to try to convince him to give her one of his two remaining djinns so she can get rid of the demon mark. He is shocked she knew where his house was. She admits she thinks Lewis was once in Love with her. He tells her Lewis wasn’t the only one as he gets out of her car.
She reminisces about how in her life, the good things were because of Paul and the bad because of Bad Bob. Bad Bob took down Hurricane Andrew by himself and gained respect as a very powerful warden. She worked for him in Florida, but he was so high up the chain of command, he was rarely around the office. In 2002, tropical storm Samuel was coming on strong and Joanne was assigned to work it with a partner, Tamara, from across the ocean. When she gets to the reception desk to sign in, she is talking with the receptionist, Monet, until she sees Bad Bob is signed in. They both say they don’t envy the person he is there to see. Joanne walks past a bunch of meteorologists to get to the conference room overlooking the ocean and finds Bad Bob there waiting to observe her work. She tries to ignore him and goes into Oversight. She notices the red around Bob, but decides to focus on the task at hand. She goes out to the storm and meets Tamara there. She should be the one sourcing since the storm is closer to her, but she hasn’t been assigned a djinn yet. Tamara uses hers and Joanne is overwhelmed by the amount of power the djinn supplies. About 30 minutes later, their task of calming the storm to a squall is complete and Joanne rushes back to her body from the shock of losing the power. Bob grabs her by the shoulder and tells her she is one of the most powerful he has seen in a long time. He complains of losing power as he gets older. Joanne feels like there is something in the room with them as Bob tells her she will cause damage like the young ones do. Whatever it is wants something she has. Bob seems ti snap out of it and tells her to leave. Joanne walks out of the building in a daze and goes to a ocean side bar.
CHAPTER 2
Paul sends his djinn, Rahel, to Joanne and she is granted one favor. She can see the mark burrowing into Joanne. She asks the djinn if she can remove it. The djinn says it would destroy her and that would not be in her master’s best interest because each warden only gets one djinn in their lifetime. Joanne makes a comment about the djinn being enslaved. Rahel explains creatures of fire can run wild if not controlled and so it is universally better if they are. She tells Joanne she can ask her one question. Joanne asks where Lewis is and Rahel says she already knows the answer. She asks f the djinn take take her to Oklahoma, but her favor is already spent. She asks the djinn to tell Paul she still loves him and is sorry. Rahel doesn’t promise to deliver the message as she tries to stay out of sexual affairs. Joanne tries to insist they are just friends. The Djinn disappears. She makes a quick stop to refuel and gets back on the road. She sees Rahel by a sign as she leaves Philadelphia and Paul’s territory. Around Harrisburg, she gets pulled over for speeding. She can see a cloud in the reflection of the cops sunglasses. While he takes her paperwork back to the cruiser. She goes into oversight and sees the storm isn’t natural. She is in a daze as she signs for the ticket and is relieved when the cop makes it back to his car unharmed. She continues on careful to stick to the speed limit, but still has about 7 hours to go.
The storm builds up again as it continues to follow Joanne. She knows it isn’t natural and something needs to be done about it. She calls up Paul and asks him to put a cold front on top of it so she can blow it apart with heat from below. She asks him to tell the Regional Warden, Armid, so he can deal with the results. He agrees and they hang up and she can feel when Paul starts. Two minutes later, she pushes heat up and the storm is broken up. Paul calls to tell her he hasn’t changed his mind. She understands and tells him she isn’t his problem any more. Right after she hangs up, wind hits the Mustang with the force of a train and she starts sliding off the road. She tries to get it under control as she sees a man in her path. She feels a thud before the car starts to feel like it is going to flip. It is knocked back onto its tires and she is able to bring the car to a stop. The man, David, a drifter by choice, comes up to her window to check on her. She checks him out in oversight and decides to offer him a ride. He gets in and they talk about how long they have both been in the road. He thinks everyone should spend time discovering the world. She prefers the luxuries of the modern world.
They stop at a gas station to fill up the car and get snacks. Joanne asks the owner working the register if there is a clothing store nearby. He tells her there is a mall not too far and points her in the direction. They go there and Joanne gives David $20 to go to the food court. She says she will meet him there in an hour and if he isn’t there, she will assume he got a ride with someone else. He says he will be there. She realizes he is too well dressed to be a normal drifter and as she walks away, she decides she will slip away when she is done rather than going back for him. She buys some clothes and toiletries. As she is walking with her bags, she suddenly starts to get dizzy. She sits down on a bench and fall over. When she realizes she isn’t breathing, she starts to flashback to past moments. She remembers having to form a bubble around a rat to deprive it of air. She is sitting in a classroom with Yorgensen showing her the solution to her problem; a memory of something that never happened. She quickly sees the molecules and turns the poisonous gas around her into air until the bubble pops and she can breathe again. David is with her and he is pale. She says hi to him before an oxygen mask is out on her.
After signing waivers and convincing the local doctor that she is fine, Joanne heads to the fools court and eats a ton of Indian He says he is going to Arizona to help out his brother Joseph. food. She tells David it would be safer for him to catch a ride with someone else. He doesn’t argue, but reminds her his pack is still in her car. They walk out and she grabs his bag to hand to him and is surprised at how heavy it is. He says he has a tent, portable stove, extra boots, and a few books in it. He kisses her cheek before he starts walking off. He turns back to tell her she is dressed like she shopped at Prince’s garage sale.
When Joanne was a kid, right after her father left with his secretary, her mom took her to Disney World. Her older sister opted for band camp instead. They arrived in Orlando with the weather men saying hurricane season was coming early. By mid day it was raining and they were the only two left out playing. It is the best time she ever had with her mom. When they found out about Joanne’s abilities, her mom wasn’t able ti accept them. Then she was suddenly gone from a heart attack. Joanne made sure not to get too close to anyone after that.
Not far out of town, Delilah the Mustang starts to sputter and Joanne gets it onto the side of the road as it dies. Not wanting to ruin her outfit, she pulls her more practical clothes from the trunk and gets in the backseat to change. Just as she is practically naked, there is a knock on her window. She looks up to see David and quickly covers herself until he turns around. When she gets out of the car, she opens the hood and starts checking to see what could be wrong. David sits on the side of the road and reads his book. She thinks he is following her, but he insists they are on the main way out of town. He suggests she try to start the car. Instead, she gets under the car and continues to make sure nothing is horribly wrong. When she does get back in and starts up the car, it starts up. She takes off, but slams on the brakes to let David in. She checks his palm for any markings and doesn’t find any. She thinks he might be a Wildling. She asks how he found her and he says luck. She notices a small cloud in the sky and knows the storm is starting to reform.
David is from NYC and therefore doesn’t drive, so they stop at a motel for the night. Once they are checked into their shared room, David gets in the shower and Joanne falls asleep on the bed. She dreams about a storm coming and when David accidentally wakes her up, she rushes to the window to check. She takes a shower next and when she comes out, David is ion the floor in his sleeping bag. She gets into bed naked and invites him to join her. He gets into the bed and tells her to turn away from him. He starts running his hand all over. Her and she can feel the demon mark moving in her. He tells it to stop and it does. She tries to ask how he did it, but he tells her to sleep and she drifts off to sleep in a wave of pleasure. She dreams about rain.
When they were both younger, Lewis came to Joanne in bad shape. He knocked on her door and was soaked from the rain. She brought him in, dried him off and fed him. She could tell he was sick and got him some medicine and let him sleep on the couch. She stayed by his side all night determined to keep watch. At some point, she does fall asleep and wakes up as Lewis is getting out of the shower. She makes coffee and he takes a cup. He warns her that the Wardens will be watching her and she shouldn’t give them the reason. There is sexual tension between them, but they know it is too dangerous for them to act on it. She makes him a care package with supplies. He gives her a folded up piece of paper with his address on it. He tells her to come to him if she ever needs him. She promises not to tell anyone. A few hours after Lewis is gone, wardens show up at Joanne’s house looking for him. She thinks now is the time for him to repay the favor.
Joanne wakes up slowly to find David and all of his things are gone. She looks around the room, but there is no trace of him. She feels disappointed that she let another man in and ended up feeling cold and lonely. She doesn’t let herself cry knowing it will lead to a full breakdown over the entire situation. She gets herself fully made up before packing her things. She feels like David is somehow still in the room as she quietly closes the door to leave. She decides she has time for breakfast.
At the Waffle House, Joanne gets her fill of food and caffeine. The storm is picking up, but she still has time. She doesn’t want to manipulate it at all because she thinks Wardens all across the country are looking for her now. She pays her bill and then a salt shaker somehow tips over and the lid falls off spilling salt in the counter. It spells out her name and tells her to go 25 miles and then make a left in Iron Road. She asks if it is Lewis. The sarcasm returned makes her thinks so. She repeats the directions and blows the salt away. A waitress comes to clean it up and asks if Joanne is okay. She points out that she is talking to salt and then leaves.
CHAPTER 3
Joanne keeps driving, but the road turns to sand and then ash below her. The car sinks until it isn’t able to move. Marion comes along with another earth warden, Erik, and a fire warden, …. She says she is there because Joanne’s trial is the next day and Marion is offering to take her in peacefully joe. She promises the next attempt won’t be as nice and asks her to get out of the car. As she does, Joanne tells her she didn’t do what everyone thinks she did. She tries to explain there was something wrong with Bad Bob, but she knows if she reveals her demon mark he passed on to her, it will be over for her anyway. Marion says she believes her, but Joanne can see that doesn’t help her case much. She makes a dive for the car, but Marion uses a vine to grab a hold of her. Joanne gals into the quicksand-like ash and holds her breath. She had the air around her form a bubble around her head and starts looking for something solid. She finds a human body and David puts his head into her bubble. He puts his mouth to hers to breathe air into her as he gets her out of the pit. The end up on the ground not too far away, but he hides her from the other’s view. She realizes he is a djinn and is upset he tricked her into thinking he was human. He warns her to stay quiet until the others go away.
Once there is enough distance between them and the wardens looking for them, Joanne and David make a run for it. They know they cannot go back for her Mustang, so they get into Marion’s SUV. David starts the car with a spark from his finger and Joanne starts driving. She starts asking questions, but he is reluctant to answer. After her asking for a third timen if he really is a free djinn, he confirms he is. As a free djinn, he has limited powers, but he also has the ability to hide from magic wielding humans. He flickers out of view for a second to prove it. He has been following her hidden in oversight. Joanne is careful about what she asks him knowing he can disappear at any time. She wonders how many free djinn are around if they can hide from humans so efficiently. She wants to ask more questions, but she he is reluctant to answer and she doesn’t want to force him because he is there voluntarily and could disappear in an instant. David leans against the door to take a nap. Joanne keeps driving.
Joanne remembers her first date with a boy named Jimmy. He mom dropped her off at the theater and went to do something shopping. They talked about their teachers before watching Star Wars. A storm raged over the theater. Jimmy ends up kissing her and after the movie is over, they decide to stay where they are to kiss more. The storm rips the roof off the theater. Jimmy tries to pull her out of there, but Joanne yells at the storm to stop. After a few screams it does. Jimmy vomits and runs off. Joanne wonders why David reminds her of her first lustful feelings.
On the side of the road in Indiana, Joanne wakes up David. He tells her he has been making them unseeable (can only be physically seen, not found). She checks the backseat for any food they might have, but only finds a thermos. She grabs it just as they feel the storm angering again. They start moving. David asks why she is running and she ends up telling him everything.
After one day of working with Bad Bob, Joanne had had enough. She went to the beach to soak up some sun, but he found her there. He told her he wants her to work for him because she can handle herself. She tells him she isn’t interested in having him stare at her eight hours a day. He tells her the days would be much longer. He also says he can make sure she gets a djinn quick or not at all. He gives her his card before leaving. She is has a lot to think about and end a up packing up her stuff and leaving. She leaves him a message that she will be at his house the next morning at 7am. When she shows up, he gives her a cup of coffee. He is going on about how they will do great things together and she will speed up the work on his project. She realizes the coffee is Jamaican Blue. She drops it and blacks out. When she wakes up, Joanne is tied up in the couch. She tries to slowly lessen the air in the room, but Bob notices. He calls his djinn to hold her down while he takes the demon from himself and puts it into her mouth. The demon takes the last of Bob’s energy with him and Bob dies. Joanne goes into overbite to try to deal with the suffocating feeling of the demon inside her and a storm rages. The djinn tells her to use light to fight the darkness. She breathes in the djinn’s fire and it calms the demon. When two wardens arrive, Janice and Ulrick, they think she killed Bob. Joanne pushes them out of the way and ran to there car and took off.
David tells her she needs to give the demon to him. He is exactly what she is looking for and he can then be sealed and locked in a vault. If she dies either the demon in her, it will be released and cause worse havoc than what it did at the beach. She says she needs to think and sleep. He puts his hand across her forehead and she goes to sleep. When she wakes up, she finds she has been asleep for over 12 hours and David has been driving. They stop at a Loves so Joanne can refresh herself and they can eat in the diner. David tells her she is going to have to transfer the demon to him soon because it is already starting to move and take over her mind. She keeps saying Lewis will know what to do. They eat the breakfast they ordered and Joanne packs up their leftover muffins for later. They end up stopping at a hotel so Joanne can get some rest. David can tell the from inside her is starting to take over. He starts hurting her to get her to say the words that would allow her to transfer the demon to him. She says them twice, but refuses to say them the required third time to bind the djinn to her. She goes to take a shower and when she comes out, David’s stuff is still there, but he isn’t. She finds a bikini left for her and puts it in to go to the pool. She finds David in the hot tub and they end up having sex. She can feel the demon taking hold, but still refuses to give it to David. They go back up to their room and sleep. When Joanne wakes up, David is looking out into the parking lot. Joanne joins him and sees her mustang is in the parking lot. She gets dressed quickly and tells David they need to get out of there. There is a knock on the door and he tells her to hide in the bathroom. The outside windows shatter and David grabs Joanne’s hand and jumps out the window. He gets her to the mustang and tells her to drive away. She sees the glass being pushed at her through the air and all the innocent people around. She stops to send a wave of air back at the glass to slow it down enough for it to fall to the ground. David cleaning the car and they take off. Joanne can feel the lightning strikes building up and knows people will die if she doesn’t do something. She has David lend her some power and keep the demon in her quiet. She uses her ability to send all that energy to the mustang like a lightning rod.
CHAPTER 4
Joanne wakes up in a car and finds Star (Estrella) is with them. She remembers when she was working at a call center for the wardens and got a call from Star because there was an out of control Forrest fire. When Star started coughing and saying she is trapped by the fire (fire wardens have to work very close to the fire), Joanne goes into oversight. She finds Yellowstone and brings a cloud down over Star. She doesn’t hear Joanne telling her to run in her celebration. She made it out but was covered in third degree burns. She was stripped of her powers. Joanne felt responsible for not doing enough to help, but Star never blamed her.
Star stops the car for a pit stop on the side of the road. Before Joanne can do her business behind the bushes, a djinn, Rahel, appears. It tries to tell her she is going the wrong way and she must go back. She realizes the djinn doesn’t belong to who she originally thought. She tries to ask, but before she can finish her question for a third time, Rahel starts to strangle her. When Joanne says she isn’t giving up yet, Rahel leaves. David returns to see the other djinn leave.
When Star was injured from the fire and fighting for her life in the hospital, Joanne stayed by her side. When the doctors didn’t know if she would make it, she decided to ask Lewis for help. She went into oversight and waited for him to use his power. I hen she saw a bright white explosion, she knew it was him. She goes down to find he is in Yellowstone. She takes a plane there and drives to the park. A warden lets her in and she finds Lewis. He is helping the forest regrow a bit. He shows her that he can take a dead stick and turn it into a sapling. He says sometimes things need to burn, but this one got out of control. Usually with bigger disasters like that one, it is a demon trying to get through to someone. She asks him to help Star because her power core has been broken and it isn’t likely she’ll make it. He eventually agrees. He helps her and leaves. It is a few more days before Star wakes up and Joanne never told her that Lewis was there.
Joanne asks Star if she knows anything about demon marks. When Star asks if she has one jokingly, Joanne shows her the mark. Star tells her it has to go into someone stronger. Joanne is shocked by this. Bad Bob was one of the most powerful wardens and Joanne thought she was only a mediocre warden. Star asks if she has considered keeping it. Joanne knows she doesn’t want to keep it. Star says she knows of someone in Norman, OK that can help them find a masterless djinn. They arrive at a bookstore and Star introduces them to Cathy. She asks to use the book. Cathy is reluctant, but goes to the back to retrieve it. Star asks to borrow Cathy’s djinn, Alice, who refuses to listen to Star. Cathy gives her three wishes only. Star starts by making Alice hold the book. Joanne looks at the book and is surprised she can seem to read the unfamiliar symbols. She feels the wrongness of it and stops. She realizes the fire in Yellowstone was the demon trying to get to Star. When Lewis healed her, he took it away. Star is mad at Joanne for the loss of her demon and wants the one that is Joanne. Star tells Alice to transport her and anything she is holding to her home when she gives the signal. She tells Alice to take the demon mark from Joanne and then gives the signal. David and Joanne try to fight off the djinn, but she keeps coming. Joanne starts a storm in the bookstore, but stops when she sees Cathy trying to fight against her. Cathy orders Alice to stop and tells Joanne to leave. When they get outside, David tells Joanne he has to leave her if she will not agree to give him the mark. She tells him she can’t and he disappears. She starts driving and Rahel appears in the passenger seat. Joanne asks whose djinn she is. She
Says the djinn that Joanne first met was one that Lewis had freed, and so is she. She tells her that Joanne is the one that freed David. Joanne remembers breaking a bottle in Bad Bob’s home. She realizes David was the one to hold her down so Bad Bob could put the demon in her. She realizes that is why he offered to take it. She has no idea who to trust anymore.
CHAPTER 5
They are driving down the road and Joanne tries to figure out what her next move is. Rahel gives her hints and she realizes Star has Lewis. Rahel suddenly tells Joanne to pull over. When she doesn’t move fast enough, Rahel stops the car and pulls Joanne out. They get as far away as they can before a giant fireball hits the Land Rover. The fire starts to spread quickly. Joanne runs to a field of cows with a water trough and dives in. She tries to come up with a plan before the tub becomes a boil. Rahel pulls her out of the water when it is safe. She tells her she has to get to Star. She shows Joanne what Star is doing. She reads from the book to make David appear in front of her. Joanne goes into over site to try to find Star, but can’t. She uses Star’s cell phone to call her home number. When Star finally answers, Joanne begs her not to claim David because she loves him. Star does it anyway. She is upset that Lewis only healed her enough for her to live a disfigured and crippled life. She wants more power. She claims David. Rahel levitates with Joanne to the nearest car dealer. She fries the motherboard in the cameras before Joanne picks out a car to steal to get to OKC quickly. She initially picks a dark blue, inconspicuous BMW, but decides to go with a Dodge Viper instead. She drives as far as she can dare before stopping for gas. When she comes back outside from paying for it, Marion is there. She says she knows about the demon mark. Erik grabs Joanne from behind and tries to get her into the van, but she fights back. She tries to explain that she has to stop Star, but they say Star called them and told them where she was. Marion thinks she has turned on her only friend. Joanne tells them they can come with her and see and they agree. When they get to Joanne’s storm they has been following her and growing with her use of power, she pulls over and faces it. She can feel the other wardens that are trying to break off smaller pieces of the storm. She ends up going into oversight and making the storm spin faster to try to make it loose momentum. When a few wardens try to stop her, she pushes them away. Eventually the storm breaks.
Joanne continues down the road to OKC with Marion and her people following in the yellow Nissan Xterra. They come to a wall of wind that is meant to keep them out of the city. Joanne is able to manipulate it enough to get her car through and then creates an opening for Marion. David appears in front of her. She has to fight him off with her power because he is bound to Star. She calls the warden hotline and tells the young warden in training they need to evacuate the city. When she says she can’t do that and insists Joanne turn herself in, she asks to talk to the supervisor. Paul is there. She tells him both she and Lewis have the demon mark and there is about to be a showdown. She tells him to evacuate the city and asks him to send his djinn to hold off David so she can get to Star. When David reappears though, it is Alice that comes to fight him off. Paul gives her Star’s address and she drives. To the quaint looking house. She goes inside and finds Star finishing baking cookies. They talk for a minute before Lewis comes up from the basement. He looks horrible, but sounds normal. He apologizes for his actions before he punches her and knocks her out. When she wakes up, Joanne tries to convince her free David and let him destroy the book. In exchange, Joanne would turn herself in and claim Star was innocent. Star doesn’t like the plan and orders David to take the mark from Lewis. David does. Joanne then takes the mark from David and the two demons inside her kill each other. Joanne does in the process. David makes her into a djinn to preserver her. He brings her down and tells her to make herself flesh. She does and Lewis can see her. The house is burnt to nothing and Star dies. Lewis lets the wardens find him. Joanne is named a hero. She and David watch the scene unseen. She wishes she had parked the Vioer further from the house and it disappears and reappears for the road. David warns her not to do that, but luckily no one really noticed. They approach the car and Rahel meets them and calls her Ianna. She warns her not to trust a human unless she holds their heart in her hands. Joanne realizes Rahel knew exactly what was going on the whole time. Rahel says she will understand their ways someday. She opens the driver door for Joanne. She asks David why Rahel called her Ianna. He says it is a name of power. She says Joanne is too.