by Eileen Wilks
Rule crouched in front of José now.
The black wolf sat stiffly, not looking directly at his Lu Nuncio. The smell of blood clung to him. José was a strong and skilled fighter with excellent control as well as the three kinds of sense a warrior needs—tactical sense, common sense, and people sense. That’s why Benedict had put him in charge of the bodyguards.
But this was his first human kill.
“You did right,” Rule said, his voice pitched low enough that none of the humans around them would hear. “You assessed the situation and did as you’d been taught. Three attackers, all armed—you had to stop them quickly or risk my nadia’s life. Taking out the one with the gun frightened the others into surrendering. Lily trusted you to guard her back. You didn’t fail her.”
The black wolf’s head lifted slightly. He looked Rule in the eye for one second, then away, his head dipping in a small nod.
Rule shifted to subvocalizing—speaking softly deep in his throat without moving his lips. “You are to say that Lily signaled you to attack. She realized you were following her, and when trouble erupted, she signaled you in the same way I would have, had I been here.”
José’s ears pricked up. Another nod.
Rule raised his voice to a normal level. “You’re ready to Change, then? The officers would like to take your statement.” He stepped back.
Rule knew Lily couldn’t see what happened during the Change. He wondered if that was because she hadn’t grown up seeing it, as he had. He’d read that the visual cortex of a person who’d been blind from birth was used to process the other senses, and so was not available for vision. Perhaps Lily’s brain would eventually learn how to process this kind of seeing.
Or perhaps not. Rule watched as José opened the door to another reality, one where moon and earth were one, just as man and wolf were one. For those few seconds he saw both José’s forms existing in the same space at the same time. For those few seconds, what he saw made perfect sense.
Then José was a man only, the wolf gone. Rule handed him the cutoffs he’d taken from his trunk. They’d do well enough for now.
Lily had been talking to one of the patrol officers. The two of them moved closer now. Lily looked at José—at his face, that is. Lily wasn’t entirely comfortable with nudity, and José was just then stepping into the cut-offs. “José, this is Officer Munoz. He needs to ask you some questions.”
José looked at the young patrolman, whose face was frozen in his best Jack Webb impression: just the facts, ma’am or sir. José’s nod looked much the same in this form as in his other one. “Let’s get to it, then.”
Lily gave a little jerk of her head, telling Rule to come with her. He did.
She stopped several feet away from the nearest officer. “You told him to say I signaled him?”
“I did. Ah—should it come up, you used the one I taught you.” He made a surreptitious movement with one hand—palm held vertically, perpendicular to his body, with the fingers tight and straight. Two quick slashes. It was the standard Nokolai hand signal for attack. He’d already told Jacob to make the same claim.
Lily was relieved. “Good. It’s not that deceitful. If I’d known they were there, I sure as hell would have signaled them.”
Rule had been halfway to the city when he realized he wasn’t going to make it to the apartment before Lily left for her meeting. He’d decided to follow his father’s suggestion after all, and called José, telling him he didn’t want Lily to know she was being guarded.
The mate sense had told Rule where to go, and the Oceanview Mall was closer to the city’s edge than the apartment, so he’d managed to arrive in time to hear shots fired. By the time he leaped from his car, he’d been ready for battle—but the battle was over.
He’d raced to Lily and run his hands over her, demanding to know that she was all right. She’d allowed that. She’d even clung to him for a moment—and whispered in his ear that he needed to tell his people they’d acted on her signal.
“Will your deputy confirm this?” he asked.
“He wasn’t in a position to see, so it doesn’t matter.”
“You think this is necessary, then? My people acted with no more force than necessary. They saved your life and probably the deputy’s as well.”
“I like to think I would have come up with something if they hadn’t been here. There were a lot of attackers, but they were sloppy. Didn’t make me for a serious threat, probably, or they’d have just shot me instead of waving their guns around and yelling. But yeah, José and Jacob saved lives today. Either mine or some of the gangbangers, because I was going to have to shoot them to stop them.”
“That’s reason enough for force, according to the law.”
“This way, though, people will read about two lupi attacking on the signal of an FBI agent. A human FBI agent. They won’t focus on how big and scary you lupi are because these wolves were under the control of a human who’s allowed to use deadly force. It’s like with guns. When people read about a nutcase going postal and shooting up a crowd, guns are scary. When people read about a police sniper using a rifle to take out a killer who’s got hostages, they don’t think, ‘Wow, rifles are scary.’”
Rule smiled slowly. “That’s spin. PR.”
“Don’t talk ugly to me.”
“I’ve been waiting for you to ask what the hell I thought I was doing, sending the guards trailing you without letting you know.”
She snorted. “It’s obvious what you were doing. Why, though—that’s a good question. If you’d had anything solid to worry you, you’d have called me. So was it just a hunch? Or was it because the meet was with Cody, and you weren’t a hundred percent sure of me?”
“Don’t talk ugly to me.”
She smiled and brushed his hand quickly. “Yeah, but when I said that, there was a grain of truth in what you’d said. So . . . ?”
“Do you seriously think that if I suspected you of, ah, sneaking around, I’d send two of my people to catch you at it?”
“Put that way—no.”
“Good.” Yet Rule felt uncomfortable. He hadn’t lied. He did trust Lily . . . but he suspected that the fact that it was Beck she was going to meet had kept his attention on that meeting. Maybe it had fed his uneasiness. How could he tell?
It didn’t matter, he decided. If his feelings were murky, his actions were right. He wasn’t acting like a jealous man, so—
“I guess it doesn’t matter, then, that Cody said my ring was a big KEEP OFF sign.”
“Good.”
Lily tipped her head to one side. “Oh?”
“You’re thinking I’m jealous.”
One corner of her mouth tipped up. “Yeah, I am.”
“I’m not—at least, it’s similar to jealousy, I suppose, but I know you wouldn’t act on whatever feelings you have, but—” He stopped. Ran a hand over his hair. “Dammit, Lily. He matters to you. I can hear it in your voice.”
Deliberately she took his hand, her eyes steady on his. “Lots of people matter to me. I’m not in love with them. I am in love with you. Cody . . . I guess what you were hearing was unfinished business. He and I ended things badly, and that left all these messy regrets hanging around. Regrets about the way I handled things, not about us breaking up. How could I regret that? I’ve got you now.”
A small, dark place inside Rule opened up, releasing a heaviness he didn’t name. That lump of darkness met air, turned to mist, and evaporated. A smile spread over his face. The hand he held wore his ring. He ran his thumb over it. “And I have you.”
“You’re sounding pretty possessive there.”
And she sounded pretty amused. He didn’t care.
Beck chose that interesting moment to join them. He glanced at their joined hands, then spoke to Lily as if Rule wasn’t there. “I’ve got an APB out for Javier. I can’t figure this out. It isn’t his style, setting us up that way.”
“I imagine he got one of those ‘can’t refuse’ type of offers.�
�� She glanced at Rule, including him. “Just before I came here I got a tip from someone who knows what he’s talking about. Our perp’s taken over two small gangs and wants more. According to my source, he wants to run all criminal operations in San Diego. I’m betting these clowns are from one of the gangs he’s already co-opted.”
“I don’t know, Lily,” Beck said. “These particular scum are Soldados. They’re a small gang, yeah, but they’re vicious, ambitious, and territorial, and their leader is Cruz Montoya. He wouldn’t hand control over to some newcomer.”
“If he refused, he’s probably dead. We’re not dealing with the usual sort of perps, Cody. If . . . Looks like the detective’s here. I need to talk to—no, hell, I’d better get that.” She dug out her phone.
Rule recognized the ringtone. “Wouldn’t Ruben still be in the air?” He seemed to remember that Brooks’s flight was to land around ten.
She nodded, touching the answer link. “Lily Yu here.”
Rule heard Brooks’s voice clearly. “Lily, your family is in grave and immediate danger. That’s all I know, but I am completely sure of it.”
THIRTY-FOUR
LILY commandeered a patrol car. Beck’s vehicle was half a mile’s hike away, Rule’s was blocked by two patrol cars and an ambulance, and she wasn’t waiting.
She might not have gotten away with that if the detective who’d pulled up just as Ruben called had been someone other than T.J. He told the patrol officer to quit whining and give her the damned keys.
Beck insisted on going along. It made for a crowded front seat—but since the backseat was essentially a small, mobile prison, neither Rule nor Beck was eager to ride there.
Lily hits the lights, the siren, and the accelerator. Rule tried calling everyone he had a number for—Julia and Edward Yu, Susan, Beth. Nothing got through.
Before they were halfway there, the city went crazy.
The first call on the police radio concerned Godzilla. It was quickly followed by shots fired; a brawl at Walmart; giant ants; more shots fired; people running naked and screaming along a busy street . . . all in the general vicinity of Edward and Julia Yu’s home. When the first fire bloomed, opening its hungry orange petals on the roof of a home a block from their destination, they were still two miles away, but they saw the sudden glow.
Lily’s knuckles were white on the steering wheel as she took the exit ramp at high speed. “Grandmother knew this would happen. She knew.”
“You’re right. She was expecting this, so she’s prepared.” Rule tensed and drew hard on the mantles. “Shit.”
“Hell and damnation!” Beck leaned across Rule, grabbing for the wheel. Rule shoved him back.
“What is it?” Lily demanded.
“I just saw a demon like the one who ripped me open in Dis. I don’t know what the deputy saw.”
“People.” Beck swallowed. “Dead people. Bodies. The car’s bumping over them. I feel it. Can’t you—”
“No bodies,” Lily said grimly, “yet.” She swerved violently, narrowly missing another car as a semi came barreling at them, straight down the middle of the road.
“You’re sure.”
“I’m sure.” Lily braked for a turn onto a less busy, more residential street, then hit the gas again. “Close your eyes if you can’t deal. Rule? Is the, uh, technique Sam mentioned doing you any good?”
This street wasn’t as congested, but—“It was, but now I’m seeing people.”
Lily hit the brakes. “Those are for real.”
At least twenty people raced down the middle of the street straight at them. Screaming. The car fishtailed as Lily fought it. She got it stopped—but three people ran right into the stopped car. It wasn’t the darkness—their vehicle was lit brightly by headlights and its strobing police light. They simply didn’t see anything except whatever they believed pursued them.
Two got up and started running again. The third didn’t.
“I’ll get her.” Cody threw the door open.
Lily’s face was pale. “The Chimei’s throwing out a ton of power. If it’s centered on my parents’ place, the effect is widespread. We’re still a couple miles from the house.”
“Apparently she’s got a ton of power.” Rule tried calling again. Nothing.
In front of the car, Cody scooped up a woman’s limp body. Two cars whizzed past, going the other way. “Knocked herself out,” he called. “Open the back and I’ll put her in.”
Lily hit a button. “Come on,” she muttered. “Hurry.”
Cody slid the woman inside, slammed the door, and climbed in. Before his door was closed Lily stomped on the gas. The police radio squawked about a fire somewhere—there was a lot of static—then announced a “10-190 in progress at the Walmart at—”
It went dead.
“Magic surge?” Rule said.
“Probably. And the brawl at that Walmart we passed is now a riot.”
Cody yelped.
“Whatever it is, don’t believe it,” Lily said.
“So you’re not really sprouting horns right now, huh?”
Rule watched as a dozen gang members standing in a well-lit apartment parking lot drew guns and shot at them as they barreled past. He heard the shots even over the wail of their siren—but the sound was off. Muffled and wrong. He kept his voice steady. “I’ll need to Change as soon as we stop.”
“Okay,” Lily said. “Why?”
“That matter I discussed with my father.” She’d know he meant the mantles. “The wolf will be better able to listen in that particular way than the man.”
“Is it helping any?”
“I still . . . see things. Perhaps not as many as Beck is seeing. But my other senses aren’t as affected by the illusions.” They slowed for the next turn, this time onto a purely residential road. A man standing in his front yard leveled a rifle at them as they approached. “Is that man—” But he heard the gun go off.
“Shit.” Lily swerved. “Hit the rear of the car, I think. Oh, Christ.” She swerved again—this time to avoid hitting two bodies lying, bloody and still, in the street. At least that’s what Rule saw in the headlights.
Two blocks later, fire erupted directly in front of them. She didn’t slow, even as the flames leaped up huge and hot. Cody yelled something profane.
He saw it, too? Or did he think they were plowing through a swamp or a crowd of innocent people? Rule listened for the roar and crackle of fire—and didn’t hear it. But every window was lit with orange flame. “I can’t see anything but fire,” he told Lily.
“Good thing I’m driving. We’re nearly there. Shit.” She skidded to a stop. “Can you see anything?”
“Just fire.”
“There is a fire, but it’s over a block away. I’m stopped because the street is blocked by a three-car pileup.” She undid her seat belt. “I’ll go the rest of the way on foot. We’re close.”
“I’ll get out on your side, so you can guide me, if needed.” He hoped like hell that after he Changed he wouldn’t see fire everywhere, but if he did, he’d need help.
“Rule, if you feel the fire as well as see it—”
“Either you lead me or I follow blindly.” He looked at flames. But he didn’t hear them.
“I hate to say ditto,” Cody said. “I really hate it. But ditto.”
“All right. But if either of you feels fire as well as seeing it, get back in the damned car. And don’t attack anything unless I say so.” She opened her door. Rule could smell the fire, the smoky burned stink of it—but she’d said there was a real fire, hadn’t she? A block away.
Rule slid across. Drew hard on his mantle. And stepped out into flame.
He felt heat—but the heat of a hot day not yet cooled from the sun’s departure. Not the heat of burning. He wasn’t burning. He drew a breath and concentrated on the earth beneath his feet and listened.
Moonsong, sweet and cool and pure. Yes. It sang to him and to the mantles, and the mantles . . . Almost he heard them, too, echoin
g their own notes in that song. He pulled earth up through his feet, threw himself into the moonsong—and into the Change.
His body splashed apart in ripples of agony—and reformed, the pain gone as completely as if it had never been. His vision was lower down now, the colors flatter, the perspective subtly different. His hearing had sharpened, and the world was alive with scent.
And flames still licked the air, but they were gauzy, insubstantial. He saw through them, saw Lily frowning at him as she bent to pull her clutch piece from her ankle holster. He saw real fire, too—the one Lily had spoken of, behind them and a block to the west. Those flames crackled hungrily.
He gave her a nod—I’m well; I see you; I see truth now— and moved aside to let the deputy out. And saw that fake-fire coated the car like a virulent ghost. Just the car, for about three feet out.
Beck’s face was shiny with sweat as he hesitated by the open driver’s side door. The flames were real to him. Would he burn if he believed himself burning? Surely he couldn’t—
He shoved himself out—and started screaming.
Rule moved lightning-quick, grabbing the man’s shirt in his jaws and dragging him several feet, away from the ghost-flames. The screaming cut off. Beck lay on his back panting, eyes huge.
“Goddammit, Cody, you weren’t supposed to—are you all right?” Lily knelt beside him.
“Guess I’m alive.” He pushed up on one arm, shaky. “The fire’s all over the car, but it’s not here. God.” He held out a hand, turned it over. “I’m not crisped. It sure as hell felt like the skin was melting right off me.” He looked at Rule. “Thanks.”
“You’re both seeing fire,” Lily said flatly. “The same illusion. And it’s just on the car?” Rule nodded. “That’s not good. That’s focused on us, and it’s . . . shaped, intentional. It’s not just your fears being pulled from your head. She gave you fire on purpose.”
Rule growled and took a step forward.
“You’re right. Let’s go. Cody, can you—okay, guess you can,” she said as the deputy climbed to his feet. “Let’s move.”
Lily set off at a lope. Rule ran easily beside her—and the deputy kept up with both of them.