Blood Challenge

by Eileen Wilks

  Isen spoke. “You’ve accounted for only two deaths.”

  “George, Edgar’s man, had a broken jaw and probably a concussion, but he didn’t die from his injuries. He had a heart attack.”

  “A heart attack.”

  “I’ll take it from here,” Rule said. “George was farther from Arjenie than most of us, which is probably why he woke before the others. He was able to subvocalize despite his jaw, and confirmed that he’d used a potion on Benedict, expecting it to knock him out. Edgar ordered this. He believed it to be the price of his brother’s life. Brian—” His voice caught. Hold it together, he told himself. “Brian is being held captive. George didn’t know who held him, but I can guess. At any rate, Edgar felt he had no choice. He did order George to stand over Benedict and defend him if we were attacked.”

  Lily was frowning. “Edgar believed that? The kidnapper tells him it’s a knockout potion, and he believes it?”

  Rule gave a small shrug. “I don’t know what assurances he was given or why he found them credible. There wasn’t time for me to learn more. Isen, after I heard this much, I called Myron to come and bear witness. He was the only other Lu Nuncio awake at that point. Before he could, however, George suffered a heart attack.”

  “That’s what Lily said. I find it hard to believe.”

  “Whatever happened, it killed him.”

  “Cullen called it a heart attack,” Lily said. “I’m thinking he was given some kind of delayed action potion. Something to make sure he didn’t live long enough to tell us much.”

  “Hmm.” Isen could stuff a lot of doubt into a single sound. “How could such a potion be timed to work at exactly the right moment?”

  “Maybe it wasn’t triggered by the elapsed time, but by some other factor. Like when his healing went into overdrive because he was injured. I don’t know diddly about potions, but supposedly Dya’s people are really good at causing heart attacks.”

  “You’re thinking of Ruben Brooks,” Isen said. “But Brooks’s heart attack didn’t kill him. It’s a stretch to believe that he’s tougher than a lupus.”

  “Dya wouldn’t have known that Ruben has a trace of sidhe blood. That could make a difference.”

  Rule was hit by a thought. “Edgar didn’t die right away.”

  Lily looked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “He took a blow to the head, a hard one. But he was moving, trying to get up, shortly after that. Maybe it wasn’t the blow to the head that killed him. His injury would have triggered his healing. Maybe that in turn triggered a potion he’d been given. Maybe he died from a heart attack, too.”

  “Do you have his body?” Isen asked.

  “Yes. George’s, also.”

  “I assume Nettie will be able to tell if there’s heart damage. I’m getting an idea I don’t like.”

  Rule started to laugh, but stopped because it hurt. “I haven’t liked much about today so far.”

  “So far, our enemy has held the high cards,” Isen agreed. “But there may be a joker in the deck. Shortly before Lily called, I received a call from a young woman who wouldn’t give her name. She spoke English with an odd accent and claimed that Brian of Wythe asked her to call me. No doubt you’re making the same leap I did—that my mysterious caller was Arjenie’s mysterious sister. I believe we’re right about that. I kept a log, of course—”

  “A log?” Lily said.

  Rule answered briefly. “Shorthand.” Isen might routinely forget he owned a cell phone, but he was excellent with older information technology. He routinely jotted notes in Gregg shorthand during a call. “Go on,” he told his father.

  “First she asked me to confirm that I was Isen Turner. I did. Next she asked me not to interrupt or ask questions because she didn’t know how long the telephone lines would cooperate. I didn’t. She then said she’d been trying to call for some time, but . . . I’ll give her exact phrasing. ‘Phones and magic do not agree. Easy enough to disrupt, hard to make clear.’ She then said Brian named me because I was nearby and an ally, and was this true? I told her yes, and slipped in one question: Who was she? She said she was a friend of Brian’s who didn’t want him to die.”

  “Friar,” Lily said. “Robert Friar has him.”

  “You interrupt again—but then, unlike her, I didn’t ask you not to. Yes. She said it would be best if Robert Friar died instead of Brian, and perhaps I would kill him, and I was not to tell the authorities about Brian because Friar would very likely know and would kill him and possibly her, also. She said that if I act, I must act quickly. I will quote her again. ‘Friar does not listen to me. He makes his own experiments, and I think Brian is dying too quickly for my potions to help. Tomorrow I think will be too late. We are . . .’ Unfortunately, the call ended then in a burst of static.”

  No one spoke for a moment. “Well,” Lily said, “that’s definitely a joker. The big question is whether Friar dealt it to us.”

  Rule glanced quickly at her. “Her story agrees with George’s.”

  “Which could mean it’s true. Or it could mean Friar fed Edgar that story and made sure Dya pitched hers to match.”

  “You credit him with an amazing degree of cleverness.”

  “So far he’s winning. He probably did grab Brian, but we don’t know that Brian’s still alive. If—”

  “Of course we do,” Isen said. “If Friar had killed him instead of kidnapping him, the heir’s portion of the mantle would have returned to Edgar, who could not then have been blackmailed. We know, therefore, that Brian was alive at the time of Edgar’s death, because Edgar wouldn’t have staged things the way he did if his heir was dead. Now that Edgar is dead, Brian has inherited the full mantle. If anything happens to him, the Wythe mantle is lost forever.”

  Vexation crossed Lily’s face. “I should have thought of that.”

  “Such knowledge is not yet instinctive for you. Knowing that Brian is alive, our duty is clear. We can’t allow Wythe lupi to descend into pack-lost beasts. Also, Brian’s testimony will persuade the other clans as nothing else could.”

  “Dammit.” Rule’s hands tightened on the steering wheel as if he had Javier’s neck there to wring. “I don’t see any way out of the Challenge. Javier won’t believe anything we tell him, so he won’t agree to a postponement. Maybe his father would listen to you.” The Ybirra Rho, Manuel, was as calm as Javier was fiery.

  “Hmm. I could try speaking with Manuel, but . . . no, I think not. We’ll want to make sure Friar is aware of the Challenge. It will provide an excellent distraction for us to rescue Brian.”

  “How?” Rule demanded. “Hole-in-the-Wall is too far from Friar’s place for me to do both, and I don’t know if Benedict will be in any shape to lead a rescue party tonight.”

  “We’ll need Lucas, I think,” Isen said thoughtfully. “I’ve an idea how we can encourage him to help, despite whatever doubts he may have about Nokolai’s integrity. And Stephen, of course. I imagine he’s agreed to witness?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “With or without Benedict, you’ll have to lead the rescue party.”

  His throat closed up. He forced out two words: “Father. No.”

  Lily looked worried. “I don’t understand.”

  Isen said what Rule could not bring himself to. “Javier Challenged Nokolai, not Rule. Such Challenges are usually settled by the two Lu Nuncios, but there is another way. I will fight Javier.”

  FORTY

  ARJENIE woke up as they passed Clanhome’s gates. Lily gave her the high points—or low points—of what they knew as quickly as possible, but she wasn’t sure how much Arjenie took in. She was quiet, anxious, maybe shocky.

  Many people went through most of their lives without ever seeing someone die, much less by violence. Arjenie had watched her lover kill. It was going to affect her, it was going to affect Benedict, and it would damn sure affect how they were with each other. Lily didn’t know how and was trying not to think about it. None of her guesses came out happy.<
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  Nettie met them at door. She checked Cullen out briefly, told him his head would stop hurting sooner or later, then began unwrapping the elastic bandage around Rule’s ribs. While she did, Lily checked on Benedict.

  They’d put him on a couch in the living room, with two guards—one who made sure a sleep charm stayed in contact with his skin, the other ten feet away with a weapon drawn. Just in case. Interestingly, none of the lupi smelled the fury on him now, and hadn’t since he was knocked out. Whatever chemical exudation their noses picked up, it only kicked in when he was awake. But when Lily touched him, she still felt that oily magic.

  Less of it, though. That was a relief. Cobb had apparently thrown off the effects of the potion within a couple hours, but a sample of one didn’t guarantee anything. Of course, Cobb had also woken up suicidal.

  Sample of one, Lily reminded herself. Probably not applicable. Benedict wouldn’t be waking up in a tiny cell with no hope of freedom.

  When she straightened, Arjenie was talking to Isen, who’d put an arm around her. Nettie was standing in front of Rule with both hands on his bare rib cage, her eyes closed, muttering a chant.

  Lupi heal some things faster than others. Their bodies eliminate invading agents—poisons, drugs, bacteria—so quickly that the invader never has a chance to do any damage. When there is actual damage—from a knife, a bullet, a kick—healing takes longer. How long depends on the injury and the lupus.

  Rule was a fast healer, even for his people. Lily waited to hear just how fast.

  Nettie’s eyes opened. “That’s all I can give you right now,” she told him. “If I’m going to help Billy, I have to save some for him. You said he’s at Alvarado?”

  Rule smiled, bent, and kissed her cheek. “You’ve eased me considerably, Nettie. Thank you. Yes, I told Myron to take him to Alvarado. It was close, and you’ve spoken favorably of their treatment of spinal injuries. I’ll send Myron’s contact info to your phone so you can call him if you need to.”

  “Good. I’m going to wrap you again.” She retrieved the elastic bandage and began winding. “Compression will keep you more comfortable, and you don’t have to worry about pneumonia. Two of your ribs are cracked, not badly. They’ll be eighty percent healed by tonight. The third one was broken and displaced and poking your damn lung.” Her lips tightened as she fastened the binding. Nettie was offended by damage to her people. “No puncture, but it was abrading the surface, which your body kept having to heal. I got the ends lined up and there’s soft callus forming now. By tonight there will probably be some hard callus, but hard callus does not equal healed. That rib will still be fragile. You’ll be careful.”

  “As careful as I can.” Rule glanced at his father, who’d headed for the big dining table.

  It wasn’t until then that Lily noticed who else sat at the table—which just proved how distracted she’d been. A round, cheerful old woman sat at the table knitting. Her dress was full, fuchsia, and floral, sprouting blooms in a half dozen unlikely colors. Her hair was white. So were her eyes.

  Lily didn’t know what had caused the Nokolai Rhej’s blindness. Whatever it was, her lack of vision was more excuse than cause, Lily thought, for the woman’s habit of seldom leaving her cabin. Blindness was a loss for anyone, but less restrictive for her than for others. She was a highly Gifted physical empath, able to sense objects around her.

  But how did it let her knit? “Sera,” Lily said, using the title lupi gave her. Lily had been given permission to use her name, but she didn’t understand the rules for when it was and wasn’t okay, so she seldom used it. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

  “You’ll be talking about our great enemy,” the Rhej said, her head tilted down as if she were watching the needles busily clicking together. Whatever she was knitting was a much calmer color than she wore, a soft blue gray. “I’m needed for that.” She lifted her head for the world as if she were looking straight at Arjenie, who stood uncertain and alone several feet away. “Arjenie, isn’t it? Come sit by me. You and I will need to talk later.”

  NETTIE left—with, much to her disgust, an armed escort. Isen informed her she was potentially a target and she wasn’t going alone. The rest of them—save Benedict—sat down at the long dining table to plan.

  When Lily first became Nokolai, she’d thought of Isen as the clan’s CEO, setting general policies and goals, but handing off the implementation to others. The Council of Elders might be considered his board of directors. Rule was CFO; he handled the overall finances and investments. Benedict handled security. In all honesty, she’d thought Isen didn’t work as hard as his two sons. It had taken months for her perspective to shift enough for her to understand what his job really was.

  Isen handled the people.

  It was a full-time, hands-on job. Kind of like being a stay-at-home mom, she thought, a lot of what he did was invisible, with success measured in absences. Fights that didn’t break out. Arguments that didn’t deepen into enmity. Daughters who weren’t ignored. Sons who didn’t go wild. Men who didn’t stay stuck and angry in jobs they hated. And a lack of Challenges.

  Little c challenges were common in the clans. Lupi settled grievances and established status that way. They were fought either two-legged or four-legged, and with varying degrees of formality. Killing was not allowed. If you killed your opponent in a little c challenge, you could be put to death yourself if your Rho determined it was intentional. If the death was clearly an accident, you’d still be in big trouble.

  Big C Challenges were fought only in wolf-form. Internal Challenges could be issued to another clan member, to the Lu Nuncio, or to the Rho. There was a complex code for Challenging the Lu Nuncio or the Rho, and such Challenges were rare in most clans, most of the time. If a Challenge was issued between clan members, the Rho had to give consent. There was a good chance he’d lose one of his clan if he allowed it to proceed.

  In any Challenge, if a combatant submitted, his life must be spared. But by submitting he acknowledged himself in the wrong and bound himself to fulfill whatever penance or payment the victor decreed.

  A clan Challenge was like an internal Challenge that way. But since it was fought to settle differences between clans rather than individuals, if one Lu Nuncio submitted to the other, his entire clan had to accept whatever terms the other Lu Nuncio imposed. If the Rho of the losing clan refused the terms, he had two choices: repudiate his heir and remove him from the clan. Or war.

  That’s why Clan Challenges were rare and almost always to the death. Lu Nuncios were lousy at submitting and unlikely to give their enemy a blank check.

  Lily had learned some of this from Rule, some from the Rhej, whose job included teaching a new clan member what she needed to know. She wasn’t sure how it changed things when a Rho decided to answer a Challenge personally, but it was bound to raise the stakes.

  Rule’s father was over ninety years old. Those were lupi years, of course, but even in lupi years, that put him into middle age. Javier was young, quick, strong, and considered a very good fighter. Isen was rolling dice at an extremely high-stakes game, and the odds were against him.

  From what Lily could tell, he was delighted with himself.

  Oh, he was brisk enough as he opened by informing them he’d spoken with Manuel, who’d said that he backed his son’s decisions. No one seemed surprised by that. But there was a merry glint in his eyes.

  “I asked Cynna if she could confirm Brian’s presence at Friar’s,” Isen said. “She said she could certainly Find a lupus, if one was there. Earth doesn’t block her. Since it seems unlikely Friar is entertaining multiple lupi guests, I thought that would be enough. Given the quality and strength of her Gift, she didn’t think she’d have to get close enough to be in danger, but I sent Paul and Jason with her to be sure.”

  Cullen grunted. Clearly he didn’t like having Cynna anywhere near Friar, but he didn’t say so. “I’d like to know how Arjenie could knock out her bonded mate.”

  Arjenie l
ooked wan and worried. “I don’t know. I don’t understand this mate bond thing, but I thought . . . I was told my magic couldn’t affect Benedict. That’s why I waited so long. I had to think it out. I expected to knock out everyone but him and Lily and maybe Cullen. He—Benedict left the ones who’d fallen alone. I was scared he’d go after Lily if she was the only one standing, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “You did the right thing,” Lily said firmly. “I’ve an idea about why it worked the way it did. When a mate bond is new, it’s really tight. The obvious result is that you can’t be far apart, but with Rule and me, it also meant we got some . . . call it overlap. Not all the time, but when things were really tense, I got a bit of his hearing and he got a bit of my imperviousness to magic. It didn’t last.” She glanced at Rule, remembering where they’d been when she heard almost like he did. “Maybe when Arjenie knocked herself out, Benedict was tapped into her Gift, so it affected him, too.”

  “Hmm.” Isen was thoughtful. “So Benedict was vulnerable to what happened to Arjenie because of the mate bond, not in spite of it.”

  “I’m just guessing, but yeah.”

  He turned to Arjenie and spoke gently. “Arjenie, what do you want to do?”

  She blinked. “I’m sorry?”

  “You’ve had a difficult experience. Do you need a sedative or some privacy to think or meditate?”

  “You don’t want me to hear what you’re planning?”

  “I need your help in another way, if you’re able to offer it. We need to know more about what Friar built underground. Specifically, there has to be a back door. People have left through his house who didn’t come in through his house. I’m hoping you can find it.”

  Arjenie bit her lip, then thrust her hand out to Lily.

  Lily took it—winced, and let go. “You’re shouting.”

  “Sorry. I get anxious and try too hard, and . . . please.”

  Lily tried again. Arjenie may have been trying to think in clear sentences, but she was too agitated. Her thoughts tumbled over each other so quickly it took Lily a moment to sort out what Arjenie desperately wanted to say. “Isen, she wants you to promise you’ll rescue Dya, too, which means you have to get the tears for her. Arjenie can’t tell you what they look like, but Dya will be able to. She thinks Dya will be willing to leave now. Ah . . . she thinks Dya refused to leave earlier out of fear for her—Dya didn’t think Arjenie could get the tears without being caught—and because Brian needed her. That he needed the healing potions she made.”