by Eileen Wilks
“Not funny. Do you have any idea how long Rule and the others will be out?”
“No. Rule should come around first, though.” Cullen rose. “He heals quick, and he’s got a full mantle, unlike the rest of them. That will help.” He headed for the Lincoln. “And I wasn’t joking. If Benedict had intended to kill instead of damage, we’d have more than two dead.”
“He didn’t have time,” Lily said dryly. Her arm was hurting. She hadn’t noticed it much in the middle of everything, but now it pulsed with pain in time with her heartbeat.
Stupid arm. It hadn’t done a damn thing.
“Cullen’s right,” said a groggy but welcome voice. Rule sat up slowly. “I believe you haven’t seen Benedict fight before.”
Lily had been told often that Benedict was the best fighter in the clans. That he was something special. She hadn’t known what that meant, not really. It was still hard to believe she’d seen what she’d seen. “Ten to one will keep even the best fighter busy.” Even if he cut it down to seven-to-one in the first three seconds.
“I wouldn’t say that he held back, exactly.” Rule grunted as he rose. “Damn, those ribs feel a lot worse now than they did with the adrenaline going.”
“Your ribs? Rule, if they’re broken—”
He waved that away with the hand that wasn’t clutching his side. “They’re not badly enough displaced to put my lungs in danger. He could have broken my back instead. He didn’t. He didn’t hold back, but some part of him found non-lethal blows.”
“Not in every case,” Cullen said grimly. He’d popped the trunk and was pulling out a large white case with a red cross on the front.
“Sir,” Scott said, trotting toward Rule. “Lily said to—”
“Then do as she told you.” Rule glanced at Cullen. “How many died?”
“Gil and Edgar.”
Rule’s face went tight. After a moment he said, “George is alive?”
“Unless he’s got injuries I didn’t spot, he should make it.”
“We need to talk to him.”
It sounded like Rule’s mind was running along the same track as Lily’s. “He did something, all right.” Scott settled to the ground on the other side of Benedict’s peacefully sleeping body. She let him take over as holder-of-the-charm and used her freed hand to reach into her shorts’ pocket. “Benedict’s coated in some kind of oily magic. I’m guessing it’s from one of Dya’s potions. It’s what was done to Cobb, but not administered in a drink.” She glanced at Cullen as she pulled out her phone. “Is there such a thing as a tactile potion?”
“Probably.” He set the backboard down beside Billy but headed to George.
“Lily.” Rule’s voice was sharp. “Who do you mean to call?”
“9-1-1. We need ambulances, stat.”
“9-1-1 will give us police, also. If you call this in, Benedict goes to prison—probably for life, though only if they allow us to continue applying the sleep charm. If not, he’ll probably kill more people and they’ll shoot him. If he lives, Arjenie will have to take the cell next to his. She’ll spend her life in prison as well. The mate bond will no longer be secret.”
Lily scowled. “There are two people dead. There are others in need of immediate medical attention. We’ll have to sort it out later, prove that Benedict wasn’t acting under his own volition.” Using magic in the commission of a felony was a felony. Investigating that, finding the real perp—that’s what her job was about.
Rule just looked at her. “Arjenie said her sister’s potions were undetectable. How will you prove Benedict’s innocence to the law’s satisfaction?”
“I—” She wanted to say the potion was not undetectable, dammit. She was detecting it right now. But her word wasn’t evidence. No doubt there’d be screams about conflict of interest again, too. She might not be allowed to handle the investigation. “I don’t know yet. That doesn’t mean I won’t figure it out.”
And someone could die while they argued about it. Lily flicked on her phone.
“Lily.” Rule moved with that eerie speed he seldom used when he wasn’t fighting. He crouched next to her and placed one hand on her wrist. “I had to make a difficult decision in Nashville when we spoke with Cobb. I’m asking you to make a difficult decision now.”
“You’re asking me to cover up a crime.”
“Yes.”
She looked at his hand on her wrist. He applied no pressure. He could have easily wrested her phone away, taken the decision from her. He could have said that if she failed to prove Benedict innocent, he’d be convicted and given gado. He might survive with his sanity intact … for the first few years. Rule could have pointed out how little Benedict deserved that, no more than Arjenie deserved what would happen to her. Or that with the Great Bitch active in their world, Nokolai and all the lupi needed Benedict.
He could have told her he couldn’t stand to lose his brother.
Instead he waited. He trusted her to know these things. He trusted her to make the right decision.
Lily put her phone back to sleep and slipped it in her pocket. Nausea twisted in her belly. She didn’t know if she’d made the right decision. She didn’t know. “We need medical help. And someone could have seen the fight and called it in already.”
“I’m the medical help, for now.” Cullen studied the unconscious George. “I think I got his jaw back in place, but I should tape it up.”
“You can’t set a jaw that way.”
“You can’t. I can. I’m not saying I did it right, but the bones are lined up better than they were. Wouldn’t try it on a …” His voice drifted off. He bent closer, then looked at Rule. “Rule.”
Rule moved quickly to crouch next to Cullen. His back was to her, and the two men kept her from seeing George. “Is he—”
“Awake,” Rule said curtly. He bent lower as if the man had said something, though Lily didn’t hear anything. “No. Edgar is dead.”
This time Lily heard George. He keened, a high-pitched sound of grief.
One of the other bodies groaned. Lily looked over and saw Myron stirring. She pushed to her feet and headed to him, arriving just as he sat up, holding his head in both hands.
“If this is what humans feel with a hangover, I don’t see why any of them would drink. What happened?”
“I believe George used some kind of topical potion on Benedict that induced the fury.”
Myron’s eyebrows flew up. “You do? Ah, that would explain things. But what I meant was what knocked us all out?”
“Oh. That was Arjenie. She’s Gifted. She knocked herself out, too, doing it. Rule woke up a couple minutes ago.”
“That’s quite a trick. Wish she’d used it earlier.” He looked around, his eyes bleary. “How many of those bodies are dead?”
“Edgar and Gil.”
Myron winced. “Poor Gil. I never liked him much—he’s always been a bit of an ass, to tell the truth, but … I suppose you’re thinking Edgar was an ass, too. He wasn’t really. Just stubborn. Once he got hold of an idea—”
“Myron, I’m sorry to interrupt, but we have to move quickly. I don’t have Stephen’s number. Do you? Can you call him, get him to bring his men?”
“Guess we’d better tidy up before your compatriots arrive, hadn’t we?” Myron got to his feet. “I’ll call.”
Myron assumed she’d want to “tidy up” instead of cooperating with her compatriots. That bothered her. Everything about this bothered her. She looked around. “Everyone else is still out.”
Myron flipped his phone open and offered her the sickly cousin of his charming smile. “I may be a lousy fighter, but I’m a fast healer. If—”
“Myron,” Rule said. “I need you over here. I need you to listen to what George has to say. To serve as witness.”
“You’d do better to wait for Lucas,” Myron said, but he started toward Rule. Lily kept pace with him.
“You’re awake. He isn’t.”
George lay flat on the ground. Cullen ha
d straightened him, Lily supposed. His face was tight with pain, but his color was good and his eyes tracked them, so he was focusing.
“Maybe,” Myron said, “but no one will be amazed if Kyffin backs you up when … yes, Stephen. This is Myron. We’ve got a situation. The circle won’t be happening and you’re needed here with your men.” A pause. “Well, you can talk to Rule, but everyone else is either unconscious or dead. Except Lily, of course, because the knockout was delivered magically, but that was after Benedict went into the fury. Lily says he was dosed with some sort of potion, and George is the likely culprit. We could use some help getting … certainly.” He held out the phone to Rule. “Here.”
Rule grimaced but took it. “Stephen. We have two seriously injured and two dead. We need to get everyone away before—shit.”
George had blanched suddenly, his face turning pale and sweaty. His eyes went frantic. Cullen laid his fingers on George’s neck, scowling.
“Cullen, what’s—”
“Shut up.” He bent and rested his ear on George’s chest. He stayed there a few seconds, then straightened. “Acute myocardial infarction. Maybe.”
“Brian,” George gasped. “Brian. You have to …” He reached out weakly.
Rule gripped that seeking hand. “We’ll rescue him. Be still.” Without looking around, he held the phone out to Lily. Automatically she took it. “You’re having a heart attack. You need to lie quietly.”
George’s head turned toward Rule. “Benedict. Tell him … sorry. Had to. Had …”
“I know,” Rule said soothingly. “I’ll tell him. Don’t try to—”
“Watch out!” Myron yelled—a second before someone slammed into Lily, knocking her down. The phone went flying. She landed badly on her hip and her elbow. The elbow of her bad arm. Shock waves whited out her brain.
“Whoops,” a vaguely familiar voice said, and a pair of hands seized her rib cage just below her arms and hauled her several feet backward. “There. Out of the way now.”
Lily blinked her eyes back into focus. Javier and Rule were faced off, crouched and circling. Rule had a new trickle of blood from a cut lip.
“Traitor,” Javier spat. “Oath-broke coward. You won’t walk away from this.”
Myron—it was Myron who’d dragged Lily away from the fight—said reassuringly, “Don’t worry. I’m sure Rule can clear everything up. Though it may be hard to make Javier listen. He and Gil were close.”
“Son of a bitch,” Cullen said. He’d thrown his body over George to shield him when Javier jumped Rule, but now jerked upright. “Son of a sorry mongrel bitch.”
George’s eyes were blank and staring.
“I’ve had enough of this shit.” Lily held up her hand. “Get me on my feet.”
“Do you think you ought to—”
Lily snarled. “Now!”
He took her hand and tugged her easily to her feet. She reached inside her sling and pulled out the little Smith & Wesson Airweight Snubnose she’d hidden there.
Shooting left-handed, Lily was pretty sure she’d miss any target less stationary than the proverbial side of a barn. That’s why she hadn’t tried to use it earlier. Benedict hadn’t seemed interested in holding still. God only knew who she might have hit.
But Javier didn’t know she was right-handed, did he?
“As soon as I’ve done for you,” Javier snarled, “I’ll have the life of your brother as well in payment for Gil.”
“No,” Rule said, “you won’t. I’m tired of making allowances for your age. We don’t have time for this.”
Lily clicked off the safety and began moving.
Javier’s voice was low, throbbing with anger. “I’ll help you make time.”
She picked a spot on Rule’s left. Not too close, since he needed room to react, but well within Javier’s line of sight—and saw that Javier’s eyes had bled to black. All-over black, the whites subsumed by darkness. So not a good sign. His wolf was trying to force the Change. Lily sited carefully. Unfamiliar weapon, left hand … she’d best be sure. “You’re going to listen before you leap this time.”
He barely glanced at her. “A puta with a toy gun .”
“It shoots real bullets.”
He sneered at Rule as if she hadn’t spoken. “You have your woman fight for you now, Rule?”
If Rule was surprised by her weapon—and he should have been—it didn’t show. “My nadia has killed demons. I don’t think you can say the same.”
“Listen to me,” Lily said. “Benedict isn’t responsible. Neither is Rule. Robert Friar set this up. Somehow he got George to dope Benedict, induce the fury in him. You need to back off. There are wounded. You need to stop this now.”
Javier crouched a little lower, as if about to spring.
“Javier,” Myron said sternly, “get your wolf under control.”
“Myron’s right.” Lucas limped toward them. “This is a public place, man. I’m surprised we don’t hear a siren yet.” He looked at Lily, then Rule. “Not that I buy this nonsense about Friar. A human wouldn’t even know about the fury, much less how to induce it. But that’s for later. We need to be out of here.”
Javier had gone still in the way lupi did sometimes. Inhumanly still. Suddenly he drew himself up straight. The black receded from his eyes. The anger didn’t. “You told me earlier to call you liar or be quiet. I call you liar now.” He spat at the ground. “I call on Szøs and Kyffin to witness. Nokolai has dealt in deceit and death. For this, Ybirra Challenges Nokolai. Single combat.”
For a second no one moved or spoke. Then Lucas said quietly, “Szøs witnesses the Challenge.”
Myron sighed. “Idiot. Kyffin witnesses the Challenge.”
Rule’s voice was cold and weary. “Nokolai accepts the Challenge. I exercise my right as Challenged to pick the location. I choose the abandoned mine near Hole-in-the-Wall where our clans last met to discuss boundaries.”
“Accepted.” Javier bit that off as if it galled him to accept anything Rule said. “Ybirra exercises its right to choose the time. This Challenge will be fought at ten o’clock tonight.”
“Accepted. I propose we ask Etorri to handle the arrangements. I further propose that we limit attendance.”
“Two,” Javier said. “That is customary. Nokolai and Ybirra may each have two witnesses present. Other clans may have two witnesses there as well, if they wish.”
“Save Etorri,” Rule said, “who will bring as many as they deem right. That stipulated, Nokolai accepts these terms.”
“Ybirra accepts these terms.”
“I call on Szøs and Kyffin to witness.”
“So witnessed.”
“So witnessed.”
“Shit,” said Lily.
THIRTY-NINE
RULE climbed stiffly behind the wheel of the Lincoln and slammed the door. His ribs hurt like fire. Cullen had wrapped them hurriedly with an elastic bandage, but that was mainly to remind him not to bend.
Lily looked at him. “I can’t believe you accepted a Challenge. Your ribs are broken. You can’t fight tonight.”
Did she think he had a choice? “They’ll be partially healed by then.” Not healed enough, and he knew it. So did Javier, damn and blast him.
Rule turned the key, slid the car into gear, and got the hell out of there.
Etorri had arrived seconds after Rule accepted Javier’s Challenge. Stephen had been informed of the Challenge, and had agreed to serve as caller and witness.
With Etorri’s help the rest of the bodies, living and dead, had been quickly removed. Stephen and four of his people had simply taken off at a run back into the reserve; their cars were parked elsewhere. The fifth Etorri guard would return Edgar’s rental car discreetly.
Rule and Lily were the last to leave. Javier had been the first, screeching away with the body of his friend in his rental car. Myron was taking Billy to a hospital, where they’d both lie about how he’d been injured. Rule had promised to send Nettie to them as soon as possible �
�� assuming Cullen was right, and Billy survived to be treated. Lucas’s man had still been unconscious when the two of them left, but that was probably because he’d been the closest to Arjenie when she pulled her knockout trick. Otherwise, he’d seemed the least injured of the guards, with only a broken arm.
Cullen and Benedict were in the back of Scott’s white SUV. Benedict was bound with a plastic restraint and out cold. Cullen was keeping him that way.
Arjenie was still passed out on the backseat of the Lincoln … which also had two bodies in its spacious trunk.
To be doubly sure Benedict didn’t wake up, Rule would take the long way home, allowing Scott to put plenty of distance between them. Even if Cullen suddenly passed out and dropped the charm, Benedict would remain unconscious because his mate was too far away.
Rule was numb with disaster. He felt as if he were moving through a mind-dulling fog, able to see a single step ahead, and no more. That step was calling his Rho … who he could not think of as his father. Not now. Not with his brother locked in madness as tightly as he was in plastic and sleep. Rule reached for his phone … and realized he didn’t have it.
Shit. Had he left it back there?
“Here.” Lily held out an iPhone.
“Is that mine or yours?”
“Yours. Javier knocked it out of my hand, but I found it before we left.”
Thank God one of them was thinking. “Thank you. I’d like to know about the gun you pulled on Javier.”
“It seemed to me I’d been left out of the ban on weapons, since I wasn’t a principal or a guard. I asked Isen about it last night. He said that if I were asked, I’d have to say I had a gun, but otherwise, I was free to carry a gun if I wanted to. And, ah, he offered to loan me one.”
“You saw no need to tell me? No, never mind. Isen would have wanted me kept in the dark.”
“He suggested that, yes.”
Isen would have wanted to leave Rule free to honestly deny that any Nokolai had come armed to the meeting. Oh, yes—as Lily had said earlier, Nokolai was known to be tricky. And largely because of the man who’d been its Rho for so many years.
