Mortal Ties

by Eileen Wilks

  “Yeah? Well, he sure as shit better, or—hey!” His gaze swung to the left. “What the fuck are you doing?” He was looking at Cullen, who was down on his hands and knees, sniffing the sidewalk. “Goddamn loonies. Turner, get Romano talking.” He stalked off.

  Rule sacrificed Cullen to the sergeant’s wrath and started for Tony, who stood a few feet away.

  “Not too close.” A much younger officer stepped in front of him. “This man is dangerous. He’s lupus.”

  “So am I.” Rule allowed himself to move quickly, tired of the way everyone kept blocking him. He stopped about a foot from Tony—a distance too close for comfort. Challenging distance.

  “Sir, you need to move back.”

  “Let him be,” the older officer said. “Sergeant’s orders.”

  Rule looked up and met Tony’s eyes. “There are only three ways I can see that they could have known where to find Lily. One, our enemies have some new magical trick we don’t know about. Two, my men were sloppy and allowed themselves to be trailed. But it’s the third option that seems most likely. She was set up.”

  Tony still looked calm. His control was excellent…but not perfect. Rule caught the quick spike of seru in his scent.

  Seru was sometimes the scent of anger, but more, it was the scent of challenge. Of dominance. It was an olfactory How dare you. Tony was able to submit when he needed to. He could obey. He looked and sometimes spoke like an oversize child. But he was a man, he was Rho, and he was dominant. He didn’t like Rule’s stance or his implicit accusation. “I did not set her up.”

  Rule continued to hold his gaze. “Will you pledge on Laban?”

  After a moment Tony nodded. Rule felt it when Tony drew on his mantle. Or rather, the mantles he carried felt it and responded in a way Rule had no words for, but recognized. “I did not set up Lily,” Tony said slowly. “I did not know what would happen. I don’t know what did happen. I pledge this on Laban.”

  Rule stepped back. “Thank you. If not you, then Hugo. Damn, I wish I knew where Mike was.”

  “Following Hugo. He was still in Dingos when I got there, but he made a commotion so he could get away. I distracted the humans so Mike could follow him.”

  “Did you break much?”

  “None of the people. Some furniture.”

  “You haven’t been answering the officers’ questions.”

  “I didn’t know what was okay to tell them.” He bunched his shoulders. “I don’t like this plastic thing. Can you get them to take it off?”

  “I’ll see what I can do. Officer Pearson.” He looked at the older man. “How can we get the restraints removed?”

  “You’ll have to talk to the sergeant about that.”

  Who was, Rule saw, marching Cullen this way. At least that’s what the sergeant thought he was doing. Cullen’s expression told Rule he wanted to come here anyway and was putting up with the sergeant’s hand on his arm to speed things up.

  “This bastard says he’s one of yours,” the sergeant said.

  “He is. What—”

  Rule got a finger jabbed in his direction. “You tell him to quit fucking with my scene.”

  “Don’t fuck with the man’s scene, Cullen. What did you learn?”

  “Pretty sure there are two scents. One’s definitely elf. I’d have to Change to be sure about the other one. Lily’s scent is there, too. It stops where it meets theirs.”

  “She was carried off, then.”

  The sergeant scowled. “Elves? You’re fucking crazy.” Without waiting for a response he swung to speak to the older officer. “What do they say about his fucking ID?”

  “He’s legit.”

  The sergeant shook his head morosely. “Elves. Shit.”

  Rule had to agree. “We need to find Hugo. He may be boarding a ship about now.” Though Rule suspected that had been part of the bait—make it look as if Hugo was about to vanish to draw Lily out here. “What was…ah. These people should be able to help.”

  Rule had called Special Agent Bergman on his way here. She’d just badged her way past the officer at the end of the street and was headed for him, trailing two of her agents. Rule started for her.

  “What’s this about Special Agent Yu being missing?” she demanded as she drew close.

  “I believe she was taken from here after her guards—and about four dozen other people—were incapacitated magically. Special Agent, a ship is about to depart that may have our prime suspect aboard. I need you to stop it.”

  “Yeah? Well, I need you to tell me what you were doing at Hammond Middle School tonight that broke several windows, burned some of the bleachers, and left bloodstains on the floor.”

  Rule wanted to howl. “Let me guess. You received an anonymous tip.”

  “Right now I’m talking to you, and I want a really good explanation, or you’re going to be wearing restraints like that oversize Adonis who’s following you.”

  “Lily has been taken and you’re playing right into—” Rule’s phone sounded. This ringtone he knew. He snatched it from his pocket, and maybe he moved too fast, because one of Bergman’s agents drew on him. He snarled at the man and thumbed the phone’s screen. “Yes.”

  “Sorry I couldn’t call sooner,” Ruben said. “There was a bad situation in Baltimore. People died. What’s happened?”

  “Lily’s been kidnapped. I need a ship stopped.”

  “All right. Which one?”

  CONGRESS kept talking about rescinding or lessening the strength of the emergency provisions that gave Unit Twelve agents an unprecedented level of authority. As usual, they couldn’t agree on how to go about it. Until they did, when the head of Unit Twelve said jump, authorities both local and federal had to start hopping.

  Ruben had the Valkyrie held in port so it could be searched. Odds were that Hugo wasn’t on it, but they couldn’t afford to assume that.

  Special Agent Bergman was temporarily seconded to the Unit. Ruben had no Unit agents available for the case, and this would, he said, keep the chain of command tidy. She took Rule’s statement about the events at Hammond Middle School, but she stopped talking about restraints.

  Jasper, Chris, and Alan arrived. Then Mike showed up, four-footed. Once he was back on two legs, he told Rule that Hugo had had a car parked in the alley—a beat-up 1990 Jetta—and Mike had Changed so he could try to follow. He’d kept up at first, but cars are faster than wolves if they don’t bog down in traffic. Hugo had lucked out on the traffic, which hadn’t yet backed up, and he didn’t mind breaking the speed limit. Mike had lost him, but he did have the license plate number.

  The cops put out an APB on the Volkswagen, but Rule didn’t expect much from that. The man would have ditched it by now.

  As all this happened, more and more people woke up. A few were transported—two of those who’d been in vehicles when they passed out, a woman who’d cut her leg somehow, and a man who’d hit his head on a table. He’d been in the bar next to Dingos. The effect, whatever it was, hadn’t been stopped by walls, so some of those inside nearby buildings had been affected. Most, however, were unhurt.

  Throughout all this, the pressure inside Rule kept building. None of it was helping. None of it got him one inch closer to finding Lily. He paced. He wanted to run, to Change and run. He could focus for a few minutes on something else, could start to plan, but then his brain hiccupped and he was thinking about Lily. About her in Robert Friar’s hands, and what he might be doing to her right this minute.

  Tony hadn’t set Lily up. Rule had. He’d oh-so-cleverly manipulated her into taking what he thought would be the safer path. Friar had Lily, and it was his fault.

  Cullen stepped in front of him. Rule jerked to a stop. “What?”

  “You aren’t Lily.”

  Rule’s fists clenched tight—and his shoulder sent a burst of pain to remind him he was not healed. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “You’re hanging around the crime scene, trying to do the things she’d do. Bu
t those aren’t your things. That special agent with the great legs and lousy attitude is a pain in the ass, but she’s competent. Let her handle things here. You need to go do your thing.”

  For a long moment Rule said nothing. Finally, quietly, he said to Cullen what he couldn’t have said to anyone else, save Lily. “I don’t know what to do.”

  “Do something the others here can’t. You’re Rho. Do something Rho.”

  “I am doing something Rho. I’m exercising incredible control and not knocking you on your ass.”

  Cullen’s mouth smiled. His eyes didn’t. “Hold on to that control, because I’m about to really piss you off. You can’t figure out what to do because you’re too busy feeling guilty. Later, when you’ve got her back, you can wallow in guilt like a dog rolling around on a nice, stinky pile of dead fish. You can’t afford guilt now. Lily can’t afford it, so stop.” Cullen turned and walked away.

  For a long moment Rule stood there, not moving. Cullen was right. He was 100 percent right. And Rule still didn’t know what to do.

  Do something Rho? What did a Rho do? Stay in control, take care of his people, plan ahead, give orders…Rule’s control wasn’t what it should be, but he was holding on. He didn’t have a plan, and the only order he could think to give was to send his men searching the city block by block, looking for Lily. Which was about as useless an activity as the proverbial needle hunt, only this haystack covered roughly forty-six square miles, which just proved how poorly his brain was…

  No. No, they shouldn’t look for Lily. And it wasn’t a Rho he needed to be, but a Lu Nuncio. The Nokolai Lu Nuncio.

  He looked around, spotted the person he wanted. “Tony,” he called sharply. “I need you.”

  Several minutes later, Rule was telling Ruben what he needed while Tony was on his own phone, summoning his clan. The lupi portion of it, that is.

  Elves’ ability to cast illusions only affected those around them. They left scent trails like anyone else, and they smelled like nothing in this realm. The Laban lupi would go to Hammond Middle School—more elves had been there, and they’d thoughtfully lain on the floor, leaving plenty of scent behind. After Changing and getting a fix on the scent, each lupus would leave for his assigned area accompanied by a police officer, park ranger, or member of the military. People in uniform, that is, so humans wouldn’t be alarmed by the enormous wolves who were suddenly all over their city. Enlisting those authorities had required Ruben’s authority, but he’d agreed it was worth trying.

  It was still one damn huge haystack, but he was sending ninety-four Laban noses out to sniff it, and they would be looking for multiple needles, not just one.

  Tony had his head down with Special Agent Bergman over a map of the city, deciding how best to divvy up search areas. Rule wasn’t needed for that. They knew the territory. He didn’t. He looked around for his men and saw someone who wasn’t his.

  Or was he?

  Jasper sat slumped on the curb. Overlooked by the cops, forgotten by Rule and everyone else. Rule wasn’t the only person with a loved one in Robert Friar’s hands, was he? And Jasper didn’t have clan around him. He didn’t have Cullen to bitch-slap him with a few hard truths. He didn’t have a task, a function.

  Rule went to sit beside his brother.

  Jasper didn’t look up. For a long moment neither of them spoke. Rule was thinking again, and he was thinking about Hugo. Lily’s instinct about Jasper’s former agent had proved all too accurate. If Hugo was actively working with Friar.…and he must be. He’d helped set up Lily.

  Maybe Rule knew who had the prototype now.

  But Rule didn’t ask the questions that were beginning to burn in him. Instead he asked, “How did you do it? How did you hold yourself together for nine bloody long days with Adam missing?”

  Now Jasper looked at him. At first he didn’t speak. His face said plenty, though. It spoke of despair. “What in the world gave you the impression I’ve held myself together?”

  “You planned and executed a remarkable theft. You didn’t fall apart when you were tied to a chair and bullets started flying. You complained about not being able to think, but you kept doing it anyway.”

  “I’ve screwed up every step of the way.” Jasper looked at the hands he’d clasped between his knees. “I’ve finally gotten around to really thinking, you see. You say you’re supposed to know where Lily is, but you don’t. Cullen’s supposed to be able to find things with his spells, but he can’t. It’s the same thing blocking you both, isn’t it? The prototype.”

  Rule kept his breathing even. He could fake calm, even if he couldn’t feel it. “I think so, yes.”

  “Then Friar’s got them both. Lily and the prototype. Which means I’ve nothing left to negotiate with. Nothing I can use to buy Adam’s life. Which means…” He drew a long, shuddering breath. “He may already be dead.”

  “We don’t know that. Friar wants Cullen, too.”

  “But does he need me to get him? I don’t see why.”

  “Listen to me.” Rule gripped his arm. “Adam is alive. Until we see his dead body, he’s alive, and we’re going to get him back. Just like I’m going to get Lily back, and quickly. To hell with what logic says. Logic hasn’t served us all that well, has it?”

  Jasper blinked. Took a shuddery breath, and straightened. “Right. He’s alive. Of course he’s alive. And we’re going to get him back.”

  “We’ll get both of them.” A quiet electronic gong sounded in Rule’s pocket. It was a ringtone he seldom heard, and it startled him enough that it took him a moment to say, “I have to take this call. That’s Lily’s grandmother.”

  “Oh, Jesus.”

  He’d have to tell Beth, too. And soon. Perhaps Madame Yu would take on the task of telling Lily’s parents. Rule steeled himself and answered. “Madame Yu—”

  “When were you going to tell me that something has happened to my granddaughter?” an imperious voice demanded.

  “You know? But—how?”

  She made a small, dignified snort. “Sam, of course. How would her teacher not know when she—bah, this language lacks words. She is hidden from him. He says she did not do this, and so we know that someone else did. What did they do?”

  “She’s been taken. I think…” It was hard to say. “I think by Friar’s people. I can’t find her. I can’t sense where she is.”

  “But she is alive.”

  “Yes. That much I’m sure of.” The rest came out without him having a clue he was going to say it. “It’s my fault. I tricked her, manipulated her into doing what I thought would be safer than going with me. I was wrong. It was a setup.”

  “Bah.”

  What?

  “You take too much on yourself. I can trick Lily. Your father maybe can. You? No. You are sneaky sometimes, but not so good as that. You think you fooled Lily? I think she got what she wanted. Now, I will be there as soon as possible. I do not know when. Planes are fast, but airports are not.”

  “You’re—Madame Yu—”

  “Sam cannot do this. He has foreseen certain events. He says it is not foreseeing, but I lack another word to describe his knowledge. He will be very busy today. I do not tell you more about this. Do not ask. He is busy, but I will come.” She hung up.

  Rule sat there looking at the phone in his hand.

  “She didn’t take it well, I guess,” Jasper said. “Hard to give that kind of news.”

  “No…no, you don’t understand. But then, you haven’t met her.” Slowly Rule looked up, relief blooming inside. He felt like he had as a small child, waking from some terrible nightmare to find his father’s hand on his shoulder. The sudden bone-deep reassurance wasn’t logical, wasn’t reasonable. But it was real. “It’s okay. It’s good. Grandmother is coming.”

  THIRTY-FOUR

  LILY woke to the soothing lilt of Brahms’s “Lullaby.” Her head throbbed and ached the way it had the time a three-hundred-pound perp threw her against a wall. Or like it had on one miserable morning
of her freshman year, when she’d decided that nothing, absolutely nothing, was worth getting a hangover that bad.

  But she hadn’t been drinking or playing arrest-the-perp, had she? What…wait, there had been a perp, and Lily had told her she was under arrest, and then she’d been…shit. Captured. That was the word.

  The quick spurt of panic cleared the fog from her brain. She made herself lie still and take stock with her eyes closed. She lay on something soft that sure felt like a bed. Good news: she wasn’t naked and the only injury seemed to be to her head. Her arms rested at her sides, unbound. She didn’t hear anything but the Brahms, nor did she smell anything in particular. Rule would have, but…

  The panic this time was an ocean, not a spurt. Her eyes flew open and the light made her headache worse, but the pain in her head was drowned by the cold fear racing through her. After an endless, drenched moment, she realized the mate bond was screwy, not severed. Rule wasn’t dead. He wasn’t dead, but she couldn’t tell where he was. When she tried to use the mate-sense, it felt like he was everywhere, in every direction, and she had no idea how far away he was. When she tried harder she felt queasy. Motion sick, like when she’d seen that On Motion film at the IMAX and the crazy 3-D zooming around had forced her to shut her eyes so she wouldn’t puke.

  Lily lay very still and waited for her stomach and heartbeat to settle. Her mouth was dry. Her head hurt. If she couldn’t find Rule, she had to assume he couldn’t find her, either. She’d been captured by a furry woman, and Rule couldn’t find her.

  Couldn’t find her that way. He’d still be trying.

  Unless he’d been captured, too, and was in the room next to hers. She didn’t know. With the mate-sense wonky, he could be on the other side of the wall and she wouldn’t know it. Or he might have been hurt at the middle school. Badly hurt.

  Keep taking stock, she told herself firmly.

  Okay, point number one: her head hurt, but it wasn’t the kind of crippling pain that suggested serious injury. It was an all-over ache, too, not localized like it would be with a concussion. Number two: she was dressed, she was not tied up—in fact, someone had tossed a blanket over her, as if they cared if she got cold while she was out cold. Number three: the whiteness overhead was an ordinary ceiling, not an underground cavern, which was encouraging. The last sidhe she’d tangled with had stashed his captives underground where he…