Blood Challenge

FORTY-SEVEN

“LUCAS,” Rule snapped, “get Brian.” He came for Lily.

Benedict ran to Arjenie. Dya ran away—to the other end of the cavern. Lucas raced back into the cell. Rule scooped up Lily. “Shut up,” he said before she could protest. “I’m faster.”

“Dya!” Arjenie called as Benedict lifted her into his arms. “Dya, we have to get out!”

“The tears!” The little woman’s voice was high, childlike. “They’re here, they’re here!” She skidded to a halt by one of the chests and began trying frantically to open it. The lid didn’t budge.

Benedict handed Arjenie to José and ran to the other end of the room. Cullen dashed up to Rethna’s body, bent, and seized the black stone that had flashed every time Lily shot Rethna. He jerked it free, snapping the chain. Lucas emerged from the cell carrying a brown-haired man who seemed to be unconscious.

“Go!” Benedict shouted as he reached the frantic Dya. He pushed her small hands away. “Go, dammit!”

That’s all Lily saw. Rule took off. Behind him streamed the rest—José carrying Arjenie, Lucas carrying Brian, Cullen and Sammy on their own.

“Light!” Rule snapped as they entered the dark maw of the tunnel, and Cullen obliged with a mage light, far brighter than he’d used on their way in. They ran.

The slope was steep. Even Rule must have felt the strain of racing up it carrying Lily. For her part, she held on with one arm and grimly ignored the jolts of pain in her bad arm and listened desperately for footsteps coming up from behind.

She could hear nothing but their own party. She couldn’t force herself to ask if Rule heard him. But unless Benedict was much closer than she thought, he’d be coming up in the dark. “Cullen—can you set a mage light back there for—”

“I’ll try. They follow the caster,” Cullen said. “But I’ve set one behind me a couple hundred yards. He’ll see it. He can’t be too far behind.”

Rule asked, “What exactly is it we’re running from?”

“Gate energy’s oscillating, out of sync.” Unburdened and faster than the rest anyway, Cullen could have easily pulled ahead. He stayed beside Rule. “It’s going to blow. That will release a hellish amount of energy. I don’t know what will happen. Earthquake, maybe. Or suck half the mountain into the other realm, or shove matter from that realm here, or do some goddamn thing I’ve never heard of.”

“Friar,” Lily said suddenly. “I don’t know if he had a gun.”

“We should have seen him,” Rule said, “if he came this way, but … Sammy. Take rear guard. Cullen, pull ahead and deal with him if you see him.”

Cullen nodded and put on more speed. His mage light bobbled, but stayed with them even as Cullen vanished into the darkness ahead.

They ran. And ran.

The first part of the tunnel was either natural or had been dug much longer ago, and not by modern equipment. They reached the part Friar had added to join it to his house without seeing Friar, Friar’s body, or Cullen. Without seeing or hearing Benedict, either.

Rule was breathing hard and streaming with sweat when they reached the end, where a simple wooden ladder led up to the trapdoor. He set Lily down. She swayed—no, it was the earth that swayed. Quake, tremor, call it what you like—

“Go!”

She didn’t waste time arguing about who went first, but climbed as fast as she could. Cullen’s face appeared in the square of light at the top. “No one here,” he said. “Hurry.”

She did. He hauled her up as she reached the top, set her on her feet outside the broom closet, and gave her a shove. “Keep going, dammit, you can’t do a thing to help.”

“He’s not coming. He’s sending the others up.” She could feel Rule, motionless, at the bottom of the ladder.

The floor shuddered beneath her.

“Give him this one goddamn thing and get out of here!” Cullen snarled.

He was right. She forced herself to move. Pushed it into a run and pelted out of Friar’s beautiful, empty house, stopping when she reached the car. No keys. She wanted to laugh. No goddamn keys, because they were in her purse, which was back in the house.

Lucas came running out carrying Brian. “How far,” he gasped, “are we supposed to go?”

“I don’t know.” She wasn’t going one step more without Rule.

Then José emerged with Arjenie. And Sammy and Cullen—and hard on his heels, Rule.

The earth groaned almost silently. Behind Friar’s house, the mountain began to move—earth and rock shearing off, beginning to slide down.

“He’s coming,” Arjenie said frantically. “He’s coming. I feel him.”

Where were the militia guys? Calvin Brewster and his sergeant? Lily didn’t see anyone.

The earth growled. And shook, and kept shaking. Lily fell. Lucas went to his knees, hastily setting Brian down. Cullen stumbled. José fell, Arjenie pitching out of his arms. Rule broadened his stance and stood, staring at the house …

Which twisted, groaning like a huge beast in pain. The lights winked out. Part of the second story collapsed. The earth rolled beneath Lily like it was liquid.

Benedict ran out the front door, weaving on the unsteady stone of the veranda like a surfer riding a wave. He leaped—and landed on grassy lawn just as the house shrieked and groaned hugely. The rest of the second story and most of the first collapsed in a horrendous crash. Dust billowed in the moonlit night.

A few feet from the disaster, Benedict sank to his knees, spent. Only then did Lily see Dya. She’d ridden his back like a child, clinging to his neck with one arm. Her other arm clutched a small satchel tightly.

Arjenie burst into tears and limped toward them.

The earth grew quiet.

Dya climbed off Benedict’s back. “This is a brave man,” she said solemnly to her sister as Arjenie reached them. “He says he is yours.”

“Yes,” Arjenie said, sinking to the ground and holding out one hand to Dya—her other arm still hung limp—and leaning in to kiss Benedict lightly. “Yes, he is.”

He gathered her close.

For a moment there was only the groan and crash as the debris that had been a house settled. Lily pushed to her feet, needing Rule.

“Rule,” Lucas said quietly. “We’re losing him.”

Lily moved the few steps to where Brian lay on the ground. Rule got there first. As Lily sank down beside him he was trying to take Bryan’s pulse at the wrist. He abandoned that to lay his ear directly on Brian’s chest … which was rising and falling in quick jerks. Distressed breathing. Not a good sign.

“He’s bad,” Rule said, straightening, “but he’s not gone yet.”

“Dya,” Arjenie said, “Dya, can you help him?”

The little woman shook her head sadly. “I changed back to true venom to kill my lord. After you gave me the tears, I hurried to change it. I knew his death was mine. It is not easy to kill a lord of the sidhe, but the venom of a dereet of the Binai will do so quickly.” She sounded proud. “But now … true venom is very different from what I use to make potions. Especially potions of healing. I can’t change back so quickly.”

Lily unclipped her phone and turned it on. She’d had it off for the op. “I can call Nettie. Maybe she could get here in …” Her breath sucked in. She’d forgotten. For a moment she’d forgotten where Nettie was, and who she was with.

“Isen’s okay,” Rule said, adding mind reading to his other abilities. “Or at least alive. What time is it?”

She glanced at the phone in her hand. “Twelve twenty.”

“The Challenge must be over by now. He survived it.”

Tears stung her eyes, making her feel foolish. Crying over good news? But Isen had made it. Most of them had made it. Most, but not all. “I’ll call,” she said. She touched Nettie’s name in her contacts list.

Rule gripped Brian’s hand. “He didn’t want to die alone. I wonder if he knows …”

“Hearing’s the last to go,” Cullen said quietly as he joined them. “There’s a good chance he knows we’re here.” He sat and reached for Brian’s ankle, shook his head, then took his other hand and tried to find a pulse at the wrist.

Lily got Nettie’s voice mail. She left a brief message. “An ambulance,” she said. I’ll call 9-1-1.”

Rule looked at Cullen, who shrugged. “It can’t hurt,” Rule said.

Lily knew what they meant. They didn’t think he’d last that long. Even if he did, EMTs, paramedics, doctors—none of them would have a clue what to do for a lupus whose magic wasn’t able to fix whatever Rethna had done to him.

But they didn’t know. They had to try. She punched in the numbers and gave the 9-1-1 operator their location and what little information she had about Brian’s condition.

When she ended that call, Brian’s breathing seemed worse. There was a rattling sound in his throat. Cullen was talking to him quietly, recounting aloud some escapade. Lily bit her lip and checked for messages. There was one from Jason, who’d accompanied Isen. That one came in thirty minutes ago. Another from Pete, Benedict’s second, that was only fifteen minutes old. She touched the one for Jason first.

“Isen’s okay,” she said after listening. Rule and Cullen would have heard the message, but Benedict was probably too far away. “He took some damage, including a bullet that creased his skull. Nettie’s keeping Isen in sleep. They’re headed back to Clanhome. Ah … Javier’s alive, too. Jason called the Challenge inconclusive.”

“I’ll talk to Javier,” Lucas said, “when you’re able to lend me your phone. He’ll withdraw it when he knows the truth.”

She nodded, then listened to the message from Pete. “Pete wants to talk to Benedict. The bomb squad’s at Clanhome now.” She looked at Arjenie, huddled against Benedict. “There’s a good chance you saved a few hundred people when you picked Friar’s pocket.”

Arjenie’s smile trembled at the edges. “Do you think he got out? Friar, I mean.”

Lily looked at the dark, looming shape of the mountain behind the house. It hadn’t collapsed entirely, but anyone underground when it rearranged itself … “I don’t know. He didn’t use the same tunnel we did, but there could have been a way up to the surface we don’t know about. There were at least two militia guys here earlier. They seem to have vanished.”

“José,” Rule said, “the garage is around back. Friar has three vehicles—a red Ford Ranger, a black Porsche, and a ’64 T-bird convertible. See if they’re there. Sammy, patrol. Find out if we’re really alone.”

The two men rose and left.

Lily needed to call Croft. She needed to mobilize a man-hunt for Friar, to find out the extent of the damage when the gate imploded and the earth shook. But at this moment none of that seemed important. She looked at the young man who lay dying in front of them. Rule held one of his hands. Lucas clasped the other.

Brian’s eyes opened, but stared out blindly. “Rule.”

“I’m here.”

“Have to try.” His voice was faint and hoarse. “You took … Leidolf. Take Wythe, too.”

“I had a Leidolf great-grandmother. I don’t have a blood tie to Wythe.”

“But …” His eyes seemed to focus—but not on Rule or any of them. He looked … surprised. Then peaceful and happy. His lips moved, but Lily didn’t hear anything except that rattle in his throat.

Lucas, though, stiffened and bent close. Rule leaned in, too.

A few seconds passed. Lucas straightened and looked at her. “Take his hand.” He thrust that lax hand out to her.

“What?” Automatically she clasped it in hers. And jumped a little in surprise. The skin was cold, as if he were already dead—but his magic was so present. So strong and alive. Pine and fur seemed almost to press up into her own skin.

“The Lady wants you to take it,” Lucas said urgently. “He sees her. Hears her. You’re to take the mantle from him and hold it intact until it can be passed on.”

She looked at him. “That’s nuts.”

“It’s the Lady’s mantle.” He closed both of his hands over hers and the cold one she held and pressed firmly, as if he could squeeze the mantle out of Brian and into her. “You’re the Lady’s Chosen.”

“I’m not—” But it was pushing at her. Magic didn’t do that, but this was. “I can’t do that. I’m not lupus.”

“Consent is necessary,” Rule said calmly. “If you could do it, would you?”

Would she?

It was a stupid question, like asking what she’d do if she won the lottery when she never even bought a ticket. She didn’t know why she stopped to think about it, but she did. Would she allow a clan to die?

Wythe would be no more, but not all the clan members would die. Some—many? A handful? She didn’t know—would eventually be adopted into other clans. Those who survived. Those who weren’t sent wholly mad by the death shock. “Yes,” she said slowly, “but it’s a crazy question.”

Put your hand on his chest.

She tugged her hand free from Brian’s grip and put it on the chest of the dying man. She could feel the magic moving up him. How strange. It seemed to be moving up from his gut to his chest, heading for his throat … “Brian had a hallucination. If it gave him peace, that’s good. But I don’t know what your excuse is,” she told Rule.

Bend close to him.

“Even if I could suck up his magic,” she went on, bending low, “it wouldn’t help. Once I absorbed it, it would turn into my magic.”

Breathe his breath.

“It wouldn’t be a mantle anymore.” Lily finished with her face hovering over Brian’s, his breath faint but perceptible, her own breath falling into his open mouth …

What the hell? What was she doing?

… as living magic poured out of the dying man with his last breath. And into her mouth.

Lily jerked upright. Her hands went numb. Tingles raced over her skin from the inside. She couldn’t breathe. It was choking her, this huge ball of magic——fur and pine and moonlight—lodged in her throat, in her lungs— blood and strength and moonlight—no, it was settling in her belly. Large and living and not her. Not part of her, not any part of her.

“He’s gone,” Lucas said calmly.

“Son of a bitch,” said Cullen. “Son of a bitch. She did it.”

“Lily?” Rule took her hand, searching her face. “Are you all right?”

She looked down at her belly. “I feel like I need to burp.”