Blood Lines

THIRTY

CYNNA supposed this was one of God's little jokes. How else to explain the way the investigation had brought her here?

The deli was gone, she noted, striding down the cracked sidewalk, her heavy trench coat flapping around her ankles. A Vietnamese take-out joint had replaced it. But the laundry was still there, and the buildings looked the same—old, dingy, gray. Everything on this street was gray. When you spoke of color here you meant skin or gangs.

There were more white faces than there had been in her youth—integration coming to the ghetto at last; she'd really stood out as a kid. But most were some shade of brown.

The street had changed, Cynna decided, but not enough. She hoped the same wasn't true of her.

The weather was bitter as only a Chicago winter could be. Funny, that, because she'd been in colder places, but something about Chicago in December went right to the bone.

Mounds of filthy slush made crossing the street an adventure. Cynna survived that, keeping her gloved hands jammed in her pockets for warmth… and to keep from worrying at the mysterious kilingo Jiri had placed on one of them. It hadn't woken yet, but it would. Jiri hadn't planted it for laughs.

She needed to get it off. For that she could use some help, she admitted. Cullen's vision, to be specific. Removing a spell she knew, one she'd placed on her skin herself, was tricky. She didn't know how to get rid of a mystery spell.

She'd have to let a whisper of power slip into the spell for him to see it. That ought to be safe enough; a spell as complex as this one looked was bound to need more than a whisper to work. He'd be able to see how the magic moved through it, and the two of them could figure out how to undo it.

Once he deigned to show up.

When he first took off she'd been pissed. She admitted that. Rule said that cutting out was a survival skill Culler, acquired when he was a lone wolf. When his temper flared too high, he left—right that second, no discussion. He was out of there until he cooled down. Now that he was Nokolai he probably didn't have to do that anymore—being clan moderated things somehow—but the habit was ingrained. When he got mad, he walked out.

Apparently he'd stayed mad. As for her, she'd gotten over it. She should have known better than to get bent out of shape in the first place. Yeah, they were working up to doing the wild thing, but what did that mean? Sex could happen quick. It hadn't happened for them yet because life kept interfering, but it would. But friendship was a slow build. You started out with some reason to like each other, you got some respect going, then you let it simmer until you'd brewed up some trust.

It might take a lot of simmering for either her or Cullen to hit trust.

She headed across the street. A car shot through the yellow, splashing her with icy slush. Automatically she offered the traditional one-finger salute… Huh. The driver was Chinese. No, probably Vietnamese—a cluster of immigrants from that country were turning a pocket of former slum into a decent area a few blocks east of here.

That made her think of Lily. Wonder what she'd make of Chicago weather? She seemed to think it was cold in D.C.

Cynna snorted, but thinking about Lily while she moved down this street depressed her. The China doll might have patrolled in hoods like this, but she hadn't lived in one. She'd grown up clean. Cullen, now… she had a feeling he knew the bad spots in every city he'd ever lived in. He'd knocked around a lot while he was clanless. But she was pretty sure he hadn't grown up in this kind of place. Lupi didn't let their kids grow up poor and desperate.

Cynna glanced to her left. Three blocks over, she thought. If she walked three blocks west and two north, she could see the place she'd grown up.

Fat chance.

The address Lily had given her belonged to an ancient apartment building that seemed to lean tiredly into its neighbors. She checked the scraps of cardboard that passed for nameplates in the tiny vestibule.

H. Franklin was on the fifth floor. Figured. The building didn't aspire to anything like a security system, so she started up the stairs.

The lights were forty-watt, bare bulb, which was just as well. No one wanted to see what they were stepping on here. Trash collected in corners of the stairwell, and the treads were sticky. And the smell—the smell hit her right in the snake brain. Cabbage, piss, burnt meat, onions. A whiff of pot as she passed the second floor.

You didn't notice the smells so much when you lived here, she reflected, shoving her coat back so she'd have quick access to her weapon. Familiarity deadened the senses. It was nice, in a way, to know her nose wasn't numb to the stink.

People were arguing in shrill Spanish on the third floor. On the fourth, a screaming baby competed with rap on one side, the drone of a television on the other. She was halfway up the last flight when the clatter of footsteps said someone was headed down, fast.

Quick, heavy steps—a man, probably. Definitely not a kid. She readied her stun spell.

He stopped when he saw her—a man about forty with medium brown skin and curly hair. Probably some Latin and Caucasian in the mix, but he'd call himself black. He wore a do-rag, jeans way too big for his skinny butt, and a scarred leather jacket over a dirty T-shirt. Everything was black or gray. No colors, gang-related or otherwise.

His eyes widened. That's what tipped her. He saw her face with its tattoos, and he was afraid. "Hamid Franklin?" she said, coming up a step.

"I'm dead," he said in a thin voice. "Oh, God. I'm a dead man."

"Cynna Weaver." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her shield. "I'm with the FBI."

He didn't bother to look at her ID, shaking his head. "You're

FBI? Yeah, sister, an' I'm with the Pentagon. Listen." He came a step down, his hands held out to show they were empty. "I din't talk. I don't care who say so, I din't say a word, ever. Jus' give me a chance. You can spell me, find out for sure I'm tellin' the truth."

"I'm not with Jiri," she said quietly. "Not anymore. I'm with the FBI, like I said. Listen, man, if Jiri wanted you dead, she wouldn't send a person to do it. You've got to know that."

He was still a moment, then his head bobbed. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right. It'd be one of her pets, wouldn't it? But you—wait a minute. What you say your name was? Cynna? I heard of you." He looked around, as if someone might be lurking in the narrow stairwell. "You was her favorite, yeah, long time ago. You walked."

"Not her favorite. Her apprentice. But I walked, yeah."

Truculence crept in as fear receded. "What d'you want?"

"We'll talk in your place. You don't want anyone listening in."

It took some persuading, but she got him back upstairs and into his apartment. It was about what she'd expected—a mattress on the floor in one corner, food wrappers scattered around, a couple chairs.

He didn't invite her to sit, which was just as well. No telling what substances had left the stains on those chairs, or what might be living in their sagging cushions. He was jittery as hell. Coming down off something, probably.

His most common drug of choice, however, was tobacco. The place reeked of cigarettes, and he lit one as soon as he got inside. "I don't know nothin,'" he said, inhaling some degree of courage along with the smoke.

"A minute ago you were claiming you hadn't talked. What's to talk about if you don't know anything?"

"So I'm paranoid." He exhaled quick so he could draw in another drag. "I see you, I think Jiri's decided I know somethin', but I don't."

She eyed him. He might be using, he might be none too clean, but he kept himself up—the shoulders and chest said he worked out regularly. A hardbody, she thought, with a face that used to be pretty before it got so used up. Jiri's type, all right, and not for spellwork.

Lily hadn't gotten much in the way of facts from her contact—just this guy's name, that he'd been tight with Jiri, and roughly when he left the movement. Cynna made a guess and went with it. "I'm told you do know things. A lot of things. You were her favorite, weren't you?"

"For a while." He puffed like he couldn't suck the cigarette down fast enough. "You know Jiri. She do love variety."

"She kept you around for a couple years, though. Right up till she did her last fade. No one's seen her since."

"Who told you? Who told you that?"

"The way it Works is, I ask. You answer. Did you get mad when she nudged you out of bed for someone else?"

"Hunh. You forget what it's like? She don't mind having more'n one in bed, when she's in the mood."

"But she kicked you out. You didn't leave because you were ready. What's the matter? Did she wring you so dry you couldn't get it up anymore?"

"Bitch." He said that without rancor.

She needed him mad or scared or both. Hadn't pushed the right button yet. "Who'd she put in your place?"

A twitch—small, but she caught it—under his eye. Like a nervous tic. "How'd I know? I was gone."

Cynna pressed him on it, but he knew better than to spill. So she switched tacks, wandering idly around the filthy room. "Guess you won't miss this place too much. You given any thought to where you'll go?"

He glowered at her. "Whatcha mean? I ain't going nowhere."

"No?" She stopped, turning to face him in surprise. "And here I thought you were a survivor. You just going to hang here, wait for her to send one of her pets?"

"She ain't gonna do that. I ain't' told you nothing—'cause I don't have nothing to tell."

"Wonder if that's what she'll think? I mean, she's going to hear that I came around. My face is kind of hard to mistake. People saw me headed here, so—"

"I din't tell you nothing," he insisted.

"Yeah, and we both know how she likes to give the benefit of the doubt, don't we?" She came closer and looked him in the eye. They were almost exactly the same height. "See, the mistake you're making, Hamid, is you're looking so hard at Jiri and what she might do that you can't see what's right in front of you."

"Like what?" His lip curled. "You? You ran off. Things got too mean and scary, and you took off."

She flipped her left hand over, and the Burger King wrapper near his foot burst into flame.

She watched, pleased, as he yelped and grabbed a half-empty liter of Coke, upending it over the flames. She'd been practicing that. She couldn't call fire directly the way Cullen did—even a few poky little flames drew down her power too much to be practical, and she had to use a spell. But fire did impress people.

Hamid rounded on her. "Crazy bitch! You crazy!"

He was mad, but he was sweating now. She sauntered up and put her face near his. "I wasn't her favorite, Hamid, like you were. Sex doesn't mean that much to her. Power does, and she shared some of that with me. She taught me things she didn't teach anyone else. You're right that I'm not as scary as she is… but I'm here. She isn't. You want to keep me happy."

"Christ on a crutch! You know what she'll do if I tell you anything!"

"You might as well, because she'll assume you did. She knows me. She knows you. She'll know which of us came out on top here."

When she left the dirty room, Hamid was scurrying around, snatching up his few belongings. He was scared enough to use the money she'd given him to relocate instead of squirting it up his nose.

Out on the sidewalk she took a deep breath. Car exhausts smelled great after that place.

She hadn't crossed any lines, she assured herself as she started back the way she'd come. Burning people was a big no-no, but intimidation was okay. And she'd gotten what she needed, hadn't she?

According to Hamid, Tommy Cordoba had started out in Jiri's bed, but he'd gone on to join a much more exclusive club. She'd made him her apprentice.

It was possible Jiri wasn't behind the murders, after all. If Cordoba had learned enough… not likely, she reminded herself. Jiri didn't share well. Cordoba would have had a hard time learning everything he'd need to know to pull off multiple bindings. It was more likely Jiri had reached a point where she needed an apprentice to handle some of the lower-level demons for her.

But Cynna's step was lighter as she left the old neighborhood.

The air had the heavy, wet feel of snow on the way, so she lengthened her stride. She made it to the Hampstead intersection before the first big flakes started drifting down. She was trying to flag a cab when her palm started itching. Absently she pulled her hands out of her pocket, scratching at one through the glove—

God, you idiot! Her palm—the one with Jiri's spell! Cynna tried to run a protective spell, but it was too late. A swirl of red misted up over her eyes.

Then she wasn't there at all anymore.

"MUST be close to a thousand people here," Lily whispered.

"Something like that." Rule wasn't usually bothered by crowds, but this wasn't a comfortable crowd for a Nokolai. Especially for the Nokolai heir. Especially when, according to Lily, Brady had been so pleased when Rule took on a son's duty to Roland Miller… and the first duty Roland had required of him was attendance at the memorials for both his son and Victor's.

Paul's memorial had been well attended, but not on this scale. It had been followed by a barbecue for which Rule, Lily, and Cullen had adjourned back to the house. Victor had apparently eaten in his room.

Randall's memorial had begun at one. For that the field was crammed elbow to elbow with Leidolf. The smell of them made him stand very still.

Lily whispered again. "Doesn't Leidolf have more female clan, though? There must be five lupi present for every woman I see."

"The women are tending the children," he said dryly, his voice very low. Traditionally clans included all their members, even the children, in such ceremonies. Leidolf had abandoned that tradition by the early sixteenth century for more human behavior. In fact, much of what he disliked about Leidolf had been taken from the larger culture around them, yet now that human norms were changing, they clung to their male-centric ways.

That could change. A clan took on some of the character of its Rho, and Victor had been Leidolf Rho for a very long time.

Someone on the eastern edge of the field was recounting a story from Randall's childhood. That was a relief—it meant the memorial was finally nearing an end. Lupus memorials moved backward through the deceased's life; the first to speak were those present at the death.

Rule hadn't been asked to speak of Paul's death. Lily had.

That had been a calculated slap at Rule, but if it was the worst that happened today, he'd be pleased. And Lily had done well. After a moment's frozen horror—she was not used to speaking in front of so many people—she'd handled the situation with her usual good sense. It probably helped that the custom was for each to speak where he or she stood, since there was no platform or podium. Rule had suggested she pretend she was giving a report to a nearly deaf police captain.

Maybe she had. Her account had been stark by lupus standards, but perhaps all the more moving for that. She'd finished by saying, "He acted with great courage. I will honor him always."

Thunder rumbled off in the east, still distant. He glanced that way and saw big fists of clouds piling up, the knuckles puffy and bruised. As he watched, lightning stitched a line from sky to ground.

He glanced at Lily and almost smiled. Back in San Diego, people got excited when it rained. They stopped working to look out the window, comment on their lawns, maybe claim credit for nature's behavior through the mysterious alchemy of car-washing. It hadn't taken long for that attitude to wear off for Lily. She was as affronted as her cat by so much rain.

Behind him he heard Benedict's rumble, speaking under the tongue so softly the Leidolf man nearest them wouldn't be able to hear: Brady's headed this way. Coming up from your rear.

Since Benedict, contrary to all accepted norms, had chosen to stand back-to-back with Rule, his rear was thoroughly covered. He see you? Rule asked the same way.

Yeah.

Probably won't try anything, then. Cullen—

/ heard, Cullen said. Hope he does try something.

You're insane. Rule left it at that, but the last thing he needed was for Cullen and Brady to try to kill each other here. He'd wanted to leave Cullen in their room, actually, knowing that the crowd, the stillness, all would wear out his friend's small store of patience. But Cullen was determined to guard him.

As if one man—even a lupus, even a sorcerer—could stop a thousand or so lupi if they decided Nokolai could do without its heir.

And that was intolerably paranoid, not to mention stupid. The majority of Leidolf were honorable. He'd been granted guest status by their Rho, and his vows to Paul's father made him Leidolf

ad littera for the duration of this ceremony. Ad littera was a legal fiction, of course, like calling a corporation a person under the law, but he was a guest, and ad littera for the next hour or so— this would surely end soon—and in danger only from those like Brady. The loose cannons, not the entire clan.

The speaker finished. There was silence for a moment, then Victor's voice rang out. He stood in the center of the clearing, of course, with the Rhej and two of his councilors. "I thank all of you who shared my son's life with me. I thank those who today shared their memories of him. We remember."

"We remember," a thousand voices echoed back.

"We didn't only lose a friend, a son, a lover when Randall was killed," Victor went on. "We lost our Lu Nuncio and our heir. I call the naming."

A female voice spoke—the Rhej. "When do you call the naming?"

"Now."

Rule went from bored and edgy to barely breathing. Everywhere people were exclaiming, talking, reacting.

"Rule," Lily's voice was low, but no longer a whisper. "What's he up to? What does this mean?"

Only two possibilities he could see. Either Victor hoped to slide Brady in immediately, with no time for a proper Challenge… or he was dying.

Neither of which he could say aloud in this crowd. "I don't know. Let's start moving toward the edge of the crowd… just in case." Maybe it was his touch of claustrophobia, or maybe a genuine hunch, but he had a strong need to be elsewhere. He grabbed her hand, catching Cullen's gaze with his and giving a jerk of his head toward the road.

"Rule," Benedict said.

Rule stopped edging past the two men closest to him to look at his brother. Benedict jerked his head to one side, directing his attention that way.

Brady stood ten feet away with only a couple people between them. His grin held triumph. His hand held a gun. "Don't leave now," he said. "Party's just starting."