Mortal Ties

THIRTY-FIVE

AT the very tag end of December, the sun didn’t make it over the horizon until after seven. Rule stood at the window looking out at a city still wrapped in predawn twilight. That was plenty of light for his eyes, but there was nothing worth seeing.

He wanted coffee. He’d started to make some, but thoughts of Lily crashed down, and he’d left the little kitchenette to stare out the window. He hadn’t thrown anything, though he’d wanted to do that, too. It would worry his men and wake up Jasper, who was asleep on the couch that had been intended for Cullen. He wouldn’t be using it. He was in a helicopter.

“Why,” Grandmother had announced, “is your sorcerer down here? He should be overhead, looking for the magic these bad elves are using.”

Rule had explained that Cullen had been charging the charms they might need.

Madame Yu had raised her eyebrows. “Are they charged now?”

“Yes,” Cullen snapped, “but they aren’t enough. We’re going up against magical heavy hitters. We need—”

“More than you will have. You have power and some skill in using it. You do not have the decades or centuries of training and knowledge these elves have. You will not make up that lack in the next few hours. Instead you will search for evidence of their magic.”

“Do you have any idea how much magic there is in a city this size?” Cullen had demanded. “There’s two major nodes here and two minor ones, and all the ley lines pouring out from them. Plus there’s the randomized magic pouring in from the ocean, the power puddles that collect everywhere—”

“You are telling me all magic looks the same?”

“Of course not, but…” Cullen had stopped. Rubbed his head. “Maybe, if I wasn’t too high off the ground and if they were doing some powerful spellcasting…but they won’t be casting major spells every minute.”

She had sniffed. “Elves use magic as we use electricity. Constantly.”

Madame Yu’s journey here hadn’t been quite as simple as she’d seemed to expect. Commercial flights didn’t depart that late. In the end, Rule had called Ruben, telling him they needed Madame Yu here because she was in touch with Sam. Which was true, if incomplete. Even Ruben didn’t know everything about Lily’s grandmother…but then, who did? Ruben had arranged for military transport, which turned out to be an Air Force C21-A—a Learjet, in other words, the kind reserved for VIPs. Rule didn’t know how Ruben was going to justify that in his budget, but he was grateful. Li Lei Yu had arrived at San Francisco International Airport about two this morning, as erect and indomitable as ever.

By three o’clock, Rule had brought her up-to-date. He told her everything, ending with what they’d learned about Hugo—which now included the name he’d been born under. Given a little more information, Arjenie had come through. Anson “Hugo” Bierman was a naturalized citizen. Born in Germany fifty-five years ago, he’d immigrated to the United States with his parents. He’d never officially changed his name to Hugo, but had begun calling himself that about the time he was kicked out of high school for fighting, truancy, and theft. He’d used a multiplicity of surnames since then, but always with Hugo for his first name.

The next bit of information had come from Special Agent Bergman. Hugo had managed to pile up some very large debts to some very bad people. Gambling debts.

Jasper had confirmed Rule’s hunch. Hugo knew about Jasper’s habit of using FedEx trucks to stash a stolen item until it was convenient to reclaim it. He could have followed Jasper on the night of the theft, seen where he put the prototype, and gone back for it.

The question was, had Hugo already passed the prototype on to Friar? Or was he holding on to it, trying to jack up the price? Jasper suspected the latter. “If he’s given up on keeping his word, there’s nothing left but greed.”

Cullen had received his assignment first. Rule chartered a helicopter for him to use to look for sidhe-type magic—which meant, Cullen said, formed magic of unusual power, clarity, and intricacy. Unless he got really lucky, that would be a long, slow business. Maybe impossible, he’d grumbled. But worth trying.

Then Madame Yu sorted out the rest of them.

Tony was to allow his Lu Nuncio to coordinate the scent hunt and look for the person who’d tipped Tony to Hugo’s location, since the police seemed sadly incapable of finding him. Rule was to contact Ruben, who was to do whatever was necessary to expose the absence of some of the sidhe from Washington. Beth was to stay here, in this suite—it was unforgivably foolish for her to be anywhere else. Jasper was to get some sleep.

Jasper had protested politely—people were polite to Grandmother; something about her forced it on you—that he could not possibly fall asleep yet. She’d looked at him sternly, though Rule had glimpsed the pity the sternness was intended to hide. “You are Rule’s human brother.”

“Uh…yes.”

“You are not lupi. You cannot be up all night and be any good tomorrow. Sit,” she told him, pointing at the couch. He had, though it looked like he’d barely refrained from rolling his eyes like a resentful teenager. She’d sat beside him, nodded once, and touched his face.

He’d dozed right off.

Rule’s eyebrows had climbed. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Shh. I put him to sleep. I do not keep him asleep.” She’d studied Rule a moment. “You, I think, will not sleep. Instead you will go run. As wolf.”

He’d told her that was unforgivably foolish. He needed to be here, coordinating the search. Besides, he was a target, and perhaps she hadn’t noticed, but his shoulder had a hole in it. “Then run on three legs, and do not be seen,” she’d snapped. “You do not help Lily by staying on this edge. It is cutting you. I will coordinate. You go run.”

He had. After he talked to Ruben one last time, he’d slipped out the secret exit with Scott and Mike. The three of them had run in a nearby park. When he got back, Madame Yu and Beth were asleep in his bed, Jasper was sleeping on the couch—someone had found a blanket to toss over him—and Rule’s head was clearer. His shoulder ached like crazy but his mind was working better.

The wolf didn’t like waiting any more than the man did, but he was better at it.

Rule abandoned the gray window and went to the tiny kitchenette—more of a closet with appliances, really. He’d Changed twice. With or without coffee, he needed to eat. There was little to choose from; those who stayed at this hotel expected others to cook for them. He grabbed three energy bars, downed one in three bites, and was contemplating the coffeepot when he heard footsteps.

Beth stood in the doorway blinking sleepily and hugging herself. She wore a pair of flannel pj pants with a pink T-shirt that read HYPERBOLE IS THE BEST THING EVER! The sight of her clutched at his heart. She looked so like Lily, yet so different. Beth’s face was rounder. She had her mother’s mouth, while Lily’s was a feminine version of their father’s. But her nose was the same as Lily’s, and her ears, and her neck. She and Lily were exactly the same height.

Her eyes were dark and shadowed and lost. “I guess there’s no word,” she said.

“Nothing yet.” She had two missing—her sister and the man who, for better or worse, she was in love with. “We’ve got a lot of people working on getting them back, Beth. Both of them.”

“I just wish there was something I could do!” She rubbed her arms as if they were cold. “I don’t have anything to contribute. We don’t need a kick-ass graphic about evil elves. We need to find the real evil elves and kick their ass, and I’m no good for that.”

Rule was supposed to be good for that. So far he was batting zero. “You could have a cup of coffee with me.”

“Yeah, that’s a big help.”

“It won’t help Lily. It’s…she loves coffee, you know that. I couldn’t make any this morning because she isn’t here. I started to, but I…have a cup of coffee with me.”

Beth’s eyes filled. She came to him and hugged him and put her head on his chest and sniffed. He hugged her back, and it helped.

A MISTY shape materialized in the bathroom the moment Lily said his name, but it took several seconds to form into a man. Then Drummond was scowling his usual scowl at her. “I thought you were never going to call me.”

“You—” She stopped and tried again, this time silently. You couldn’t show up until I did?

“Not all the way. There’s something weird about the walls. It’s like Clanhome in here. Not as bad, but a real pain.”

Wards, probably. If they can make the walls act like a combination intercom and iPod, they can probably set really strong wards. Can you find out where “here” is?

“What do you think I’ve been doing while you napped? We’re on the third floor of a seven-story building. It’s stucco, an older building, well maintained, in a residential area. The address isn’t anywhere I can go to see it, and we’re in the middle of the block. I can’t go far enough away to read the street sign. We’re not close to the water. I don’t see any landmarks I recognized, but I don’t know San Francisco.”

It wasn’t enough, but it was something. Good. That’s good. What about when they brought me here? Did you see which way—

“No. When you go in cars, I can’t…” He looked embarrassed, as if she were making him admit to something vaguely shameful. “I tatter. I can’t hold together at all. So I don’t know how the hell you got here. Not the route. They loaded you in the back of a gray 2007 Honda CR-V, California license 5FLT230.”

You got the license plate! Lily itched to write it down. Nothing to write on or with, so she wrote it with one finger in her palm to help her remember. “Did you see who was driving?”

“Sure. Pointy-ears drove, furface rode shotgun.”

Lily jerked, startled. One of the elves could drive a car? But the sidhe delegation had only been here for two weeks. How…but Alycithin had spoken English to Lily, hadn’t she? American English, and that hadn’t come from her translation charm because those didn’t work on Lily. Lily reached out absently and touched one of the walls that were currently playing Mozart’s Piano Sonata in C Major. They’ve been here a lot longer than two weeks, haven’t they? Long enough to learn the language, learn to drive, and set this place up.

“Looks like it. Listen, if you want to…” He gestured at the shower, which was filling the little room with steam. “Go ahead. I’ll wait in the other room, keep an eye on that guy. Friar’s brother, right? I caught some of what the two of you said. Snatches. I, uh…” His scowl tightened a couple of notches. “I was just yanking your chain before about watching. I don’t do that shit.”

She hadn’t intended to shower, but maybe she would. It might clear the last of the drug-induced headache. Might help her think. Okay. That would be good. No, wait. You said ‘they’ loaded me into the Honda. Did you see her clearly? The halfling, I mean.

“The furry woman? Yeah, of course I saw her. You want to be careful if you go up against her. She’s strong. Lifted you up like you didn’t weigh anything.”

Now that was interesting. Lily was pretty sure no one but her and Drummond had noticed Alycithin at all. Okay. Thanks. I’m going to take a shower while I’ve got the chance.

Drummond faded back to mist, which made him blend in with the steam from the shower. Well, either he’d left like he said he would or he hadn’t. Being seen naked was not the biggest problem on her plate. Lily stripped quickly and stepped into the tub.

It felt ungodly good. For several moments she just stood beneath the stream of hot water, blessing plumbers everywhere. Who needed magic when you had indoor plumbing and plenty of hot water? Then she let her hands go through the automatic stuff with the shampoo while her mind got busy.

When Mike and Todd and everyone else went tumbling down, Lily had felt a wall of magic smack into her. The thing was, she’d felt that kind of magic once before. Not as strong, but the same kind. That time it had been Arjenie Fox standing with her hand on a car’s windshield while everyone around her passed out.

Glass, Arjenie said, did weird things to her Gift. One of those things was the way it knocked out everyone within twenty feet if she pulled strongly on her Gift while touching glass. That “everyone” included Arjenie herself, but the halfling had probably had training not available to a part-sidhe woman raised here on Earth. Training that let her shield herself from the effect.

It didn’t make sense that Cullen’s prototype could block the mate-sense…because it wasn’t the prototype doing it. It was her. Alycithin. The halfling. Who had a Gift like Arjenie’s, only a lot stronger. A Gift that allowed her to go unnoticed by everyone but ghosts and touch sensitives—and which could baffle wards, too. And, apparently, confuse the mate bond.

The mate bond was magic, after all. Not wholly magic—there seemed to be a spiritual component—but Cullen could see it, and he didn’t see the spiritual stuff, so part of it was built from magic. That would be the part the halfling’s Gift messed with.

Gifts were always stronger than formed magic, Lily had been told. Still, the mate bond came from the Lady. Who was an Old One.

Alycithin must have one hell of a strong Gift.

Lily finished rinsing her hair, turned the shower off, and grabbed a towel. She frowned as she dried herself off, frowned harder when she realized she’d forgotten to get some of the clothes the sidhe had provided. She padded over to the closet.

If the halfling was baffling the mate bond with her Gift, what was blocking Cullen’s Find spells?

That had to be the prototype itself, she decided as she fastened the bra that was such a creepy perfect fit. Alycithin didn’t have the prototype, or why bother grabbing Lily? Either Friar had it, or there was yet another group or individual in this mix who did.

Say Friar did have it. Lily simply didn’t believe the prototype could confuse the mate bond the way Alycithin’s Gift did. So if Sean was right and the halfling did intend to trade Lily to Friar, then once Lily was in Friar’s hands, her mate-sense should start working again. So should Rule’s.

Lily stood stock-still in her underwear as a really stupid idea seized hold of her. Stupid and crazy. Sure, she wanted Robert Friar, wanted him badly. But aside from the risk she’d be taking, she had a civilian here. Sean Friar wasn’t likely to escape on his own, and she didn’t buy whatever soothing platitudes the halfling had fed him about her code. Sean was too big a liability.

But there was another civilian. Another hostage, one held by “the other group.” The easiest way to find Adam King was to find Robert Friar. And Lily had someone who wanted to take her to him.

She pulled on her clothes slowly, thinking hard. Then stood and thought some more. At last she moved in front of the sink, where she stared at the fogged-up mirror without seeing it. She reached for that place in her mind…

It was like a dial. The default setting on her personal dial was set to the frequency where she talked to Drummond, and that was downright annoying. Why would her personal dial be set to him? But maybe it had nothing to do with him, being more about whatever weird thing tied them together. That was why she could mindspeak him so easily now that she’d gotten the knack of it, she’d decided.

But she’d mindspoken Rule on purpose a couple of times now. She had a sense for where he was on her dial. Changing that dial was tricky, and she didn’t always get it right. It was probably pointless to try. She had no idea how far away he was, but distance mattered. She’d never tried to mindspeak anyone who wasn’t with her. And she was behind warded walls, her mate-sense baffled by the halfling’s Gift—which might not affect mindspeech, but still. There was no reason to think this would work.

And no reason not to try. Lily took a slow breath and hunted for Rule on her dial. Rule, I’m okay. I’m being held by the halfling, who has a Gift like Arjenie’s, but stronger. She brought me here in a Honda CR-V, license plate 5FLT230. I’m on the third floor of a seven-story building in a residential area that’s not near the water. Sean Friar is here, apparently a hostage. I haven’t seen Adam King or Robert Friar. I’m told they’re not here. I think there’s another group of elves. I think the halfling intends to trade me to Friar, who may be with the other elves, who may have Adam King. I think I should let her. The mate bond will work again when I’m not around the halfling, and you can find me. And Robert Friar and Adam King.

Lily took a deep breath. That was tiring. She had no idea if she’d done it right, but if it tired her out, she’d done something. She told herself she’d have no way of knowing if she was reaching Rule. She hadn’t learned how to receive, just how to send, and that only a little bit. But her gut was clenched and unhappy. Her gut was sure she hadn’t reached him at all.

Better try it again. She ran through the whole spiel a second time. Then she stared at the slowly clearing mirror, frustrated, wondering if her gut had a clue about what was going on that her mind wasn’t able to tap in to, because it insisted she was getting nowhere.

On impulse, she reached up and drew on the foggy mirror with her finger. Drew a simple, stylized bee—a crude representation of the toltoi charm. Which wasn’t exactly magic, but the halfling had taken it, hadn’t she? Maybe she had a reason. Lily stared at that silly outline the way Sam always had her stare at a candle flame. Find me here, he’d say. She stared at it and tried to find Rule.

“MORE eggs?” Rule said.

“No, thanks.” Beth pushed the eggs still on her plate around with her fork.

Beth hadn’t eaten much, but Rule let it go. Lily was always telling him he tried to stuff her as if she were lupi.

He’d ordered enough for everyone. Madame Yu was still asleep, but several of his men had woken as soon as the smell of sausage and bacon reached them. As he’d known they would. He was doing Rho things. Taking care of his people. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could…

LT230…stucco building, not near the water…hostage…trade me to Robert Friar.

Rule’s fork fell from his hand. His head swung to the left. To the east. “That way,” he breathed. “She’s that way.”

LILY swayed, suddenly so dizzy she could scarcely stand. She gripped the sink with one hand and waited for it to pass. Her head swung to the west.

That way. Rule was that way.

Not that she felt him now, but she had. She had. For a few seconds while she was focused on the toltoi, the mate-sense had broken through. Rule was that way, and about ten miles away. Maybe a little less.

When the music faded, she scarcely noticed. Then a lovely, musical voice replaced the Mozart. “Lily Yu. We never did settle the matter of your correct title, did we? I would like it if you would join me for breakfast. Sean, I regret the discourtesy of not including you this time, but hope you will join me for lunch later. Lily Yu, to respond you must press your palm to the wall.”

Lily straightened, swallowed, and shoved her wet hair behind her ears. Her hands were shaky. She didn’t know if that was because she’d spent a lot of power, or if she was just scared spitless. Or so relieved she couldn’t think straight.

All of the above, maybe. She took a deep breath and did as she’d been told. The magic in the wall still vibrated, even though it wasn’t making music at the moment. “I appreciate and accept your invitation.”