Mortal Ties (42 page)

She emptied her bladder, splashed water on her face—her headache was easing off some—and
turned on the shower. She did not strip and get in, though. She stood next to it and
said very quietly, “Drummond.”

A
T
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 H
YPERBOLE IS THE BEST
T
HING
E
VER
! 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.