"All right. Bring us the keys, then see about our wounded. Cullen and Brady." Cullen had still been alive earlier. He was tough. Surely…
Alex nodded and took off at an uneven run.
"The girl," Rule said suddenly, remembering. "Jiri's daughter."
"Cynna has her," Lily said quietly. "Jiri… wanted to see her. She's still sleeping."
Toby. If Jiri died before removing her spell—Rule lurched to his feet, then swayed.
"Put your arm over my shoulders," Lily said.
"I don't—"
"Yes, you do need help," she snapped. "You've been a big enough hero for one night. I'm not injured. Lean on me so we can get over there and talk to Jiri."
He did. And she was right; it did help to lean on her a bit. Not just because of the physcial aid, but the peace of the mate bond eased through him.
He'd seen her. He'd seen both of her. The other Lily wasn't lost.
"How did you do that?" she asked softly. "How did you kill it? I thought…" She shuddered.
"The poison. The mantles." He shook his head, knowing he wasn't making sense to her. Though it all made sense to him now.
It was the wolf who'd hung on to the demon poison, the wolf's guilt over failing Lily that made it impossible to let go. And the man's need for control, he admitted, that made it impossible to understand. If he'd spent more time as wolf, he might have known, but the wolf felt he deserved to lose his memory, just as Lily had lost her memory of him.
Most of it, anyway. When she died. The part that lived on, her soul, remembered, but the Lily he spoke with and made love with had only brief flashes of memory from their time in hell.
It was the wolf who'd known how to expiate that guilt, but it was the two mantles that made it possible.
"Somehow the mantles affected the Change," he said slowly. "I don't understand it. I didn't know it was possible. Maybe it was the combination of mantles, demon poison, and the mate bond… I'm pretty sure there hasn't been another lupus with that mix acting on him before. I grew fangs. Real, hollow fangs, the kind a viper uses. I pumped the creature full of demon poison. It died, and… the poison's gone."
"You're sure?" Startled, she stopped. "Kiss me. I can't touch you because of these damned cuffs. Kiss me and let me check."
He smiled. "What an excellent idea." He bent, cupping her cheek with his good hand, and kissed her gently.
When he straightened, her eyes were wide. "It's gone. It's really gone."
Relief shivered through him. He'd been sure… almost sure. It helped to know Lily couldn't feel the poison anymore.
They started walking again. "It's beyond weird, but makes a certain bizarre sense. The poison was intended to kill other demons. That creature wasn't a demon, but it was from hell. It probably had a similar body chemistry."
Alex found the keys just as they reached the others. He unlocked Lily's cuffs, and she gasped in pain as her arms fell forward. Rule knew just how much it hurt, but she just shook her head at him and helped him over to Jiri.
The woman shouldn't have been alive. She had two bloody holes high in her chest and a much bigger one in her abdomen. An exit wound, he thought. One of the guards had shot her in the back. The dirt around her was wet and sticky with her blood.
Cynna sat beside her, holding the little girl, and Jiri held the girl's hand. Her eyes tried to find him as Lily helped him sit, but he could see death hazing them. He doubted she saw much.
"It's Rule," he said.
"Ah." Her voice was faint. Her eyes drifted closed, and she smiled. "Tommy's dead."
"Yes," Cynna said. Rule saw her throat work as she swallowed.
"Should've listened to you, Cynna, but I liked the power too much. Couldn't do what I wanted without an apprentice, but by then the only kind I could get were worse than me." Her voice faded, but she got her eyes open again, searching through what must be pure darkness to her. "Rule Turner."
"Here. I'm right here."
"Want you to take my Cece, raise her as clan. She needs protection. Damn that Tommy." Hatred momentarily strenghtened her voice. "Her own father, and he was ready to give her up to the Great Bitch."
"Cordoba was her father?" Cynna said, startled.
"Bastard. Thought he had me… damn near did. I couldn't disobey, but who taught him those bindings? I kept a little back. Not much, but it was enough. Rule." Her eyes shifted, sought his blindly. "You'll take my daughter as clan. The goddess wants her. You'll take her, or your son will never wake."
"I'd have seen to her welfare without the threat," he said evenly. "Even with it, I'll see she's adopted into the clan. I'd not let Her get Her hands on a child."
Her mouth twisted. "Habit… sorry. Your son woke before we attacked."
He jerked slightly in surprise.
"Told you—I don't harm children. Knew I wouldn't come out of this alive."
"Your daughter still sleeps."
"Cece… different spell. She'll wake at dawn." A tremor ran through her mangled body. "Tish can't hold me here much longer. More to say, but… Cece's Gift. You need to know about it. Same as mine, and strong."
"What's your Gift?" Cynna asked. "Are you a far-seer?"
Something like a chuckle shook her, sending another, harder tremor through her. "All of you always wanted to know, didn't you? I'm a patterner. One hell of a patterner. That's how I found your son, Rule," she added, her lids drooping over eyes that looked dead already, though she continued to speak. "Tweaked the patterns… tweaked the hell out of them tonight, too. Tish." Her free hand twitched. "Tish…"
The huge demon rose and lumbered over. Rule and Lily scrambled out of the way, but Cynna didn't move. The demon stopped inches from Jiri.
"Ah—did you bring him over here?" Rule asked Cynna.
Cynna shook her head. Her face was wet with tears she'd cried so silently he hadn't noticed. "She let me ride, truly ride this time. She couldn't order Tish to do things Tommy didn't allow, so she gave me control. But she's still master."
"Tish." Jiri's head turned andher free hand moved a few inches, coming to rest on the demon's huge foot. Her mouth turned up, and her face eased with what might have been affection.
Her other hand, which had held on to her daughter's so long, relaxed. Her body sank into the full stillness of death. And the demon vanished.
"It's gone?" Lily asked sharply.
Cynna nodded. "Back to Dis. When the master dies, the demon can't…" She shut her eyes, looking horribly weary. "Cullen? Is he…"
"Not too perky," Cullen said from behind Rule and several feet away. "But still around."
Relief flooded Rule. He turned to see his friend being carried by Henning, who'd Changed back to human at some point. Hen-ning was limping, but not badly. There was so much dried blood i on his leg Rule couldn't see the wound itself, but it didn't seem to trouble the man much.
It was obvious why he had to carry Cullen. One of Cullen's feet was missing, along with part of his calf.
"Jesus!" Cynna shoved to her feet.
"He's okay," Hennings said, sounding surprised. "Lost too much blood—that's why he passed out. Once his body got it scabbed over, he could start replacing the blood, though he needs some fluids. He's hardly scratched otherwise."
Cynna just stood there, shaking her head. She still held the child but seemed almost to have forgotten that.
"It's hard to get used to, isn't it?" Lily said dryly. "The way they are with injuries, I mean. But he'll grow everything back."
"It will take forever," Cullen said morosely. "And it hurts like bloody blue blazes."
"Take him in the house and find somewhere he can lie down," Rule said. "Where's Alex?"
"Looking for Brady," Hennings said as he switched course for the house. "After the creature let go, he apparently wandered off. Alex thinks he took a pretty good blow to the head. He may be confused."
Or a coward, Rule thought. Or just pleased to leave and let Cordoba handle killing Rule for him.