"Have you got your phone?" Lily asked. "We need to get some help here, and Cordoba took mine."
Automatically he felt at his waist. The movement sent a sharp pain through his broken arm, and he gritted his teeth, riding it out. Pity he hadn't gotten a copy of Cynna's spell.
"Rule?" Lily was there, slipping an arm around his waist, but carefully, as if she weren't sure where she could touch without hurting.
She was right. He winced as she accidentally pressed against sore ribs. "I'm okay. My phone's gone. I don't know when…" He looked around. Easier to find one in the house, he decided, than in the grass.
But his gaze snagged on the woman lying nearby, her dead eyes staring up. A deep sadness stole over him. What was evil? She'd caused the deaths of two of his men but saved his. And she'd given her life for her child… but she wouldn't have had to if she hadn't gone so far down the wrong path. Even at the end she'd fought to control everything and everyone, when she could have just asked for help.
He was aware of the lesson there. Learning it, applying it, wasn't going to be easy, but he could make a start. The pain from his arm was sweeping over him in dizzy waves. "I probably ought to sit down myself," he said abruptly, then looked down at Lily. "I could use some help getting to the house."
Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. She smiled. "Let's go."
He braced his bad arm with his good one, trying to lessen the jostling. If he didn't get it set soon, it would have to be rebroken so it could heal straight.
After a moment he raised the question that was bothering him. "I don't get it. Why did she get involved with Cordoba? She could think rings around him. He was so much less than her in every way."
"That's what she wanted. She wasn't looking for a partner, an equal. She wanted someone she could control."
That, Rule decided after a moment, was not a lesson he needed. He had a problem with trying to control too much—but what he wanted to control lay within him, not outside. And he much preferred having a partner and an equal. He smiled at the woman holding him, just as he was holding her. "Do you think—"
A gray streak raced out from the side of the house coming straight at them. Brady. In wolf form, and intending murder.
Automatically Rule pushed Lily aside so he could Change, but he was weak, his power exhausted by so much use and so many injuries. It took him precious seconds just to find the moon's song.
And Lily, damn her, put herself between him and the charging wolf. Rule snarled and grabbed at the wisp of power remaining— just as another wolf, this one jet-black with silver tips to his fur, leaped past them.
Alex. He collided with Brady, and they fell in a snarling, snapping tangle. Rule pulled Lily back several feet.
"A gun," she said when they stopped. "Come on. There are rifles back there."
He shook his head, holding her firmly so she couldn't act on her own. "Brady attacked without Challenge. Alex is Lu Nuncio. This is for him to handle."
Rule had seen Alex fight in human form, and he was good. As a wolf, though, he was brilliant. Brady was trained, and fought well—but he had no chance.
Brady might have submitted and sought mercy. He had to know he would lose. He didn't. Either he was too berserk with rage to stop, or he was sane enough to know he'd gone too far. Had he succeeded in killing Rule, the rebounding mantle would almost certainly have killed Victor. The death shock would have destroyed the clan.
Alex had no choice. In less than ten minutes, Brady was dead.
THIRTY-NINE
"I'VE been through a lot," Toby whined. "I really need to open a present early."
Lily paused in her frantic polishing of the mirror over the mantel. She smiled and reached out to tousle the boy's hair. "And I really need to finish cleaning the house before the house is too full for any of us to move. I think you'll survive waiting one more day."
It was two days before Christmas, and Toby's custom was to open presents on Christmas Eve. That didn't jibe with the way her own family did things, but Lily didn't care. Her parents might, but they'd jump that hurdle when it was in front of them.
After another crash and two near misses, the authorities had shut down the airports again for all nonemergency flights. The nodes were still leaking magic, and while the task force had come up with a few solutions, they were makeshift. Wall Street was functioning, and Houston had stopped burning, but the National Guard had been called out in Texas. Too many odd things had somehow crossed over during the last, and largest, power wind.
And so, unable to fly, Lily's father, mother, and younger sister were driving across the country to spend the holiday with all of them: her and Rule, Toby and Benedict, Grandmother and Li Qin and Cullen. Even Timms was invited, if he was released from the hospital in time. Lily's older sister, newly married, had, in a rare moment of rebellion, chosen to stay in California.
Lily was a nervous wreck trying to get everything ready. She was also happy.
Her mother had forgiven her and would sleep beneath Rule's roof. For her, that was a huge step toward accepting his place in Lily's life.
"But Lily," Toby said, "you get to open one early. It's not fair."
She thought of her coat and the night everything had changed, and her stomach clenched. So many had died.
"And you," Rule said from the doorway to the dining room, "are lousy about keeping secrets."
"I didn't tell!" Toby said, indignant.
Rule shook his head, but he was smiling. He looked entirely recovered, except for the sling and brace on his left arm. Lupi didn't bother with full casts unless it was a bad break, and his hadn't been. "Madame Yu wants to talk to you. She's in the kitchen."
The boy took off.
"Did Grandmother really say that?" Lily asked dryly.
"Not exactly, but she enjoys him. He's properly worshipful these days, in a pestering sort of way. Besides, she's been playing mah-jongg with Benedict."
"I take it Benedict's winning again."
Rule grinned.
Toby hadn't seen Grandmother Change, but he'd been told about it. Ever since, he'd been her happy slave. Lily understood. At his age, she'd spent all the time she could with Grandmother, too. The old woman was dictatorial, difficult, arrogant… and had been quite ready to die to protect a boy she barely knew. Her love for children shone with a purity they always recognized, however she tried to disguise it.
Rule came over, plucked the cleaning rag from Lily's hand, tossed it on the floor, and kissed her before she could finish forming her protest. So she didn't bother, settling into his arms as they turned to smile at the tree.
It had been delivered yesterday, fully decorated with toy drums and soldiers and such, along with hundreds of twinkling lights, just as Grandmother ordered. Presents had begun appearing under it immediately. There was a nice pile of them now. , "Grandmother wants to take Toby to the hospital tomorrow," Lily said. "She thinks a few games of mah-jongg will help Timms's recovery."
"The hospital doesn't allow children his age… but what am I thinking? She won't let that stop her."
Lily smiled. "How's Cullen?"
Rule had just returned from visiting his friend. They'd offered to put him up here, but he said it was too crowded. He was right. But he'd also turned down a hotel room, choosing to stay in Timms's apartment. That odd friendship seemed to be continuing; Cullen had been to visit Timms in the hospital twice, which Rule said was a record.
"Crabby as hell," Rule said. "He's especially pissed that it was his right foot, which makes it hard to drive."
"Drive? Rule, he can't be thinking of driving yet!"
"Has Cynna made up her mind about Christmas Eve?"