“Another one?” Dreyer sputtered. “Another interfering bitch? Where did you come from? I suppose you’re going to tell me you’re a fucking Fed, too.”
“You,” Grandmother said, “will be quiet now.” She stopped in front of him and looked directly into his eyes. “You will do as the federal agent told you, and you will stop making trouble.”
Dreyer’s face lost its rage-induced color. His eyes glazed. “Trouble?”
“You will cooperate.” Grandmother stressed the word as if it were code. After a second her head tilted as she glanced at Rule. “Do not concern yourself with the handcuffs, however. I will see to those.” She waved a hand. Her lips moved, though Lily didn’t hear anything.
The cuffs clattered to the pavement.
“Thank you, Madame,” Rule said politely, bringing his arms in front of him with a small wince. He rubbed one wrist. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
Grandmother’s eyes gleamed. She was delighted with herself. “Mr. Seabourne taught me a cantrip for locks. I thought it might be useful.”
Lily stared at Dreyer in dismay. He’d turned to the cop next to him—a sergeant, who looked deeply puzzled—and was issuing orders for the people in room 418 to be left alone.
Oh, shit. “Grandmother,” she said, hurrying forward, “I am so very glad to see you. But you can’t go around ensorcelling police captains!”
“Obviously, I can. That I do not usually choose to do so is beside the point. You were doing well, but my way was quicker.” The dainty, imperial chin tipped higher. “I have been walking, and it is very hot. I believe the air-conditioning in the hospital is working once more. We will adjourn to Mr. Seabourne’s room to discuss matters.”
Even Madame Yu couldn’t decree an immediate exodus to air-conditioning. Rule wondered if she experienced heat the way he did, or if she was closer to human norms. A hundred degrees might make him want shade, but it wasn’t debilitating. Such temperatures were hard on humans, yet all around him firefighters battled disaster in spite of the heat and their heavy protective gear.
Humans did amaze him sometimes.
He waited with the other civilians while Lily and the man with her—he worked in Homicide, Rule remembered, though he couldn’t recall the man’s name—spoke with Dreyer and the fire department official. Lily wanted to confirm that the building was safe, to find out about casualties, and to outline the particular needs of an investigation which required evidence of the use of magic. She’d called in the FBI crime scene van, but it wasn’t here yet, and much of the work of managing the scene and locating witnesses would fall to—as she put it—the locals.
Captain Dreyer was the epitome of cooperation. Rule thought he would have agreed if she’d suggested he go home and watch Sesame Street. It was disturbing. Pleasant, but disturbing. “How long will he be like that?” he murmured to Madame Yu.
“A day, a week.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I will admit I used more power than was necessary. He has pig eyes.”
In other words, she’d been pissed. Like her granddaughter. He smiled. “And did you use a similar method to get past the police barricades?”
She looked at him sternly, but her eyes were twinkling. “This is a silly question.”
“Here’s another one. What did you trade for with Cullen to get that unlock spell you used?” Cullen was like a dragon in one way. Dragons hoarded and occasionally bartered information; Cullen hoarded and occasionally bartered spells.
“I was very generous. I told him one way of creating a wan chi spell, which is a carrier spell. You do not know what that means, but he did. I also told him about an out-realm being who has lived in China.”
Startled, he said, “You told him about the Chimei? When was—”
“Months ago. Hush.”
The slightly scruffy older man who used to work with Lily ambled up to them. What was his . . . Oh, yes, Rule remembered now. He had what sounded like two first names—Thomas James. Lily called him by his initials. T.J.
“Ma’am,” Thomas James said, “you can head inside now. But the elevators aren’t working yet, and I understand the patient you’re wanting to visit is on the fourth floor. Do you need—”
Madame Yu awarded his concern a single snort and started for the hospital entry.
“Guess not.” James glanced at Rule. “I met her once before. Did Lily tell you?”
Rule shook his head, glanced over at Lily—who waved him on and kept talking to the fire department official—and started for the hospital entry. “What was it like?”
“Embarrassed the hell out of Lily.” He fell into step beside Rule, grinning. “She’d just transferred to Homicide and I sort of took her under my wing. Habit of mine, with the young ones. I guess she said something about that to her grandmother, because a week later Lily turns up, all stiff and embarrassed, telling me her grandmother wants to have lunch with me. To check me out,” he added in case Rule, not being a cop, had overlooked the obvious. “Not that Lily said so, of course. But Mrs. Yu didn’t have a problem saying it.”
“You must have checked out. You seem to be intact.”
“That,” James said after a moment, “isn’t funny. She scared the shit out of me. I laughed it off—you know, made like it was the same as being interrogated by that fourth-grade teacher who terrified you as a kid. And it was, in a way. But in another way, it wasn’t the same at all.” His brow creased. “What did she do to Dreyer, anyway?”
Rule considered various answers, but decided to keep it simple. “Nothing permanent. The, ah, skill is one she rarely uses.”
James grunted, looking thoughtful.
The ability to ensorcell with one’s gaze wasn’t a human talent. As far as Rule knew, dragons were the only beings who could do it. At some point, Madame Yu had been transformed into a dragon. At some point, she’d returned to her original form—but some of the dragon magic had remained. It must have become interwoven with her being so deeply that it couldn’t be separated. Deeply enough that she’d passed a version of it down through the blood.
That part didn’t surprise Rule. Didn’t he enjoy some degree of his wolf’s gifts even in this form? Didn’t lupi pass their magic down through the blood, even though they mated in human form?
No, the surprising part was Madame Yu’s other ability. That seemed to have little to do with dragon magic. Rule had never heard of anyone else who could turn into a—
“You think she put a whammy on me like she did with Dreyer?” James asked suddenly. “Put the fear into me magically, I mean.”
“Hmm? Oh, you mean Madame Yu. No, I don’t think so. She inspires a certain caution without resorting to magic. The, ah, unusual ability she used on Dreyer. . . that experience isn’t one you’d mistake for anything else.”
“Yeah?” His eyebrows rose in surprised curiosity. “Pulled it on you, has she?”
“Once.” It had been terrifying. Infuriating. Then he’d learned why she’d done it—in a misguided attempt to draw demon poison from his system into herself. The woman lacked sense sometimes, particularly if she was protecting those she cared about. Again, like her granddaughter. “I was angry, but it was an unusual situation, and her motives were selfless.”
Another grunt, this one skeptical. “You like her.”
“Enormously.” They reached the hospital doors. With the electricity back on, they opened automatically. The air inside was cooler, but not back to its usual air-conditioned chill.