“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.”