“No hands!” Lily reminded him firmly. “No touching.”
Cullen swung his scowl around at her. “And how the hell am I supposed to know if he
found my copy of Czypsser’s grimoire if I don’t look?”
“Smell?”
“Shit, the whole place stinks of him!”
She frowned confused. “Does he have an unusually strong odor, then?” The perp couldn’t
have been in here long. “Or did he touch a lot of things?”
“No.” Cullen grudged that answer. “Go investigate somewhere else for a while.” He
turned away and stalked over to the glass étagère.
“Have you found anything else missing?”
“No.” Cullen bent to study one of those outbreaks of order: an empty shelf. His worn-to-a-thread
jeans looked ready to give up the battle for intactness any moment. His running shoes
were equally ragged, and his spice brown hair stood up in spikes. He was as pretty
a bit of eye candy as any woman was likely to see, and he was in a rage.
Not just pissed off. He’d been that earlier. Maybe it was a lupi thing, set off by
the smell of an intruder in his space? Whatever the reason, he all but vibrated with
anger. “Not,” he added crisply as he stopped scrutinizing the barren shelf, “that
I can tell for sure without
touching
things.”
She nodded. “Makes sense, if he’s a pro.”
“A pro?” Brilliant blue eyes focused on her. His lovely mouth sneered at her. “He
left behind my copy of Czypsser’s grimoire! Do you know what that thing’s worth?”
“He came here for one thing, got it, and got out. Didn’t let greed make him linger
because he knew he didn’t have much time.”
His eyes were even wilder than his hair, the blue flame-bright—and starting to darken.
The pupils seemed to be growing as black ate into the irises. “If the rat bastard
is a pro, he’d better be ready to be professionally eviscerated. When I—”
“Cullen.”
“—get my hands on him I’m going to ask real nicely how he got past the flare ward,
and if I like his answer maybe I won’t—”
“Cullen!”
Cullen stopped midword. Closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and ran both hands through
his hair. Again. “I’m okay.”
The black had receded from his pupils, so she believed him. “Good. Let’s step outside.
I need to call the CSI team in. While we wait for them, I’ve got some questions about
your prototype.”
He fell into step beside her. “When I think about all the hours and hours of work
I put into it, and then some—”
“Best if you don’t think about all those hours right now. Think about how you’re going
to condense what you know about the prototype so you don’t drown me in explanations.”
She paused on the other side of the doorway. David and one of his squad had taken
up positions there. She checked her phone. No bars. She put the phone back and pulled
out her flashlight. “Looks like I’ll have to head up out of this ditch your place
is in to use my phone.” She glanced at David. “You’ll keep the scene secured until
my CSI people get here?”
He nodded. “I checked with Pete. Until further notice, I’m under your orders.”
“Good. That includes keeping Cullen out.” She started for the trail she’d come down
a few minutes ago. “Cullen?”
“No one put me under your goddamn orders,” he grumbled, but he followed. He even brought
the mage light with him.
It provided plenty of light, so she flicked her flashlight off and stuck it back in
her purse. “So what’s the side effect that makes the prototype not ready for prime
time?”
“It can create persistent, temporally displaced illusions in nulls.”
“Temporally displaced…unpack that for me.”
He shrugged. “Memories. Vivid, hallucinogenic
memories of shit that never happened. Usually shit that couldn’t have happened, like
flying rats in goggles and aviator jackets.”
“Flying rats.”
“With wings. Dressed up like World War I pilots.” He sighed. “That one came from the
VP in charge of development. The really weird part was how little it bothered him.
He clearly remembered seeing those rats flapping along beside the plane when he flew
in that morning—he’d had a window seat—but the memory didn’t strike him as odd. After
we talked things out, he agreed that there couldn’t really be any flying rats, so
it had to be a hallucinatory memory, but he seemed to think I was making a lot of
fuss about something pretty trivial. So did the other two.”
“The other two?”
“I did the demo for four execs from T-Corp. Three of them were nulls, not a whiff
of magic to ’em. One was a practicing Wiccan—Air Gift, not strong, but well trained.
The Gifted guy didn’t experience any hallucinogenic memories. The three nulls did.
The fabricated memories all involved events that really occurred on that day between
seven and four hours prior to the demo.”
“If they didn’t recognize the, uh, fabricated memories as bizarre, how did you find
out about them? No, wait—I want to know that and a bunch of other things, like what
the prototype looks like. But I need to call the CSI team first.” She reached for
the phone in her jacket pocket. “Do you have a photo of it?’
“No photo.”
“What does it—”
“I’m afraid you can’t call CSI,” Rule said from the shadows partway up the slope.
She frowned at him. “Sure I can. If I don’t have any bars here I’ll head up the hill.”
“Isen forbids it. That means less to you than to the rest of us, but this isn’t a
Unit matter. No magic was used in the crime.”
Her first reaction was to call it in anyway. Rule was
wrong; MCD could only investigate felonies committed using magic, but she was Unit.
She could investigate anything connected with magic, including the theft of a magical
object. But if he wanted to, Isen could make investigation impossible. If their Rho
told them to, every lupus at Clanhome would insist there had been no explosion, no
intruder, and nothing was missing. Every damn one of them, including Cullen.
Including Rule.
“Cullen,” she said, her voice tight, “how about you go burn something while I chat
with Rule?”
“Oh, stop and think, Lily,” Cullen said crossly as he brushed past her. “It’s obvious
why Isen doesn’t want outsiders involved.”
Not to her, it wasn’t. “Well?” she said to Rule.
He sighed. “How did the thief know where to find the prototype?”
Ah, shit. Double shit. She should have thought of that.
There were other possibilities than the obvious. The thief might have conducted aerial
surveillance. Photos that showed Cullen going to and from the workshop, for example,
would locate it. But that was not the only way for him to find out. Not the easiest
way, nor the most certain. Not the likeliest way. Her stomach hurt when she said it
out loud. “Isen thinks there’s a traitor in the clan.”
“He believes it likely, yes. Or among our guests. Isen has called all three clans
present at Clanhome to the meeting ground.”
Her eyes widened. “All of them? Will everyone fit?”
“Some of the tenders are excused to care for the children, as are those guards needed
for patrol and those still fighting the fire on Big Sister—which was under control
but not out, the last I heard. Otherwise, every adult must attend. He asked that I
include my Leidolf guards. I agreed, with the stipulation that Leidolf be questioned
first.”
Rule was Lu Nuncio to Nokolai—heir and enforcer, basically. Obedient to his Rho. He
was, however, also a Rho in his own right. Rho to Leidolf, Nokolai’s longtime enemy.
Two-mantled, some were calling him. Even at Nokolai Clanhome, Isen couldn’t command
the Leidolf guards. He couldn’t order his son to bring them. He could only request.
“Why first?”
“Most of those present will already be blaming my Leidolf guards. They must be shown
quickly and publicly to be untainted. Lily, we need to go to the meeting field
now
.”
“In just a minute. First I need to—”
“This isn’t the time to argue. We have to go. My father is very angry.”
“He would be.”
“You don’t understand. You’ve never seen him deeply angry.”
No, she hadn’t. She’d seen Isen laughing, kind, ruthless, annoyed, tender, and ready
to kill. But deeply angry…“How mad is he? Are you worried he’ll lose control?”
He hesitated. Only for a second, but that scared her as his words hadn’t. “No. Of
course not.”
C
ULLEN
accompanied them. The guards didn’t. They were among those excused, which reassured
Lily somewhat. Isen might be throwing a Rho-sized hissy, but he hadn’t stopped thinking
entirely. He’d left essential personnel on duty.
Some of them, anyway. The guards were guarding the scene, not investigating it. That’s
what Lily should have been doing instead of tramping back down half a mountain. That
and calling in the crime scene techs, dammit.
For several minutes none of them spoke. Lily was thinking hard and not liking the
answers she turned up. She figured the others were in the same boat.
It was a brisk, clear night. The sky was heavy with stars the way you only see it
this far from the city. The moon was a thin fingernail clipping lodged high overhead.
That would have been plenty of light for the two men with her, but fortunately Cullen
had remembered that it wasn’t enough for her. He’d held onto one of the mage lights
and kept it bobbing a few paces ahead, giving her a good view of the
ground and throwing weird shadows. The wind was soft, brushing at her hair and cheeks
with airy caresses. It smelled of burning.
It would take them about twenty minutes to reach the meeting field, going at her slow,
human pace. Might as well make use of that time. “Did you learn anything from the
perp’s scent trail?” she asked Rule.
“Yes. José and his squad followed the strongest scent trail. Usually that means the
most recent, but not this time. The thief had laid a false trail earlier by taking
off his shoes and going back and forth barefooted along one stretch. Had José been
less distracted by his own loss of smell, by the sudden blare of the klaxon, he’d
have seen that the footprints changed from shod to bare.”
“Clever. He expected his pursuers to trust scent over sight. He knows something about
lupi.”
He nodded grimly. “Too much.”
“There may be a traitor, but don’t lean on that idea too heavily. Yeah, the perp could
have learned about lupi from a confederate here at Clanhome. Or he might know someone
who knows a lot about lupi—an
ospi
friend or girlfriend or whatever—or maybe he hacked into the FBI database. There’s
a lot about you there. Or he could just be damn good at research. He’s a planner.
Cullen.”
He didn’t answer. She glanced back at him—he was trailing slightly behind her and
Rule, frowning faintly as if he found the ground ahead of him perplexing. She suspected
he didn’t even see it. “Cullen,” she repeated.
His frown tightened as he looked up. “What?”
“Who knows about the prototype?”
“That it exists? Four executives at T-Corp and whoever they told. Also most everyone
here at Clanhome—most all Nokolai, anyway. No one was supposed to speak of it outside
the clan, so our guests aren’t supposed to know, but some of them probably do.”
“People will talk,” Lily agreed. “And kids repeat stuff they hear—especially if they
think it’s a secret.”
“Which is why,” Rule said evenly, “silence was part of
the agreement between Laban, Vochi, and Nokolai. They are bound not to reveal anything
they learn while staying here, except to their Rhos, should they ask. Children can’t
be bound by such an agreement, but the Laban and Vochi children have had no opportunity
to speak with anyone outside Clanhome since they arrived.”
Laban and Vochi were subordinate clans, which was basically a feudal setup. Their
Rhos were subject to Isen the way a minor lord used to be to an earl or a count or
whatever back when titles were more than an attraction for the paparazzi. Back when
titles were connected to real duties and responsibilities…duties that flowed both
ways. “Vochi’s supposed to be good with money,” she said after a moment.
“Abe trained me.”
“Abe’s the Vochi Rho.”
“Yes.” Rule’s voice was tight. “I have a degree, but that only gave me the blocks
to build with. Abe taught me how to build, what to watch for, how much fluidity to
retain under various conditions, how to…he taught me so much. I can’t believe—” He
cut himself off abruptly.
That his teacher had betrayed Nokolai. That’s what Rule meant. That’s why Isen was
so furious. The Vochi Rho could have learned all about the prototype from his people
living here. He could have learned everything the thief had needed to know.
Lupi didn’t have the same priorities as humans. To them, the possibility that a subordinate
Rho had betrayed that relationship was a much bigger deal than the loss of a device
that was potentially worth millions, maybe hundreds of millions. Or would be if it
worked. Did the thief know it didn’t work right? Lily tabled that question for now.
It was vital, but not as urgent at the moment. Lupi took a really hard line on betrayal.
No shades of gray. If a member of Nokolai betrayed the clan, that was treason. If
a subordinate Rho violated his agreement with Nokolai’s Rho, that was treason. In
their world, treason had only one possible punishment.
If she wasn’t really smart—and probably lucky, too—someone was going to die. Maybe
tonight. “Laban would be in the same position as Vochi to learn stuff,” she said carefully.
“And they’re a lot more competitive than Vochi.”
Cullen snorted. “I doubt Leo knows how to balance his checkbook, much less how to
sell the prototype. Rich in fighters, Laban. Poor in everything else.”
That’s what she’d been told. Nokolai’s two North American subordinate clans were opposites.
Laban was small, contentious, and bred good fighters. Vochi was small, wealthy, and
bred too many submissives. “Vochi like money games. They’re good at them.”
Rule bit off a one-word reply. “Yes.”
“The thief stole the prototype of a device that doesn’t work.”