Rule hadn’t expected the question to even be raised. He for damn sure hadn’t expected it to come from Javier. Despite the occasional clash, he’d considered Javier a friend. Tonight his hotheaded friend would try to kill him.
Rule placed the call he dreaded making.
Immediately he got a busy signal. “Damn it. The house line’s tied up. You’d think he’d keep it open when … I’ll try his cell, but half the time he forgets to turn it on.” He did try, and was sent straight to voice mail. “This is Rule. It’s urgent. Call me.”
He tossed the phone on the seat and tried to relax his grip on the steering wheel. He was tense and scared and hurting, and his wolf wanted out. Out of this luxurious box on wheels. Out of this stupid two-legged form so he could howl.
Javier had Challenged him. His wolf felt betrayed and furious, eager to answer that challenge. Which told Rule why Javier had issued it in the first place. Too much wolf, not enough thinking. Surely if that young hothead had paused to think he’d have seen that Rule hadn’t somehow sent his own brother into the fury in order to stage an act as monumentally stupid as it was treacherous.
Though Lucas had doubts, too, didn’t he? And Lucas was as coolheaded as they came.
Rule glanced at the phone on the seat beside him as he slowed for the light. Grimaced. Better try again. Or maybe Lily could. He glanced at her, about to ask … and saw her face clearly.
He reached for her hand. “Are you okay?”
“I should be asking you that.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.” He stretched out his hand. After a moment, she took it. He focused on the feel of her skin, the way her fingers wrapped around his, the sheer comfort of the connection. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “Sorry I had to ask you to make such a choice. Are you okay?”
She surprised him with a soft huff of a laugh. “Okay? I’m a mess. I’ve been a mess ever since I saw LeBron’s brains up way too close and personal.”
“We’re quite a pair at the moment, aren’t we? Banged up, mixed up …” He squeezed her hand. “I know you hate messes.”
“Especially when the mess is in my head. I made the best call I could at the time, but I don’t …” She shook her head. “I don’t have time to sort it out now. I still don’t hear any sirens. Do you?”
Subject closed, he thought. For now. “Apparently no one saw the fight.” The traffic cones they’d used to block the street had kept cars away, and of course the fight hadn’t lasted as long as it seemed. Under ten minutes, surely, though the aftermath had taken that long again, and more. And several of the apartments in the nearby complex had a view of the turnaround. Those on upper floors wouldn’t have had that view blocked by everyone’s cars. If someone had looked out a window at the wrong time … “We were lucky.”
“I wonder why?”
“Luck isn’t defined by reason.”
“No, but if you’re smart you minimize how much is left up to luck. Friar’s smart. Why didn’t he have a reporter or two tipped to be there? Or have one of his people hanging around, ready to call it in anonymously when Benedict freaked?”
“Maybe he did and something went wrong.”
“Which makes us awfully damn lucky, doesn’t it?”
She was right. “Your brain’s working better than mine at the moment. Maybe you can come up with a reason. I’m drawing a blank.” The light changed to green. As he accelerated he frowned and released her hand. “Would you try calling Isen again?”
She answered by picking up his phone and doing as he’d asked. “So what did George tell you before … Isen. It’s Lily. Things went badly. Three dead, none of them Nokolai. We never made it to the circle. I’m putting you on speaker so Rule and I can both speak.”
Good idea. Rule inhaled carefully. Talking wasn’t comfortable. It required a lot of breath, and breathing hurt. “I’ll start at the end,” he said. “Ybirra has issued a formal Challenge, properly witnessed.”
Isen hissed. It was an oddly feline sound from a man who wasn’t at all catlike. “When?”
“Tonight at ten. Single combat at the abandoned mine near Hole-in-the-Wall.”
“In a hurry, was he? If that’s the ending, I’d better hear the beginning and middle.”
Rule gestured for Lily to begin.
“The beginning,” she said. “was when Javier insisted all the guards be checked for weapons before we left the rendezvous point. During this process Edgar’s guard, George, apparently dosed Benedict with something that sent him into the fury.”
Rule heard his father’s quick indrawn breath. Lily probably didn’t.
“There were multiple casualties,” she continued, “including two initial dead—Edgar of Wythe and Javier’s guard, Gil. Benedict was extremely difficult to stop or subdue, so Arjenie knocked everyone out—”
“She what?”
“That’s my assumption. I saw her slap the windshield of the car. I felt magic move out across the area. I saw everyone but Cullen collapse. I believe she drew strongly on her Gift, and the interference from the armored windshield knocked her out. Somehow she broadcast the effect.”
“I see,” Isen said. “No, actually I don’t, but I’ll save my questions for later. Benedict’s condition?”
“He took less damage than anyone, I think. He’s sleeping in the back of Scott’s car. Cullen’s keeping a sleep charm on him. Arjenie is with us. Um … summary of injuries. Rule has cracked or broken ribs, which is probably why he’s letting me do a lot of the talking. Cullen has a concussion, but his vision cleared quickly. I think Lucas’s guard has a broken arm. Billy—Myron’s guard—has a broken neck, but Cullen thinks he can heal it if he receives proper medical care. I think Lucas got bumps and bruises but no breaks.”
“You don’t mention yourself.”
“I stayed back. I couldn’t help. I didn’t trust myself to shoot left-handed, not with everyone moving so fast.”
“She’s got a bruised hip,” Rule said, “and may have incurred damage to her arm. Javier knocked her down on his way to me.”
She slid him a look he couldn’t interpret, but there seemed a hint of surprise in it. Had she thought he hadn’t noticed her being hurt?
Isen spoke. “You’ve accounted for only two deaths.”
“George, Edgar’s man, had a broken jaw and probably a concussion, but he didn’t die from his injuries. He had a heart attack.”
“A heart attack.”
“I’ll take it from here,” Rule said. “George was farther from Arjenie than most of us, which is probably why he woke before the others. He was able to subvocalize despite his jaw, and confirmed that he’d used a potion on Benedict, expecting it to knock him out. Edgar ordered this. He believed it to be the price of his brother’s life. Brian—” His voice caught. Hold it together, he told himself. “Brian is being held captive. George didn’t know who held him, but I can guess. At any rate, Edgar felt he had no choice. He did order George to stand over Benedict and defend him if we were attacked.”
Lily was frowning. “Edgar believed that? The kidnapper tells him it’s a knockout potion, and he believes it?”
Rule gave a small shrug. “I don’t know what assurances he was given or why he found them credible. There wasn’t time for me to learn more. Isen, after I heard this much, I called Myron to come and bear witness. He was the only other Lu Nuncio awake at that point. Before he could, however, George suffered a heart attack.”
“That’s what Lily said. I find it hard to believe.”
“Whatever happened, it killed him.”
“Cullen called it a heart attack,” Lily said. “I’m thinking he was given some kind of delayed action potion. Something to make sure he didn’t live long enough to tell us much.”