"Are we talking electrical power?"
"Magic. A big, fat whirlwind of it, unleashed at the same time all over the world, from what we can tell. You didn't feel it?"
He frowned. "The dragons were probably closer to the node than me when it hit. Greedy bastards must have soaked it all up."
"They can do that?"
"Like sponges. Remember how hard it was to work magic in their territory in Dis? Tell me about this power surge," he said, picking up his sandwich again. "I'll eat."
TWELVE
CULLEN did eat, but he didn't taste a bite. Demons, demonic poison, and the Great Bitch indulging in cross-realms assassination… the Lady speaking to an outclan know-it-all… a top secret task force investigating a mysterious power surge, and a top-notch pre-cog who thought that was just the beginning. Even if he hadn't interrupted with questions here and there, the tale would have taken awhile.
Cullen's ears being better than a prepubescent boy's, he'd heard Rule assign Toby his punishment and send him upstairs, where he was to play on the computer until further notice. That wasn't the punishment, of course; Rule wanted to hear the game's sound effects so he'd know Toby hadn't snuck down to eavesdrop.
Harry joined them, staring at Cullen's sandwich with a twitching tail. Rule followed, though he gravitated to Lily, not roast. He settled on the floor next to her chair, and she rested a hand on his shoulder without pausing in her tale.
Cullen doubted she even knew she'd done it. The mate-bound were touchy-feely that way. He passed Harry a bite of roast.
When Lily finished, the boing-boing of Toby's game was still competing with Pepe Romero's guitar. For the first time since joining them, Rule spoke. "You didn't tell him everything."
"All that concerns him." Their eyes met. After a moment she said, "It's your decision."
He smiled, it evaporated when he looked at Cullen. "When Cynna dosed my wound with holy water, I hit her."
"Shit."
"Pretty much. My control has suffered ever since we returned from Dis. You need to be aware of that. You should also know that I submitted to the ritual of contrition."
His eyebrows flew up. "With Cynna? Bet that confused her."
"It did, but she handled it well. She's Lady-touched, Cullen."
Rule seemed certain. Cullen wasn't, but if the Lady had spoken to her… He frowned. He didn't like that, but for the life of him, couldn't see why it would matter to him.
Lily spoke. "Pretty much everything I've told you is highly secret. Repeat any of it and I'll have to pull out your tongue."
"I adore secrets. I'm fond of my tongue, too, as you would be if you'd let me—"
"I may pull it out anyway."
He grinned. It was fun to flirt with Lily. She disliked it so much. "Will you be in trouble if they find out you've told me all this?"
"Not unless you abuse the confidence." Her fingers drummed once on her thigh. "You said the dragons must have been closer to the node than you were. You're assuming this magic wind came from nodes?"
"That's where all magic comes from. Not that your friend Sherry will agree," he said, bending to put his plate on the floor so Harry could nose out any scraps of roast. "Wiccans believe the Earth inherently possesses magic, but they're wrong."
"Explain."
"I can't. The realms connect at the nodes, but I don't know enough about the way they connect to devise a coherent theory. But I've watched magic. They haven't. It comes from nodes, then dissipates in air and is absorbed by earth or water."
"If you didn't come here because you felt the magic wind, what made you abandon your dragon hunt?"
"Postpone, not abandon. I had a spot of demon trouble myself. Different model—"
"You were attacked?"
"Chased. I don't know what she had in mind if she caught me, though I'd wager I wouldn't have liked it. She meaning, in this instance, the demon's rider. No doubt, left to its own devices, the demon would have just killed me."
Lily's eyes widened. "Someone was riding it?"
"Not physically. What I saw was her astral form. That's drawn from the physical state, but it's not an exact mirror of the body. For example, amputations and most scars aren't reflected in one's astral form, and age is fluid. You won't project an astral body that's older than you are, but your projection might look a lot younger. Within those parameters, I can give you a description, if you like."
She did.
"Tall, very dark skin, thin but with wide shoulders and a prominent rib cage. No boobs to speak of."
"You're sure it was a woman, though?"
"There's another thing about the astral state—no clothes. I'm sure. Her hair was buzzed off close to the skull, and she looked about thirty, so she's at least that old. Tattoos everywhere."
"Then… but I thought scars didn't show up."
"These weren't regular tattoos. I'm thinking our Cynna knows her."
Lily didn't look happy. "It sounds like her old teacher, Jiri As-mahani. Which is not her real surname, just something she made up—and that's about all we know. We don't have a social security number, place of birth, parents. We don't know what her Gift is. Cynna's sure it isn't Finding, but other than that… it might be one of the elemental Gifts." Earth, air, fire, water. "Those are less formed, so they work best for spells, and Jiri is apparently hell on wheels with spells. But we don't know."
"A dark Athena, sprung whole from Zeus's brow," he murmured.
"What?"
"Never mind. I think I singed her, by the way."
"But she wasn't really there. She was, ah… what would you call it? Astrally present?"
"Mage fire reaches farther than ordinary fire."
"Cullen," Rule said.
That was all he said, but Cullen knew a rebuke when he heard one. He flung a frown at Rule. "I was being chased by a damned demon! What was I supposed to do—call my lawyer?"
"I thought you weren't going to use mage fire anymore."
"I agreed not to experiment with it. This wasn't an experiment."
Lily rolled her eyes. "We'll examine your verbal contract later. I need to know the rest of the story. Where were you? And when did this happen?"
"This morning, at a little village called Los Lobos in Mi-choacan, Mexico."
Her eyebrows lifted. "The other attacks all occurred about the same time, shortly after the power surge."
"I'm special." When she rolled her eyes, he grinned. "Actually, I did experience something last night that might be connected to your magic wind—a tickling at my shields. I assumed it was one of the dragons, probably the one who calls himself Sam," He was still annoyed about it, too. "That would be when Cynna's Jiri got a fix on me. I'm betting she used the power surge to give her search a boost."
"But she didn't come after you then."
He shrugged. "Maybe she was busy coordinating the other attacks. Maybe she was sleeping or having sex or never misses American Idol. All I know is, around ten the next morning she showed up riding a demon the size of a tyrannosaur. They chased me into the mountains and kept finding me and finding me. Since running wasn't working, I decided to fight."
"You think you hurt her?"
"Maybe. She winked out the second the mage fire hit. The demon was slower to leave," he said with satisfaction. "I know I burned it."
"But did you kill it?"
"Probably not, but it's gone."
"Not necessarily." Lily leaned forward. "They can turn invisible, or very nearly so."
"Yeah, I know. You're talking about dashtu."
"That's the word Cynna used. The one that chased you might have turned dashtu. It could still be around."
"It's gone," he repeated patiently. "Dashtu doesn't affect my other vision." He chuckled, remembering. "I was talking with a couple of the locals when Jiri and her ugly pet sauntered up the street. I'll bet the village is still talking about the crazy American who took off as he were being chased by demons."