"Don't be in such a rush to read my mind. You aren't good at it. I was about to say that I didn't know lupi ever voluntarily left their clans."
"It's… uncommon," Rule said quietly. "And voluntary isn't the best word, perhaps. But it does happen."
About once every century or so, Cullen thought. And no, voluntary wasn't the word he'd choose, but Tomas had been given a choice: submit to your Rho's will, Challenge, or be expelled.
So had Cullen, thirty-five years ago. "Returning to our own era, has it occurred to you that she may not be able to continue her demonic harassment?"
"I'd like to think so," Rule said dryly. "But what's stopping her?"
"Her agents acted at or right after the power surge. I'm no expert on summoning, but it's reasonable to assume they needed the extra juice."
"That would be more reassuring," Lily said, "if we knew the magic wind wouldn't blow through again next week. Or tomorrow."
"There is that." Cullen had some ideas about the cause of the power surge, but they weren't ready for prime time. He frowned. "Have you talked to the Rhej about this?"
She blinked. "Nokolai's Rhej? No. She doesn't have a phone, and I don't have time to fly back for a chat."
"But she's got the memories." About three thousand years' worth. If anything like this had happened before, she'd be able to access a memory of it.
"You're right," Rule said. "Isen was going to ask her about the demon poison. I'll ask him to question her about the power surge, too. But…"
"Rhejes don't always tell everything they know," Cullen finished. "It's one of their more annoying traits. I'll bet she'd speak to her chosen apprentice, though. We need to get Cynna to—"
"Can't," Lily said. "Not right away. She's headed for Nutley."
"Shit. She's gone after that demon."
"Someone had to, and she's qualified. I wish…"
"What?"
"Nothing. It's just that I don't know these people. But the backup I sent with her is supposed to be a good shooter and a good Baptist."
"Gifted?"
"Not even from the Unit. He's MCD. We've got too many fires and too few Gifted to put them out."
Pepe Romero ceased strumming. In the silence as the CD ended Cullen heard the frenzied pinging from Toby's video game. He thought about a tall woman with a butch haircut and ornate skin who thought too highly of her own abilities and too little of his.
But she sure smelled good.
Rule stood and headed for the armoire. "While I put some more music on," he said, "why don't you tell us why you're here? I'm thinking you didn't come running because a demon pestered you."
Cullen grinned. "You think right. I'm here because of what I realized while I was dodging Jiri and her pet. Someone's tampered with my memory."
"What?" Lily sat up straight. "But your shields—even Helen couldn't get past them with that damned staff to help her."
Cullen did not have fond memories of the former leader of the Aza, the cult devoted to the Great Bitch. Helen had been a powerful telepath; she'd also proved the dictum that insanity follows close on the heels of that particular Gift. Among other things, she'd had his eyes put out. "It must have happened before she got hold of me. Not long before, though. Probably the same day. I was her default choice, remember? They were hunting another sorcerer, one who'd visited me earlier that day. We quarreled—at least, that's the way I remember it. He left rather abruptly." Left Cullen unconscious, actually, but that embarrassment he preferred not to mention.
"So what did he do to you?"
"I don't know. That's the problem." Cullen brooded on that a moment. "I wouldn't have agreed to meet with him at all, but a friend vouched for him."
"Molly, wasn't it?" Rule said dryly.
"Molly's okay." Memories that hadn't been altered made him grin. "In fact, she's damned good, even for a succubus. But—"
"Wait a minute," Lily said. "You didn't say anything about a demon being there."
"Molly isn't a demon. She started out human. Now…" He shrugged. "Whatever she is, she got there by being cursed by the one we don't name, which seems to put her on our side." Though he wasn't as sure of that as he used to be. "Anyway, she wasn't there for sex that day. She set up a meet between me and this guy she'd hooked up with. Called himself Michael."
Greed had played a part in his agreeing to the meet, he admitted. He seldom had the chance to learn from another sorcerer. There were damned few of them, for one thing. And those few tended toward a high level of mutual distrust.
With good reason. "Anyway, the gap in my memory shows up right after Molly and her friend left, and right before the Aza came calling. Before then, no shields. Afterward, I had shields that could stop a high-powered telepath backed by an ancient artifact."
"But that's good."
"Sure, the shields are great. Not so great is that I can't remember how I came by them."
Neither of the others spoke for a moment, then Rule said, "You think this other sorcerer gave you these shields, then tampered with your memory? Why?"
"He'd have to have done it the other way around, but yeah. And I've no idea why. I've dug up some other snatches of memory—stuff that had been… overwritten, not erased. It's not complete." In fact, the memory bits were tooth-grindingly fragmented. "But I think Molly brought her friend to see me because they needed help. There's something about an active node and the FBI taking an interest." He flashed Lily a grin. "Which brings me to you, luv."
"You want me to find out what the Bureau knows about him, or her, or both."
"Yep. Molly Brown, Galveston, Texas. She isn't there now—I checked—and she's probably changed her name. The nodal activity would have been on or shortly before the seventeenth of October." He stood and stretched. "Lord, but all that flying, followed by all this sitting, has me stiff. Do you still take care of the clan's finances?" he asked Rule.
Rule hiked his eyebrows. "I do."
"Invest in silk. The price is bound to shoot up—it's a magical insulator. Gold and silver probably will, too, but—"
"Those aren't insulators," Lily said.
"No, they conduct or carry magic, which is why those won't shoot up in price for a while. Well." He twisted, ridding himself of the kinks. "Guess I'd better be going. Get that poison removed," he added, nodding at Rule. "Nasty stuff."
"Wait a minute," Lily said. "You just got here. Where are you going?"
"To give you a hand with your little demon problem, of course. That's fair—you help me, I'll help you."
She huffed out a breath. "I haven't agreed yet. What will you do with any information I pass on about Molly Brown or Michael no-last-name? Assuming there is something to pass on."
"Bound to be a report—bureaucracies thrive on 'em. Cross out anything too terribly secret and pass it on to me. Shouldn't take long. As for what I'll do…" His frown came and went. He shrugged. "I don't know yet. Find him, obviously. Don't you want to know the whereabouts of a sorcerer the Aza—and, by extension, our enemy—were interested in?"
Lily didn't speak, but he could almost hear her busy little mind totting up possibilities. "All right," she said at last. "I'll see what I can find out. In return, I want your promise that you won't take off on a vendetta."
"I'm not after revenge." A flash of honesty mixed with anger made him add, "Not major revenge, anyway. I wouldn't mind bloodying the bastard's nose, but anything more would depend on his reasons for messing with me, then taking off to leave me to deal with his chums." A yawn overtook him.
"You can have the west bedroom," Rule said.
"Thanks, but I'd rather borrow your car."
"I need my car."
"Then Lily's."
"Cynna's using it," Lily said. "I thought you were going to give me a hand with my little demon problem."
His eyebrows flew up in surprise. "I am. I'm off for Nutley. Cynna might be up to handling a demon, but a demon and Victor Frey? And maybe Brady. He could be around, too." The woman didn't know half as much as she thought she did, and her much-decorated skin smelled too good to let a demon rip it up.