“He also said you were shot.”
“So was he. Very few people can hit a rapidly moving target, but with automatic weapons little aiming is required.”
“Especially if you run straight at them.”
“Which is why I had some of my men Change and come through the window. Wolves have a way of commanding the attention of most people. Jasper, I’m trying to decide if I should call this in.”
“Call it in?” Jasper blinked rapidly. The fuzziness at the edge of his vision was spreading. Everything in the middle was blank, but he could see dim shapes at the edges.
Amusement warmed Rule’s voice. “Lily’s jargon is contagious. Call the cops, I mean. Probably her people, though it might be better to call Ruben and…” His voice trailed off.
Funny how Jasper could feel the sudden tension in Rule even though he still couldn’t see him. “What is it?”
“I can’t find her.” Rule’s voice was utterly flat. “I can feel Lily, but I don’t know where she is.”
Cautiously Jasper asked, “Should you?”
Rule didn’t answer.
Jasper turned his head slightly so he wasn’t looking straight at Rule. It worked. He saw Rule take out his phone. Dimly, fuzzily, but he could see his brother. Relief swamped him so hugely that for a second he was afraid he’d cry.
Rule held his phone to his ear. Waited. Waited some more. Then snarled, clutching the phone as if he wanted to throw it. “Scott!” His voice cracked out like a whip. “Take those who aren’t mobile to the hotel. The rest of you, with me. Now.”
“Your shoulder—”
Rule growled. It was not a human sound. He turned and started for the door. “Now.”
“IT’S like with my Find spell, then,” Cullen said. “You know she’s somewhere. You just can’t tell where.”
“So I assumed.” The mate bond hadn’t broken. Rule kept repeating that mantra. The bond hadn’t broken, so Lily was still alive. Still alive somewhere…but he had no sense at all of where. The directional sense he’d grown so used to was completely screwy.
He reached for his phone.
“No, dammit, hold still. Unless you think bleeding out will improve matters?”
Rule forced stillness on himself. It was not easy. His friend was driving a hot poker into his shoulder.
And Lily was missing. And it was his fault.
They were in the backseat of the rented BMW. Joe was driving. Jasper sat beside him. He’d insisted he was mobile, his vision was returning, and he would damn well go with them. If nothing else, he could give directions. He knew the city, knew where Dingos was. Chris and Alan followed in another car.
Cullen jabbed. Pain shot off the scale, a white-hot burst so acute it had to mean he’d finally found the bullet. Rule hissed through his teeth. Sweat sprang up on his face, his chest…and finally, finally, Cullen stopped.
“Got it.”
Rule took a moment to regain his breath. He’d told Cullen to skip the pain-blocking spell, which drained both the caster and the recipient. Rule wanted nothing to slow his healing, and he wanted Cullen to hang on to as much juice as possible. He might need it. “Good. I need to call Ruben.” Rule used his left hand to reach for his phone. His right would be useless for a while yet. His shoulder throbbed in blazing pulses.
“You need a sling.”
“Got one?” First Rule checked for calls or texts. He knew Lily hadn’t called him back. He knew that, but he checked anyway. He’d called her twice. He’d also called Tony and Todd and Mike. None of them had answered.
Cullen pulled his T-shirt off over his head. “I’ll improvise.”
“If—” The phone in Rule’s hand vibrated. He answered quickly. “Cynna—”
“I can’t do it.” She sounded weary and frustrated. “I’m sorry, Rule. I can’t come there.”
If anyone could find Lily, it was Cynna. He needed her to come. Needed her to at least try. She didn’t know Lily was missing. If he told her—
If he told her, she might well come anyway. Rule squeezed his eyes closed. He gave up guarding his expression, his body, so he could make sure he had his voice under control. “I see. I was wondering.…is it possible that your decision is based on information I don’t have? Information, perhaps, you aren’t able to share with me?”
A long pulse of silence, then she said, “That’s an interesting idea.”
If the answer had been no, she would have said so.
He could change her mind. He was sure of it. He could tell her about Lily, and loyalty and friendship would bring her here. Cynna would tell herself that whatever omen or communication the Lady had given her wasn’t 100 percent. She’d come, determined to Find Lily.
Rule would have rather had Cullen digging in his shoulder again than say what he said next. “I see. Well, there’s an excellent chance you wouldn’t be able to find anything, anyway. Cullen’s prototype is doing an excellent job of blocking that sort of thing. We’re having a rather busy night, so I’m going to go now, but give Ryder a kiss for me.”
“Will do. Rule, you know I’d have come if I could.”
“I know.” He disconnected before he could change his mind and beg her to come.
Cullen was watching him. “Thank you,” he said softly, so softly Jasper probably didn’t hear. Then, more briskly, “What you told her might well be true. If the prototype can screw up the, uh, thing that lets you know where Lily is, Cynna’s Gift might be just as screwed. Here. Let’s get this on you.” He’d twisted his T-shirt into a sort of rope that he tied behind Rule’s head. “I’m thinking it was too easy.”
“I haven’t noticed anything easy about tonight.” Rule used his left hand to ease his right arm through the loop.
“How’s the length?” Cullen said.
“Forget the damn sling and explain what you mean.”
“After that damn elf tossed the magical flash-bang—”
“That was magic?” Jasper said.
Cullen nodded. “A-grade magic. Not that the bastard is on Rethna’s level, for which I thank every god present and past, but he’s pretty damn good. What, did you think they used a regular flash-bang?”
“I stopped thinking about the time the lot of you raced into that hail of bullets. I thought everyone was dead—you, the girls, everyone.”
Rule had set his phone down to get the makeshift sling on. He picked it up again. “You think the elves should have hung around to try to finish us off while we were blinded?”
“Wouldn’t you?’ Cullen said. “But it seemed they only wanted to confuse us long enough for them to get away. Which they did, dammit. Though I may have singed two or three of them on their way out the window.”
“That’s the way a good thief reacts,” Jasper said. “If a job goes south, you don’t hang around and duke it out.”
Rule selected Ruben’s number. “But Friar doesn’t think like a thief, does he? If that had been Friar instead of an elf wearing his seeming, I suspect some of us would be dead. So would several of them, but Friar has no objection to using up his people to kill some of us.”
Cullen nodded. “So maybe the elf and Friar don’t have the same goal.”
“Or else the elf isn’t as cavalier as Friar about getting his people killed.”
“Or Friar isn’t part of this at all,” Cullen said slowly. “The elf could have been using his seeming, his voice, all along.”
“No,” Jasper said. “That much I’m sure of. The person I met here tonight may not have been Friar, but the guy who’s been calling me is.”
“How can you be sure?’ Cullen asked.
“Because I know Robert Friar. Or knew him—it’s been awhile. But the man who called me when Adam first went missing knew things only Friar would have known.”
Ruben wasn’t answering. The call went to voice mail. Rule scowled. It was the wee hours of the night in D.C., but Ruben always answered this line. Always. Except tonight he wasn’t…just like everyone else Rule called. He texted a terse message: Lily is missing, probably taken. Magic involved. Call me. And forced his attention back to what Jasper had said. “You already knew Friar? When was this?”