Lover Beware 04 - Only Human

it." He flicked the toothpick to the ground. "And aim for the brain."

Chapter 2
    LILY'S EYES WERE gritty and hot the next morning when she made her way through the mass of desks in the bullpen.
    It had been two in the morning when she'd returned to her little apartment on Flower Street.
    The lab crew had put in an even longer night, though. The preliminary report was waiting on her desk. She settled into the battered chair that was just beginning to adapt its lumps to her own bottom, took a sip of her coffee, and skimmed it quickly.
    It held one surprise. For some reason they were holding off on the complete autopsy "pending official notice." Her eyebrows went up. What did that mean? Otherwise it was pretty much what she'd expected. No blood other than the victim's, no tissue. A few hairs. At least they'd been able to establish that the attacker had been one of the Blood, though.
    Science depended on things happening a certain way without fail. Water boiled at 100°C at sea level, no matter who did the boiling. Mix potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal together in the right proportions and you ended up with gunpowder every time, no random batches of gold dust or baking soda to confuse matters.

    Only Human
    245
    But magic was capricious. Individual. The cells and body fluids of those of the Blood—inherently magical beings—
    didn't perform the same way every time they were tested.
    Which made it possible sometimes to identify the traces magic left in its wake, but played hell with lab results.
    Still, the lab tech had been able to determine that the blood in the wounds had been contaminated by magic, probably by some body fluid from one of the Blood. Saliva, obviously, but the tests couldn't confirm that.
    The report did list some negatives. Lily snorted when she read them. No one with a functioning brain would have suspected a brownie anyway, and gnomes were timid and extremely rare. Gremlins could be nasty, but there hadn't been a gremlin outbreak in southern California in years. Besides, they were way too small. The damage she'd seen last night hadn't been inflicted by a gremlin pack.
    What the lab work couldn't tell them, the other physical evidence did. Lily knew very well which species they were dealing with—one of the lupi.
    Werewolf.
    She sat back with a sigh, turning back to the first page to give the report a more thorough reading. The man at the desk next to hers tilted his head back and howled.
    "Cute, Brunswick," she said without looking up from the report. "Very lifelike. You been tested?"
    The woman at the desk behind Brunswick snorted. "Him?
    You've got to be kidding. Lupi are supposed to be virile, char-ismatic, sexy as hell—"
    "Hey, I'm sexy! Just ask my wife."
    “They're also tomcats."
    "Can't call a wolf a cat."
    "Don't nitpick. You know what I mean—they'll stick it anywhere, anytime, to anyone who'll let 'em. You want me to ask your wife if that's true, too, studmuffin?"
    Two of the nearest men laughed. Brunswick was protesting his innocence when Lily's phone rang. "Homicide. Detective Yu speaking."
    "You're wanted in the chiefs office."
    It was Captain Foster. She knew it was him—yet her first reaction was that this was a prank. It had to be. A lowly detective with only two years on Homicide was not summoned 246
    EILEEN WILKS
    to the office of the chief of police. "Chief Delgado, sir?"
    "How many chiefs do we have?" he snapped. Which was a bit unfair—there was only one chief of police, but there were several deputy chiefs. "He wants you there right away."
    The line went dead. Lily gave the phone in her hand one incredulous glance, then set it down and stood.
    The chief's office was, naturally, on the top floor. There was no point in speculating about why he wanted her, she thought as she punched the button for the elevator. And proceeded to do it anyway.
    For once the elevator arrived immediately. She stepped on, brooding over what the summons might mean. It had to be something to do with last night's homicide.
    Maybe Delgado wanted her for a press conference. The media were in a feeding frenzy. But Delgado usually handled that sort of thing himself when it was a major case. He might ask her captain to participate, but it was unlikely he'd want her.The line between her brows deepened as the elevator let people on and off. Finally they reached the top floor.
    Could the captain have told Delgado why he'd given the investigation to one of his newer detectives? No, she couldn't