Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

again, twice.
    That was it, then. The sorcerer was coming. They were out of time.
    Isen had never been very good at birdcalls. The rapid-fire coo-coo-coo-coo of a black-billed cuckoo - which didn't actually live in California - was the only one he could do well. "Plan B," Rule whispered.
    Cullen gripped Rule's arm, then pointed at the sky and whispered, "That's her."
    What? Rule didn't... No, wait - something pale and misty, almost invisible, flowed along a route he thought followed the dirt road that led here, as if following a car on that road. He switched to subvocalizing. "What do you see?"
    Cullen answered the same way. "Power. Lots and lots of it."
    "Do you think she's finished the transformation Sam spoke of?"
    "I don't know. The power is... It's different than anything I've seen before. It oscillates, or flickers, or... maybe it isn't fully in our realm. Maybe she can't hold it here consistently until she's here consistently."
    "That would be good." He glanced to his left, at the tall boulder where he'd sent the gnome. His father wasn't visible, of course. He forced himself to relax. And waited some more.
    "Dammit," Cullen muttered very low, "they're supposed to have been tracking the patrollers. How long does it take to - "
    The cuckoo sang again - four quick notes. The gang members patrolling near the house had been dealt with.
    Rule pulled viciously hard and fast - exploded out of the bushes on four feet. A moment later, so did four others - four wolves wearing collars. Collars with a small charm fixed to them. They raced at top speed for the yard where the men were taking heed of them - taking heed slowly, to Rule's eyes. Too slowly to keep them alive.
    A dozen lupus warriors against thirty-six gangbangers was good odds. Five against thirty-six would be harder. But the rest had the harder job - they had to keep the Chimei and the sorcerer busy long enough for the gnomes to finish.
    No one could be left alive at their backs.
    Rule raced past the point he'd been told marked the first ward. Nothing happened. He raced past the place the second ward was supposed to be. Nothing.
    The sorcerer or the Chimei set very good wards, more sophisticated than anything Cullen could do - one to keep out small objects like bullets. Another that would repel humans.
    Didn't do a damned thing to slow down a wolf. Rule heard a shot as he leaped for his first target. His teeth slashed through the man's jugular. Blood sprayed everywhere, including down his throat, hot and sweet.
    Then the other four wolves were amid the men.
     
    A hundred yards away, an erect old woman stepped out into the middle of the dirt road, just where it met the yard, and began drawing a circle in the dirt.
    She wasn't alone. On her left side stood a beautiful young man, a trifle pale, wearing a diamond in one ear and another around his neck. On her other side an older man planted his feet. He was grizzled and bearded and looked like some minor forest god.
    A white panel van trundled down the road toward them. The driver must have seen them. He hit the gas.
    "Chimei!" the older man boomed as the van raced toward them. "Sorcerer! You have offended my Lady, and we are at war!"
    The niceties had been observed. From either side of the road, the six two-legged Nokolai warriors opened up - with machine guns.
    The van was riddled. It veered hard right - a tire blew out, and it skidded into the ditch.
    The shriek of some vast bird of prey split the air.
     
    Twenty feet belowground, rock groaned. Dust sifted from the cracked ceiling. Lily gripped her makeshift spear tightly and looked at Cynna.
    Rule was here. Almost here, anyway - close, so close. He'd been close for hours. She'd woken up to feel him near and had let Cynna know - or hoped she had - by setting her makeshift spear close at hand and handing Cynna one of the magically enhanced knives.
    Since then, she'd lost another five hundred thousand at gin. It would have been more, but Cynna was distracted, too.
    Moments ago he'd rushed closer. She'd sprung to her feet, spear ready. For what, she didn't know - but God, she was so ready for something.
    The earth grumbled louder. And trembled.
    Cynna bit her lip. "Maybe we should get under one of the b - yikes!"
    A big chunk of the cement block wall closest to her had turned to dust. Peering out of that dusty hole was a small gray man.
    No, a gnome. Three feet tall, weird little snoutlike nose, no chin. Baggy fuchsia shorts with yellow suspenders. A gnome.
    "Bad