Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

from Cullen. This may mean we've got a human perp with a Gift we've never seen before, some kind of illusion Gift. Or it may mean we've got another Cullen. That's where my money's going at the moment, because it supplies motive."
    "What do you mean, another Cullen?"
    "A sorcerer. One who wanted the competition out of the way, maybe." Her phone buzzed. She took it out of her purse. "Yes?"
    Rule listened with half an ear while Lily spoke with Nettie. Mostly he absorbed what she'd told him. She was convinced Cullen's attacker wasn't lupus. Not Nokolai, then, and that was a huge relief. Too, the apparent use of magic made this very much her case, which would help.
    He should have felt better, but... if the killer wasn't lupus, what was he?
    Someone who could fool the eyes and noses of a few hundred lupi. Someone who could fashion a killing spell and deliver it on the point of a knife while surrounded by witnesses. Someone who far outstripped any of the practitioners Rule knew, including Cullen.
    Rule scrubbed both hands over his face, trying to force himself to be alert, to think. He didn't like where his thoughts were headed.
    Lily disconnected. "Nettie wants us to head for - "
    "I heard." He took her hand and started for the doorway. "Do you know where Cullen's room is?"
    "Fourth floor. Rule, I need my arm free. I don't expect I'll need to draw on anyone here, but I need my arm free."
    "Of course." He dropped his hand. Usually he was careful not to take her gun hand in public. He was distracted. It wasn't safe to be this distracted.
    Lily moved quickly toward the red EXIT sign at the end of the hall - to the stairs, in other words, not the elevator. Rule decided to allow that. Normally he'd force himself into the damned tiny box so as not to feed his fear by conceding it a victory.
    Just for tonight, he decided, he could cut himself this much slack: no elevators.
    He moved slightly ahead so he reached the door to the stairwell first and paused briefly, listening. Smelling. No one on the other side. He opened it. "Can we know for certain that this hypothetical illusionist or sorcerer can't confuse Cynna's patterns?"
    "I don't know anything for certain." Clearly that frustrated her. "It seems like he's using some kind of mind-magic - he's getting people to see and smell someone else, but they aren't all seeing the same someone. Who knows whether he could fool Cynna into thinking her pattern checked out? That's why I stopped at Grandmother's on the way here."
    Relief bloomed. Of course. It might seem odd to enlist a tiny old woman as bodyguard, but Lily's grandmother was... Well, he wasn't sure the language held a word for her, but Madame Li Lei Yu had formidable defenses against magic. Formidable defenses, period. And she was fond of Cullen. She'd agree. "When is she coming?"
    "One problem," Lily said.
    Rule's eyebrows flew up in surprise. "She won't do it?"
    "She isn't there. Neither is Li Qin."

 
    ELEVEN

    The stairwell was well lit, utilitarian, and not entirely deserted. Lily heard feet moving somewhere above.
    So it made her a little twitchy when Rule stopped her, turning her to face him so he could press a kiss on her forehead. "You're worried about your grandmother."
    "No. Yes. Yes, I guess I am, though it seems pointless. I mean, we're talking about Grandmother. She left a note," Lily added abruptly. "Not Grandmother. Li Qin. It was taped to the wall facing the front door."
    "I didn't realize you had a key to their house."
    "Grandmother gave it to me years ago. I've never used it." She'd hesitated a long time before using it tonight, but finally decided she had to be sure no one was lying in a pool of blood.
    "The note was addressed to me. It said she and Grandmother had to be gone for a while, and that it would be foolish to tell me not to worry because words don't amend the anxiety caused by mystery, but they were both well and would return when they could."
    Rule frowned. "When they could?"
    "Yeah." And that was a big part of Lily's worry. Grandmother was not given to taking off this way. The only other time she'd done it, there'd been a nutty telepath, a hellgate, and a couple of Old Ones involved. But she hadn't taken Li Qin with her that time. "Grandmother's old Buick is gone, too," she added.
    "She needed Li Qin to drive her, then."
    Lily nodded. Grandmother either couldn't drive or refused to - Lily had never been sure which. "I'm pretty sure Grandmother wouldn't take Li Qin into a dangerous situation,