Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

so whatever she's up to, it probably isn't too dire."
    The footsteps above them ended with the sound of a door opening and closing. Lily still felt twitchy. She started up the stairs. "I couldn't tell how much stuff they'd packed, but they definitely took some clothes. That suggests they don't expect to be back right away."
    Rule kept pace beside her. "I know Madame Yu speaks English, but does she write it as well?"
    "Sure. She claims to prefer hanzi, but she claims to prefer everything Chinese when she's in a mood. Why?"
    "I wondered why Li Qin left the note rather than your grandmother."
    "Good question. Grandmother may not even know she did it." Lily considered that a moment. "Li Qin wouldn't give anything away if Grandmother wanted secrecy, but she wouldn't make things up."
    "You're sure it's Li Qin's handwriting."
    "Unless someone's an expert forger. No one writes like Li Qin. Pure copperplate. Besides, it sounds like her. The note opened with her hope that I was well and her regret that their sudden absence might distress me." Lily frowned. "Though maybe Grandmother's decision to disappear wasn't as sudden as it seems. Beth said Grandmother has been acting funny lately. She wanted me to go see her, find out what was wrong."
    "Ah, I see why you're upset. If only you'd gone to see her last week. No doubt she would have unburdened herself to you instead of indulging in all this secrecy."
    She had to smile. "If you mean that she wouldn't have told me anything, you're probably right, but - "
    "Probably?"
    "Okay, okay, you're right. If she'd wanted me to know what was going on, she would have told me." And no one and nothing could force, persuade, trick, or cajole Grandmother into revealing one iota more than she wanted to. "But I should have noticed something was up. Beth did."
    "So the problem is that you aren't your sister."
    Lily grimaced. "I can be illogical if I want."
    "You know, if you feel it necessary, you can always ask Cynna to Find Madame Yu."
    "I guess I could." That made her feel slightly better, though she didn't want to do it. Not with what Cynna had on her plate already. "What do you think? Grandmother takes off on some secret business. A few hours later, Cullen gets attacked by a mysterious assassin who's able to do impossible things, magically speaking. Those events don't seem connected by anything but the timing, and yet... Am I trying to tie them together just because I know both people?"
    "If so," he said grimly, "I'm making the same connection, and not liking it."
    They'd reached the fourth floor. She hesitated, then faced Rule without opening the door. "You're afraid she's involved somehow. The one we don't name."
    "Aren't you?"
    Yeah. She was. "I don't want to blame everything I don't understand on her. That's not helpful. But... well, we'll talk about it, but not in the stairwell. Maybe Cullen will be able to fill in some blanks - such as why someone wanted him dead so badly they tried for him in such a freaky public way."
     
    Cullen's room was interior, so no windows, which Lily liked. Admittedly, they were on the fourth floor and the killer was unlikely to do a Spider-Man up the outside wall, but this killer did unlikely things. Windows meant vulnerability.
    One other thing she liked about it: it was in infectious diseases, not cardiology or critical care or any of the obvious places. According to the hospital records, "Adrian Fisher" suffered from a rare tropical disease and had enough money to pay for private nursing in his quarantine room. For now, making Cullen hard to find was their best defense.
    Lily considered that a temporary ploy, though. They should be okay tonight and probably tomorrow. After that, she'd better come up with a way to guard Cullen against someone who might be able to look like anyone.
    Or no one. That's what one of the witnesses had seen. No one at all.
    Lily knocked on the door of number 418, then pushed it open. And was pleased to see Jason standing at the ready a few feet away - and Cynna standing by Cullen's bed, weapon drawn, her other hand outflung.
    "Okay," Cynna said after a second. "You're you." She put her weapon on the table by the bed. "I've figured out what to do to check people out," she added. "If it's anyone but you two, I'll check for magic. That's quick and easy, and whoever is hiding behind other faces is using magic to do it. He won't be able to hide that."
    "That's good." Lily's eyebrows shot up. "That's very good. I should have thought of