Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

God's sake. Not for another eight months.
    No, seven months. Geez. That wasn't long. She frowned as she skirted the bright red transmission fluid drying on the cement. Then she reached the driver's door. "Well, shit."
    They'd removed the driver on the other side, for obvious reasons. There was no way Lily would get the door open. She tried anyway.
    "Guess you were headed somewhere," Officer Munoz observed. "With that pretty dress you're wearing and all." His face fell. "Shit, I'm not supposed to say that, am I?"
    "That's okay. I'm on my way to a baby shower. I'm one of the hosts." She tugged harder, but the door wasn't budging.
    "Really?" He brightened as he moved toward the passenger's side. "My wife is due in January."
    This child had a wife? Lily told herself to get over it, but a new thought intruded. Did Rule ever look at her and think she looked painfully young? There was a lot more of an age difference between the two of them than between her and the earnest young officer. "Congratulations. Boy or girl?"
    "She hasn't had a sonogram yet. I'm sort of hoping for a boy, but you know, as long as it's healthy... " He yanked open the passenger door. "This one works."
    "Yeah. Thanks." Only she'd have to crawl across the front seat if she got in that way, and she had not dressed for this occasion. She glanced down at her cream-colored trapeze dress with pretty bronze bands at the neckline and hem. She'd bought it especially for today.
    At least it was loose. Maybe she could climb across and still leave Officer Munoz uninformed about the color of her panties.
    A black Mercedes was parked on the other side of the patrol car. Its door opened, and a tall man wearing jeans and a black dress shirt got out. "Need a hand?"
    Her heart gave a happy little bump. Funny how just looking at him still did that for her. She shook her head. "Even you couldn't get this door open. I'll climb across."
    He gave her a bland smile. "You'll get your pretty dress dirty." Of course he'd heard Munoz's comment. He started toward her. "Let's see what I can do."
    "Hey!" Munoz said. "You're that lupus!"
    Lily tensed, but Rule had a smile for him. "I'm a lupus, at least."
    "No, you're the prince one! The one in all the magazines with... I mean... " Munoz took a breath. Lily suspected that if his complexion had been paler, she'd have seen an embarrassed flush. "Never mind."
    He'd been about to comment on the plethora of lovely women Rule had been photographed with. Though not recently. Recently, all the articles were about him and Lily... way too many articles. She touched the little lump beneath her dress where her engagement ring hung on a chain, dangling next to the toltoi she'd been given to mark her status as Chosen.
    Until they made an official announcement, she was keeping her ring out of sight.
    "Uh... Turner, right?" Munoz smiled hopefully.
    Lily took pity on the officer's embarrassment. He meant well, which a lot of cops didn't. Not with lupi. "Officer Munoz, this is Rule Turner. Rule, Officer Jesse Munoz." She looked at the young patrol officer. "Rule's right about my dress, though. I'd rather not get it dirty, plus there's some broken glass. Do you have anything I could put on the seat?"
    Rule touched her arm. "Give me a moment. You know I enjoy flexing things for you."
    She shook her head but stood back to let him have at it. "Just don't bleed. I hate it when you bleed."
    Rule gave her a quick grin, stepped up to the door, braced himself, and pulled. Metal groaned, but nothing happened. He frowned. Then he put one foot up on the frame next to the door and heaved. With a loud shriek, the door opened. He didn't even fall over backward.
    "Thanks. You know, most men open pickle jars."
    "Fortunately, I can open them, too."
    She grinned and glanced at the convenience store, where the looky-loos were getting excited. "Better watch out. I think someone in that crowd recognized you." And not everyone felt the same sort of excitement about lupi as Officer Munoz... who was forgetting his professional dignity again.
    "Hey, that's cool! You just yanked on it and opened it. I'd always heard lupi were strong, but man." Munoz shook his head, all admiration. "That's cool."
    Lily left Rule to his one-man fan club and went to do her job. Which, as Munoz had said, was sometimes pretty odd.
    Until last November, Lily had been a homicide cop here in San Diego. Now she worked for Unit 12 of the Magical Crimes Division of the FBI. Usually that didn't mean