Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

father had regretted his decision to leave her feet whole. She'd hurt him, she knew. Surely he had understood why she left... She had told herself he would, once he traveled past his anger. Understanding did not always wipe away pain, but it helped, surely?
    Her own hurt had been keen when he remarried so swiftly after her mother's death, but she had grown into understanding. He had needed a wife, and grief had led him to choose one very different from the fierce and beautiful Ya Bai. In time, Li Lei had understood that, and if understanding did not eliminate troubles, it eased the sense of betrayal.
    Li Lei had never grown close to her stepmother, but she had adored the babies - Ji Wun, the boy whose arrival thrilled her father so, and the girls, little An Wei and An Mei...
    Pain struck like talons ripping her gut. She folded over that grief, bending up like an old man passing a stone. But this stone wouldn't pass. She rocked herself as she could not rock An Wei, who had been only a baby when Li Lei left. Ai, little An Wei, who had always laughed for her big sister, reaching up pudgy arms... Ji Wun, who had strutted around so imperiously in his new finery on his birthday... An Mei, whose shy smile had surely charmed the flowers into early bloom. Each so different from Li Lei, and so precious...
    Time passed. She did not know how much. Eventually she was able to straighten and resume her wait.
    She owed them this much. It wasn't her gift, the ability to speak with the dead. But if any of those dear ghosts lingered - if they could reach her and wished to scream their anger or cry or simply be close - why, she could give them this.
    Such an easy gift, when she herself wanted it so much! Wanted it in spite of her fears. She couldn't help but wonder if her father blamed her for what had befallen his family... but she did not think he would. Surely madness didn't accompany the dead into their land, and in life Wu An had never been one to make a sauce of blame to serve others while leaving his own plate unsauced.
    But she had thought so herself, when she first heard. When Sam told her what had befallen Luan, and that her family was dead, she had feared the sorcerer had struck them down because he sought her.
    Li Lei's mother had been beautiful and fierce, yes. And if she'd passed all that ferocity and very little of the beauty to her daughter, that was just as well, for great beauty could be a trap. But along with her nature, she'd passed a more rare gift to her daughter. Magic.
    Ya Bai had grown up in the tiny mountain village near the mine that produced much of Wu An's wealth. Many there had some trace of demon blood; it was not unusual. Ya Bai had had more than a trace. No one was sure the type of demon, or else they would not say; nor did they know how far back the mating had occurred. But Li Lei's mother had carried strong magic in her veins.
    The sorcerer would surely have killed Li Lei with the others who possessed magic, but she hadn't been here. Anyone could have told him she'd been gone for some time. His own vision would have told him that. He hadn't set the Chimei to destroy her family in an effort to kill Li Lei.
    She was almost sure of that.
    One year and seven months ago, Li Lei's stepmother had brought to their house the man she meant for Li Lei to marry - a merchant's son, bashful and dull. A man she could easily have ruled. That was her stepmother's thinking, and it was kind in its way, for Li Lei would infuriate most men.
    But he lived in Beijing. So far away! Yet even that she might have forced herself to accept, were it not for the other gift from her mother, one which was bound up in the magic. Li Lei had seen the man and known she could not blend her bloodline with his. Not would not. Could not.
    Perhaps her stepmother could not have been expected to believe her. Her father should have. She'd told him she would never bear children to that man. Just as her mother had known she would bear Wu An's daughter, and only the one daughter, Li Lei had known she would never have babies if she married as she was bid.
    She had to have babies - at least one baby. Her mother's blood demanded it. As did her own heart.
    And bah, how tedious that she circled back through that stale story now. She'd learned better than to let her thoughts run her, hadn't she? Li Lei settled herself, body and mind, to the moment. However bitter and hard, she had this moment.
    Her left knee ached. She'd banged it yesterday while avoiding