Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

she'd picked up enough of a static charge to make the little hairs on her arms stand up. Automatically she looked up.
    "What is it?"
    "Nothing." The prickle had been from what Cullen called sorceri - wispy threads of raw magic that drifted around until absorbed. They were cast by the ocean, nodes, and thunder-storms, and they were attracted to dragons. She'd checked to see if Sam was overhead - he often trailed sorceri - but the sky was as blankly blue as a crashed computer.
    But Sam often preferred to go unseen. Cullen insisted the dragon habit of winking out wasn't true invisibility; he said they just went out-of-phase the way demons could. Whatever that meant. "You'll send me a copy of your report, right?" She glanced at her watch. "Shit. Rule, we need to go."
    The shower didn't start till seven, but it was being held at Clanhome, which lay twenty minutes outside the city. And she had a lot to do beforehand, because the shower was only part of the festivities.
    Rule had been at Clanhome all day getting ready for the other half of the party. He'd come back into the city to pick her up, which was necessary because both her personal car and her government-issue vehicle were in the shop, dammit. Her six-year-old Toyota needed transmission work. The government's Ford was still in Eagle's Nest, which had a small body shop.
    Turned out that bears do not like the way lupi smell. A four hundred-pound black bear can do an amazing amount of damage when he uses the roof of a car for a trampoline.
    Lily was already checking messages on her iPhone as she slid into Rule's Mercedes. It hadn't seemed like a bad idea, combining the shower with a traditional lupus baby party.
    Ignorance, she reflected, was bliss. Reality was a pain in the butt.
    No urgent messages, so she tapped in some quick notes on the accident as they pulled away from the scene. She was getting pretty good at thumbing it. Not as fast as a preteen, but good enough to get the basics entered. "How are the ribs doing?" she asked Rule without looking up. "It didn't hurt them for us to be delayed, did it?"
    "They're still in the pit. Isen is going to start the chicken for me, with a little help from Toby. He's looking forward to tonight."
    "Good." She looked up. "Good about Toby, I mean, and about your father taking a hand in the cooking. Having the Rho in on the barbeque has to up the status thing, right?"
    He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "I'm having trouble remembering why I explained the political implications of the baby party."
    "Because I gave you no choice."
    "Oh, yes, I remember now. To answer your question, no, Isen is known to be my father, so the fact that he helped grill the chicken has no special value. Fathers often help sons."
    The desert dryness of his voice irritated her. "How am I supposed to know what does and doesn't affect status if I don't ask?" She put away her phone. "So you think you guessed right about the amount of brisket needed? And ribs. It's not too late to pick up some at Jonny's. They make good ribs."
    "Mine are better, and we'll have enough."
    "Party favors," she said suddenly, twisting around to look in the backseat, where a large, wrapped present rode beside a couple of packed totes. "I don't see them. Rule - "
    "They're in the trunk, where you put them yesterday so you wouldn't forget."
    "Right. That's right. I'd better check with Beth. She's bringing the cake." She punched in her sister's number. "I didn't have time to get the receipt to her, so I want to make sure they don't charge her a second time. It's such a pain not having my car. I... damn. Her line's busy." She switched to text.
    "Lily, relax. It's a party. You're supposed to enjoy yourself."
    "Hosts don't enjoy the party. Hosts give the party."
    He laughed almost silently.
    She sent the text to Beth and slid him a dirty look. "You're not laughing with me. I can tell because I'm not laughing."
    He reached over and cupped her nape, rubbing gently. "That business about the hosts not enjoying the party - that has to be something your mother would say."
    Shit. He was right. "All right. I'm supposed to enjoy myself, so I will. After it starts. I get to worry until then."
    "Why do I think you just jotted 'enjoy myself' on a mental to-do list?"
    "Because I'm too sneaky to write it on an actual list where you can see." Speaking of lists... She dived into her purse again and pulled out a little spiral, flipped it open, and looked at her Shower/Party list. "I feel