Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

Johnny many times since he learned the language, and it never failed to amuse him. One committed to evil, not good; good was simply a performance. Acting as if you were good might make it so, at least in the eyes of others.
    But men are always more comfortable thinking themselves like their fellows. Even now, with the fascinating things they were learning about the brain, scientists persisted in viewing abnormalities in the brain as flaws, failures, a problem to be fixed.
    Johnny was naturally curious about such things, given the nature of his second exceptional trait. He had read many popularized accounts of brain research and psychology. Happily, he'd been able to conclude he was not what experts called a psychopath. Whatever might be wired differently in his brain, it didn't prevent him from making meaningful connections with others. Clearly he had a deep and loving connection with his beloved.
    Psychopaths were also said to lack empathy. That was certainly not true of him. How could he take such pleasure in giving or receiving pain if he were unable to sense the feelings of others?
    No doubt he would have shared the common view had he been born "normal." Johnny chuckled as he climbed down from the bus with his white grocery sack. Had he been born without his other exceptional ability, he would also be long dead. His Beautiful One would not have fallen in love with him had he been unable to appreciate the exquisite pleasures she offered.
    Johnny sat on the hard bench to wait for the next bus. So many had failed his Beautiful One. This was not their fault, for they could not help it if their brains didn't make the connections his did between pleasure and pain. But it was sad, he thought, that his second gift was so rare and so unappreciated.
    Not by the one who truly mattered, though. She loved and valued him as passionately as he did her. He owed her so much. She said that debt had no meaning where there was love, but she wasn't human. Johnny adored her, cherished her, and feared her, but she was not human, and she sometimes misjudged or underestimated what humans could do.
    That's why he was here today without her. One of his beloved's less human traits was her manner of sleeping. While asleep, she attenuated, losing her grip on the physical - though that would change, she told him, when she fully manifested. When first they met, she had slept most of the time. Now she needed less sleep than did he, but did not know when the need for sleep might strike, or how long she would remain asleep when it did. She might sleep for a day or an hour, then remain awake for a day or a week.
    She slept now. When she woke she would be angry with him, oh yes, and the thought of her anger made him tremble. But she was wrong, that was all there was to it.
    The sorcerer could not be left for later. From all Johnny had learned, the man was far too good with fire.

 
    TWENTY-THREE

    Lily took some satisfaction from slamming the door - but not much. She wanted to go back and yell at Rule some more. Where did he get off, telling her what she thought, what she felt?
    She couldn't believe he'd picked now to dump that on her. That was just wrong. He was wrong. What made him think she didn't know what she wanted? She wanted him, dammit. Marriage was...
    She dragged a hand through her hair. Marriage was scary.
    There. She'd admitted it. Marriage scared her, but it was the right thing to do... wasn't it?
    She started walking.
    The Medical Examiner's building was a graceless white Lego set in the midst of a sea of concrete. They were supposed to move to a new, larger facility soon - they'd long since outgrown this one, which had been built in the 1960s. But construction delays had them still working in the same old cramped quarters Lily used to visit, back when she was with Homicide.
    It was stupid to feel a twinge of nostalgia for the dead house.
    Cody straightened as she reached his car and fell into step beside her. "Hey, there. You're not wearing your happy face."
    "Gee, I wonder why not. Big investigation, stinky corpse. What's not to put a smile on my face?"
    "No, that's your just-had-a-fight face. I ought to know. I used to see it often enough."
    The past ghosted across Lily's mind. It smelled like cigarettes and wet sand, burnt coffee and bourbon. She slowed without meaning to, tilting her head for a sideways look at the man beside her.
    Cody's face hadn't changed much, and his body was still strong, muscular. But he didn't smell of