Lupi 06 - Blood Magic

spell, then, but not like any he'd heard of. Cullen's sleep spell was delivered through touch, not broadcast like a bomb.
    Cullen. Rule had to assume that he, Cynna, and Max had been knocked out. They'd be helpless, if they weren't already dead.
    Rule quivered with the need to move. He held himself still a moment longer. Action without information was too often disaster.
    Vision was limited by darkness. Smell was hindered by smoke. He focused on hearing.
    Silence. No air-conditioning, no monitors beeping, no voices from that dark hallway. He might already be too late. If -
    Footsteps. Soft, barely audible - but he heard footsteps in the east hall. Someone walking, not running. Someone in athletic shoes or the rubber-soled shoes nurses often used... so it might be a nurse moving almost silently through the dark.
    He didn't think so. He looked at the orderly, still kneeling beside the fallen nurse, and held a finger to his lips. The man's eyes widened even more. He couldn't have guessed why Rule wanted quiet, but he gulped and nodded.
    Rule gave him a quick nod and set off at a run.
    A few paces down the hall he leaped over the first huddled form - and nearly landed on a second one, missing more by luck than skill. Could one of them be Cynna? Had she made it back to the room before the sleep spell hit, or was she collapsed along here?
    He dodged a laundry cart - and the red EXIT sign over the stairs came on. Maybe the tech was coming back. Once the level of magic decreased, it usually did.
    That glow made a difference. He could see the alcove that held Cullen's room now - and the man who emerged from it. Short. Dark hair. It was too dim still to make out his features, but he wore scrubs.
    The light was enough for a human, too, apparently. The man saw him and took off running.
    Rule kicked it up to full speed. He reached the alcove - snarled in frustration - and skidded into a turn. He had to catch the enemy. He also had to see. Had to check on the others.
    The door to Cullen's room was still closed. A white plastic grocery sack sat in front of it, ghostly in the dark. Rule slid to a stop. The sack was knotted at the top. It bulged.
    The enemy had left it here. His eyes couldn't tell him what it held. Maybe his nose could. He bent. Froze. Snatched up the sack and took off like death itself was nipping at his heels.
    He tried to run smoothly, keeping the impact down - but felt every footfall thud up through his frame, vibrating the package he held. Time collapsed instead of stretching. He hit the nurses' station a blink or two after grabbing the package - vaulted over the counter, ignoring the orderly, and leaped onto the cabinets lined up along the wall.
    Crouched high on those cabinets, he drew back his cocked left arm and smashed his elbow through the window. A sweep of his forearm sliced his skin as it cleared out the remaining shards.
    He looked out. Parking lot. Yes. Thank you, Lady.
    Rule hurled the plastic-wrapped bundle straight out as hard as he could.
    It exploded in midair.

 
    TWENTY-SIX

    The enchiladas were as spicy as ever, the air-conditioning just as frigid, but after a couple bites, Lily hardly noticed.
    She tried to level with T.J., like she'd planned. She couldn't. The damned treaty had her saying something vague about a pair of bad guys she was after, both of them with magic, one of them a hit man.
    T.J. knew she was holding out on him. He looked wary and disappointed. "You're not telling me much."
    "I... can't. But your case is clearly connected to what I'm working on. We both want to find out who had it in for the Xings - or for one of them. I figure it's better if the brothers don't know we're collaborating. You going to talk to big brother today?"
    "I'm planning on it. Give him a friendly ride to the morgue, see if he can ID little brother."
    "Okay. When it seems like a good moment to shake him up, tell him I... You have to say this right. Tell him I am concerned for his health because I believe my grandmother's enemy killed his brother."
    "That's it? Your grandmother's enemy?'
    "He, uh, sort of knows Grandmother. Or knows about her." Lily wasn't sure if they really had some kind of history, or if Zhou had just heard rumors. Grandmother wouldn't say. Zhou Xing was old-school, though. He believed things his Westernized younger brothers didn't. Lily suspected he had a Gift of some sort, too, but had never managed to shake hands with him to confirm that. "Never mind. Just tell him that and to call