Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

wasn’t happy about that,
     but he was the youngest, barely trained and still unblooded. The rest of the men would
     go with Rule and Cullen.
    “Kudos,” Cullen said. “That was as masterful a bit of manipulation as any I’ve seen
     your father pull off. I especially liked the part where you encouraged her to reconsider.”
    Rule’s mouth crooked up. If anyone actually noticed his father manipulating others,
     Isen was having an off day. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    “Keep telling yourself that if you like, but don’t try telling it to Lily once she
     realizes what you did.”
    True. “I hope Hugo turns out to be as important as she thinks. She’ll forgive me faster.”
    Somehow Tony had tracked Hugo to a bar in the port area. The window for getting their
     hands on him was closing fast, though—he’d booked passage on a ship that left port
     in just over an hour. Lily had briefly considered sending Bureau people to pick Hugo
     up, but that might be problematic, given that he had some kind of Gift. And due to
     intuition or sheer stubbornness, she was determined to get hold of him.
    It made sense to split up. Rule was pleased by how logically it all worked out…and
     gave him what he wanted. What most of him wanted, anyway. His wolf didn’t like it.
     The wolf wanted Lily close by, and never mind that
close by
meant
heading into extreme danger
. As far as the wolf was concerned, they should always act as a team, and Lily was
     always safer if they did.
    But the man was in charge this time, and the man was relieved. About Lily, anyway.
     Jasper hadn’t called, and the alarm he’d set would go off in—
    His phone vibrated. It was Jasper. Rule listened, responded briefly, and disconnected.
     “Let’s go.”
    T HE Joyce K. Hammond Middle School was one of those staunch redbrick buildings erected
     soon after the great earthquake. Three stories rose in impeccable symmetry above the
     street, their multipaned windows designed to admit both light and breezes. The school’s
     gymnasium was more recent, though they’d done a good job of blending it visually with
     the existing structure. On the inside, that gym looked like thousands of others—a
     glossy wooden floor, bleachers, basketball hoops.
    Jasper sat on a folding metal chair in the middle of that shiny floor with his hands
     tied behind his back. He’d come here knowing it was a trap. He’d expected to see Friar
     holding a gun at Adam’s head to force Jasper to obey, and he’d been ready to do just
     that. Ready to trust—however desperately—that his newly found brother would somehow
     save them both.
    Adam wasn’t here. Five young girls were.
    The girls hadn’t been given chairs. They sat motionless on the floor a few feet from
     him. Two movie-extra thugs complete with black ski masks held automatic weapons on
     them. The thugs were both white. The girls they aimed at were more varied—one black,
     two white, two Hispanic. An admirably diverse assortment of hostages, Friar had pointed
     out, save for the uniformity of gender. They were dressed alike, too, or mostly so.
     Their tops varied, but they all wore jeans and athletic shoes and duct tape on their
     wrists and mouths. Above the duct tape their eyes were glassy.
    The girls were alike in one more way. They glowed.
    Not very much, and only when Jasper concentrated hard on using that kind of seeing.
     Robert Friar was a lot brighter, bright enough that Jasper didn’t have to work much
     to see the magic that wrapped him. Spells are always dimmer than the one who casts
     them.
    This spell supposedly lodged them in the immediatemoment. They had less short-term memory at the moment than an ant, Friar had told
     him cheerfully. They wouldn’t remember a thing about tonight. Death would provide
     the same result, he’d added, but they were all trying to avoid that particular outcome,
     weren’t they? For different reasons, but that was the point. The spell would encourage
     Jasper and his brother and his brother’s lovely fiancée to have confidence in Friar’s
     word. Once Friar had what he wanted, he promised that the girls would be set free,
     unharmed. The spell would wear off, and they wouldn’t remember anything, so turning
     them loose was easier than killing them. No bodies to dispose of, no police involvement.
    Jasper didn’t take anything Friar said at face value, but the spell did keep them
     calm—almost comatose, in fact, but surely that was