Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

or the most beautiful. The dark-skinned
     man on his left was six-five, and Cullen Seabourne had probably been the most beautiful
     person in the room all his life. But Rule was the center. He held the others in place
     with one quick gesture while his eyes swept the room—pausing on Friar, then on Jasper,
     lingering briefly on each of the girls.
    Jasper saw his throat move. Maybe he was swallowing the same terrible frustration
     and horror Jasper felt.
    Too far. He was too far away.
    The girl nearest the lupi—nearest, yet yards and yards too distant—whimpered. One
     of the thugs had her by her hair, holding her head up to expose her throat. He held
     a knife to it.
    “I’m disappointed,” Friar said in his silkiest voice. “Where’s the lovely Lily?”
    “She couldn’t make it.” Rule looked at the man on hisleft, then the two on his right. He didn’t speak or signal with his hands, but the
     glance must have meant something. The tallest one’s eyes widened. He returned his
     gaze to Friar, his expression giving away nothing. “What did you have in mind, Robert?”
    “Why, an exchange, just as I said.”
    “Adam King isn’t here.”
    “No, he’ll remain my guest awhile longer. Jasper will join him. They’ve been pining
     for each other—I’m quite looking forward to reuniting them. But you’ll still make
     the exchange, I’m sure, given the terms. You’ll give me Cullen Seabourne. In return,
     I won’t kill any of the pretty girls here.”
    Rule was silent for several heartbeats. Then he smiled slowly, a smile as hard and
     pure and cold as Arctic ice. “What pretty girls?” he said. And shouted,
“Go!”
    A great many things happened in the first two seconds.
    The lupi charged, flowing forward across that shiny floor absurdly fast. Glass shattered
     up high. The thug with the knife dropped it and reached for his gun. The one with
     the gun swung it toward the racing lupi and deafening sound crashed and ricocheted
     through the gymnasium. Four enormous wolves leaped off the bleachers—the windows,
     they must have come through the windows!—and if Jasper had thought the men were fast,
     the wolves were unbelievable. In the next second they would—
    Beside him, Friar shouted something over the bestial roar of the guns.
    All six girls sprang to their feet brandishing wicked-long knives—and flung their
     free arms over their eyes.
    The sun exploded right there in Hammond Middle School’s gymnasium.
    Jasper’s eyes squeezed closed, but he still saw light—searing, intolerable brightness.
     His eyes streamed. He gulped and gasped and realized there was no heat. No heat, only
     that terrible brightness.
    He heard screams. Screams, not gunfire, and the meaty thud of fighting. He forced
     his eyelids to lift, but he couldn’t see anything. Blind. He’d been blinded, and oh
     God—
    “Hold still,” Rule’s voice said right next to his ear. He felt Rule’s hand on his,
     still bound behind his back. A second later his hands parted. They tingled and stung
     and he brought them to his face with the duct tape still tight on his wrists, but
     severed. “I can’t see.”
    “Nor can I,” his brother said, and shoved him out of the chair.
    He landed heavily on his side, and now there was heat—the fiery breath of a furnace.
    “Goddamn elves!” someone shouted.
    “Cullen!” Rule roared. “Your fire’s too damn close!”
    “That wasn’t mine!”
    “Shit,” Rule said, and rolled on top of Jasper, covering him with his body.
    “They’re getting away,” Seabourne cried. “Out the window, I think—take that, you slimy,
     pointy-eared bastards!”
    Then it was silent. Almost silent. Jasper heard breathing—his, Rule’s, and was that
     the panting of a wolf nearby? He felt Rule shift. “My vision’s coming back,” Rule
     said.
    “Mine’s not,” Cullen said sourly.
    “What were you throwing fire at if you couldn’t see?”
    “Elves. Goddamn elves glow plenty bright to my other sight. They’re gone,” he added.
    “Yes,” Rule said, and rolled off Jasper. “They left their two gunmen behind, however.
     Or their bodies. Can anyone else see yet?”
    “I can, a little,” someone said.
    “Good. See if the gunmen are dead. Jasper, I have to check on Ian. He’s down.”
    Jasper blinked his streaming eyes, still seeing only the afterimage of that intolerable
     brightness, and sat up. He heard movement from several directions. “This one’s dead,”
     a voice