Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

gay.”
    “Bi, I think. There used to be a bit of controversy in the gay community about that,
     and a few still don’t consider bisexuality authentic. They believe you’re either gay
     or straight, and those who call themselves bisexual are fooling themselves. To me
     that sounds too much like what the right-wingers think about homosexuality—that we’re
     all fooling ourselves about being born this way, and they know better. If someone
     identifies himself or herself as bi, that’s good enough for me.”
    “Did Friar tell you that?’ Cullen demanded. “He said he was bisexual?”
    “I don’t think he used the word. Does it matter?’
    “It might.” Rule was getting a glimmering of an idea. “This was three years ago, you
     said.”
    “Roughly. Um…let’s see. He said he’d always preferred women, but had recently decided—or
     maybe he said he’d been persuaded—to explore things ‘on the other side of the fence.’
     I’m pretty sure that was the phrase he used. Now, I know what you’re thinking. Friar
     is a liar from the soles of his feet to the tips of his hair, but that much may have
     been true. There’s a certain…call it a beginner’s enthusiasm, only it has less to
     do with experience than acceptance. When you first truly believe it’s okay to want
     who you want, you get giddy, extravagant, excessive. It’s like falling in love, only
     you’re in love with an entire sex. That’s hard to fake.”
    “Rethna,” Cullen said.
    Rule nodded slowly. Friar had been recruited by
her
just over three years ago. As part of his recruitment, he’d spent time in Rethna’s
     realm. “Elves are often bisexual, you told me.”
    “They’re bisexual, period. Whether that’s innate or a cultural norm to which they
     all give lip service—pun intended—I can’t say, but they consider monosexuality downright
     deviant.”
    Rule felt a tingle of excitement, as if he’d found tracks left by his prey. Old tracks,
     but they led somewhere. A bisexual Robert Friar was no more evil than the heterosexual
     version, but Rule’s understanding of his enemy had shifted. “I told Lily once,” he
     began. And stopped. Saying her name opened up the terror and rage, the primal need
     that was ready to explode inside him.
    His wolf wanted out. He wanted out
now.
    For the space of three slow, careful breaths Rule rode the razor’s edge of Change.
     Cullen—who would know, who would smell it on him—didn’t speak. Out of lucky instinct
     or preoccupation, Jasper didn’t, either.
    That was just as well, for where he was in that moment, words couldn’t reach.
    Eventually the wolf subsided enough for him to find words useful again. He picked
     up where he’d left off. “I told Lily once that I think sex is Friar’s weak point.
     It is, of course, an avid interest for many and a twisted interest for some. With
     Friar, I think sex is both of those, and more. I think sex defines and controls him.
     Knowing that he’s bisexual matters. I don’t yet know how, but it matters.”
    “If I helped, then good.” Jasper’s face was shadowed, lights from outside the car
     playing across it. “Your eyes turned black a minute ago.”
    “I was resisting the urge to Change.”
    “Not your clothes.”
    “No.”
    Another car’s headlights played over Jasper’s face, which for once wasn’t giving anything
     away. But he smelled ever so faintly of fear. “Does Friar know you intend to rip his
     throat out?”
    “Oh, yes,” Rule breathed. “Yes, he knows.”
    In the brief silence that fell, the buzz of Rule’s phone seemed very loud. He grabbed
     it. That wasn’t Lily’s ringtone, and he didn’t recognize the number, but maybe she’d
     gotten hold of someone else’s phone. Maybe— “Yes.”
    “Rule, it’s Tony. I have failed you. I failed Lily. She’s gone, and there is one fucking
     big mess here.”

THIRTY-THREE

    T HREE ambulances and half-a-dozen patrol cars with their uniformed occupants were attending
     the fucking big mess when Rule reached the scene. There had been no getting here in
     the car; the streets near Dingos were jammed. Jasper had offered to stay with the
     car so Rule’s men could go with him. Chris and Allan would follow when they could.
    The reason for the stalled-out traffic was obvious. Police had cordoned off the street
     where the attack took place. At least two cars had crashed when their drivers suddenly
     passed out, according to Tony, but Rule couldn’t