Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

this isn’t a place to stay forever. Though some people enjoy resting, or
     so I’ve heard.”
    He didn’t relax at her teasing. “I, uh, I’ve been offered a job.”
    “I felt sure you would be. Come on, let’s get up. I’m hungry.”
    They fixed breakfast together, just as they had for most of their lives. Those other
     lives, that is, but that’s a distinction without a difference. He told her a bit about
     the job.
    He’d been offered it by…an angel, he supposed, the same one who had spent time with
     him when he lost himself in the gray, then had forgotten almost completely. Of course
angel
was the wrong word. He knew that. The wrong word, the wrong everything, for whatever
     had offered this work to him, it so far surpassed his understanding of beings and
     boundaries that it made words meaningless. So he thought of it as the angel, and left
     it at that.
    “Whatever it was Friar took out of there with him, it was nasty. And tied to this
     side of the line in a way I don’t like at all. Neither did the, uh…whoever offered
     me the job.”
    She nodded seriously. “I heard something about that.” When he looked surprised she
     laughed again. She’d always laughed easily, but the happiness seemed to bubble up
     even more freely now. “Come on, I told you I’d been meeting people. Looking around
     a bit while I decide what I’m going to do now.”
    “Yeah, but I never see anyone around for you to talk to.”
    “Because you don’t want to. If you’d been interested…but never mind.” She reached across and took his hand. “Al, it’s okay. When did I
     ever kick up a fuss because of your job? I don’t want or expect you to spend a few
     eons sunbathing on the beach with me.”
    Now he smiled. “You hate sunbathing.”
    “True. So. When are you leaving?”
    His hand tightened on hers. “Not yet. I need more time with you, more time to…but
     when I do take the job I won’t be gone constantly. I’ll be able to take…not weekends,
     but time here, now and then. Time with you. I won’t remember things here when I’m
     back there, not very well, but I’ll know I’ve been with you.” He felt sure of that
     now.
    “Memory works differently there than it does here,” she agreed. “But the good things
     stay with us.”
    “Yeah.” He looked at their joined hands, at the rings that glowed on each of their
     hands. “Yeah, the good things stay.” He grinned suddenly and looked exactly like the
     wicked twenty-nine-year-old man she’d first fallen in love with. Exactly—because memory
     did indeed work differently here. “And I’ve got to admit, I’m really looking forward
     to seeing Yu’s face when I show up again.”

CAST OF CHARACTERS
    Al Drummond: FBI agent who went bad, he was killed at the end of
Death Magic
—yet remained as a ghost somehow tied to Lily.
    Beth (Elizabeth) Yu: Lily’s younger sister. Twenty-five in
Mortal Ties
. Roommates are Deirdre (short, shiny blond hair, a nose stud, five piercings in one
     ear and three in the other; doesn’t trust even numbers) and Susan (same name as Beth’s
     oldest sister).
    Celeste Babineaux: Rule and Jasper’s mother. Bipolar. Deceased.
    Cullen Seabourne: Sorcerer and lupus, adopted into Nokolai clan after being expelled from his birth
     clan (Etorri) and living for many years as a lone wolf. Sixty. Married to Cynna Weaver.
    Cynna Weaver: A Finder and spellcaster who follows a Swahili tradition that imprints spells on
     the skin like tattoos. FBI agent. Thirty-two.
    Isen Turner: Nokolai Rho. Burly and bearded, he’s ninety-one years old but looks around fifty.
    Jasper Machek: Rule’s newly discovered half brother or
alius
kin (means otherkin) on his mother’s side.
    Leo Romano: Laban Rho until forced to step down, passing his clan’s mantle to his heir, Tony
     Romano.
    Li Lei Yu, aka Grandmother: Lily’s grandmother on her father’s side. Much older than she looks.
    Lily Yu: Homicide detective in Book 1 (
Tempting Danger
); joined the Unit (FBI) at end of that book. She’s twenty-nine in
Mortal Ties
. She was abducted by a child rapist when she was eight. Rule’s Chosen, Lily is a
     touch sensitive—she identifies the presence of magic through touch, but cannot be
     affected by it.
    Michael Machek: Jasper’s father.
    Ruben Brooks: Head of Unit Twelve of the FBI with an incredibly accurate precognitive Gift. Became
     both lupus and Rho in
Death Magic
.
    Rule Turner: Nokolai Lu Nuncio or heir; Leidolf Rho.