Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

full alert. The patrol nearest the incident can’t be raised
     by phone. Two other patrols are headed there to investigate, and Rule is sending a
     squad with Cullen to deal with the fire. Rule and I are in Isen’s study. Cynna and
     the baby will be here any minute. Toby’s at Danny’s—Eric Snowden’s son—with his guards
     tripled. Isen’s whereabouts are unknown, but he’s alive.”
    “His guards?”
    “He went for a run without them.”
    A moment’s silence. “Mick’s birthday.”
    “Yes.”
    “Hold a moment.” He didn’t wait for her to agree—typical Benedict—but he wasn’t gone
     long. She heard him telling someone about the explosion, then she heardArjenie’s voice, though she couldn’t make out the words. Then he spoke to her again.
     “I’ve informed the guards. We’re vulnerable if we attempt to leave the hotel, so we’ll
     stay here for now. Arjenie’s going to increase the power to her ward, and I’ll attempt
     to contact Mika and see if he’s willing to stand watch.”
    “Okay. Rule, Benedict and Arjenie are staying put. He’s going to see if Mika will
     keep an eye on things. Anything else I should pass on?” He didn’t answer. Maybe he’d
     shaken his head, forgetting that she couldn’t see him. But if he’d had something to
     add, he would have, so she said, “I’ll call when I can and there’s more information.”
     She disconnected.
    Then there was nothing to do but wait in the darkness. And think.
    It wasn’t that hard to sneak onto Nokolai Clanhome. It was too big. Over six thousand
     acres meant miles of perimeter to patrol, and even with the recent influx there weren’t
     enough guards to survey the entire border at every moment. A single person could cross
     easily if he or she was fit enough for the terrain and savvy or lucky enough to miss
     the patrols. The trick was remaining unseen, unheard, and unsmelled once you got here.
     Lupi patrolled in pairs—one two-footed and armed, one four-footed, with onboard armament
     and a really good nose.
    If you wanted to penetrate very far into Clanhome—say, all the way to the small village
     at its heart—you’d want a diversion. Especially if you were leading a small group
     bent on mayhem. The problem was, the diversion their intruder had chosen didn’t make
     sense.
    Big Sister was a relatively easy target for an outsider. The peak itself was on Nokolai
     land, but part of its rumpled skirts lay in the state lands that abutted the clan’s
     acreage, and the terrain was rougher on the Nokolai side. Hard to patrol. A bomb set
     off there would certainly pull the nearest patrols that way, potentially opening a
     route…but to what? Lily pictured the area in her mind, but she couldn’t come up with
     a target that was both close enough to BigSister for the absence of nearby patrols to matter, and far enough away that the intruders
     wouldn’t be spotted by the patrols converging on the fire.
    Fire. Maybe that was the key point. Maybe the intruder was counting on the fire to
     get big enough to require most or all of Nokolai’s fighters, leaving the village relatively
     undefended. If whoever it was didn’t know about Cullen’s knack with fire, that would
     make sense.…except that this was winter. An unusually wet winter. There was more to
     burn on the east face of Big Sister than the west—more trees, brush, and general growth—but
     none of it was dry enough to catch readily.
    Maybe Big Sister hadn’t been the first choice. What was it Rule had said? Isen might
     have “precipitated an incident.” Or someone else could have, like the missing patrol.
     Someone who spotted the intruders or was spotted, which somehow resulted in setting
     off the bomb in a less than ideal spot.
    And she was diving off into pure speculation now, when what she needed was facts.
    Faint but not distant, she heard yipping. That meant someone had approached the house
     who was supposed to be here.
    “Cynna’s here,” Rule said abruptly—and in his normal voice, which meant he was talking
     to her, not Pete. “With Ryder. Toby’s team reports all quiet there. Still no word
     from the missing patrol, but the others should reach the area any minute now. If…yes?”
    Lily heard the front door open and a woman’s voice murmuring softly: “Shh, now, we’re
     going to see Uncle Rule and Aunt Lily, and yes, I know you want to finish eating and
     you will in just a minute, promise…”
    “Hell,” Rule said.