Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

“Warn Cullen. Cynna’s here, so I’m switching to the landline now.”
    Lily shoved to her feet. “What?”
    “Rick,” Rule said—apparently to the dark shape that suddenly bulked in the doorway,
     blocking what bit of light there was. “Any problems on the way here?”
    “Nothing,” said a young lupi Lily knew slightly.
    “Good. Take your post. Cynna, once you’re in here, we’ll turn on a light.”
    “Good, because while Ryder doesn’t mind the dark, I bump into things. Lily?”
    “Back here,” she answered as dim forms moved against the paler shape of the doorway.
     Cynna was a good friend and fellow FBI agent, currently on extended maternity leave.
     She was also the new Nokolai Rhej, as vital to the clan in her way as its Rho. “You’ve
     been told what happened?”
    “An explosion and a fire up on Big Sister.” Her voice moved as she came into the room.
     “Cullen’s off to—” She stopped, blinking as the overhead light came on. “Wow, that’s
     bright. Cullen’s going to go put the fire out.”
    Cynna looked a bit like a blond Xena who’d gotten carried away with body art. Lacy
     patterns decorated pretty much every exposed inch of her skin, and most of the unexposed
     regions, too. Anyone who knew much about tattooing would realize the designs hadn’t
     been applied with a needle, however. It took magic to imprint lines that spiderweb-fine.
    At the moment she wore jeans and a button-down shirt and carried a blanket-wrapped
     bundle that was beginning to bleat like a distressed sheep. “Firebug Asshole interrupted
     Ryder’s dinner,” she added, plopping down in one of the chairs and unbuttoning her
     blouse with one hand. “That’s about all I know.”
    “We don’t know much more,” Lily told her. “Isen’s off on a run. He went alone, which
     is why Rule’s in charge. Rule, you learned something just as Cynna got here.”
    His face was about as closed as the door he’d just shut. “One of the nearest patrols
     got close to the fire, but had to retreat. Our intruder has burned some grass, a couple
     of trees, and one hellishly large amount of wolfbane.”

SEVEN

    W OLFBANE , aka monkshood, blue rocket, devil’s helmet, aconite. There were over two hundred
     species in the genus, many of which had been used medicinally for hundreds of years.
     Landscapers still planted it ornamentally. It was a deadly poison.
    The roots of several species contained a highly toxic alkaloid that the Japanese once
     used for hunting bears and the Chinese in war. In Ayurvedic medicine, aconite was
     said to increase the fire
dosha
, and traditional Chinese medicine considered it a remedy for “coldness” or lassitude.
     In Western medicine, it had been used for everything from a local anesthetic—contact
     with the sap caused first tingling, then numbness—to a treatment for various heart
     problems. Certainly it acted on the heart. It stimulated the cardio-inhibitory nerve
     in the medulla oblongata, reducing both heart rate and blood pressure, but there was
     a wee tendency for the heart to slow too much. In most mammals, though, respiration
     stopped before the heart did.
    Werewolves were not most mammals, but wolfbane affected them, too. It made them sick.
     Deeply, miserably sick. Hence the name.
    “What symptoms?” Lily asked urgently.
    “Aaron is still puking his guts out,” Rule said. “Will wasn’t as badly affected and
     was able to drag Aaron away from the smoke and call Pete. No paralysis.”
    That was a relief. There was a woman—currently in prison and stripped of her Gift—who’d
     devised a way to combine wolfbane with other ingredients to create a smoke that paralyzed
     lupi. Best if that innovation did not spread.
    Lily looked at Cynna. “How close does Cullen have to be to tell the fire to quit burning?”
    “It depends on how big the fire is, but the closer the better. He won’t be able to
     get very close, will he? Unless…how steady is the wind?”
    Rule answered that one. “Too fitful up on the slope to predict. Unless it steadies
     so that Cullen and the others can approach from upwind, we’ll have to wait for the
     wolfbane to be consumed before we can deal with the fire.”
    Lily gave him a look. “You’ve got plenty of clan who aren’t lupi.” Clan who were female,
     in other words. The daughters of lupi were human but were considered clan, and there
     were more than the usual number of adult females at Clanhome now.
    Rule got a funny