Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

was it? Why hasn’t something
     happened?”
    “It’s only been fifteen minutes or so,” Lily began, then stopped. Cynna was right.
     If the firebug knew what he was doing, he’d have acted by now. The more time passed,
     the better their chances of finding him. Or her. Or them.
    “Maybe it has,” Rule said slowly, “and we just don’t know it yet.”
    Lily drummed her fingers on her thigh. “When you want to figure out a perp’s goal,
     you start with what actually happened.”
    Rule’s gaze sharpened. “We went on full alert.”
    “Which meant lights out here, you and me tucked up in this room, and a squad sent
     to fetch Cynna and Ryder.”
    “A squad that reported no problems along the way.”
    “Rule.” Cynna sat bolt upright, dislodging Ryder and leaving her breast entirely bare.
     “You also sent Cullen to deal with the fire.”
    Rule’s face went tight. He reached for the phone—but even as he did, it rang. “Yes.”
     A pause. “I agree. Send the closest two squads there, stat. He doesn’t go in until
     they’re in place. I’ll call him to make sure he understands that.” He ended the call
     and looked at Lily. “Someone or something triggered the wards around Cullen’s workshop.”
    H INDSIGHT works a treat. Lily clambered up the steep path as quickly as she could and added
     up all the ways the perp had outsmarted them.
    The key was the workshop’s location. Cullen didn’t always make things go boom, burn
     up, or stink to high heaven while investigating whatever magical conundrum had his
     attention, but the chances of one of those three things happening in any given month
     were good. There was a large sinkhole where his previous workshop had been. Still,
     some of the things he could make, some of the ideas he was working on, could be vital
     to the clan, so Isen built him a new one. That one was on Little Sister…the mini-mountain
     Lily was currently climbing. And the closest peak to Big Sister.
    The saddle connecting the two was riven with crevices and such a tumbled confusion
     of rock that even a mountain goat would prefer to go the long way around. The intruder
     could be confident that no one sent to investigate the fire on one peak would stumble
     across him on the other, and there was no one on Little Sister to notice him. There
     were a few homes near the base of Little Sister, but none farther up, where the workshop
     was sited.
    None that anyone lived in, that is. Hannah’s old cabin was about two hundred yards
     from the workshop, butdespite the current crowding at Clanhome, no one had moved in. It was still filled
     with her things, and because she had no living relatives, it would stay that way until
     Isen gave permission for them to be removed. So far, he hadn’t.
    Isen was in the steel-reinforced study now. Rule had run ahead so he could check out
     the perp’s trail, and Lily was nearly at Cullen’s workshop. Two lupi kept pace with
     her. She had her weapon, her purse, and a flashlight. She couldn’t see in the dark
     the way they could.
    She did know a few things about the intruder now. It looked like he’d acted alone—and
     yes, the intruder was a
he
, and he was human. His scent had told the lupi that. He was a thief, maybe a pro,
     and he liked motorcycles.
    Cullen was fast, even two-footed. He’d reached his workshop maybe fifteen minutes
     after his wards were breached, and he’d followed orders. He hadn’t gone inside…but
     he had nosed around outside, including looking in a window. That’s how they knew the
     intruder was a thief—something was missing. José had shown up at the workshop with
     his squad while Cullen was cursing the thief, but he didn’t send one of his wolves
     in to check out the workshop. By then, Isen had gotten home, and he’d altered Rule’s
     orders. Nokolai had an explosives expert. Pete had sent for him when the whatever-it-was
     exploded on Big Sister, but he lived in a small town nearby, not on Clanhome. Isen
     had wanted everyone to wait for the expert. Even a really good nose might miss something
     if he didn’t know what he was sniffing for. This guy did.
    Lily couldn’t fault Isen’s caution. The intruder had already shown he knew how to
     blow things up. Plus the delay gave her to time to get to the scene before it was
     completely contaminated by Cullen and the others. Maybe. If she hurried.
    The expert was there now.
    While José and his squad had been waiting for the expert, though,