Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

probably because she’d pushed so hard, and maybe
     because she’d used Cynna. But in the end she’d taken no for an answer, hadn’t she?
     She hadn’t crossed the line.
    Rule nodded again.
    “Okay. Thank you for your cooperation. You can go now.”
    Instead she turned toward Cynna. “Cynna—”
    Cynna’s face was stony. “Not now.”
    “But I want you to know that I—”
    “Sherrianne,” Isen rumbled. “Go. Now.”
    She sighed and obeyed.
    Lily turned to look at the other woman. The young, angry, defiant one, who’d been
     watching everything Lily and Sherrianne said and did closely. “Brenda. Come here,
     please.” She wouldn’t like that, being told to come here like a child.
    Her lips tightened before she remembered to duck her head and hide again. She walked
     slowly over to Lily.
    “Were you raised here at Clanhome, too?”
    “No.”
    Lily waited, but Brenda was smart or stubborn enough to stay silent. “Isen?”
    “When Brenda was five or six,” Isen said, “her mother experienced a religious conversion.
     She was born again, and her views on sexuality changed accordingly. From that point
     on she wanted to limit Brenda’s time with us. She’s a fair-minded woman. She allowed
     Brenda’s father to see her, but only away from Clanhome. After Brenda turned eighteen,
     she decided to get to know him—and us—better. She visited her father here several
     times, then last May asked to move in with him for the summer. We were delighted.”
    Lily had an urge to ask Isen what Brenda’s favorite color was, what she’d gotten for
     Christmas last week, how old she’d been when she lost her first tooth. He might know.
     He seemed to know everything about every member of his clan. “So she’s been here since
     May?”
    “No, she went off to college in September, but then the events at the Humans First
     rallies made her unsafe there, so she returned here. At first she seemed to resent
     that, but I don’t believe she does now.”
    Being spoken about instead of to had the expected effect. Brenda went from a simmer
     to a boil. “I don’t see what any of that has to do with anything! What do you care
     where I lived when I was little?”
    “That’s how investigations are,” Lily said blandly. “I ask all sorts of nosy questions
     that, in the end, turn out not to lead anywhere. But every now and then one ends up
     mattering a lot. Who’s your boyfriend here?”
    Brenda blinked. “What—I don’t know what you mean.”
    “Would you rather I said
lover
? I suppose it does sound more adult. You have a lover here, don’t you?”
    That didn’t make her hide behind her hair. Instead she gave her head a proud little
     toss, shaking her hair back. “None of your business.”
    “It is, you know. Especially if he isn’t Nokolai. And he isn’t, is he, Brenda?”
    She didn’t answer, but she didn’t hide, either. Her head stayed up. Her eyes defied
     Lily to pry anything out of her.
    She was so very young. Lily didn’t make it a question this time, but a statement of
     fact. “Your lover asked you about Cullen Seabourne’s workshop.”
    Brenda didn’t answer, but Rule did. Briefly his ears and tail drooped. He nodded.
    She shook her head. “Sorry. I don’t get it.”
    “He means,” Isen said, “that she felt guilt over your question.”
    A nod plus drooping tail…“ ‘Bad dog’ equals guilt, huh?”
    Rule snorted. That could mean anything from laughter to disgust, but this time probably
     meant something along the lines of “Don’t be ridiculous.” Lupi did not like to be
     compared to dogs.
    And she was sidetracking, big-time. The next part would be…tricky. She thought she
     knew what Isen was doing, but if she was wrong, things were apt to skip the handbasket
     and go straight to hell. She looked steadily at Brenda, letting the silence drag out.
     Finally she spoke quietly. “Brenda. Look to your left.”
    More out of surprise than any desire to obey, she did, then frowned at Lily. “What?’
    “See all those people sitting over there? Over forty people came forward when Isen
     asked. Forty people who aren’t worried about talking about who asked them questions
     about Cullen’s workshop. You’re worried about it, though, aren’t you? So worried you
     won’t admit you discussed it with your lover. You’re protecting him. You think you
     won’t be hurt, but he might be.”
    “He didn’t talk to me about it,” she said quickly. “It was someone else.