Ritual Magic

them. His men formed up around him and Nettie, weapons out. “Andy,” Rule snapped, “get a blanket. Joe, lie down and warm her.” Couldn’t let her slip into shock. Humans went into shock easily. So much blood . . .
    Blood on her head. Blood on her chest. The head wound was bleeding like crazy, but it looked like a graze. God, he hoped so. The chest wound—that was bad. At least it wasn’t spurting. No artery involved. He tore off his jacket and shirt, ripped the shirt in half, and made two pads. One for her head, one for her chest. His hands were steady, as if they knew what they were doing. His wolf was howling and howling, in his head, in his gut—
Out! Out! Kill, guard, protect!
As Joe curled up on Nettie’s other side, lending her his body’s heat, Rule pressed one pad to the side of Nettie’s head. The other was for her bloody, ruined chest.
    Her heart beat. He felt it faintly beneath the pad. He couldn’t hear it, not with all those noisy humans around. Noisy, dangerous humans.
    Out, out!
    The bullet had gone in beneath her left breast. Below the heart. Looked like it had smashed into a rib. Her lung. Her lung was there. Was it even now filling up with blood? What if it collapsed?
Dammit, Nettie, you’re the doctor. What do I do? I don’t know what to do.
    “Shit, shit, shit.” That was Lily. She’d run to check on the man she’d shot. The man who’d shot Nettie. He couldn’t see her. Scott and Andy were in the way. Guarding him. Blocking his view. “Rule?” she called. “Is Nettie—”
    “Unconscious. Your target?”
    “The same. Stay back,” Lily told someone sharply. “Don’t touch him.”
    “You get back,” another voice said. An angry voice. “You shot Daryl. You’ll step away now.”
    Nettie was so still. Her eyes were rolled back, leaving little white smiles beneath the lids. She was alive, though. She didn’t move, but she lived.
    Out! Out!
    “Mr. Turner! Mr. Turner, who is the victim? Is she alive? Do you know why—”
    He snarled at the woman who’d startled him. She’d shoved in close. Too close. The Change rose in a hot rush, earth reaching through him to touch moonsong—beautiful beyond words, promising pain and joy. Welcoming him. Beckoning him . . . but muted. Dark moon was only two days away, so moonsong was distant. That distance slowed his headlong rush into Change, let him hold it back. Mostly. But though he didn’t pass through that door, he slid close. Closer to wolf now than man, but not truly either one. That was dangerous. He couldn’t remember why, but he knew it was.
    The woman—
she’s a reporter,
the man insisted, feeding him/them on words instead of action. That mattered, but he couldn’t remember why. The reporter-woman fell back, her face bleached by fear. “Get her away,” he growled, holding the pad to Nettie’s chest. “Keep everyone away.”
    “Goddammit, I don’t have time for this!” Lily again. “Put up your weapon, Officer.”
    “Scott,” Rule said. “Go.” That was all he said, but Scott knew what he meant and leaped up. Someone wasn’t obeying Lily. They would now.
    It was hard to think. Hard to pull up words, and that wasn’t right. The wolf wasn’t as verbal as the man, but they both knew words. He fought to press the wolf back, to pull up the man . . .
    There was a yelp, the sound of a scuffle. Rule found two words. “Mark. Report.”
    “One cop had his gun pointed at Lily. Scott took it away from him.”
    Rule growled and slid toward wolf. But not all the way.
    “Scott is handing the gun to another man,” Mark went on. “A guy who just got there. Short, glasses, red hair. Looks like a cop, but he’s not in uniform.”
    “Thank you,” said a new voice, very dry.
    The angry man who’d told Lily to step back announced, “You are under arrest for assaulting—”
    “Shut up, Marlowe,” said the new voice. “No, I’ll keep your weapon for now. Idiot. Agent Yu. You want to tell me what the
hell
just happened?”
    “Officer Crown is contaminated.”
    “He’s fucking wounded.”
    “Yes, in the shoulder. It shouldn’t kill him while we figure out—”
    “It shouldn’t fucking knock him out, either, but he’s unconscious. What the hell happened?”
    Andy came racing up. He had the blanket Rule kept in the trunk of the car, and that association pulled Rule a bit closer to the man. Enough that he remembered what the blanket was for. Enough that he remembered why it was dangerous to