Blood Magic (27 page)

THIRTY-THREE

“WHY
do snitches never want to meet someplace comfortable?” Lily complained as she got out of her car.

Cody grinned. “I think someone didn’t get any supper.”

“I had supper.” She’d eaten the sandwich in the car and downed half the soda. “What I didn’t get was a shower.”

They were in the parking lot of the Oceanview Mall—which completely lacked a view of the ocean, offering instead acres of concrete that had been soaking up heat all day. Having received in abundance, it was now giving back. A bit of a breeze was kicking up, though, carrying a teasing whisper of coolness. Lily glanced off to the west, where the stalled cloud-bank looked like a massively bad bruise, all black and purple. Maybe the storm would move in, after all. “What now?”

“Having parked in the boonies, we now walk to section A12, where we look for a 2007 red Ford pickup, California license 3NQS750. Lowrider, orange flame on the sides.” Cody glanced at her. “For some reason Javier thinks my ride’s too distinctive. He didn’t want me parking anywhere near him.”

They started for the congested section he’d indicated. Privately, Lily admitted that, from a snitch’s point of view, the setup made sense in a paranoid sort of way. Public spots were better than dark alleys or bars, and what could be more public yet anonymous than a mall parking lot? The light was fading, but not yet gone. If he was a smart snitch, he’d shown up early and would be watching to make sure they followed instructions—and that no one had followed either him or them.

“Your man always this careful?” The breeze was growing stronger, blowing her hair in her face. She shoved it back.

“Pretty much. He likes the cloak and dagger aspect of informing as much as he likes getting a little cash now and . . . Shit.”

“What?” Lily stopped, her heartbeat revving. Then she realized what he was looking at. Her hand. Specifically, the ring she wore. “Oh. You mean you were, ah . . .”

“I had it in mind, yeah. I mean, a lupus—that’s temporary.”

Lily eyed Cody warily. “This ring says it isn’t. You aren’t going to do something stupid, are you?”

“Like grab you and plant one on?” Cody’s teeth flashed white in a grin. “Maybe I thought about it, but, hey, I’m a cop. I can read body language, and yours is saying ‘whoa, black belt here.’ ”

“Oh.” She felt foolish. “How’d you guess? I wasn’t a black belt yet when you knew me.”

“You mean you are now? Shit, it’s a good thing I finally did develop some sense.” He wiped his forearm across his forehead, rearranging the sweat. “Guess I could take it as a compliment that your man was in a hurry to put up that big, shiny KEEP OUT sign.”

A KEEP OUT sign? Like she was property? Lily opened her mouth to tell him what she thought about that attitude . . . then realized it didn’t matter. It really didn’t. Maybe Cody would feel better if he thought Rule had considered him a threat. “I guess you could.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “He didn’t, though, did he? You may not have been wearing that sparkler earlier, but you had it.”

She smiled. She couldn’t help it. Cody had always been at his most appealing when his good sense got the drop on his ego. “I did. We were waiting for the right moment for the big announcement, but I decided right moments can be hard to spot, so why not wear it?”

His mouth twisted in a wry smile. “Maybe you wanted to put up your own KEEP OUT sign, having just run into me again and all. You’d know that a ring was a good defense against my legendary appeal. Ah—you don’t have to actually respond to that. Think I’d like it better if you didn’t.”

Lily grinned and started walking toward A12 again. In truth, she’d been thinking of Rule when she put on his ring, and only Rule. Well, him and giving Dreyer a black eye, if she could. “I’m not going to tell you what to think.”

“There’s a switch.”

“I did not tell you . . . okay,” she admitted. “Sometimes I did. But I was young.”

“Young, but smart enough to know when to bail. Don’t puff up. I mean that. You were right to hand me my walking papers. I’ve got a lot of regrets from my drinking years, Lily. My stupid years, I call them. I want you to know that you’re the biggest one. I shouldn’t have let you go.”

Her eyebrows arched. “Shouldn’t have
let
me?”

“Don’t pick at my words, woman. If I’d gone in rehab as soon as . . . Well, once I knew you meant it, you’d have come back, and you’d have stuck by me. I knew it then, I know it now. You’re the kind who sticks.”

She would have. She’d hoped hard that he’d do just that—go into rehab for her sake. For both their sakes. It had been painful, giving up that hope.

They walked on in silence for a bit. They were in a busier, more crowded section now, which Lily preferred. She’d felt exposed out in the boonies.

“He’s really it for you, this Turner dude?” Cody asked abruptly. “No regrets, no doubts?”

Lily had always spoken the truth to Cody. She gave him truth now. “No regrets. No doubts.”

His mouth flattened into a straight line, but only for a moment. Then he slipped back into the cocky grin he wore so well. “Guess you finally found someone who worries your mother even more than I did.”

“I did not get involved with you to annoy my mother.” When they first started dating, he’d thought her real goal was to shock her mother. That had been the topic of their first fight, but it grew into a shared joke eventually. “That was a side benefit.”

He chuckled. “She give you grief over your fiancé?”

“He’s not Chinese,” she said dryly. “What do you think?” In truth, Julia Yu wasn’t prejudiced in the ordinary sense. She had a keen sense of justice, donated to civil rights organizations, and voted a straight Democratic ticket. And saw no contradiction between that and her insistence that her daughters marry good Chinese boys.

They were in A12 now, passing the rear end of a dark blue panel van. A trio of teenage girls chattered their way along the center of the traffic lane, much to the frustration of a white Mustang forced to proceed at a walking pace behind them. And the Buick behind it. And the VW behind the Buick.

Four or five slots ahead was a red pickup; she couldn’t see the tags from this angle. “That your man’s truck?” she asked.

“Think so.”

A flicker of motion in the corner of her eye was all the warning she had. In that split second—before she even knew what she’d seen—she cried out, “Duck!” and stepped to the left, pivoting.

The heavy steel chain whipped through the space where Cody’s head had been. He’d dropped—and was rolling into the legs of the Hispanic tough who’d sent the chain whirling at him.

That one fell. The two behind him didn’t. One had a knife, the other a baseball bat. They charged Cody, who was scuffling with the one he’d knocked down. “Police!” Lily snapped, drawing her gun. “Drop your weapons!”

The
boom
-
crack
of a shotgun answered her—from behind. Glass shattered as Lily dropped to a crouch, looking around frantically.

“You drop yours, bitch!” a male voice called from inside the Buick. No doubt it belonged to whoever was poking the shotgun barrel out the tinted rear window. Lily sighted quickly. She could barely make out a form behind the shotgun.

The girls screamed and scattered—one of them running right between Lily and her shot, dammit. The Mustang, no longer blocked, floored it, and the VW rocked into reverse.

“Drop it!” the one in the car yelled. “You are so dead, bitch, if you don’t put that gun down!”

Lily felt pretty attached to her weapon just then, so she replied by squeezing off a quick shot. It missed, but gave her a second’s cover to turn and—oh, shit.

She’d been about to dive between the van and the Honda on the other side of it, but the space was occupied—by three more gangbangers, advancing on her single file. And grinning. One had a gun—a Glock, maybe. She couldn’t see about the other two.

The black wolf seemed to come from nowhere, moving at top speed. She dropped. He leaped over her, right at the gangbangers. Two shots rang out—one from the shotgun, one from the other side of the van, and she hoped like hell that meant Cody had been able to get his weapon out.

Screaming—from the other side of the van, from behind her. She let the wolf take her back, rising to one knee to sight again on the shadowy form in the Buick. She squeezed the trigger.

Glass shattered. A choked noise, not hearty enough to call a scream. She kept her weapon steady, swinging it slightly to sight on the driver. “Don’t do it. Don’t think you can get away. Open the door and get out real slow.”

“Get him off,” someone was screaming. “Get him off, get him off!” Someone else was cursing and sobbing. And someone was growling, deep in his chest.

No, two someones. One on each side of the van.

“Cody!” she called, not taking her attention off the Buick, where the driver’s door was opening slowly. “You okay?”

“Battered and bloody, but operational. Your boyfriend’s got one of them pinned and I’ve got the others covered. One’s shot, but not bad.”

“On the ground. Now, dammit!” she snarled at the driver—a lanky youth, maybe nineteen, maybe less, with dirty black hair and whites showing all around his pupils. He dropped to the concrete.

“That’s it,” she said, standing slowly. “Arms out. Hold real still now. I’m feeling nervous. You don’t want to get me excited.” She advanced on the car cautiously. The driver had left the door open, and the dome light glowed brightly. The car looked empty. Was the one she’d shot dead, unconscious, or hunkered down and waiting for her to get close?

The driver was holding still like a good boy. She eased close enough to peer in the shattered window.

No, he wasn’t hunkered down waiting. He was either passed out or dead—out of play for now. She took a chance by glancing over her shoulder quickly.

The black wolf was faced off against two gangbangers, snarling. They stood frozen, not even twitching. The third lay on his stomach, unmoving. In the failing light she couldn’t see if he lived, but there was a lot of shiny liquid puddling around him.

A siren sounded suddenly, and fairly close. Wouldn’t be long.

“Cody, can you get your perps to join us out here? And, uh, Jacob—I think that’s you, right? Let your prey up now.”

“All right, you heard her. Move slow and easy. Oh, look, the poor boy peed himself.” Cody had an evil chuckle. “Didn’t like it when the big bad wolf knocked you down, huh? Come on, you, don’t whine. You’re not hurt much. I used my clutch piece, and it’s just a little .22.”

At some point during the fight the switch had flipped from dusk to night, but the parking lot lights glowed brightly. She had no trouble seeing the three gangbangers who emerged from the far side of the van. One was limping—and yes, there was a dark spot on the front of his jeans. One held his arm, where blood was oozing from the biceps. The third looked undamaged.

Lily’s heart was tripping along fast. Later, she knew, she’d get the shakes from unused adrenaline. Later she’d feel something other than relief that the one with the shotgun wasn’t shooting at her or Cody or anyone else. Later she’d feel all sorts of things.

Right now she felt fine. The breeze was stronger now, definitely cool. It felt good. It felt damn good. She was alive and she felt really good about that.

Cody followed his perps with his weapon trained on them. The wolf—a gray and tan beast—brought up the rear. Cody directed his prisoners to lie down next to the driver, a suggestion the wolf reinforced with a growl.

They didn’t argue. Cody spoke to Lily without looking away from the three gangbangers on the pavement. “I thought your boyfriend’s name was Rule.”

“It is.” A pair of headlights raced toward them down the lane, coming much too fast. “That’s not my boyfriend. Neither of them are.”

Cody’s eyes widened. “Neither of . . .”

Lily’s lips twitched as she realized that Cody hadn’t known there were two wolves. “Nope.”

The driver behind those bright headlights braked at last, tires screeching as the Mercedes shuddered to a stop ten feet away. She nodded at the car as the door was flung open. “That is.”

WITHIN
fifteen minutes, an ungodly number of cops had arrived. There were a pair of rent-a-cops from the mall itself—a phrase Rule was careful not to use out loud. Lily took offense, since retired and off-duty police sometimes worked those jobs. Three patrol units and one sheriff’s deputy had responded. The flashing lights from their cars added a rosy glow to the surroundings, a counterpoint to the headlights from the two ambulances. A detective, he’d been told, was on the way, as was the ME.

The man Lily had shot still lived. He was being loaded in the first ambulance now. The one José had jumped did not. José had ripped out his throat.

Rule had heard the basic outline of events when Lily reported crisply to the first officers on scene. He’d watched as she handed over her weapon—which had angered him, but she took it in stride. It was procedure, she’d said, when shots had been fired. Besides, she’d added with a sly grin, she still had her clutch piece. Cody Beck had handed over the weapon he’d fired, too, but he still had his police-issue gun.

Jacob had already Changed back and was being questioned by one of the officers. José was still wolf. He needed more time to rest between Changes.

Rule crouched in front of José now.

The black wolf sat stiffly, not looking directly at his Lu Nuncio. The smell of blood clung to him. José was a strong and skilled fighter with excellent control as well as the three kinds of sense a warrior needs—tactical sense, common sense, and people sense. That’s why Benedict had put him in charge of the bodyguards.

But this was his first human kill.

“You did right,” Rule said, his voice pitched low enough that none of the humans around them would hear. “You assessed the situation and did as you’d been taught. Three attackers, all armed—you had to stop them quickly or risk my
nadia
’s life. Taking out the one with the gun frightened the others into surrendering. Lily trusted you to guard her back. You didn’t fail her.”