Eileen Wilks - Ritual Magic

Arjenie nodded. “Okay, that makes sense. Not that I know a lot about Native practices, but that fits what I do know.”

“Sam said we needed Nettie.” Lily sighed. “Maybe she could have dispelled the contagion. Karonski can’t. The coven can’t.”

“What?” Arjenie’s eyes widened. “But—but if the usual cleansing techniques weren’t effective, surely Miriam tried an elemental cleansing. Not everyone can handle those, but she’s extremely competent, and she’s got strong Gifts in her coven to channel each of the elements.”

“She did try. It didn’t work.”

Arjenie’s brow pleated. “I don’t understand. I’ve never heard of an elemental cleansing failing. I don’t understand that at all.”

“Miriam doesn’t, either, and she took that failure personally. But she thinks it has to do with the way spirit and magic are all tangled up in the contagion. Spirit doesn’t follow the rules.”

Arjenie nodded. The worried pleat remained in her forehead.

Lily looked at Rule. “I need to ask you something. I said that Drummond thinks the secondary target was Karonski. That fits what I saw, if we assume I fired the second Crown had his target lined up. But if we scrap that assumption . . . if Crown had turned a bit more, he would have had me and the patrol car behind me in his sights. Maybe he was going to shoot me, but Hardy was in that car. If Crown was after the, uh, the spiritual heavy hitters, then I’m betting on Hardy for his other target. I’ve taken him into protective custody. I’d like to park him at Clanhome.”

Rule’s eyebrows lifted. After a moment he nodded. “If we need a saint and Hardy is one, then the other side would be eager to deprive us of him. You’d like me to speak to Isen about this?”

“If you can’t okay it yourself, then yes.”

“I could admit him to Clanhome, but whether he stayed would be the Rho’s decision. Best to just ask.” And speaking of asking . . . “You’ve been unable to learn anything from the officer himself?”

Lily’s gaze slid away. “Officer Crown hasn’t regained consciousness.”

And that told Rule what he needed to know. Half of it, anyway. Lily had shot a fellow officer of the law who’d turned out to be the victim of evil, not a bad guy himself. She’d done what she had to, but she was twisted up about it. If he pressed on that spot, she’d break down.

Would that be helping or taking over? God knew it would piss her off.

Arjenie asked, “What’s been done for him? If the contagion can’t be cleared . . . did you find a way to block it?”

“Crown is here at the hospital, in quarantine. Unconscious, but stable. Miriam advised them on how to—” Lily stopped, huffed out an impatient breath. “I’m doing this out of order. When you left, Rule, we were trying to find out what would block the contagion so the EMTs could work on the poor guy.”

He remembered that. “Silk didn’t work.”

“Right. Turned out the icky shit crawls all over anything organic. We think that’s what happened to Officer Crown. He’d been left to guard the body and the contagion followed organics in the soil to get to him. Some disagreement on that,” she added. “We agree that it probably traveled through the soil. I think it went to him on purpose. Miriam thinks I’m nuts. Magic isn’t sentient, doesn’t have plans and intention.”

“Well, no,” Arjenie said mildly. “It isn’t and it doesn’t.”

“This stuff is different.” Lily spread her hands. “I don’t know how else to put this, but it feels malignant. Like it wanted to crawl all over me. Miriam thinks I’m projecting. But whether it transferred through some natural process or went to Crown on purpose, it used organics to get to him. That’s what trial and error suggested, and Miriam did some kind of test that confirmed it.”

Arjenie looked unhappy. “That’s a property of spirit. It can adhere to inorganics, but only when the object involved is spiritually significant, like a cross.” Her hand went to the small silver star she wore around her throat. “Or a Wiccan star. So it pretty much confirms that the contagion is some unholy mix of magic and spirit.”

Lily frowned and tapped her fingers on her thigh. “Miriam didn’t tell me that. She’s being prickly. Or maybe it’s me. We’ve worked together fine in the past, but something about this case . . .” She huffed out another breath. “Maybe it’s me. Anyway, the EMTs were able to prep Crown for transport using caution and latex gloves, and they didn’t pick up any trace of the nasty stuff. I confirmed that. The doctor who dug the bullet out after he arrived . . .” She paused. “I haven’t checked him myself. One of Miriam’s people rode in with Crown, and he checked everyone involved, using a spell to detect magic. He’s sure they’re clean, but I wasn’t here to check.”

“Who did the detection spell?” Arjenie asked.

“Jack. Jack Weysmith.”

“Oh, Jack’s very good. He’s Water-Gifted. It’s hard to hide magic from a Water witch.”

“I’d prefer impossible.” Her frown deepened. “Maybe I should check out the ER doctor and nurses, whoever came in contact with Crown. Just to be sure.”

Rule didn’t want her to. He wanted her with him for both his comfort and hers. He rested a hand on her shoulder, prepared to argue—and changed his mind. Her muscles were so tight. “Will you come with me a moment?”

She slanted him a look half-puzzled, half-annoyed. “Why?”

“I would speak with you privately.”

“There’s no such thing as privacy around here. Unless you plan to take over the ladies’ room or something—”

“We won’t go quite that far.” He used the hand on her shoulder to urge her toward the door. She allowed that, annoyance blending into concern.

Their guards were in the hall. He signaled that he wanted privacy. They split up and spread out down the hall in both directions. They couldn’t go far, but they stopped with their backs to Rule and Lily.

Humans were so visual. Lily wouldn’t even think about what the guards smelled. She’d know the guards could hear them, but it probably wouldn’t occur to her that Benedict could, too. He thought that, as long as they weren’t being watched, she’d feel a measure of privacy.

Sure enough, when he gathered her into his arms, she didn’t resist. She circled his waist with her arms and hugged him.

Ah. He understood now. She thought they were out here for his sake. He explained her mistake by using one hand to knead the nape of her neck while he anchored her with his other arm.

Abruptly she leaned back and frowned up at him. “Rule—”

“Shh.” He continued rubbing her neck. So far it wasn’t having much effect.

“I don’t need a damn massage. I need to finish telling you about the case. Both cases.”

“You need to let go of the cop for a few minutes.”

“I don’t. You think you’re helping, but you’re wrong. I thought you needed a minute, but if you’re just going to—”

“Well, that’s the thing. I’ve been trying to understand where your needs end and my need for you to be okay begins. I couldn’t figure it out, so I’m asking you to let me help you. For my sake, Lily. This is what you can do to help me.”

She quivered. “I can’t. I’ll come apart, and I can’t do that right now. Not now. Not here.”

“You won’t. I’ve got you, and I won’t let you come apart. All you have to do is be in your body.” His other hand joined the first one at her shoulders. “You aren’t letting go or letting down your guard. You aren’t letting in all those thoughts you don’t want to think. You’re just going to be in your body for a few minutes, and I’m going to help you do that.” He smiled down at the objections he saw gathering in her eyes. “Sex would be better, but I felt sure you’d consider that inappropriate.”