Read Online Mind Magic by Eileen Wilks - Free Book Online

departure of anger, but it was too complex to hang a tag on. Silently she held out his phone. When he took it, she turned and started for the house.
    This time he followed her. Neither of them spoke until they reached the rear deck, when Rule broke the silence. “You’re going.”
    “Yes. If I can,” she added. “There’s no telling how the mate bond will react.” The mate bond was essentially physical. It was also capricious. Sometimes it allowed them to be miles and miles apart. Sometimes it didn’t, and it let them know that by making them pass out when they crossed some invisible line. “Where is Whistle, anyway?”
    “The southwest corner of the state, about four hundred miles from here.”
    “Then there’s a good chance you won’t have to worry about Sam’s dictum that you stay here.”
    “Since I’ll be with you, the issue won’t arise.”
    She stopped, turned, and frowned at him. “What’s going on? Is it you or your wolf that’s being so pigheaded?”
    “I am my wolf,” he said, and then, “I don’t know.”
    She huffed out a breath. “We need to talk about this. About . . .” She waved a hand vaguely. Rule was protective, no doubt about that. But his reaction today was over the top. Out of balance. As protective as he could be, he was also driven by duty. “Whatever it is that’s making you act so weird. But I don’t have much time. If I’m going to be there by six—”
    “We can talk about it on the way there.”
    Lily stared at him, frustrated. She could point out that if he went with her, the deal with Nokolai would be invalidated and the clan would get nothing. She could repeat that it would be stupid to ignore the advice of the black dragon, who wanted Rule in D.C. But he knew those things, so why bother?
    Stone would be more yielding. Shit, his brother Benedict would be more yielding, and Benedict made granite look like a pushover. She shook her head and went into the house.
    Ruben was in the kitchen, sitting at the table in the breakfast nook. Lily had vivid memories of that nook—of the whole kitchen, really. Some of them were not such great memories, but one of them . . . here, she’d passed the Wythe mantle to Ruben. Here, she’d heard the Lady’s voice.
    Today Ruben was reading the morning paper. He put it down when they came in. “Deborah said you were discussing clan business. Your faces suggest it’s not good news.”
    She glanced at Rule. He didn’t offer to explain, but he didn’t signal any objections to her doing that, so Lily told him about Sam’s proposed deal. “. . . so I need to leave, and pretty quickly, too.”
    “ We have to leave,” Rule corrected her.
    “You’re going with her?” Ruben asked sharply.
    “Of course. Sam’s stipulation about my remaining here is unacceptable. Isen will have to renegotiate.”
    Ruben’s eyes went unfocused for a moment. “That would be . . . unfortunate.”
    “You’ve got a hunch,” Lily said.
    “Yes. It’s difficult to read because it involves my own future as well as larger events, but I believe the Shadow Unit will experience a crisis soon. Given our communication problem, I will need Rule here.”
    For a long moment Rule neither moved nor spoke, looking like a storm cloud just before it cuts loose and hurls down floods and lightning. Then: “I’m going for a run.” He shot Lily a hard look. “A quick run. You’ll still be here when I return.” And he took off.
    Ruben frowned at Lily. “What was that about?”
    “I just won the argument,” Lily said. Pity that made her feel like shit.

SIX

    JOSÉ needed more time than Rule to complete the Change back to two legs, so Rule made a couple phone calls while he waited.
    The run hadn’t helped as much as he’d hoped. Anger still churned inside him, a dark and roiling mass without a target—or with too many targets. He didn’t want to poke at it. He didn’t want to examine whatever slurry of need and fear fed the compact storm inside