a poor use of my time. He doesn’t have anyone other than me who knows shit about tracking down a death magic coven—”
Rule’s eyebrows shot up. “A coven?”
“Not a Wiccan coven. A group of practitioners who used ritual killing to create death magic. Um. The ‘death magic’ part should be news to you, but I guess it isn’t. I should ask what you know from Mika.”
“I know Senator Bixton was killed sometime after 9:30 with a dagger imbued with death magic. His maid believes she admitted Ruben at that time. Ruben says he never left his house. Ah . . . that’s the detail I was considering telling you. Ruben has a witness who can testify to that. Two, actually.”
“What? Why hasn’t he said so? Or has he, and Drummond didn’t tell me?”
“Ruben is holding them in reserve. They’re lupi.”
Her mouth opened. Closed. Then thinned. “I should’ve guessed. He’s been attacked once. When that failed, he should’ve had bodyguards at home as well as at Headquarters. I wasn’t thinking. But why lupi instead of Bureau bodyguards?”
“Budgetary constraints,” Rule said dryly. “Croft had guards at Ruben’s house at first, but he was told by the director to remove them two weeks ago. Given how important our Lady considers Ruben, the clans were willing to share the duty of protecting him and Deborah. Today’s team was Cynyr.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “From Wales. They came all the way from Wales. You couldn’t handle it among the U.S. clans?”
“The Lady named Ruben our ally. Guarding him is an honored duty. No one could be left out without giving offense.”
“So why hasn’t Ruben mentioned his alibi?”
“He doesn’t want to draw attention to his unique relationship with the clans. Had today’s guards been Nokolai or Leidolf, we could say I sent them out of concern for a friend. It’s more difficult to explain why a Welsh clan would send bodyguards to protect a man they’ve never met and shouldn’t even know exists. We can’t explain it, not without speaking of the Lady’s instructions to us. And we do not want to make that public.”
“I suppose not.” Her frown deepened. “Besides, lupi don’t make the best witnesses. No offense, but everyone assumes a lupus will say whatever his Rho wants him to say, so all the prosecution would have to do is establish some reason their Rho might have told them to alibi Ruben. Given that most lupi could be expected to hate Bixton, that shouldn’t be hard.”
“I gather Ruben thought much the same thing. How much danger is he in?” Rule asked quietly.
“The only reason he hasn’t been arrested yet is that Drummond’s annoying, but he’s not an idiot. Hard to believe Ruben could be stupid enough to give his name to the maid, then walk in and kill Bixton.” Her jaw tightened. “She’s behind this. Her first attempt failed, so she’s coming after Ruben a different way. I have to call Cullen. I’ve got questions I need answered.”
“I thought Drummond hadn’t approved that.”
“And I thought you might lean on Cullen for some pro bono work.”
“Actually, I already spoke with him. He’ll be here . . .” The sudden wincing around her eyes, the draining of blood from her face, had him on his feet. “Lily.”
“It’s that damn headache again.”
“That’s twice today,” he said grimly.
“Yeah. This one doesn’t seem to be going away as fast as the other two.” Her voice was thin. She touched the air near the back of her head. “Is this what a migraine feels like? I swear I’m never going to . . .” Her eyes closed.
“That’s it. You’re getting checked out by—” He leaped and caught her as she toppled out of the chair.
He went to the floor with her spread across his lap, his heart pounding in fear. Her eyes were rolled back in her head. Her pulse was rapid when he pressed his fingers to her throat. She was so damn pale. “You’ve got five seconds to wake up, then I call the ambulance. One—”
“Didn’t faint,” she whispered, her eyes still closed.
His own eyes closed briefly in relief. “You gave a damn fine impression of it.”
“I’m okay. Headache’s gone.” He could see the effort it took to force her eyes open. “When the pain shut off, I went dizzy. Now . . . just tired. No ambulance.”
“You’ve got to be checked out.”
“No doctors. They’d look at my arm, figure out something was going on with it. Can’t tell ‘em what, so better not provoke them.”
He wasn’t sure a regular