Blood Magic by Eileen Wilks Read Free Book Online Page A

There was a pattern to it, but they moved too fast for her to pick it out. Faster than human, certainly, but also faster than she’d seen them dance before.
    In a heartbeat they clicked into a new pattern—not bouncing as they landed, but catching one another to build two pyramids of five lupi each, three on the ground, two on their shoulders. The pyramids kept one man aloft like a living projectile, tossing him between them. Cullen.
    He’d land on one set of shoulders, crouch, and be hurled to the other side, his body tucked up like a ball, righting himself at the last second to land on the opposite pyramid, still crouched—and be flung back.
    Two times. Three. Four—and then both pyramids dissolved while he was in the air, those who’d formed them melting away into the crowd.
    One man stood where five had been. Benedict. He watched, unmoving, as Cullen shot at him like a cannonball. Benedict dipped his knees slightly as he stretched up one hand.
    It couldn’t have happened the way it looked. Because it looked like he dribbled Cullen—as if the curled-up ball of the man smacked into Benedict’s hand and bounced to the ground, then up into the air again, unfurling into a man only then to land lightly beside Benedict—sweaty, panting, grinning like a madman.
    “And that, younglings,” Benedict said lazily, “is how the dance is supposed to be done.”
    The crowd exploded—applauding, yelling. Lily heard someone call out, “Piers—for Lady’s sake!” and someone behind her was saying over and over, “Get back, get back. Give him some space.”
    It was the name—Piers—that got her attention. Wasn’t that the young lupus Rule had mentioned who’d just been allowed to leave terra tradis , where young lupi were sequestered? If so, he was only eighteen, not an official adult yet. She turned, trying to see over or through people.
    What she saw was Rule slipping through the crowd. She followed. He stopped and held out his arm. She stepped into that welcoming circle. He was warm and sweaty from the dance.
    Another circle had formed, she realized—a circle of men around a panting, excited wolf with a brindle coat. One man was laughing. Another grinned and shook his head. Another sighed.
    Lily was the only female in the circle. The only human. There were no children nearby, either. The wolf was surrounded only by other lupi . . . and her.
    Piers must have gotten so excited that he lost control and Changed. For an adolescent, that was a huge no-no—because he might lose control in other ways, too. Lily was contemplating the wisdom of stepping back when Isen strode up to the wolf. He stopped, hands on hips, and shook his head. “Piers,” he said. Just that, but with such disappointment.
    The wolf’s ears went flat. His tail drooped. His head sagged in sudden dejection.
    “You know what you must do now.”
    The wolf cocked his head, gave a hopeful wag of his tail.
    Isen said nothing.
    The wolf sighed and nodded.
    “Straight back,” Isen said. “No interesting detours. You’ll Change as soon as you’re able and explain to Mason what happened.”
    Mason was the lupus in charge of the terra tradis . Lily hadn’t met him, but she’d heard stories. He sounded like a combination drill instructor and headmaster with a sprinkling of priest.
    “Isen?” one of the older men said. “Do you want me to . . . ?” He made a little circular gesture.
    “Thank you for the offer. However . . .” Isen gave the abject wolf another look. “I trust Piers to take himself back.”
    That perked the wolf up. He gave another, firmer nod.
    “What just happened?” someone behind Lily asked.
    She turned to see Susan’s husband frowning at the wolf trotting out of the circle. Paul was a tall, gangly man with rimless glasses and shiny black hair that he had cut every week so there was no chance of a single hair falling out of place. He was as serious as a rain cloud and rather shy.
    “Hi, Paul. Uh—Piers was sent back to the