Mortal Danger Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lily said.
    “Pert,” her grandmother announced. “Always you are pert.” She cupped Lily’s cheek. The skin on the back of her hand was as fine and soft as tissue laid over the strict architecture of bone and tendon. Her nails were red and beautifully tended. “You are well, child?”
    Lily smiled into that cupped hand. “Aside from the little guy hammering on my skull from the inside, yes.”
    “Then reassure your mother. She worries.”
    Julia Yu was indignant. “You were the one who insisted on coming to see for yourself that she was all right. You wouldn’t take my word for it. Or Susan’s, and she’s a doctor.”
    Madame Yu ignored that, dropping her hand and turning to Rule. “You do not greet me.”
    “I but await my opportunity.” He bent and kissed one whisper-soft cheek.
    Her eyebrows shot up. “You flirt with your lover’s grandmother?”
    “I flirt with you , Madame. It is irresistible.”
    “Good. I like flattery when it is done well. Tell your peculiar friend I wish to see him.”
    “Ah… which peculiar friend would that be?”
    She chuckled. “You have so many, eh? The beautiful one.”
    “She means Cullen,” Lily said dryly.
    Of course she did. Rule eyed the old woman, wondering if he wanted to know why she wished to see Cullen. Probably not, he decided. “I’ll give you his phone number, but he doesn’t always answer it.”
    “I dislike telephones. You tell him come see me when I return.”
    “Return?” Julia Yu frowned. “What are you talking about? You aren’t going anywhere. You don’t like to travel.”
    “Tomorrow I get on an airplane. I fly to China.”
    In the sudden silence, Rule looked at the faces of the three women. Julia Yu was shocked. Madame Yu was obviously enjoying her daughter-in-law’s reaction. And Lily… her distress was plain, at least to him. It showed in her stillness, her lack of expression, the change in her scent.
    He moved closer to her. “This wasn’t a sudden decision,” he told the old woman grimly. “You can’t get a visa for China overnight.”
    “Can I not?” Her expression suggested he’d fallen from grace. She shrugged and spoke to her granddaughter. “For years, I have thought of such a trip. I am many years now in America. There are people and places in China I would see again before I die. Or they do.”
    “You’ve talked about a trip,” Lily said, “but you never made plans. Why now?”
    “I am an old woman. I am reminded of this recently.”
    The unexpected wryness in Grandmother’s voice made Rule think she referred to the battle two weeks ago—one involving a number of armed Azá, himself, Cullen, Lily, a handful of FBI agents, several wolves… and one very large tiger.
    Madame Li Lei Yu hadn’t seemed like an old woman to him at the time.
    Lily had herself back under control. “Li Quin will go with you?”
    “She, too, has people and places to see. My gardens—” She broke off, turning as Rule did toward the east end of the hall.
    Rule knew who was coming by the sound of the footsteps. A moment later the man appeared around the bend in the hall: Abel Karonski, sometime friend, full-time FBI agent, part of a special unit of the Magical Crimes Division. And witch. The satchel he carried wouldn’t hold file folders or a change of clothes.
    But the person with Abel wasn’t his partner, Martin Croft. Instead the agent was accompanied by a long, lanky woman with a butch-crop of silvery blond hair, half a dozen earrings in each ear, a badly fitted gray suit, and deep-set eyes the color of old whiskey.
    Most people wouldn’t notice the eyes. Not at first. All they’d see were the tattoos.
    “Cynna!” Rule exclaimed.
    Her mouth tilted up between the indigo whorls looping from cheeks to chin. “Hey, Rule. Fancy meeting me here, huh?”
    “YOU’VE added a few,” Rule said, pulling out a chair.
    After a brief confusion, Lily, Rule, Karonski, and the unexpected addition to their task force had adjourned to the