Lupi 04 - Night Season

health event here.” Lily flashed her FBI ID. “Charge the clothes to the card and hold on to it for me.”
    The clerk yes-ma’am’ed her. Cynna didn’t. Her breath whooshed out. “You are not buying the slacks and sweater.”
    â€œYou’ll pay me back. Keep counting.”
    A small, imperative hand at Cynna’s back kept her moving past aisles of dresses and through the scented air of the cosmetics section, where Lily glared their way past the designated puffer trying to spritz them with cologne. Then they were in the concourse.
    She remembered the place from some news story. There was supposed to be a small node near the fountain. At the Turning it had leaked, just like the rest of them—but this one had leaked a goblin along with the magic overflow. Shoppers had freaked.
    So had the goblin. They were mean as hell in bunches, but didn’t cope well outside the herd.
    The incident didn’t seem to have hurt business much, Cynna noted as they passed the fountain—dry now with an Under Repair sign parked in the middle basin. There were plenty of people out spending money or just hanging. She drew some stares, but she was used to that. Tattoos weren’t uncommon these days, but Cynna’s weren’t the usual flowers or whatever. And there were a lot of them.
    By the time they passed the escalators, Cynna’s hands had almost stopped tingling and her head was back in a normal relationship with her shoulders. Funny, she hadn’t realized panic felt so much like helium. “I’m okay.”
    â€œGood. Keep walking.”
    She didn’t. She stopped and looked at Lily. “I didn’t get you a Christmas present.”
    â€œI noticed that, and it was really tacky of you.”
    â€œOr Rule. I thought about it, but what do you get someone who has ninety times as much money as you do? Are you okay with this?”
    â€œWith Rule having more money than you do?”
    â€œNo, with him spending so much on a gift for me.” Years ago, Cynna had been involved with Rule. That had caused a few problems when she and Lily first met—mostly, Cynna admitted, because she hadn’t wanted to accept that Rule was taken. Who ever heard of a monogamous werewolf, after all? But that’s just what Rule was, because of his mate bond with Lily…something Cynna hadn’t known existed.
    The rest of the world still didn’t. Mate bonds were supersecret. Cynna knew three things about them: the bond wouldn’t let Rule and Lily be too far apart; it gave them a directional bead on each other; and they were rare. Really rare. She wouldn’t know that much if the clan’s priestess hadn’t decided Cynna was her successor. Which was just crazy.
    â€œOf course I’m okay with it. Like I said, he bought…can I say Cullen’s name without you freaking?”
    â€œIt’s not him, it’s…well, he’s involved, or was involved, but he…it isn’t about him.”
    Lily nodded. “Purple, huh?”
    Cynna gulped in a breath, held it, and started walking again without being told. After a moment she said, “They teach you that in cop school? What to do when a witness hyperventilates?”
    â€œNo, my sister used to have panic attacks, and of course she didn’t want our folks to know, so I’d walk with her. Wonder if she still has them.” Lily tilted her head, considering that. “I haven’t walked her through one in years, but maybe her new husband does. It’s not easy being perfect.”
    â€œThat’s your older sister, then. The doctor.”
    â€œUh-huh. Maybe I’ll ask her about her panic attacks next time she calls.”
    â€œThat seems like the kind of question a big sister might resent from a younger one.”
    Lily smiled. “Yeah.”
    â€œYou’re meaner than you look.”
    â€œShe only calls to tell me to ditto whatever my mother’s been saying—now that Mother’s speaking to me again, that is. It usually involves a lot of criticism couched as advice. Why am I not married, what am I doing in D.C. instead of…Hey, the food court’s up ahead. Are you ready to stop for a minute, grab a Coke?”
    That was girl-speak for Are you ready to talk? Cynna walked on in silence for a moment, then stopped and looked right at Lily. “I never boosted panty hose because I didn’t wear them. Copped some lipstick, though.