Free Blood Challenge by Eileen Wilks Page B

Rho”—because he couldn’t mention the mantle—“they’re calmer, more able to control themselves.”
    She looked down at her notebook, but obviously was consulting her thoughts, not the few things she’d written there. When she looked up at him again, her expression was carefully neutral. “You aren’t living at Leidolf Clanhome.”
    “No.” And it gnawed at him. That he was doing the best he could didn’t mean it was enough. A Rho should live among his clan. They needed the sight and smell of him. They didn’t have to like him—which was just as well, because many Leidolf couldn’t stand him. They still needed him.
    “But what you carry doesn’t depend on proximity. The clan still feels it, even when you’re on the other side of the country.”
    “In the most important sense, yes. But I can’t use it directly from a distance, plus there’s a psychological need, especially for those whose control isn’t great. They need to know someone can control them, if necessary.”
    Her eyebrows lifted. “They find that calming?”
    “I understand that you wouldn’t. But yes, they do.”
    Rule and Lily had been flying to North Carolina, where Leidolf Clanhome was located, about once a month. It was all he could do … and it wasn’t enough. “Alex has been keeping an eye on those within Leidolf who have trouble with control. Cobb wasn’t among them. He’s an angry man, but his control has been excellent.”
    “Until now, and according to Alex.”
    “Yes.” And Alex was shaken by what he considered his failure.
    “Will you be able to tell if Cobb was in fury when he attacked? Will you smell it on him the way Benedict smelled it on you?”
    “Not so many hours after the fact, no. But he’ll tell me what happened. If he fell into the fury , he’ll know, and he’ll tell me.”
    Three people dead, ten injured … and it wouldn’t have happened if Cobb’s Rho had known him, understood him, and been watching for the signs of an unstable anger. The clan experienced the mantle whether Rule was among them or not, but some needed that experience reinforced in a way only frequent contact could provide.
    If Raymond Cobb had indeed fallen into the fury, it was as much Rule’s fault as Cobb’s.
    Restlessness poured through him like a tide of ants. His legs twitched with the need to move . But this time he recognized what he was trying to run from.
    You have to turn and face it. You always have to turn and face it, no matter how keen the claws or how bloody the teeth. And sooner works better than later. He spoke very low. “Tell me about them. The victims. The ones he killed and the ones he hurt.”
    “I don’t know much.” Lily studied him. She knew something was moving inside him, even if she couldn’t sense the shape of it. “The Nashville PD is playing coy, not cooperating worth a damn. But the two men killed were both white, one middle-aged, the other a lot younger. The woman—”
    “Woman?” Rule’s head jerked. “He killed a woman?”
    “Four of the victims were female. One was killed outright. The other three were among the injured. I don’t have details on them specifically, but three of the ten people injured are in critical condition.”
    “He attacked three women?” Disbelief sharpened his voice. Carefully he brought it back down. The people around them didn’t need to hear this. “You didn’t tell me that. Alex didn’t, either. He didn’t say there were female victims.” Alex must not know. He wouldn’t have left that out.
    The pleat was back in Lily’s brow. “I know that’s hard for you to accept. Your people are big on not harming women.”
    “It’s deeper than that. Women are to be protected, just like—”
    “If you say ‘children,’ I’ll have to hit you.”
    His grin flickered. “I was going to say, like you automatically protect civilians.”
    “Good save.”
    “It’s not training and custom, Lily. Or not just that. In the fury, we lose track of who’s