She raised her eyebrows. "Are you saying I looked haggard?" She propped her free ppeents, watchand on her hip and waited to see how he'd get out of this one.
"Not at all. You're always gorgeous. You're just even more gorgeous today."
She grinned.
"Those for me?" He glanced down at the flowers. "You shouldn't have. Really," he said, humor dancing in his eyes.
"They're for your sister." Her smile widened at the relief that spread across his face.
"Oh. Good." Dante looked over at the horses that were neighing low in their throats and stomping their hooves restlessly. The burro still had his eye on Tori. "What's up with them, I wonder? They're acting like there's a cougar about ready to pounce."
"I'm sure it's me." Tori lifted her face and took a couple of sniffs. "I don't smell a cougar or even a coyote. Of course, if I'm upwind of something I wouldn't be able to pick up the scent." She watched the horses for a few seconds. "I've been around horses before, and after a few minutes, when they see I'm not getting any closer to them, they usually calm down, but these guys … they're still scared. They're acting almost as if they're surrounded by predators." She glanced around the area but didn't see anything lurking behind the scrub brush and cacti.
"I'd hoped we could take a short ride after dinner," Dante said. "But I can see that's not gonna happen. I guess they need to get used to you first."
"Sorry," Tori said. He shot a look at her and she shrugged. "I'm a predator, and they sense it." She couldn't mask her disappointment. She had looked forward to going for a ride. She shot a sidelong glance at him. Maybe she could just save the horses and ride a cowboy instead. She'd have to see how the evening went.
"Come on in," he said, cupping her elbow. "Meet my sister."
Tori let Dante guide her into the house. As soon as she walked in she smelled grilled meat, onions, and the fresh scent of rosemary mixed with an orange and vanilla fragrance from a lit candle in the foyer.
The dining room table was set with midnight-blue-colored plates trimmed in brown, glasses-both wine and water-and silverware.
A dark-haired woman by the stove wiped her hands on a dishtowel and came forward with hands outstretched. "Tori! How nice it is to meet you."
Tori shook her hand as Dante said, "This is my sister, Liliana."
"Please, call me Lily. Everyone does." Lily released Tori's hand.
"Lily." Tori held out the flowers. "Thanks for having me in your home."
Lily smiled and took the bouquet. "Thank you, they're beautiful." She pulled a vase from the cabinet beneath the sink. After filling it partway with water, she put the flowers in it, arranging them until she had it just so, and carried them to the dining room. She placed them in the center of the table and then went back to the stove. "I should be thanking you, anyway. With you coming over, Dante finally got all his computer crap off the dining room table."
Tori grinned at Dante's abashed look. "What can I help you with?" she asked and walked farther into the kitchen. Looking at the other woman, she could understand why Dante was still so concerned about her. She was too slender, probably at least twenty pounds underweight, and the paleness of her skin bore mute testament to the stress she'd been under. Despite her appearance, she seemed happy, and Dante said the cancer was completely gone, so that was most important. The rest of it, well, Lily just needed time. And if the cancer was gone, she had it.
"No, you're our guest. You're not going to help prepare the meal." She looked at Dante. "Didn't you say the two of you had some work to do? Why don't you get busy on that? I'll tht glet you know when dinner's ready."
"You're sure?" Dante walked over to his sister and peered into the pan on the stove. "I'm sure we can-"
"You'll make more of a mess, is what you'll do." She grinned and made a shooing motion with her hands. "Go on, get. I'll call you when it's time to eat."
"All right." He glanced at Tori. "Come on, then. We've been given our marching orders."
Tori hesitated. It seemed rude to go off and leave all the work for Lily to do. "You're sure?"
Lily's laugh was as cheery as wind chimes. "I'm sure. Go."
"Come on," Dante said again.
Tori went with him down the hallway and into a home office. More distressed pine in this room in the shape of a complete wall of bookcases crammed full of books of all sizes, and a large desk in one corner. Various pieces and parts of computers lined another wall. She pointed to them and asked, "This is what you had on the dining room table?"
"Yeah, well, I haven't had a lot of time lately to work on it. I'm buildin' my own computer," he added.
"Wow." She'd known he was a gadget guy, and he'd seemed to know his way around the device the last time they'd looked at it, but she'd had no idea he was such a … "You're just a geek underneath all that manliness, aren't you?"
He grinned and tipped an imaginary hat. "Yes, ma'am, I am." He moved papers and files off his desk and pulled over another chair. "Before we get to work on the rift device, let's talk shop." He looked at her, his expression serious. "Did Ash call you about the attack this morning?"
She frowned. "No, what attack?"
"This one happened by the horse fountain at Fifth and Marshall."
"Are you sure?"
He nodded. "Left a row of six dead leaves by one of the planters. It was his second attack last night." He paused, his face grim. "He ate part of the guy, Tori. All of his internal organs were gone. Ripped out."
"Oh, God." This wasn't good. Crap like that would only enflame an already tense situation with humans. It would make them even more afraid of preternaturals and much more willing to do reckless and desperate things to protect themselves.
"There was another killing, prior to ours, that happened earlier up north. I'm sure Ash will be in touch to fill you in," Dante added. "Or you can go ahead and call him."
"That's okay. He'll call me when he has more info." God, she prayed the rogue wasn't her brother. If it was, and she'd stayed silent … she'd have two people's deaths on her hands. "Let's take another look at the rift device, shall we?"
"Sure thing." He left the room and returned in a couple of minutes with the device and schematics in hand. "I had them locked in my gun safe," he said. "I would've given 'em to you last night, but I didn't want to wake you. Not that your brother would've let me," he added dryly. He handed her the device. "Here. Hold this a sec."
She noticed the difference in the size and shape of their hands-hers slim and dainty, his wide and large.
She watched those hands as he pulled a small screwdriver from one of the side drawers of his desk. When he held out his hand, she put the device in it and watched as he took the casing off. She tried to focus on anything other than his long, strong fingers. But all she wanted was the feel of those hands all over her body.
Tori forced her attention onto the rift device. As before, she stared down at a small motherboard with a mini-processor and USB port.
He traced some fine wires with his finger and pointed to the USBtedp port. "This gets hooked up to a … " He spread out the schematics and bent closer to the rendering. "I'll be damned."
"What?" Tori bent over and looked, too, but nothing made much sense to her.
"They've constructed a Wien bridge oscillator." He glanced at her, his face only a few inches away. "It's a type of electronic oscillator-an instrument for producing a voltage of a required frequency-that generates a very low distortion sine wave. This oscillator is built around four resistors and two capacitors and can generate a large range of frequencies." His gaze dropped to her mouth. His eyes darkened and his lips parted, but then he seemed to collect himself and he shook his head. He looked back down at the schematics. "With something like this they could dial up whatever frequency they wanted and amplify it."
"So they make the output of this"-she pointed to the device-"stronger?"
"That's my educated guess, yes." Dante straightened. "But how does that tie into the rift?" He blew out a breath and tucked his fingers into the back pocket of his jeans. "Okay, so walk me through how the rift works. The comet goes by and temporarily opens a rift, a hole, between the two dimensions."
"Picture it like sliding down a zipper," Tori explained. "The opening at the top gets wider the farther down you unzip. Entities spill into this dimension all along the opening, more of them toward the top and middle as it widens." Using her forefinger and middle finger in the shape of a V, she drew double lines across the desk, bringing her fingers together to complete the shape. "Then as the comet gets farther away from Earth, it … it's like the release of the effects of gravity snaps the zipper tab back the other way, closing it."
Dante gave a low whistle. "Man, can you imagine what it'd be like if the rift wasn't temporary? Or if it at least stayed open longer?"
They looked at each other, a look of horror on both of their faces. He must have been thinking the same thing.
"And this Wien bridge thing … could it have that effect?" she asked.