by Anne Bishop
Simon stood in front of the Sierra. “Have you made a choice?”
The Sierra wrapped her arms around herself. “I want to keep my girls. And I don’t want to die.” The words were a pleading cry for help.
Wondering if he could mention moving her and her pups to Great Island, Simon glanced at Steve Ferryman and was surprised by the hard, grim look on the man’s face. Clearly, the Sierra wouldn’t be going to Ferryman’s Landing.
“Last chance, Sierra Montgomery,” Simon said. “If you want to keep your pups, you will stay away from that Cyrus.”
Fear. And relief. Someone besides that Cyrus had determined the Sierra’s place within a pack. Right now, she didn’t care that the decision had been made by a Wolf.
The Sierra began to cry. Miss Twyla put her arms around the other female and led her pup out of A Little Bite.
The rest of the humans slunk out of the coffee shop, except Burke and Steve Ferryman. Montgomery would have held his ground, but a look from Burke sent the lieutenant away—proof that Burke was the dominant male of the human pack.
“You wanted me to consider having Sierra Montgomery relocate to Great Island?” Steve asked.
“Yes.”
“Was that your idea?”
Simon shook his head, baffled by the scent of anger surrounding the man. “It was Meg’s.”
“Then we’ll talk to Meg.” Steve headed for the back door, then looked over his shoulder at Burke. “I understand you want to talk before I go?”
“If it’s convenient,” Burke replied, making no move to leave.
Steve looked at Simon. “I’ll meet you at the Liaison’s Office.”
Wondering where Tess and Nadine were, Simon focused on the police captain.
Burke gave him a fierce-friendly smile. “I read an article a few years ago about how hunters in some parts of the world use a tethered goat to bring predators into the open. I’m just wondering what kind of predators you’re looking to snare with bait like Cyrus Montgomery.”
Sometimes Burke was too smart. But drawing out other predators like that Jack Fillmore would be a side benefit. The Elders weren’t watching to see what other kinds of predators were drawn to that Cyrus so much as how the other humans responded to a predator who was also a bottom feeder.
“Having Cyrus here puts a strain on Monty, not to mention the strain on Twyla and Sierra,” Burke continued. “Is there a reason to do that?”
Simon considered what he could—should—say to Captain Douglas Burke, dominant male of the human pack.
“This isn’t my choice.” Before Burke could respond, Simon said, “Did you fix the door on the police station? Replace the glass that had been scored by Namid’s teeth and claws?”
Burke paled. “No. I convinced the station chief that it was a valuable reminder of why the police and local government need to work with the Lakeside Courtyard.”
“The tethered goat? Not my choice.”
“They’re here?” Burke asked.
Simon nodded.
“Does Monty know about your . . . guests?”
“None of the humans know.” Except Meg, but she’d figured it out for herself. “Captain . . . what the Elders learn from observing that Cyrus and the rest of the human pack here will affect the decisions they make about every human in Thaisia.”
“Well,” Burke said eventually. “I’ll do what I can to help Lieutenant Montgomery and his men keep things smooth.” He gestured toward the archway. “Mind if I browse while you have your meeting with Mr. Ferryman?”
“Go ahead. We have some new thrillers by terra indigene authors.” There was also a new book about the Wolf Team, but Simon didn’t think that would interest Burke. Besides, the handful of copies he’d ordered for the store were already bought, and there was a long waiting list for the copy in the Market Square library—and some of the names on the waiting list belonged to humans.
Leaving Burke to deal with Merri Lee, their teakettle-wielding exploding fluffball of an assistant manager, Simon bolted out the back door of A Little Bite and wondered what Steve Ferryman wanted to say to Meg.
• • •
“No,” Steve said.
Frightened by the ferocity in that one word, Meg moved closer to Simon, who bared his teeth and snarled at the Intuit.
“Why?” she asked. “Sierra needs a safe place to live.”
“Not in Ferryman’s Landing. And not on the island. I watched her, Meg. I listened to her. And I had a feeling—a very bad feeling—that she would cause serious trouble for my people if I permitted her to relocate to Great Island.”
She hadn’t been prepared for an argument, hadn’t considered that Steve would put one of his feelings ahead of one of her prophecies, even if her prediction of the future had come from using the prophecy cards.
“She needs a safe place,” Meg insisted.
“Then you and Simon and her cop brother should help her relocate somewhere far away.”
Simon had narrowed his eyes at Steve and growled softly, but he wasn’t adding anything to her argument—which made her wonder if he actually agreed with Steve. Which made her angry.
“Give me one good reason for not allowing Sierra to live on Great Island,” Meg snapped.
“I can give you five,” Steve snapped back. “Six if you count Jean.”
She swayed as if he’d given her a hard slap.
Steve rammed his fingers through his hair. “I’m not saying Sierra would go after the girls and try to do them deliberate harm. I didn’t get that feeling. But everyone who lives in Ferryman’s Landing knows about the girls. Almost every business in the village is involved in building the new campus, and Lois Greene has begun printing a progress report in the Great Island Reporter. That we’re taking care of young blood prophets isn’t a secret—gods, I’m the one who sends out The Blood Prophets Guide e-mails—but there aren’t many people beyond Intuits and terra indigene who know about the girls in our care.” He hesitated, then looked directly at Simon. “Stavros Sanguinati knows. He dropped by to introduce himself, being the new leader in Talulah Falls. He said I could call him if I needed his kind of help.”
Meg looked at Steve, then at Simon. “What kind of help?” She’d met Stavros. He reminded her of Vlad, only more intense.
“Stavros was the Toland Courtyard’s problem solver,” Simon replied, focused on Steve. “He doesn’t offer his kind of help lightly.”
Steve nodded. “That was my impression.”
The skin around Meg’s spine buzzed. The pins-and-needles feeling prickled the skin above her collarbone. She wanted to cut, wanted to feel the relief and release. Wanted the euphoria that came from speaking prophecy. She’d been good for weeks and weeks, using the cards instead of the razor. Cards that might provide answers but not the pleasure.
“Meg?”
Simon’s hand, warm on the back of her neck.
“Sierra and Cyrus,” she said softly. “It’s like me and the razor, isn’t it?”
She didn’t hear the snarl; she felt the rumble of it through his hand.
“There’s no need for that,” Steve said, sounding upset.
No need except wanting something that harmed her and would eventually kill her.
She took the wooden box out of the drawer and spread the prophecy cards over the sorting room table. “Ask the question.”
Steve looked confused—or perhaps just unwilling.
“What would happen if the Sierra moved to Great Island?” Simon said. “Speak, prophet, and we will listen.”
Meg closed her eyes and let her fingers brush over the cards until she found the one that made her fingers burn, made her spine buzz and the skin around her collarbone prickle. She turned the card over before opening her eyes.
Hooded figure holding a scythe.
“Death,” Simon said grimly.
/> “We don’t know who will die,” Meg said.
“It doesn’t matter,” Steve replied. “It might be Sierra or one of the young blood prophets. It might be an Intuit or one of the terra indigene. If she lives among us, she’ll bring death.”
“Because she won’t be able to resist her own kind of razor,” Meg said. Hadn’t she been receiving that message in one form or another from Ruth and Merri Lee and Theral? “Sooner or later, Sierra would call Cyrus or leave some kind of clue of where to find her.”
“I’m no counselor, but that sounds about right,” Steve said. “Until she chooses not to make that call, there is no safe place for her to live, and I can’t agree to something that will put our most vulnerable citizens at risk.”
Meg nodded. You couldn’t help someone who didn’t want help. That was a hard, and bitter, life lesson.
“Well,” Steve said after an awkward silence. “I’d better go hear what Captain Burke has in mind.” He reached across the table and touched Meg’s hand. “Sorry I couldn’t help.” Giving Simon a nod, he left the Liaison’s Office.
Meg gathered up the cards and returned them to the box. “Whatever the Elders expect to learn from all this, I hope it’s worth it.”
A moment’s hesitation. Then she felt the heat from Simon’s body as he moved close to her, felt his lips press lightly against her temple, giving her the oddest sensation of pleasure.
“I hope so too,” he said.
• • •
Simon found Lieutenant Montgomery in Meat-n-Greens, drinking ice water and pretending to eat a small bowl of cottage cheese.
“Why?” Taking a seat opposite Montgomery, Simon pointed at the bowl. “Do you like that cheese?”
Montgomery gave him a weary smile. “Not really, but I felt like I should purchase something if I was going to sit here, and the cottage cheese is something cold to eat on a hot day.” He fiddled with the spoon. “I brought this trouble to your door. I’m sorry.”
“You wanted to protect your mother and sister, get them to a safer place,” Simon countered. “I encouraged you.”
“I didn’t expect Jimmy. His being here changes things.”
Simon waited. He couldn’t force that Cyrus away from the Courtyard, but the Elders hadn’t said anything about Montgomery sending the other human away.
“Eve Denby called me from Lakeside Hospital. Seems Jimmy had some sort of attack—shortness of breath, heart feeling wonky.” Monty stared at the bowl of cottage cheese. “Someone here expressing . . . displeasure?”
“Yes.” No point denying it, even if he wouldn’t confirm it was Tess the Harvester, the Plague Rider, who had taken some of that Cyrus’s life energy.
“Anyone else hurt?” Monty asked.
“No.” He knew what he would want as a Wolf, but he wasn’t sure what a human would want. “We could move the Sierra and her pups to the other apartment building. I won’t move that Cyrus over there, not with three females living there alone.” All right, Officer Debany was almost living with Merri Lee in her den, but he wasn’t there all the time to discourage anything that Cyrus might decide to do.
“I’d prefer having my sister in the same building as me,” Monty said. He pushed the bowl of cottage cheese to one side, then drank some water. “Why did you put Jimmy and his family on the second floor?”
“He can’t fly. We didn’t think he would be inclined to use the porch to sneak out or in if he had to climb to the second floor. And even if he tried, we would see him before he reached the ground.”
Monty’s smile was fleeting but genuine. “You got that right. But he would have even less contact with Sissy—with Sierra—if he had no reason to be on the second floor.”
As Simon considered that, he pulled the bowl of cottage cheese to his side of the table and ate a spoonful. He liked cheese and happily purchased his share when a delivery came from an earth native dairy farm. But no matter what they called it, this just wasn’t his idea of cheese. He’d thought he didn’t like it because he was a Wolf. Maybe it was because he was male, since Meg and the female pack chose to eat it.
“That Cyrus and his mate are still at the hospital, and his pups are in the schoolroom with Ruthie,” Simon said. “We could move all of their possessions to the other downstairs apartment in your building and have Chris Fallacaro swap the locks so the key we gave that Cyrus would work on the other apartment.” When Montgomery hesitated, he added, “If you don’t want to look at their things, I could ask Jenni and Starr to pack up their belongings.”
“No offense to the Crowgard, but I think it would be better if I did the packing,” Monty said.
“Well, you’re not likely to lose any shinies while taking the belongings down the stairs.” Simon smiled. “I’ll help you.” The Wolves had looked in the suitcases when that Cyrus arrived, but it wouldn’t hurt to see if the human had brought in anything that wasn’t allowed.
“Thank you. I’ll check with Captain Burke about taking some personal time for this.”
Steve Ferryman and Roger Czerneda had left the Courtyard, but Burke was still in Howling Good Reads. He looked amused as he held up the two books he’d selected—a thriller by Alan Wolfgard and a book Merri Lee referred to as a Crowgard cozy, with an amateur sleuth who had a habit of picking up more than clues while investigating a murder.
“This is the other one,” Merri Lee said as she returned to the front of the bookstore. She handed Burke a book that, from the look of it, had been read a few times already. “Jesse Walker from Prairie Gold sent it to us. You can take it as a loaner. It’s a mystery-thriller series with a human investigator who receives assistance from a couple of terra indigene acquaintances. I gather the author is pretty popular among the Intuit communities but is unknown anywhere else.”
“Was that in the box of books Jesse Walker sent to HGR?” Simon’s chest and shoulders furred a little in annoyance. Until he and Vlad decided whether to order copies for the store, those books were supposed to be a distraction for Meg, not be handed out to other humans.
“Jesse sent two copies of that one,” Merri Lee replied, showing her teeth.
Simon pretended the teeth were displayed in a smile. The female pack was upset because of the Sierra, and he really didn’t want to tangle with any of them. At least, not over a book.
“I have all the information you or Vlad would need to order new copies of the series,” Merri Lee said.
“Good. Fine. Lieutenant Montgomery and I will be across the street. Vlad should be around if you need help with anything.”
“Problem across the street?” Burke asked.
Simon went over to the display table to give Montgomery the illusion of privacy while talking with the captain, and to give himself a moment to digest the changes that had occurred since the Elementals and Elders had retaliated against the Humans First and Last movement, altering so many things in Thaisia—not to mention the savage destruction of so much of the Cel-Romano Alliance of Nations on the other side of the Atlantik.
On the one paw, he felt relieved that the Courtyard wasn’t faltering while his attention was pulled in so many directions. On the other paw, it felt weird not to know what was going on in his own store. Were the rest of the Business Association members feeling the same way? Maybe not Henry, who spent his time in human form carving totems and sculptures from wood. But Tess was more volatile lately.
He looked at the books on the display table. He wanted to arrange a few things as a substitute for lifting a leg and marking territory. He and Vlad had made Merri Lee their assistant manager in order to free up their time to deal with larger concerns and to take over John Wolfgard’s duties now that John had left to run the bookstore in Bennett, but he hadn’t expected her to mark the store as her territory so quickly.
We’re sharing, he reminded himself as he went upstairs to fetch the spare key to that Cyrus’s apartment and call Chr
is Fallacaro to meet them at the apartment and swap the locks.
Montgomery waited for him at the bottom of the stairs. “We should get this done. Eve Denby called me again. She’s at the Bird Park Plaza right now, doing a bit of scouting for Meg, but she’ll be back at the hospital in an hour to pick up Jimmy and Sandee since the doctors wanted to keep an eye on him a bit longer. They’ve decided this is a variation of that mysterious malady that has cropped up a few times in recent months. That being the case, once he’s released, the only cure is rest.”
They went into the apartment that Cyrus and his family were using and found the suitcases.
Simon looked around the adults’ bedroom and covered his nose with his hand. What had that Sandee rolled in to smell this stinky?
“Gods above and below,” Montgomery muttered. “Jimmy was raised better than this.”
“You smell it too?”
“Yes, I smell it. I’m surprised the station hasn’t received complaints from nearby houses about a bad odor.” Montgomery looked at Simon. “This must be a lot worse for you.”
“We roll on dead fish.” Simon lowered his hand and took a quick sniff. “This is a lot more pungent. More like skunk spray.”
Montgomery laughed, a quick sound muzzled to a chuckle. “Let’s toss it all in the suitcases and leave the suitcases on the porch. I’ll talk to Eve and my mother about how to fumigate this apartment.”
“I’ll pack up the puppies’ things,” Simon said, heading for the other bedroom. The pups’ clothes didn’t smell as bad, but they didn’t smell clean either.
Why would parents turn their offspring into scent markers for predators? Or was being stinky off-putting enough to discourage the human kind of predator?
He didn’t want Montgomery to think he was suggesting the man stink up Lizzy, so he would ask Kowalski or Debany. It seemed a silly way to protect the young, which was exactly why humans might do it.
The locks were swapped, the suitcases were packed and on the porch of the downstairs apartment across from Montgomery’s, and the Sanguinati who was keeping watch had been told who could, and couldn’t, go upstairs to the Sierra’s den.
