by Anne Bishop
Something that size with those teeth and claws? He could sniff anything he darn well wanted to sniff!
After talking to Tolya Sanguinati about mobile phones and the terra indigene’s idea of a workday and workweek, she finally headed home to help Barb with whatever furniture and supplies had arrived before they hurried back to the hotel for dinner. If the bed she’d selected arrived, she could move out of the hotel tomorrow.
Barb had a bright smile when Jana walked into the house. The smile quickly faded.
“How was your first day on the job?” Barb asked.
“I didn’t shoot my boss,” Jana growled. “I thought about it, but I didn’t do it.”
Barb nodded. “Virgil can be difficult.” Then she brightened again. “Did you find a horse?”
Jana grinned. “I did.”
“If you’ve got a horse, you can put up with a lot of things.” Barb paused. “Your bed didn’t arrive, but the bookcases did.”
Now Jana laughed. “Well, there are priorities.”
“Let’s skip the sorting and unpacking tonight and go eat dinner. I’m starving, and we’ve both worked hard enough today.”
“You know something, Barb Debany? I like the way you think.”
CHAPTER 17
Thaisday, Messis 16
Virgil shook out his fur before trotting over to the town square to take a sniff around the spring. He hadn’t seen any of the bad dogs for a couple of days, but he’d caught the scent of dogs around some of the inhabited houses where dogs weren’t living with humans. He and Kane had followed some of the scents to a house on the edge of the new town boundaries—a house that had a small swinging door for animals. How foolish was that? If a dog or cat could get through the door, so could a lot of other animals. And they had. The Wolves were too big to squeeze through the door, but one of the Coyotegard easily fit and had ventured far enough into the house to confirm that quite a few animals besides dogs had entered. Besides scat, there were torn bags of dry animal food and spoiling human food that had been in the cupboards, as well as the bones of a couple of partially eaten critters.
Tomorrow Tobias Walker would help the ranch humans select some of the still-tame dogs to go live with them on the ranches. If the dogs couldn’t herd properly, they would be left at the house to guard the human females and bark a warning if strangers—two-legged or four—approached. Tobias Walker had also promised to take some of the cats that had potential to live in the barns and eat the mice.
Not many of the new humans in Bennett wanted pets, despite Barbara Ellen’s renewed efforts to find homes for the dogs and cats and birds.
He would deal with the pets—and her—when he had to. Right now, he had to keep the bad dogs out of his territory.
Virgil lapped some water from the spring, then headed for the livery stable. Deputy Jana’s first job each day was to ride the horse for an hour so that she would learn how to do the mounted deputy tasks. He didn’t understand why she didn’t already know these things, but everyone assured him that having horse and rider get acquainted in the corral was smart.
He listened to the words but also paid attention to the way the humans held their bodies and the way their smell changed while they were explaining, and he was sure they were doing something sneaky. Then again, if riding the horse kept Deputy Jana from yapping at him for the rest of the day, he’d pretend he didn’t know the humans were being sneaky until he figured out why they were being sneaky. And then he would decide who would feel his teeth.
The horse in the corral with Jana caught his scent and charged around the corral with the female wobbling in the saddle and hanging on to whatever she could grab.
That was not the correct way to ride the horse. Even he knew that.
Losing interest in the saddled horse, and wondering about the intelligence of the humans standing around the corral since they couldn’t figure out that this particular horse wasn’t smart enough to tell the difference between predators that would eat it and predators that would not, Virgil continued on to the other corral.
Most of the horses in that corral also started running and fussing, but the horse that was not meat pricked its ears after catching his scent, then walked over to the rails to greet him.
Virgil stood on his hind legs and extended his neck over the top rail. Horse and Wolf sniffed each other, confirming recognition.
Dropping to all four legs, he gave the ground around the corral a thorough sniff, then expanded his search area when he caught a scent. Two of the dogs had come close, but the scent of humans must have scared them off.
Virgil sniffed at a tuft of fur that had a trace of skin and blood.
Or maybe the dogs had run away because the Owlgard had been hunting around the stable and had flown in on those silent wings and used talons to encourage the dogs to leave the horses alone.
He marked a few of the posts as another way to warn off the dogs, then did a quick turn around the town square. One of the two small buses now in operation disgorged workers in front of the hotel so that they could eat some food before starting their work.
Every resident was allowed to have a car, but gasoline was another matter. Eventually the humans would start grumbling about restrictions and rules and all the things they couldn’t do or have, and then flesh would be torn and blood would flow.
He looked forward to that day. Until then, he’d do his job as the dominant enforcer in Bennett.
“Becky!”
Virgil moved toward the sound of Hannah Gott’s voice, then veered when he spotted the skippy girl heading for the spring bubbling into the human-made pool that held some of the water before flowing down a channel that had been made to look like a creek ending at the small pond near the southern end of the square. The skippy girl liked playing in the water, but Hannah Gott didn’t want the girl to be wet during the working time.
Easy enough to distract her. All it usually took was for him or Kane to show up in Wolf form. Then she was more interested in giving them hugs and pats than getting wet or digging in the dirt. Not that he found anything wrong with doing either of those things, but humans had rules about when the skippy girl could play.
Getting between her and the water, Virgil play-growled and licked and nudged her until she gave him a choking hug and followed him back to where Hannah Gott waited with the other adult female in her pack and the male pup.
“I appreciate you being so kind to Becky,” Hannah Gott said when he and the girl reached the sidewalk opposite the square. “Come along now, Becky. It’s time for breakfast.”
“Bye-bye, Virgil,” the skippy girl said, moving the fingers of one hand as Hannah Gott took the other hand and led her away.
As he trotted back to the sheriff’s office to wash up and put on human clothes, Virgil thought it was interesting that the Gott pack had arrived in Bennett a week ago, but only the girl with the skippy brain could tell the difference between him and Kane when they were in Wolf form.
* * *
* * *
Jesse Walker smiled at Lila Gold and Candice Caravelli, who were waiting for her outside Bennett’s general store.
“You’re my helpers today?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Lila said. “Is this like an old-fashioned store?”
Jesse paused to consider the question. “I don’t know. It looks pretty much like mine. More small town than old-fashioned since there are the refrigerated units along one wall, and the store is set up to have a little bit of a lot of things.”
She wondered when someone would ask about the empty lot next to the general store—or suggest clearing out the debris so that people didn’t mistake
the plot of land for a dump. It wasn’t completely empty, and it wasn’t a place to discard anything unwanted since the only human thing left on that land was a rusting woodstove.
No, that plot of land wasn’t empty, and it wasn’t a dump. It was a daily reminder that the original residents of Bennett had ignored—a warning decades old of what can happen if you clash with the terra indigene. Why the people had been smart enough to keep the warning but not smart enough to heed it was a question that would never be answered.
“I believe this store was built when the town was first settled,” Jesse continued.
“Handy for travelers or people working in the buildings around the square,” Candice said, looking around. She stared at the wall behind the cash register. “Why do so many places around here decorate with animal skulls?”
Lila studied the skull. “Are we going to have to hang animal skulls in our apartments in order to fit in? Is that a standard frontier motif?”
Jesse couldn’t tell if Lila was hoping it was or hoping it wasn’t. “My family has lived in Prairie Gold since the town was created, and we’ve never decorated with skulls.”
“Hmm. Maybe a frontier version of a rock garden, but with skulls.”
“We live in apartments,” Candice said.
Wondering if she should warn Tolya that Lila Gold might start a fad for using bleached animal skulls as garden art or let him find out for himself, Jesse handed lists to the two women, then pointed to the heavy cardboard boxes she’d piled in front of the counter. “You have the lists for the Prairie Gold ranch, the dairy farm, and the vegetable farm. Check the expiration dates on everything I’ve listed and take what isn’t going to keep much longer. We’ll use those jars and cans of food first.”
They looked at the shelves in the general store and hesitated.
“You two settled into your own places?” Jesse asked, correctly guessing the reason for the hesitation.
Lila nodded. “First thing Candice and I did after taking two of the one-bedroom apartments was select furniture and household goods. It will take a few days before our stuff is delivered, but once we’re moved in, it sure would be nice to heat up a can of soup at home if we’re working late at the saloon and don’t finish up before the hotel dining room stops serving meals.”
Jesse nodded. Give it a few more days and the hotel wouldn’t be serving free meals to anyone who wasn’t staying at the hotel, so wanting to stock up was sensible. “Take a couple more of those boxes to fill up for yourselves.”
“Thanks, Jesse,” Candice said.
Lila Gold had the same confident bounce as Barb Debany, but Jesse had a feeling that Candice Caravelli had known some dark times and felt other people’s kindness more deeply because of it.
Lila and Candice were already busy filling up boxes when the four Simple Life women who were heading out to the ranches came in to select supplies for each ranch. While there was nothing wrong with any of the women—Jesse admired their courage in taking on a new life in an unfamiliar part of Thaisia—only one of them felt adaptable enough to not only embrace a different life but also be able to live comfortably with men who didn’t share her beliefs and traditions. That was the woman she’d insisted go to the ranch that would be run by Truman Skye. Truman would have enough challenges without being undermined by the person who was supposed to be the cook and housekeeper.
She didn’t get a feeling about whether the other women would succeed or fail, but she was certain she didn’t want them working for Truman.
“We’re trying to find out what companies are still in business and what kinds of foods are available,” she said. “Until we find out, we don’t want to waste what is here. When you get to the ranches, you might find a pantry full of moldy food or a pantry full of canned goods you can use. Because we don’t know, you’re each welcome to fill up four of those cardboard boxes with supplies free of charge. All we ask is that you take only what you will use. Keep in mind that each ranch will have a foreman and six to ten men who will be looking to you to provide their meals. Also, if any of you want to have a dog at the house to keep you company and warn you when something approaches the house, we have plenty of food in bags and cans, and someone will fetch those for you from the feed store.”
Two of the women looked sour, as if they anticipated working hard enough to feed whatever had to be fed and didn’t need something else depending on them. The housekeeper for the Skye Ranch, however, looked happy about the possibility of having a dog or two for company. Jesse would ask Tobias to go with the woman to look at the available dogs.
Once the Simple Life women started making their selections, Jesse stepped away from the counter, intending to fetch a few more boxes from the back room. Instead, she grabbed her suddenly throbbing wrist and turned toward the door as a group of strangers walked in.
There was nothing obvious about the two men, but Jesse felt certain that they were lovers at the very least. That shouldn’t have produced a strong feeling of impending danger. No, what confused her—and scared her—and caused that fierce ache in her wrist, were the four children who were with them, two boys and two girls, all under the age of ten.
One man was slender, had almond-shaped eyes and straight black hair cut very short. The other man was burly and dark-skinned, with curly black hair.
“Can I help you?” Jesse asked.
“Please,” the slender man said with a gentle smile. “The man at the train station said we should come here and talk to Jesse Walker.”
Nicolai had sent them to the store? “I’m Jesse.”
He looked at the wrist she still held. “You are Intuit?”
“Yes.”
The man’s smile warmed with relief, a response typical of someone who was also an Intuit—especially someone who had had reason to keep some things hidden because he’d lived among people who would not have welcomed an Intuit’s abilities. “We arrived on the train and are hoping to become citizens of your fine town.”
Then why didn’t Nicolai direct you to the mayor’s office to talk to Tolya?
She knew why. Nicolai had sent them to her for the same reason someone had relaxed the travel restrictions as soon as those men said they were coming to Bennett. Because of the children. Knowing that her Intuit ability was sensing other people, Nicolai had sent these people to the store so that she could get a feel for who they were before he contacted the terra indigene who would make a decision about whether the men lived or died.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jesse saw the tight-lipped, disapproving stiffness in two of the Simple Life women who stared at the newcomers. She also noticed Lila step up, ready to give a bouncy welcome. The men didn’t bother Jesse, but the children did, especially the girl who had a disturbingly vacant stare.
Before she could frame a question about why two men had four young children, Joshua Painter walked into the store, swung around the men, and focused on the children. His right hand was covered in that leather glove with the Panther claws, and the look in his eyes made Jesse’s skin crawl.
Eyes. Jesse looked at the girl who was Joshua’s main focus, then looked back at him. Gods above and below, they both had green eyes with an outer ring of gray.
Virgil Wolfgard and Tolya Sanguinati walked into the store, forcing the strangers to move forward, caught between them and Joshua.
Virgil sniffed the air and growled, “That little female. She’s . . .” He looked at Tolya, whose lips pulled back, revealing fangs.
The men put their arms around the children, protective. And the children clung to the men, although one of the boys growled at Virgil before turning away and pressing his face against the man who held him.
“We don’t want any trouble,” the burly man said, sounding nervous.
“Then explain why you came here with a Wolf, a Hawk, a Coyote . . . and a sweet blood,” Tolya snarled.
Jesse swayed. The girl wit
h the vacant stare was a cassandra sangue, a blood prophet?
Joshua lowered himself to his heels and balanced on the balls of his feet. He stared at the green-eyed girl, and his face took on an expression that wasn’t as disturbingly blank as the girl’s but was too similar for comfort, as if he had fallen into some kind of trance. “Sees too much, knows too much.”
“She’s mute,” the slender man said, looking at Jesse in a silent appeal for understanding. “We think the cause is emotional trauma.”
“Tell the truth, feel the belt,” Joshua whispered.
Virgil snarled—a sound filled with hate.
“Why did you come to Bennett?” she asked quickly.
“We are a mixed family,” the slender man said. “We had hoped that, in a town where terra indigene and humans lived together, we might be accepted. We hoped our children would find others of their kind to help them, teach them the things that we cannot.”
Jesse focused on the men. They were parents by heart if not by blood, but if the men didn’t give the right answers, they wouldn’t get out of the store alive.
Then a woman hurried into the store wearing a deputy’s star pinned to her shirt. Thank the gods, the human deputy had arrived. Jesse felt fear and hope rise in equal measure along with the certainty that this woman would be the deciding factor in what happened to these men and children. But she could do her part to help. After all, Nicolai had sent them here to talk to her.
“The children?” she asked.
The slender man brushed a hand over the brown feathers that covered the other girl’s head—a head that had been covered with neatly combed and braided brown hair when they’d walked into the store. “Orphans. Abandoned chicks who had been taken from their own kind when they were so young they couldn’t remember who they were or where they came from. How could we walk away when we were needed?”
Jesse gave him a nod of encouragement, then glanced at Virgil and Tolya. Tell them more.
“I am Evan Hua. This is my partner, Kenneth Stone.” He smiled at the feathered girl. “This is Charlee Hawk.”
