Etched in Bone

CHAPTER 11

Watersday, Messis 11

Monty tensed as he listened to Pete’s hearty voice.

“We’re driving up to Ferryman’s Landing to eat at Bursting Burgers. Special treat for the kids. Henry Beargard said there would be no objections to us going up there. Okay if we take Lizzy?”

“It’s fine with me if she wants to go.” It wasn’t lost on him that he wasn’t included in the invitation.

“Better if she comes with us.” A warning, carefully worded.

Monty looked at Kowalski, who was talking on his mobile phone, his face set in hard lines.

“We’ll be back before bedtime,” Pete said.

Translation: whatever trouble was in the Courtyard would be settled by then—one way or another.

Kowalski ended his call at the same time that Monty hung up and Burke approached Monty’s desk.

“Might not be the best night to have dinner in the Courtyard,” Monty said quietly. “Sounds like there’s some trouble.”

Burke smiled. “Should be interesting.”

“‘Interesting’ isn’t the word for it,” Kowalski muttered as he and Monty accepted a ride from the captain.

Burke pulled into the customer parking lot instead of going into the Courtyard and parking in the employee lot. The wooden door between the two lots was usually unlocked while stores were open, allowing the tenants easy access to the Market Square.

Unlocked didn’t mean unguarded, but the door wasn’t usually guarded by a Wolf in human form—and certainly not Simon Wolfgard. But he was the one waiting for them when Burke parked the car.

The three men got out. Burke walked beside him. Kowalski remained a couple of steps behind. Watching their backs or distancing himself because he knew more than he’d said about what was happening here?

“Lieutenant,” Simon said.

Barely a look and nod to Burke before the Wolf focused on him again.

“Is there a problem?” Monty asked, keeping his voice calm with difficulty. Lizzy was with Eve and Pete. Out of the way. Safe. But what about the other children? What about his mother and sister?

Simon stepped up to him and bared his teeth, revealing Wolf-size fangs. “If anyone helps the Sierra feed her pups tonight, those pups will be gone by morning. And ‘anyone’ includes you, Lieutenant. Especially you.”

Stunned, Monty said nothing when Simon walked away. He turned to Kowalski. “What do you know?”

“Nadine showed the terra indigene who work at Meat-n-Greens how to make lasagna. Special dish. Lots of ingredients. Limited quantity. Some of the lasagna was sold at the butcher shop in dishes that held four servings. The rest is being served tonight at Meat-n-Greens. I know that much because Ruthie told me we were splitting a dish with Merri and Michael. The weekly twenty-four-ounce per-person limit on meat purchased in the Courtyard is now in effect, and the meat in each piece of lasagna counted toward that limit.” Kowalski waved a hand toward the door Simon had left open. “This? Something to do with Sierra lying to Boone Hawkgard when she tried to purchase a second dish of lasagna.”

Gods. Well, he could guess why she’d tried to buy more than her share of a limited food. “I’ll talk to her.”

“Maybe you should talk to your mother first,” Burke suggested, tipping his head to indicate the woman standing at the far end of the employee parking lot, watching them. “She was here.” He turned to Kowalski. “And you’re off duty, Officer.”

Kowalski looked at Monty, then at Burke. “You sure, sir?”

“I am sure,” Burke replied.

Kowalski walked up to the light at the corner to cross the street instead of trying to dodge the traffic on Crowfield Avenue.

“Excuse me,” Monty murmured, leaving Burke to join his mother.

Twyla said nothing, just walked around the garages that formed one side of the open area behind some of the stores—and led to the back stairs of the efficiency apartments. She stopped at the foot of the stairs.

“We can go up if you feel the need,” Twyla said.

“But you don’t.” His father had taught him many things, but his mother had taught him the value of courtesy. She’d taught him to respect the feelings of others. And both his parents had taught him to stand up for himself without beating down someone else. Did she sometimes snap at her children when they pushed too hard or annoyed her too much? Sure. Every parent did on occasion. But true anger was rare, even toward Jimmy—and that’s what Monty saw in her now.

“It’s easy to say we’re helping Sierra in order to help the girls,” Twyla said.

“It’s easy because it’s true,” Monty replied quietly.

“Not this time, Crispin. Helping her keep on this way . . . That’s called enabling, isn’t it?”

He almost teased her about reading psychology magazines, but she wasn’t in a mood or a mind for teasing.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Mr. Simon is doing what needs doing—doing what I asked him to do. So I want you to support him.”

Monty let his breath out in a long sigh. “Maybe I shouldn’t have encouraged Sissy to come here with you.”

“What could she have done in Toland alone with two young girls, especially after that storm hit? No, Crispin. You did right by her—and me—when you helped us come to Lakeside. Now give your sister a harder kind of help.”

He kissed his mother’s cheek. “The Denbys have taken Lizzy with them to Ferryman’s Landing. Want to have dinner with me at Meat-n-Greens?”

He wanted to go home and change clothes, but he didn’t want to get waylaid by Sissy—and he sure didn’t want to talk to Jimmy, who was somehow at the heart of this mess.

He got only half of what he wanted, because Sissy was in the Market Square facing off with Simon.

“It’s just a stupid piece of lasagna!” Sissy screamed.

“It’s food,” Simon snapped. “You already took your share. You don’t get more. Not from the Courtyard.”

“But my girls are hungry!”

“Then go to a human store and buy food there!”

“I can’t afford to buy another meal tonight, not with what you pay me!”

“That was uncalled for,” Twyla whispered, shaking her head. “Girl shouldn’t be mouthing off like that when she knows it’s her fault.”

“You don’t like what we pay, then find another job,” Simon snarled, showing fangs.

Monty scanned the crowd gathering around Sissy and Simon. Most of the women who worked in the Courtyard were present, except Katherine Debany and Elizabeth Bennefeld, the massage therapist. Among the terra indigene females were Tess, whose hair was red and coiling, Nyx Sanguinati . . . and Fire, who watched his sister with frightening intensity.

Simon started to walk away, carrying one of the insulated sacks from A Little Bite.

“I hope you choke on that food!” Sissy yelled.

An odd and terrible silence suddenly filled the Market Square.

Simon turned to face her. For just a moment, the Wolf looked frightened, but Monty couldn’t tell if the fear was for himself or Sissy.

“You’re fired,” Simon said. “Find a job among the humans.”

“I second that,” Vlad said, stepping out of the crowd.

“I agree,” Henry rumbled, also stepping forward.

“Yes,” Tess hissed.

Simon walked away. The Others moved aside for him.

Gods, Sissy, Monty thought. Her words were stupid and childish under the best conditions. A human boss would have fired her too. She didn’t realize how lucky she was that Simon didn’t do more than that.

Monty touched his mother’s shoulder. “I’ll take Sissy back to her place. Why don’t you go into Meat-n-Greens? I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

Twyla shook her head. “I’ll go sit in the library for a bit. Need a little time to settle.”

He didn’t want to leave her alone. Seeing Sissy hurting like this was hard on her too. But when he looked past his mother, he saw Elliot Wolfgard, who met his eyes and nodded.

Twyla was part of the Wolfgard pack now. The Wolves would watch over her.

Monty hurried over to where Sierra stood crying, a little girl alone on the playground, unable—or unwilling—to do anything to help herself.

“Come on, Sissy.” Monty put his arm around her shoulders. “I’ll take you home.”

The Sanguinati on duty gave them a curious look but said nothing as Monty led his sister upstairs to her apartment. The girls were home, unsupervised, which produced a flicker of annoyance until he realized the Others wouldn’t see anything odd about leaving young alone in the den when there were adults nearby.

“Mommy?” Carrie said when they walked in.

“Play quietly for a little while,” Monty said, leading Sissy to her bedroom. He closed the door and sat on the bed next to her. Then he grabbed the box of tissues off the nightstand and handed it to her, letting her cry until she was ready to talk to him.

“CJ,” she began, looking at him with eyes that had always melted his heart. “CJ, it was just a stupid dish of lasagna. There was plenty. They were just being mean.”

He shook his head. “One piece per person. That’s not unreasonable.”

“But my girls aren’t going to have anything to eat. I don’t have even a full glass of milk left to split between them.”

“They’ll be hungry,” he said sympathetically. “Tomorrow you can buy more food.” Maybe. He wasn’t sure what would be open on Earthday except for A Little Bite. “I can’t give you any food tonight, Sissy.”

“You could give me the key to your place, and I could slip down and pick up a few things from the fridge and cupboards.” She gave him a wobbly smile. “I wouldn’t take much, CJ. Just enough for the girls.”

“I can’t do that. If I help you, the Others will take the girls.” If he helped her after Simon warned him not to, would the terra indigene even tell him where they relocated the girls? “They aren’t bluffing, Sissy. You act like they are, but they’re not.”

“CJ . . .”

Gods, this was killing him. Would making a sandwich for the girls really be so bad? If he was dealing with other humans, maybe not. But the Others wouldn’t see it that way. “I can’t help you.”

“Won’t help me.” Sissy pulled away from him. “Because I’m not really family.”

Monty stared at her. “What does that mean? Is that more of Jimmy’s crap?”

“It isn’t crap if it’s true.”

“For a smart girl who did so well at school, I swear, Sissy, sometimes you can be stupid.” When he tried to hug her, she sprang up, putting as much distance as she could between them.

Sighing, Monty pushed to his feet. “Look, I still have a one-bedroom apartment near Market Street. That area of the city has had some trouble, but you and the girls could stay there for a few days if you wanted to get away from Jimmy while he’s in Lakeside.” He’d been planning to talk to the landlady about dissolving the lease to free himself of that expense. He didn’t think she’d hold him to it since rents had doubled in the past few weeks with the influx of people looking for jobs in a human-controlled city. But if Sissy wanted to take over the lease, he would talk to the landlady about paying the difference in water usage for three people instead of one.

“I’ll take care of myself and my girls. I don’t need your help.”

The bitterness in her voice stung him. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

She didn’t respond, so he walked out, smiling at Carrie and Bonnie as he left. He stopped at his apartment long enough to change into casual clothes and collect his mail. Returning to the Courtyard to have dinner with his mother, he thought about Sierra—not as a big brother but as a cop. If he’d done that before, would he have spotted the signs of trouble when they were all living in Toland? Well, he’d spotted enough of the signs, but would he have acted on them?

He thought about Sierra as a young woman with her first job, struggling to pay the rent on a tiny box of an apartment but proud to have her own place. Except . . . had she struggled financially because her job didn’t pay quite enough, which is what she’d told him when he’d treat her for lunch, or because Jimmy had been coming around every few weeks and squeezing her for money? And later, when the man who had fathered her children took off for good, had he accepted the excuses for the lost jobs or the final notices on utilities because he truly believed them or because his life with Elayne and raising his own little girl was his own excuse for not asking hard questions?

And now it had come to this: Sissy feeling betrayed, feeling like an outsider, because her family loved her enough not to help her continue on this path.

Meg slipped off her sandals and rubbed one calf with the bottom of her foot to try to relieve the pins-and-needles feeling.

“You’re not eating,” Simon growled, “and you’re itchy.”

She’d eaten just enough not to feel empty, but she wasn’t enjoying the food. “I’m mad at Sierra for spoiling the nice dinner we were going to have, and I feel bad about feeling that way.”

“Why? The whole female pack feels that way.” Simon cocked his head. “Do you want to go bite the Sierra?”

“Yes!”

He narrowed his eyes and leaned back a bit, as if worried that she might bite him, and that made her smile.

“Not for real,” she amended. Then she clenched her hands. For the past couple of weeks, she’d put the silver folding razor in a dresser drawer when she got home. That made it easy to find if she really needed to cut to see a prophecy, but she no longer carried it with her all the time. Right now, sitting here in the summer room with Simon, the razor felt too far away. And yet, she really didn’t want to make a cut. Not for Sierra.

“Vlad is still in the Market Square,” Simon said. “So are Henry and Tess. Do you want them to bring back the box of prophecy cards?”

She thought for a moment, then shook her head.

But what if something bad happened, something her warning would have stopped?

What if the something was actually a good thing?

“I think something is going to happen tonight,” Meg said.

Simon took a bite of his sandwich and studied her as she raised her leg and rubbed the calf, trying to relieve the prickles.

“Blair and I will go back to the Market Square and keep watch,” he finally said. “Nothing bad will happen to the Sierra and her pups.”

The prickles faded. Her words had been vague but, apparently, they had been enough. Or had the prickles faded because Simon promised to keep watch?

What did that mean for herself, for the other blood prophets, if a vague warning sometimes could be enough because someone really listened?

Simon picked up her sandwich and held it in front of her mouth. “If you’re going to bite something, bite this.”

She did. And because her teeth scraped one of his fingers when she bit down, she had to hold her own sandwich for the rest of the meal.

In Wolf form, Simon trotted back to the Market Square. Allison Owlgard, Vlad, Blair, and Elliot were already in position to watch the Sierra’s apartment and the area around the building. If Meg hadn’t been itchy, none of them would have been out there watching a human they didn’t like.

The Wolves had been keenly aware of the odd silence filling the Market Square since the Sierra had challenged him. Did the Elders understand that firing her was a human way of asserting his dominance as the leader of the Courtyard? Maybe he should tell them to make sure they understood this kind of dominance since they might see it in other places where humans lived.

he asked when he joined Blair and Elliot in the shadows of the customer parking lot.

Blair reported.

The Coyote was supposed to be at the Green Complex, asleep in his own den.

A breeze suddenly ruffled his fur. Blair and Elliot looked at him in surprise.

he told Jester.