Marked In Flesh

CHAPTER 13

Watersday, Juin 9

“We don’t usually come up to Bennett more than once a week to pick up supplies,” Tobias Walker said as he pulled into a parking space at the train station.

Joe Wolfgard tried to identify the tone in the man’s voice. “Are you complaining about this second trip because Bennett is a long way from Prairie Gold?”

“Nope. Just providing information that you might find useful.” Tobias crossed his wrists over the top of the steering wheel. “We try to conserve fuel in the general way of things. It’s especially important right now because the fuel truck that fills up the underground tanks at the gas station didn’t show up yesterday when it was supposed to. We’ve got one emergency vehicle that’s equipped to bring someone here to Bennett if the person is too sick or injured for the doctor to handle at our little clinic. That vehicle gets its tank filled before any others. The dairy farm’s refrigerated truck also gets priority. Folks tend to fill up near the time when the next delivery is due so that we receive our full allotment of gasoline.”

“Can we buy fuel for the pickup truck here?” Joe asked. Was finding out what happened to a fuel truck part of his responsibility now, or was it considered a problem between humans? Simon might know, although Blair might be the one he should ask because the Lakeside Courtyard’s dominant enforcer spent more time driving vehicles and probably had more experience buying gasoline.

“We can—providing the gas station here received its scheduled supply of gasoline.” Tobias hesitated. “The guests you’re expecting. Do they know all we’ve got to offer is simple rooms at a motel?”

“Jesse Walker told Vlad what was available, so he knows.”

“Is there a reason your guests don’t want to stay at your settlement? Just asking.”

“Vlad was specific about the living arrangements.” But not specific about who was arriving with the books. That made him uneasy, but there was no point howling about it until there was a reason to howl.

They reached the platform just as the train pulled in. Half the station was a waiting area for humans. The other half was an area for merchandise and packages that came in by train. It made Joe think of Meg Corbyn’s office with a person at the counter and a separate room to hold packages until someone came to collect them.

Humans hurried down the steps of the two passenger cars. Some looked pale, smelled weak. If he were hunting with a pack of Wolves, he would focus on the weak-smelling prey as the easiest to bring down.

“Must have some la-di-da folks on the train this time,” Tobias said.

“La-di-da?” Joe had never heard of such a human.

Tobias lifted his chin to indicate the third passenger car. “Rich. Important. Don’t always see a private car.”

Rich. Important. Or lethal, Joe thought as he watched a male with a carryall descend, then turn and offer a hand to the female. The male was dressed in a black suit with a pale gray shirt. The female wore a long, old-fashioned black velvet gown with draping sleeves. They both had olive skin, black hair, and dark eyes. The male, by himself, could have passed for human and blended into a crowd—at least for a little while. The female made no effort to hide what she was.

“Gods above and below,” Tobias breathed. “Are they . . . ?”

“Sanguinati,” Joe finished. “Come on.” He moved quickly, more to keep the humans from panicking if they realized who was now among them than because he was in a hurry to meet his guests.

The male saw them and smiled, while the female glided down the platform to watch the men who were unloading the baggage cars.

Joe smelled fear in Tobias’s sweat. Not a good way to begin with predators like the Sanguinati.

“Joe Wolfgard?” the male said. “I am Tolya Sanguinati. We met a few months ago in Lakeside.” He moved his hand in a slight gesture that indicated the other Sanguinati. “Vlad told you to expect us?”

“He did.” Joe glanced toward the men who were carefully unloading boxes near the female, stacking them as if to build a wall between the humans and her.

The Sanguinati had been among the terra indigene who had destroyed the Controller and the compound where he had kept cassandra sangue like Meg Corbyn. Joe could appreciate them as predators, but he wasn’t sure he could be friends with one the way Simon was friends with Vlad.

Now I know why Vlad wanted them staying near humans, although, when they’re smoke, they could hunt anything at night.

“This is Tobias Walker, the foreman of Prairie Gold’s ranch,” Joe said.

“We brought many books for Jesse Walker and Shelley Bookman,” Tolya said as the female joined them. “This is Nyx.”

“Ma’am.” Tobias brushed the brim of his hat with a finger before turning to Joe. “Mr. Wolfgard, we should get the boxes loaded and be on our way.”

Hearing wariness, Joe looked around. There were too many humans paying attention to them. “Yes, we should.”

Tobias wrangled a cart from the baggage handlers. Joe helped him stack the boxes on the cart and roll it out to the parking area while Tolya and Nyx trailed after them.

After they loaded the boxes into the pickup’s bed, Joe remembered Tobias’s comment about making trips up to Bennett. “Do we need to buy anything while we’re in town?”

“Just gas for the truck.” Tobias shifted his eyes in Nyx’s direction but didn’t look at her. He simply opened the passenger door. “Ma’am.”

She shifted to smoke from the waist down and flowed into the pickup.

“There’s room on the seat for you, too, Tolya,” Joe said. “I can ride in the back.”

Tobias shot him a panicked look before lowering his head enough for his hat to hide his face.

“I can ride in the back with you,” Tolya said.

Joe shook his head and patted a hand against his leg. “This clothing fits in with riding in the back of a pickup. Your clothing does not—at least while we’re in the human town.” Once they left Bennett, it wouldn’t matter, and he thought Tobias would feel less threatened if there was only one Sanguinati riding up front with him.

“You are more familiar with the customs in this part of Thaisia.” Tolya got in and pulled the passenger door shut.

Joe jumped into the back and settled in the remaining space. Lots of books. More than he’d expected Simon and Vlad to send to the humans. Then he noticed his name on two of the boxes and happily realized they had sent books for the terra indigene settlement too.

Tobias came around and closed the tailgate. “Mr. Wolfgard . . .”

“They aren’t going to feed on you,” Joe said, then added silently, At least not while you’re driving.

Tobias got behind the wheel and drove to the gas station. As he pulled in, Joe studied the human males who were gathered around watching a man in overalls tape a hand-printed sign above the pumps.

Tolya said.

terra indigene who live in and watch over the wild country. They don’t usually come that close to a human town.>

There was a warning in those words.

But Tolya had a point, Joe thought with a sigh. He’d learned enough about his new territory to know that the humans living in Bennett hated the Others for setting the boundaries of what humans could and couldn’t have, and they resented the Intuits because Prairie Gold had something the human-owned ranches didn’t have: water that flowed down from the hills and followed natural channels to watering holes that made it easier for the Intuits to run their dairy farm and produce farm and the ranch that raised cattle and horses. And a few men, over the years, had gone into the hills and come out again with gold. But what one man might be able to do, a dozen could not. Believing there was untold, and unclaimed, wealth in the streambeds that could make a man rich beyond his wildest dreams but couldn’t be reached was becoming a different kind of sickness in some humans. They wanted what they couldn’t have because something already claimed that land and that water, not for wealth but for life.

Joe didn’t know exactly where Tolya and Nyx stood with their pack, but he wouldn’t be surprised if their jobs were the equivalent of enforcers or guards. Why send them here to deliver some books? Or did their arrival have more to do with the drawings made by Jackson’s prophet pup?

When Prairie Gold came into sight, Joe shifted back to human form and got dressed. Their first stop was the motel, so that Tolya and Nyx could check in and drop off their personal luggage. That’s where they heard the news that a fuel truck had exploded on the highway the day before. The two men who drove the truck were killed. There was some argument about whether the explosion was an accident caused by driver error, or if the drivers were already injured or dead when the truck exploded.

“Supply and fucking demand,” Tobias said when he heard the news. Then he looked at Nyx. “Pardon my language, ma’am.”

Whether it was deliberate or not, Prairie Gold wasn’t going to receive its expected—and needed—fuel until the Others arranged for a different supplier.

The worry over a gasoline shortage dimmed Jesse Walker’s pleasure when they brought in the boxes of books for her store, but she was gracious in her thanks and polite to Tolya and Nyx. Shelley Bookman, on the other hand, took one look at the Sanguinati when they entered the library and seemed to have trouble catching her breath.

After receiving Tobias’s promise to drop off the boxes of books at the place where the terra indigene received human goods, Joe watched the human drive away before giving the two Sanguinati a tour of the town. Humans watched them from doorways and windows.

“How long are you staying?” Joe asked. “Should I ask some of the terra indigene to stay close to town?”

“This is an Intuit settlement on terra indigene land,” Tolya countered. “Is there a reason to fear these humans?”

“No. They remind me of the humans who make up Meg Corbyn’s pack. They want to be members of a larger pack.”

“That is wise,” Nyx said. “I will be staying a few days before returning to Lakeside. Tolya will stay longer.”

“If that’s acceptable to you,” Tolya said, looking at Joe. “Grandfather Erebus wants the Sanguinati to be more present in the Midwest. He wants us available to help the shifters. And my staying at the motel means I can keep an eye on the Intuits while you keep watch over everything else.” He paused. “I think the terra indigene should visit Bennett as little as possible.”

Joe agreed with that, but he hadn’t liked being there to begin with. “We don’t need to go anywhere in Bennett except the train station.” As the implication of his own words struck him, fur sprang up on his chest and shoulders, and his canines lengthened to Wolf size. He stopped walking and took a moment to shift back to fully human.

“Our scent here becomes a sign of acceptance,” he said. “It sends a message, an indication that these are humans who work with us.” Would the Elders respect such a marker?

Tolya nodded. “That lack of scent also sends a message, does it not?”

Another warning under the words—especially after Tolya’s suggestion that the Others avoid visiting Bennett and his earlier remark about reclaiming the land.

They walked back to the motel. Nyx wanted to explore beyond the town. Tolya wanted to make a couple of phone calls. And Joe wanted to shake off thoughts of troublesome humans, go home, and find out what books Simon had sent to the Wolves.

At Tolya’s invitation, he stripped out of his clothes, folded them, and put them in the bottom drawer of the dresser.

“You may want to become a long-term renter of one of these rooms,” Tolya said. “It would be a convenient place to store clothes and have water to wash in when you had to be in human form.”

It was a good suggestion, and he would consider it. Instead of a Courtyard, the Others often had a house in a small human town, but there weren’t any empty houses in Prairie Gold. They had built only what they needed. A room would be sufficient, and having it might encourage more shifters to experience limited contact with humans.

Tired but satisfied, Joe left the motel and headed home, slipping behind buildings instead of trotting down the road. But thinking about markers and who could be a more devastating enemy to the people here than the yappy humans living in Bennett, he stopped long enough to lift a leg and mark Jesse Walker’s store.