CHAPTER 50
Earthday, Sumor 1
In Lakeside, lightning struck any moving vehicle with uncanny precision while rain rushing in house gutters roared like Talulah Falls. Streets became swift-flowing rivers. Roofs leaked. Basements took in water. And everyone prayed to the gods and their personal guardian spirits that the rain would stop before the creeks overflowed their banks too far.
Then a fierce north wind blew the rain south, and a dense fog covered the city of Lakeside with an odd silence.
And then they entered Lakeside to roam the streets for prey, and the worst of them walked on two legs.
Douglas Burke grabbed Louis Gresh the moment the rain lightened to drizzle and that damn fog covered the city.
“Take your men and hold the back door,” Burke said with quiet urgency. “Keep it locked. Keep everyone in, and I do mean everyone.”
“Storm’s over,” Gresh protested. “We should get out there now.”
“Louis, the storm hasn’t started yet.” The men were restless, coiled to get out there and help. Gods above and below! Did his men think he felt any different? But if they went out too soon, they would be among the victims instead of being the rescuers.
“Hold that door¸ Commander.”
Louis studied Burke’s face, then nodded and went off to set up a barricade at the station’s back door.
Satisfied that Gresh would stand with him, Burke hurried into his office. He wasn’t sure if Police Commissioner Kurt Wallace had landed at the Chestnut Street station by chance when the storm hit or if the man had thought hiding among officers who had been labeled Wolf lovers would keep him safe. But Wallace was still a vocal HFL supporter, and having him here at the same time as Nathan Wolfgard was creating a dangerous kind of uneasiness among some of the civilians and cops who weren’t quite convinced that the HFL movement was about to become as extinct as the dinosaurs.
After checking to make sure a round was chambered in his service weapon, Burke took two more loaded magazines from a desk drawer and slipped them in his suit coat pocket.
As he strode for the door, he stopped and turned around. “Nathan?” The Wolf had spent the past couple of hours in here—and forced the station’s chief to host Wallace in order to keep the two apart. Now the visitor’s chair held the clothes that Nathan had worn, but there was no sign of the Wolf.
Hoping Nathan wasn’t in danger inside the station—or about to attack anyone he considered an enemy—Burke strode through the building, pushing past a group of people heading for the station’s front door. He locked the door, stood in front of it, and drew his weapon.
“No one is leaving yet,” he said in a voice that allowed no discussion or challenge—at least not until the chief or Wallace confronted him.
He would deal with them if and when the time came.
Something moved outside the Pony Barn. Meg couldn’t hear it, but she knew it was there, felt the weight of its presence on her skin.
She tightened her grip on Sam, not that he seemed inclined to leave any space between them. Skippy, for once showing sense, had burrowed in the straw at the back of the stall. Jester stared at the barn doors as if that alone would keep them closed and keep everyone safe.
All the ponies who weren’t out with the Elementals poked their heads out of their stalls, but Tornado and Quicksand came out and faced the doors.
Jester glanced at Meg, then focused on the doors again.
She felt nothing like prophecy under her skin. No pins and needles, no prickles or buzzing. Because none of them had a future? Or because she should already know the choice she should make?
We are here, still keeping watch. Still protecting the world.
Meg raised her head. “Arroo!”
“Shhhh,” Jester whispered.
“They need to know we’re here. Arroo!”
“Arroo!” Sam howled.
Something pulled one of the barn doors open an inch or two.
“Arroo!” Meg howled. Now Sam and Skippy howled with her.
More howls now from the Wolves keeping watch in various parts of the Courtyard.
We are here. Wasn’t that the message that had been silenced in other parts of Thaisia? But not in Lakeside. The Wolfgard was still here.
“Arroo!”
A snuff. A huff. A . . . laugh?
The barn door closed—and something moved away, leaving behind an odd silence.
Meg blinked. “Was it . . . were they laughing at us?”
Grinning, Jester collapsed in the straw beside her. “They had never heard the howl of a not-Wolf, and they were curious.”
“They were laughing at us.”
“That too,” Jester agreed cheerfully. He sprang up. “Want some food, Meg?”
“Is it done? The storm and . . . after?”
“For us it is.”
He seemed sure of that.
She stood and brushed off her backside. “I’m going to wash my hands first.”
“Don’t use too much of the toilet paper. I wasn’t planning on having a female here when I brought in supplies.”
Grabbing the carry sack that held her personal items, Meg went to the toilet in the back of the barn. She closed the door, opened the sack, and smiled. There, on top, was a roll of toilet paper that Merri Lee or Ruth had packed.
“Ha!” Meg said, setting the roll on the toilet tank.
As she took care of business, she wondered if her little “arroo” would become another story that traveled to other Wolf packs.
Nathan shouldered his way through the crowd of humans who were between him and the front door, careful to avoid the shoed feet that could stomp on his paws.
“No one is going anywhere yet.” Even with the mutters and mumbles and, in a few cases, loud curses, Burke’s voice boomed, making it easy to locate the man.
Gresh had his pack to help him guard the back door, but Burke was facing down these humans alone. He pictured Burke with fur and decided he would have made an acceptable Grizzly.
Reaching the front door—and Burke—Nathan looked out the glass at the fog. The Elders were out there, thinning the herd. He could feel them. If he could convince Burke to open the door just an inch, he could sniff the outside air and get a sense of how close they were to this police den. Since he didn’t think Burke would open the door, he’d do his job another way.
“Arroo!” Nathan howled. “Arroo!” He continued howling to the other terra indigene.
“Burke!” a human shouted. It sounded like that Wallace man. “Make that . . . creature . . . stop that racket.”
“I think he’s trying to save the lives of everyone here by warning off the other predators,” Burke replied. “Do you really want me to tell him to stop?”
Nathan, and Burke, waited for an answer. Met with silence, Nathan resumed his “I am here” howl.
Something came close to the glass door. Something on two legs that towered over Burke, who was a large human. Couldn’t really see the shape—it seemed clothed in the fog—but the claws that suddenly raked the glass, scoring it, were clear enough.
Humans gasped. Some fell in an effort to move away from the door. The police in uniform stared at him, at Burke, at the glass—and finally, maybe, understood.
“Captain?” one officer said. “When . . . ?”
Burke looked at Nathan, who thought for a moment. The Elders were moving away from this den, but they weren’t far enough away yet that they wouldn’t return if prey suddenly began pouring out the doors.
He took up guard position in front of the door and returned Burke’s look.
“Not yet,” Burke said. “But soon. Patrol officers, work with dispatch and start prioritizing the calls so we can move as soon as we get the all clear.”
Burke holstered his weapon and studied Nathan. “I need to make some calls. Will you be all right here?”
“Arroo,” Nathan replied softly. He didn’t think any humans would bother him while he was between them and the terra indigene who were hunting on the streets.
Tess walked out of the Liaison’s Office, took two steps away from the building, and stopped. She couldn’t see a damn thing in this fog, and she didn’t want the embarrassment of tripping over something—or someone.
Taking a step back, she held one hand behind her and felt the reassuring metal handle on the door.
Main Street should be directly in front of her, just beyond the delivery area and the sidewalk. But she didn’t hear the sound of cars; she heard fast-running water.
Meg would be disappointed if the young plants in the kitchen garden drowned or were smashed beyond recovering by the hail and pounding rain. The rest of the human pack would be disappointed too, but they didn’t quite belong with the terra indigene in the same way that Meg did, and their disappointment wouldn’t ripple through the Courtyard.
Nothing she, or anyone else, could do about saturated ground and runoff and streets turned into streams.
Whispers. Muffled curses. The splash of an animal fording water. The yelp as one of them lost his footing and was swept away.
Tess pushed the hood off her head. No need to maintain a veneer over her true form in order to lessen the impact of looking at her; the fog would serve that purpose now. After all, she wanted to harvest enough life from her prey to make them fatally ill but not immediately. Let them scurry back to the cars parked across the street or their companions in the Stag and Hare who probably had cheered them on when they proposed striking at the terra indigene under the cover of the storm. Too bad they hadn’t realized that the storm had been shaped for the benefit of the other predators who moved through the city now.
Clear stripes in the fog, as if something had raked claws over a gray blanket. Tess saw figures approaching. Four, five, six. Did they have weapons? She had to assume they did, and even one of Namid’s most ferocious predators couldn’t afford to be careless about weapons like guns.
Nyx sighed.
Six flashlights turned on, beacons that said, We’re here, come eat us!
Seeing no reason not to oblige, Tess moved swiftly, heading in the direction of the man who was closest to the shoulder-high brick wall between the delivery area and Henry’s yard. Her shoulder hit an arm. The man swore and looked directly at her as he tried to grab her.
She pulled away from his weakened grasp, relishing the kind of sustenance she rarely allowed herself to consume since coming to Lakeside. Moving away from him, she heard him stumble toward the street.
The other five turned toward her, flashlights aimed so the light would hit her face and blind her. But she kept moving, looking into their eyes and then looking away from the blinding light. Fatal sips. But the one who swung a piece of chain and managed to hit her leg . . . Tess held his gaze long enough to make it rain inside his skull.
She had a moment to understand the quality of the sudden silence before two of Namid’s teeth and claws rushed out of the access way and went straight for the illuminated prey.
It was like the fog had turned into huge furred shapes that defied description or naming.
Tess turned to dash into the Liaison’s Office, but the one leg wasn’t working right. She stumbled and hit the brick wall. She reached up, felt air. There was nothing graceful about her scramble over the wall, but she heard claws scrape the bricks as she fell into Henry’s yard and pressed herself against the wall in an effort to hide.
A little too close, she thought. But not a serious attempt to catch her.
Tess clamped a hand over her mouth.
Tess tried to breathe very quietly. There were sounds on the other side of the wall—not exactly feeding sounds, but definitely nothing that came from the humans. In fact, she hadn’t heard one human scream, which told her a lot about the speed of these earth natives.
The quiet scrape of claws on the bricks above her head. The smell of something earthy and so very wild leaning over the wall to sniff her.
Did she dare move enough to meet its eyes? And if she couldn’t harvest enough life from an Elder, could she weaken it enough to get away before it tore her open?
It suddenly occurred to her that her form of terra indigene was one of Namid’s most ferocious predators until you crossed into the true wild country and met the earth natives who lived there.
The Elder withdrew.
More sounds. It took the second splash for Tess to identify that the Elders were batting human remains into the water-filled street. She would try to warn Montgomery and his men before they went out and found . . . whatever they would find.
Then she heard another sound that had her struggling to stand up. They were going into the Liaison’s Office? Why?
One of Meg’s constant places that helped her deal with all the things in the Courtyard that changed. Well, she and Nyx would have to put it back together before they let Meg see it.
Assuming the Elders weren’t caching special meat in the cupboards.
Tess tested the sore leg. Hurt but not broken, and not bleeding.
Her hair had changed to more green than black, so she dared glance in the direction of the studio, confident that a look wouldn’t harm the Grizzly. He stood at the studio door, watching the Liaison’s Office.
She caught a whiff of that wild scent that had never been touched by anything human—until now. Then it was gone without so much as a splash, and the oppressive silence, like the fog, lifted.
Henry stepped out of his studio and approached Tess. “Foolish to take on six enemies when they couldn’t see you well enough to die.”
She shrugged. “Wasn’t going to let them into the Courtyard.”
A light came on in the sorting room, and the window cranked open a bit.
Tess limped to the window with Henry politely following.
“Nyx?”
A sigh before the Sanguinati said, “Come to the back door.”
Henry didn’t wait for Tess this time. He was out of his yard and entering the office before she reached the wooden gate.
When she limped into the Liaison’s Office, a hurried look around the back room didn’t reveal any obvious damage—more like things had been shoved out of place by something large sniffing around.
Nothing torn up in the sorting room either, but . . .
“I heard one of them growl something about the howling not-Wolf and how this place smelled like one of her dens,” Nyx said.
“Meg’s scent is strong here,” Henry said. “Maybe they liked it.” He didn’t sound pleased about that.
Tess wasn’t pleased either. The Elders were already sufficiently intrigued by Meg’s relationships with the Others in the Courtyard without giving them more reasons to be curious about her and Simon.
“That’s not all they liked.” Nyx dropped two clawed and mangled plastic containers on the sorting room table. “They ate all the Wolf cookies.”
Simon opened Howling Good Reads’ back door an inch and sniffed the air. The Elders’ primal tang drifted around the area behind the stores, but they had moved away from the Courtyard. Were they heading back to the wild country, or were the Elders gathering in another part of the city for a massive hunt?
He poked his head out the door, ready to duck back inside.
“Simon!” Henry called at the same time Simon heard the phone in HGR’s office ring. Well, Vlad was working upstairs and could take the call.
The Grizzly’s voice wasn’t coming from the studio or yard; it came from behind the Liaison’s Office.
The tension in Vlad’s voice had Simon running up the stairs to the office.
Vlad held out the phone. Simon’s heart raced and his body trembled. He’d seen that look on Vlad’s face once before.
Taking the receiver, he said, “This is Simon.”
“The metal snake stays in its burrow, or we will kill it.” It wasn’t a voice meant for human speech, and even over a phone line, it scraped against Simon’s bones.
“Forever?”
Silence. Had they taken the question as a challenge?
“The trains bring some of the human foods we use in the Courtyard,” he added.
“You do not need human food, Wolf.”
“The sweet blood needs human food.” By this time, Henry, Tess, and Nyx had entered the office. They looked alarmed when he mentioned Meg. All right, there weren’t many things that couldn’t come by truck or ship if they were supplying only the Courtyard, but it would be good to know if trains were no longer a means of transportation.
“Day dweller,” was the snarled final answer. “It travels with the sun now.”
Meaning trains, and any cargo, could no longer travel through the wild country between sundown and sunrise—a rule that was already in place but hadn’t been strictly enforced. Simon wondered how many trains would be destroyed and how many passengers killed before humans believed the access through the wild country was really limited.
But not completely denied—yet.
“The sweet blood is the howling not-Wolf?”
“She sings with the Wolfgard,” he replied warily.
A huff. A snuff. A . . . laugh? Then the buzz in his ear of a disconnected call.
He whimpered. Couldn’t help it. He put the receiver back in the cradle and noticed Lieutenant Montgomery had joined the group in the office.
“We’ll need to talk to Captain Burke and Agent O’Sullivan to convey a message.”
“Can the police get out there now?” Montgomery asked, gesturing toward the windows to indicate the city.
“Some humans tried to invade the Courtyard,” Tess said. “The Elders killed them. I couldn’t see what was done, but the police should be prepared for something bad.”
“How many bodies?”
“Six.”
“There will be more,” Simon said, then added, “but not so many.” Because Meg, the not-Wolf, had amused some of the Elders.
“If you have no objections, I’d like the families of police officers to remain here a while longer,” Montgomery said. “The fewer people on the streets, the better.”
“The Denbys will want to go across the street and check on the house.” Vlad went to the windows that looked out on Crowfield Avenue and the buildings the Courtyard had acquired. “Make sure the curtains or blinds stay drawn on any windows that overlook the streets. And don’t let anyone go out there who doesn’t have to.”
Montgomery moved to the window and looked out. His brown skin turned gray and he braced a hand on the window frame for support.
“What is it?” Tess asked.
“I’m not sure what’s on the lawns of the two apartment buildings,” Vlad said with forced calm, “but there are intestines hanging from the branches of the trees like some strange moss.”
“Lieutenant?” Simon said softly. The humans couldn’t be pragmatic about the available meat—and with so many human strangers in the Courtyard right now, the Others couldn’t take advantage of the abandoned kills either.
When Montgomery turned and looked at him, he felt pity for the man. This was a hard truth about who guarded the continent of Thaisia, but Simon thought the other part of the truth would hit humans like Montgomery even harder.
“In Wolf form, we could help you find all the parts.” He would have to choose Wolves who dealt with humans enough to understand why they couldn’t snack on what they found.
“I need to call Captain Burke,” Montgomery said.
“The Business Association’s room is empty,” Henry said.
They waited until Montgomery went across the hall.
“When do you want to meet the humans to tell them the rest?” Vlad asked.
“In an hour, if Captain Burke can get here by then. I want Nathan back here too,” Simon said.
“Tess needs to tend to her leg, but I will fetch Merri Lee, and she will help Nyx and me put Meg’s office back in order,” Henry said.
“As much as we can.” Nyx gave Simon a fanged smile. “The Elders ate all the Wolf cookies.”
He just sighed. What else was there to do?
After the rest of them went downstairs to deal with humans and sort out what needed to be done, Simon called the Pony Barn and felt relieved when he heard Meg’s voice.
“Simon? Is that you? Are you all right?”
“It’s me. I’m fine. Are you?”
“Yes. Something thought about entering the Pony Barn and . . . they laughed at us.”
They weren’t laughing at all of you. “They ate all the Wolf cookies in the sorting room too.”
“They . . . Well! Can you bite them for doing that?”
Even the thought made him want to hide under the desk. “No. But . . . they might have jumbled things up a bit when they were looking around. Henry, Nyx, and Merri Lee will straighten up the office, but I wanted you to know in case something wasn’t exactly right.”
“Then I’ll be prepared if something is different.” Meg didn’t say anything else for a moment. “I’ll check with Eamer’s Bakery and see when they can send more cookies.”
“You’re all right?” Her voice sounded tired.
“Jester, Sam, and I have been reading a Wolf Team story aloud for Skippy and the ponies. I’m the narrator and the human female who faints a lot.”
Meg sounded sour about that. Maybe he should invite some of the Wolf Team writers to spend a few days in the Courtyard. He’d bet a month’s worth of cookies that there wouldn’t be human females fainting in future stories if they did visit.
“Jester reads the parts of the bad humans and the Wolf Team leader, and we’re both helping Sam read the Wolf Team bits,” she continued. “We were just taking a break for drinks and snacks when you called.”
That explained her tired voice. “Stay there a couple more hours. Then I’ll pick you up and we can check out the Green Complex and the garden.”
“Okay. Do you need to talk to Jester? He says you probably already know what you need to.”
“I don’t need to talk to him, but I do have other calls to make.”
He hung up, wishing he could be reading the Wolf Team with her. But the sooner he dealt with the human things, the sooner he could take care of the things that really mattered to him.
“Henry?”
Henry stopped wiping off the table in the back room of the Liaison’s Office and considered the tone of Merri Lee’s voice. Not, Help, help, I’ve seen a mouse. More like, I made a rattlesnake angry. What should I do?
Dropping the rag on the table, he strode into the sorting room at the same time Nyx flowed in from the front room.
“What’s wrong?” Nyx said.
Merri Lee pointed at the two cards on the counter above the drawer that held Meg’s prophecy cards.
The first card was a beautifully rendered but terrifying representation of what Henry guessed was one of the Elders’ forms. Next was half a Wolf cookie. Last was a card that had a simple drawing of a smiley face.
“That is sooooo wrong,” Merri Lee said, shuddering.
“Yes, it is.” Henry picked up the cookie. “Leaving food on the counter will attract mice.”
She gave him a look that told him he’d missed the point.
“And the Elders shouldn’t have been playing with Meg’s cards.” Nyx opened the drawer and used the tip of her finger to nudge the cards inside. “It might interfere with her reading a prophecy.”
Now Merri Lee looked at Nyx. “I’m going outside for a minute to get some air.”
They watched her leave.
“She seems disturbed,” Henry said.
“Of course she is,” Nyx snapped. “Don’t you find that smiley-face card disturbing?”
Nathan watched the fog lift to reveal a blue summer sky.
He howled out of happiness and scattered the humans who were clustered near the door as he dashed for Captain Burke’s den. The big human looked at him when he entered the room and shifted to pull on his clothes, but Burke kept talking on the phone.
“Looks like he got the news. If I’m delayed, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, expect us in an hour.” Burke hung up, walked to the doorway, and boomed, “We received the all clear. Go, go, go!”
Nathan watched the police officers moving out for their own kind of hunt.
Burke returned to his desk. “I’m expected at the Courtyard in an hour; I can give you a lift home.” Then he held out a piece of paper he’d taken from his desk. “What do you make of this?”
A message from the Shady Burke. Nathan read it, then handed it back with a shrug. “The humans weren’t going to hold any part of the wild country for long.”
“It’s the phrase ‘about to get some weather’ that interests me. Did we get some weather, Nathan?”
The question had a bit of Foxgard slyness. “We had wind, lots of rain.” Not to mention Namid’s teeth and claws roaming the streets.
“Have you ever seen a human doing magic tricks?” Burke dipped his hand into his pocket, took out a quarter, and held it up for Nathan to see. “Like making coins disappear or pulling rabbits out of a hat?”
When he was a juvenile, he had seen a magic act. He’d wanted to find a bunny-filled hat like the magician’s, but all the trading post had was a hat made of bunny fur. “That was a trick? The hat didn’t really hold a bunny?” How disappointing, but not unexpected from humans.
“Getting hungry?” Burke asked dryly.
“Yes.” Hopefully the humans hadn’t eaten all the meat in the Courtyard. He was bound to have work to do for the pack, and he wouldn’t have time to chase down a meal.
Burke moved his hands and the quarter disappeared. “Sleight of hand. Distracting the attention from one thing by drawing attention to something else.” Burke turned his hand and revealed the coin again. “We didn’t get anything like the weather that’s heading for Cel-Romano, did we?”
“Ask Simon. He might know.”
“Yes, most likely, he does know.” Burke looked at the quarter. “He has said more than once that the terra indigene learn from other predators. He wasn’t just talking about hunting techniques, was he?”
It didn’t sound like a question that needed an answer, so Nathan said nothing.
Burke pocketed the coin. “Well, I expect Commissioner Wallace wants to yell at me for being an alarmist and a pain in his ass, not to mention holding an entire police station hostage—more or less.” He walked to his office door.
Simon was the Courtyard’s leader and would tell the humans what he wanted them to know. But Nathan felt he should say something to Burke about keeping the police pack denned.
“Captain? You’re not an alarmist.”
Burke looked back at him and smiled tightly. “I know.”
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Книжный Бот
Свежие любовные романы в удобных форматах
Любовные романы
О психологии, саморазвитии и личностном росте
Саморазвитие
Детективы и триллеры, все новинки
Детективы
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Фантастика
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