Wild Country

CHAPTER 19

Watersday, Messis 18

Tobias set the nozzle into its slot on the pump and winced at the total cost. At this rate, he was pouring his pay into the pickup’s gas tank. Sure, the gas station was running a tab so that anyone from the Prairie Gold ranch could fill up here in Bennett, but more new people coming into the town meant more vehicles would be put back on the roads—and if he wasn’t careful, those people could come to resent the Prairie Gold folks for being given special treatment when it came to some rationed goods like gasoline.

“Good morning, Mr. Walker.” Tolya Sanguinati approached him, having come from . . . somewhere. “I thought all the new employees had gone to their assigned ranches yesterday.”

“They did. I’m not concerned about the old Black ranch, which is now the Skye Ranch. Truman’s a good man, and he knows the importance of being a good neighbor.” Truman had been with him the day Joe Wolfgard had told them about the Elders, the day they had seen a half-grown bison being carried away from the animals that had been slaughtered by the Humans First and Last movement. Had seen the bison, anyway. The human eye couldn’t see the terra indigene in their true form, couldn’t detect anything more than what could be mistaken as a shimmer of heat. “I came back this morning to help Deputy Paniccia choose a horse.”

“I thought she had a horse. She is at the stable now, riding it.”

“She needs the right horse.” Unsettled, Tobias removed his hat, ran his fingers through his hair, then put the hat back on. “I’ll make it a point from now on to fill the truck before I leave Prairie Gold when I’m coming up for personal business.”

“Choosing the right horse would be important for Deputy Paniccia to fulfill her duties?” Tolya asked.

“I think so.” How much did the terra indigene understand about human romance? Especially when a man wasn’t sure if his interest would be reciprocated?

“Then I think this tank of gas should go under the column for town business.” Tolya smiled and walked away, leaving Tobias to wonder if the Sanguinati, at least, understood more about humans than humans realized.

Jana rode round and round the corral and felt keenly disappointed. She was riding a horse, which was what she wanted. She would be a mounted deputy, which was what she wanted. But she felt like a little girl riding a pony in a ring while the grown-ups stood on the other side of the rails smiling and nodding indulgently.

And now there was Tobias Walker standing with the men who were in charge of the livery stable, and wasn’t that just perfect? She knew she was a beginner, but she hated looking foolish. And she hated feeling disappointed when she and the bay circled round again and she realized Tobias wasn’t standing there anymore.

Then Tobias walked out of the stable with a caramel-colored horse and headed for the corral at the same moment the bay bolted to the far end of the corral. Jana grabbed the saddle horn and managed to hang on instead of landing in the dirt, but it was a near thing.

“Dismount and bring him over,” Tobias said as he opened the gate and led his horse into the corral.

Embarrassed and shaky, Jana dismounted and tried to lead the bay, but the horse wasn’t having it.

Dropping his horse’s reins, Tobias walked over to them, grabbed the reins under the bay’s chin, and said firmly, “That’s enough of that. If he was going to hurt you, he’d have done it by now.” Tobias led the bay to the rail and tied him before returning to the other horse. Then he wagged a finger at Jana.

Jana moved slowly, trying to figure out who the he was that might be doing the hurting. Not seeing anyone except the Simple Life and Intuit men who had been watching her ride, she approached Tobias.

“This is Mel,” Tobias said.

“Is that short for Caramel?” she asked.

Tobias grinned. He was amused, but she didn’t feel like he was laughing at her.

“I can see how you might think that, with him being a buckskin. But, no, Mel isn’t short for anything. Mount up and I’ll adjust the stirrups for you.”

Mel snuffled her, then gave her a shove that knocked her back a step.

“Mind your manners, boy,” Tobias said sternly. Then to her, “He’s a gelding with a stallion’s ego. He expects to be petted and praised.” A beat of silence before he added, “Much like the rest of us.”

Was he flirting with her? Did she want to flirt back? Time to sort that out later. Right now, she had another male demanding her attention.

“Hello, Mel.” Jana stroked the horse’s nose before running a hand along his neck beneath the black mane. “You are handsome, aren’t you?”

Mel tossed his head as if agreeing with her.

“Mount up, Deputy.”

She hesitated, looking over her shoulder at the bay. “I have a horse.”

“And he’s a good horse,” Tobias agreed. “But not the right horse. You’re going to be answering calls and providing assistance in a town that’s just a kiss away from the Elder Hills. You need more than a horse. You need a partner. And . . .”

The bay snorted and fought the reins tying him to the rail.

“I’ll bring him in,” one of the men said, ducking between the rails.

“No, just stay with him until I get Deputy Paniccia settled.” Tobias looked at Jana. “That right there is a big reason why the bay isn’t the right horse for you.” He nodded at Mel, whose ears were pricked and whose attention was on something outside the corral.

Jana looked in that direction.

Virgil in Wolf form stared back at her.

“Mel and your coworkers have made friends,” Tobias said. “He’s not going to spook if one of them is running with you or approaches you when you’re on horseback. And he was bred from Prairie Gold stock and has been running on land like this his whole life. He’ll listen to you, but you have to listen to him too when he’s telling you there’s something around that could be trouble.”

Jana mounted, then waited while Tobias adjusted the stirrups and handed her the reins. As soon as she gathered the reins and held them as she’d been taught, Mel walked over to the rails where Virgil waited. Horse and Wolf did their greeting snuffle-sniffs.

“Time to work,” Tobias said.

Mel’s head came up. Ears wagged forward and back.

“Take him in a circle at a walk,” Tobias said. “And stay away from the bay for now.”

She’d been told the bay was a good horse for a beginner, but riding Mel was a totally different experience. They moved together, so smooth and easy.

“Jog,” Tobias called.

Before she could give Mel any signals, the horse began to jog in response to Tobias’s command. This wasn’t the pounding that made her wonder if she’d lose her ability to control her bladder by the time she was thirty; this was an easy cruising speed that gave her time to observe what was around her.

“Lope.”

Again, Mel obeyed before she did, and she felt the reality that matched what she’d always imagined it would be like to ride a horse. She could see herself riding across the open spaces and . . .

“Walk.”

Mel immediately dropped to a walk, jolting Jana out of her happy fantasy. She beamed at Tobias—and noticed Virgil standing on his hind legs, one paw on the rails for balance, watching her from the other side of the corral.

Tobias stepped away from the rails. “You two get acquainted while I deal with the bay.”

She discovered that ‘deal with the bay’ meant adjusting the stirrups and mounting. The bay seemed fine, calm, the easygoing horse she’d ridden for the past couple of days—until Tobias aimed the horse toward the front of the corral . . . and Virgil.

“He’s afraid,” she said, worried that Tobias would hurt the horse.

Tobias reined in. “Yep, he is. That’s no reflection on him. He’s obeying instincts that would keep him safe in most situations. But it also means he’s not trusting his rider to tell him it’s okay to ignore those instincts, and you can’t be out there on a horse that can’t trust you. Which is why you’re going to ride Mel.” He dismounted and handed the bay to one of the livery men. Then he walked past her, opened the gate, and smiled. “You aren’t going to learn enough riding in circles in a corral. Time to go out there and learn how to ride.”

“But . . .”

“The town square runs the length of the business district. You can circle around that a few times and get the feel of moving through trees and on grass. Get the feel of riding past people and the terra indigene. I’ll see what else they have in the stable and join you, if I may.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Go on, then. I’ll catch up.”

The moment Mel’s feet touched the grass in the square, Jana felt the change in him, as if he’d been bored before and now he wasn’t. She understood the feeling.

“We’re still walking,” she told him when she felt him gather himself for something a little more speedy. One ear swiveled back at the sound of her voice, but his attention was still on something ahead of them.

A moment later, Barb Debany and her blue-roan gelding, Rowan, cut across the square and jumped the little creek.

“They let you out of the corral,” Barb said, turning Rowan to walk beside Mel.

“Tobias Walker has a different opinion about how a person should learn,” Jana replied.

Barb admired Mel. “What happened to the bay?”

“Tobias had opinions about that too, and now I have a new riding partner. And it looks like Mel and Rowan are barn buddies.”

Barb laughed. “Didn’t think of it that way, but it sure looks like it.”

Now that they were riding together, the horses seemed content to keep to an active walk.

“You’re not wearing your six-gun,” Barb said when they turned at the end of the square. She waved at three children playing in the little garden next to the Universal Temple. They waved back.

“I left it at the office. Figured that was better than accidentally shooting me or the horse.”

“You’ll have to ride and carry when you’re officially on duty, right?”

“Right.” She’d worry about that later. Better yet, she’d ask Tobias about riding while wearing a gun.

“You girls out for an Earthday stroll, or are you out to ride?” Tobias asked as he rode up to join them.

“Rowan and I are cooling down from our ride,” Barb replied. “I was just keeping Jana company until you got here.” She grinned at Jana. “See you later.” Then she mouthed, Or not.

Feeling her face heat, Jana shortened the reins before Mel decided to follow his buddy.

“Warmed up now?” Tobias asked.

She nodded. She knew he meant the horse, but, yeah, she was feeling plenty warm right now. As the town’s only female—and human—deputy, she couldn’t afford to gain a reputation for being an easy ride, and she wasn’t sure if Tobias had caught Barb’s silent, teasing remark.

“Then let’s ride.”

For the next half hour, they jogged and loped and circled and changed directions. They stopped and backed up. Jana was pretty sure she wasn’t more than a passenger and Mel was following Tobias’s commands, but she learned how it felt to be on a horse that was moving over ground that wasn’t a corral. Finally they were circling the town square at a walk, giving the horses a long rein to stretch their necks.

Tobias smiled. “Pretty good for your first time out.”

“Mel did all the work.”

“You have all your gear? I noticed you weren’t riding with it in the corral.”

Jana frowned at him in puzzlement. “Gear?”

Tobias shook his head and sighed. “Well, it’s all farm folk and city folk who have come to town, so I guess it’s not surprising that no one told you what you should have out here.”

Jana’s eyes widened as he listed the things she should be carrying with her. “I’m riding a horse, not driving a car with an empty backseat.”

“You’d be surprised what you can fit into saddlebags.”

“And the rope?”

Tobias eyed her. “Do you know how to use a lasso?”

“As in, rope that cow?”

“Or that bank robber—unless he’s got a gun, which is likely. But you never know when you might need to throw a rope over something or someone.”

“Another skill I didn’t learn.”

“Hard to learn a skill without a teacher.”

“Are you offering to teach me?”

“I surely am. How about this afternoon? I’m in town today but need to get back to the ranch and put in some time there, especially since I’ve got some new hands to break in.”

“I have to be at this town council meeting early this afternoon, but I’m free after that.”

“Don’t get in trouble with your boss on account of me.”

Jana looked around. “Speaking of my boss, you had something to tell me?” After dealing with Virgil for the past couple of days, she needed all the information she could get.

Tobias looked away and said nothing until they rode past the sheriff’s office and were out of earshot—of anything she could see, anyway.

“Regular wolves have an alpha pair,” he said quietly. “They’re the ones who mate, and the pack works together to raise those pups. Can’t really afford to have more than one litter of pups to feed. But the terra indigene don’t follow the traits and behavior of the predators whose forms they absorb, not right down the line. With the Wolfgard, the dominant pair will mate and the pack will raise those pups. But the following year, if the dominant enforcer in the pack has a mate, they’ll be the ones who breed and the pack will help raise their pups.

“Virgil was the dominant enforcer in his pack and Kane was another enforcer. They had been out tracking something—prey or adversary, I don’t know which. But they weren’t with the rest of their pack when men in the Humans First and Last movement targeted the pack and killed all of them. Even the pups.” Tobias said nothing for a moment. “I have the feeling that Virgil isn’t proud of being able to shift to human form well enough to almost pass for human. But he was offered the job of being the dominant enforcer for this large mixed pack, and he accepted. That doesn’t mean he feels any tolerance for humans.”

“Do you think he had a mate?” Jana asked.

“I do. And I’m guessing some of the young who were killed were his.”

Sobered by what she’d just learned, Jana rode back to the livery stable. When she realized she had just enough time to run back to the sheriff’s office and take Rusty out for a piddle break before going to the council meeting, she accepted Tobias’s offer to unsaddle Mel. She’d need to learn how to do that for herself, as well as take care of her horse, but she had enough to deal with right now.

“I’ll swing by your office later this afternoon,” Tobias said.

“See you then.” Feeling lighthearted about seeing Tobias again, and vowing to try to be more understanding when she dealt with Virgil, she jogged to the office, took Rusty to the square for a few minutes, and then checked e-mails in case there was something she should report at the meeting.

Jesse walked into the meeting room with a box lined with a piddle pad in one hand and a puppy in the other. The daypack she usually carried weighed twice as much today because Tobias, damn and blast him, had talked her into this. She hadn’t had to lug this much stuff around since her boy was in diapers.

She looked down for just a moment as she set the box next to a chair. She looked up to find herself sandwiched between two Wolves in human form—if you didn’t count the furry, Wolf-shaped ears.

“What’s that?” Virgil said, his attention fixed on the gray puppy.

The puppy, who was either very brave or not too bright, yapped at him.

To Jesse’s surprise, Virgil grinned and held out a hand for the pup to sniff.

She said, “This is the new addition to my family.”

Virgil gave her a sharp, assessing look, but he didn’t comment about her choice of words.

Setting the puppy in the box, Jesse slipped the daypack off her shoulder and tucked it under her chair. The puppy whined and tried to climb out of the box. As she wondered about the wisdom of distracting the puppy with treats—and teaching the pup that bad behavior would be rewarded—Virgil settled the matter by sitting on the floor next to the box. He picked up the pup and said, “See? You’re mom is right there.” Then he cuddled the puppy against his chest and said nothing when those sharp puppy teeth gnawed his hand.

Jesse dug out one of the bone-shaped treats. “Let her gnaw on that instead of your thumb.”

He took it and smiled as the pup settled in his lap with her treat.

He had been a father once, Jesse thought. The certainty of it made her heart hurt as she watched Virgil with the pup. She glanced at Kane, who had taken the seat next to Virgil and was also focused on the pup. And he had been an uncle. Their family is gone now, casualties of war.

Jana Paniccia came in and sat beside her. “Didn’t have time to shower. Sorry.”

Virgil leaned forward to see past Jesse’s knees. “Why sorry? You smell like the horse who is not meat. That is good.”

Fortunately neither woman had to respond to that because the Sanguinati arrived along with two young Intuit men.

“I have called this meeting because a request was made to expand the boundaries of the town to include one of the two full-size grocery stores in Bennett,” Tolya said. “Fagen and Zeke will present their proposals for us to consider.”

Fagen talked about how he and the people working with him would take responsibility for finding the food-processing plants that had survived the war. He explained how his group would also collect food from the houses and warehouse it to stock any small neighborhood stores, as well as the general store located on the town square.

Jesse wasn’t sure the Sanguinati appreciated the charts, but Fagen had thought through what his group wanted to do.

“The collection of food and distributing it is what you’ve been doing since arriving in Bennett,” Tolya said. “How is this different?”

“When we first came to Bennett, we came for the adventure and because we believed helping you secure the town would earn humans the right to have a place in the town’s future,” Fagen said. “We worked for room and board and, basically, spending money. And we worked for the town council—or you, as the mayor. But not everyone works for you now. You’ve got doctors and lawyers and dentists, and that’s a good thing. But those people will charge for their services, so those of us who are staying need to earn our own living because you need to pay the folks who are actually working for the town, like you and the sheriff and his deputies. Like the people who are needed to collect garbage and maintain the streets in summer and winter.”

“We will consider what you have said,” Tolya said.

Zeke’s proposal was much the same as Fagen’s, only Zeke and his group wanted to be the salvage business that cleared out houses. More charts explained how each house would have careful documentation so that jewelry would be taken to Kelley Burch for assessment and private papers would be packed up for the lawyers to review in an attempt to find any heirs who might have lived elsewhere and survived. Zeke’s group had information about a few towns—most of those places being no more than a handful of buildings—that, most likely, had been resettled by terra indigene. Part of the salvage business would be to drive out to those places with a van packed with goods that the Others might find useful: human clothes, books, games, canned goods that could tide someone over if the hunting was lean.

Tolya thanked the men and asked them to wait outside the room while he and the town council discussed their proposals.

Jesse wondered how much discussion there would be and how much had already been discussed by the Sanguinati using the terra indigene form of communication.

As soon as the door closed, Tolya turned to her. “You feel people. What do you think about them?”

Jesse considered what she’d felt during the meeting—and realized Tolya had been watching for her tell. But her left wrist hadn’t tingled or ached in warning. “Zeke and Fagen were among the first Intuit men who came to Bennett to help out. I think they have a frontier sense of adventure, much like the Intuits who settled Prairie Gold.” She smiled. “Much like the Intuits who still live in Prairie Gold. The people who came here from the Lakeside job fair all have skills we wanted for the community—not just the doctors and lawyers but the electricians and plumbers and carpenters too. And those people, who are skilled in their trades, have promised to hire youngsters as apprentices to learn those trades. People coming in now have to clear their own houses of the personal effects of those who lived there before them. It’s time to stop requiring sorting of goods to be part of every person’s workday. Let Zeke and Fagen start their own businesses to do what is needed.”

Tolya nodded, an indication that he had listened to what she’d said. Then he looked at the Wolves. “Virgil?”

“One of those stores is close to the new boundaries,” Virgil said. “I think the Elders would agree to expanding the town boundaries that much.”

“That store also has other stores nearby, like the one that has many different kinds of things,” Kane added.

“A department store?” Jana asked.

Kane shrugged. “It is a store with many things.”

“The other food store is too far beyond the new boundaries,” Virgil said. “It is in the wild country now. It would not be safe for humans to go there with new food.”

“But there would still be a lot of foodstuffs on the shelves or in the stock room,” Jesse said. “Most of the fresh food will have rotted by now, but the food in cans and jars should be good.”

“The terra indigene who have claimed some of the houses in that part of the town will use the food,” Virgil said. “They will need it since they will spend part of their time watching for enemies. Also, being in human form to do human tasks means there are many days when we can’t hunt properly to bring down meat. We will need to eat meat killed by humans or go hungry.”

Jesse doubted any terra indigene would go hungry. Since humans weren’t allowed to carry guns within the town limits, they would be easy prey, despite the understanding that Bennett’s human residents were considered not edible—at least by the terra indigene residents. Whether the Elders thought the humans were like chickens in a pen wasn’t something she wanted to know.

“Two humans arrived on yesterday’s train, looking for work,” Tolya said. “They offered to open the land agent’s office and take responsibility for recording who lives where and which businesses are now open. They talked about mapping which houses and businesses are already taken so that newcomers can be shown the houses that are still available and not have to wander.”

Everyone thought that was a good idea. Tolya nodded. “Then I will tell Craig and Dawn Werner that they have jobs and may select their own house.”

After informing Zeke and Fagen that their businesses were approved and setting up a time for them to meet with him and take care of the paperwork, Tolya adjourned the meeting.

Virgil stood, still holding the puppy.

Jesse eyed the pup. “She needs to go outside and do her business.”

The Wolf stared at the box. “She’s going to live in that?”

The growl in his voice made her shiver, but she answered briskly. “The box was small enough to bring in for this meeting. She has a puppy playpen that I’ll set up in my own store. She has a bed for when she’s a bit older. She has a crate to stay in when she needs quiet time.” When Virgil said nothing, she added, “Better get her outside before she pees on you.”

Virgil headed for the door, leaving Jesse to grab the box and her daypack. Then he stopped. “What’s her name?”

“She doesn’t have one yet.”

The stare he gave her wasn’t friendly. “Why not?”

“Because I want Rachel Wolfgard to help me choose a name. Since the pup will be spending as much time with Rachel as she spends with me, I would like my friend’s input on a name.”

She wouldn’t say he softened toward her, but she had a feeling that she’d given Virgil a reason not to think ill of all humans.

Jana washed her hands, then splashed cold water on her face. Virgil hadn’t said anything about the Wolfgard taking over the house at the corner of her street. She wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t run into John Wolfgard outside the bookstore and learned about the move. John was pleased to be able to observe humans going about their usual tasks. There had been a human pack in Lakeside and interacting with them had been educational.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to be the equivalent of the educational channel on TV, but she could guess why some of the strongest predators in Bennett were moving into houses on that street.

The blood prophet.

She didn’t know enough about the cassandra sangue, and she needed to learn—fast—because she was the law as well as a neighbor. She should know what to watch for that might indicate signs of trouble.

As she debated whether to approach Tolya Sanguinati or Jesse Walker to find out what information they might have—and assess their willingness to be forthcoming with her—Jana walked into the front part of the office and noticed the way Virgil and Kane were staring at Rusty, who should have been in her crate and wasn’t.

Virgil smiled—actually smiled—at her before focusing on Rusty again. “She eviscerated the bunny. Good girl!”

Rusty wagged her tail, looking thrilled to receive her pack leader’s praise.

Jana stared at what was left of the toy she’d given the dog that morning. “No, not good girl. Bad girl!”

Rusty stopped wagging her tail, dropped the bunny’s head, and whined.

Virgil swung around to face Jana and growled, “Why bad girl?”

Dominant Wolf or not, she could not allow him to intimidate her, especially when they were in conflict about something that was none of his business. She took a step forward so they were almost toe-to-toe and looked up at him. “She’s not supposed to rip up her toys.”

“Then why did you give her a toy that looks like prey?” he demanded.

“I didn’t think she’d know what a bunny looked like!”

Stupid human. He didn’t say it. He didn’t have to.

“If she swallows some of that stuffing, it could make her sick,” Jana said.

He bared his teeth and looked a lot less human.

“Some toys are meant to be chewed, but not the stuffie toys.” She tried to sound reasonable. She really did. But even she heard the growl in her voice and wondered how close she was to challenging his dominance and being bitten.

He made a sound somewhere between a grunt and a growl and walked out of the office, followed by Kane.

Rusty crawled to Jana and rolled over, exposing her belly.

Sighing, Jana crouched and rubbed the dog’s belly. “It wasn’t your fault. You’re still a puppy and everything is new. I just hope every part of your training isn’t going to include a confrontation with them.”

She put Rusty in the crate and swept up the remains of the bunny. She dumped the bits into the wastebasket, then considered the puppy and dumped the wastebasket into the garbage can out back. Afterward, she tried to settle down and get some work done so that she could have her roping lesson with Tobias.

The phone rang, making her jump. “Sheriff’s Office, Deputy Paniccia speaking.”

“You sound so official,” Barb said.

“I am on duty.”

“What are you doing after work?”

Jana suppressed a sigh. “That depends. I made plans but I could break them.”

“Would those plans include a certain rancher?”

“He offered to teach me to use a lasso.”

“Is that what we’re calling it here?”

“Barb!” She could hear the sparkle in her friend’s voice.

“Okay, I’ll stop teasing. But he is good-looking, and he is giving you riding lessons—which is not another way of saying you know what—and . . . Hey, he’s single, isn’t he?”

“As far as I know.” And in this town, she doubted anyone could keep their marital status a secret.

“Well then, enjoy a little lassoing and smooching.” A beat of silence. “And if you write any letters to anyone in Lakeside, do not say I said that or Michael will start wondering what I’m up to—which is nothing that I couldn’t tell my mom about—and find a way to be on the next train out here.”

Jana laughed. “I won’t mention it.” She hung up and went back to work.

Unsure of Virgil’s and Kane’s moods when they returned an hour later, Jana moved to the center of the room so that she wouldn’t be trapped behind the desk—just in case Virgil decided to do more than growl at her.

Kane remained in the doorway. Virgil stepped within arm’s reach, held out a toy, and growled, “Acceptable?”

Jana smiled as childhood memories flooded her. “It’s Cowboy Bob.”

As a child, she had loved the Cowboy Bob TV show, where Bob, a cloth doll, could change into a real cowboy who helped the children living in a frontier town. But he became real only when the adults weren’t around to see him.

This Cowboy Bob, complete with his hat, boots, and six-gun, must have been printed on the material—front and back—then sewn together and stuffed. She hadn’t known such a thing existed and wondered if a TV station in this part of Thaisia still aired the old shows.

When she reached for the doll, Virgil pulled his hand back. “Acceptable? It doesn’t look like prey.” He paused before adding, “At least to her.”

Now, that was just being mean. “Yes, it’s acceptable.”

Before she had time to thank him, before she had time to react, Virgil grabbed the back of her neck and vigorously rubbed the doll over her chest, then her face, and finally her hair before he let her go.

“By all the gods!” Her heart pounding, Jana stumbled away from him and watched as he held up the doll and sniffed it.

“We already rolled on it. So did John. That left you.”

There were plenty of things she wanted to say. Plleeeennnnty. She just couldn’t form the words.

Would she have to arrest herself if she whacked him over the head with a stapler? That assumed she could get close enough before Kane intervened.

Virgil crouched, held out Cowboy Bob, and waited for Rusty to creep out of the crate and approach him.

“Pack,” Virgil said firmly.

Rusty sniffed Cowboy Bob. Her tail began to wag.

Virgil set the doll on the floor, belly side up. “Pack.”

The tail wagging became more vigorous. Then Rusty snatched Cowboy Bob and darted into her crate. With her new pack mate nestled between her paws, she settled down for a nap, leaving the adults to sort things out by themselves.

Virgil straightened and turned to stare at Jana.

She huffed and she puffed and finally forced out the words: “Thank you. That was kind of you to find her another toy.”

He continued to stare. “We’re going out to patrol. Tobias Walker says he’s going to teach you to rope things because it is a skill you will need. We will be back before it’s time for you to leave.”

“Okay.”

As he walked out the door, Virgil grumbled something about wolverines. Jana didn’t catch most of it, and she figured it was better for both of them if she didn’t ask him to repeat it.

When she didn’t get an answer the first time, Barb knocked a little harder on Abigail Burch’s screen door. Abby could be in the bathroom; it always seemed like someone who wasn’t expected knocked on the door just when you needed to bring a book or crossword puzzle into the bathroom.

She’d turned away from the door and picked up her boxes when she heard footsteps. She offered Abby a big smile that dimmed as she looked at the other woman.

“I guess this is a bad time. Sorry to have bothered you.”

“It’s all right,” Abby said. “Personal stuff.”

“Want to do something for a neighbor?” Barb felt bad about asking someone who already looked worn-out, but she was asking everyone who already lived on the street. Even John Wolfgard was coming over to help, and the Wolves hadn’t done anything about moving into their own place except pee on the house.

Abby stepped outside. “You need help?”

“The new neighbors do. Because of the kids, their house needs to be cleared out of everything but the furniture.”

Abby nodded. “I’ve got a job now as a cleaner. I told them I prefer doing office buildings to houses, but we’re all coming over to give that house a good scrubbing because of the girl.”

Because of the girl. Normally, Barb would have responded to the curiosity and the question under that statement by telling her friend about the girl. But Jana was sincerely spooked about people finding out about Maddie, and it did seem odd to single out one of the kids when they’d barely been seen, so Barb said, “I heard someone was going to do the cleaning, but the house needed to be cleared first. That’s why I’m asking the people on the street to go over and help. The faster it’s cleared out, the faster Kenneth and Evan and the kids can move in.”

When Abby didn’t respond, Barb wondered if the other woman had some objection to the new neighbors.

Abby said, “All right. I’ll go over with you and help for a while.”

“That’s great.” But it didn’t feel great.

Abby hesitated, then shrugged. “I guess I don’t have to lock it.”

“Do you want to leave a note for Kelley?”

“What for?”

Abby sounded so sad, Barb didn’t know what to say. She just headed for the house across the street and a few doors up from her own home.

“Don’t they want any of this stuff?” Abby asked when they entered the house and looked around.

“They might, especially some of the books and food and linens. For now, Zeke and Fagen are bringing two of the vans they’ve been given for their businesses and will drive all the goods over to the community center. Evan and Kenneth will look over everything and bring back the things that will be useful for their family.” Barb took a scrunchie out of her jeans pocket and pulled her hair back in a short ponytail. “The guys can pack up the living room and family room when they get here. Hannah and Sarah Gott said they would take care of the kitchen. John can pack up the books since he’s in charge of the bookstore. You and I should pack up the bedrooms and bathroom. That’s where the really personal stuff will be.”

“I’ll start in the bathroom.” Abby took one of the smaller boxes.

“Let’s see if there’s a shoebox in one of the bedrooms that you can use for any prescriptions we find. Those need to be boxed separately from everything else.”

They went into the master bedroom. Easy enough to find a shoebox. The woman who had lived there must have bought a couple of pairs of shoes just before . . . things went bad. Barb removed one pair of shoes and turned to hand the box to Abby—and wondered why Abby looked like the top of the dresser was filled with venomous snakes instead of a scatter of pendants and bracelets.

“You okay?” Barb asked.

“Yeah.” Abby grabbed the shoebox. “Fine.” She bolted out of the room.

Barb found suitcases tucked under the bed. As she filled them with the nicer clothes in the closet, she wondered why a woman who felt such revulsion for jewelry would marry a jeweler.

Abigail stared at the items in the medicine cabinet. What were they supposed to do with an open bottle of aspirin or cough syrup? If people threw the things out, would they regret the waste a year from now if the companies that made those things didn’t exist anymore? But who wanted to use aspirin or cough syrup from a stranger’s house?

She reached for a pill bottle. What about prescriptions? The mayor and sheriff had approved this house for the new family, but had whoever vetted it known that the woman who had lived in this house had used pills in order to sleep? She hadn’t found anything besides over-the-counter drugs in her house, but that didn’t mean sleeping pills were uncommon. Prairie Gold had been just as close to the Elder Hills as Bennett, and everyone had a sleepless night on occasion, but the people in Prairie Gold hadn’t felt—and still didn’t feel—threatened by the Others. Maybe the people here had always felt threatened. Maybe that had made it easier for them to side with the HFL.

She opened the bottle of sleeping pills. A quick search in the cabinet that held personal kinds of supplies netted a bag of cotton balls. Stuffing a cotton ball into the pill bottle, she closed it and slipped it into the pocket of her dress, then shimmied a little to make sure nothing rattled.

Hurrying now, she cleaned out the medicine chest and cabinet. She filled one of the larger boxes with towels that looked almost new and just needed a wash.

By the time she returned to the master bedroom, Barb had the bed stripped down, had the suitcases standing near the door, and had filled two boxes with clothes from the dresser. As she stepped into the room, Barb opened one of the top drawers, removed a large jewelry box, and set it on top of the dresser.

“There are two jewelry boxes here,” Barb said. “Maybe one was for costume jewelry and one for good?” She opened the box on the dresser. “Oh, this is so pretty. Maybe I could buy it.” She held up a necklace made of turquoise beads on a gold chain.

Abigail could feel the dissonance between Barb and the stones from where she stood, and anything that brought even a little darkness into Barb’s life would also bring it too close to hers. “Put it back. Don’t touch it.”

Barb looked puzzled and a little hurt. “I don’t think it’s an expensive piece. And it would suit me.”

No, it wouldn’t.

“I’m not going to pocket it,” Barb said. “I’ll just put a note in the jewelry box to say I’m interested and ask Kelley what it’s worth.” She moved her other hand to cup the turquoise beads.

“No!” Abigail screamed. “Don’t touch it. The stones are soured!”

Startled, Barb dropped the necklace.

Abigail started to cry. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. But you’re so . . . bright . . . and happy, and those stones have been soured by someone who was neither of those things.”

“But . . . this house is supposed to be okay for . . . the kids. Joshua told everyone it didn’t have a stain of darkness.”

“Maybe the place doesn’t. Maybe nothing happened here that he would recognize as a stain.”

“Why do you?”

Abigail pointed at the jewelry box and made her hand shake. “The stones. And these.” She took the pill bottle out of her pocket.

Barb looked at the bottle. “Were you going to take that bottle without telling anyone?”

“Yes.”

Barb wasn’t an Intuit, but she had an older brother who was a cop. “Is this connection you have with stones the reason why there’s friction between you and Kelley?”

“He doesn’t know. No one knows.”

“Don’t you think it’s time you told someone about what you can sense?”

Abigail shook her head. “If people know, something might be said and the wrong person will overhear it—and then I’ll end up dead. I’ve been running since I was seventeen, but there aren’t that many places to run anymore, even if I could get there.”

“You’ve been hiding since you were seventeen?”

“Yes.”

Barb sat on the bed. “Abby, you have to tell someone. The Others aren’t going to care if you can sense whatever you sense in jewelry, but they’ll care a lot if they think you’re keeping a secret that ends up causing trouble here.”

Abigail forced herself to move, to sit beside Barb. “I can’t. Barb, you don’t know them. You don’t know what it’s like to be controlled by them.” She closed her hands around Barb’s in a bruising grip. “I can’t support myself in Prairie Gold. If the Sanguinati decide I can’t stay in Bennett, where will I go?”

“Tolya will listen,” Barb said. “And if you can’t tell him directly, tell me, and I’ll tell him.”

Ally and advocate. Yes, that would work nicely. She would become another secret. Like the girl.

Abigail released Barb’s hands and said, “Have you ever heard of the Blackstone Clan?”