Written in Red

CHAPTER 20

“Are you sure?” Simon asked, after closing his office door and returning to the desk.

“I’m sure,” Vlad replied. “I followed them from the Green Complex. And this morning, Blair confirmed that the BOW should have been fully charged, since he connected it to the energy source yesterday afternoon, and it isn’t.”

“Then why didn’t you take care of it last night?”

“Why didn’t you take care of it this morning after Nathan told you he’d found Darrell’s scent in the back room and sorting room?” Vlad countered.

Simon glanced at the comfy Wolf bed in the corner of his office—an item several of the Wolves now had in their work spaces—and knew he and Vlad had the same reason for not killing Darrell right away.

He didn’t care what the police or the human government or the whole damn city of Lakeside thought about him tearing out the throat of a human who broke trust with the terra indigene. But there had been the possibility that Meg had asked Darrell to deliver something to her at the Green Complex, and he’d gotten scared when he saw Vlad because he’d allowed Asia Crane to come with him. And there was the slightest possibility that Meg had asked Darrell to help her with something in the back room or in the sorting room. The Business Association wasn’t as strict about keeping known humans out of those rooms since Meg started working for them, mostly because she needed human company to be happy, and the Others wanted her to be happy so she would stay.

Couldn’t eat Darrell if the man really had been doing something for Meg.

“We can’t allow a monkey to break our rules,” Vlad said.

“No, we can’t. But Darrell works for Elliot. Since the man didn’t do more than drive to the Green Complex without permission, I’ll let Elliot decide how to deal with him.” Simon thought for a moment. “After I talk to Elliot, I’ll call Chris Fallacaro and have him change the locks at the consulate and on the Liaison’s Office.”

“What about that Asia Crane?” Vlad asked.

“She was with Darrell and she never left the vehicle. I’m not sure we can call that trespassing,” Simon said. Especially since Vlad let her leave the Courtyard last night. “She’s banned from the Courtyard, starting now. And that includes the stores, even HGR and A Little Bite.” The relief that he had a reason to keep her far away from Meg was so sharp, it almost hurt.

If Meg got mad at him for banning Asia, he would accept it. He would. For a little while, anyway.

“All right,” Vlad said. “I’ll inform Grandfather of the Wolfgard’s decision. You talk to Elliot.”

When Vlad left, Simon stretched his neck and shoulders, feeling the pop of tight muscles loosening. That done, he called Elliot, then sat down and worked out the wording for the flyers Lorne would make for him as soon as the Three Ps opened.

Vlad flowed under the door of Elliot’s office, a patch of smoke moving over the carpet, keeping close to the wall. He didn’t care that Elliot saw him enter and knew he was going to listen to the Wolf deal with the human. He just didn’t want Darrell to notice he was there.

While there was no doubt that the human would be dismissed from his job at the consulate, there was no certainty he would get out of the Courtyard, despite the short distance between the consulate’s door and the delivery area’s street entrance.

No matter how fast a human could run, the Sanguinati could move faster. And per Erebus’s orders, unless Vlad was convinced that Darrell had done nothing more than act foolishly because of a woman, the man wouldn’t get past Nyx when he bolted for the presumed safety of the human-controlled land.

“Mr. Wolfgard?” Darrell said as he fiddled with the knot in his tie. “You wanted to see me?”

“Yes,” Elliot replied, his voice smoothing into a sound that gave nothing away. “Do you know why?”

“No, sir. But . . . someone emptied my desk and put some of my personal items in a box.”

“No, we put all of your personal items in the box. The rest of the items in the desk actually belong to the consulate. Now you’ll hand over the keys you were given, as well as your pass to the Market Square.”

“But . . . why?”

“You’re being dismissed for a breach of trust.”

Rapid breathing. Pulse spiking. Face turning pale. And even with all those acknowledgments, the fool still tried to deny what the Others knew.

“I didn’t,” Darrell said.

“I hope for your sake that the breach begins and ends with you taking that female to the Green Complex. I hope you understand what will happen if you become indiscreet about what you’ve seen or heard in the consulate.”

“Sir, I think I’ve done a good job here,” Darrell began.

“You did. I was pleased with your work. But you broke the trust we had given you, and now you have to go. However, before I let you leave this room, I need one answer: What were you looking for in the Liaison’s Office?”

“I wasn’t in the office,” Darrell protested. “I was in the abovestairs room I was told I could use last night. I was with my . . . friend . . . until I woke up this morning.”

“So you were never in the office?” Elliot asked, his voice still smooth.

“Sure, I was in the office. Went to pick up the consulate mail a few times.”

“Why?”

“Why?”

“Yes,” Elliot said patiently. “Why? You’ve never done that before.”

Darrell squirmed in the chair. “I wasn’t comfortable being around the other Liaisons. But Meg is a pleasant girl, and she always has the mail bundled in an orderly manner. I just thought picking it up would be a friendly gesture.”

And a way to set up Meg as the next potential friend if Asia Crane didn’t work out? Vlad wondered.

“Whose idea was it to go to the Green Complex?” Elliot asked. “Your pass doesn’t extend beyond our business district without permission, and your guest didn’t have permission to go anywhere last night except the designated room for your . . . social interaction.”

“She wanted to see it, as an adventure.”

“See what? It was late. It was dark.”

“I think she wanted to see where Simon Wolfgard lives.” Darrell hung his head and talked to his tie. “She said she wasn’t interested in him anymore, but I think she is. I think she pretended . . .”

Vlad said.

Leaving Elliot to finish the dismissal, Vlad flowed under the door, shifting to human form when he was in the hallway. When he got outside, he stopped long enough to tell Nyx that Darrell was allowed to leave the Courtyard intact. Then he walked down the access way between the buildings and stopped behind the Liaison’s Office.

The truck from Fallacaro Lock & Key was already there, and Chris Fallacaro was working on the office’s back door. Blair was watching him, which was probably why it was taking the human so long to change a lock. Having youngsters watching in order to learn was one thing. Having the Courtyard’s primary enforcer watching was something else altogether.

And there was Meg, pulling up and looking confused because the truck and Blair’s BOW effectively blocked her ability to park her own vehicle.

They hadn’t discussed what they were going to tell Meg, and he didn’t want to push Simon—especially when they weren’t on opposite sides. He would have preferred a more permanent solution to ridding themselves of Asia Crane, and he should have taken care of it last night. Since he’d made the wrong choice, he thought Simon should be the one to take the direct approach now—and provide them all with some blood and meat in the bargain.

But what would they have said to their Liaison? It’s like this, Meg. We didn’t like that Asia Crane, so we ate her.

When dealing with humans, honesty isn’t always the best policy, Vlad thought as he walked over to the BOW and opened Meg’s door.

“What’s going on?” Meg asked as she got out of the BOW.

“Let’s go inside. It’s cold out here.” He cupped her elbow as they walked to the back door.

Blair said something to Chris. The man jumped, whipped his head around in a way that must have made a few muscles twang, then pulled the door open wider for Meg to slip inside.

She swapped boots for shoes, hung up her coat, and went through to the other rooms to open up the office. Vlad followed her, then stood in the Private doorway while she leaned against the counter.

“What happened?” she asked.

“A breach of trust. Darrell broke one of the rules,” he replied, wanting to be blunt and direct as he would be with one of his own kind. But he suddenly wondered how much blood prophets in general, and Meg in particular, knew about sex and felt the need for caution when explaining why the human was upstairs last night. “He’s been dismissed. Since he had a key to the consulate as well as keys to this building, we’re getting the locks changed.”

“Do you do that every time an employee leaves?”

“Not every time.”

She paled, which alarmed him.

“Is Sam in danger?” she asked.

Interesting question. “I don’t think so.”

Of course, Nathan chose that moment to open the front door. He paused when one of the Crows cawed at him, then raised an arm in invitation. The Crow flew over, and the two of them came inside. The Wolf shot one look at the bed, then stomped the snow off his boots and approached the counter. The Crow hopped from arm to counter, sliding a little.

Meg looked at the two of them. “Good morning, Nathan. Good morning, Jake.” She slanted a look at Vlad. “Are you all going to stick around here?”

“Until the locks are fixed. Once the locks are changed, Blair will meet Chris at the Utilities Complex to make all the sets of keys. Front door lock will be changed too.”

“All this because Darrell broke a rule?” Meg asked.

“It was an important rule,” Vlad replied smoothly, trying to balance Nathan’s growl.

The crunch of tires on snow made all of them look toward the delivery area.

Meg pulled her clipboard from under the counter and accepted the pen Jake offered. “Try not to scare the deliverymen, all right?”

“Caw,” Jake said.

Vlad stepped into the sorting room, where he would be out of sight. It didn’t escape his notice that Jake was the only one of them to offer her any assurance about that.

He didn’t think it had escaped Meg’s notice either.

After giving her approach a good deal of thought, Asia walked into Howling Good Reads, satisfied that she had hit the right balance: makeup just a little too heavy, as if she were trying to cover up something; hair styled but not as well as usual; a cowl-neck sweater that would show off the bruises on her shoulders when she moved in certain ways, but didn’t shout that she wanted them seen.

The special messenger had done a good job pretending to be a milquetoast who suddenly turned rough. But if a Wolf shoved his nose where it had no business being, all he would smell was Darrell.

The girl at the register looked at her and paled. Asia thought it was because Heather had glimpsed the bruises. Then she caught her own name in big letters on some kind of flyer next to the register.

She took a step toward the register. The next thing she knew, Simon Wolfgard was blocking her, snarling in a way that destroyed any pretense of his being human.

“Asia Crane, you are banned from the Courtyard,” he said in a voice filled with authority and anger. “That includes all the stores within the Courtyard.” He took a step toward her, forcing her to take a step back. “That includes this one. You can leave this time, but if we see you on our land again, we’ll kill you.”

The customers at the front of the store froze.

Asia lifted her chin, switching her performance from rough-sex victim to defender of humankind. “You can’t ban me from a store. That’s discrimination. None of you would be able to buy any of your precious junk if human stores discriminated against you.”

“They discriminate against us plenty. That’s not the point. The point is, you went sniffing around where you don’t belong, and we caught you, but we’re going to let you and Darrell walk away this one time. Yes, we banned him too. As for the rest of you,” he said, addressing the other customers, “if you want to shop at other stores because we banned the two people who broke our rules instead of banning all of you, that’s your choice.” He turned back to Asia. “And you’re out of time. Get out now or die.”

He grabbed one of the flyers and slapped it against her chest. “Take this with you so you don’t forget.”

She took the flyer, crumpling it in her hand. She considered making a parting comment, but she realized he was looking for an excuse to kill her right there, right now. He would splash her blood over half the store and count the loss of merchandise as worth it.

“What did I ever do to you?” she whispered, pleased with the natural quiver in her voice.

He leaned toward her, and his voice was just as low. “When I find out, I’ll come hunting for you.”

She walked out of the store, her mind racing. She’d always paid in cash for anything she’d bought at HGR or A Little Bite. Hadn’t she? She was Margaret A. Crane on all the ID her backers had provided for her, and that was a common enough name. So she wouldn’t be easy to find. Even Darrell hadn’t known where she lived.

As she got in her car, a patrol car pulled into the Courtyard parking lot. The officer who got out and headed for HGR was one of the cops who dropped by daily.

Asia’s stomach did a funny little flip. Was that Wolf going to hand out those flyers to the cops?

She was getting way too much attention, and all the wrong kind. If the special messenger got wind of this and informed his benefactor, it could be the end of a very lucrative arrangement. Even her backers now wanted her working in tandem with this benefactor’s men and would be keenly unhappy if her actions blew the whole operation by making the Others too antagonistic against humans.

But the benefactor’s special messenger had known what she was going to do today. After all, he’d helped her with this charade. So all she had to do was convince him that getting banned from the Courtyard had been part of her plan all along.