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.
<Simon!>
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.
<Wolf.>
<Air?>
<The Elders are returning to the wild country, but we think some of them are curious about our Meg and will visit again.>
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.