“Meg!” Sam howled as fur suddenly covered his face and limbs and his head began to change to accommodate a Wolf’s jaws and teeth. He leaped on the boy, and Simon, feeling the same fury as he caught the scent of Meg’s blood, knew what would happen if Sam managed to get his teeth into the boy’s throat.
He grabbed Sam and hauled him away from the boy. “Enough, Sam. Enough!”
Sam snapped and clawed at Simon, trying to get away and reach his enemy. <He hit Meg!> Sam howled. <He hit Meg!>
Simon wrapped a hand around Sam’s throat, a loose collar to prevent the pup from biting him. He snarled, “Stop. Now.”
Then Blair was in Sam’s face, snarling his own warning. The leader and the dominant enforcer had both given the order to stop. If the pup disobeyed now, he would be punished.
Sam sagged in Simon’s arms, panting.
Simon released his hold on Sam’s throat but kept his other arm around the pup. Nathan held on to the human boy, who was wailing as if he’d received more than a bite bruise and a bit of a tear in his skin.
Now that the combatants were secured, Simon looked for Meg, who was sitting on the pavement a few feet away. Blood dribbled from her split lip, staining her summer top. Her lips moved. He couldn’t hear her, but he knew what was happening because Starr wrote on the pavement while Jenni held Meg’s hand and stared at her face.
Emily Faire ran out of the medical office. Her eyes went from Sam, who was still in a between form, to Meg, to the boy. Then she looked at Simon, and he understood: who should she help first?
Seeing Jane Wolfgard running toward them, Simon tipped his head to indicate the boy. “Deal with him.”
The girl broke away from the Hawk and tried to run. Blair leaped in pursuit, then stopped when the girl was suddenly buried under several feet of fluffy snow.
Simon stared at the white pony who was standing near the snow. Avalanche stared back and snorted.
Could have been worse, he thought. The girls at the lake could have sent Quicksand to find out what was going on. But he found it reassuring that the Elementals were keeping their promise to watch the Market Square while the Elders observed that Cyrus and the other humans.
<Blair, dig her out,> Simon said. <Let Skippy help. It will keep him from trying to lick Meg.> No telling what would have happened if the juvenile Wolf had thrown himself into the fight. Now he seemed intent on licking Meg’s wound and snarling at Vlad, who kept dragging him away from where Meg now lay on the pavement.
Theral finally appeared in the office doorway. She, too, hesitated a moment before going over to help Emily Faire deal with the boy.
No need to call the humans, Simon thought as he watched that Cyrus run toward them, shouting. Montgomery and Kowalski were a step behind him, and Debany was doing his best to hold back the human females who were standing at the other end of the Market Square.
<Simon,> Henry said as he moved to intercept the human males.
He didn’t need the warning. He felt the odd silence that suddenly filled the Market Square. And he saw the columns of smoke filling one of the archways—and would bet one of those columns was Erebus Sanguinati.
<Get Meg inside the medical office,> he told Jane Wolfgard.
She nodded and half carried Meg into the building with Jenni providing additional support.
<Nathan, get Sam inside. See if you can help him fully shift to one form or the other.>
Nathan released the human boy, who was making enough noise to attract the attention of every predator in the Courtyard, grabbed Sam, and took the pup into the office.
Blair, having uncovered the girl and provided a way out of the snow pile, stepped back, alert and wary but not sure which attack he might need to meet—human, Sanguinati, Elemental . . . or Elder.
Montgomery and Kowalski grabbed that Cyrus’s arms as Simon turned to face the human.
“Look what that fucking freak did to my boy!” that Cyrus screamed at Montgomery. “You gotta shoot that fucker!”
“Jimmy,” Montgomery said. “Stop. You’re in the Courtyard.”
“Who gives a fuck where I am? Did you see that thing? You gotta shoot it for what it did to my boy!”
“He received a bite,” Simon growled. “He deserved it.”
“The boy stole from the general store,” the Hawk said. “He should forfeit a hand.”
That silenced that Cyrus, but only for a moment. “What the fuck you talking about?”
“He stole from the store,” the Hawk repeated. “If you steal from us, you lose a hand.”
“Nailed him good,” Emily Faire said loudly as she examined the teeth marks in the boy’s hand. “Lost a little skin, and he’s going to have a beaut of a bruise, but I don’t see anything to worry about.”
“Need to get my boy to the hospital,” that Cyrus said.
Simon stared in disbelief. Hospital? It was a bite. From a puppy using mostly human teeth. You just licked it clean and let it heal.
Emily snorted. “I used to get harder bites from my little brother.”
He wanted to object. Even in human form, a Wolf’s jaw had more power than an ordinary human’s, so Emily’s brother couldn’t bite harder than Sam. Then he realized that, as an Intuit, Emily was trying to defuse the anger in the Market Square. She might not be able to tell where all the anger was coming from, but she probably had a feeling that human emotions weren’t that important right now compared to the rest of the beings who were involved in, or observing, this ruckus.
She looked at that Cyrus. “I can take him inside the office, wash his hand with soap and water, and put some healing ointment on the scraped skin, or you can go to the emergency room, wait your turn, and then pay lots of money to have a doctor do the same thing.”
“You should pay for the hospital,” that Cyrus said, glaring at Simon.
“Shut up,” Simon snarled, “or we’ll take the pup’s hand as punishment for stealing and be done with it.”
“Simon,” Montgomery said, sounding courteous but weary.
But Montgomery didn’t hear the odd silence, didn’t realize the Elders were in the Market Square right now watching all of them—didn’t know this was exactly the kind of clash that would get humans killed in other parts of Thaisia where the Elders were the only ones deciding who lived and who died.
Simon focused on that Cyrus. “Your pups are banned from the Courtyard. We will permit them to go into A Little Bite or Meat-n-Greens for food, but only with an adult. If we find them anywhere else or on their own, we’ll take more than a hand.”
That Cyrus stared at him. “You can’t.”
“Yes, they can,” Montgomery said. “Come on, Jimmy. I have first-aid supplies at my place. We’ll take care of Clarence’s hand.”
That Cyrus didn’t move, and the boy looked like he wanted to start another fight when Kowalski tried to lead him away.
“Jimmy,” Montgomery warned. “Let’s go.”
Simon studied the hatred in that Cyrus’s eyes. Hatred, yes, but fear too. And no concern at all about the wailing female pup who had been buried under snow—and who had run to the female pack at the other end of the square instead of seeking comfort from her sire.
When the police and that Cyrus were gone, Simon turned to Emily Faire. “Your brother can’t bite as hard as a Wolf.”