She brushed her long black hair and put on the charm bracelet. She couldn’t ask the Sanguinati for a reward for finding the bit of shiny paper, but wearing the bracelet would be a hint that, maybe, a reward should be given. Hinting wasn’t the same as asking and should be safe.
Aggie grabbed the envelope and ran out of the cabin. First she would show Miss Vicki and also make sure she hadn’t missed any clothing she should be wearing. She had studied humans carefully before renting the cabin at The Jumble, but sometimes she didn’t get the human things quite right.
Reaching the screened porch that ran across the back of the main house, Aggie turned the handle on the door and was a little surprised that it was unlocked. But Miss Vicki had planted flowers and did come out early to water them. That must be the reason.
Moving silently across the wooden floor, she reached the screen door that opened into the kitchen. She raised her hand to knock because that would be polite. Then Miss Vicki turned and Aggie saw the bandage, saw the purple shadows that were on one side of Miss Vicki’s face.
Aggie backed away from the door. She’d read enough stories to know what bandages and those kinds of shadows meant.
She dropped the envelope as she bolted across the screened porch and out, letting the door bang behind her, forgetting that she’d intended to be quiet. No, she should not be quiet. This was bad. So very, very bad.
She didn’t just send the warning to her Crowgard kin. She sent the warning to all the terra indigene around Lake Silence.
<Somebody attacked Miss Vicki!>
CHAPTER 27
Grimshaw
Firesday, Juin 16
Partially dressed, Grimshaw grabbed his mobile phone on the second ring, knowing no one called a cop early unless they needed something.
“Grimshaw.”
“Wayne, get to The Jumble,” Julian said. “Something is happening, and I don’t think it’s good for any of us. I’m heading there now to see if there’s anything I can do.”
“You have a feeling?”
“I saw . . . Gods, I’m not even sure what I just saw. A male and female on horses, galloping toward Vicki’s place.”
“A man and woman on horseback doesn’t sound serious.” But Julian sounded . . . odd. Scared. And that was not good.
“The riders weren’t human, and despite what the animals looked like, I don’t think they were actual horses.”
Police officers who worked highway patrol studied every scrap of information they could about the kinds of terra indigene they might encounter, and what Julian had just described was among the most dangerous and feared. “Elementals.”
“That would be my guess.”
“I’ll be there. Wait for me at the chain. Don’t go up to the main house on your own.”
Instead of answering, Julian hung up.
Swearing fiercely, Grimshaw finished dressing and rushed out of his room and down the stairs.
“Coffee’s ready,” Paige said with her usual cheer. “We have—”
“No time.” He went past her as Osgood popped out of the dining room.
“Sir?”
“Man the phones.” Grimshaw kept going. He yanked open the front door and almost knocked down the bank’s former manager.
“I want to make a complaint!” The man was red-faced.
“Osgood!” Grimshaw shouted. “Deal with this.”
He heard indignant whining about being fobbed off to the junior officer, but he ignored it as he ran to his car. He pulled out of the parking lot, spraying gravel. He hit the lights and the siren.
He should call for backup, shouldn’t go into this thing blind. He didn’t want to bring Osgood. The kid had already had a bad experience at The Jumble and he couldn’t be sure Osgood wouldn’t freeze if he encountered more terra indigene. If he called dispatch for backup, the closest cops around were Swinn and Reynolds, and their presence would aggravate the situation, whatever it might be. And, gods, if they were dealing with angry Elementals, the whole community could be kindling and corpses in the blink of an eye.
No, he’d count on Julian Farrow for backup and hope they both survived long enough to get the situation under control before the terra indigene took care of things in their own lethal way.
CHAPTER 28
Vicki
Firesday, Juin 16
I answered the phone at the same moment a column of smoke flowed through the kitchen’s screen door and shifted into a very angry attorney. Okay, partially shifted, which raised all kinds of questions about anatomy that I was sure the Sanguinati would never answer.
“Vicki? Vicki!” Ineke’s voice blasted out of the receiver and sounded stressed.
“Uh.” I’m not at my best first thing in the morning, and under the circumstances that was the sum total of my vocabulary.
“Something is happening. Grimshaw just peeled out of here like a maniac.”
I heard the siren. It was getting closer. Then I heard a jingle and looked past Ilya Sanguinati. Aggie stood on the other side of the screen door. I thought I’d seen her on the porch a few minutes ago, but she was gone by the time I walked across the kitchen.
A gust of wind rattled the house. I started adding things up and wished I had my little calculator handy because there was a lot to add.
The siren sounded so loud now, I pictured Grimshaw driving right through the front of the house like one of the cops had done in a recent TV show.
A car door slammed. Then another door slammed. Then someone— or something—growled as it headed toward the kitchen.
“Vicki!”
“Ms. DeVine!”
Add one Crow, one angry attorney, one police officer, one bookstore-owning friend, a second gust of wind that might be an opinion, and one Panther that entered the kitchen just ahead of the two men.
“I’ll call you back.” I hung up on Ineke and considered the variety of upset males filling up my kitchen and staring at my face. Oh crap. Crappity crap crap.
“What happened?” Officer Grimshaw asked at the same time Julian said, “You need a doctor.”
“I don’t need a doctor, and nothing happened,” I replied.
Ilya Sanguinati hissed. Cougar growled. Julian made a huffing sound that might have been an angry laugh.
Grimshaw said nothing. Somehow that made him the scariest one of all.
“Nothing happened?” Julian said. “What? You walked into a door? Do you know how many times police officers hear that excuse?”
Double crappity crap crap.
Aggie had eased into the kitchen and worked her way around all the male bodies until she stood next to me. She took my hand—gently. That told me who had blabbed to Ilya and Cougar, but who had said what to Julian and Grimshaw that had them tearing up here right on the Others’ heels?
Suddenly feeling tired and achy, I pulled out a kitchen chair and sat. Then I sighed. “I had a very weird, very scary dream, and when I tried to get away from the gauze-headed monster, I fell out of bed and scraped my head on the bedside table. It’s embarrassing, and it’s nothing to fuss about.”
“You have a blackberry toe!” Aggie said, pointing at my left foot.
We all looked at my big toe, most of which was a solid purple-black.