“Freshly found,” a fourth voice sang.
That explained why the Five hadn’t helped the Crow. It was one explanation, anyway. He chose not to consider any others.
Another flutter and a fading word. <Help.>
<Jozi?>
Ilya flowed to the top of the dock, then shifted to human form as he knelt and reached for the Crow. Time enough to find out how she’d ended up there.
Panicked flapping of wings that set her swinging. <No!>
<Jozi, it’s Ilya.>
<No!>
“Bloodhunter?” No singsong teasing in the fifth voice. Just deadly suspicion.
Ilya didn’t turn around, didn’t look. He lifted Jozi by the legs with one hand and snapped the string with the other, leaving a couple of inches dangling from the dock. The moment Jozi stopped flapping and fluttering, he wrapped both hands around her.
“She’s confused,” he said.
He didn’t hear them retreat to the shadows among the trees, but he felt their absence. Hurrying off the dock, he headed for The Jumble’s main house.
“Is she confused?” the fifth voice asked. “Is she really?”
He hoped so. For the sake of every Sanguinati living around Lake Silence, he hoped so.
CHAPTER 59
Grimshaw
Earthday, Novembros 4
Grimshaw called Osgood, then sat in his cruiser to wait for the rookie to show up for work before he headed out to the Mill Creek Cabins to find out about the missing professor.
The cat bothered him. It bothered him enough that he pulled out his wallet, stared at the paper with the phone number, then made another call.
“Yes?”
He wondered if Stavros Sanguinati was watching him from some dark corner. “Would an Elder kill a cat? Would any form of terra indigene?”
“Was the cat threatening one of its young?” Stavros asked.
“Doubtful. It was a small domestic cat.”
“Was the Elder hungry?”
“A cat that size wouldn’t even make an appetizer. But the cat’s blood was used to write a message on the steps of the government building.”
“Are you sure?”
Grimshaw stared at the government building. He didn’t doubt for a moment that the message was written in blood, but something about the way the cat’s head had been shoved into the hollowed-out belly bothered him. And now that he thought about it, the way the words had been misspelled bothered him too.
Getting out of the cruiser, he walked over to the corpse. As it was Earthday, none of the government offices were open. Employees usually used the back entrance anyway since there was a parking lot behind the building, so they might not notice the “encouragement” that had been left out front. Would Roundtree call someone to remove the carcass and wash off the steps before the offices opened for business tomorrow?
Or was the mayor foolish enough to think he’d take care of that?
He crouched, reached—hesitated. Then he pinched the cat’s neck with two fingers to pull the head up and . . .
“Crap.” He released the neck and stepped back. “It’s a fake,” he told Stavros. “Some Trickster Night prank using a hollowed-out toy.” But a high-quality toy with realistic faux fur that could fool a person at first glance—especially if that person was more concerned about the rest of the tableau.
“Ah,” Stavros said. “That is good news for the cat. But it leaves you with a problem.”
“Yeah, I know.” Grimshaw ended the call and returned to his cruiser.
He had a problem, all right, because something had been bled to leave that message for Mayor Roundtree—and as he considered the way the words had been misspelled, he wondered if a human was, or humans were, trying to implicate the Others in order to cause more trouble in Sproing.
CHAPTER 60
Julian
Earthday, Novembros 4
Julian stood inside the main house’s screened porch, drinking coffee while he waited for Ilya Sanguinati.
Michael Stern had called a few minutes ago to check in. Nothing around the cabins last night to cause alarm. They had food, but could he come up and fill a thermos with coffee to share with Ian and Jenna?
Julian felt a little guilty about saying no since he was on his second mug of caffeine, but he wanted Ilya to see everything before anyone else came up to the house. And it bothered him that whatever happened last night had occurred while he’d been sleeping in the next room. It bothered him that something had left Kira groggy and Aggie so disoriented and weakened that she couldn’t shift to her human form to tell them what, if anything, she knew.
The quick thump on the bedroom window that woke him up, followed by that warning rattle, bothered him most of all. Would something or someone have tried to harm Vicki if he hadn’t been there? Had she been the target all along?
He spotted Ilya hurrying toward the house from the direction of the lake. Not unexpected. The access road was still blocked by cars, so Boris couldn’t have driven the sedan up to the house to drop off the Sanguinati’s leader.
Then he noticed the black bundle Ilya carried. Setting his mug on the nearest table, he rushed out to meet the vampire.
“What . . . ?” Julian pivoted to open the porch door.
“It’s Jozi,” Ilya said.
Still alive, Julian thought, feeling a moment’s relief. But if this is Jozi, then who . . . ?
“I found her at the dock, tied upside down.” Ilya laid her on one of the porch chairs. “I think she was there for a while, and she’s very upset.” He glanced around the porch, as if making sure she couldn’t get out.
There was a local veterinary practice that took care of the animals on the nearby farms as well as people’s pets, but Julian didn’t know the office’s phone number offhand and didn’t know how much the vet might know about terra indigene forms.
“Should I call Michael Stern and ask him to deliver a message to Eddie?” he asked. “Do the Crowgard have their own healer?”
“All the gards have healers for their own kind of terra indigene,” Ilya replied. “But there is no physical injury that I can detect.”
“What about anemia?” The words were out as soon as the thought formed.
Ilya gave him a cold stare. “Is that an accusation, Mr. Farrow?”
“That’s a question, Mr. Sanguinati. Jozi was taken and didn’t struggle or sound an alarm. Kira was groggy when we woke her. Aggie is still disoriented to the point she can’t shift to human form. Something entered Vicki’s apartment through an open window on the second floor without anyone waking up and realizing we had an intruder.” He paused. They needed to work together, so arguing with Ilya was pointless. “You should see the body before we discuss this further.”
Ilya glanced at Jozi, who didn’t seem to be paying attention to them. “If Victoria has some available, perhaps she could offer a small amount of orange juice to Jozi and Aggie—and a little food.”
“I’ll ask her. The body is around the side of the house.” He waited until Ilya headed in that direction before he went inside to find Vicki and tell her about giving the Crows some juice. It’s what humans were given when they donated blood at a hospital.
He wished Ilya hadn’t suggested the juice, since it confirmed his suspicion about blood loss causing disorientation.
CHAPTER 61