Gresh had his pack to help him guard the back door, but Burke was facing down these humans alone. He pictured Burke with fur and decided he would have made an acceptable Grizzly.
Reaching the front door—and Burke—Nathan looked out the glass at the fog. The Elders were out there, thinning the herd. He could feel them. If he could convince Burke to open the door just an inch, he could sniff the outside air and get a sense of how close they were to this police den. Since he didn’t think Burke would open the door, he’d do his job another way.
“Arroo!” Nathan howled. “Arroo!” He continued howling to the other terra indigene.
“Burke!” a human shouted. It sounded like that Wallace man. “Make that . . . creature . . . stop that racket.”
“I think he’s trying to save the lives of everyone here by warning off the other predators,” Burke replied. “Do you really want me to tell him to stop?”
Nathan, and Burke, waited for an answer. Met with silence, Nathan resumed his “I am here” howl.
<Wolf.> A voice, deep and powerful—and too nearby. <Are you trapped in this human place, Wolf?>
<No. This police pack works with the Courtyard and with the Wolves. Some of this pack is helping Simon, so I’m here to help the ones who are protecting mates and puppies.>
Something came close to the glass door. Something on two legs that towered over Burke, who was a large human. Couldn’t really see the shape—it seemed clothed in the fog—but the claws that suddenly raked the glass, scoring it, were clear enough.
Humans gasped. Some fell in an effort to move away from the door. The police in uniform stared at him, at Burke, at the glass—and finally, maybe, understood.
“Captain?” one officer said. “When . . . ?”
Burke looked at Nathan, who thought for a moment. The Elders were moving away from this den, but they weren’t far enough away yet that they wouldn’t return if prey suddenly began pouring out the doors.
He took up guard position in front of the door and returned Burke’s look.
“Not yet,” Burke said. “But soon. Patrol officers, work with dispatch and start prioritizing the calls so we can move as soon as we get the all clear.”
Burke holstered his weapon and studied Nathan. “I need to make some calls. Will you be all right here?”
“Arroo,” Nathan replied softly. He didn’t think any humans would bother him while he was between them and the terra indigene who were hunting on the streets.
Tess walked out of the Liaison’s Office, took two steps away from the building, and stopped. She couldn’t see a damn thing in this fog, and she didn’t want the embarrassment of tripping over something—or someone.
Taking a step back, she held one hand behind her and felt the reassuring metal handle on the door.
Main Street should be directly in front of her, just beyond the delivery area and the sidewalk. But she didn’t hear the sound of cars; she heard fast-running water.
Meg would be disappointed if the young plants in the kitchen garden drowned or were smashed beyond recovering by the hail and pounding rain. The rest of the human pack would be disappointed too, but they didn’t quite belong with the terra indigene in the same way that Meg did, and their disappointment wouldn’t ripple through the Courtyard.
Nothing she, or anyone else, could do about saturated ground and runoff and streets turned into streams.
Whispers. Muffled curses. The splash of an animal fording water. The yelp as one of them lost his footing and was swept away.
Tess pushed the hood off her head. No need to maintain a veneer over her true form in order to lessen the impact of looking at her; the fog would serve that purpose now. After all, she wanted to harvest enough life from her prey to make them fatally ill but not immediately. Let them scurry back to the cars parked across the street or their companions in the Stag and Hare who probably had cheered them on when they proposed striking at the terra indigene under the cover of the storm. Too bad they hadn’t realized that the storm had been shaped for the benefit of the other predators who moved through the city now.
Clear stripes in the fog, as if something had raked claws over a gray blanket. Tess saw figures approaching. Four, five, six. Did they have weapons? She had to assume they did, and even one of Namid’s most ferocious predators couldn’t afford to be careless about weapons like guns.
<Nyx, six monkeys are in the delivery area. Can you block the access way in case any of them get past me?>
<I’ll help if you agree to let two get past you,> Nyx replied. <I’m hungry.>
<They’re full of liquid courage.>
Nyx sighed. <I don’t want to get drunk on a meal. One, then.>
<One.>
Six flashlights turned on, beacons that said, We’re here, come eat us!
Seeing no reason not to oblige, Tess moved swiftly, heading in the direction of the man who was closest to the shoulder-high brick wall between the delivery area and Henry’s yard. Her shoulder hit an arm. The man swore and looked directly at her as he tried to grab her.
She pulled away from his weakened grasp, relishing the kind of sustenance she rarely allowed herself to consume since coming to Lakeside. Moving away from him, she heard him stumble toward the street.
The other five turned toward her, flashlights aimed so the light would hit her face and blind her. But she kept moving, looking into their eyes and then looking away from the blinding light. Fatal sips. But the one who swung a piece of chain and managed to hit her leg . . . Tess held his gaze long enough to make it rain inside his skull.
<Tess!> Nyx shouted. <Get inside!>
She had a moment to understand the quality of the sudden silence before two of Namid’s teeth and claws rushed out of the access way and went straight for the illuminated prey.
It was like the fog had turned into huge furred shapes that defied description or naming.
Tess turned to dash into the Liaison’s Office, but the one leg wasn’t working right. She stumbled and hit the brick wall. She reached up, felt air. There was nothing graceful about her scramble over the wall, but she heard claws scrape the bricks as she fell into Henry’s yard and pressed herself against the wall in an effort to hide.
A little too close, she thought. But not a serious attempt to catch her. <Nyx? You okay?>
<Meg left the little window in the bathroom open partway. That was the fastest way into the office. I’m going to have to talk to her about keeping the toilet lid down. I came too close to landing in the bowl.>
Tess clamped a hand over her mouth. <Don’t make me laugh. I’m hiding in Henry’s yard, so I’m not technically inside, and my leg is banged up enough that I’m not going to be able to run for cover.>
<You shouldn’t let humans get close enough to hurt you,> Nyx scolded.
<I miscalculated.> Tess tried to breathe very quietly. There were sounds on the other side of the wall—not exactly feeding sounds, but definitely nothing that came from the humans. In fact, she hadn’t heard one human scream, which told her a lot about the speed of these earth natives.
The quiet scrape of claws on the bricks above her head. The smell of something earthy and so very wild leaning over the wall to sniff her.
Did she dare move enough to meet its eyes? And if she couldn’t harvest enough life from an Elder, could she weaken it enough to get away before it tore her open?
It suddenly occurred to her that her form of terra indigene was one of Namid’s most ferocious predators until you crossed into the true wild country and met the earth natives who lived there.