When it looked like the ambulance had a clear path, Simon growled, “Enough.”
Kowalski looked up, startled. Then he stood and took one careful step away from the Wolves.
“That’s enough,” Kowalski agreed.
<We have to leave,> Blair said. <I can’t stay around wounded prey much longer.>
Simon glanced at his own hands. While handling the crow bodies, his hands had shifted enough to be furry and clawed, but he’d gotten them back to looking human, and he didn’t think anything else had shifted. But he doubted he and Blair would pass for human right now.
<Get Jenni and Starr. Meet me at the van.> He looked around and didn’t see his other companion. <Vlad?>
<This car that crashed,> Vlad said. <It belongs to some of the attackers. Keep the police busy a minute longer.>
I’m not sure I have a minute. And it wouldn’t help matters if his control snapped right now and he ripped out Montgomery’s throat.
But he walked up to Montgomery, who moved away from the injured man.
“Lieutenant.”
“Mr. Wolfgard.” Montgomery’s voice held the same quiet courtesy as usual. “Were any of your people injured?”
“No. They returned to the Courtyard before—”
“Is Ms. Corbyn all right?”
Easy enough to understand the question. If the Crowgard escaped the attack that was similar to the one in Walnut Grove, it was because they’d been warned. And only one person in Lakeside could give that kind of warning.
“She’s fine.” He needed to get back to the Courtyard and confirm that.
“One of the vehicles smashed into trash cans and, as you can see, ended up stuck in the snowbank. The men in the car ran off, but we’ll find them and the men who were in the second car. We will find them, Mr. Wolfgard.”
“They didn’t hurt any terra indigene, so it’s strictly a human problem.”
He said the words. He knew they weren’t true. So did Montgomery.
“If any of the Crowgard saw what happened, I’d appreciate the opportunity to talk to them.”
“Come by the bookstore in an hour,” Simon said. Fur suddenly covered his chest, brushing against the T-shirt he was wearing under a flannel shirt.
Injured prey. Fresh blood. He didn’t want to be in this monkey skin a minute longer, but if he shifted to Wolf …
“I have to go.” He walked away from Montgomery and got in the van. <Vlad?>
The Sanguinati didn’t answer—and there was no sign of him on the street.
Meg heard the Crows cawing and felt the awful prickling under her skin start to fade. She sighed with relief, then gave Nathan a tentative smile. “I’m sorry I tried to step on your foot. You were just looking out for me, and I wasn’t being nice.”
He stared at her with those amber Wolf eyes.
“Would you like a cookie?” Some of the Wolves had decided they liked a cookie that was actually a treat for dogs. They also claimed cookies they bought themselves didn’t taste as good as cookies they got from her. She suspected the taste didn’t change, but the fun of getting the cookies came from pestering her to pull out the boxes of different flavors and persuade the Wolf to choose two cookies.
Nathan stared at her.
“Two cookies?”
He stared at her.
“Three, and that’s my final offer.”
“Arrroooo.”
She took one cookie from each box. Nope. Too easy. So they went round and round until she correctly deciphered his sounds and the way he thumped the boxes with a paw and gave him three beef-flavored cookies. Which he didn’t take to the Wolf bed in the front room as he usually did. No, he sprawled in the most inconvenient spot in the sorting room so that she would spend the morning stepping over him or walking around him. And, oh, how he would howl if she accidentally stepped on him.
Wolves, she was learning, were sneaky when it came to payback.
She made a cup of peppermint tea and finally felt easy again, the prickling in her arms completely gone.
Then Nyx walked into the sorting room.
Vlad flowed just above the snow, searching for signs of the men who had been in the car. In smoke form, the Sanguinati were swift predators. But only when they had some idea of where to find their prey.
Stopping near a tree, he shifted to human form and looked around. If anyone noticed him, they would see a handsome man with an olive complexion and dark hair and eyes, dressed in a black turtleneck, black jeans, and chunky shoes that served as boots. As for what he was seeing …
Unfamiliar streets. Lakeside was a moderate-size city, and it occurred to him now how little of it the Others actually knew. He’d gotten an address from the car registration he’d found in the abandoned vehicle’s glove box, and he’d headed in the same direction as the fresh tire tracks, assuming they had come from the other car that had killed the crows. But the chase had taken him to a street that wasn’t in the neighborhoods surrounding the Courtyard or along a route the Others used to reach the things in the city that were of interest to them, like the nearby plaza or the railway station.
Foolish to go chasing blindly after the men who had tried to kill the Crows. He’d go back to HGR and study a city map, find the street, and then do some hunting tonight.
<Vladimir.>
Vlad tensed at the sound of Erebus Sanguinati’s voice. <Grandfather?>
<Return to the Courtyard now.>
<Has something else happened?>
<Our Meg is upset. You must return.>
<Meg was already upset when I left with Simon and Blair. Why—>
<Everyone else is accounted for, so you are the reason the sweet blood still begs for the razor despite having bled.>
She promised me she wouldn’t cut, Vlad thought grimly as he shifted to smoke and headed back to the Courtyard. Meg had promised not to cut, and she’d been guarded by Nathan and … <Nyx?>
A hesitation before she replied. <Come home as fast as you can. There is something the Sanguinati need to discuss. Henry has summoned the Wolfgard. He’s needed here too.>
A chill went through Vlad. What kind of danger had Meg seen that would threaten the Sanguinati? Or, since Simon was also called back to the Courtyard, was the danger to more than one kind of terra indigene?
Since the answer was in the Courtyard, he used all the speed he had in this form to reach his people.
<Simon, get back to the Courtyard. There’s a potential conflict among the terra indigene.>
Simon growled. When Blair glanced at him, he said, “It’s Henry.” <Trouble because of the Crows?> he asked the Grizzly.
<Conflict between Wolves and the Sanguinati.>
With trouble brewing among the humans, this wasn’t the time for two of the strongest groups of predators to be snarling at each other.
“Get us back home,” he told Blair, his voice grim. He looked over his shoulder at Jenni, Starr, and Julia. None of them had shifted to human form.
As they pulled into the Main Street entrance that serviced the Liaison’s Office, the consulate, and the Market Square, Simon looked in the office window and saw John Wolfgard in human form, leaning against the front counter and chatting with Meg.
<Why aren’t you at the bookstore?> Simon asked the other Wolf.
<Henry told me to stay with Meg,> John replied.
<Where’s Nathan?>
No answer.
Blair parked the van close to the back entrance of Howling Good Reads. Leaving his enforcer to deal with Julia, Starr, and Jenni, Simon hurried into the store and up the stairs to the Business Association’s meeting room. Along with its entryway and coatroom, the meeting room filled half of HGR’s second floor and held a ring of wooden chairs set around a low, round sectional table where they sat to talk over Courtyard business. It also had a secretary desk, filing cabinets, and a computer workstation they used for e-mail or placing orders with human companies.