All the terra indigene who were present were in human form, and there weren’t as many of them as there were sometimes for a business meeting. But everyone was standing and the room felt too crowded, especially with Erebus present and flanked by two male Sanguinati as well as Nyx. Tess stood between the Sanguinati and Nathan, and her hair was completely red and coiling—a sure sign of anger. Even worse, Henry wasn’t adjusting his hands to eliminate the Grizzly claws.
Trapped in the small space behind Henry and Tess, Nathan paced and panted, despite being in human form.
“What’s going on?” Simon demanded, moving around the low table and the surrounding chairs until he stood closer to Henry than to Erebus.
“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Tess replied, watching the Sanguinati.
“This one bit the sweet blood.” Erebus pointed a finger at Nathan.
“I did not bite Meg!” Nathan gave Simon a pleading look. “I was just trying to hold on to her while she was fighting with Nyx, and my teeth slipped.”
Before Simon could demand an explanation from Nyx, Vlad arrived, followed by Blair. Blair immediately took a position where he could help defend Simon and Nathan. Vlad carefully took a position between the two groups, not committing himself to either side. That earned him a cold look from Erebus, but Simon felt relieved. Not only did he and Vlad work together at HGR; they were neighbors in the Green Complex.
“Nyx?” Vlad said quietly. “You were at the Liaison’s Office helping Nathan guard Meg. Did he bite her?”
After giving Vlad a long stare, Nyx sighed and looked at Erebus. “It wasn’t Nathan’s fault. When I walked into the sorting room, Meg started screaming. There wasn’t any warning or sign of danger. When she pulled the razor out of her pocket, I grabbed her wrists so she couldn’t cut herself. But she kept screaming and struggling …”
“What was she screaming?” Blair asked.
“That’s not important yet,” Simon said. “Is it, Nyx?”
“No, it isn’t. Not now when …” She glanced at Vlad before continuing. “Nathan grabbed one of Meg’s ankles to hold her, and she jerked her leg away from him. That’s when his teeth—a tooth—scraped her through her sock. We didn’t realize anything had changed until she stopped struggling and …” Nyx hesitated.
“She started smelling lusty,” Nathan said.
Simon snarled, and his canines lengthened as he turned toward the Wolf he had trusted to guard Meg.
“I wasn’t trying to smell her,” Nathan protested.
“She stopped struggling and started saying the same things over and over,” Nyx said. “Glass jar. Smoke. Pickles. Hand.”
Erebus hissed. The sudden rage filling his old-man face made it terrible to see. As a friendly warning, Vlad had hinted a few times over the years that Erebus ruled more than the Sanguinati in the Lakeside Courtyard. Was, in fact, the dominant vampire in more than the Northeast Region.
For all Simon knew, Erebus could be the one giving orders to every Sanguinati on the whole continent of Thaisia.
“That’s all Meg saw?” Vlad asked, sounding puzzled.
“She saw enough,” Erebus snarled.
“Wait a minute,” Tess said. “I read this. It’s a horror story written by one of the terra indigene, I think. A Sanguinati goes out hunting one night in his smoke form. As he closes in on his prey, the human swipes at the smoke, traps some of it in a glass jar, and manages to run away. When the Sanguinati shifts back to human form, the smoke in the jar turns into a hand—the same hand the Sanguinati is now missing.”
“A truth and a warning hidden as a story,” Erebus said.
Everyone froze.
“That’s possible?” Simon said, turning toward Vlad, who looked shocked.
Vlad swallowed hard. “A horror novel published last month and written by a human had a similar storyline. I didn’t mention the book to any of you because I didn’t think such a thing was possible.”
“It is possible.” Erebus stared at Vlad. “You will give me the name of that human.”
“If the human dies suddenly, it will give weight to the story,” Simon said.
“You will give me the name of that human,” Erebus said again.
Simon looked at Vlad and nodded. The terra indigene who lived in the Courtyards were always at risk from the humans they watched. If the human who wrote the story knew this was an effective way to harm Sanguinati, he had gotten the information from somewhere or someone. Even if he made it up, there would be humans foolish enough to try to capture a vampire in a jar just to see if it could be done. And if even one human was successful … “Vlad and I will look for other books with similar stories—especially anything written by humans.”
“Why now?” Tess asked. “Why are stories about trapping Sanguinati being published now?”
“There have always been such stories,” Erebus said. “We will deal with this as we have done in the past.”
“How is that?” Simon asked.
“By giving humans a reason to tell a different kind of story.” Erebus looked at Nathan. “As for the Wolf …”
“My decision,” Simon said. “And Meg’s. If she wants Nathan to remain as the office’s watch Wolf, then he’ll remain.” He met Erebus’s eyes, refusing to back down. Erebus might be the leader of all the Sanguinati in this part of Thaisia, but he was the leader of this Courtyard.
“Yes,” Erebus finally said. “I will accept your decision.”
More truthful, Erebus felt a mix of wariness and affection for Meg, so he would abide by her decision.
“In that case, Lieutenant Montgomery will be here soon to talk to Jenni, Starr, and Julia about what they saw when the humans ran over the crows on the baited street. I’ll talk to Meg.” Simon took a step toward the door, then stopped. “And everyone in this room is going to think about why Meg went crazy twice in one morning!”
“She did not go crazy, Simon,” Henry growled.
“She was grabbing for the razor when she was already out of control,” Simon growled in return. “What do you call it?”
Not waiting for an answer, he strode out of the room, then rushed to the Liaison’s Office. John and Meg were in the sorting room. When Simon walked in, she bristled and said, “It wasn’t Nathan’s fault.”
“Go back to work,” Simon told John. He waited for the other Wolf to leave, then took a position on the opposite side of the sorting table from Meg. It occurred to him that they often had the table between them when they had something to discuss.
How many other terra indigene instinctively did the same thing in order to avoid touching her skin during a potential argument?
When Simon was sure they were alone, he said, “Let’s see the wound.”
“It’s not a wound. It’s barely a scratch.” Meg sounded snappish in the way of many small creatures when they were cornered and tried to sound threatening.
“It bled,” he snapped in return, showing teeth that were a little too long to be human. “It bled enough for you to slip into speaking prophecy, so let me see the wound.”
“Well, you can’t see it when you’re standing over there.” Snappish. Defensive. Scared.
Why scared? He wouldn’t hurt her. Okay, he used to threaten to eat her because she annoyed and confused him so much, but that was before she almost died leading the enemy away from Sam. Besides, he’d sensed from the very beginning that she was not prey and, therefore, not edible.
As he walked around the table, she put her right foot on the top step of the step stool she used to reach the higher mail slots in the sorting room’s back wall. She pushed down her sock.