“Tess?” she said as soon as the other woman answered the phone.
“Meg? Is something wrong?”
“Elliot Wolfgard was just here. He took Sam back to Simon’s place. Was it all right to let Sam go with him?”
A pause. “In human terms, Elliot is Sam’s grandfather, so there’s no reason why the pup can’t go with him.”
Then why didn’t Simon ask Elliot to watch Sam? “All right. Thanks. Have to go. Someone is at the door.”
“Call me when your visitor leaves.”
She hung up without promising to call and hurried back to the door.
Elliot stepped inside, leaving her to shiver because, once again, he wasn’t far enough inside for her to close the door.
“The enforcer may be willing to protect you, but the rest of the Wolves will never forgive what you’ve done,” he snarled. “As far as I’m concerned, you’re barely useful meat, and I am going to do everything I can to have you running before the pack as prey for what you did to Sam.”
“I haven’t done anything to Sam!”
He slapped her face.
“Enjoy your evening, meat. You won’t live to see many more of them.”
He went down the stairs, leaving her shaking. A few moments later, she heard Simon’s front door slam.
She was going to die in the Courtyard. She’d known that since the first time she’d set eyes on Simon Wolfgard.
She swallowed convulsively, but her mouth kept filling with saliva. She barely made it to the toilet before she threw up.
Vlad flowed over the snow toward the Green Complex, ready to spend a quiet evening at home. Blair was on his way to pick up Simon and the two guards who had gone with him, Nathan Wolfgard and Marie Hawkgard. If the weather forecast was right about Lakeside getting another foot of snow this evening, the drive home would be slow going.
After hearing that report, he had sent Heather home, closed Howling Good Reads, and locked up the social center. Tess had already closed A Little Bite, and Run & Thump, along with the rest of the Courtyard businesses, had closed an hour after that. But a bar across the street from the Courtyard was still doing a brisk business. He had fed sufficiently on two delightful girls who claimed they had missed their bus and were in the bar drinking while they waited for the next one. He was suspicious about their reason for being in the bar, but he had no doubt they’d been drinking, because he was a little drunk from the alcohol in their blood.
If the weather had been milder, he would have let the girls find their own way to the bus stop, since it was within sight of the bar. By itself, the amount of blood he’d taken from each of them wouldn’t do more than make them tired. But the police officer, Lieutenant Montgomery, paid attention to the Courtyard now, and Vlad didn’t think Simon would appreciate questions about two girls falling into a drunken sleep and dying in a snowdrift so close to where the Sanguinati lived—especially when there was no reason for the girls to die. So he flagged down a cab and paid the driver to take the girls back to their residence at the nearby tech college.
He wasn’t sure he liked thinking of humans as something other than useful prey or concerning himself with their welfare once he was done with them, but with humans stirred up about whatever had happened in the western part of Thaisia, being considerate of the prey here was just healthy self-interest.
As he flowed into the Green Complex and headed for his apartment, he became aware of sounds coming from Simon’s apartment. Sam was howling, an unhappy sound. Probably meant that Meg wanted some time to herself or wasn’t interested in taking any kind of walk with the temperature dropping and the snow falling so heavily.
Passing his own door, Vlad shifted into human form and walked over to the stairs leading to Meg’s apartment. Since the cold and snow didn’t bother him, he would offer to take the pup for a walk. That would at least give them all a bit of quiet.
Her front door stood open.
Shifting back to smoke, he flowed up the stairs and into her apartment. No sign of intruders. No sign of struggle. He flowed into the kitchen and found nothing. Nothing in her bedroom.
Shifting back to human form, he hesitated outside the bathroom door.
“Meg?” he called softly. “Meg? Are you in there?”
“I— Yes, I’m here.”
Ignoring how many ways he might upset a human female by entering a bathroom uninvited, he pushed open the door, then rushed over to her. The room smelled of vomit, which he found repulsive, but not of blood. No injuries then, just illness.
“You’re sick?” Should he call Heather to find out what medicine humans used for stomach sickness? Or maybe Elizabeth Bennefeld. Wouldn’t she need to know about the human body for her massage work?
“No,” Meg replied. “I’m . . .” Tears spilled down her face. She shook her head.
“Sam?”
“Home.”
He knew that much. “You done here?”
She nodded. She flushed the toilet once more and closed the lid. When he helped her up, he saw the other side of her face.
“What’s that?”
She shook her head. When he continued to block her way out of the bathroom, she whispered, “Please. Don’t make this harder.”
Make what harder? Vlad thought.
“I’d really like to be alone now,” Meg said.
Not knowing what else to do, he left her apartment, closing the front door behind him. He hesitated at the top of the stairs, then went down and knocked on Simon’s door.
He heard a crash, followed by Elliot’s angry shout. He knocked again, harder. Elliot finally opened the door enough to look out, his body blocking the space.
Vlad smelled blood. “Problem?”
“A family matter,” Elliot replied darkly.
He leaned closer to Elliot. “If Meg ends up with another unexplained bruise or is frightened into sickness again, that, too, will be a family matter. But the family involved won’t be the Wolfgard’s.”
Threat delivered, Vlad went to his own apartment. He would inform Grandfather Erebus tomorrow. That would give Simon time to settle things in his own way.
Flanked by Nathan and Marie, Simon stepped off the train, walked through the station, and out the door that opened onto the parking lot. There had been bands of snow all along the way, but once the train reached Lake Etu, the snow had turned into serious weather. By the time they reached the train station at Lakeside, Simon figured the snow was going to make all but the main roads impassable.
He breathed out a sigh of relief when he saw Blair brushing off the van’s windows—and he felt his muscles tense when he spotted the police car idling in the parking lot.
After handing his carryall to Nathan, who climbed into the back with Marie, Simon took the passenger’s seat in the front of the van. Blair got in on the driver’s side a moment later, turned on the wipers, and put the van in gear.
Simon tipped his head toward the police car. “Is there some trouble I should know about?”
Blair shook his head. “I think that lieutenant who comes sniffing around wanted to know when you returned.”
The tire tracks from the cars that had arrived to pick up passengers were already filling in with fresh snow. Blair pulled out of the parking space and slowly drove toward the lot’s exit.
“You think we’ll get home tonight?” Nathan asked, leaning forward.
For a moment, Blair didn’t answer. Looking at the other Wolf’s face, Simon had the strong impression the Courtyard’s enforcer wasn’t easy about something. Maybe more than one something.
“Tess called while I was waiting for the train to get in,” Blair said. “Apparently, the Liaison expressed the same concern about you being able to get home. The girl at the lake assured her that you would get home tonight.” He paused, then added, “Vlad called too, but not about the weather.”