by Anne Bishop
She took the wooden box out of the drawer, set it on the table, and removed all the cards, spreading them out. Pins and needles filled her breasts, made her nipples burn. Made her grateful she didn’t have to use the razor on that part of her body.
“No!” she snapped as Sierra reached for one of the cards.
“Having someone else handling the cards interferes with Meg’s ability to find the answers to people’s questions,” Merri Lee explained, moving Sierra’s hand away from the cards.
“This is absurd,” Sierra said angrily. “He has no right to say that I’m unfit to take care of my girls.”
Meg’s hands buzzed. “What is your question?”
Before Sierra responded, Merri Lee said, “Two questions. The first is, what will happen to Bonnie and Carrie if they are separated from their mother?”
Meg closed her eyes and silently repeated the question. Her fingers brushed the cards until one card produced a painful buzz in her left hand. She opened her eyes and turned the card so they could all see the answer.
“Future undecided,” she said, feeling troubled.
“What does that mean?” Sierra demanded.
“It means they could be fine and have a good life, or things could go badly for them,” Merri Lee replied. “But right now, there is no clear answer.”
Meg put the card facedown and set it to one side. “Second question.”
“What will happen to Sierra if she continues to allow her brother to pressure her into doing things she knows are wrong?”
Meg sucked in a breath. She could have sworn she’d just felt the silver razor’s kiss against her skin. She followed the buzz, partially distracted by the icy pins-and-needles feeling in her left wrist—the exact spot where she thought she’d felt the razor.
She found the card that buzzed with the answer to the question, turned it over, and stepped back from the table before opening her eyes.
Merri Lee looked pale. And Sierra? Fascinated? Horrified? Meg didn’t want to spend her energy trying to recall a training image that matched Sierra’s expression, especially after she looked at the card she’d drawn for the young woman’s future.
Hooded figure holding a scythe.
“Death,” Merri Lee whispered. “Cyrus will push and push until something happens that kills you. You keep saying you owe him. You said it to me, to Theral, to Eve, even to Mrs. Debany, trying to get anyone to agree with you that you owe him. We all told you the same thing: just because you believed what he told you when you were a little girl doesn’t make it true. But we’re not talking about him getting more than his share of a treat because you gave up part of yours. Not anymore. You’re an adult and you’re going to lose a lot more than a cookie. It’s time to stop wrecking your life while you still have one.”
Sierra ran out the back door, sobbing.
“Go after her,” Meg said.
“Are you all right?” Merri Lee asked.
She nodded. “I need to think about some things.”
She waited until she was sure Merri Lee was gone. Then she brushed her fingers against the cards and asked a question of her own.
Why is Simon allowing Cyrus Montgomery to stay around the Courtyard?
Cyrus being Lieutenant Montgomery’s brother wasn’t enough. There had to be another reason.
Strictly speaking, her question didn’t lend itself to prophecy, and she wasn’t certain she’d be guided to an answer. Then her fingers burned. She picked up the card, opened her eyes, and turned it over. She dropped the card faceup on top of the rest.
Meg stared at the card. Stared and stared as she thought about children and mothers and safe places to build a life.
She picked up the phone and called Steve Ferryman. And then she called Simon.
• • •
“You’re buying the Stag and Hare?” Simon cocked his head and studied Captain Burke. “Why are you telling me? The terra indigene don’t drink alcohol.” At least, not from a glass. The Sanguinati had been known to get a little tipsy when they fed on someone who had been consuming alcohol. And Wolves and other shifters could be affected by drugs or other substances in a human’s blood. But going to a tavern wasn’t something the Others did by choice, because humans pumped up on liquid courage could be dangerous.
“The Stag and Hare also serves food. Pub grub.” Burke smiled. “It will provide a place in the neighborhood where everyone could mingle. The place has a large-screen television. Customers come in to watch sporting events. Another kind of experience for your people, and a safe place for mine.”
“For the Wolf lovers.” Simon suddenly understood. It had never been safe for someone like him to go into that kind of place. But it wasn’t safe for a human like Kowalski or Debany to go into a drinking den either. Not anymore.
“Why are you telling me?” Simon asked again.
“Customers of the Stag and Hare have caused you some trouble in the past.”
True, but the last humans who crossed the street intending to cause trouble had been killed by the Elders, and their intestines had ended up festooning the nearby trees.
Maybe that was the reason the tavern was for sale?
“The other reason I’m telling you is because I wanted to float an idea,” Burke said. “I’m wondering if an Intuit from Great Island would be interested in managing the tavern. I’m wondering if one of the Sanguinati would be interested in learning to tend bar. Some of the waitstaff will stay because they want the jobs. I think the cook will stay for the same reason. There’s an apartment as well as a small office on the second floor. The apartment would be part of the manager’s salary if he wanted to live there.”
“A business that is a mixed community.”
Burke nodded. “Having a manager who has a feeling about trouble before it starts would benefit all of us.”
“You want me to talk to Vlad and to Steve Ferryman.”
“I do.”
Simon studied the police captain. “You know what happened here?”
“Lieutenant Montgomery told me. I’d like to stay and hear the decision, if that’s all right with you.”
Before Simon could answer, the phone rang. “Howling Good Reads.” He shot to his feet. “Meg? What . . . ? Are you . . . ? I’ll be right there.”
Burke also rose. “Problem?”
“Not yet.” Simon rushed for the door, then stopped when he realized he’d almost left Burke, a human, alone in HGR’s office—something he wouldn’t have considered doing a few months ago.
Burke met him at the door, then went out ahead of him, hurrying down the stairs to get out of the way. Simon brushed past the man and rushed to the Liaison’s Office to find out why Meg needed to see him so urgently before the Sierra made a choice.
• • •
“I already called Steve Ferryman,” Meg said when Simon ran into the sorting room.
The wooden box with the carved lid that Henry had made to hold the prophecy cards was on the table. Three cards were on the table, facedown.
Meg waited until Simon stood next to her. “Merri Lee asked two questions on Sierra’s behalf. What will happen to Bonnie and Carrie if they are separated from their mother?” She turned the big question mark card. “What will happen to Sierra if she continues to allow her brother to pressure her into doing things she knows are wrong?” She turned over the second card.
He bared his teeth. “Death.”
“My question: why are you allowing Cyrus to stay around the Courtyard?” She turned over the card that represented something ter
rible and dangerous—something most humans thought was a fantastical, make-believe creature and most terra indigene, while knowing such forms existed, had never seen. “Your decision has something to do with them, doesn’t it? The Elders are coming back to the Courtyard.”
Simon stared at her as his ears became Wolf-shaped and fur suddenly covered his shoulders and chest. “They’re already here.”
“What do they want?”
“To observe. To learn.”
“They don’t want you to send Cyrus away?”
“Not yet.” He hesitated, trying to think of how to explain. “The human pack connected to the Courtyard is as big now as some of the human settlements in the wild country. The humans here were working well together and working well with us. Then that Cyrus walks in and humans are suddenly fighting among themselves. The Elders want to know why one human can sour an entire pack. If they can’t learn the reason by observing the humans connected to the Courtyard, they won’t allow humans to migrate to any of the reclaimed places. They won’t allow humans to migrate at all.”
Simon touched Meg’s shoulder, wanting contact for a moment. “And I want to understand too, Meg. Humans who cause this kind of trouble usually stay away from us. They certainly wouldn’t be trying to work with us. Not that that Cyrus is offering to do any kind of work.” He paused. “It feels like it should be a fight for dominance, but Montgomery doesn’t seem to understand that.”
“A fight for dominance would decide who is the leader of the human pack?” Meg asked.
He nodded.
“Then it wouldn’t be Lieutenant Montgomery who would fight Cyrus; it would be Captain Burke.”
Simon blinked. He’d been thinking of a dispute within a family pack, but Meg was right. Now that the conflict had spilled over to the rest of the human pack, that Cyrus would have to defeat Burke in order to claim dominance over the rest of them.
Suddenly he was looking forward to watching their next meeting.
Meg lifted her chin. At first he thought she was inviting him to give her a lick. Then he remembered that, in the kissy books, females did the chin lifting as a challenge or to indicate defiance. Since he didn’t know what Meg was challenging or defying, he just waited.
“If we have to let Cyrus stay, then I want you and Steve Ferryman to figure out a way to relocate Sierra and her daughters to Great Island.”
“She’s human, Meg. Ferryman’s Landing is an Intuit village.”
“But Roger Czerneda isn’t an Intuit, and Steve hired him as the village’s full-time police officer.”
“That was different.”
“Yes. Officer Czerneda doesn’t need to be in a place that is beyond someone’s reach.” Meg looked into his eyes. “Being in the Courtyard put me beyond the Controller’s reach, beyond the reach of the human laws he would have used to get me back under his ownership. The Courtyard is a safe place for Theral because it puts her beyond the reach of Jack Fillmore. But it’s not a safe enough place for Sierra because Cyrus is here, because he exerts a kind of ownership over her, and as long as she is within reach, she’ll remain weak where he is concerned.” She rested her hand on his. “Simon, Sierra’s daughters need her.”
Simon turned his hand in order to hold hers. “I don’t think the Sierra’s pups will survive if she’s allowed to keep them.”
Whether the Sierra’s pups survived would matter to Meg—especially after the discovery that the humans who “owned” blood prophets had been killing the girls’ unwanted puppies.
“I’ve been thinking about my friend Jean, who was brought to the compound when she was a small child,” Meg said. “She had a mother, a father, and a brother. She never forgot she’d had a family once or that she’d been taken from them. If we start breaking up families because we decide something bad might happen to the children, are we any better than the Controller or the other men like him? In the beginning, they had claimed they were taking children away from their families for the children’s own good.” She paused, then added, “Give Sierra a second chance.”
“Coming to Lakeside was a second chance,” he argued, “and what did the Sierra do? Called that Cyrus and told him where to find her.”
“Then call this a last chance. One last chance to break free from Cyrus’s hold and build a life for herself and her daughters.”
“What if she doesn’t want to break free?”
Meg looked so sad, he wondered if she was thinking about the cassandra sangue who had chosen to stay in the compounds. They chose to remain a commodity that would be used up in exchange for someone taking care of them so they wouldn’t have to take care of themselves.
“Then that’s her choice.” She sighed.
“It’s also Steve Ferryman’s choice, as well as the terra indigene on Great Island. No one settles on the island without their consent.” Simon ran a hand over Meg’s head. “Your hair is growing. It doesn’t look like puppy fuzz anymore.”
Might not look like puppy fuzz anymore, but he couldn’t resist petting it whenever he thought she wouldn’t growl at him.
Meg and Simon stepped into the front room just as the passenger door opened and a dark-haired man got out.
“What did you tell Steve Ferryman?” Simon asked.
“That we needed to talk to him and that it was urgent,” Meg replied. “But it’s time for that meeting, and it’s better if I stay here.”
Trying not to look too happy when they had serious things to discuss, Simon vaulted over the counter and went out to greet the mayor of Ferryman’s Landing.
“You got here in a hurry.” He smiled as he walked up to where the Intuit waited by the patrol car. The sharp look he received from Steve Ferryman told him that his ears hadn’t shifted all the way back to human yet.
“Meg said it was urgent,” Steve replied. “What happened? You don’t usually look this pleased to see me.”
Meg said “we.” We were talking and we were deciding. Partners in running the Courtyard. And that means you’re not a serious rival anymore.
Not that Steve Ferryman had ever presented himself to Meg as a potential mate. But Ferryman was human and didn’t have to adapt to things that weren’t a natural part of himself.
“Do you mind if Officer Czerneda pulls into the employee parking lot?” Steve asked.
“No, but if he wants food, he’ll need to go to Meat-n-Greens. There is a discussion going on in the coffee shop. That’s part of the reason you’re here.”
Steve gave Simon a long look. “I’m here as the mayor of Ferryman’s Landing?”
“Yes.”
They waited until Roger Czerneda drove the car down the access way before they headed for A Little Bite. Simon told Steve about the Sierra and the choice she had to make. He told Steve about the two cards Meg had drawn in answer to the questions about the Sierra and her pups, and about Meg’s concern for the girls if the Sierra died.
He hadn’t equated the girls with his nephew Sam. What would have happened to Sam if Daphne had died anywhere else but the Lakeside Courtyard? Simon had reached his sister moments after she died, had been there to take the traumatized pup back to the Wolfgard Complex, where he and Elliot had done everything they could to take care of Sam.
Just as Lieutenant Montgomery and Miss Twyla would take care of the Sierra’s pups if they were orphaned. But would that be true of a human pack if the Sierra lived somewhere else?
“I’ll listen,” Steve said. “I can’t promise to do more than that.”
“Captain Burke also wants to talk to you.”
“If Burke wants Roger to transfer to his police station, forget it,” Steve growled.
Simon grinned, appreciating the human’s possessiveness of his own pack. “He bought the Stag and Hare and thinks having an Intuit
as a manager would be a good idea.”
Steve stopped at the back door of A Little Bite. “How would you feel about that?”
“Emily Faire claimed one of the apartments for her den, so the Intuits are already overlapping our territory.”
“One young woman is hardly an invasion.”
“The female pack was the invasion,” Simon grumbled. “Exploding fluffballs. Bunnies with teeth.”
Steve burst out laughing. “I enjoy talking to you, Wolfgard. You face challenges that make my mayoral duties look easy.”
Simon opened the door to the coffee shop and went in first as a courtesy to his guest. If Tess and Nadine were still in a dangerous mood, he could warn Steve, who would have a chance to run away.
The coffee shop was so full of witnesses, Simon almost felt sorry for the Sierra. Tess’s hair was red and green coils, but he didn’t spot any threads of black. Nadine’s hair didn’t give any warning of mood, but Simon noticed that Henry stood behind the woman, ready to grab her if she tried to spring on the Sierra. Vlad was in the archway, keeping an eye on Merri Lee and the rest of the female pack. The police pack was there. So were Elliot and Miss Twyla, as well as Agent O’Sullivan. In fact, about the only humans who weren’t there to witness the Sierra’s decision were Ruthie, who was watching the human pups, Meg, and . . .
Since dumping two extra pups on Ruthie in the middle of schooltime was Vlad’s doing, Simon hoped she didn’t snarl at him about it.
The Sierra stood in the center of the room, looking small and weak. She should have been an auntie helping to raise the dominant pair’s puppies. In fact, that was how that Cyrus seemed to treat her—as someone who was expected to help him raise his pups. That would have been fine if she hadn’t had pups of her own. But even by pack standards, it wasn’t right to expect her to hunt and provide food for all of them while the other two adults did nothing understandably useful.