Marked In Flesh (The Others #4) Read online

  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.

  Nyx shouted.

  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.

 

  Tess clamped a hand over her mouth.

  Nyx scolded.

  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.

  The Elder withdrew.

  More sounds. It took the second splash for Tess to identify that the Elders were batting human remains into the water-filled street. She would try to warn Montgomery and his men before they went out and found . . . whatever they would find.

  Then she heard another sound that had her struggling to stand up. They were going into the Liaison’s Office? Why?

 

 

 

  A pause.

  One of Meg’s constant places that helped her deal with all the things in the Courtyard that changed. Well, she and Nyx would have to put it back together before they let Meg see it.

  Assuming the Elders weren’t caching special meat in the cupboards.

  Tess tested the sore leg. Hurt but not broken, and not bleeding.

  Henry said.

  Her hair had changed to more green than black, so she dared glance in the direction of the studio, confident that a look wouldn’t harm the Grizzly. He stood at the studio door, watching the Liaison’s Office.

  She caught a whiff of that wild scent that had never been touched by anything human—until now. Then it was gone without so much as a splash, and the oppressive silence, like the fog, lifted.

  Henry stepped out of his studio and approached Tess. “Foolish to take on six enemies when they couldn’t see you well enough to die.”

  She shrugged. “Wasn’t going to let them into the Courtyard.”

  A light came on in the sorting room, and the window cranked open a bit.

  Tess limped to the window with Henry politely following.

  “Nyx?”

  A sigh before the Sanguinati said, “Come to the back door.”

  Henry didn’t wait for Tess this time. He was out of his yard and entering the office before she reached the wooden gate.

  When she limped into the Liaison’s Office, a hurried look around the back room didn’t reveal any obvious damage—more like things had been shoved out of place by something large sniffing around.

  Nothing torn up in the sorting room either, but . . .

  “I heard one of them growl something about the howling not-Wolf and how this place smelled like one of her dens,” Nyx said.

  “Meg’s scent is strong here,” Henry said. “Maybe they liked it.” He didn’t sound pleased about that.

  Tess wasn’t pleased either. The Elders were already sufficiently intrigued by Meg’s relationships with the Others in the Courtyard without giving them more reasons to be curious about her and Simon.

  “That’s not all they liked.” Nyx dropped two clawed and mangled plastic containers on the sorting room table. “They ate all the Wolf cookies.”

  • • •

  Simon opened Howling Good Reads’ back door an inch and sniffed the air. The Elders’ primal tang drifted around the area behind the stores, but they had moved away from the Courtyard. Were they heading back to the wild country, or were the Elders gathering in another part of the city for a massive hunt?

  He poked his head out the door, ready to duck back inside.

  “Simon!” Henry called at the same time Simon heard the phone in HGR’s office ring. Well, Vlad was working upstairs and could take the call.

  The Grizzly’s voice wasn’t coming from the studio or yard; it came from behind the Liaison’s Office.

 

  The tension in Vlad’s voice had Simon running up the stairs to the office.

  Vlad held out the phone. Simon’s heart raced and his body trembled. He’d seen that look on Vlad’s face once before.

  Taking the receiver, he said, “This is Simon.”

  “The metal snake stays in its burrow, or we will kill it.” It wasn’t a voice meant for human speech, and even over a phone line, it scraped against Simon’s bones.

  “Forever?”

  Silence. Had they taken the question as a challenge?

  “The trains bring some of the human foods we use in the Courtyard,” he added.

  “You do not need human food, Wolf.”

  “The sweet blood needs human food.” By this time, Henry, Tess, and Nyx had entered the office. They looked alarmed when he mentioned Meg. All right, there weren’t many things that couldn’t come by truck or ship if they were supplying only the Courtyard, but it would be good to know if trains were no longer a means of transportation.

  “Day dweller,” was the snarled final answer. “It travels with the sun now.”

  Meaning trains, and any cargo, could no longer travel through the wild country between sundown and sunrise—a rule that was already in place but hadn’t been strictly enforced. Simon wondered how many trains would be destroyed and how many passengers killed before humans believed the access through the wild country was really limited.

  But not completely denied—yet.

  “The sweet blood is the howling not-Wolf?”

  “She sings with the Wolfgard,” he replied warily.

  A huff. A snuff. A . . . laugh? Then the buzz in his ear of a disconnected call.

 

 

 

  He whimpered. Couldn’t help it. He put the receiver back in the cradle and noticed Lieutenant Montgomery ha
d joined the group in the office.

  “We’ll need to talk to Captain Burke and Agent O’Sullivan to convey a message.”

  “Can the police get out there now?” Montgomery asked, gesturing toward the windows to indicate the city.

  “Some humans tried to invade the Courtyard,” Tess said. “The Elders killed them. I couldn’t see what was done, but the police should be prepared for something bad.”

  “How many bodies?”

  “Six.”

  “There will be more,” Simon said, then added, “but not so many.” Because Meg, the not-Wolf, had amused some of the Elders.

  “If you have no objections, I’d like the families of police officers to remain here a while longer,” Montgomery said. “The fewer people on the streets, the better.”

  “The Denbys will want to go across the street and check on the house.” Vlad went to the windows that looked out on Crowfield Avenue and the buildings the Courtyard had acquired. “Make sure the curtains or blinds stay drawn on any windows that overlook the streets. And don’t let anyone go out there who doesn’t have to.”

  Montgomery moved to the window and looked out. His brown skin turned gray and he braced a hand on the window frame for support.

  “What is it?” Tess asked.

  “I’m not sure what’s on the lawns of the two apartment buildings,” Vlad said with forced calm, “but there are intestines hanging from the branches of the trees like some strange moss.”

  “Lieutenant?” Simon said softly. The humans couldn’t be pragmatic about the available meat—and with so many human strangers in the Courtyard right now, the Others couldn’t take advantage of the abandoned kills either.

  When Montgomery turned and looked at him, he felt pity for the man. This was a hard truth about who guarded the continent of Thaisia, but Simon thought the other part of the truth would hit humans like Montgomery even harder.

  “In Wolf form, we could help you find all the parts.” He would have to choose Wolves who dealt with humans enough to understand why they couldn’t snack on what they found.

  “I need to call Captain Burke,” Montgomery said.

  “The Business Association’s room is empty,” Henry said.

  They waited until Montgomery went across the hall.

  “When do you want to meet the humans to tell them the rest?” Vlad asked.

  “In an hour, if Captain Burke can get here by then. I want Nathan back here too,” Simon said.

  “Tess needs to tend to her leg, but I will fetch Merri Lee, and she will help Nyx and me put Meg’s office back in order,” Henry said.

  “As much as we can.” Nyx gave Simon a fanged smile. “The Elders ate all the Wolf cookies.”

  He just sighed. What else was there to do?

  After the rest of them went downstairs to deal with humans and sort out what needed to be done, Simon called the Pony Barn and felt relieved when he heard Meg’s voice.

  “Simon? Is that you? Are you all right?”

  “It’s me. I’m fine. Are you?”

  “Yes. Something thought about entering the Pony Barn and . . . they laughed at us.”

  They weren’t laughing at all of you. “They ate all the Wolf cookies in the sorting room too.”

  “They . . . Well! Can you bite them for doing that?”

  Even the thought made him want to hide under the desk. “No. But . . . they might have jumbled things up a bit when they were looking around. Henry, Nyx, and Merri Lee will straighten up the office, but I wanted you to know in case something wasn’t exactly right.”

  “Then I’ll be prepared if something is different.” Meg didn’t say anything else for a moment. “I’ll check with Eamer’s Bakery and see when they can send more cookies.”

  “You’re all right?” Her voice sounded tired.

  “Jester, Sam, and I have been reading a Wolf Team story aloud for Skippy and the ponies. I’m the narrator and the human female who faints a lot.”

  Meg sounded sour about that. Maybe he should invite some of the Wolf Team writers to spend a few days in the Courtyard. He’d bet a month’s worth of cookies that there wouldn’t be human females fainting in future stories if they did visit.

  “Jester reads the parts of the bad humans and the Wolf Team leader, and we’re both helping Sam read the Wolf Team bits,” she continued. “We were just taking a break for drinks and snacks when you called.”

  That explained her tired voice. “Stay there a couple more hours. Then I’ll pick you up and we can check out the Green Complex and the garden.”

  “Okay. Do you need to talk to Jester? He says you probably already know what you need to.”

  “I don’t need to talk to him, but I do have other calls to make.”

  He hung up, wishing he could be reading the Wolf Team with her. But the sooner he dealt with the human things, the sooner he could take care of the things that really mattered to him.

  • • •

  “Henry?”

  Henry stopped wiping off the table in the back room of the Liaison’s Office and considered the tone of Merri Lee’s voice. Not, Help, help, I’ve seen a mouse. More like, I made a rattlesnake angry. What should I do?

  Dropping the rag on the table, he strode into the sorting room at the same time Nyx flowed in from the front room.

  “What’s wrong?” Nyx said.

  Merri Lee pointed at the two cards on the counter above the drawer that held Meg’s prophecy cards.

  The first card was a beautifully rendered but terrifying representation of what Henry guessed was one of the Elders’ forms. Next was half a Wolf cookie. Last was a card that had a simple drawing of a smiley face.

  “That is sooooo wrong,” Merri Lee said, shuddering.

  “Yes, it is.” Henry picked up the cookie. “Leaving food on the counter will attract mice.”

  She gave him a look that told him he’d missed the point.

  “And the Elders shouldn’t have been playing with Meg’s cards.” Nyx opened the drawer and used the tip of her finger to nudge the cards inside. “It might interfere with her reading a prophecy.”

  Now Merri Lee looked at Nyx. “I’m going outside for a minute to get some air.”

  They watched her leave.

  “She seems disturbed,” Henry said.

  “Of course she is,” Nyx snapped. “Don’t you find that smiley-face card disturbing?”

  • • •

  Nathan watched the fog lift to reveal a blue summer sky.

 

  If the Hawk was flying, did that mean it was safe to go out?

 

  He howled out of happiness and scattered the humans who were clustered near the door as he dashed for Captain Burke’s den. The big human looked at him when he entered the room and shifted to pull on his clothes, but Burke kept talking on the phone.

  “Looks like he got the news. If I’m delayed, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, expect us in an hour.” Burke hung up, walked to the doorway, and boomed, “We received the all clear. Go, go, go!”

  Nathan watched the police officers moving out for their own kind of hunt.

  Burke returned to his desk. “I’m expected at the Courtyard in an hour; I can give you a lift home.” Then he held out a piece of paper he’d taken from his desk. “What do you make of this?”

  A message from the Shady Burke. Nathan read it, then handed it back with a shrug. “The humans weren’t going to hold any part of the wild country for long.”

  “It’s the phrase ‘about to get some weather’ that interests me. Did we get some weather, Nathan?”

  The question had a bit of Foxgard slyness. “We had wind, lots of rain.” Not to mention Namid’s teeth and claws roaming the streets.

  “Have you ever seen a human doing magic tricks?” Burke dipped his hand into his pocket, took out a quarter, and held it up for Nathan to see. “Like making coins disappear or pulling rabbits out of a hat?”
<
br />   When he was a juvenile, he had seen a magic act. He’d wanted to find a bunny-filled hat like the magician’s, but all the trading post had was a hat made of bunny fur. “That was a trick? The hat didn’t really hold a bunny?” How disappointing, but not unexpected from humans.

  “Getting hungry?” Burke asked dryly.

  “Yes.” Hopefully the humans hadn’t eaten all the meat in the Courtyard. He was bound to have work to do for the pack, and he wouldn’t have time to chase down a meal.

  Burke moved his hands and the quarter disappeared. “Sleight of hand. Distracting the attention from one thing by drawing attention to something else.” Burke turned his hand and revealed the coin again. “We didn’t get anything like the weather that’s heading for Cel-Romano, did we?”

  “Ask Simon. He might know.”

  “Yes, most likely, he does know.” Burke looked at the quarter. “He has said more than once that the terra indigene learn from other predators. He wasn’t just talking about hunting techniques, was he?”

  It didn’t sound like a question that needed an answer, so Nathan said nothing.

  Burke pocketed the coin. “Well, I expect Commissioner Wallace wants to yell at me for being an alarmist and a pain in his ass, not to mention holding an entire police station hostage—more or less.” He walked to his office door.

  Simon was the Courtyard’s leader and would tell the humans what he wanted them to know. But Nathan felt he should say something to Burke about keeping the police pack denned.

  “Captain? You’re not an alarmist.”

  Burke looked back at him and smiled tightly. “I know.”

  CHAPTER 51

  Earthday, Sumor 1

  “. . .Major flooding in Toland, along with power outages and damage to roads and railways. In a bizarre twist to the storm, a severed head was found on the steps of one of the television stations. It is rumored to be the head of Nicholas Scratch, the motivational speaker for the Humans First and Last movement. It is also rumored that Scratch had taken a ship bound for Cel-Romano before the hurricane reached the Northeast Region of Thaisia. Initial examination by police medical officers confirm there are signs that Scratch had been in salt water at some point, but they refused to comment about whether the head had been severed by tools or teeth.”