“Maybe someone else thinks there is a loophole that will allow a developer to come in and build a resort or private community on the lake,” Ineke said.
Ilya brushed a few dog hairs off his trousers. “Being aware that your ex-husband had claim to some potentially lucrative land, perhaps other members of his pack put together a plan that would make them money and didn’t realize that Yorick no longer held the paper for The Jumble. If they didn’t want to walk away from the deal, they might pressure him to reacquire The Jumble.”
“How much information would this cabal have about The Jumble?” Grimshaw asked. “By now, they have to know that people were killed there. Why try a land grab and tangle with the terra indigene? I would have thought last summer would be a sufficient lesson in how well that works.”
“It’s been our observation that humans often willfully believe that they can repeat the actions of those who went before them and not suffer the same consequences,” Ilya said.
“But none of this is aimed at the Others,” Ineke protested. “It’s all aimed at Vicki, as if this was strictly a human-against-human conflict and all they have to do is get her out of the way.”
“Maybe this group has people in government who have promised to find a loophole in the agreement or have the original agreement contested in court and thrown out,” Grimshaw said.
“There are no loopholes,” Ilya said. “And contesting it in a human court would not change the terra indigene’s response to invaders.”
Grimshaw had expected that answer. Didn’t mean he liked it.
Julian crouched near the table and tapped one of the wheels as he looked at Vicki. “What it comes down to is your ex-husband could be just a cog in this deal, and whoever is behind it is a much bigger wheel and is going to come after you again.”
CHAPTER 30
Ilya
Firesday, Juin 16
“I have something to show you,” Natasha said the moment Ilya returned to the lodge. “Aggie Crowgard brought it over after you left to take Miss Vicki to the doctor.”
Ilya took the envelope and studied the former bank manager’s name. “We already suspected him of having one of the tie clips and being involved in the threats to Victoria.”
“Aggie thought it was important because it had shiny gold ink.” Natasha smiled, showing a hint of fang. “She mentioned a couple of times that the police might be interested in a shiny envelope and that they sometimes exchanged one shiny for another.”
“Not a precedent I want to follow, and one Officer Grimshaw may come to regret,” Ilya murmured as he considered the return address. “TCC, with a Hubb NE address. Tie Clip Club?” That would fit in with Grimshaw’s and Farrow’s thinking that the group had a name that would be overlooked by most of the humans attending the schools in Hubbney.
“Would an enemy be that bold to display the location of where they can be found?” Natasha asked.
“Organizations send information to members all the time. Nothing unusual about that. Nothing suspicious. All out in the open. Except the part that is hidden.”
“If these humans have dug in to three locations in the Northeast Region, they could have their claws in many more.”
Ilya nodded. In human-controlled cities, there were Courtyards—a separate place within the city that was the territory of the terra indigene who kept watch over the humans and made sure they honored their agreements. Because Hubb NE was the seat of government for the Northeast Region, the Courtyard there had a strong gathering of Sanguinati. It was possible they already knew about these tie clip humans but had not interfered because the humans had interacted only with other humans. With this gambit against Victoria DeVine, the tie clip humans had crossed a line and were now dealing with the terra indigene whether they knew it or not.
“What are you going to do?” Natasha asked.
Ilya tapped the return address on the envelope and smiled. “I’m going to ask the Sanguinati in Hubbney for any information they might have about these humans.”
He went into the office at the lodge, turned on the computer, and composed the e-mail he would send to the Sanguinati in Hubb NE. Then his hand hovered over the SEND button.
Human-controlled cities were watched by a collective of terra indigene living in a Courtyard. Here the humans had been watched by the residents of Silence Lodge. They had been a shadow that touched Sproing and Crystalton. But despite their fiercely human-centric educations, their training in how to speak and how to dress—even what vehicles to purchase—they had been isolated. And not just from the humans in Sproing who had thought they were mysterious, rich city dwellers slumming in the wild country. Their ability to be urban predators also had kept them apart from the rest of the terra indigene who lived around Lake Silence and the northern half of Crystal Lake. Even the ones who had some interest in human things were wary of the sleek beings who dressed in black and exuded a blended threat of human and Other.
Then things had changed in the Courtyard at Lakeside. Interesting things that had altered passive watching to interacting. And things changed even more because of the war between the Others and humans, followed by the Great Predation. New humans had arrived in Sproing—and a caretaker had arrived to restore The Jumble. Various forms of terra indigene wanted some knowledge of human things without too much human contact. More a Simple Life than city kind of knowledge.
It could happen now. Was happening now. And, he admitted to himself, he was no longer bored with his important assignment of being the leader of Silence Lodge.
Ilya sat back, the message still waiting to be sent. Last year he had envied Vladimir and the rest of the Sanguinati living in the Lakeside Courtyard. They had been at the center of events that had rippled through the whole of Thaisia. Did he want the tie clip club to be a serious threat because he wanted to be at the center of a new event that might create another, if significantly smaller, ripple? Was he already thinking too much like a human, wanting a problem to solve in order to garner attention and praise from the most powerful among the Sanguinati?
Did it matter? Someone was trying to force Victoria to leave The Jumble. Until she was safe and her position was secure again, even an innocuous-sounding organization could be an enemy.
Ilya sent the e-mail to the Sanguinati in Hubb NE. Then he sent an e-mail to the leader of the Sanguinati in Lakeside—a progress report on the status of The Jumble and his interactions with the caretaker.
CHAPTER 31
Vicki
Moonsday, Juin 19
Julian Farrow looked at my face and winced. I thought having the deep purple bruising above my eyebrow looked bad enough, but when the secondary bruises showed up yesterday, coloring the whole eye area, I decided purple wasn’t a bad look in comparison.
Two middle-aged women were browsing the shelves of used romances. In such a small community, you would think I would know everyone, at least by sight, but I didn’t know these two women beyond type—they were Sproing’s country club set, if Sproing was a place that could afford to build a country club for the handful of families that were too important to rub elbows with the rest of us. These were the women who wouldn’t think of going into Come and Get It for lunch or to the local clothing store unless they wanted everyone to know they were slumming. They were the kind who made a seasonal trip to Hubbney or Toland for a clothes-buying spree, which impressed no one except themselves.
My ex-mother-in-law had been like them, smiling and keeping her voice devastatingly pleasant while she listed my inadequacies and all the reasons Yorick could have done better if he’d thought with his head instead of letting his loins respond to a moment’s temptation, which was the only reason I had ensnared him into marriage. The fact that he didn’t have access to any of the family money when we got married and needed someone to help support him while he “grew into his potential” meant none of the posh girls would have been of any use to him since they, too
, needed someone to support them while they grew into their potential.
At a party for our fifth anniversary, one of his friends asked him why he was holding on to his starter wife now that he was established. When Yorick just laughed, that should have told me something, but by then I believed him when he told me that no one else would want to screw, let alone marry, someone who looked dumpy even in the most expensive dress, and I was lucky that he still wanted to stay with me.
“Should expect something like that to happen when you live around brutes.”
I don’t know which woman said it, but I felt the punch behind the words. Easier to blame the woman for the black eye until it’s your eye. Then I saw the look on Julian’s face as he turned toward the women, and I leaped to stop him from doing or saying something he would regret.
“What do you think?” I said loudly, moving into his line of sight. “I’m trying it out for a friend who does stage makeup. The color is called Bruise Yellow.”
Julian studied me. Did he understand what I was trying to do? Would he play along?
“It looks real,” he said after a moment. “But why only do one eye?”
“To make it look realistic.”
He nodded as if that made sense.
A muttered remark from one of the women. I didn’t catch it, but that look filled Julian’s face again—a look that made me think he’d been other things in his life besides an amiable bookstore owner.
“You know what else my friend told me?” I asked Julian, once more pulling him away from a potential confrontation.
“What?”
“That there is a shade of red lipstick favored by women of mature years that has a special, very secret ingredient. Know what it is?”
“What?” he said again.
“Bull urine.”
He blinked. The women, who had their backs to us, gasped.
“What?” Julian said for the third time, making me wonder if something was wrong with him. He usually wasn’t so limited in his vocabulary.
“Bull urine. It’s the ingredient that adds that hint of yellow under the red. So instead of asking someone if he would kiss his mother with that mouth after he uses really bad swearwords, you should be asking if he’d want to be kissed by someone wearing that shade of red lipstick.” I looked at the two women and gave them a Sproinger happy face.
They stared at me as if I’d suddenly grown fangs. Which made me wonder if there were any of those costume shops left where you could buy things like fake teeth for Trickster Night. Might be fun to greet the Proud and the Huffy with a fanged happy face. But I wouldn’t want to insult my attorney, whose fangs were anything but fake.
One of the women lifted the books she had selected to make sure we were watching. Then she dropped them on the floor and sniffed at Julian. “If you’re going to let riffraff into your establishment, we’ll take our business elsewhere.”
“Do that,” Julian snapped. “And just so there are no misunderstandings in the future, if you do decide to purchase books here, I won’t accept any used books from you in exchange. The last time you brought books in, one had been dropped in dirty water and the other two smelled like cat piss. Any books you buy here from now on, you pay the going price.”
“Well!” the first woman huffed.
“I’m going to report you!” the other snipped.
“To whom? I own the place,” Julian said.
The second woman hesitated, then dropped her stack of used books on the floor in a show of solidarity. The first woman kicked a book out of her way as she marched to the door and out, her friend trailing behind her.
Julian came out from behind the island counter and began to pick up the books the women had dropped. When I took a step to help him, he snapped, “Don’t.” Then, more softly, “Bitches.”
Since I didn’t think any business in Sproing could afford to lose customers, I felt badly for him—and felt guilty because my coming into the store had contributed to his trouble with some of his customers.
I watched the women cross the street. “They’re going to the police station.” I turned and looked at him. “They’re going to report you to the police?”
Julian had been checking the books for damage. He glanced toward the police station and sighed. “Gods, I hope Wayne isn’t in the station right now. This is the kind of bullshit that makes him crazy and is the reason he chose highway patrol in the first place.”
I didn’t feel all warm and fuzzy thinking about a large man with a gun going crazy. Then again, I woke up that morning with a Panther-shaped Cougar standing next to my bed, staring at me as if trying to decide if I was still alive and was going to get up and make breakfast or had died and could now be breakfast. Since it looked like this was going to be my new normal, I might not be using the straightest ruler when it came to measuring crazy.
I went into the back half of the store, where the new books were shelved. Julian had a small display next to the island counter that held the newest releases, but the rest of the new books were back here. It seemed like a less-than-stellar business plan, having the more profitable part of your stock where it wasn’t easily visible, but the used books really were more like a lending library than a store.
Maybe Julian should make up a membership card and charge a modest annual fee that allowed people to do the buy and swap of used books like they did now, and people who didn’t pay the fee could just buy the used books.
I’d float the idea past Ineke first and see what she thought. In the meantime, I gave in to the need for some kind of treat to take away the sting of the woman’s words and my guilt over hurting Julian’s business. I browsed the shelves, picking up another thriller by Alan Wolfgard as well as a mystery by an author I hadn’t read before. According to her bio, she lived in the Finger Lakes area in a village I’d never heard of.
Looking at the terra indigene names on the covers of some of the books, I realized why Julian kept the new stock in the back half of the store. Sure, he carried the books by human authors that could be found in any bookstore in human-controlled towns, but he also had books by authors who would be unknown in cities like Hubbney or Toland—authors he kept in stock for a clientele that wasn’t human.
I selected a few thrillers and mysteries, then perused the romance shelves, finally choosing one about a ship’s captain and a female stowaway who faced danger on the high seas—the biggest danger being the Sea itself. The capital S was the only hint that the captain and his stowaway might be squaring off with an Elemental, so of course I had to buy it.
I brought my selections to the counter. Julian looked at the stack and sighed.
“You don’t have to buy more than you want in an effort to support the store,” he said. “Those women did nothing for my bottom line.”
“I like to read.” It wasn’t a snappy or clever reply, but it was the truth.
Julian rang up my purchases and deducted the total from my revolving line of credit. Me buying books on credit didn’t help his bottom line either, but I would pay him. Eventually.
He put the books in a cloth Lettuce Reed bag and held it out. I took the bag but hesitated to leave the store.
“Does the eye really look that bad?” I asked.
“Compared to what?”
Now I sighed. I’d planned to stop at the general store to pick up a few things since I wasn’t feeling up to driving to a grocery store in Crystalton or Bristol for a full load of victuals. Besides, Pops Davies carried all the basics, and he bought the food fresh from local farmers, and that included the milk, cheese, and ice cream. What more did I need? Well, I needed big sunglasses that hid half my face so I wouldn’t have to answer the “What happened to you?” question at every store I entered.
When I asked Ilya Sanguinati to spread the word about how I got hurt, he knew I wasn’t thinking about the humans in Sproing, but maybe I should let certain
people know. Problem was, I really didn’t want to tell humans I had a black eye because I had a nightmare and fell out of bed.
While I considered if I really needed milk and fruit, Detective Swinn slammed into the store, looking triumphant. Officer Osgood trailed behind him, looking worried. Looking scared.
“You’re coming with me, Farrow,” Swinn said.
“Why?” Julian asked calmly.
“To answer the charges of abusive language and threats of bodily harm.”
“Come again?”
“Are