Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,137

would make her sleepy. Her hands are bandaged, so we are watching movies since she can’t play with the other youngsters today.>

Virgil smiled.

Since it was obvious who was requiring the adults to put a new movie into the disc player when the previous one finished, Kane ignored Virgil’s question and asked one of his own.

He wished John hadn’t told him and Kane stories about Broomstick Girl. He wished he hadn’t begun to think of her as part of the Lakeside Wolves’ pack, hadn’t felt amusement mixed with sympathy for Simon’s frustration in dealing with a female who was like an innocent, and somewhat clumsy, force of nature in her own small way.

He wished he’d seen a happy picture of Meg Corbyn before he’d seen that picture.

He watched Deputy Jana walk down the street from the livery stable.

How much of his tolerance for humans, and for dealing with the wolverine, was due to the stories about Broomstick Girl? And how much tolerance for humans would die throughout Thaisia if Simon didn’t find Lakeside’s sweet blood?

“You are done riding the horse who is not meat?” he asked when Jana reached the office.

“His name is Mel.”

He shrugged because he knew it would annoy her. Right now, he preferred dealing with the wolverine.

The phone rang.

They looked at each other as the phone rang a second time. Then Virgil rushed to answer it. While he listened to the person on the phone, Jana would have been breathing down his neck if she’d been tall enough to reach it.

He hung up and dodged around her in order to head outside.

“Darn it, Virgil.” Jana grabbed the back of his shirt and tried to stop him. Couldn’t do it, of course, but she tried. He heard a couple of seams rip before he reached the sidewalk.

He’d decide later if he was annoyed or amused. Right now …

“Arrrrroooooo!”

Everyone around the square stopped moving, stopped working, maybe even stopped breathing.

“What?” Jana said. “Who was on the phone? What did they say?”

“They found her. Simon found her.” Something hot and heavy filled his chest. Relief? He wasn’t sure. Tonight he would shift to Wolf and run and run until that feeling eased.

“Alive?”

The wolverine smelled of fear. For herself or for the girl in the Lakeside Courtyard that she might have met in passing?

“Alive,” he confirmed. “Hurt, but alive.”

“Thank the gods,” she whispered. Her voice shook but she stood straight.

“What do humans do when you receive news like this?”

“Laugh, cry, gather and hug each other. Become giddy enough to be a little stupid.”

“Humans are always a little stupid.”

She laughed. “I guess we are.” Then she sobered. “The man. Cyrus James Montgomery. Are the police still looking for him?”

“No.” Virgil met her eyes. “The Elders found him.”

He was glad she didn’t understand what that meant. Dead, yes. She understood that much. But not the rest.

He did understand what it meant—and he was glad.

* * *

* * *

Scythe watched the humans who filled the Bird Cage Saloon. They crowded all the tables and stood three-deep at the bar. Even Candice Caravelli and Lila Gold were behaving oddly. Excited and fluttery, like Yellow Bird when she gave it fresh food and water.

“This behavior is normal?” she asked Don Miller. Yuri Sanguinati was at the other end of the bar, filling drink orders as fast as he could. “They don’t even know what happened.”

“We don’t know the specifics, but enough of us had a feeling that something bad was happening, something the sheriff and the mayor wouldn’t—or couldn’t—share with the rest of us. And now there’s a feeling that the crisis is over, that things are okay again.” Don looked at the customers. “So, yeah, this behavior is normal. Everyone wants to celebrate.”

Scythe considered his words and nodded. “I will walk among the customers and smile at them.”

“Which is exactly what the owner of a frontier saloon should do.”

Pleased that she had correctly interpreted her role in this situation, she was about to step away from Don when she saw the look on his face. Sharp. Almost predatory.

she said.

The Sanguinati looked up, looked over. Focused on Don. Then focused on what had caught the Intuit’s attention.

So did Scythe, but all she saw was Jesse Walker elbow her way up to the bar.

“Jesse?” Don said.

“Bottle of whiskey. I’ll take it with me.”

Don hesitated, then selected an unopened bottle and