Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,148

effort to walk toward the horse instead of running.

Mel didn’t have that problem. He’d held on to courage and loyalty as long as he could, but the moment she mounted and gathered the reins he whirled around and ran toward the town, which looked incredibly far away.

Had to get to the acknowledged border. Had to …

Virgil ran beside Mel. Ran and ran. Then the Wolf slowed to a lope—and Mel matched the pace, as if understanding that they needed to keep moving, yes, but the danger was behind them.

They slowed to a jog. Finally, when they crossed the line on a map that now separated Bennett from the wild country, Jana reined in the gelding and slid off his back. She took a couple of steps away before she bent over and threw up. She’d barely finished when Virgil grabbed her by the back of the shirt and hauled her a few feet away from the puke.

“Stupid human,” he snarled. “Didn’t you learn how to follow a pack leader?”

His shoulders and chest were thickly furred. His face was recognizably Virgil but wasn’t fully the human form. She kept her eyes focused above his waist so she wouldn’t find out what else wasn’t fully human.

“You missed the tire tracks.” The moment she said it, she knew it was the wrong thing to say.

“Missed them? I missed them?” The words came out as an outraged howl. “Even a puppy couldn’t have missed them. You saw me. You were supposed to follow me.”

He’d known the message about the Cyrus human had gone out to the rest of the terra indigene because he’d sent it. He’d known the Elders had found the man before she’d had a chance to catch up to him and tell him the man might not be that particular kind of enemy.

He’d known and had tried to lead her away from what she had found. But, like a rookie, she’d followed a trail that couldn’t be missed and then justified approaching a potentially dangerous scene without backup. It could have been a trap, an ambush.

She’d been lucky today.

Virgil stepped back and let out a gusty sigh. “The hunt is exciting. The chase is exciting. It’s easy for inexperienced hunters to forget that prey can be dangerous—or that a larger predator has already found the prey and made the kill. Even when you’re focused on the prey, you should never forget about the other predators.”

She nodded since there was nothing to say. She was an inexperienced hunter. This had been her first high-speed chase, in a manner of speaking.

“We should check the glove box in the car for some identification,” she said. “There might be a wallet in the grass near … the remains.”

“I’ll go back and look for those things.”

“We should arrange to have the car towed. Don’t want gasoline or oil leaking into the ground.”

“Tomorrow.”

Jana hesitated, but it had to be said. “He wasn’t a Cyrus human. He was a bad man who might have done bad things, but by our agreed-upon definition, he wasn’t a Cyrus human.”

Virgil studied her. She wondered if he had studied juveniles in his pack the same way.

“Did you smell Barbara Ellen’s fear?” he asked. “Should a human female be that afraid of a human male?”

“No, she shouldn’t.” Jana realized she would be the one taking Barb’s official statement, which would include exactly what was said and done. “Why did he go off the road like that? He might have gotten away if he’d stayed on the road.” Mel couldn’t outrun a car. Neither could Virgil.

“He looked at Scythe and it did something to his brain,” Virgil replied. “He was already confused and dying before the Elders found him. Wounded animal trying to find a place to hide.”

She wanted to believe the man was already dying before the Elders found him.

“Take Mel to the stable,” Virgil said. “Then you need to talk to Barbara Ellen.”

She nodded and turned toward the horse. Then she hesitated because one other person would need an answer today. “Are you sure he was already dying?”

“Why does it matter?”

“It will matter to Candice. If he was already mortally wounded before he left the saloon, then her telling you the man was a Cyrus human, whether he was or not, wasn’t the reason he died. That will matter, Virgil.”

A long look. “Tell her he was already dying.”

She’d also sit down with everyone who worked at the Bird Cage Saloon and explain how the Bennett Sheriff’s Department defined “Cyrus human” so that