Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,174

to eliminate all of you.”

“The only good human is a dead human,” Virgil growled.

“The Elders did what they understood to be right. But perhaps you have a point, Deputy Paniccia, and only humans should deal with human-against-human conflicts in whatever way you see fit, and the terra indigene will deal with anything that is a threat to us.”

“But … ,” Jana began.

“Works for me,” Virgil said.

“And me.” Tolya stared at Jana. “That will be all, Deputy.”

He watched her stagger out of his office. Then he looked at Virgil.

“What about the prophet pup?” Virgil asked. “She can be used against us. If we don’t protect her, we have to destroy her.”

“She’s Namid’s creation, both wondrous and terrible. We’ll protect her.”

“She’s still a human.”

“She’s not like the rest of them.” He heard the relief in Virgil’s sigh. “What are you going to do about Jana?”

“She is still a deputy working for the town, but she and the pup will have to be their own pack. As you said, she has to deal with human troubles and we will deal with the rest.”

Now that his anger had faded, Tolya considered the strangers who had arrived recently. Too many of them were coming into town since Parlan Blackstone showed up, and none of them seemed interested in finding work. Which meant they were here for another reason.“If she’s killed by a human? What then?”

Virgil stared at him with those amber eyes. “Then we go back to killing all the problems without anyone whining about us making mistakes. Truth, Tolya? It’s never a mistake to bring down an enemy—or bring down prey. If we had killed more of the humans when they were talking about causing trouble instead of waiting until they did cause trouble, there would have been a lot less humans in this part of Thaisia and more of the shifters would have survived.”

Tolya studied the Wolf. “You don’t believe the story. That’s why you’re angry with Jana. You don’t believe those humans were innocent.”

“They weren’t the ones who stole from Jesse Walker or tried to burn her store, but the Elders wouldn’t have killed the human male the way we were told they did unless they had smelled something on him or heard something that wasn’t right.”

“And the female?”

“You know what form of Elder she saw.”

“Yes, I know.” He’d seen it the night the Elders had set the final boundaries for the town. It was a very old form—a nightmare that walked on two legs.

“Did she choose to kill herself just because she saw that form of terra indigene? Or did she choose a human way to die because she knew the Elders would have a reason to come hunting for her and now had her scent?”

“Are you going to say that to Jana?”

Virgil smiled grimly. “What for? Until she accepts what it means to live in this part of Thaisia, she won’t listen.”

* * *

* * *

“Darlin’, I don’t want to argue with you,” Tobias said.

Jana held the phone so hard her hand hurt. “You’re agreeing with Virgil and Tolya?”

Silence.

“Tobias?”

“I’ve already done this dance with my mother, who was shaken up enough that she isn’t thinking straight. And neither are you.”

“So it’s all right for the Elders to kill someone because that person was in the wrong car?”

“Jana, the Elders kill humans all the time.” Tobias’s voice was ripe with impatience. “They went to war against the humans and eliminated the population of entire towns. They and the Elementals have flung passenger trains off the tracks and killed anyone who survived the crash. People get in a car and head out for another town and are never heard from again. Maybe it’s different in towns back East where you don’t have to look the truth in the eyes every day, or maybe I learned a lot from Joe Wolfgard in the short time I knew him. Bottom line? They killed those people, and maybe that’s a sorrow.”

“Maybe? How can it be anything but a tragedy?”

“You find any identification?”

“The woman’s purse was still in the car when it burned. But she and her husband were forced to change cars with the robbers!”

“That’s the story she told.” Tobias huffed out a breath. “You’re a cop, darlin’. I know this hit you hard, but you need to start thinking like a cop who works out here.”

“Meaning what?”

“Truman told you the story as it was told to him before that woman took her own life. Right?”

“Right,” Jana snapped.

“Who was with you when you went to