Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,198

a brown horse with a storm-gray mane and tail move up alongside the truck.

Fire leaned down to look at both of them. “You don’t want to go to Bennett today.”

Jesse leaned across Tobias. “We have to. A fight is going to happen today.”

“It has already started.”

Oh gods. How much of Hope Wolfsong’s drawing is going to come true?

“Where are the other humans coming from?” Tobias asked. “Which direction? North or south?”

“Both. The Sanguinati and Wolfgard are too few to fight so many humans.”

Jesse studied the Elemental. “Can’t you help?”

Fire met her eyes. “If we are asked, we will help. That was our agreement with the Elders.”

This was about saving Prairie Gold—not just the town but the ranch and the farms that were part of it. It was about saving Bennett and the friends who lived there. It was about making a choice that would claw at her heart and shred her sleep for years, if not forever.

“A red flare means we need help,” she said quietly. “That’s correct, isn’t it?”

Fire nodded. His steed moved to the side of the road to let them pass.

“Why did you ask him about the flare?” Tobias asked a minute later as he turned down a street that was a couple of blocks away from the Universal Temple, then parked in front of a house. “Mom? What are you thinking?”

Jesse said nothing, just loaded the red flare before slipping the flare gun into her daypack. Then she picked up her rifle and got out of the truck.

Giving her a worried look, Tobias chambered a round in his own rifle as soon as he joined her.

“We have to stop the reinforcements from reaching the town square,” she said.

The briefest hesitation. “Then we’d better get moving.”

He headed for the temple, and Jesse wondered if her boy knew what she was about to do.

* * *

* * *

Tolya flowed along the branches of the trees, searching for Parlan Blackstone. The humans had scattered, hiding in doorways and along the sides of buildings, firing their guns at random at every furred or feathered being. Ravens, Hawks, and Eagles had been turned into bloody mist and feathers. At least one Coyote was dead near the pond.

And the outlaws kept coming.

He didn’t know where Virgil was, or Saul, but he’d seen some humans trying to crawl away from the square with their bellies torn open or their hamstrings sliced by sharp teeth. He didn’t know where Yuri was either. Nicolai wasn’t answering him. Neither was Stazia. Dead? Or too focused on the hunt to respond?

Spotting one of the males who had stood with Parlan Blackstone when the human had made the challenge, Tolya flowed down the shadow side of the tree trunk nearest his enemy. Then he hesitated. Why would an enemy simply stand there unless …

Reversing direction, Tolya flowed back up the tree—and saw one of the other humans waiting for one of the terra indigene to try for the man acting as bait. The human with the rifle was so focused on shooting whatever came for the bait that he didn’t notice the smoke at the base of a tree, didn’t notice it moving up his leg—moving into a long tear in the man’s jeans.

The human didn’t notice anything until he staggered from rapid blood loss.

That was the moment Tolya flowed down the tree, formed solid hands and forearms, and snapped the bait’s neck.

A shot. A sting.

Tolya released the body and rushed up the tree to take cover in the branches—and saw part of his finger lying in the grass below.

* * *

* * *

Fucking vampires, Parlan thought as odd pockets of fog began filling the square, turning a fight that had gone on longer than it should have into a bullet-filled game of hide and seek. They had to finish this, had to take control of the town. All they needed to do was kill the mayor and the sheriff—and he couldn’t find either one of them.

And they needed to end this fight before they became so befuddled by the fog that they started shooting each other by mistake.

* * *

* * *

Jana drove away from the hospital. Both doctors were there, as well as the nurse/midwife. There had been other cars in the parking lot, along with a van that belonged to Fagen.

She hoped those cars didn’t belong to people who had been injured. She hoped Barb wouldn’t need more help than the doctors could provide.

Then she stopped hoping about things she couldn’t influence and put all