Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,39

coming here and asked if he could travel with us. We thought, because of some of the things he said on the journey, that he was from a community that lives by stricter rules than our own, but that doesn’t explain his rudeness.”

Scythe nodded. “I’m sure Mr. Sanguinati is already aware of your companion’s difference.”

He returned to the table and handed out the pens and pencil just as the next group arrived, led by Kane in Wolf form. Two adult females, a boy, and …

Kane said as the girl grabbed his tail.

A look of loathing aimed at the skippy girl filled the fifth man’s face before he looked at the younger of the adult females and his face filled with something else. Then he noticed Scythe watching him and became busy filling out the form.

Garnet led the Gott pack to another table, taking some of the forms from Yuri as she passed him, leaving him—and Scythe—free to keep an eye on the males.

They’d barely settled the Gott pack at a table when Tolya, Virgil, Jesse Walker, and a bouncy female entered, followed by Barbara Ellen and Joshua Painter.

“All right if we come in for a drink?” Barbara Ellen asked.

“Just belly up to the bar and I’ll fix whatever you like,” Yuri said, hesitating for a heartbeat as he met Joshua Painter’s eyes.

“Oh, this is wonderful,” the bouncy female said, turning in a circle as she clutched folders to her chest. She focused on Garnet. “Are those feathers real?”

Tolya looked at Scythe. The look became a predatory stare.

As an answer, she looked toward the table with the five men—and frowned. What was that odd male among them staring at now? She followed the line of his focus right to Barbara Ellen, who was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.

“A woman should not expose her limbs and incite a man to lust,” he said loudly. Then he licked his bottom lip.

“This is not a Simple Life community,” one of his companions said. “The other people here are not bound to live by our rules. And we are here because we want to explore other possibilities while holding on to our core values.”

Scythe watched Joshua Painter turn toward the voice at the same time he slipped his right hand into one of the pockets in his trousers. As he withdrew his hand—a hand now wearing a leather glove that had Panther claws at the ends of the fingers—he bared his teeth and stepped in front of Barbara Ellen.

“Joshua,” Virgil warned, moving toward the male.

“The marsh,” Joshua snarled. “It’s the marsh. It looks safe but it kills. I told Saul. Ask Saul.”

The words made no sense to her. They didn’t make sense to Tolya or Virgil either. But Jesse Walker swayed and looked like bleached bones.

Scythe didn’t know who had contacted Saul Panthergard or what was said, but suddenly Tolya, Virgil, and Yuri were converging on the table where the five men sat. The odd man leaped up, knocking over his chair as he bolted away from all the males and ran straight toward her, mistakenly thinking he could get past her.

Turning squarely to face him with her back to the rest of the beings in the room she said,

She heard the terra indigene scrambling to pull the humans to the floor or shield them in some way. Those seconds gave the odd man time to grab her arms and try to shove her aside. And in those seconds, her hair turned black with streaks of red—not revealing so much of her true nature that just looking at her would kill her prey, but sufficient for her to consume enough of his life force to make his heart flutter, to make his limbs weak.

One heartbeat. Two. Three. He collapsed and Scythe ran into her office and closed the door to protect the rest of them.

Tolya called.

She’d been here just long enough to want to stay.

Scythe sank into the chair behind her desk. She didn’t have to leave. Then