Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,71

with all the foodstuffs she could buy before things had gone so wrong. She didn’t need Rachel, in human or Wolf form, knocking into shelves and smashing glass jars.

“Just take a look around and make sure the mice haven’t gotten into any of the food,” Jesse said. “I’ll be home tomorrow.”

She spent a couple more minutes talking with Rachel, then made sure the women heading out in the morning truly had everything they needed.

* * *

* * *

Tolya looked out the window of his office. People walked or rode bicycles on the main street. A few got on the bus to go home or go to wherever they were doing sorting that day.

Apparently Deputy Jana had been vehement in her belief that the youngsters should live with the men they saw as their parents. And Jesse Walker had recognized the men as Intuits. Would that kind of human come to a town full of terra indigene if the youngsters had not been orphaned as they had claimed? He didn’t think so. Adults would gather; questions would be asked—especially about the Wolf pup since so many Wolves had been killed by the humans who had belonged to the Humans First and Last movement.

Bennett was not the place for humans to bring stolen terra indigene young. But if the men wanted those youngsters to learn about their own kind and still have that family made up of many different forms, a town like this was the place to bring them, the place to try for acceptance.

As for the blood prophet …

The euphoria that filled the girls when they began to speak prophecy after their skin was cut provided a veil against the visions, protecting them from the things they had seen. But when a girl was prevented from speaking—or chose not to speak in order to see the visions—there was no protection, no euphoria. There was only agony and the possibility of seeing something so terrible the girl’s mind would break.

The Maddie girl was young and so small—and mute. But Meg Corbyn and Hope Wolfsong were showing the rest of the blood prophets that there were other ways to “speak” without cutting or words. Meg was exploring the use of fortune cards being converted into prophecy cards, and Hope slipped into a trance and drew her visions. Perhaps there were other ways to speak that hadn’t been explored yet.

He wished he still had direct contact with the Lakeside Courtyard and Meg Corbyn. Even if he had contact, it wouldn’t be fair to ask for more help after all the work they had done to run the job fair and find suitable humans to resettle the town. But he did have direct access to Jackson Wolfgard and Hope Wolfsong. Hope had already drawn one warning that concerned Bennett. Maybe, if he provided some information, she might show him some possibilities of what to do with the sweet blood girl.

Turning away from the window, Tolya placed a call to Sweetwater and left a message at the communications cabin, asking that Jackson call him as soon as possible.

CHAPTER 18

Firesday, Messis 17

Abigail pushed the edge of the curtain to one side and peered out the window at the people getting off the small bus. She wasn’t being nosy. There were reasons why she needed to know who lived around her, needed to know if any of her neighbors posed a threat to her maintaining the sweet Abigail persona. Not everyone was as gullible as Barb Debany, including Barb’s housemate, Deputy Jana Paniccia. Abigail had a feeling that the deputy didn’t buy into anyone’s persona—maybe even her own.

That niggling doubt about her own abilities might be enough to work with to keep Jana from looking too closely at the neighbors.

Abigail recognized Tolya Sanguinati and Virgil Wolfgard, and she’d seen the young guy and the golden-haired man walking around the town square when she’d ventured beyond this street for her cleaning job or to put in her required hours of sorting work. But the other two men and the four children were strangers. The men didn’t look dangerous, but the most dangerous men often didn’t.

When Jana pulled her official police vehicle into the driveway of the house next door, Abigail went outside to find out what was going on. It would be natural to be curious.

Barb came out of the house she was sharing with Jana, said “Hi, Abby,” then looked at Jana. “What’s up?”

“Several things,” Jana replied, stopping to watch the group of people stand in front