Vlad nodded.

Kowalski’s mobile phone rang. He excused himself and walked away from the table. He rejoined them a minute later. “Ms. Lee remembered that students sometimes rent their cars to other students for a day or two. Some stores near the university have bulletin boards where notices are posted. Might be places like that around the tech college too. While it’s unlikely that a student would rent his or her car to a stranger who clearly was not a fellow student, it would be another place to look if the rental car companies don’t pan out.”

Burke pushed away from the table. “If there’s nothing else, we’ll get to it.”

“There’s nothing else,” Vlad said. He waited until the humans left the building before turning to Elliot. “The meeting with the mayor, the reason you weren’t in the consulate, where you might have seen or heard a struggle.”

“It wasn’t an excuse or part of a plot, if that’s what you’re asking.” Elliot gave him a long look. “Katherine Debany had a dentist appointment—routine checkup. She made the appointment months ago and told me about it last week. Even wrote it in the day planner in my office in case I forgot she wouldn’t be in. And I gave Miss Twyla the morning off because the women had caught up on all the work.”

Ruthie’s mental health day didn’t matter. School in the summer ended at lunchtime. The children would have been outside playing regardless.

“We fell for the distraction when that Cyrus started a fight with Montgomery to give that Jack Fillmore an opportunity to find Theral.”

“And that gave us an opportunity to end that threat.” Elliot sat back. “Would so many of you have been focused on this fight if it hadn’t involved the children?”

Vlad thought about that and shook his head. The terra indigene protected their young. “It all happened in the time it took a stoplight to change. Simon believed Meg was safe in the daylight. We all did. And so many things could have gone wrong with that Cyrus’s plan—Nathan could have stayed until O’Sullivan returned with the food; cars could have jammed up, blocking that Cyrus’s escape from the delivery area or even delaying the time when he was able to pull into the delivery area; Meg could have insisted that Skippy wait to pee until O’Sullivan returned. If she had, the door would have been locked and she would have had time to call for help.” That was the only bit of information they had gotten out of Skippy—that Meg had opened the door and he had gone out just before the car leaped at him and bit his leg.

If Simon had run to the Liaison’s Office instead of preventing Merri Lee from getting crunched between two cars, he would have reached Meg in time to stop that Cyrus from taking her. But he’d protected the pack member who was in immediate danger—a truth that might make it difficult for him to be around Merri Lee in the future, depending on the outcome of this hunt.

Elliot looked uneasy. “I’m his sire, but I think you know Simon better, understand him better. If we don’t find Meg, do you think he’ll survive?”

“No.” The certainty of his answer made Vlad feel cold. “If we lose her, we’ll lose him too.”

• • •

In human form, Henry Beargard was a large man. As a Grizzly, he was massive. But when he walked in his true earth native form as spirit bear, he was much larger than the Grizzly—and still smaller than the two Elders who were visiting the Courtyard. That didn’t matter, because he was swelled with rage.

He found them in the part of the Courtyard that bordered Crowfield Avenue. Human eyes couldn’t see them, any more than those eyes could see the spirit bear, but some primal instinct sometimes told small predators and prey that something was there. Henry knew that by the way a few of the humans who were still trapped in the snow and traffic pileup kept looking toward the fence, searching for the cause of their alarm.

<This is your fault.> Henry rose on his hind legs, ready for battle.

The Elders turned toward him in surprise. <No. The steeds made the snow and trapped the little predators.>

<Your fault,> Henry repeated. <Simon told you that Cyrus was a bad kind of human, not one we wanted around the Courtyard, because he would cause trouble.>

<Small trouble for other humans,> they replied dismissively. <Not big trouble that threatens the world. And the trouble over there was nothing but a puppy fight.>

Almost blind with rage, Henry took a step toward them. <That Cyrus stole Meg!>

<It took a human female from the Courtyard?> No longer dismissive since they had promised to help protect the female pack.

<It took the sweet blood, the howling not-Wolf, the one who will be the Wolfgard’s mate!>

An odd, and terrible, silence.

Humans couldn’t see the Elders, but Henry could. He watched them stare at the buildings across the street, where that human pup had conveniently caused trouble. He watched their hackles rise. He saw their lips curl away from teeth that could tear apart something his size, let alone a human.

<Distraction,> Henry said. <Humans killed Wolfgard in Thaisia as a distraction for their war against the terra indigene living near Cel-Romano. That Cyrus used his pup as a distraction so that he could steal the not-Wolf away from us.>

Namid’s teeth and claws turned away from the street and the puny humans and fixed their eyes on him. They had seen how a big distraction worked and, in turn, had used it themselves when Elders and Elementals had struck humans here in Thaisia to cause confusion before they crushed the enemy in Cel-Romano. They had seen big distractions but hadn’t understood that a small one could be just as dangerous.