She shrugged. “Wasn’t going to let them into the Courtyard.”

A light came on in the sorting room, and the window cranked open a bit.

Tess limped to the window with Henry politely following.

“Nyx?”

A sigh before the Sanguinati said, “Come to the back door.”

Henry didn’t wait for Tess this time. He was out of his yard and entering the office before she reached the wooden gate.

When she limped into the Liaison’s Office, a hurried look around the back room didn’t reveal any obvious damage—more like things had been shoved out of place by something large sniffing around.

Nothing torn up in the sorting room either, but . . .

“I heard one of them growl something about the howling not-Wolf and how this place smelled like one of her dens,” Nyx said.

“Meg’s scent is strong here,” Henry said. “Maybe they liked it.” He didn’t sound pleased about that.

Tess wasn’t pleased either. The Elders were already sufficiently intrigued by Meg’s relationships with the Others in the Courtyard without giving them more reasons to be curious about her and Simon.

“That’s not all they liked.” Nyx dropped two clawed and mangled plastic containers on the sorting room table. “They ate all the Wolf cookies.”

• • •

Simon opened Howling Good Reads’ back door an inch and sniffed the air. The Elders’ primal tang drifted around the area behind the stores, but they had moved away from the Courtyard. Were they heading back to the wild country, or were the Elders gathering in another part of the city for a massive hunt?

He poked his head out the door, ready to duck back inside.

“Simon!” Henry called at the same time Simon heard the phone in HGR’s office ring. Well, Vlad was working upstairs and could take the call.

The Grizzly’s voice wasn’t coming from the studio or yard; it came from behind the Liaison’s Office.

<Simon!>

The tension in Vlad’s voice had Simon running up the stairs to the office.

Vlad held out the phone. Simon’s heart raced and his body trembled. He’d seen that look on Vlad’s face once before.

Taking the receiver, he said, “This is Simon.”

“The metal snake stays in its burrow, or we will kill it.” It wasn’t a voice meant for human speech, and even over a phone line, it scraped against Simon’s bones.

“Forever?”

Silence. Had they taken the question as a challenge?

“The trains bring some of the human foods we use in the Courtyard,” he added.

“You do not need human food, Wolf.”

“The sweet blood needs human food.” By this time, Henry, Tess, and Nyx had entered the office. They looked alarmed when he mentioned Meg. All right, there weren’t many things that couldn’t come by truck or ship if they were supplying only the Courtyard, but it would be good to know if trains were no longer a means of transportation.

“Day dweller,” was the snarled final answer. “It travels with the sun now.”

Meaning trains, and any cargo, could no longer travel through the wild country between sundown and sunrise—a rule that was already in place but hadn’t been strictly enforced. Simon wondered how many trains would be destroyed and how many passengers killed before humans believed the access through the wild country was really limited.

But not completely denied—yet.

“The sweet blood is the howling not-Wolf?”

“She sings with the Wolfgard,” he replied warily.

A huff. A snuff. A . . . laugh? Then the buzz in his ear of a disconnected call.

<Wolf.>

<Air?>

<The Elders are returning to the wild country, but we think some of them are curious about our Meg and will visit again.>

He whimpered. Couldn’t help it. He put the receiver back in the cradle and noticed Lieutenant Montgomery had joined the group in the office.

“We’ll need to talk to Captain Burke and Agent O’Sullivan to convey a message.”

“Can the police get out there now?” Montgomery asked, gesturing toward the windows to indicate the city.

“Some humans tried to invade the Courtyard,” Tess said. “The Elders killed them. I couldn’t see what was done, but the police should be prepared for something bad.”

“How many bodies?”

“Six.”

“There will be more,” Simon said, then added, “but not so many.” Because Meg, the not-Wolf, had amused some of the Elders.

“If you have no objections, I’d like the families of police officers to remain here a while longer,” Montgomery said. “The fewer people on the streets, the better.”

“The Denbys will want to go across the street and check on the house.” Vlad went to the windows that looked out on Crowfield Avenue and the buildings the Courtyard had acquired. “Make sure the curtains or blinds stay drawn on any windows that overlook the streets. And don’t let anyone go out there who doesn’t have to.”

Montgomery moved to the window and looked out. His brown skin turned gray and he braced a hand on the window frame for support.

“What is it?” Tess asked.

“I’m not sure what’s on the lawns of the two apartment buildings,” Vlad said with forced calm, “but there are intestines hanging from the branches of the trees like some strange moss.”

“Lieutenant?” Simon said softly. The humans couldn’t be pragmatic about the available meat—and with so many human strangers in the Courtyard right now, the Others couldn’t take advantage of the abandoned kills either.