* * *

* * *

Jesse looked at the Simple Life women and wondered how two of them had been able to hide their lack of tolerance from the leaders of the Lakeside Courtyard. They might be excellent housekeepers and cooks, but they would be hard neighbors. Something she needed to point out to Tolya, but that could wait. The women were already committed to going to the ranches tomorrow, and she had another concern right now. “Mr. Sanguinati? If I could have a minute?”

Tolya had sent Joshua Painter on his way but had remained in the general store. Jesse wasn’t sure why he had stayed, but her left wrist had quieted to a dull ache, which should be a good sign that the crisis was over, but she needed to be sure.

“We’ll just get these boxes filled.” Candice grabbed a box, her list … and Lila.

Jesse led Tolya to the stock area of the store, where they were out of sight and hearing of the other people.

“Are you okay with them living here? The men, I mean?”

He looked puzzled. “Should I object?”

“No,” she said quickly. “I … wasn’t sure if you’d encountered same-gender mates before.”

“Among the terra indigene, mating is about having offspring and requires male and female. That doesn’t mean we don’t form bonds with those of our own gender, but it is not the same as mating.” He looked polite but uninterested. “Is there anything else?”

“Those men are Intuits. They wouldn’t have brought those children here if they’d done anything wrong.”

“Deputy Jana seems to be of the same opinion.”

Jesse wondered what Deputy Jana had said, but apparently it had been enough to sway the decision to let the family stay in Bennett. “I’d better get back out there. Those women are heading to the ranches in the morning. I want to make sure they have everything they need. Being from the Northeast, they might overlook something that would be real useful.”

“If you need anything, I will be at my office. Virgil is bringing the men over to discuss work and houses.”

She should have been relieved. Instead, she felt there was still reason to worry.

Tolya was barely out the door when Jesse’s mobile phone rang. “Jesse Walker.”

“It’s Rachel. I smelled mouse in the back room of the store. Can I chase it?”

Damn it, mice were the last thing she needed in her store when she had packed it 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 of each house on the street. “Since the guys making deliveries of household goods are up to their eyeballs in requests, the sheriff told me to load up my official vehicle with goods we’d earmarked for the house in exchange for letting said vehicle live with us.”

“It’s a car, not a puppy.” Barb studied the vehicle. “We can haul things in it?”

“Yes. You being the next thing on my hauling list as soon as we unload.” Jana opened the back, pulled out a box, and handed it to Barb, who stood there with her mouth open.

“I’ll take one,” Abigail said, wondering what was wrong with Barb.

“Did he send you to put me in the Me Time cell?” Barb demanded. “What did I do now?”

“Shh,” Jana said when Virgil turned to stare at them, proving just how sharp Wolf ears were when it came to picking up sounds. “No, this is about getting some of the pets adopted. So help me get these boxes in the house and we can be on our way.”

Abigail waited until the three of them carted the last load of boxes into the house and Barb went to fetch her daypack and house keys. Then she asked, “Why are the town leader and the sheriff looking at houses with those men?”

“One of the children is … special … and Joshua Painter says she needs a house that doesn’t have a stain of darkness—which is something specific that Joshua can sense but can’t explain,” Jana replied. “That’s why they’re all out there looking at houses. They looked at houses that had already been cleared out on another street, but none of those places were right.”

Special like Becky Gott? Or special like drawing pictures that showed something that could happen in the future? If she hadn’t seen a picture like that when she’d lived in Prairie Gold, she wouldn’t have sensed that Jana’s hesitation revealed more than the deputy realized. Special could be like finding the mother lode. Or being able to identify that kind of special could be information she could trade if the wrong kind of people came wandering down the street and found her.

“I’m ready,” Barb said, joining them.

They locked the house on their way out, then paused to watch the group conferring on the front yard of one house before moving on to the next.

“Think we’ll have new neighbors?” Abigail asked, trying to sound casual.

“If they choose a house on this street, they won’t be the only new neighbors,” Barb replied. “Some of the terra indigene would move into houses around here to keep watch. They’re kind of intense about protecting—”

“Barb!” Jana said sharply.

For a moment, Barb looked hurt. But Jana looked alarmed at what her housemate was about to reveal, confirming that one of the children was the lucrative kind of special.

“Sorry,” Barb said.

“It’s all right,” Jana said. “I’m just skittish from yesterday.”

What had happened yesterday? Nothing that had made the rounds of gossip.

Jana jingled her keys and looked at Barb. “Let’s get going so I can spend some time with my four-legged ride. See you later, Abby.”

“See you.” Abigail watched Jana and Barb drive off before retreating to her own house.

Kelley wasn’t happy living with her anymore. He had a separate bedroom now and was clearing it out and cleaning it up. But he made no effort to help her with the rest of the house. Which meant he didn’t know what was in the house and what wasn’t—including the things they were supposed to turn in.

And since Kelley wasn’t sharing a bedroom with her, he also didn’t know about the pack she’d hidden in the closet—the emergency pack of essentials she would need if she had to run again.

* * *

* * *

“What I told you about Maddie was said in confidence,” Jana said as she drove the few blocks to the town square. “We can’t talk about her to anyone.”

“But you said there were lots of people in the store when those men arrived with the children,” Barb protested.

“And Mr. Sanguinati stopped the men from saying Maddie was a blood prophet. There’s no reason for anyone to know by what he said unless they’d already met one of the girls.”

Barb stared at her. “Then how did you know what Tolya was talking about?”