Written In Red Part 54

Taking the key, she hurried out and opened the padlock, then tossed it over the wall to ensure a quick exit. She put the key back in its spot, then checked the other keys. One was labeled BOW.

Yes! she thought as she pocketed the key. Darrell had said one key fit all the BOWs, so all she had to do was find one of those little vehicles.

The opposite wall of the maintenance garage had a reverse setup of doors. She made her way to the other regular door, then turned off the flashlight and opened the door just enough to peer out and confirm that these were the garages she'd seen when she'd spent the night with Darrell.

The messenger had moved up the timetable when it became clear the storm was worse than antic.i.p.ated and had hit the city faster than originally reported. The only problem with the new timetable was that Meg hadn't closed the office yet. When the messenger and his men created the distractions that would pull Simon Wolfgard and the rest of the Others to various parts of the Courtyard, Meg had to be tucked into her apartment at the Green Complex, all safe and snug and easy to grab.

Pushing up the sleeves of her parka and sweater the necessary inch, Asia checked the luminous dial of her watch. Only three thirty in the afternoon, but it was already dark because of the storm. That would work to their advantage.

She jerked back, shutting the door almost all the way as the back door of Howling Good Reads opened and she heard Simon say, "Tell her to wait. I'll be back in a minute."

She watched him stride toward the Liaison's Office, and she saw him stop as something caught his attention. He remained still for a moment, then continued to the office's back door.

Checking her watch again, Asia settled down to wait.

As soon as Simon walked into the office's back room, he could feel Nathan's restless energy and hear Meg's voice. She was talking to someone, but he didn't think it was the Wolf.

he called.

Nathan said, sounding edgy. They certainly did need to get home and settle in. He had closed HGR half an hour ago, and Tess had done the same at A Little Bite, but he was still chewing over what to do with their human employees, especially the ones Meg considered friends. He couldn't just chuck them out the door to find their way home. Not when he could look out HGR's windows and see the traffic gridlock that had already formed and was going to get worse.

A couple months ago, he would have closed the store and not given Merri Lee and Heather another thought. They were humans who were not edible because they were useful, and that's all they were to the terra indigene. But somehow they had become Meg's human pack, so now they were borderline members of the Courtyard and, therefore, under his protection.

He didn't like thinking of humans like that. He didn't like it at all.

Well, he would deal with Merri Lee and Heather. But first he had to deal with Meg. And that meant dealing with Nathan.

he asked as he walked through the sorting room. Meg was at the front counter with her back to him. Nathan had his forelegs on the counter and looked grumpy, which wasn't a good way for a guard to look when there wasn't anything nearby he could catch and eat.

Nathan replied. Growling softly, he looked at Meg and lifted a paw.

"That's not a problem," Meg said to someone on the phone, absently pushing Nathan away when he tried to slap the phone to disconnect the call. "Delivery on Moonsday will be fine. You be careful driving out there. Thanks. You too." She hung up and shook a finger at the watch Wolf. Then she noticed Simon and blushed.

Nathan demanded. Meg was restless and rubbing her skin? Was she feeling the p.r.i.c.kling that indicated a potential vision, or was the storm making her uneasy, like the rest of them? He didn't care why she was restless. He was getting her away from this part of the Courtyard.

"You're closing up now," Simon said, blocking the Private doorway and not giving her room to maneuver.

"I'm trying to do exactly that. It would be easier if I didn't have as much help," Meg replied, sounding like she was ready to bite someone.

Nathan whined and gave Simon a pleading look.

It was embarra.s.sing to hear one of the Courtyard's best enforcers whine like a puppy.

"I checked with all the delivery services who usually come by on Watersday afternoon," Meg said. "Most of them didn't have any deliveries for the Courtyard today, and the ones that did, I told them delivery on Moonsday is fine. Besides, Harry from Everywhere Delivery called a couple of minutes ago to tell me a driving ban has just been issued for the entire city. No unnecessary travel. So I'm almost ready to go."

"But . . . ?" He could read her well enough now to know there was something more.

She took a deep breath and blew it out. "Two things. The BOW's charge was low when I got back from lunch. I'm not sure it has enough charge for the drive home, and I'm not sure I can drive in snow this deep."

"You're not driving. Jester should be here with a pony in a few minutes."

Meg brightened. "We're riding in the sleigh?"

He shook his head. "Only the Elementals drive the sleigh. Jester is bringing the sled. It's big enough to fit you and Nathan. I'll take the BOW back to the Green Complex. If it doesn't make it, I'll shift and go the rest of the way home in Wolf form." No protest from her. Probably because she wanted to ride in the sled. "What's the other thing?"

Now she looked uneasy, as if she were about to stomp on his tail. "Merri Lee takes a bus to work." She turned enough to look at the snow falling and falling and falling.

Simon relaxed, pleased that he'd antic.i.p.ated this. "She's not going home. Neither is Heather. They can pick up some food at Meat-n-Greens or the grocery store, and they'll stay in the efficiency apartments tonight. I'm going to talk to Lorne and see if he wants to stay. Marie Hawkgard is staying to keep watch, and Julia will also be in the efficiencies."

She opened her mouth, and he expected her to say she would stay with her friends in the too-exposed part of the Courtyard. But as she looked at him, all the color bled out of her face.

"I need to get home," she said quietly. "Tonight I need to get home."

"That's why Jester is coming with the pony sled." Simon studied her face. Why did she look so pale, so scared? "Meg?"

She shook her head. "I need to go to the toilet."

Worried about what she might do in that room, he snarled, "Meg?"

"I can't just lift a leg like you do, so I have to pee before going out in the cold," she snapped at him.

He took a step back, letting her pa.s.s. But he also gave her a quick sniff. Nathan was right; there wasn't any fresh blood scent on her.

He opened the go-through for Nathan. "Wait for her by the back door. I'll lock up."

He fetched the keys from the drawer in the sorting room and used the go-through. Nathan had told him that Meg usually wiped the floor after the last delivery because it got slippery from the snow brought in on the deliverymen's boots. She hadn't done that, which made vaulting over the counter a good way to slip and break a leg or, at best, take a bad fall.

As he flipped the sign to CLOSED, a hooded figure in a green and white parka hurried up to the door. He considered ignoring the human and locking up, but he'd seen that same parka walking out of the Courtyard a few minutes ago.

Pulling the door open, he growled, "What?" before he recognized the Ruthie, who looked like she was trying not to cry.

"Mr. Wolfgard," she said, sounding breathless. "I'm glad I caught you before everything closed up. My car is in your parking lot."

"That's sensible." It would be out of the way, and the adolescent Wolves could have fun digging it out tomorrow.

"But there is a car stuck in the parking lot's entrance. The driver isn't in the vehicle, and I can't get around it."

He followed the trail of her words and realized he had come to a different conclusion than she had. "You're staying. Go around to the back door of Howling Good Reads. I'll meet you in a couple of minutes."

"But . . ."

"Go to the back door," he snapped. "It's time to find shelter, not go running in the snow."

After a hesitation, she nodded. "Thank you."

He watched until he was sure she was headed toward the back of the building instead of being foolish and plunging into the storm. Like Meg had done the first night she came to the Courtyard. What was wrong with human females that they didn't have sense to find shelter?

Of course, if Meg had taken shelter somewhere else instead of stumbling along until she came to the Courtyard, she might not have found them, and he might never have known her. So maybe Namid was wise to make human females do foolish things.

Nathan said. That much settled, Simon finished locking up the office. He poked his head into the Three Ps long enough to tell Lorne to close up and come to HGR. Then he trotted to the bookstore's back door. Nudging the Ruthie inside, he found the stockroom full of confused, anxious people. And there was Tess, who looked amused.

"Cars are stuck in the parking lot, so you two aren't getting out," he said, pointing at Ruthie and Heather. Then he pointed at Merri Lee. "And taking a bus tonight is foolish. So you're staying. We'll open the efficiency apartments and bring food for you. You'll have shelter. Marie and Julia Hawkgard will also stay here tonight."

"I have a box of chocolates and a couple of movies," the Ruthie said. "I figured this would be a good movie night."

"What about other people who might be stranded?" Merri Lee asked.

He shook his head. "Someone is trying to hurt the terra indigene. Let strangers find shelter elsewhere. They won't be safe here."

While Tess went up to Simon's office to fetch the keys for the efficiency apartments, John drew Simon aside.

"I can stay too," he said. "Having the Hawks stay is good, but having a Wolf guarding the door will be better."

"All right. Take the delivery sled and go to Meat-n-Greens. Get enough food for everyone for tonight." When the back door opened, Simon added, "And take Lorne with you."

That much settled, he bounded up the stairs and reached his office doorway at the same moment Tess was leaving.

"I'll be heading out in a BOW in a few minutes," he said. "Do you want a ride?"

Her brown hair kept twisting into corkscrew curls then relaxing, a sign of indecision. Finally, she shook her head. "I'm going to keep an eye on this part of the Courtyard."

"I don't want us scattered." He didn't think she would willingly share a room with anyone overnight, and even though they were in sight, the rooms above the Liaison's Office felt too far from company or help. He didn't want any of his people isolated.

"I'll be fine," she replied. "I have a change of clothes at the shop. I had planned to take a couple of books from our library and indulge in a snow day reading feast, but I'll just pull a couple of books from HGR's shelves instead. I might even bake a batch of cookies and join the girls for a movie."

It all sounded normal and reasonable, which was why he didn't believe her. This was Tess, and she was rarely interested in things that were normal and reasonable.

"All right," Simon said. "I can-"

"Stop sounding like a pack nurse trying to keep the pups in one place. Go home and work on keeping your own brainless pup from romping outside in a blizzard."

If she was going to put it that way . . .

"I'll walk the humans over to the apartments," he said, his hackles raised a little about being called the pack nurse. He held out his hand. She dropped the key ring into it.

When he got back downstairs, Heather and the Ruthie were returning from the front of the store.

"I finally got ahold of Karl," the Ruthie said, smiling at all of them. "He appreciates your letting me stay here."

Simon couldn't think of an appropriate response, so he led his gaggle of chatty humans to the efficiency apartments. He'd opened up some of the Courtyard stores in order to study humans more closely, to watch them just as Elliot kept watch over the ones who were the city's government. Looking after some of them made it all so . . . personal. Humans and terra indigene weren't supposed to be friends. It wasn't done.

But, somehow, it seemed he had done exactly that.

Meg wanted to savor her first ride in a pony sled, but the wind had picked up, driving the snow and making it hard to enjoy anything but the prospect of reaching a warm, dry place. So she huddled in the back of the sled with Nathan while Jester sat on the seat, so bundled up she had barely recognized him. The only one of them who seemed to be enjoying himself was Twister, whose harness bells jingled and whose clumpy pony feet spun the snow all around him as he trotted down the road.

He might be removing enough snow off the road that someone could drive a BOW all the way to the Green Complex, Meg thought. As long as that someone didn't wait too long.

Would it make a difference? How would it make a difference? She'd felt edgy, itchy, ever since the snow had started falling, driving Nathan nuts because he picked up the mood but didn't understand the source. Edgy and itchy, but the real p.r.i.c.kling under her skin didn't start until she saw Simon.

"We're here," Jester said, twisting on the seat.

Nathan scrambled off the sled, then waited for her to pick up the carry bags containing the food she'd bought during her midday break. He went ahead of her, breaking a trail, for which she was grateful. She wasn't quite as grateful when he stopped at her stairs, shifted into that weird and disturbing half-man / half-Wolf shape, grabbed one of the carry sacks, and bounded up the stairs with it.

The stairs were buried under snow, and it would have been hard for her to haul both bags because she couldn't see where to put her feet, and he had been trying to help. Still, she avoided looking directly at him-and at the parts that weren't adequately covered with fur-while she opened her front door, stomped off what snow she could, and stepped inside.

Shoving the carry bag into her hand, he immediately shifted back to pure Wolf.

"Do you want to come in?" she asked.

His answer was to choose a spot on the latticework side of her porch where he had some protection from the snow and wind-and where anyone coming up the stairs wouldn't see him before he saw them.

He lay down and gave her an "Idiot, aren't you going to close the door?" look. So she closed the door, shrugged out of her wet winter clothes, and hung them in the bathroom to drip.

She put the food in the refrigerator and cupboards, and wondered if anyone would think to check for edibles before they all spoiled.

The prophecies and visions didn't work the same in the outside world as they had in the compound. Her own experiences, her own memories provided context. That was why, when she saw Simon standing in the Private doorway, she had slipped into that weird kind of vision that didn't require cutting.

Fur. And teeth. And terrible cold. Then flashes of the remembered images from the visions she had seen about the Courtyard. A storm. Men dressed in black. A sound like motors and hornets. The interior road near Erebus Sanguinati's home. Sam howling in terror. A white room with that narrow bed. And Simon Wolfgard.

She shifted the images this way and that like puzzle pieces, changing the sequence and searching for clues. She could save Sam. If she followed one sequence of images, she could do that much. After that? She wasn't going to give in. She wasn't going to hand over her body like it was someone else's property. She would fight as hard as she could for as long as she could. The only thing she would gain from fighting was her own sense of being a person instead of a thing, because the end would be the same.

This was the beginning of the prophecy she'd seen about herself.

This was the night she was going to die.