Written in Red

Henry, Vlad, Blair, and Tess gathered in the Business Association’s meeting room.

Henry set the notebook on the table. “This is Meg’s. I think whatever else is written here is private, but she offered these words for all of us to see.”

None of them spoke as they read Meg’s record of the vision, but Blair began growling.

“If this was a book, the vision would have included a newspaper that would indicate the date something would happen,” Vlad said.

“But it is not a book,” Henry replied. “She gave us much for such a small cut. An accident,” he added when Blair stared at him.

Blair nodded and went back to studying the words.

Henry looked at Tess. “You said there was pleasure in the cutting. All I smelled in her was pain. Why?”

“I don’t know,” Tess replied. “Maybe it’s the difference between an accidental cut and one made deliberately. Maybe it was because there was something she wasn’t able to do alone, so she experienced pain instead of euphoria. I told you all I know about blood prophets.”

“I used the computer to check for books or any writings about them,” Vlad said. “There are stories that have cassandra sangue as characters, but they were listed under horror or suspense novels, so I doubt there is any useful information. I added a couple of them to the next book order coming to HGR. I’ll keep looking.”

“Someone knows about them,” Tess said.

“Meg knows,” Henry said quietly. “In time, she will tell us.” He looked at the Wolf. “Blair?”

Blair let out a breath slowly. “Could be this year, could be five years from now. There’s still plenty of time for a storm like that before the cold girl yields to her sister. That sound. Smaller than a car, but not a BOW. Has to move well over snow.”

“I can help Vlad search the computers for such a vehicle,” Tess said. She hesitated. “Should we tell that policeman who talks to Simon?”

“Are such visions ever wrong?” Blair asked. “Can we know that those men coming in with weapons and hidden faces aren’t police?”

“Why would the police want Sam?” Vlad asked.

“Why would anyone?” Henry countered.

Flickers of red danced in Blair’s amber eyes. “Daphne is dead, so Sam is the Wolfgard’s child. Would anyone be foolish enough to touch him and start a war?”

“Someone will be foolish enough,” Henry said. “Meg has seen it.”

Silence.

Finally Blair said, “Clear skies today. Unless someone angers the girl at the lake, we shouldn’t have another storm for a few days.”

Tess leaned forward and brushed a finger over the page that held Meg’s notes about the vision. “Even if a blood prophet is never wrong, what she sees is open to interpretation. Meg has shown us the beginning of a fight, but there is nothing here that shows how it will end.”

She looked at the three men. Despite his strength as a Grizzly, Henry felt a shiver down his spine when he saw the way her hair began to coil.

Tess left the room, apparently deciding there was nothing more to say.

“Sam’s not going to accept being left behind all the time,” Vlad said. “And being around Meg is good for him.” He gave Blair a pointed look. “You don’t like the harness and leash, and I understand that, but a couple of days with Meg has pulled Sam away from the bad place he’s been in since Daphne died. That should count for something.”

“I can’t speak for other Wolves, but it counts with me,” Blair said. “We’ll keep Sam safe. And Meg too.”

Vlad shifted in his chair. “She hasn’t seen a Wolf yet. Except Sam.”

“There’s always a Wolf on duty at HGR,” Blair said.

“Yes, but she hasn’t been in the store since she became the Liaison, so she hasn’t seen one of you.”

“I’ll assign a couple of Wolves to keep watch around the office. In human form.”

“Keep in mind that they’ll see Meg and Sam,” Henry said.

Blair growled. “That is for Simon to deal with when he gets back.”

“Agreed.”

Satisfied they had done what they could for the moment, Henry stood. “I am close by during the day, and the Hawks and Crows keep watch when Meg is working. They will alert the Wolves if there is a threat.”

The three went back to their own work.

As Henry walked the narrow path to his studio door, he looked at the Crows gathered on the wall. <Anything to tell me?>

<Humans and boxes,> Jake replied. <The Meg does not need help with the writing.> He sounded disappointed.

Back inside, Henry hung up his coat and walked around the pieces of wood waiting to be given a new kind of life—and thought about the female who, despite being human, he was beginning to see as a friend.

In between deliveries, Meg scanned the Lakeside News, but didn’t see anything she thought should be reported to Henry or Tess—and wondered if she was out of place to even be looking. Surely Tess or Vlad did that anyway. But they didn’t have all the images she did and might not recognize something that could have an impact on the Others.

She noticed the sale ads, which were set up as Asia said, but she didn’t know if any of the residents would be interested in such items.

She read the comics and didn’t understand most of them. But there was a comic strip about the Others that disturbed her. It seemed to be part of an ongoing story, so the words had little meaning, but the slavering Wolf, standing upright and looking like a furry man with a wolf’s head, made her uncomfortable. Maybe it was a way to diminish something that was feared, but it felt dangerous. She couldn’t say if it was dangerous to the Others or to the humans, but she absorbed the image, then looked at the date at the top of the newspaper. Another image.

Folding the paper, she reached for the Courtyard’s newsletter, then stopped. Too much information, too much to absorb already today. Besides, distributing that new catalog to the residential complexes had produced a flurry of orders that had arrived that afternoon, so she still had to separate a cartload of packages and contact the complexes to come and pick up their orders.

She locked up promptly at four o’clock, filled the back of the BOW with small packages for the Chambers and the Green Complex, made sure she had her package for Winter, and headed out to make her deliveries.

It still made her nervous to get out of the BOW at any of the mausoleums that housed the Sanguinati—except Mr. Erebus’s home—but she was getting used to the smoke that flowed out of the buildings whenever she stopped the BOW. The Sanguinati in smoke form didn’t flow beyond their fences when she was around, and the ones who remained in human form didn’t speak to her or approach. She always bid them a good afternoon as she tucked packages into the delivery boxes—and always breathed a sigh of relief that none of them wanted to make a meal out of her.

Mr. Erebus, on the other hand, came down the walkway to meet her as she got out of the BOW.

“Your movies arrived,” Meg said, holding up the package. She noticed his fingernails didn’t look as yellow or horny as they had the first time she’d seen him, but maybe that was because she’d been nervous and the doorway had been dark.

“I do enjoy my movies,” he said. “Such a sweet girl to bring them to me.” Then he pointed at the black delivery boxes to indicate she should put his package inside. Even when he came out to meet her, he wouldn’t take a package directly from her hand.

“I’m pleased to do it,” Meg said.

Erebus studied her as she put the rest of the packages inside the delivery boxes. “Vladimir is kind to you?”

The question surprised her. What surprised her more was the feeling that Vlad’s well-being depended on her answer. “Yes, he is. He and Nyx were very helpful this morning.”

“That is good.” He stepped back. “Go finish your work, then enjoy the night.”