Why did children, regardless of species, learn the word “cookie” before words like “stop” and “no”?

After listening to the yapping for a minute, Virgil simply lifted his head and howled.

The bus and a couple of cars pulled to the curb as if responding to a siren.

Jesse sighed. Acting victorious, Cory pranced over to sniff Virgil, who gave the pup licks of praise. Or was he trying to smooth down some sticky-up fur? Who knew?

Glad Tobias wasn’t there to make some smart comment about the similarities between Wolves and mothers when it came to sticky-up hair, Jesse said, “I’m on my way to talk to Tolya.”

No warning. Virgil lunged at her, his teeth closing on the leash inches below her hand. He looked at her and growled softly.

Jesse let go of the leash. “I guess you’re taking Cory for a walk.”

“Roo.”

She watched Wolf and puppy trot across the street and into the grass on the square.

“She gets tired quickly,” she called after them.

“She’ll be fine,” Tolya said, coming up beside Jesse.

“I know.” As she looked at him, her right hand closed over her left wrist. Couldn’t stop it.

He closed his hand over her arm. “Let’s go up to my office.”

“We need to help,” she whispered. “If we help, we won’t die.”

“Come with me.”

As they reached Tolya’s office, he released her arm in order to rush to answer the phone.

“Tolya Sanguinati.”

Jesse watched his face, watched the veneer of humanity fall away until there was nothing but a predator who could pass for human long enough to get within striking distance of prey.

“I understand,” Tolya said. “I’ll stay right here until I receive it.” He hung up the phone and turned on his computer.

“What is it?” Jesse asked.

He fiddled with the mouse, with other objects on his desk, instead of looking at her. “Hope Wolfsong just finished one of her prophecy drawings.”

There was more. She waited because she had a feeling he would tell her. Needed to tell her.

“Something about the drawing upsets you,” Jesse said.

Tolya shook his head. “I haven’t seen it yet. But Jackson Wolfgard has seen it.” He finally looked at her. “And Jackson is afraid.”

* * *

* * *

“Slow down,” Yuri snapped.

“Why?” Jana snapped back. “Are you afraid I’ll crash the car and we’ll die?”

“I won’t die. I’ll shift to smoke in the moment before the crash and flow out of the hole you make in the windshield.”

It wasn’t that visual that made her take her foot off the accelerator. It was wondering if the Sanguinati knew the human saying about waste not, want not, and would consider it a waste of a fresh meal to let the remaining blood of a seriously injured human leak out onto the road.

“It will take time to scan the picture and send the e-mail,” Yuri said. “And then it will take more time for the picture to download once Tolya receives it.”

And if Tolya and Jackson Wolfgard hadn’t received special permission from the Elders to have a phone line connecting Bennett and Sweetwater, a warning like a prophet drawing might come several hours too late.

“Besides,” Yuri added, “we’re not supposed to scare the humans until we know what’s going on.”

What am I, chopped liver? Jana thought. Another human saying best left unspoken in case it prompted questions about why livers should be chopped instead of just ripped out of a body and chewed.

It took every ounce of self-control to park the vehicle properly and walk up to Tolya’s office. People stopped to watch her, then continued with their own business, satisfied by her behavior that they didn’t need to be in emergency mode—yet.

Tolya’s office felt crowded, stifling, even though there weren’t that many bodies in the room. Still, two Wolves in human form took up more space than regular humans, if for no other reason than humans didn’t want to get within biting distance of them.

Yuri shifted to smoke and drifted along the ceiling, shifting back to human form when he reached the rest of the Sanguinati, who were standing around Tolya’s desk, effectively blocking anyone else’s attempt to see the picture as it downloaded.

“Jesse.” Jana nodded at the other woman.

“Deputy.” Jesse eyed the Sanguinati, then looked at Jana. “I gather our puppies are having a playdate.”

“Are they?” Jana focused on Virgil. “I hope Cowboy Bob didn’t forget the rule—and the consequences—when it comes to giving out unauthorized treats.”

“Cowboy Bob?” Jesse looked from human to Wolf. “Tobias used to watch a TV show about a doll named Cowboy Bob that could—”

“That’s the one,” Jana said, her attention still focused on Virgil.

He showed his fangs before looking away.

Busted, she thought. Virgil wouldn’t have looked away first if he hadn’t broken the rule.

“John.” Tolya stared at the computer screen. The Sanguinati made room for the Wolf to slip around the desk and stand behind Tolya’s chair.

“Blessed Thaisia,” John whined. “That’s Meg Corbyn.”

Jana leaped toward the desk. Virgil hauled her back and growled, “Wait.”

The printer began chugging, printing out a copy of Hope Wolfsong’s prophecy drawing. As soon as it finished, Virgil snatched it out of the printer and held it so that Jana and Jesse could see it.

“Bumpy dark,” Jana whispered. The picture was of Meg Corbyn in the trunk of a car. Alive? Dead? Hard to say. Definitely wounded.

They need you to think like a cop now. Think! “The license plate is clearly rendered. Would it be accurate?”

Virgil nodded.

Jana looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s a little past noon in the Northeast Region. We have to send that information to as many police departments as we can.”

“Just one,” Tolya countered. “We send this picture on to Lakeside.”

“Not to Lakeside,” Jesse said firmly. “We send it to Ferryman’s Landing.”

* * *

* * *

Tolya began writing the e-mail to Simon Wolfgard and Vlad Sanguinati when Jesse Walker evaded Virgil and flung herself on his desk, slapping a hand over his.

“Tolya, listen to me.”

Virgil yanked her off the desk with no regard to her gender or her age. Before the Wolf could throw Jesse out of the room, Tolya said, “Sending it to Ferryman’s Landing would cause a delay.”

“No,” Jesse said.

He looked at Virgil. <Let her go.>

She returned to the desk, shaken, her right hand clamped over her left wrist. “This is why I needed to be here today. This. Right now.”

“Then, speak.” And I will listen. He didn’t complete the words usually spoken to a blood prophet, but everyone in the room would have filled in what he hadn’t said.

“By the time anyone in the Northeast receives a copy of that drawing, Lakeside will be in turmoil,” Jesse said. “No one is going to be sitting at a desk waiting for an e-mail they don’t know is coming. They’ll be out trying to find Meg Corbyn, will be coordinating with the Lakeside police. And it would be cruel to show that picture to Meg’s loved ones.”

Would Vlad consider himself a loved one? Simon?

“We have to warn them,” Virgil growled.

“Yes, we do,” Jesse agreed. “That’s why you should send it to Steve Ferryman. Someone will be answering the phone at the mayor’s office.”

Tolya looked pointedly at his own phone, a reminder that his phone wasn’t always answered.

“It’s an Intuit village. Someone will be answering the phone during business hours. And they’ll have some kind of police force who can run the license plate just as easily as the police in Lakeside and get that part of the investigation moving. And Steve has contact with all the Intuit communities in the Northeast and can send out an alert. Another source of help, Tolya.”

“They’ll be one step removed,” Jana said. “That doesn’t mean they won’t be concerned, but they won’t be in the middle of the crisis.”

Tolya started to ask John his opinion, but the Wolf who had lived in the Lakeside Courtyard and had known Meg Corbyn looked too devastated to offer anything right now—which made him realize Jesse Walker was right. Someone had to bring this information to the Lakeside Courtyard in person.

“Suggestions?”

“Let Jesse Walker call the communications cabin that sends our messages to the Northeast,” Stazia Sanguinati said. “She is Intuit; so are the humans who work at that cabin. She will know what to say to them to convey the urgency of sending this picture to Ferryman’s Landing.”

He wasn’t sure that Jesse Walker could express herself better than he could, but he would allow her to make the call. “Anything else?”

“The trains should be stopped,” Nicolai said. “It’s unlikely that the enemy has had time to reach the border, but I think the trains should be held at the stations and searched.”

“The railroads will be reluctant to stop the trains without an explanation,” Jana said.

Nicolai smiled, showing his fangs. It wasn’t in any way a pleasant smile. “I will e-mail them and tell them the terra indigene are hunting a human enemy, and no train will be permitted to stop at the Bennett station until the enemy is found. Then each station will have a choice.”

“That message doesn’t tell them much,” Jana protested.

“It tells them everything,” Jesse replied, looking at Nicolai. “His name alone will tell the other station masters everything they need to know.”

Tolya gave Nicolai a nod. “Send your message.”

“Maybe it hasn’t happened yet,” Jana said. “Maybe we have time to stop it. Sometimes prophecies don’t happen because they were seen and people acted on the information. Right?”

“You can’t always act fast enough.” Jesse Walker met Tolya’s eyes. The grief and regret of what had happened to Joe Wolfgard and the rest of the Prairie Gold pack was still fresh for both of them. “Do you have Steve’s e-mail address?”

“Yes,” he said. “Make the phone call, Jesse Walker. Impress upon the humans working at the cabin that this message is more than urgent. It truly is a matter of life and death—for all of you.”

If we help, we won’t die. The words she had whispered such a short time ago seemed to echo in the room. He wondered if she argued to have Steve Ferryman involved in order to save the Intuits or if she had a feeling that involving the Intuits would make the difference in preventing the death that could become the trigger for so many more.