Ilya smiled. “Feeling Wolfish?”

“Mrph.”

“Chew, don’t choke.”

I felt like a fool, burning up with embarrassment. Stuffing my face like that wasn’t my usual way of eating, but hunger had overcome good sense and any nod to manners.

I chewed . . . and chewed . . . and chewed before I finally swallowed.

“Sorry,” I said.

His smile was still there, but it had an edge now. “Don’t you have food at the cabin?”

“Plenty.” Did the Sanguinati ever binge eat because of stress? Probably a question I didn’t want to ask. “I was going to have breakfast after taking a walk, and then I met Aiden and . . .”

“And?”

I put the sandwich down and wiped my fingers on the napkin to give myself time to figure out a safe way to explain. “I’m grateful for Aiden’s help in getting a fire started in the stove last night. But this morning, when I realized who he was . . . I felt intimidated.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s Fire. An Elemental.”

“The Lady of the Lake is also an Elemental. Does she intimidate you?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

Huh. Good question.

“Is it because Aiden is male?” Ilya asked.

Ooooooooooh, trick question coming from my male attorney. And I hadn’t been afraid of being around Aiden when I thought he was Julian’s friend or Ineke’s.

If Fire mates with Water, are the children called Steam?

Focus, Vicki.

“It seems silly to be scared of someone who has minnows swimming around in her tummy. But Aiden . . . When he asked me if I was all right this morning, I was afraid of what he might do to Julian, who was with me. I was afraid of saying the wrong thing.”

“You’re often afraid of saying the wrong thing to men.”

It wasn’t quite a question, so I didn’t feel obliged to answer.

“While both are Elementals, the Lady of the Lake’s domain has boundaries,” Ilya said as if there hadn’t been an awkward beat of silence. “Fire does not. That makes him more dangerous. In that, you are correct. But he bears you no ill will. Please keep that in mind.”

I nodded. “Was that what you came to tell me?”

Some subtle change of expression. “No. I came to tell you that Yorick Dane’s new guests have come to The Jumble with guns and other weapons, and you need to stay away.”

“Aggie.”

“Don’t worry about the Crowgard. The terra indigene who live around the northern end of the lake will help keep watch over The Jumble.”

The sandwich didn’t taste as good after Ilya left, but I ate it and the fries. I couldn’t say if I was trying to store energy or was using food to pack down stress, but I ate everything in order to get ready for whatever was coming.

CHAPTER 63

Grimshaw

Thaisday, Sumor 6

Since Ilya Sanguinati had declined to sit in the visitors’ chair, Grimshaw pushed to his feet to face the vampire. Julian had called to tell him that Vicki DeVine would be at Lettuce Reed today. Not an ideal situation, but they didn’t have any reason to suspect she was in danger, except for Julian’s reaction to the Murder game.

But Ilya’s news added weight to the concern.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

“No,” Ilya replied. “The Crowgard didn’t see any weapons, and I suppose there are many reasons males don’t tuck in a shirt.”

“Did the Crowgard hear the men’s names?”

“Not their full names, but other terra indigene saw papers that had their names—Mark Hammorson and Tony Amorella. Air says they run a security business.”

Air. Gods above and below. There had always been stories about terra indigene called Elementals, just as there were rumors of forms known as Elders. Or there had been those kinds of stories where he had grown up. His grandfather had told him time and time again, “Mind what you do; there is always someone watching.” When he was young, he thought it meant the adults in the family, who seemed to know when he made some mischief. But that wasn’t the meaning of his grandfather’s warning. There could be another form of terra indigene in the police station right now, listening, watching, judging, and he wouldn’t know unless that being chose to appear—or attack.

And yet this was the world they lived in. Until the Humans First and Last movement started a war with the Others, most of the terra indigene had paid no attention to the humans who crowded together on the land they were allowed to use. Now all the terra indigene paid attention, even in an unremarkable place like Sproing.

Except Sproing wasn’t unremarkable anymore because Vicki DeVine had unwittingly begun to restore a terra indigene settlement called The Jumble, and that one decision had attracted all kinds of potentially dangerous interest in this little village and the people who lived here.

Which circled back to the reason Ilya Sanguinati had come in to talk to him. Men with weapons had entered The Jumble. Yorick Dane might say the two men were there to protect the humans, but what could an armed man do against a sink full of water that suddenly took the shape of a hand and choked a woman? You couldn’t shoot it. And taking potshots at any of the shifters . . . He’d seen the pictures of how the terra indigene responded when someone did that.

“I guess I should go out and take a look at those men.”

The station door flew open and Osgood ran in. “Sir! A couple of flatbed trucks hauling construction equipment are heading for The Jumble!”

“You need to stop them before any of that equipment touches the access road,” Ilya warned. “I told Dane yesterday that the access road wasn’t part of his property and he couldn’t do anything to it, or use it for anything but personal vehicles, without the terra indigene’s consent.”

“Could someone have given consent? Maybe someone who wasn’t actually authorized?” Didn’t seem likely, but it was possible Dane had dangled the right bait in front of a shifter and gotten an agreement, figuring if he worked fast, the deed would be done before anyone could object—if you ignored the fact that Elementals like Air and Earth would be aware of the transgressors the moment those humans set foot in The Jumble.

If this underhanded way of doing business was typical of Dane and his pals, it made sense they would need security—and need men who also belonged to their special club.

Grimshaw checked his service weapon and made sure he had a couple of extra clips. Then he headed for the door. “Osgood, you keep an eye on things in the village. I’ll be at The Jumble.”

“I’ll be in my office for a while if you should have need of counsel,” Ilya said.

Grimshaw ran to the cruiser, tossed his mobile phone on the passenger seat, and drove away, lights flashing and siren wailing. Probably should have waited on the siren. He hadn’t gotten past the village boundary when Julian called.

“Trouble?” Julian asked.

“Not if I can stop it.” He ended the call and focused on driving. But his mind circled around the timing of all of this.

First Dane showed up in Sproing and his friends showed up at The Jumble for a long weekend. By Sunsday, Vicki DeVine was evicted from the home and livelihood she had worked months to renovate. Two days later, two men in the security business arrived, swiftly followed by construction equipment, which must have been brought in from Hubbney since he doubted any construction company in Bristol or woo-woo Crystalton would have taken a job at The Jumble right now. Which meant Dane and his pals must have arranged for the arrival of men and equipment before they took possession of The Jumble.

He saw the flatbed trucks. They had to see him. But just as the first truck made the turn onto The Jumble’s access road—where did the fool think he could go?—Grimshaw saw one of the trees next to the access road fall.

“No,” he breathed. Dane had hired someone to cut down trees?

He reached for the cruiser’s mic, intending to call dispatch in Bristol and request backup for a potentially lethal situation. He didn’t know how many men were out there cutting trees. He didn’t know how many men were in the flatbed cabs. And he didn’t know if any of them were carrying.