Anne Bishop - Written in Red

“Jake?”

Jenni had told her that Jake liked playing the pen game with the humans who brought packages, and he intended to help the Meg whenever he was assigned to watch that part of the Courtyard.

Help was not the word that came to mind as Meg unlocked the front door. And how had Jake gotten in? As far as she knew, only a few members of the Business Association had keys to the Liaison’s Office. Well, he could have slipped in with one of the deliverymen and hidden so he could rummage through the drawers while she was out of the office.

She picked up two empty boxes from the floor, then looked at all the pencils that were scattered on the counter, along with most of the pens she usually kept in the holder. She wasn’t sure what the Crow was building, but he’d certainly gone through the drawers to find what he wanted.

“Jake, you can’t have the pencils and pens,” Meg said. She reached for one of the pens. He pecked her. “Hey!” She had had her fill of wildlife today and didn’t need a pesky Crow stealing her things.

Caw!

“I need those pens!”

Caw!

“Jake!” Her eyes filled with tears, which was stupid. It was all stupid, but she had been scared twice in the space of a few minutes, and she didn’t need this—whatever it was.

Jake tipped his head this way and that. Then he fluttered around his creation, pulled out a blue pen, and offered it to her. When she took it, he selected a red pen and offered it. Finally he gave back a black pen and began rebuilding whatever he was building on her counter.

“Mine,” she said, sniffling as she put the three pens under the counter with her clipboard.

She was about to ask about the sugar when Asia dashed into the office.

“Gods above and below, Meg. What’s going on? Is someone hurt?”

“Hurt?”

“That scream . Didn’t you hear it? I was looking at the display of pottery in the window of Earth Native and I heard that awful scream. And all the birds suddenly flying around, going crazy and making a racket.” Asia threw her hands up, causing Jake to flutter his wings and caw in protest.

Meg wanted to slink into the sorting room and lock all the doors and never come out. She would stay there until she dried up into human jerky.

Then she considered what the Wolves would happily do with that kind of jerky.

“You heard that?”

“Of course I heard that!” Asia edged away from the Crow and lowered her voice. “Do you know who it was?”

“Me,” Meg mumbled, her face burning with embarrassment. “It was me.”

“You?”

“I was startled. And even little Wolves look pretty big when they’re running right at you.”

Of course, that was the moment Sam chose to stand in the doorway, wagging his tail and licking his chops.

“Oh,” Asia gushed, leaning on the counter but careful not to have any part of herself beyond the counter. “Isn’t he the sweetest thing!” Her eyes flicked up to the doorway. “Speaking of sweetest things, you must have a mighty big sweet tooth, Meg.”

Meg glanced back. “Oh, the sugar is for the ponies. They get a special treat on Moonsday.” She looked at Jake. “Do you know how the box got knocked over and the top torn open?”

The Crow lifted his wings in a way that perfectly mimicked a shrug.

Meg leaned closer to Jake. “If someone hid a lump of sugar in order to attract bugs to eat, that someone isn’t going to be allowed to play with the pencils anymore.”

He stared at her. Then he fluttered down to the floor, pecked around the edge of the counter for a moment, flew back up, and dropped the sugar lump on the counter.

Sighing, Meg took the sugar lump—and heard something fall over in the back room.

“Asia, this isn’t a good day for a visit.”

“I can see that,” Asia replied. “You take care. Maybe we can grab some lunch in one of those places across the street tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure. I’m looking after Sam, and he’s a handful.”

A thump, followed by Sam loudly talking back at something.

“I have to go,” Meg said, hurrying into the back room.

For a moment all she could do was stare. Sam had somehow dragged a chair across the room and was climbing up to reach the box of puppy cookies she’d left on the counter. The fridge door was open, and scraps of her cheese sandwich were scattered on the floor, along with the wrapping, which had been ripped into pieces. Either he wasn’t interested or he hadn’t been able to grab her container of soup. She didn’t want to think of how much of a mess that would have made.

Deciding she would drink her now-cold peppermint tea before dealing with Sam’s helping himself to her lunch, she grabbed the pup and went into the sorting room, firmly closing the door to the back room.

That’s when she saw the box of sugar on the table and realized she no longer had the sugar lump she’d taken from Jake and had no clue where she’d dropped it.

Slipping into the front room to retrieve her tea, she saw Ferus standing outside the consulate, talking with Elliot Wolfgard and gesturing toward the office. Easy to guess what they were talking about: Sam on a leash. Vlad and Henry didn’t seem concerned about it when she and Sam walked around the complex, but she had a feeling the Wolves weren’t going to be as understanding about buddies and safety lines.

“Crow in the front room, puppy in the middle room, crazy Wolf outside,” she muttered. “Could today get any better?”

Apparently, it could. Fortunately, she noticed the bug Jake must have dropped in her tea as a peace offering before she took a sip.

Entering the Stag and Hare, a restaurant directly across from the Courtyard’s delivery entrance, Asia settled at a table by the windows. The cold came off the plates of glass in waves, and most of the customers were huddled at the tables closest to the fireplace in the center of the main room.

Keeping her coat on, Asia placed her order and stared out the window, turning over the things she had seen as she considered what she could use to her advantage.

Meg had screamed, and all the terra indigene in that part of the Courtyard had responded, even those who worked in the consulate. According to Darrell Adams, a human who worked for Elliot Wolfgard, everyone at the consulate thought of the Liaison’s Office like a poor relation—something that had to be tolerated but was ignored as much as possible.

Poor relation or not, even they had paid some attention when Meg screamed. So there was a way to redirect the Others’ attention, if only for a minute or two. Plenty of things could be accomplished in a minute or two.

And there was that Wolf pup wearing a harness . Could he shift into a boy, or did the harness constrict his ability to change into human form? If one of the Others could be contained and controlled, her backers probably knew a few collectors who would risk the wrath of the terra indigene to have a Wolf for a pet, if only for a little while. They might even consider using a tamed Wolf in a few horror movies—at least until he became old enough to be dangerous.

Asia smiled at the waiter when he brought her a bowl of soup. As the simple meal warmed her, she looked at the Courtyard and smiled again.

Meg was looking after a pup while Simon Wolfgard was away. Didn’t need to be a genius to add up two and two and get money.