Crowbones

He understood, as well as his kind of terra indigene could, why the Sanguinati had rented some of the cabins to the institutions where humans went to learn many things and now wanted to learn about the Others. Most humans didn’t stay longer than the waxing or waning of a moon, but the appearance of the Hunter at the same time these males came to Lake Silence was reason enough to distrust these humans, even if they did nothing wrong.

He waited until the humans were looking in the wrong direction, then assumed his human form and pulled on a pair of jeans he’d left in a sack secured to a branch of a tree. No shirt, no shoes. He couldn’t dress like this if Vicki was going to see him, because she tried to give him more clothes, convinced that he was going to catch cold.

He was Fire. He didn’t catch cold. But he’d helped her light the stove in a cabin when she’d been driven out of The Jumble and stayed here under Ilya’s protection, and she associated the human need for warmth with him. In order to talk about something besides sweaters, he dressed in more clothes when he intended to cross paths with her.

Now he stepped out from among the trees and walked toward the cabins.

“Hey!” Roash shouted.

“Hey,” Aiden replied. He wasn’t surprised that Roash, the troublemaker, was the shouter, since the man had sent another human to The Jumble pretending to be Crowbones.

“If we’re going to be stuck here awhile longer, can we drive into the village and pick up supplies?” Roash asked.

He tried to think like a human, tried to think of how going into the village to purchase food could be turned into something sneaky. When he couldn’t think of anything, he said, “How many of you need to go?”

“I’ll go.” The man called Peter Lynchfield held up a key. “I have a spare key for my car, so I can drive in and pick up some supplies for us.”

Since “us” didn’t seem to mean “all of us,” Aiden looked at the Intuit. “What about you? Do you need supplies?”

“Not tonight,” Janse said. “But it’s good to know I can drive into the village tomorrow and buy a meal at the diner. And check out the bookstore if it’s open.”

It sounded like he was being asked if those activities were okay, so he nodded.

“When do you think the roads will be open?” Roash asked.

Aiden shrugged. Then he smiled. “When the enemy is dead.”