City of Magic: The Complete Series by Helen Harper (book club recommendations TXT) 📕

I thought of Lucy’s mother and the discussion I’d had with Monroe the previous day. ‘We’re not the only ones short of food,’ I said aloud. ‘If the hell hounds are finding scavenging and hunting hard in their own territory, it stands to reason that they’ll venture out to other areas. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that this is another of the southern dogs.’

‘Well,’ Theo drawled, ‘I hate to point out the obvious but they’re canines. They share a considerable amount of DNA with you guys.’ He jerked his thumb towards the assembled werewolves. ‘They should be your problem.’

Several faces spasmed into annoyance. For all that Theo was a good guy, he enjoyed pushing the boundaries sometimes. ‘As long as they don’t attack any of us or try to get inside the barricade to steal our own food,’ I said hastily, ‘then I don’t see where the problem is. What the hell hounds are doing isn’t the issue right now. Our focus needs to be on retrieving that pigeon.’

Those same faces now looked more nauseated than irritated. ‘You mean…’ Felicity began, her mouth turning down ‘…tracking that thing and waiting for it to shit out the message.’

I smiled slightly. ‘I do.’ It wasn’t a task I’d particularly relish. From the expression on Felicity’s face, she felt the same.

‘It could be a whole lot of work for nothing,’ Monroe said. ‘Although it seems likely that the message is for us, it might not be. Even if it is for us, what’s it likely to say? “Hello? How are you guys doing in there?”’

He glanced round our assembly. ‘Maybe it doesn’t matter what it says,’ he said more quietly. ‘Maybe the intention is for us to send a message out to those families that are waiting for word about their loved ones who chose to stay. As Charlotte pointed out, with no more of those pigeons we can’t send anything back. Until this morning, we weren’t thinking about communicating with the outside world. Perhaps we should just forget about it.’

From the mutters around us, no one was willing to forget about it.

‘What if it’s not a friendly hello?’ Felicity said. ‘What if those messages are a warning?’

‘Such as?’ Julie asked.

It was Monroe who answered. ‘Such as “We’re tired of having you in our country. We want our city back so get out before we obliterate you all.”’

I licked my lips. ‘They wouldn’t do that. The government wouldn’t do it. The army wouldn’t do it.’

‘How can you be sure?’

I looked at him. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an answer.

‘Is there any sign of more pigeons?’ Julian asked.

Several of the werewolves shook their heads. ‘We’ve been checking around. There might have been lots of them initially but they’ve all gone now.’

Monroe lifted his chin. ‘If we’re sending out trackers to find the hound that ate the pigeon and wait for it to,’ he glanced at me and adjusted his language in a manner that amused me, ‘defecate the message, we might as well keep an eye out for more pigeons at the same time.’

Julian nodded. ‘Agreed.’ He looked round. ‘You all know your teams. We’ll divvy up the city areas.’

‘I will travel to the south,’ Monroe said. That made sense; it was the most likely location for the hell hound to return to.

‘If you wish.’ Julian’s response was mild. ‘But take Brewster’s pack with you.’

I knew that, deep down, Monroe wanted to refuse. Despite months of therapy and genuine healing, he was still afraid of travelling with others in case his actions led to their deaths in the same way that his own pack had died. He was getting better, however; he was learning to trust again. ‘Fine,’ he said.

I opened my mouth, ready to throw in my oar and declare my intention to go with Monroe. Both he and Julian beat me to it. ‘Charley, you should go in search of the shadow beasts’ lair,’ Julian said. ‘We don’t need the added complication of that baby monster along with everything else. You can keep an eye out for any pigeons while you’re out.’

‘Besides,’ Monroe added, ‘you can’t track like the rest of us. You sound like a marauding rhino even when you’re doing your best to keep quiet.’

That was a bit uncalled for. ‘Rhinos are a threatened and yet still wonderful species,’ I said, more loudly than I’d intended.

‘Then,’ Monroe said mildly, ‘you’d better take some back-up with you in case you’re threatened. You’re too wonderful to risk.’

I was exasperated and pleased in equal measure. It was good for my self-esteem to have him tell me I was wonderful – but it didn’t matter how often I proved my wondrous worth, he still worried about me.

I knew Monroe was right. Given what had happened with Lucy’s mother, and the fact that the hell hounds were this far out of their den, it made sense not to travel alone. If he could be the bigger wolf and go with another pack, then so could I. My pack was just a tad more … motley.

‘I’ll take Lizzy, Jodie and Cath,’ I said.

‘And me, darling,’ Julie declared.

I looked at her quizzically. ‘It’s mid-morning.’ In August.

The vampire waved an airy hand. ‘Don’t you worry about me. I can protect myself from the sun.’

‘It’s settled then.’ Julian set his jaw. ‘No one’s tried to contact us from the outside before now. If that’s what is happening, let’s not mess it up.’ A distant look came into his eyes and I knew he was thinking about both our dwindling supplies and the danger that might be about to hit us from our own people. ‘We might need this.’

Unfortunately, might didn’t come into it.

The other groups had already departed by the time my crew got themselves together. First of all, it took considerable thought on my part to come up with a way to tether Lucy. I didn’t want to leave her behind