Fresh Market. No idea where that was. I better find out by noon. I peeked out the window. The City was undergoing construction. Rocks slapped against each other, metal clinked, workers shouted. Out past the mass of concrete and metal waiting to be erected was a hill, and behind the hill flowed the Ohio River.
Though Mayhem’s court was one of the tallest buildings in the city, I couldn’t see any markets or even humans going there to get goods. And besides, how should I get there? Mayhem didn’t want me to leave his office, let alone his court.
Knock. Knock.
I jumped and shooed the bird. She flew away. I snuck the message into the jacket’s pocket. The collar! I crossed to the bed, got the collar, and tucked it inside the wristlet I’d gotten with my boots. “Come in,” I said. A beast female rolled in a cart with plates of food. Man, those were some nice long eyelashes around her big eyes, like those of a doe.
The aroma of bacon and eggs hit me right in the gut. Saliva pooled in my mouth, and I nearly attacked the cart. Instead, I peeled my gaze away from the food before the woman closed the door. I put my hand on her strong shoulder. “Hey, how do I get out of here?”
“Through the door.” She pointed and brushed my hand away.
“Right. And what about the other doors, the secret ones?” I pointed to the wall that opened to Mayhem’s room. “How can I tell where these doors are?”
She looked at me as if I were a Martian. This was probably because she was a beast female, and for her, these walled-in sliding doors made sense. So I explained. “On this planet,” I said, “the doors are visible and have handles.”
“Human, our doors are visible.”
I hooked my thumb behind me. “Not those doors.”
“Those are not doors, those are passages.”
“Ah! I got this. How do I open passages?”
“Don’t know. Ask Alpha Beast.”
“I’ll get right on that.”
She spun around as if to leave. “Wait, but how do you open them?”
“I walk, and the wall opens before I get there.”
“It reads your mind?”
She blinked her pretty eyelashes. “Yes, human. The passages read minds. Try it.” She pointed.
I walked into the passage and banged my nose on the wall. Ouch. I rubbed the sore spot. I propped my hand on my hip.
The woman’s lips tilted. “Humans amuse me.”
“I’m happy to entertain.”
“You can’t open the passage to Mayhem’s quarters.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re not his…pair.”
Right. I should mind what I came here for. “You work in the kitchens around here?”
She walked down the stairs. “How did you guess?”
Heading out, I grabbed the wristlet. This beasty girl thought herself funny. I followed her down the many flights of stairs and through the kitchens all the way to the exit door where people were unloading a delivery truck. I paused so I could take in my situation. Those must be the trucks Mayhem had mentioned yesterday. They unloaded food and would load up again, heading for California.
New City was a new city to me. I had no idea where I was, let alone where the Fresh Market was. And even if I knew its location, I didn’t have the means to get there. Nevertheless, I needed to get there and deliver the information I’d gathered yesterday.
A windbreaker jacket brushed my shoulder as a man came to stand beside me. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a rolled cigarette.
“Excuse me,” I said and winced at what looked like freshly healed burns on his forearm.
He slid me a look, and gray eyes—same color as mine—stared back at me. Creepy. I stepped away a bit. “I’m looking for a fresh market in town,” I said. “You know where it is?”
“Yes.”
“Great. How do I get there?”
“By moving your legs.”
“Thank you.” I rolled my eyes. Cold wind blew up my dress, and I shivered, thinking I should’ve put on some warm stockings. The man dropped his cigarette, then stomped on it. “Maurice sold you.” Oh my God! I whipped around and faced him. “Easy now,” he said. “I won’t tell. I need some information.”
“Who are you?”
“Nobody.”
“Okay, Nobody, I’m somebody, and I’d like to survive this ordeal.” I stepped closer to him so people wouldn’t hear me. “Did he send you here? ’Cuz if he did, he’s a dumbass. There are beasts here. Like a whole bunch of them, and from what I can tell, all you delivered are veggies and canned fruit. Where da meat? ’Cuz that’s what they eat. I don’t want to be the meat.”