by Nora Roberts
Grief, drenching grief overwhelmed even fear.
A dream, some terrible dream she couldn’t quite remember. She remembered the feelings in it—that grief, that fear. And … crows circling. Crows circling, shrieking. Blood on her hands, her face.
She looked down at her hands. Though they trembled, no blood stained them.
Stress, she told herself. Stress dreams, compounded by waking alone.
She huddled in the bed, assuring herself all was well. Better than well. The bed, warm and soft, stood in a room where a fire still simmered. A room where wide windows offered the spread of a snow-saturated forest, as quiet and peaceful as a church, on a rise of land.
They’d found Eric, and no stress dream could smear the joy of remembering how Max leaped from the car, grabbed his brother, embraced him.
They’d found Eric, alive and well. Found shelter beyond anything she’d believed still existed in the expansive mountain home tucked into the Alleghenies.
Hot food, good wine, a group of survivors banded together.
For the first time in weeks, she’d felt safe. For the first time in weeks, she and Max had loved each other with joy rather than desperation.
No, she wouldn’t let a dream dredged from her weak and nervous subconscious spoil that. Though fatigue still dragged at her, she got out of bed. She indulged in a shower—oh, glorious body jets, soft-scented soap, and shampoo—and refreshed herself on their housemates.
Eric, of course, was eight years Max’s junior. Handsome, eager, his eyes more blue than Max’s gray, his smile quicker, flashier. And a little giddy now to have discovered the power inside him.
Had it come through the blood? she wondered, since Eric had never shown any interest in or talent for the Craft before.
The virus, she thought. It somehow grew from the virus—or filled the void left by it.
Along with Eric, there was Shaun, awkward and nerdy, thick glasses over brown eyes, floppy hair.
The college group included Kim, a stunning girl with gorgeous caramel-gold skin. Cool and cautious in Lana’s estimation, but who could blame her? A genius, according to Eric.
Poe, football star who had had scouts sniffing around him. Tough faced, tough bodied. He’d been the one to push a plate of spaghetti to her when she and Max had found the house in the snowy dark.
And Allegra, with her ice-queen looks: pale skin, pale hair, frosty blue eyes. But her manner contradicted her looks, Lana thought. Warm and open, welcoming and kind.
And yet …
No and yets, Lana ordered herself as she switched off the shower. Allegra and Eric shared a bedroom, and their relationship had that fresh and shiny look of the new, so she would be warm and welcoming, too.
She dressed, studied herself in the mirror, and decided that while she might not feel fully rested, she looked it. She went out to find the others.
They owed the big, beautiful house to Shaun—or his parents. For a vacation home, they hadn’t stinted on luxury: gorgeous wood floors, spacious rooms, fields of windows to let the forest and mountains in, generous decks. A small, in-house gym equaled a lovely dream after the rigors of the road. But her favorite aspect was the huge and exceptional kitchen.
She found Max and Eric in the great room, huddled together over coffee.
She walked to Eric, wrapped her arms around him, and hugged hard. She’d only met him twice before: once at a family wedding, and then when he’d spent a long weekend with them in New York the previous summer. But they’d clicked.
She moved from him to bend down and kiss Max.
“Want coffee?” Max asked.
“Actually, I want tea for some reason. Is it all right, Eric, if I hunt for some?”
“I know we’ve got it because Kim goes for it. You don’t have to ask. We’re all in this together.”
“We’re going to have to start thinking about inventorying the food,” Max began, and Eric rolled his eyes.
“Man, you just got here. Relax a little.”
“There are eight of us now,” Max began, and because she knew Eric could get defensive when Max played big brother, Lana broke in.
“Speaking of, where’s everyone else?”
“Poe’s in the gym—he hits it every morning. Allegra’s still conked. Probably the others, too. Mostly we don’t get up this early. Except for Poe. Your pal Eddie took the dog out.”
“How about if I do some more hunting around and see what I can make for breakfast. For eight.”
“That’d be great.” Eric beamed at her. “We’ve been mostly doing everyone for themselves, unless Poe cooks something. He’s not bad, but he’s nothing close to you. We picked up some supplies on the way here when we could. And there’s a big freezer in that mudroom place. Shaun said his parents would’ve just had it stocked before … before everything went to hell.”
His face lost its easy cheer as Eric lowered his voice. “They’d always come up after the holidays, after all that, and they’d spend about a month here. Have some friends up, and stuff.”
He glanced toward the doorway. “The way it looks, they didn’t make it.”
“It must be hard on him,” Lana murmured.
She found the freezer and the pantry well stocked. The refrigerator offered slimmer pickings. Max, she knew, had a strong point about inventory.
The eggs and milk wouldn’t last long—and the milk would turn in any case. Since she had frozen blueberries in stock, she started gathering what she needed for pancake batter.
“What’s the generator run on?” Max asked.
Eric, feet up on the table, shrugged. “I think Shaun said propane.”
“He must know where his parents got it. If we can get a propane truck up here, keep the generator filled, we’ll keep heat and light. We shouldn’t be using more power than necessary.”
“Christ, you sound like Kim.”
“That makes Kim a sensible girl,” Max countered.
“Look, with what I’ve got now…” Eric wiggled his fingers. “I can keep this place up and running.”
“That may be, but basics are basics. Keeping the heat on, replacing firewood as we use it, going out for fresh supplies, keeping enough fresh drinking water in stock.”
“We’re going to have to learn how to hunt.” Poe walked in, his dark skin shining from his workout.
“Not you, too?” Eric shook his head, got up for more coffee.
“We’ve got eight people and a dog to feed,” Poe went on. “And it might be more people find us, need a place.”
“This isn’t the only place around here. Let them get their own.”
“Eric.” Surprised, disappointed, Lana nudged his arm.
“Seriously. Shaun’s got about six acres here, he said, but there are other cabins. High-class ones like this, and more—what was it—basic ones.”
“Has anybody scouted out those cabins?” Max asked. “To see if anyone’s using them, or if there are more supplies we can use here?”
Poe turned to Max. “Kim and I talked about doing that today.”
“It’s a good idea. I’ll go with you,” Max offered. “And you’re right about learning to hunt.”
“Hunting what?” Shaun came in, pushing his glasses up on sleepy eyes. “You mean like shooting animals? Uh-uh, no way. I’m not shooting animals.”
“Then you can go vegetarian.” Poe shrugged. “But the rest of us are going to need fresh meat, and have to learn how to hunt it, dress it, cook it. Either way, we’re going to have to learn how to grow shit, too, when spring comes around. I’m going to get a shower.”
“Poe and Kim are always looking on the downside,” Eric muttered.
“It sounded to me they’re looking on the realistic side. Eric,” Max said patiently, “we can’t live off what’s in that freezer long-term. The fact is, we might not be able to stay here long-term.”
Eric’s next shrug held a sulky edge. “I’m going to see if Allegra’s up.”
“Give him some time, Max,” Lana whisper
ed when Eric walked out. “They haven’t been here long, either, so it’s natural just to want to hold on to the relief. The rest? It’s a lot to take in, a lot of adjusting.”
“Taking in and adjusting is what’s going to keep us alive.”
“I don’t want to shoot things.” Shaun flopped down. “Maybe I could fish. My dad and I went fishing every summer.”
He shoved his glasses up to cover eyes that glimmered with tears. Then Joe raced in from the mudroom with Eddie behind him. Shaun brightened, slapping his thigh to invite the dog over.
* * *
After breakfast, Eric and Allegra volunteered for cleanup, and Max joined Kim and Poe on their scouting expedition. Lana held Eddie back to check his wounds, change his bandage.
“I think it’s healing pretty well, but I don’t think we should take the stitches out yet.”
“They’re starting to pull some. That’s probably good, I guess. Closing things up.”
“Keep taking that antibiotic we got from that drugstore, and I’ll take another look tomorrow.”
“Yes, ma’am, Dr. Lana.” He pulled his shirt back on, looked around the stone-tiled bathroom. “This is some place. I’ve never been inside a house like this. Fan-cee. Eight of us in here, along with Joe, and we don’t feel crowded. But…”
“Supplies don’t just regenerate. Max will find more.”
“A lot of deer in the woods. Rabbits, too. Some streams close by where fishing’s probably good.”
“I get a little queasy at the idea of shooting a deer or a rabbit, which is hypocritical since I’ve cooked both.”
“Don’t much like it myself, but you gotta do what you gotta. This is a good place to be for now, but it’s a fact we’d be better off finding a place where we could grow some crops, keep a couple of milk cows and some chickens. And more people. More hands to work, more hands for defense.”
“I know Max feels the same.”
“And, Lana?” He stepped to the door, glanced out, eased it shut. “There’s more going on out there than deer and rabbits.”
“What do you mean?”
“We walked a ways, right? Me and Joe. Felt good to be out in the air. And back in the woods I came across this like, circle of stones. Not like a campfire, exactly, but that’s what I thought at first. But the ground in it, that was black and burnt but, no ash, no charred-up wood. And Joe, he got the shakes and wouldn’t go near it. I got ’em, too, I admit it.”
Rubbing idly at his wound, he kept his voice low.
“You know how the hair on the back of your neck stands up, and you get that cold right up your spine?”
“Yes.” She experienced it as he spoke.
“Like that. Spit dried up in my mouth. We backed off because, man, it just wasn’t right. It just wasn’t, you know, natural. I’ll cop all the way to wimpy, but I won’t be walking back that way.”
“You think it was magick, dark magick.”
“I don’t know about that stuff, but I know it wasn’t right. I didn’t want to say anything in front of everybody. Just don’t know them yet, right?”
“Tell Max—just Max. He and I will go out there.”
“I wish you wouldn’t. Man, I wish you wouldn’t, but I think you’ve, like, gotta. And if you’ve gotta…” He sighed. “I gotta.”
“When he gets back then. For now, can you use a washing machine?”
“If I have to.”
She patted his cheek. “I was thinking you could wash the clothes we’ve been wearing on the road while we have soap, water, and a machine. It’s a nice machine in a nice little laundry room. You should hang them up to dry once they’re washed, save the generator.”
He let out a puff of air. “Yeah, okay. I guess I can do my bit.”
While he did, Lana assigned herself to take inventory. She wrote down categories, amounts, pounds, number of cans. Then sat down to calculate how many meals, portions, days, weeks, what they had would last.
She glanced up, smiled, when Allegra came in.
“You and Eric sure know how to shine up a kitchen.”
Graceful, she all but floated over in jeans and a bright red sweater. “It’s the least we could do after that amazing breakfast. I might have to join Poe in the gym if you keep cooking like that.”
Allegra wandered to a window. “They’re not back yet?”
“No.” Lana glanced toward the window. “Not yet.”
“I’m sure they’re fine. It really hasn’t been all that long. I have to say I’m glad I’m not out there trudging through the snow. What are you doing?”
“Inventory—starting with food supplies. I’m going to hit other basics like toilet paper, soap, lightbulbs, whatever else I can think of.”
“Oh, we have plenty, don’t you think?” Strolling back, Allegra tapped one of the cans. “It’s not like we’re going to stay here forever. It’s fine right now—middle of the winter—but it’s so isolated. We’ll go stir-crazy. I’m going to open a bottle of wine—something we have plenty of, too. Hey, it’s five o’clock somewhere. Have you seen the wine cellar?”
“No.”
“Talk about inventory. I’ll go get us a bottle, and we can get to know each other. After all, I’m with Eric, you’re with Max. We’re like sisters.”
“You’re right. They’ll be hungry when they get back. I’ve got some chicken thawing out. I thought I’d make tortilla soup for dinner.”
“Sounds fantastic!” Allegra tossed back her hair and left to go down to the cellar.
Soups and stews, Lana thought as she rose. A good way to stretch supplies.
She got what she needed, started putting things together in a large stockpot from memory.
“Wow. It already smells good.” Allegra, brandishing the wine, strolled over to get a corkscrew. “Eric said you’re an actual chef. Professional.”
“That’s right. What were you studying?”
“Liberal arts. I still hadn’t decided where to go with it. I guess it doesn’t matter much now.”
“I hope that’s not true.”
“Everything’s changed.” With a tug, Allegra drew the cork. “It’s smart to make the best of it. I mean, really, what else can we do? Don’t you wonder why we didn’t get sick? What that means for us? For others like us?”
“Yes. Yes, I think about all of that.” Lana rinsed beans in the sink. “But I don’t know the answers.”
“Eric told you he’s changed. I know he told you he can … do things. He told me, even before you got here, that Max could do things. And you, a little. It must be more than a little now. It’s more than a little for Eric.”
“We’re not going to hurt anyone.”
“Oh, I know!” She touched a hand to Lana’s arm, set down the glass of wine. “I won’t tell the others if you don’t want me to. Eric only told me because we’re together. Is Eddie like you?”
“No.”
“You see?” Scooting onto a counter stool, Allegra sipped her wine. “You have to wonder, right? Why some are, some aren’t. What it means. It’s like … I don’t know. The virus, killing so many people, still spreading, I guess. Is it, like, a kind of cleansing?”
“‘Cleansing’?” The word, the idea, just horrified Lana.
“I don’t know. Eric and I talk about it sometimes when we’re alone. And with the others, too, because you have to think about it, wonder about it. I’m upsetting you. I can see it. I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. I’ve thought about it, but it’s all happened so fast. It’s been one day at a time. One hour for some of it.”
Lana stirred the pot, wished she had fresh herbs. Wondered if she ever would again.
Resigned, she got out the chicken—remembered her knives were still wrapped and tucked away. Chose one from the block. Testing the edge, she found it to be good enough.
She sat at the counter—more sociable—with knife, chicken, and board. “I think, yes, the virus opened something. It’s beyond coincidence for it all to have happened at the same
time. But why? I don’t know if we’ll ever be sure of that.”
“We heard things on campus, and even after we left. How people, some people, were hunting the ones like you. And some like you were hunting people, and the ones like you, too.”
“I don’t understand why, why when so much is gone, we’d turn against each other.”
“It’s human nature.” With a flip of her hair, Allegra shrugged. “It’s terrible, but it is. You forgot your wine.” Allegra got up to get it herself, sat back down. “We’ll talk about something else. I don’t know what put me in this mood. Being stuck here, I guess. It’s a nice house, sure, but stuck is stuck.”
And safe is safe, Lana thought.
She picked up her wine, started to drink. The smell of it turned her stomach. She set it down again quickly. “It smells off.”
“It does?” Brows together, Allegra sniffed her glass, then Lana’s. “Really?”
“Yeah. Anyway, I need to sauté these chicken strips.”
When she pushed off the stool, the room spun.
“Lana!” Allegra leaped up, started to reach out. Max ran in from the mudroom.
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Nothing. I got up too fast.”
“She got dizzy. I thought she was going to faint. Are you all right?”
“Yes, yes, honestly. It was just a second.” Lana let out a breath, took stock. “Absolutely fine.”
“It’s my fault.” Obviously distressed, Allegra twisted her hands together. “I was going on and on about everything that’s happening, and I upset her.”
“It’s not that. Really, I just got up too fast. Blood pressure drop. All good now.” She pressed her lips to Max’s. “Cold!” And laughed. “I’m making soup—and you can help me out by seeing if there’s any tequila.”
He stroked her face. “Tortilla soup? Funny you should ask. Hey, Poe, how about that tequila? Found some in the cabin we checked out.”
“Like magic,” Allegra said, and laughed.
* * *
Once Lana had her soup simmering, she added what the scouting party had brought in to her inventory list. She shared the list with Max while he built up the fire in the great room.
“What we have, if we’re careful, should cover a couple of weeks.”
Max nodded. “According to Kim, Shaun said there are a couple of small towns—very small—within a few miles. We might find more supplies there. The biggest issue is propane. Without the generator, we don’t have heat, light, or a means to cook. Poe checked the gauge when they got here, and they started out with it full. It’s down fifteen percent now. They’ve been wasting fuel.”
He straightened, looked at her. “We should close off any rooms we don’t need, cut the heat back and use the fireplaces. Kim said there’s a good supply of candles and oil for lamps.”
“Yeah. I’ve got them on the list.”
“So we limit light use. And hot water. We need to work out shower schedules, keep them to five minutes.”
“I didn’t think about the water. I asked Eddie to do laundry.”
“We’re going to need to ration that, too.”
“I know you’re right, just like I know some of them aren’t going to like it. They may not like being assigned certain roles and tasks. I’ll take food—it’s what I do—but there’s cleaning, firewood, more scouting for supplies. And news, Max. We’re so isolated here, Allegra was right about that. It adds safety, but how can we find out what’s going on? No Internet, no TV, no radio.”
