“Hence your headache.”
“Not sure.” Hollis shrugged as he looked at her. “It could be that, of course. Probably is. But it’s almost like I’m catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye. Do you get any sense that we’re being watched?”
“I don’t get any sense of a threat.”
“I’m not sure I do. I mean, I’m so conscious of the energy and so aware of all the horrible things that happened yesterday, I may be half blocking myself.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” DeMarco noted.
“No, it wouldn’t. But I really need to be able to count on all my senses here. And I’m not at all sure I can.” She turned her gaze to their view of the valley; it was a good one, since they had found a bit of higher ground about half a mile into the sprawling, faintly bowl-like shape of the valley floor—a shape that was far more evident once one was actually down in the valley.
There were farms, several of which showed fields with the remains of harvested crops plowed under, and the entire valley was dotted by pastureland. It was clear that the human population was very scattered here, most certainly outnumbered by the cattle and horses grazing peacefully.
Peacefully. That bothered her.
“No sign any of the animals have been affected,” she said slowly. “Why does that strike me as strange?”
“Maybe because animals are generally affected by energy fields before people are,” DeMarco offered.
“Mmm. Sully feels what animals feel, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then maybe he can answer that question. Or maybe it doesn’t matter, and I’m reaching.”
“So soon? We’ve barely settled in.”
Hollis narrowed her eyes at him, but all she said in response was, “We usually have some idea of an enemy’s agenda by now, even if the agenda is a sick and twisted one. Maybe especially then.”
“We know this enemy’s agenda. Death and destruction.”
She smiled wryly. “True. Now tell me evil is easier to fight when it’s not poured into a recognizable human shape.”
“Well, we’ve only dealt with the human-shaped variety of evil,” he noted thoughtfully. “But I will point out that this evil is at least contained here in the valley. And given its all-too-destructive potential to reach outside the valley, I’d say that puts us one up on it.”
“For now.”
“We’re always working against the clock.”
“Stop backing me into logical corners,” she said with sudden irritation.
“I usually don’t have to,” he responded mildly. “You’re the most ruthlessly logical woman I know.”
“I’m not sure that’s a compliment.”
“Fishing?”
“Well, of course I’m fishing.”
He smiled slightly, but his gaze was a bit more watchful than usual. For Hollis to become irritated, at least momentarily, wasn’t at all unusual, but he was all too aware that this particular evil seemed bent on invading human minds and influencing both thought and behavior. Like Bishop, DeMarco did not believe his partner could be deceived by evil, far less taken over by it, but that wasn’t to say it might not have a destructive effect on her.
Especially when she was standing in the middle of it, and was distracted by unspoken worries about what horrible thing might be happening in town. Or out here, behind closed doors.
Worried that there could be a bloodbath today. Or tomorrow.
Worried about her newly fledged team.
“It’s a compliment,” he assured her. “One of your strengths. You always find the logic in madness. Which is what we’re dealing with here.”
“Madness. That’s true enough.”
He turned more to face her without releasing her hand, studying her slightly abstracted expression, the way her gaze roved restlessly around the valley. “So, find the logic.”
“Maybe I can’t this time.”
“You already have. You were very clear with Bishop, the others. We have to find the source of this energy. Before we can do anything to stop it, we have to cut it off from its source. Preventing it from intensifying, building. That’s logical, isn’t it? When you don’t know the reach of your enemy but do have some warning of increasing power, you have to define that reach yourself. Impose limits, and as quickly as possible.”
“That sounds military.”
“I’m not surprised.” He was former military. “Hollis?”
“Yeah?”
“Look at me.”
She did, her abstracted expression slowly fading, her normal sharp awareness returning. She blinked. “What just happened?”
“You tell me.”
After a moment, she said slowly, “Damn. That was . . . stealthy.”
“The energy?”
“Yeah. I didn’t even realize it had got in. Why didn’t I know it had got in?”
“Had it? Or was it just . . . trying to get in?”
Hollis nodded, realizing. “Yeah, that’s what it was doing. If you hadn’t made me focus—”
“You would have done it yourself. You were just distracted for a moment.”
“And a moment is all it took. Jesus. I know I don’t have much of a shield yet, consistently anyway, but I’m supposed to be sensitive to energy. Especially negative energy. I really should have felt what was happening.”
“You will next time,” he said.
Rather grimly, she said, “Thanks to you, I had a warning. This time. I have a feeling not many people here will get that. We have to warn the others, Reese. And we have to find the source.”
“We will,” DeMarco said.
* * *
? ? ?
“I DON’T KNOW what the fuck I’m doing here,” Dalton said.
“Yes, you do.” Reno kept her attention focused on the road that wound down from the mountains to Prosperity. She was driving their Jeep, in part because Dalton did not have a license.
One of his small rebellions. Or just another attempt to impose control on his surroundings. Probably both.
“I don’t—”
“Can you feel the energy?”
He was silent for a moment, then said reluctantly, “My skin’s crawling, and there’s pressure. You?”
“The same. I sort of wish I could see it the way Hollis does. On the other hand, seeing it might freak me out even more.”
“You should be freaked out. We both should be. This is not our job, Reno.”
“Maybe it should be.”
He frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
She was silent for a moment, then said, “We’re here because we were summoned, like the others. Because some . . . universal consciousness, or God, or the devil decided we had the right tools to fight this—this evil.”
“Reno—”
“Do you ever think in absolutes, Dalton? I don’t believe I ever did. Right or wrong, black or white, good or evil.”
“I don’t believe there are absolutes,” he said finally. “There isn’t a clear, dividing line between good and evil, Reno. There are endless shades of gray. Just like there are between other extremes.”
She frowned. “I suppose that makes sense. But something else I’m feeling now that we’re here, now that we’re actually going to Prosperity, is darkness. Evil. I can feel that.”
“After that goddamned vision of yours I’m not surprised.”
“Maybe, but my point is that we were given these tools, tools most other people don’t have. Doesn’t that also give us the responsibility to use them? To fight the darkness?”
Suddenly dry, he said, “It’s a little late in the day to be questioning that, don’t you think?”
“I don’t just mean this time. I mean all the time. I sell real estate, Dalton. You and Logan do IT work from home. Sully’s a rancher. Olivia works at a bank. I’m not sure what Victoria is doing right now, but it’s a good guess it’s something . . . ordinary, like all her other temp jobs have been.”
“Most people do ordinary,” he said.
“We aren’t most people. That’s the point. Look, if my vision was right—and they always are—and if Hollis and Reese are right, which I hear they mostly are, then this thing we’re going to fight has been building up a long time.”
“So?”
“So Hollis and Reese have been fighting it, or pieces of it, for years. Bishop, Miranda, the SCU. They go into really dark places, and they fight monsters. Monsters most of the rest of the world doesn’t even know about.”