Page 5 of The Hero Within
"You can't," he said simply. "The only ones who might have that cure are what's left of Radisson-Meyers. Lieutenant Bligh locked down everything when he became general."
"Eden!"
Damn it."Not now, Maggie," she shot, swiveling to face the other councilor as Maggie held the tent flaps open.
"It's Haven," Maggie said, her face drawn and pale.
That punched the breath from Eden's lungs. "What do you mean,'It's Haven'?"
"Luc Wade's on the radio. Said he needs you there. Now. He thinks they've got a plague case."
"Adam?" She straightened abruptly. Her brother lived there, but he was supposed to be in the north.
"No." Maggie shook her head. "Luc said he wasn't there. Adam and Mia left last week to visit her sister. There's been no word from them since."
Could be a good sign. Maybe they left before the first victims started coming down with plague.
Haven was a small nearby settlement that had been decimated by reivers a few years back. When her brother was outed as a warg and thrown out of Absolution, he'd eventually wound his way back there and settled. Only a couple dozen people lived there now, and she knew all of them intimately. Half of them were what she considered family.
The heat drained from her face. "Who?"
Maggie shook her head. "It's Lily."
Eden's adopted niece.
Chapter Two
Eden kickedthe stand out on the bike, and slung her leg over it as dust settled. She'd come as quickly as possible, but her heart was still racing, certain it was too late.
Fourteen days,she told herself, running facts through her mind.You've got roughly twelve to fourteen days from the time symptoms appear.
And then Lily would die an agonizing death....
Henry Chin's revelation had destroyed her equilibrium. She'd run all the way to the council chambers and slammed into the room, startling the other six councilors. "Lock it down. Now!"
Meredith and Maggie were starting to sort out who might have been in contact with those patients in the quarantine camp. Bart had warned her if she left the settlement, then they might not let her back in, and Eden had stared him in the eye."So be it."
Family was family, and she'd trained her team well. She couldn't do anything more than they could to save her patients. Not against a maliciously designed disease that would ignore anything she could throw at it.
Eden dragged the helmet off her head and unzipped her leather jacket. She barely paused to sling them on the seat, grabbing her medical bag and heading for the main house in Haven.
Haven still bore the brunt of the reivers’ attack from several years ago. Nestled in a canyon, the sleek stone cliffs at its back created a natural barrier to protect the town, and what was left of the perimeter wall had been repaired and painstakingly rebuilt with granite. Palm trees nodded lazily in the breeze, circling the main water source—a natural spring that bubbled out of the ground.
"Hello?" Eden called, leaping up onto the timber deck that surrounded the main house, where her friend Riley lived. She rapped her knuckles on the door, then pushed her way inside.
Riley looked up from where she was nursing the baby against her chest. Her long blonde hair tangled over her shoulders, and her eyes were red and raw. The baby's shock of black hair stood upright and he blinked big blue eyes at Eden, eyes that stole her heart in a second.
"How is he?" Eden whispered.
Riley's smile trembled for a moment as she curled her shoulder to allow Eden to have a look. She'd delivered Thomas Wade three months ago, and he was a fat and happy baby. It had been a harrowing birth as they all waited to see whether the baby would be infected with his father's warg curse.
"Tommy's fine," Riley said.
A flush of heat swept through Eden's heart; he was beautiful. "Hey there, little man," Eden whispered, tucking her finger into his curled fist as he blinked up at her through blue eyes. "Are you being good for your mama?"
"Always." Riley cleared her throat, determination gleaming in her brown eyes. "Eden, what have you heard? Do you know what this is?"
"I know a little. They're calling it the salt plague down south. Absolution was hit about two weeks ago, and I've been quarantining the patients. The second we realized it was contagious, we set up sterile tents, but now they're talking about quarantining the town and shutting the gates to all newcomers."
