Chapter Twenty-Eight
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A TORRENT OF WATER and hail fell through the hole in the roof of the main structure again. Most of the water sank into the hole in the floor, but the rest flooded the room. “We’ve got to do something about that,” Zoe said to Grace. They were standing in the doorway, watching the indoor waterfall.
“No kidding,” she agreed. “Did you find any books about how to repair a hole in a roof?” she asked.
Zoe shook her head. “Nope, but we could at least put some tarps over it.”
“It’s a big hole,” Grace said doubtfully. “You’re not thinking of getting up there right now, are you?”
“Hell, no,” Zoe said with a laugh. “We’ll have to wait for the storm to stop first.”
“We should cover the window in our bedroom to keep the weather out,” the teen said.
It was supposed to be Zoe’s room, but she didn’t mind sharing, for now anyway. “Doors would be good, too,” she said. “How hard could it be to chop down some trees, cut them into planks and nail them together?”
“I’m betting it’ll be a lot harder than you think,” Grace guessed. “We’ll need hinges, don’t forget.”
“Not to mention nails, hammers, saws and everything else,” Zoe added.
“Camriel seems keen to turn this place into a real home,” Grace said. “They could be here for years if this war stretches out.”
“Yeah,” Zoe agreed, trying not to sound wistful.
She’d already become too attached to Amaros.
It would kill her to fall for him, then lose him once the war was over.
“Let’s set up the bookcase,” she decided.
They’d eaten some of the meat from the café that they’d cooked last night and had scoffed down hot coffee for dinner.
Powdered milk was better than nothing, but it was nowhere near as tasty as fresh milk.
“Which room should we use as our library?” Grace asked.
“Not this one,” Zoe said, hiking her thumb at the torrent.
Laughing at her lame joke, they walked through the main structure.
They stopped at a gigantic central room that had a large fireplace.
“This would be a fantastic great room,” Grace suggested.
“We could put couches and chairs around the fireplace. The library can go along the back wall.” The fireplace was in the center of the room rather than set into a wall. Four doors led to the hallways.
They turned to view the back wall. It would be able to hold several large bookcases on either side of the doorway.
“All we need is light and we’ll actually be able to read,” Zoe said. “Maybe we can string up chandeliers of some kind, if we ever get power in here.”
“Firelight will have to do for now,” the teen said. “We should gather some wood tomorrow.”
“It’s going to get bitterly cold once winter sets in,” Zoe figured. “It’s already a lot colder here than I’m used to.”
“I usually stick to warmer places, too,” Grace said. “At least our sleeping bags keep us warm at night.” They’d both slept a lot more peacefully now that they had the cots. “What?” she asked when Zoe snickered.
“I was just picturing Camriel trying to fit on one of the cots,” she replied. They were too small for Amaros and he had to scrunch up his body to fit on his.
“He’ll have to tie two of them together,” the teen said in amusement. “Even if he does, his legs will hang over the end.”
“Sometimes, it pays to be short,” Zoe said teasingly.
“Damn straight,” Grace agreed. “But most of the time it sucks.”
“Let’s grab the bookcase and get started,” Zoe said to get them back on track.
They headed to the room where Amaros had left the bookcase and carried it to the great room. It looked almost small against the high stone wall.
“I’m going to grab one of the halogen lights,” Zoe decided. It would make it a lot easier to sort the books and put them away.
“I’ll start bringing the books in,” Grace said.
Zoe sensed Amaros returning a short while later. It was strange that she felt him before Camriel showed up on her senses. Maybe it was because she’d known Amaros for a few days.
“The boys are back,” she said to her tiny friend.
“I can sense them,” Grace said. “They’d better not be covered in Bambi’s mom’s blood,” she added darkly.
“Don’t worry, little sister, the rain washed most of it away,” Camriel said from the kitchen.
Abandoning their task for now, the girls made their way to them. The men were soaked, but looked pleased with themselves. Camriel’s clothes were stained from butchering the doe. He’d need more than just rainwater to clean them properly.
“You’ve got enough venison to last for months,” Amaros said.
“It’s a pity we don’t have anywhere to store it,” Zoe said. “We’ll just have to cook it all and eat as much as we can.”
“Just what we need,” Grace said with heavy sarcasm. “A diet consisting of meat, meat and more meat.”
“The woods will have edible plants,” Camriel said sympathetically. “We just need to find some books that will help us identify them.”
“Thanks for taking care of the deer,” Zoe said. “We have no idea how to butcher animals.”
“Neither did we,” Amaros said. It was a reminder that the knights didn’t need to eat or drink.
“I’ll fire up the grill,” Grace said reluctantly.
“I’ll grab another container to keep the meat in,” Zoe offered. Raw meat filled the huge plastic container the men had piled the meat into. Blood sloshed around in the bottom of it. “We need to fix the hole in the roof tomorrow,” she said, reminded of the flood in one of the other rooms.
“We’ll leave you to do the cooking and we’ll see what we can do,” Amaros said.
Grace lit up the grill and Zoe left the kitchen to find a container.
She could hear the guys murmuring about the waterfall as she scrounged through their supplies.
She grabbed two smaller containers and returned to Grace.
The teen was standing next to the grill with a book in one hand and tongs in the other.
Zoe left her to it and filled the bookshelf, then began piling the plethora of romance books on the floor against the wall. The few non-fiction books she’d found went into a much smaller pile. It wasn’t much, but at least it was a start.
A vision hit her when she straightened up from placing the last book. She saw the room full of furniture, light and people. Their faces and voices were indistinct, but their chatter sounded cheerful. “We’re going to be happy here,” she murmured when the images vanished.
“You’re in a good mood,” Grace said suspiciously when Zoe returned to help her.
Zoe decided not to mention her brief flash of the future. It would be a nice surprise for the kid when it actually came true. “Why wouldn’t I be in a good mood?” she said. “We’ve got plenty of books, lots of food and comfortable cots to sleep on. Life is pretty sweet.”
Grace pondered about it while turning the meat over with the tongs. “I’ve lived in worse conditions than this,” she agreed.
“I want to hear more about that,” Camriel said with a frown as the men entered. They were both soaked again.
“Did you fix the hole in the roof already?” Zoe asked in surprise. It was hard to tell, since rain and hail were still hammering down, muffling internal noises.
“Of course,” Amaros said. “We couldn’t leave it like that. It’s just a temporary fix, but we’ll find a way to repair it properly soon.”
“Aw, I was just about to draw up plans for an indoor pool,” Grace joked.
“Tell us about when you lived in a place worse than this,” Camriel demanded. He wasn’t angry, but he definitely wasn’t happy about it.
Seeing he was dead serious, Grace put her book on her folding chair.
“My life hasn’t been all roses and sunshine,” she said in the same flat tone she always used when she was talking about her past. “My mom moved us around a lot. We never had much money and we couldn’t afford nice places to live in.
A lot of the time, we squatted in abandoned buildings.
Sometimes, we had to live in tents in parks, or in makeshift shelters under bridges. ”
Camriel startled her by striding over. She shifted into a defensive pose, using the tongs as a shield. Hurting her was the last thing the huge warrior intended. He snatched her up and hugged her tightly. “Never again, little sister,” he vowed. “We’ll take care of you from now on.”
Grace looked utterly astounded by his vehemence and Zoe’s eyes grew misty. Amaros took the tongs from Grace’s lax hand and turned the meat before it could burn. Zoe saw the proud look he gave his second in command. Camriel blinked a few times, trying to hide how emotional he was.
“Um, thanks,” Grace said and patted his muscular shoulder. “You got me all wet,” she complained, but her heart wasn’t in it.
A human male would have made a crude comment, but the warrior simply put her down. “The Knights of Order will be the guardians of the cambions,” he said without consulting his boss. “No one will lay a finger on any of you without losing their entire hand.”
He looked at Amaros, almost daring him to argue. Amaros inclined his head in agreement. “The cambions will have our protection for as long as we remain in this realm,” he said, sounding formal.
Camriel let out the breath he’d been holding and relaxed. “Good,” he said in satisfaction. “I’ll let the others know as soon as we find them.”
“We’re going to have twenty big brothers soon, Zoe,” Grace said, taking the tongs back from Amaros. It was hard to tell if she was happy, or annoyed by that prospect.
“We’ll be one big, happy family,” Zoe said, musing about the vision she’d been shown.
“All we need is a cooler full of beer and this would be like an indoor cookout,” Grace said with a smirk.
She was an expert at deflecting people away from her personal life.
She’d told Camriel just enough to make him think he knew what she’d suffered through, but he was blissfully unaware that she’d barely scratched the surface.