It was the middle-aged woman in the finalhut that caused Veronica to still. She turned on her heel, her eyeswide, and said to everyone in the hut, “Get out. Now. We willdiscuss this outside.” She turned back to the afflicted woman andcontinued inspecting her body. As she’d feared from the icycoldness of her forehead, there were bruises covering her torso. Itwas DR-71. She knew it when she saw it.
Veronica would have spoken with the sickwoman, tried to reassure her that she’d be okay even if it was alie, but the disease had already ravished her body and likely hermind. She would turn—and it would be soon. Overwrought with guilt,Veronica stood upright and held her own stomach. She had done this.She hadn’t had time to clean herself of the evolved eater refusebefore injecting the serum and now that terrifying chicken had comehome to roost. She had traveled through time in the hopes ofescaping one frightening world only to unwittingly bring the livingdead with her into the next.
The moment she left the hut and closed itsdoor behind her, she looked at Victor, her green eyes still wide.She nodded, telling him all he needed to know. Apparently Lachlanhad picked up on the unspoken message for he started cursing underhis breath.
“What is it?” Euan asked, for the first timesounding more worried than surly. “What ails my sister-within-thelaw?”
“Something wicked,” Veronica whispered. “Weneed to speak in privacy.”
“Nay, wife,” Lachlan bit out from under theplaid shielding his face, “we shall be telling no tales thisday.”
“We don’t have a choice,” she saidreasonably. “This affects us all.” She turned to Finn and held outher hand. “Please give me your canteen.” Lachlan’s soldier did sounquestioningly. She poured it over her hands to clean them. It wasjust a safety precaution, but one that caused Victor to assume astricken expression. “I don’t have it,” she muttered. “You get itthe same way you get a regular fever. Coughs and sneezes.”
“I know,” Victor said gutturally, “but Istill don’t like it.”
Veronica ignored him and walked to whereLachlan waited. She stood on tip-toe and whispered into his ear. “Irealize you don’t like or trust Euan Campbell, but we don’t have areasonable alternative to telling him the truth. It’s too far pastthat point. Please trust me in this.”
Lachlan sighed long and loudly. She restedher hand at his lower back.
“I’m sorry,” Veronica murmured. “Everythingis my fault.”
That admission snapped him back to his usualin control self. “’Tis not the truth of it, wife.”
“Yes, it is.”
“If your coming to me costs a price then Iam willing to pay it.”
Her heart skipped a beat. It was no wonderthe giant warlord was getting to her. “It will spread,” she toldhim. “Quickly if we don’t deal with it now.”
It took a lot of prodding on her part, buteventually Lachlan relented. “So be it,” he said under his breath.“I dinna have a care for it, but so be it.”
*****
By the time his wife andbrother-within-the-law finished their tale, complete with proofpresented by the AI scanner, the old mon Euan was pale as a sheet.James fared no better. In truth, Lachlan understood exactly whatthey were going through, having been through the initial shock ofit himself some months back.
“What do we do?” James breathed out. “Howcan we fight against this wicked monstrosity?”
“I’m going to have to stay behind and remainwith your clan,” Victor responded. When Veronica opened her mouthto deny him, he held up a palm. “I have to study the ones likeFraser—people with normal fevers,” he told her. “I’ll take everyprecaution.”
“What about Catriona and your wedding?”Veronica demanded.
“If we’re all dead or dying, what will itmatter?” His tone was more commanding than Lachlan had ever heardin his speech afore. “We have a chance to create an inoculationhere—a chance we never had in the future—but to cure it I mustfirst understand it.”
Veronica huffed and shook her head, butdinna gainsay her brother. “What do I tell Catriona when the restof us return without you?”
“The truth.”
“You have the AI scanner! How am I supposedto prove it?”
“Show her and Moira the laptop.”
“Now we’re telling Moira the truth too?”
“At this point, we might as well,” Lachlanbroke in, agreeing with Victor. “But we tell no one else. No moreGunns and no more Campbells. Are we agreed?” He looked pointedly atEuan. “You dinna think anyone would believe you, do you?” At Euan’sfrown he added, “People would think us all daft.”
“’Tis true,” Euan grumbled. He looked toJames. At his heir’s nod, he turned to Lachlan. “My son and I willtell no Campbells. I give my word.”
“And Victor is welcome here as an honoredguest,” James stated with authority. “He can stay at the keep withmy sire and myself.”
