Snowbound Nomad

by Cassie Power

  “There we go! Now, just adjust the knob a bit, to the left there. That way we can save fuel and not need to use a new hood just yet.” The whole thing dimmed as she made her adjustment, then there was a soft groan as she stood up. Holding the lamp.

  “Wish me luck? I’ll try not to burn the whole thing down. Notice, I said try? I don’t want to over promise here.” There was a look on her face that spoke of flirtation, even if the words held a sound of confidence that hadn’t been there before.

  Then, blowing the fire back up, even from a scant few coals, wasn’t that hard. She’d seen him do it now, so would be able to get it herself. It was just unfamiliar to her, that was all.

  The idea that Meredith Seaford was adaptable wasn’t lost on him at all. It was one of the reasons that he’d had her hired in the first place. She was a common-sense kind of person, but was also willing to learn new things, if they came up. Even in her reports it was clear that she tried to arrange things to the best end result. Her job was, in part, to help others find supernatural things. So, even if she didn’t really grasp it all, her efforts were always solidly geared toward that end. Including having learned a lot of old lore and the opinions of others, so that the correct thing would be done at the right time.

  As she left the room, her back a dark silhouette, since the light was in front of her, Dan nodded.

  Meredith was, in the end, probably one of the few women that could potentially handle finding out about who, and what, Dan really was. There was a bit of fear there, around the idea. Not because he thought that she’d tell the world all about him or anything silly like that, either. He was a shape changer and mimic. If one part of his life ended that way, he could just move on. Really, it was probably past time for that anyway. Otherwise he’d get used to being incredibly wealthy and become soft.

  The door in the kitchen clicked as it opened and then closed firmly. The hinges protested just a bit, making a squeaking sound about the whole thing. The change in air pressure as it happened told him a lot. More than he wanted to know, even if it was useful and important. He hadn’t noticed it before but the barometric pressure had dropped a lot. It was a sudden thing as well, which meant that, even if there were no overt signs yet, a fairly major storm was coming.

  Again.

  Given that they were already trapped there, he had to figure that would be when the attack came. In the early hours of the morning, when running outside would be a death sentence to any humans in the area. The way to do that, of course, would be to set things on fire inside. That or doing something flashy, to catch attention. So far nothing had really been that big of a threat to them, but…

  Thinking about it, Dan realized something. If he hadn’t been there, or if he was a different kind of person, then Merry would have been in real trouble. Possibly even dying that day. There would be no food and a missing window would be letting the cold air just flow inside. He’d blocked that off well enough that it wasn’t an issue, but it was the kind of thing he was prepared to handle. Without a fire, his Meredith would have been in real trouble.

  Then, with a second front moving in, her dying there would seem like simple misadventure. Being beaten to death by Bigfoot would catch attention that simply freezing to death wouldn’t. If that held any kind of validity, then the idea that whoever was casting magic at them was friendly might not be the truth. They could simply be diabolically clever.

  Which meant that things would ramp up a lot in the coming hours. At least they might.

  Stirring their meal, Dan stuck his tongue out. It wasn’t the cutest thing in the world, but allowed him to taste the air for magic. That would come as a slight tingle, if it was present. At first he just felt a bit foolish, having forgotten that trick from his childhood, but when he felt the response, he had to nod. From the feeling of things, the world around him, all of it, was being charged, powerfully.

  Magic was at play and unless something very exacting was coming, that meant they were in for a very large and powerful storm, indeed.

  Part of him wanted to run to his new love, to protect her from what was coming, but they had time. They needed the food and soaking in a warm tub for a while would help her be ready for later. Better than him hitting her with a panicked sense of fear. Until the attack actually came, worry was just a waste of time and energy.

  Tucking his tongue back, Dan focused on the food, not needing any extra light just then. The food gave off heat, which held a soft amber glow, offset by the bright infra-red pattern that the hot box underneath gave off constantly. That was more than enough for him to maneuver by, even as time passed and the light coming in from the front window dimmed.

  About the time that he was going to pull the warmed and finished food from the stove top, Merry came in, holding a half torn open bag of bread.

  “We need to eat this. At least the parts without raccoon drool on it. Oh, by the way… I totally made fire. It should be ready in about an hour or so.” She grinned, the light from the lantern making her seem just a bit sinister.

  Dan smiled back though.

  “Wonderful. Yes… We should do something with the bread. Maybe toast it? That will kill off any varmint germs that want to kill us. Not that raccoons are that bad. They didn’t seem rabid or anything at least.” He pulled both pots and nodded in her direction. “I need to strain the potatoes here. Fire maker.”

  That used to be a job in the tribe. Then, producing fire out on the ice often took real magic and power, not just a good lighter. Keeping the coals going was a skill as well.

  Merry, seeming a bit more active than she had earlier, moved with him to the kitchen and helped set things up. They needed plates and bowls, which they had, as well as some more ingredients. Instead of butter, or lard, he had her pull a large container of peanut butter. She made a bit of a face at the idea, but Dan shrugged.

  “We need the calories. We can have it on the bread?” It was good enough and if they had to fight for their lives, being well fed first wouldn’t harm anything. Especially if they needed to use counter magics in order to survive. That took energy. Especially if they were doing it in a hurry.

  “Got it. You know, this stuff, being snowed in… It’s harder work than I figured it being. I kind of expected… you know, to be sitting around bored all day, sipping cocoa. Telling you all about the wonders of the color blue and what I do at work. We didn’t even cover chainsaw carving. That must be fascinating.” She was teasing, if only lightly.

  Which was the right idea.

  “Not at all. It’s interesting to see done and you can make some really large things pretty quickly, but other than that it’s like making most art. Complex, focused and a job. Then, a lot of things are like that. How about you? Hunting for ghosts… That has to be varied and interesting.”

  The words got her to laugh.

  “It should be, but you know, the truth is different than that. Most of the time we have to have the talent acting like idiots on camera, pretending that they hear a voice in the static. We never fake things, so that’s needed. Except… Well, I’m not certain that things never get produced for us, you know? Like the thing with the window? No one has ever fessed up to it, but it could happen.”

  She took a deep breath then, as Dan got the food around, shifting plates and making certain that none of the raccoon marked bread went unnoticed. He’d still fry it up, but modern women could be squeamish about things like that.

  He thought. Meredith hadn’t indicated that she would be. Not as long as he didn’t serve her pickles. Even then, she’d claimed to be able to eat them, she simply didn’t enjoy it. That spoke to a certain inner strength that didn’t match the world she’d lived in so far.

  “Right. We blocked that off well enough for today. We’ll want to be watchful, but it does seem like a prank someone is pulling. They should have waited for the whole team to get in though. Then, they probably don’t know the rules for things like that. This place is pretty far from any television production studios.”


  The words were meant to be serious, but Merry chuckled a little.

  “No doubt. I just… I don’t want to seem like a freak or anything, but… It feels like something is a little off here. Um… Like it’s going to start snowing again?” She actually looked away, as if having a clue about the weather was her claiming to have psychic powers.

  A thing she didn’t believe in at all.

  “Yep. The air pressure just dropped, a lot. We probably have a few hours, so I figured that we could get that bath in first. Maybe some other things? We have wood already and most of the gear from the cars, so we don’t need to worry about that. The snow sluffs off the roof nicely and all the trees are already down, for the most part, if they’re going to do that. We can just cuddle up in bed and listen to the breeze, given that.”

  Sighing, Meredith moved to pick up several plates, balancing them on the open can of peanut butter. Then she followed him, moving to the table, which had to be cleared off. They had light, so it made sense to eat like regular people. Especially since doing anything else would be sloppy. The bread wasn’t ready, but that could serve as a dessert of sorts, he supposed.

  Grabbing a slice of white bread, from his preselected pile, Merry examined it as he spooned out a large bowl of chili for her. It smelled nice enough, for having come from a can.

  As he settled, she nodded at what she held.

  “Raccoon spit all over it, I bet.”

  He rolled his eyes a bit then.

  “Except that raccoons don’t have spit. At least that’s the myth that I’m going to tell you so you can eat the food. It’s why they wash their food before they eat, to soften it. They didn’t with this, but that was probably due to their need to hurry, more than anything else.” They had salivary glands, of course. Mammals did that, but it was a common enough thing that even with the qualifier it might be reassuring.

  “Oh?” Trusting that, she took a bite of the bread, as if it didn’t matter at all that small fur creatures had nibbled the same piece. It really didn’t. To him.

  That she was willing to do that was heartening though.

  “You know, Merry… You are very nearly the perfect woman.”

  She looked down then, and started to eat, not speaking for nearly two minutes. It was companionable.

  When she finally made a noise, it was a soft exhalation.

  “Sure… You say that now, but later, when I’m huddled against you in fear all night from the storm, I bet you change your mind.”

  He wouldn’t. That part was clear. Oh, she wasn’t truly perfect. No one was. The thing there was that for him she was as close to it as anyone he’d ever met. The only flaw in that was how she might respond to finding out what he truly was. Worse, he couldn’t lie about it, if he said anything at all. She was too intelligent and had heard the tales of his people already. From him. So claiming to be some other kind of shape shifter wasn’t going to work too well in the long run. No, it would take the truth. Worse, he had to tell her. Trying to be him, living a double, or triple life in order to keep her wasn’t going to function with her being on the job.

  Eating a spoonful of the spicy meat and beans, he nodded a little. That was about his thoughts though, not her reaction to the coming weather. It was clear that she was going to be nervous about it, now that she knew it was coming.

  “Well, you know, you get to make me like you first, with all that sex we have planned.” It was a bit more bold than he’d been planning to be with her, yet.

  Still, it got her to think about things other than how their lives might be in danger. At least that was his idea at the moment. Then, being that close to her, touching her soft skin and catching the scent of her body was alluring. In a way that made being a bit bold seem worthwhile.

  She just looked down.

  “That… yeah.” There was no hint of her backing out or anything, thankfully.

  Dan was old enough not to be that startled by rejection, but he really didn’t want it to happen with Merry. Not now. It would have been fine the day before, but the conditions and stress had brought them together. Far more quickly than was normal. That happened in situations like the one they were in. Not that Meredith really understood it all yet.

  Then, she wasn’t going to be less prepared for things if they were close first. The trick there was that he was going to have to be the one to be ready, given that. Something was coming, after all.

  “I need to get some things from the truck. I can do that while you get in the tub for a soak? I’ll be right there. It won’t take long.” He needed to have access to the guns, after all. Having them buried under half a ton of snow and ice wouldn’t help at all.

  True, it wouldn’t aid him against magic directly, either, but there were tricks for that. Even powerful spells could be disrupted, if you knew what was going on in time. If he’d been alone, he might have tried to do it with the coming storm. Probably not, however. A world of snow was his natural element, after all. It was a thing that whoever was coming for them clearly didn’t understand. Not unless they were one of his own people. In which case, he probably would have already been fighting.

  Killing or dying, already.

  The woman looked very young then.

  “Um… I have some protection? In my things? That… I don’t use it very often, but a girl on the road, you know?” She flushed, then winced. It wasn’t in pain this time, he didn’t think.

  “Good. I didn’t bring anything like that at all, so it will help. I… Have some guns with me. There…” He waved at the air, and then finished eating the last of his chili. “You know, how grandpa thinks I’m psychic? Well, I’m getting a feeling that we need to be ready. It will be later though, probably in the morning. I just don’t want to need to shoot Bigfoot to protect our remaining bread, only to find that the weapons are under a foot of snow.”

  That got a very serious look. Her brown eyes glinted a little bit in the lamp light as she looked around.

  “I can shoot. I mean, I’m not Annie Oakley or anything, but I can use a rifle or handgun. Shotguns too. My stepdad, Rene, taught me, when I was younger. I just didn’t bring mine, being all trusting like I am. I swear, next time I’m packing heat, no matter how lame the ghost sounds.”

  The news surprised him a bit, but seemed right at the same time. Not that he wasn’t going to tease her about it all.

  “He taught you how to shoot things, but not how to make a fire or cook? That seems a little bit off. Most gun nuts embrace camping pretty hard, don’t they?”

  She shrugged, but wasn’t taking offense at the words.

  “Not really. At least no one at the range ever seemed to be insisting we go hunting with them or anything. Then, I grew up in the city, so that probably made a difference. We never, you know, camped out or anything. Still, I can shoot, if it’s needed. I’m a little rusty, not having put in a lot of time on it lately.”

  That would come back, if they were being invaded, he didn’t doubt.

  “Good. It probably won’t be needed or anything. Still, if it is, I’d rather be armed. I’d rather you be armed, too. I don’t think we can just call the police in if things get hard suddenly. Really, out here, we couldn’t do that even if the roads were clear. That just means that most of the criminals in the area are probably pretty careful. I bet everyone around us is armed. Like you mentioned before.”

  She had. It wasn’t hard for him to recall that either, since she’d been the focus of his world for over a day now.

  There was a nod, as she slathered a bit of peanut butter on another piece of bread and quietly ate it. He did the same thing, since the extra calories really would help if he had to fight. Especially if he needed to change in a different form for it.

  Her voice was calm though. He’d worried over that part, since she really had seemed to fear the storm and cold before. Apparently, the idea that she might have to fight wasn’t as far away from her element as making a fire was.

  “Okay, that works for me. Especially if we don’t
have to use them. I’ll meet you in the tub… Call it fifteen minutes?”

  He nodded at her then. It wasn’t like he was going to need that long, but she might want to get ready herself, without him in the room.

  “That works. See you then.” Rising, remaining food in hand, he placed his bowl and plate in the sink, then headed out to the front, munching on the bread as he did it.

  After all, one thing a long life had taught him was that you never wanted to keep a willing woman waiting for too long.

  Chapter nine- Merry

  Normally, Merry took pride in the fact that she didn’t believe in magic. In the moment, as they both moved together in the small bedroom, she didn’t have a better term for what was happening. At first, she’d feared Dan a bit. It wasn’t just that he was new and she really didn’t want to lose him, either.

  The man was huge. Including in all the ways that would make a difference in the bedroom.

  He also understood that and got the idea that she was going to need time to get ready. To that end he’d rubbed her back first. Not just for relaxation, but knowing she might be uncomfortable from the day’s labors. Then he did the rest of her, turning rubbing that was exactly right as for soothing her sore muscles, into a soft flow of fingers.

  They barely tickled her skin as they moved over her bare flesh. She was still warm from the bath, having soaked for nearly as long as she could take. The room was dark, since they’d turned the lamp off, to save fuel. That just made sense. It had plunged the room into darkness, but Dan moved as if he had a perfect map of her body.

  First, he stroked her upper thighs. The move hadn’t gone directly to her female parts, which was a first in her life. All the other men, of which there hadn’t really been that many, had been more eager. Except that it was clear that it wasn’t a lack of wanting her. Reaching out she found his body, kneeling on the bed next to her. His legs were covered with fine hair, but between them he was ready. Excited and throbbing.