Jesse heard a vehicle pull in the driveway, and forgot about the game of Monopoly Gisela had coaxed him into, reflex putting him on guard.
“It's only Sundark,” Gisela said, a frown creasing her pixie's face. “Don't be so paranoid.”
Deanna was the first one in the door; she paused, contemplating the pair at the table, and glanced back over her shoulder. “Hey, the highlander was right!”
“So what else is new,” Bane retorted, from just outside. “Get out of the way, the rest of us would like to come in too.”
Deanna moved aside.
“What in particular was he right about this time?” Kevin asked, as he followed Bane in; he saw Jesse, and smiled. “Well hi there. How long have you been here?”
“Since Thursday night,” Jesse said. “Have fun wherever you were?”
“Visiting family in a village sort of like Haven only in Quebec. Yes, lots of fun, actually.”
Chaos reigned in the kitchen for a few minutes, then Bane left to drive Flynn and Deanna and Gisela home.
“So what's new in the city?” Kevin asked, absently fishing a handful of cookies out of the jar while Jesse put the game away. He'd been winning, which was typical: he only had good luck when it didn't really matter.
Jesse shrugged. “Nothing especially thrilling. Trying to keep warm and hibernate the winter away.” Cynthia disappeared with a canvas sport-bag slung over her shoulder.
“So hang around for a while, you can do both here just as well.”
“For a little while. Not long.” Had the need to be out of the city not been so overwhelming after that insane night of being chased, he didn't think he'd have come at all; Kevin and the others were friendly, but it frightened him, how much he was starting to like them.
“However long you like.” Kevin stretched, and yawned. “I hate to be rude, but I'm beat, I'm going to go catnap for an hour or two. If I don't wake up, then good night and I'll see you in the morning.”
“Sweet dreams.”
Kevin paused in the doorway, and flashed him a grin. “Probably.”
* * *
November in Haven was much prettier than November in the city, Jesse mused, wandering contentedly along the quiet road with Kevin. No slushy sidewalks to navigate, no mountains of plowed-up dirty snow, no yellow-orange streetlights turning everything ugly colours, and no people running over you in a hurry to return to their warm homes and a hot meal. Instead, there were trees glittering with icicles, yards spotted with snow sculptures and snow forts, dogs playing in the clean white drifts, and people who said hello and invited you in for a cup of hot chocolate—that last was, in fact, when they'd passed the home of Bane's parents. Kevin had declined, explaining that they were expected home for supper.
The darkness was more intense than Jesse was used to, with only the countless stars and the outside lights of such houses as they passed; it could have made him nervous, but it was hard to feel threatened here. There were no lights because there was no need for them, simple as that. So he could just relax, and enjoy the tranquillity, and be glad Kevin had suggested the walk. He knew that Kevin's night-sight was so bad he actually couldn't safely go for a walk like this alone; it felt odd, that Kevin trusted him that much, but right now, he simply accepted it.
Familiar lights ahead, their house.
Jesse paused at the end of the driveway, and crouched to take a closer look at a line of tracks. “Kev? What made these tracks?”
Kevin joined him. “What do they look like?”
“Four toes, I think I can see claws, and the pad.” He measured one against his spread hand. “Bigger than my hand.”
“Wolf, then,” Kevin said.
“That's got to be a damned big wolf.”
“Most likely. Don't worry about it, wolves won't attack people.”
“It has to have been by here since we left, this wasn't here before.”
“True.”
Jess gave him a suspicious look. Was that amusement hidden in Kevin's voice?
“Stand up,” Kevin told him. “I'm betting that's your wolf I just heard.”
Jess whipped to his feet, and spun around to look where Kevin indicated. Shadowed by a grove of trees, a large dark shaggy animal watched them, very still. Then it trotted off in the other direction, and vanished into the trees that surrounded the yard.
“Wouldn't they go after the farms, even if they don't hurt people?”
Kevin shrugged. “There hasn't been a single domestic animal lost to wolves in this township in well over a hundred years. A couple to feral dogs, pets that went wild, but that's different. Even outside Haven area, most so-called wolf kills are feral dogs. Leave 'em alone and everybody can live in peace. They keep the other wildlife under control. C'mon, we've been out a while, Deanna will have my hide if you get sick. Not that much can stand up to her herbal remedies and Gisela's gifts. Besides, that stew I left in the oven should be just about done.”
Jess left the tracks, and went in the house with Kevin. Cynthia greeted them absently, intent on patching a pair of blue jeans, and told them Bane's brother Bryan had called and invited him to go out with him and a couple of other friends, he wouldn't be back until late.
Firmly, Jess banished the utterly silly thoughts that crept into his head, and went to hang his jacket in the hall closet.
* * *
“You're going to leave soon, aren't you,” Gisela said.
Jesse walked beside her in silence for a moment. The road to her house was very quiet in the darkness of winter's early sunset. “Yes. Probably the next day or two. I've been here over a week, I need to get back to someone.”
“I thought so. You'll come back, right?”
“Yes. Why wouldn't I?”
“I don't know. But I don't know why you leave, either, and you do that.”
“It's... not easy to explain. It's just... everything here's so different from everything I know, it's like heaven, but it scares me.”
“What does?”
“You. Kevin. Everyone. I've never seen anyone trust four other people as totally as they trust each other. I've never been able to trust anybody, nobody's ever cared.”
“Why do I scare you?”
“Because I trust you so much.”
She smiled. “Lots of people trust me. Healers don't hurt people, ever.”
“And because you trust me. Nobody's ever trusted me before, either.”
She thought about that. “That's hard for me to understand. But it makes sense, I guess.”
They were almost at her house, they could see it ahead.
“Jesse... sometimes when I heal someone, like I did you, it leaves a little of you in me and a little of me in you.” She smiled. “I like it, it feels all warm and wild and dark. That might be why you trust me. If you listen for it, you might be able to hear that little piece of me. Maybe it'll help you stop being scared of trust.” She laid a hand on the railing up the stairs, stepped onto the first, then turned to give him a quick, shy kiss. “Take care of yourself, Jess.” She spun around, darted up the steps and into the house.
