wickedly. “We aren’t identical.”
“One last thing, what’s your favorite number?”
Bri waited a beat, then said, “Forty-two,” at the same time Elizabeth did. “I think I have to sit down.”
“The beds—”
“Definitely not the bed,” Bri said. “If I hit a bed, I’m gone, and we need to talk. You got any chocolate in your purse?”
Going to the chest, Elizabeth took her black healthy back bag and clutched it. “Maybe.”
“Me, too. I’ve got a feeling that we’ll have to be careful of it or those others will pinch it or expect us to share. Let’s see how much.” With slow steps, Bri reached the chest, then hefted her backpack with the solar panels on it. “Boy, am I glad I invested in this.” She carefully spilled the contents. Her music pod, PDA, digital camera, cell, and everything else she needed for a three-day hike.
Elizabeth pulled items from every pouch of her bag and lined the objects in little rows, glanced at Bri’s heap. “That’s it?” she gasped. “Two small candy bars. That is the extent of your chocolate cache!”
Bri winced. “I was hungry on the plane. I ate some.”
Elizabeth took Bri’s pack, shook it. Rustling came. She rolled her eyes. “You just dumped the bag, didn’t check the compartments.” Nimble fingers delved and found the unopened bag of the miniature bars Bri had purchased as well as two credit card holders and a lucky koala bear key chain.
“Oh, thank God!” Bri snatched the chocolate bag. Tears welled in her eyes. “You are a wonderful woman, twin.” The words were out of her mouth before she realized that Elizabeth’s chocolate stash was about twice the size of her own. Elizabeth still had the unopened bag of her dark chocolate treats, too.
“I wonder whether the others prefer milk or dark,” Elizabeth said.
Putting down her bag, Bri sorted her stuff. Electronics, pens and paper, food, water bottle, wallet and coin purse and loose change, keys, instant coffee, herbal tea bags…. “I bet it won’t matter. Chocolate is chocolate after all. We don’t let them know we have it.”
“You don’t think they have chocolate here?”
“I don’t want to take the chance.”
Elizabeth was packing her purse up again, sliding things in their proper pockets. “You’re right, and my chocolate is mine and yours is yours.”
Bri sent her a wounded look. “Would I take your chocolate?” “Yes.”
Sniffing, Bri said, “You’re right. Better hide it.”
“When I get home—” Elizabeth stopped, choked, dropped her bag, put her hands over her face and folded onto the love seat.
“Oh, honey.” Bri grabbed her own packet of tissues and sat next to her sister. “I know you’re scared. I am, too. But we’re in this together.”
“I don’t want to be in anything. Even if you are here.”
Bri rested her head on Elizabeth’s. She didn’t dare let go of her control or she’d be asleep in two seconds. “I’m sorry.” She blinked and blinked again to keep her eyes open.
Elizabeth’s muscles tensed as she gathered her own control. It wasn’t often Elizabeth broke down, and Bri could only imagine the emotional roller coaster her twin had been on lately. Not surprising this hit her hard. It might be hitting Bri equally hard if her mind wasn’t so fuzzy.
“I love you, sis, but I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I don’t know how to help you.”
After wiping her eyes and blowing her nose, Elizabeth threw away their tissues in a wastebasket, then said brusquely, “Just weariness. Now let’s get serious. What sort of meds do we have?” Once again she opened her bag and brought out a small gold-toned pill box that Bri had given her on their last birthday. She flipped it open and showed a few over-the-counter analgesics.
Bri winced. “That’s it?”
“You know I don’t carry any sort of drugs on my person, and make sure everyone in the hospital knows that.”
“Yeah, yeah, good idea.” Bri fumbled through her stuff, withdrew a generic mega-bottle of American aspirin. “I used local remedies in Sweden.”
“That’s good.”
Bri separated a few baggies with a mixture of pills. “Herbs and vitamins.”
“What kind of herbs?”
“Um, Rhodiola Rosea.”
“Excellent,” Elizabeth said.
The only thing that looked remotely mainstream medical was a series of tin-foil–wrapped packets with little bumps of pills in them.
“What are those?” Elizabeth asked.
“Swedish cat antibiotics. I was taking care of a friend’s cat. It got better after one week instead of two.”
“What are the ingredients?”
“I don’t know.”
They stared at each other.
“We’ll have to keep them for emergencies.”
“How can you think of using—”
“If it came down to cat antibiotics or death, what would you chose?” Bri said brutally.
“You have a point.” Too anxious to sit still, Elizabeth stood and paced along the lined-up furniture, looking at the night-dark windows facing…what? She’d lost her sense of direction.
But the rooms of the Castle didn’t bother her as much as the people, the suffering people, she’d found here. “Do you really think we can turn this epidemic around?” Elizabeth asked, not at all sure, frightened of failure.
But Bri was asleep. She slumped against the back of the love seat, listing toward where Elizabeth had been sitting.
Elizabeth swallowed hard. Even exhausted, Bri had handled this whole thing so much better than she. Of course Bri was used to new people and places, learning to fit into a new culture.
Elizabeth went back to the couch and sat, studying her twin. Bri had really meant to settle down in Denver. How ironic that now her itchy feet had finally stopped, they were somewhere else. Elizabeth glanced at their pitiful cache of drugs. Aspirin, vitamins.
And healing hands. That thought tightened her throat. She’d denied her gift for so long. Suppressed it.
All she’d ever wanted was to be a good doctor.
Cassidy had discovered her secret. It had been the inciting incident of their last fight which had led to the end of their engagement.
If she let herself, she could hear murmuring around her—like a film soundtrack. And she was sure her retinas still held images of the auras she had actually seen. Automatically, she repacked her bag and Bri’s backpack. Then she changed herself and Bri into nightclothes and persuaded her sleepy sister to bed. Maybe this would all be a dream.
5
Bri woke and savored the coziness of sheets and warmth, definitely not the tiny, chilly apartment in Stockholm. Elizabeth certainly did herself proud. Did the family proud, including Bri herself. During college she’d had no doubt that Elizabeth would sail through medical school and become a brilliant physician like their mother. Now if Bri could only buckle down and master nursing school.
She yawned, stretched. The day before had been hard, the worry that she’d get home to Denver all right on standby. Those incredible dreams. She snorted. Imagine that, flying horses. She hadn’t dreamt of them before.
Opening her eyes to a canopy overhead showing an embroidered huge winged