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all were seated back at the kitchen table.
    Carla wasn’t used to “family meetings” and she tried to reason how this group constituted a family anyhow. Only three were blood relatives, but all played a part in this strange set of circumstances that now encompassed each of their lives. The set of events over the last week or so bound them together. Bonded them more closely than any of them would have ever imagined.
    Jared was inseparable from Anna. Carla knew his parents either weren’t aware of his whereabouts or didn’t care. Mike was the Army buddy who had gotten into this mess with Joe, who was Jack’s brother.
    I’ve seen whackier families, thought Carla, but couldn’t muster even a small grin.
    “ Carla?” Joe interrupted her thoughts.
    “ I’m sorry, what?”
    “ I was saying that Mike and I were feeling stronger when we were—transformed,” he repeated. Joe took in the dark circles under Carla’s eyes and her worried face. From what he could tell, she was just about at the end of her rope. Joe loved Anna deeply but he knew that, even under normal circumstances, the girl could be a handful. He also comprehended the gravity of the situation for his brother. Joe gestured to the cellar door as he continued, “How’s he doing?”
    Carla took a huge gulp of her coffee. “He’s stopped obsessing,” she said, “but truthfully, I haven’t had the heart to go down there for the last hour or so.”
    “You haven’t?” Anna cried out. Before anyone could stop her, she rose from her chair and bolted across the kitchen to the cellar door.
    “ Anna, wait!” Jared, Carla and Joe chimed together. But she opened the door and descended the stairs quickly.
    They all cautiously followed her, some quicker than others. Jared knew that if Anna thought for an instant that her father was getting “better” she would be in his arms in a flash. He forced his way down the stairs faster than the others.
    But Anna had stopped halfway down the stairs, peering into the darkness. “Daddy?”
    A groan from below. Then a hoarse voice: “Anna? Is that you?”
    “It’s me, Daddy.”
    Before she could do or say any more, Carla was in front of her. “Back up, Jack,” Carla ordered. Jack did back up and Carla pulled the chain for the single light in the room. She positioned herself to one side of the cellar, out of Jack’s reach, but also able to see the other four on the stairs.
    Anna pulled her hand loose from Jared and started down.
    “ Stop right there,” Carla commanded the teenager.
    Joe reached his niece and took her hand. “No, honey, not yet.”
    But Anna would have none of it. “But he’s fine, Uncle Joe! Listen to him!”
    Jack Carter was indeed coherent. He was feeling better, they all could see that. Except for the eyes. His retinas were streaked with a deep, glowing red.
    “You’re better, right?” Anna asked him hopefully.
    “ I feel better. I feel stronger. Don’t worry, angel, I’m okay now.” Jack smiled, but he was very aware that Carla wasn’t smiling. He was very aware that he was being tested. “I’m really thirsty,” he added. He was thirsty, too, but mostly he was hungry.
    So very hungry .
    Someone was lingering at the top of the stairs. A man. Jack could sense him, smell him.
    “Who else is here?” he asked warily.
    “ It’s Mi—” started Anna, but her uncle put a finger to her lips, shushing her.
    “ But Uncle Joe,” Anna whispered. She didn’t think her dad could hear them, although she knew his senses were heightened. “Why can’t we tell him about—”
    “ Not now, Anna. Trust me.”
    “ But–—”
    “ No buts. Listen, we’ve seen he’s okay. But you’re going to have to trust me on this. Let’s go back upstairs.”
    Jack knew something was going down. There was something they weren’t telling him. He also knew he’d better play nice if he was going to get the hell out of the cellar.
    Carla was in control now, it seemed.
    What a bitch , thought Jack. What