Blood Revealed (21 page)

“No,” Peter gasped. “It’s not okay.”

She made herself stay still so she didn’t wake Jake. “What happened?” Whatever it was, it sounded like it was still happening.

“They’re coming your way. Shut all your windows. There’s thousands of them. They’re like locusts, only worse. Nothing stops them.”

Her heart squeezed. “Stops what? Peter?”

“Oh, God…!” he cried.

Then the screaming started and this time it wasn’t in the background. Peter was screaming into the phone.

She disconnected. With her heart doing funky wild things, she eased herself from under Jake’s head and put a cushion under him instead. Then she moved around the house, shutting all the windows and locking them tight. She checked the fireplace flue as well, her gut crawling.

From outside, far away, she thought she could hear more screaming. No one stayed out at night anymore, except for hunters, and there were more and more hunters every day.

She raced upstairs, taking them two at a time and burst into Simone’s room. “Shut your window and lock it!” she cried, as Simone looked up from her cross-legged position on the floor rug, surrounded by nail polish and jewelry.

Simone’s eyes widened and she instantly surged to her feet.

Satisfied, Blythe stepped across the corridor and thrust open Eloise’s door. “Shut your window!”

“I heard,” Eloise said as she turned away from the window, the drapes dropping down behind her. “It’s locked. What’s going on?”

“Mom?” Simone called from the other room.

“I have to check the rest of the floor. Hang on.”

The bathroom window was wide open, the tiny breeze moving the lace curtain in lazy arcs. Her pulse leapt again and she shut it quickly. Before the window closed altogether, she heard more screaming. It was distinct this time…and getting closer.

She checked the rest of the windows, with the twins trailing behind her. When she was satisfied the house was locked down tight, she let herself sink down onto the bench at the top of the landing. The girls arrayed themselves in front of her.

“What’s happening?” Eloise asked.

They both looked frightened, because now the screaming was very close.

“I don’t know for sure. Let’s all go downstairs, where Jake is.”

Jake was still sleeping and hadn’t moved an inch. She hoped this wouldn’t wake him. He had a lot of sleep to catch up on.

Something hit the window. A soft, light slap.

Simone jumped, then looked at the window and gave a soft, almost silent shriek, as if her breath had been snatched away. She backed up from the window, her eyes wide.

There were more slaps. Dozens, hundreds of them, all over the house.

Eloise looked up at the floor overhead, listening. “What is that?”

Blythe moved closer to the window, as more of the things hit it. Some of them were hitting so hard they were splattering against it, before sliding down the pane, leaving a sickly gray-green ooze behind.

They were about the size of a grapefruit and elongated. They had wings. She could see them through the window, flickering in the street lights. They were pale in color and the air was so full of them it looked like it was snowing heavily.

Blythe refocused on the ones closest to the window, looking for details. “Turn the porch light on,” she said.

One of the twins obeyed and light flooded the verandah.

Their wings were membranes only, thin and fragile. The creatures were small enough the wing could carry them. Their heads were bony and their bodies were glistening carapaces that clearly weren’t as strong as they would one day be.

Yet the jaws were fully-formed and so were the teeth.

Blythe’s heart stopped in its track for one painful minute.

“They look like…” Simone said in a whisper. “Mom, are they little ones?”

“Yes, I think so,” Blythe said and was glad her voice emerged calm.

“Little…Summanus?” Eloise’s voice squeaked.

“Shhh….” Blythe said quickly. “Let Jake sleep. There’s nothing to be done except wait this out.” She picked up her cell phone again. “And warn people.”

* * * * *

The reports started streaming just after eleven that morning. Rick turned the television up louder, as a reporter stood outside the cathedral-inspired architecture of St. Pancras station. Behind him, thousands of people were pouring out of the exits, most of them stumbling and screaming. Many of them were bleeding. Some were being helped along, or were holding bloody arms against themselves.

Sirens were loud in the background, making the journalist speak louder.

“…details are still being established. Early reports indicate that deep in the tunnels of the London Underground train system, unknown creatures are attacking humans. They number in the millions and swarm like birds, flocking upon their prey in numbers so great there is no defense. As you can see behind me, the tunnels are being evacuated. Is this the start of a new offensive by the species known as the Summanus? Back to the studio for more.”

The studio anchor looked a bit dazed. “And we are getting similar reports from all Underground stations across the country. So far the creatures are not emerging into daylight, which further confirms their relationship to Summanus, who avoid sunlight wherever possible. Over to Michael at the York desk.”

Michael was also looking troubled. “We are getting similar reports from around the county. Any location that is dark, enclosed or underground seems to be giving rise to these…Summarettes. So far, that has been our saving grace. Although that raises the question…what happens after nightfall?” He gave a sour smile. “I have a feeling the streets of England will be very still tonight.”

“Summarettes,” Rick repeated dryly. It was a cute name for an ugly beast, and he knew it would stick. He turned the TV off and hurried down to the lobby.

The manager, McCreary, was there and looked relieved when he spotted Rick. He wiped off his gleaming face. “Do you know what these things are, Mr. Pæga? Are we in danger here in the hotel?”

“I wouldn’t go down into any basements and I’d guard the entrance to the underground pedway to the mall. Let people into the hotel, but no one goes into the tunnel.”

“Good thinking, sir.” Then McCreary shifted into customer service mode. “Are your two friends safe and sound?”

“No. If you don’t mind, I’m going to wait here until they return.”

“Very well, sir. I’m going to take care of the pedway entrance.”

“And shut any windows that are open!” Rick called after him. “It’s nearly sunset.”

Marcus was the first to return. The rented Vauxhall pulled up under the portico and barely stopped before Marcus almost fell out of the car in his haste to get out. He raced into the foyer, straight-arming the glass doors, looking around wildly.

Rick stood up and Marcus’ face sagged in relief. He hurried over to him.

Rick was so glad to see him, he hugged him, right there in the foyer.

Marcus’ grip was just as tight. “Ilaria?” he said quickly, stepping back.

Rick shook his head. “I made her take a taxi this morning.”

“You knew this was going to happen?”

“It was just a hunch.”

Marcus gripped his arm hard. “I will never,
ever
ignore your hunches, ever again.”

They sat down to wait for Ilaria and watched the sky darken through the big glass doors.

* * * * *

Kate stood at the windows, taking photos and biting her lips until they were red and swollen. She was crying silently, the tears dripping down her cheeks.

Finally, Roman couldn’t stand it any longer. He took the camera away from her and led her into the kitchen, where the only windows were the high ones over the cabinets.

She let herself be pushed onto one of the bar stools.

Garrett got up from his stool where he had been hunched over a laptop, pounding out a warning email to everyone on his substantial contact list and started coffee for her.

Kate kneaded her fingers together. “There are all the night shoots. They’ve been keeping the Summanus away with armed guards, but they can’t stop this….”

“They have trailers, Kate. The trailers will protect them.” Roman took one of her hands and held it between his.

The sound and smell of coffee was distracting, yet even the hissing espresso didn’t quite mask the soft pattering of bodies hitting the windows. The sound went on and on, long after the espresso was made.

It was going to be a long night.

* * * * *

“What happens in the morning?” Dominic asked, breaking the long silence that had fallen. Everyone was in the big living room, even Kimball and Efraim and the three security guards who had been caught out in the open when the first wave had descended. The guards had been closer to the house than the sentry box at the front gate.

Winter sat with her hand in Sebastian’s, while Nial paced.

Patrick turned his cell phone in his hands. Every now and then, he thought of someone else to check on and send a text. It was too late to warn anyone. Sebastian had pulled up CNN on his tablet and they reported that the swarms were everywhere. Not a corner of the city was spared. More reports were coming in from around the world.

Patrick was getting responses to his texts, too. Sandy Ackerman had been one of the first he had messaged, when it was still early enough to warn people. Ackerman had texted back two hours later.

Family safe. I owe you.

That warmed Patrick in a small way.

Even Blythe Murray had texted him.
All safe. Jake is asleep
.

That pleased him more than any other message he received.

There were enough response to his texts that he realized with a start that he was no longer the crazy, drunk former movie star to them. When had that changed? The phone had stayed silent for weeks. Was this a shift in attitude?

He was startled to realize that the growing responsiveness from Hollywood left him unmoved.

How strange.

“I mean,” Dominic said now, spreading his hands. “There are going to be many questions and we don’t have answers.”

“They’ll expect us to know,” Sebastian added. “Especially Roman, as everyone thinks of him as the expert.”

“We can make assumptions and extrapolate,” Nial said from the far corner of his pacing circuit. “Rick will be able to help. He was on to this before any of us. He might already have most of the answers.”

Sebastian snorted. “He didn’t have any idea. He was just guessing. Even he said it was a hunch.”

“And he was right,” Nial pointed out. “He doesn’t pull hunches out of thin air. All that staring at information actually works.”

“For him,” Sebastian said dryly. “All right, I agree he knew enough to try to warn us. Not that it helped.”

“It
should
have,” Nial said, his voice harsh. “We’re supposed to be guarding them and we let this slip by us, even despite warnings. “ He squeezed his hand into a fist. “It’s not good enough!”

“Could you have predicted this?” Winter asked quietly. “Not even Rick could pin down the details.”

Nial turned to glare at her. “There have been warning signs for days. The smell that everyone was complaining about, coming up from underground places. The absence of birds. Pets refusing to go outside. None of those events happened when the Summanus first rolled into town. They were all new and should have alerted us.”

“It’s a shame someone didn’t find the eggs before they hatched,” Sebastian said.

Dominic shook his head. “It wouldn’t have happened. The smell would have driven anyone away. We almost
ran
past the culvert that day.”

“Even so,” Nial said pedantically. “The Summanus have carapaces. We’ve known that for weeks now. Despite walking around on two legs, they’re more closely related to insects than mammals. We should have asked ourselves how they lay eggs. How the eggs hatch. What the infant cycle looks like. These are basic questions. Instead, we got lulled by their intelligence and their numbers…and their
numbers
should have alerted us, too.”

“Insects communicating telepathically by touching heads together?” Dominic asked. “Even I didn’t think of insects. It just doesn’t compute.”

Dominic had been the one to discover how the Summanus talked to each other. The cloud of telepathic thought was what he picked up on when he hunted them. It was so alien, he couldn’t read it, although he had put that together with the reports from the hunters of the Summanus’ habit of touching heads together.

Nial shook his head. “Winter, you’re the closest to a biologist in the room. Is this a larvae stage?”

“
Human
biologist,” she corrected. “We won’t be able to determine that until we can look at the bodies and the eggs…if there are any. There might be sacks, which would indicate larvae. However, these little ones resemble the parents, which makes me think they’re hatched from eggs and will develop to adult size. No metamorphosis, like larvae go through.”

“Why are they swarming like this?” Patrick asked.

Winter shrugged. “For the same reason any other species swarms. For food. Most creatures, when they emerge from the egg, are starving. There are millions of them and not enough food for all of them, so it’s a competition.”

“Survival of the fittest,” Kimball muttered from his seat by the door.

“The strongest individuals who fight off all the others and acquire enough food will go on to develop into adults,” Winter added.

“And even the adults have disappeared,” Dominic said suddenly.

Everyone looked at him.

“We haven’t found a single Summanus out after dark in three days,” he said. “It’s like they knew this was coming, too.”

“Yes, they did,” Winter said. “So did the dogs and the birds. It’s an animal thing.”

Nial rubbed his temple. “Any speculation on how long this hatching season will last?”

The room was silent. Even Winter seemed to have no answer.

“Then we wait it out,” Nial said grimly. “Tomorrow, when the sun is up, we go and find answers to give to the humans. If we can’t stay one step ahead of the humans we are expected to protect and actually
serve
them, then we’re a parasite, too.”