As if waiting for his cue Jamie’s chalkboard sweeps into the room, a worn-out piece of chalk scrabbling over it.
How are you feeling? Jamie’s handwriting is slanted and jerky, nothing like his normal, calm script. He (or she, even that basic tidbit of information has never been confirmed) is definitely under some strain. I’d say he hasn’t slept, but I don’t think he sleeps.
“All things being equal I feel fantastic,” I tell him. “Hell, I feel fantastic regardless. I’m guessing that’s due to me waking up to being teabagged by an Ent?”
You were in some kind of shock and you weren’t responding. We managed to get some tea in you but even that did almost nothing. I hoped the high concentration of unsteeped tea fed to you directly would bring you around. Looks like it worked.
“Like a charm. I feel like a kid again.”
“Now,” Lisa cuts in, “I think it’s time you fill us in on what’s going on.”
It takes me a full five minutes to lay out the tale, starting from Calvin’s kidnapping request and concluding with Celeste trying to feed on me and the neurological short circuit it brought on. As I finish my stomach lets out a volcanic gurgle. I head into the kitchen without waiting for questions.
Just as I’d hoped, there are pans on the stove and half a plate of food on the table. I know without looking that it’s scrambled egg whites with salsa, whole-grain toast and oatmeal with strawberries, her standard breakfast fare. Nowhere near as satisfying as a Belgian waffle, but that’s Lisa’s taste and I feel like I’ve gone a month without food. The Aegis tea helps repair your body by turbocharging your metabolism which means that right now I’m so hungry I wouldn’t care if it was alligator hash. I drop down into her seat uninvited and tear into it.
“We’ve been looking through this,” Lisa says, taking the seat next to me. She puts Celeste’s kitten binder on the table, far enough away from me that she doesn’t need to worry about food splatter. I drop my fork on the plate and look at the binder as if it’s going to sprout fangs and lunge.
“Where the hell did you get that?”
“He left it here when he dropped you off, so Jamie could look it over.”
“Who?” I ask, a little steadier now that I’ve got a thin layer of food in me, “How’d I even get back here? Last thing I remember I was passing out on the other side of town.”
“You had a chauffeur,” Lisa takes my hand and leads me away from the table. I let her, but I grab two pieces of toast with my free hand before I go. We put a couch in front of the picture window next to the front door a couple of weeks ago in a fit of redecorating, and she leans on it as she reaches over and tugs back the curtain. I kneel down next to her and I’m surprised to see my Jeep sitting there, looking no worse than it did the night before, but even more I’m taken aback by the dark blue Mercedes parked alongside it and downright shocked by who’s behind the wheel, apparently asleep.
“Hollett? I thought he was dead.”
“Apparently not. He was alive enough to bring you home, at least.”
“Heh. How about that.” I let the curtain fall back and take half a slice of toast in one bite. I have to force myself to slow down. The tea doesn’t give a damn about indigestion. I get comfortable on the couch, stifling a burp. “Did he explain what happened?”
“Very, very briefly. He didn’t stay long. Just got you to the door and took back off in your Jeep. He came back just before sunrise with a couple of other people, parked the Jeep and the others left. He stayed behind.”
“Why’d he bring me here? A hospital might’ve been a better choice.”
“He did, at first, but the ER was apparently swamped. Seems like some kind of drugged up gang is running crazy through town, getting their kicks from stomping on people. He said he thought you’d be better off here anyway.”
I put my hand in my shirt, feeling my right shoulder. There’s a double ring of tiny scars about six inches wide, from the top of my pectoral muscle up to the clavicle, where the needle-sharp fangs sank in. They’ve healed over already, and when I rotate my shoulder there’s no pain. Just another interesting scar, like I needed one. My body already looks like a sadomasochist’s patchwork quilt.
“Drug mob? That’s what they’re going with?”
“That’s what the news is saying. Nobody recognizes any of the attackers, so they’re figuring it’s a gang thing, or a bunch of costumed nutjobs lashing out. Some people are even saying it’s a biological attack, or maybe something hallucinogenic got dumped into the water supply. Some people think it has to do with some kind of explosion at a jewelry store downtown. They’re even throwing the word ‘terrorism’ around but attacks seem uncoordinated, so that’s throwing people off.”
“They’re uncoordinated, but not random. It’s only members of the Grey that are getting attacked and civilians who happen to be near them are just in the way.” I stop talking only long enough to cram in another bite, showering crumbs into the cushions that I’ll have to vacuum up later on.
“Did you learn anything from that?” I point to Celeste’s binder with an L of crust, then chew that down.
Not much, Jamie joins in. With the exception of the original’s location and descriptions of the binding hexes that locked the kiovore down in that tomb there’s no actual concrete information in here. It’s all speculation.
“What about the pictures I sent you from the grave site? They tell you anything?”
Whoever made them knew his stuff. There’s about a dozen linguistic influences in there. I can’t even conceive how someone living here hundreds of years ago came to know them. Then there’s some language in there I can’t piece together. It might be another Rosetta Stone, for all I can tell.
“So basically, you struck out.”
Well, not completely. I found something, but not about the kiovores. It’s about the papers themselves.
I hate it when he plays coy. “Well, spit it out.”
The secrecy spell Celeste laid on them is only a few days old. A week, at most.
“Hell, that doesn’t mean anything. She might have sensed Clive’s net closing in on her and covered her tracks.”
I never said it was major, I just said it was interesting.
“Okay, noted. Anything stand out as important? Anything at all?”
They feed on magic and they don’t like sunlight. That’s about it.
“Then why’d that one try to eat Ian?” Lisa asks sensibly. “Everyone else they attacked was Grey. Non-magical people they either avoided or just smashed, right? But Celeste tried to feed on him. Couldn’t she tell the difference?”
A better question is why’d he go into shock afterwards when every other victim turned into a kiovore himself?
“I’ll ask one the first chance I get. Lisa, did you manage to reach out to any of your Grey friends?”
“A couple today, but more last night. Most of them did what you said and locked themselves in their houses. Most of them never saw anything weird. Some of them heard things outside, a few said something tried to get in but their doors held, and the ones with protective charms on their houses said nothing even came close. I thought you said those things are strong, Ian.”
“They are. Kill-with-one-shot strong.”
“But none of them even tried to break down a door. How come?”
“I have an idea about that. Are your friends ready to hunker down again tonight?”
“If they have to. A lot of them said they’d be leaving this morning.”
Probably smart, but depending on the state of the Aegis blockade they wouldn’t be getting far. Then again, they’d probably be safer in an Aegis quarantine, though they wouldn’t be any happier for the experience.
“Did Hollett say where he was going after he dropped me off?”
“Well, he said he was going back to work but that’s it. Why don’t you go talk to him?”
“Let me make a call first. Jamie, did my phone come home with me?”
When I make a move to rise
the world does a little spinning dance around the fringes, so I only make it about three inches off the couch before I have to drop back down. Lisa fills a large glass with water and hands it to me, and as I down it Jamie brings the phone in from the bedroom.
“Thanks,” I say to both of them, then I finish the glass as I punch a number in. This time I’m sent right through the screeners.
“What’s happening, Ian?” Samantha asks. She sounds harried, but I bet not one hair is out of place. She keeps it greased and slicked, tight as a helmet.
“Tough night,” I tell her. I give her the same short version of last night’s action that I gave Lisa and Jamie. “Is the quarantine locked in?” I ask when I’m done.
“Not even close,” she says. “Pale isn’t sending just anyone. I’ve never seen a collection of Envoys like this one being sent on one assignment. It’s like a platoon, and every one of them is top grade. Most of them have to be pulled off whatever it was they were already doing, recalled, and shipped over to you. Not many of them were close by.”
Damn. Given the nature of the threat I expected Mr. Pale, one of the higher-ups at the Aegis, to send powerhouses to seal off the town, but the extra time could make the difference. “How much of the border is sealed?”
“Maybe half. Two-thirds, tops. It should be tight by midnight.”
Damn again. Sunset here this time of year is a little after five. Seven hours of the night will be gone by the time the quarantine is in place. A lot of time for shit to hit the fan.
“Listen,” I tell her, “a lot of Greys are going to be trying their own exodus. Try to make sure they’re treated gently. If there’s an infection there won’t be any mistaking it.”
“I’ll do what I can, Ian, but you know how these situations are handled. They have to do what they have to do.”
“I understand. Just… do your best. Call me if you need me.”
I hang up. She’ll try to pass my request along, of course. She’ll try hard, and she’ll fail, because she’s right. In a time like this, the Envoys will have a greater duty than handing out pillows and orange juice.
I make it to my feet more easily this time. I take a quick trip back to the bedroom, reach into the night table on my side of the bed and pull out the home-version of the Smith & Wesson XVR. It’s loaded with silver ammo, which would be essentially useless against a kiovore, but I don’t think I’ll need the gun. It’s more of a metallic safety blanket. The sun is shining brightly and even Hollett, who’s far more enticing to a kiovore than I am, is comfortable enough outside to take a nap, but that doesn’t mean I feel like taking risks today.
The air outside is pleasantly cool, almost refreshing, and the fresh winter sun is almost clean enough to make me think that last night ever happened. It’s the kind of morning that demands birdsongs, but the birds that live in the game preserve behind my house don’t sing too often. It gives away their positions, and something in there is quick to eat anything small and unsuspecting. I walk carefully up to the driver’s side door and softly rap on the window. I don’t want to startle him so much he lashes out violently and blindly, but I’d love to see him jump just a little bit.
I’m disappointed. At the sound of my tapping his left eye springs open, but that’s the extent of his reaction. “DeLong,” Hollett says, opening both eyes. His face is smooth and healthy looking, even the crown of his brown head is stubble-free, but he’s keeping all his fatigue in his voice. He’s hoarse, like he’s been shouting a lot.
“I hear you’re my white knight,” I say. “So to speak.”
I suspect the dry gasp of a chuckle is the most laughter he’s capable of. “I’m glad you pulled through.”
“Guess I have you to thank for that.”
“Seemed stupid to just let you lie there on the floor. You might have tripped somebody.”
“Last I saw you were being tackled down the stairs.”
“And I’m glad I’d kept one of Nariko’s knives. Stuck it in the thing’s belly.”
“Kill it?” I ask hopefully.
“Can’t say. It jumped off me and ran. I caught it low and deep, so if it were a human it’d be dead in minutes. These things, though, I just don’t know. I think it’d be safer to assume no.”
I step back to let him out of the car. “What happened to Celeste?”
Instead of answering me he stretches, rotating his torso and loosening his lower back. There’s caution in his momentary silence. “She died. Congratulations, you got one.”
“She died? From what?”
“Wish we knew. After she bit you it looked like she went into a seizure. Twitched around for a minute or so, then her body just gave out. Died on the spot.”
“Nobody can figure out what happened to her?”
“We didn’t exactly have a lot of time to ask around. After you went down the rest of my team and a few of the tougher Reeses managed to drive them out of the mansion, but we took some losses. Probably at least ten people in that house are now infected. Disappeared into the night along with the rest of them. After I dropped you off I tracked down Adam Farelli and followed him around town, after we managed to get away from his partner that is. He’s a bit of a hard case.”
“It’s almost legendary. How’d you do?”
“We managed to track down two of them, one at the boardwalk and one at the firehouse. We fought them. They both got away.”
I hesitate before asking my next question. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that you shouldn’t ask a question if you don’t really want to know the answer. I ask anyway. “How many of them are there now?”
“Don’t know exactly. Farelli says they’ve gotten a dozen calls of breaking and entering in Grey houses, attempted muggings and assaults, but the information is garbled and the uniforms are still trying to make sense of it all. Just from looking over his shoulder I’d guess roughly twenty or so by now, including those from the Reese house.”
My eyes close. Twenty. One kicked our asses. “Is it still going on?”
“The attacks seem to have dwindled off around sunrise.”
“Guess the kids actually got something right.”
“Small favors, but yes.”
“Anything outside of town?”
“Not that I’ve heard. Either they haven’t wanted to leave their new hunting grounds behind or your people are in place.”
“They’re not my people. They have some Envoys on the line, but it won’t be secure until the middle of the night.”
“What kind of line? What will they do once they’re set up?”
I don’t like the answer, but I know that sugar coating it won’t do anyone any favors. “It’ll be a tight circle, with personnel every hundred feet or so. Whatever they can manage without being conspicuous. They’ll even be out on boats in the bay. They’ll use magic sniffers on every vehicle and person they see coming past them, the world-class ones that look like Labradors and can detect the tiniest swirl in the ether from a hundred yards away. If they smell normal, they’ll pass right past without even knowing they were scanned. If they smell Grey, they’ll be detained.”
“Detained? What’s that mean?”
I try to let my expression drive it home. “Quarantined.”
His lips purse into a tight line and I know I’ve scored. Many years ago, he was subjected to Aegis quarantine after disturbing a thousand-year-old sunken Amazonian village and stirring up the souls of the men who’d died in it. They’d leeched onto the minds of anyone they came in contact with, driving them crazy and then moving on to their next host. A supernatural virus of the mind. It had taken nearly a month before the Envoys attached to the incident to be convinced that Hollett wasn’t going to be spreading their insanity any further.
“Once they’ve got the perimeter locked down,” I go on, “they’ll start sending people inward. It’ll be the same thing. If they find a kiovore, they’ll kill it. If they find someone who’s not infected, they’ll box them up and ship them out. They wo
n’t stop until they meet in the middle, then they’ll probably go back outwards to the border again just to make sure.”
“It’s going to be messy,” he says.
“Very. Any word from Gault?” I ask.
“A couple of hours ago. The Gamagori house was as silent as a tomb, though given the tombs in this town you have to take the expression as it is.”
“The kiovores never showed up at all?” I hadn’t expected that at all. The two family’s mansions are close to each other, geographically, and the Reese mansion had crawled with them. If they’re lured in by magic at least a couple should have ended up there. “Why did they go to the Reese place but not there? For that matter, none of them hit anyplace else? All of them were at the Reese’s?”
“That’s an excellent question. We have no idea. He said Kenta was bundled off to his room the second he walked in, and after half an hour of trying to get answers from Sota Gamagori Gault got tired of the stone face act and left.”
I climb back up the steps and sit down on a flat wooden bench. Hollett follows but stays on the ground, leaning up against the railing.
“We don’t know anywhere near enough about these things,” I tell him, just in case he hadn’t figured it out by himself. “We need information if we’re going to stop them.”
“I left Celeste’s notebook here last night. Did your ghost get anything out of it?”
“Not enough.” It only takes a few seconds to list Jamie’s discoveries, and they don’t impress Hollett any more than they did me. “We have to find them,” I muse out loud. “We have to track them down, all of them, and kill them before nightfall. We can’t let this start over again.”
“We don’t know how to kill them even if we could find them, which we can’t unless we search every single standing structure in this town before nightfall. They could be anywhere. In any basement, any dumpster, any closet. Unless there’s a sniffer in this town, there’s no way we can find any of them, let alone all of them.”
No More Devils: A Visit to Superstition Bay Page 18
