Blood Revealed (36 page)

“I didn’t want to force the issue. Dominic’s right and so are you. This is an upheaval for the kids. And of course, they going to make natural assumptions, if we move in together.”

The silence seemed to tick like a bomb.

Blythe licked her lips. “That isn’t how you feel?” she said carefully.

Dominic gave a hiss of frustration. “You’re both tap dancing around it. Patrick, tell her how you really feel. You’re scaring her.”

Patrick looked at them both. He didn’t speak.

“And now he’s afraid,” Dominic said softly.

Patrick nodded. “What I want to say…I’ve said it so many times before. I feel as if I say anything now, it will jinx it. I sometimes think if I move too fast, or breathe too hard, this will blow up in my face.” Old hurts shadowed his eyes. “When you two are sleeping, I watch you. And the idea of losing you terrifies me.” His hands clenched into fists and he rested them on his knees. “What I feel…I’ve never felt this before. Give me time.”

“You don’t have to prove anything,” Blythe said swiftly. The last time he had asked for time it had been to prove that Hollywood would not destroy them. The jury was still out on that, but it was looking good. This, though, was different.

Patrick shook his head. “I mean, give me time to get used to it, to relax enough to know I’m not going to fuck it up.”

Blythe blinked rapidly, clearing her eyes of tears.

It was Dominic who responded first. He took Patrick’s face in his hands and kissed him, then rested his forehead against his. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Then Dominic looked up at Blythe. He gave her a small smile. “Blythe wants the largest closet you have and the right side of the bed.” He had plucked the thought straight out of her mind. She couldn’t dispute it. She was already thinking about details surrounding the move. Somewhere in the last few minutes, she had already accepted that this would happen.

* * * * *

Between Christmas and New Year, they all moved into Patrick’s house. Patrick’s master bedroom was big enough for all three of them and there were rooms for Jake and the girls, too.

Jake’s reaction to the suggestion that they all move into Patrick’s house had been simple. He had rolled his eyes. “Finally!”

Simone and Eloise spent Christmas going through schools in the area and picking out which one they wanted to attend.

As her children had already met everyone living in the house—Nial, Winter and Sebastian—Blythe was able to relax a little more. Her children had accepted Nial, Sebastian and Winter’s untraditional marriage more easily than her relationship with Patrick and Dominic. And while the girls sighed after Nial, Jake spent more time with Patrick and Dominic, training with the sword and absorbing everything they shared with him.

Blythe moved the center of her hunting operations along with her suitcases. She left behind a group of well-trained, well-equipped hunters, who elected from among them a new leader. No one was surprised when the new leader turned out to be Peter’s widow. Marcy had become a superior hunter. Blythe suspected that a lot of her drive came from Peter’s death and her need to make up for that.

As Bel Air and the higher Hollywood hills were thick with Summanus, Blythe made her first priority to contact the local hunters and form squads. She set up defense perimeters that could alert anyone of encroaching Summanus. Then they concentrated on clearing out the fringe suburbs, hunting down every last Summanus they could find. They sterilized nests and plugged access to the dark, deep places they liked.

Her ambition was to clear out the domestic areas, before pushing out into the hills, in an offensive attack to drive them out.

She formally gave up her day job and dedicated herself to defeating the Summanus, so her children could have a life.

Patrick and Dominic, Nial and Sebastian and sometimes Winter, along with Garrett and Roman, were all a part of her team. Nial, Garrett and Roman all led their own squads. She was surprised to find that even though they were leaders, everyone still looked to her for direction.

In many ways it was just like Afghanistan. Only, Afghanistan seemed like a distant, dusty memory now. The PTSD no longer flared. Winter systematically addressed and calmed her symptoms and because her life had changed so much, Blythe no longer had the psychological triggers winding her up every time she went into combat.

The skills she had learned in Afghanistan as a soldier and a leader gave her all the structure she needed to form the hunters into cohesive, coordinated units. The work was absorbing. There was no question that the ultimate goal was worth any price.

The nights were filled with hunting, while the few hours of daylight she could spare without falling into chronic sleep deprivation were devoted to her kids, Dominic and Patrick. In the midst of all the carnage and loss, she was happy.

Just after Valentine’s Day, the twins came home bursting with news.

“There are new kids at school,” Simone said.

Blythe studied her twinkling eyes, trying to figure out what it was she was not saying.

“They’re Elah!” Eloise burst out. “Three of them!”

“You didn’t tell us that the Elah had kids, mom.”

“I didn’t know for sure,” Blythe said. “I deal with the Summanus all night long. They really let the Elah into school? They’re sitting in classrooms, learning?”

Eloise nodded enthusiastically. “There’s one of them in my biology class!”

Blythe reported the news to Nial.

Nial was quieter than ever. He was a talented and natural leader and inspired his squad to fight with determination. When he was not hunting, though, he did not talk much. The ire of the Unspoken Ones, the disapproval of humans and the constant losses were taking a toll.

Blythe wondered if anyone else had seen that he was struggling. However, Nial was very good at dissembling.

Nial had considered a news about the Elah in their schools, then nodded. “They are determined to find a place on Earth for themselves. Why would they not want to learn everything they can about us? If they put their children through a human education, then the next generation of Elah will grow up understanding humans far better than Dai Chi’s generation.”

“The Ĉiela could do that too,” she said. “That is, if they have young.”

Nial seemed sad. “There will be no more children for the Ĉiela,” he said gently. “They’re dying. Soon there will be none left.”

Patrick had been more pragmatic about the Elah in their schools. “Where are they getting the money from? Non-residents have to pay fees and they are as non-resident as you can get.”

“I hear that some Elah have applied for jobs and gotten them, too.” Dominic rolled his eyes. “So now all the unregistered immigrants not only have to fight each other for the few jobs going, but the Elah, too. Who thought we would ever have to worry about that?”

“Marcus was saying that in Europe, the Elah are hiring themselves out as conservation consultants. They know more about preserving the environment than anyone.” Blythe had spent a lot of time talking to Marcus about hunting tactics and strategies. He was becoming the
de facto
head of hunting in England, when he wasn’t in Russia dealing with the Elah and Dai Chi.

Patrick raised his brows. “They figured out capitalism really fast, didn’t they?”

* * * * *

Roman spent a lot of his days working for a security group, teaching their people fighting strategies and the vampire culture, so they could work alongside vampires more effectively.

On the days that Roman was out of town, Sebastian took over his squad. Sebastian had been an officer in the English army during the Napoleonic wars. While he preferred to hunt under Nial’s command, he was a strong enough leader that Roman’s absence wasn’t felt as badly as it might have been.

Blythe was confident enough of Sebastian’s command that she did not make any special arrangements to support his squad. Sebastian held up his own very nicely.

As the weather grew warmer, the number of Summanus increased. Blythe’s plans to clear out the suburbs were impacted by the more frequent incursions. The squads fell back into purely reactionary mode, spending their nights hunting down as many Summanus as possible, without any real strategy in mind.

Perhaps that’s why it happened. Without direction, a squad could flounder. Afterward, she questioned herself and wondered if her command had been insufficient.

The first hint of trouble came when the radio on her hip crackled and static screeched from the speaker. Then she realized it wasn’t static, but screaming. The sound cut off as the connection was lost.

She waved for everyone to hold, then ducked behind a fence and put her back to it, so that she could wait for a follow-up communication, which was standard protocol.

As she didn’t know who had made the call, waiting was all she could do.

Fifteen seconds later, the radio crackled again. She turned the volume down so the others would not hear what came next. Even then, the fine hairs on the back of her neck were prickling hard.

“Blythe, are you there? Over.”

“I am. Who is this? Identify yourself, please.”

“It’s Kimball. Sebastian is down. Repeat.
Sebastian is down
. We are cut off and fighting our way out. We need backup.”

Blythe forced herself to keep breathing. She thought quickly. Nial’s squad was on the far side of the hills, cleaning out a nest they had found. For a brief moment she hoped that they were out of range of the radio and that Nial was not listening to this.

Her squad was closer. She lifted the radio to her mouth. “Give me your exact location.”

Kimball shouted out an intersection. His words were interspersed with gun fire. They had been ordered not to use guns unless pushed to the extreme, even though every squad carried a few of them, just in case. Gun fire could kill civilians, too. There were far too many civilians in the suburbs to use them safely.

If Sebastian’s squad had broken out the guns, they were indeed in trouble.

“Hang in there, Kimball. We’ll be there in four minutes.”

She stood, waved everyone over to her and explained what was happening. They raced for their cars, which were only a block away. With a squeal of tires, they headed for Kimball’s location.

The Summanus had them blocked off in an alley and were using sheer numbers to press in toward them. Blythe had everyone line themselves up at the mouth of the alley and lay down a suppressing fire, to disperse them.

It was tricky, because Kimball and the others were also in the line of fire. The Summanus were so thick upon the ground, though, they acted like a shield.

As soon as the Summanus realized there were enemies behind them, they leapt over their fallen brothers and raced for them. Blythe’s squad was under attack, everyone fighting hand-to-hand. However, they’d had a lot of practice at this and the Summanus fell. She had told everyone what was at stake on the way over and now they were all fighting to save the others.

The Summanus dispersed, possibly cowed by their determination. Blythe turned and sprinted down the alley before the last of them had disappeared, sure that the others would see them off. Kimball was crouched behind a dumpster, his gun in his hand. He had Sebastian in his other arm. Sebastian was lying still and there was a lot of blood.

Blythe’s heart fluttered to a stop. “Let’s get him to the big house as fast as we can. Winter can see to him. I’ll let her know we’re coming.”

They carried Sebastian to the nearest car and put him on the back seat. Blythe wasn’t sure it was one of their cars and didn’t ask.

The drive to the house took far too long. On the way, she phoned Winter.

“We are bringing a casualty to you,” Blythe said carefully.

“I’ll be waiting. Who is it?”

“Winter, I’m sorry. It’s Sebastian.”

Silence.

“I understand. I’ll be waiting.” Winter disconnected.

Kimball and Dominic carried Sebastian into the dining room and laid him upon the big table. Winter followed them in and leaned over Sebastian, her hand on his head. There were tears on her face, but she focused upon him in the way she had, reaching inside and assessing. “Everyone go away.” Her voice was hoarse.

“Can we get you anything?” Patrick asked.

Winter glanced up at them. She looked like she had aged ten years. “I don’t need anything except peace and quiet. Someone must deal with Nial. Close the door please.”

She turned her back on them and bent over Sebastian once more.

Patrick led Blythe out of the room and shut the door as requested. They moved into the big lounge room. He looked around at everyone there. “Has anyone called Nial?”

“I told him to come home,” Garrett said. “I didn’t say why.”

“There’s a chance he heard the radio call,” Blythe reminded them. She glanced at Dominic. “Could you recall the squads, please? Hunting is over for the night.”

Dominic was their default communications hub, when he wasn’t sniffing out Summanus nests. He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and moved into one of the offices to make his calls.

Patrick picked up her hands, which she had squeezed together. “This isn’t your fault.”

She nodded. He might be right. She wasn’t going to argue with him. Not now.

“You should eat. You’re very pale.”

“It’s just shock.”

“Exactly. Calories will help.”

She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

There was a shout from outside, close to the house. Then a door slammed. Footsteps.

Blythe had been braced for Nial’s arrival, but she had forgotten his vampire-enhanced abilities.

He was moving fast, almost too fast to see properly, and came to a halt in the middle of the room. The mesmerizing blue of his eyes seemed to blaze as he looked around wildly. “Where is he?”

“In the dining room—” Patrick began. That was all he got out. Nial moved with such speed that this time, Blythe could not follow him.

As Patrick was the nearest to the dining room door, he took a step forward, raising his arms. He moved with the same vision-blurring speed. There was a grunt. Blythe had no idea who had made the sound, for suddenly the two of them were standing with their arms locked and their bodies straining.