“What?” My cheeks felt cold as the blood drained from my face. “Surrogates?”
“Hadto be.”
“I was just guessing.” The fact that I’d anticipated the surrogates’ next move made me feel uncomfortable in my own skin. Suspicious of whatever connection drew us to each other and let me understand their thought process so well. “What happened? Where?”
“It was at the naval academy. There were several high school groups taking tours. They went to the gift shop, and several officers walked in and just starting shooting. Then they killed themselves.”
More kids, murdered by people they should have been able to trust. By people who should have been protecting them. The surrogates knew exactly where we were most vulnerable. And how to turn us against each other. “Survivors?”
“None. Nearly three hundred fatalities, including teachers, campus employees and other officers and cadets.”
I exhaled, and the weight of what she was telling me—the full extent of the loss—felt like stones being layered on my chest, pressing the life out of me. All those poor parents. Those poor brothers and sisters and spouses.
“We need to do some extra hunting, or something,” Lenore whispered, in deference to the grim gravity of the moment. “It won’t be safe to go into town—any of the towns—anymore. Not even for me.”
“Why? Lenore, what aren’t you saying?”
She stared at her lap, where she’d been picking at a hangnail, and her reluctance to meet my gaze set off my mental alarms. “They’ve declared martial law in DC and the surrounding areas. The news said they’re rolling out roadblocks sometime overnight, run by the Cryptid Containment Bureau, in conjunction with the FBI and the national guard. They’ll be stopping every car and using this new blood test. It looks like one of those things diabetic people use. They prick your finger, and if they can’t confirm you as human in ninety seconds, you’ll be detained. Ostensibly for further testing. But we all know how that’ll go. And that’s not the worst of it.”
My heart hammered against my sternum. “What could be worse?”
“The national guard has authorization to shoot anyone who is obviously cryptid on sight. No arrest. No questions. Just a bullet in the head.”
Panic closed in on me like dusk in fast-forward, and the world seemed to grow darker in front of my eyes. The reaping and its aftermath had been one of the grimmest periods in US history. And it was happening again.
Because Gallagher and I had freed the surrogates.
“That was on the news?” my voice carried little sound.
“On every channel,” Lenore said. “It was on in the gas station when I stopped to fill up. On the car radio. I overheard a woman in the grocery story say they’d somehow texted everyone with an area code from the affected zones. And starting tonight, they’ll be broadcasting curfew instructions through loudspeakers on the streets.”
“It’s like we’re at war...”
“We are. They’ve declared waronus. This is real, Delilah. It’s the second wave, and they know it. They just don’t know who to blame now, any more than they did last time. So they’re blaming us all.”
“Okay.”No reason to panic.“But they’re not going door-to-door—”
“Yet.”
“—and even if they were, we’re not on the grid. We don’t have a home phone, or even an address. So we just need to lay low.” And cuddle with a newborn.
“That’s what I’m saying.” She laid one hand over mine. “I just thought you should be aware.”
“Do the others know?”
“Just me,” Gallagher said from the chair in the corner of the room, and I nearly jumped out of my own skin. I hadn’t seen him in the shadows. “And Rommily’s been pretty upset for the past few hours, so I’m guessing she’s seen something.”
“Where’s Alina?” I asked. Gallagher stood, and I saw her asleep in his arms. “Wow. I couldn’t see either of you over there. Not even a silhouette in the shadow.” And she was soquietwhen he held her... As if she’d already mastered thefear deargskill set.
“I couldn’t see her in my own arms,” Gallagher admitted. “She’s a natural.”
“So then...she’ll need blood.”
“I’m virtually certain of it.”
I decided to believe that was a blessing, as well as a curse. Gallagher could pass for human under most circumstances, and surely that would be even easier for Alina, since half of her genes came from me. A blood test would out her, but any abilities she inherited from her father would help lessen the chance of one being administered. After all, they couldn’t test a girl they couldn’t see.
And if she had to defend herself someday, she could. She would be her own champion.
