I smiled at my big tough Marine and he winked at me.
Josephine reluctantly took it and Damien reached out, rubbing the small of my back. “If I had mine, I’d give it to you,” he whispered.
I knew that. This guy had hired me to protect him and I’d gone and fallen for him. Now I knew he’d do anything to protect me.
“Okay,” I told our group, “Dawn might still be coming. She just won’t be able to tell me. So let’s sit tight and camp out so long as it seems safe.”
Everyone nodded, and Maxine and Brisk started to walk the perimeter with their semi-automatic rifles. Master Aki and I luckily both had one katana each. That was enough to do some serious damage up close.
Josephine sat Jeremy down and loosened his blindfold but kept his headphones on. She started to play cards with him.
I peered over the tops of the trees and into the distance. “Feels too quiet,” I told Damien.
He nodded. “A new ship landed in every major city across the world. There’s got to be at least a hundred thousand more ghouls.”
A hundred thousand flesh eaters? Did he really think that many more had arrived last week? The thought made me sick.
“Think they are a new kind, like invisible or something?” Suddenly I felt like I was being watched, but I wasn’t sure if that was just me freaking myself out.
Damien’s eyebrows rose. “Anything is possible at this point.”
Master Aki sidled next to me and bowed lightly, his way of apologizing for interrupting. “No sense in worrying about things we can’t see,” he said sagely.
I swear that man never panicked. He was always cool as a cucumber.
I opened my mouth to speak, then Dawn’s consciousness merged with mine. It felt frantic and rushed.‘Dawn doesn’t have much time. Breeders have linked with Galadria hive mind. Watch everything we do and think.’
My stomach dropped.
‘Oh God. Are you safe? Skyhome?’If anything happened to those adorable baby dragons on Skyhome I was going to go majorly postal. She must have been fighting them off mentally so that we could speak for a moment.
‘Dawn is safe. Younglings on Skyhome are safe. Some Galadrias are not safe. Breeders know that Galadrias are friends with Kit. Breeders want Kit dead.’
That wasn’t exactly new news, but it still made my stomach turn.
‘Dawn, new ships came. On Earth. Hundreds of them.’ If she had any insight at all, I needed to hear it.
There was a pause and I sensed she was struggling to fight off the breeders from the mental invasion.
‘Dawn has news for Kit. Kit will be scared and angry.’
Fuck.
My heart jackknifed in my chest and both Damien and Master Aki stared at me now; they knew something was up. I tapped my forehead hoping they got the point, and walked a few feet away so that I could try to control my reaction.
‘It’s okay, Dawn, you can tell Kit anything,’I told her, easily falling into the habit of speaking in third person with her.‘Kit needs to know everything so Kit can keep friends alive.’
There was a moment of silence.
‘Scout ships came back. No new planets found. Earth is last food source ghouls can find.’
The whole world spun in that moment and I thought for sure I was going to fall over. Ever since Dawn told me that the ghouls went planet to planet harvesting bodies as a food source, it gave me hope that they would one day find another planet with a more plentiful supply of… meat, and leave ours.
‘You mean… they’re staying?’Anger and fear, just like Dawn predicted, rolled through me in equal measure.
‘Yes… forever. Breeders are talking about culling their own population and going on a ration diet to allow humans enough time to reproduce.’
Bile rose in my throat and I wasn’t sure I could hear any more of what she had to say. I wanted to shoot things and kill people and light this entire freaking world on fire.
