Dreams (Sarah Midnight Trilogy 1) Read online

  I had no time to think that what was happening to me was impossible. I had no time to think that such creatures don’t exist, that you can only see them at the cinema, or read of them in books. I had no time to consider any of that, because the creature that wasn’t supposed to exist was sinking its claws into my arms, into my back, drawing blood, and it was my time to roar in pain and rage.

  Just then I realized that the green-eyed man was standing beside us, not moving. He was looking on, as if he’d been watching a football match on TV. Why was he not helping? Was he the creature’s master, and was he using it to attack me?

  Then I noticed his posture – he had a small dagger in his hand, and he looked ready to strike, if he had to. He was waiting for something. What on earth was he waiting for? For the creature to kill me?

  “Help me, you bastard!” I shouted. But he didn’t move. An imperceptible smile curled his lips, making me even angrier.

  Something came into my mind. The most ancient part of my brain must have registered the information and stored it, and was telling me what to do now, in this life-and-death fight: there was a stone border that ran around the flower bed, the closest thing to a weapon I had at that moment. It was my only chance.

  I took my hands off the creature’s face – it brought its hands to its eyes, setting me free for long enough to turn my head quickly and locate the stones. One split second, and the demon went for me again. It pushed me down, its mouth snapping – it was so close to my skin that I tensed up, waiting for the bite.

  And it came – the creature bit my arm so hard it tore off a chunk of flesh.

  I was bleeding, frightened to death, and furious. A strength I didn’t know I had surged through me, and I roared, a sound I never thought could come out of my throat. That thing would not bite me again. It would pay for what it had done to me.

  I shoved my knee in the creature’s chest, so hard that its breath was knocked out of its lungs. I got up on my feet, pain tearing through me, blood pouring down my injured arm, and I kicked it in the face, feeling its nose break. I should say I was sickened by it … but I wasn’t. I was excited, I was triumphant – to hear the bone breaking, to see the creature that had tried to kill me roll on the ground in pain. It made me feel alive, like nothing else before. I threw myself on the demon, and took its bleeding head in my hands. I banged it against the stones, once, twice, until I felt the bone break, and the demon was still.

  I was breathing so hard I thought my heart would stop. I looked up at the sky – it was clear, with a million stars. I’ll never forget that sky, the night I killed a demon for the first time.

  “Impressive.”

  A voice coming from far away. I shook my head, trying to dispel the fuzzy, unreal feeling that had taken hold of me.

  The green-eyed man was smiling. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I was shell-shocked.

  “Have you done this before?” He sounded interested, polite – as if he’d just asked something like ‘ever been scuba diving?’

  “Why did you not help me?” I could barely contain my anger. I could have died, and he’d been standing there all along, with a dagger in his hand!

  Harry was unfazed. “I wanted to see how far you’d go. You just met a Surari.”

  “Surari?”

  “A demon. Harry Midnight, by the way.” He offered me his hand.

  I hesitated for a second, then I took it. He pulled me up, and we were face to face. “Sean Hannay.”

  Our eyes met, and something strange happened: it was as if we’d recognized each other. I saw myself in him. I know he saw himself in me. We belonged to the same place: we belonged to the hunt.

  And that was the beginning.

  This is what Harry Midnight did for me: he lifted the veil that hides the truth, he showed me the world behind this world. He showed me how the rivers of time flow parallel and should never be allowed to touch, how the creatures from the beginning of time must be stopped from seeping into this world, and if they make it here, they must be destroyed without mercy. He taught me that we all live in danger, a great and immediate danger. When we sleep in our beds, we are not safe; when we go to work, we’re not safe; when we walk down the streets of our cities, we’re not safe. Our own children are not safe; nobody is safe, at any time, day or night, wherever we are.

  Most people are not aware of it, yet – the Secret Families do all they can to keep it from us. Most people choose not to see anyway; they choose to believe what they want to, and nothing else. They want to pretend that none of this is happening, that it’s not real. It’s all just a nightmare that will dissolve as dawn breaks. Soon this is a choice they won’t be allowed to make. Soon many more people will know what we know, and the whole world will be forced to see.

  I joined the fight because I loved the thrill of it. Yes, I loved hunting – that’s all there was to it. But as I saw what we’re really facing, as I discovered what’s really threatening us, it wasn’t a thrill any more. It became a survival mission for the whole human race. I made Harry’s mission mine, and now I live for it. I’m not part of a Secret Family – they’re not made, they’re born. I’m one of those around them, one of their Gamekeepers. Just like traditional gamekeepers hunt and cull the wild animals on the estates they look after, so we hunt and cull … but it’s not wild animals for us, of course; not deer, or pheasant, or hare. For us, the game is the demons. The Secret Council, formed by the heads of the most prominent Secret Families – or Sabha, in the ancient language – gave us the name of Gamekeepers. I think it must be their idea of a joke.

  Anyway, to become a Gamekeeper takes years of training and steady nerves. They test us over and over again to make sure they have our absolute loyalty. We are then allowed to go back to our old lives, keeping them up like veneers. Each one of us is assigned to a particular family by the Council, but we can be called away at any time to perform missions for different families, and be sent wherever the Sabha need us. We have to be ready at a moment’s notice to be sent anywhere in the world, to do anything they ask of us. We come from all walks of life, young and old, men and women, stumbling into a world we could never have imagined existed. Only one thing we have in common: to serve the Secret Families, with all that it entails.

  Mary Anne, my then-girlfriend, and I weren’t assigned to a family as such, but to an individual: Harry Midnight, who had found us and trained us both. The Midnight family had no Gamekeepers, Harry had told me. They wanted nothing to do with the Sabha. But that didn’t apply to Harry. His parents had chosen to be part of the Secret Families and remained loyal to the Sabha.

  These days, being a Gamekeeper carries with it a good chance of getting killed. So many of us are dead already; so many friends of mine are gone. A shiver is shaking the whole world, the breeze that comes before a gale has started blowing. The cracks into this world have started showing, and it won’t be long before the war begins. The rivers of time are being pushed together, the passages are being opened – things that should never see the light are coming in, either taking advantage of the openings of their own accord, or because they’re being summoned. We’re fighting to keep this world ours; but those who stake a claim to it – a deeper, more ancient claim than ours – are getting stronger by the day. The balance of power is shifting, more swiftly than we could have ever predicted. There’s an Enemy at the gates – a faceless Enemy who’s a mystery to us, who uses the demons as its servants. A demon himself? Nobody knows. It’s all been so quick; the threat has been so sudden, sweeping over us like a tsunami. We weren’t ready. The Sabha weren’t ready. The Gamekeepers weren’t ready. There had been no time to prepare, no time to find a way to defend themselves before the destruction began.

  The Secret Families – people like Harry, people who fight and die every day to keep this world ours – are being targeted, one by one, family after family. The ancient network of protection all over Europe, all over the world, is being ripped apart.

  If it disappears, there will be nothi
ng else for us to do but hide, and pray that when they find us, they’ll decide to kill us quickly – and by us, I mean you and me, and each and every member of the human race. If the Secret Families are destroyed, there’s nowhere for humanity to go – it would mean that the tide had turned, for the first time in millions of years. It would mean that this world is no longer ours. It would mean that it’s the Time of Demons again.

  Before it all started, it was just hunting. And hunting was fun. I loved being a Gamekeeper. I soon realized that things were changing; I could see the creatures’ numbers multiplying, I could feel them becoming stronger, more vicious – but for a while it was just incredible. I woke up every evening (that’s the way we worked, sleeping through the day, hunting through the night) raring to go, full of adrenaline, ready for the fight, ready to smell their blood.

  It was Harry, Elodie, Mary Anne and me.

  Elodie is the heir to the Brun family, the Secret Family from Lyon – or should I say she was … God, not knowing if she’s dead or alive is killing me. Harry adored her. To see the bond between them made me long to find something like that too … but I don’t hold much hope. Love seems to be one of those things that happen to other people.

  I was with Mary Anne, and she was a wonderful Gamekeeper – strong and brave, with a total and absolute disdain for fear. She ignored danger – she just went ahead with anything she had to do. No wonder Harry had seen the potential in her, and trained her as he’d done with me.

  She was also beautiful, funny and warm. But I didn’t love her. Harry and Elodie had something so deep and all-encompassing. They lived for each other – I’m not sure I could ever feel that way for anyone, and I certainly don’t think that anyone could feel that way for me.

  We were an amazing team, the four of us. We thought nothing could beat us. Until we were called to Japan to contain the Taizu threat – and that’s when everything started going wrong.

  It was the Ayanami family who’d called us. They are one of the greatest Secret Families in the world. Again, maybe I should say were. They were facing an invasion of Taizu spirits – silent, deadly creatures that can kill dozens with a single touch, leaving no trace. They make it look like the victims have had a heart attack, but the truth is that their breath has been taken away. You know what they say about cats stealing babies’ breath, and because of that they should be kept away from cribs and cots? Those are not cats; they’re the Taizu taking on an animal form.

  We started hunting in earnest – but it didn’t take long to realize that the threat was greater than it looked. The Ayanami, the Shinji and the Tokuda – the three Japanese Secret Families, the clans of the Plains, the Mountains and the Sea – were alarmed, and many Gamekeepers were sent by the Sabha to help them, from all over the world.

  Six months later, most of the Gamekeepers sent to Japan were dead, and the three Families had been destroyed – drowned, suffocated in their beds, gassed in their own cars, clawed to death, devoured. It was carnage.

  Only little Aiko, the three-year-old daughter of the Ayanami chief, was saved, and flown to Italy in great secrecy to be looked after by some local Gamekeepers in a little mountain village in the Alps.

  With fear and destruction all around us, Harry changed. He became more and more despondent, more and more afraid. He told me he had to go to London as soon as possible, to meet with the Sabha. He was convinced that only by fighting together, guided by the Sabha, could the Secret Families face a threat as big as this. I wanted to go with him, but the plight of the Japanese people was too strong for me to ignore. I had to try and help. Harry and Elodie flew to London, while Mary Anne and I kept fighting in Japan.

  It was a terrible time. We did all we could, and then the time for a decision came: we knew that if we stayed in Japan any longer, we would be killed, like so many other Gamekeepers. Mary Anne decided to fly back to New Zealand and continue the fight there. I chose to reach Harry and Elodie in London. We parted ways, with a hint of sadness on my part, and heartbreak on hers. There was nothing I could have done to help her pain. I’d tried to love her – I really tried – but I couldn’t.

  When I saw Harry again, in London, I was shocked. He looked like a haunted man, his eyes opaque, his cheeks hollow. I hated myself for having left him. I should have stayed with him; I should have kept protecting him. What had possessed me to stay in Japan, to fight a hopeless cause?

  Harry had been meeting with the Sabha many times. The heads of the Secret Families of Europe were flocking into London to try and find a way to face the crisis. His faith in the Sabha was complete, absolute.

  The day I arrived he found an excuse for Elodie to go out – she left without arguing, with a sense of resignation, because she knew she couldn’t have said no. She looked so frightened, so lost – her brown eyes big with apprehension, her long willowy hair down on her shoulders as if to protect her, her thin frame looking even frailer than usual. I barely had time to give her a quick hug, to whisper ‘it’ll be OK’ in her ears, and she was gone.

  I dreaded what was coming. I felt in my bones that Harry wanted to tell me what to do in the event of his death – because I could see he had no doubt that it would come soon.

  He sat me down in the living room of their Mayfair town-house. From the window I could see the beautiful, square symmetry of the houses all around, and the grey English sky weighing over London, heavy with imminent rain.

  He took a deep breath – it sounded strange, rasping – then he began.

  “I’ve recently been in touch with my Uncle James in Scotland. You know we hadn’t spoken for years …”

  “Yes.”

  “He’s a fool. He’s trying to keep going as if everything is normal. He knows! But he’s refusing to acknowledge the magnitude of what’s happening. It’s as if he’s denying the existence of a wider world …”

  “That can’t be. Nobody can keep going like nothing is happening.” I thought of the innocent people in Japan, unaware of the battle, caught in the middle of it. Even their lives had been changed, and they were just bystanders – how could a Secret Family remain untouched?

  “He’s refusing to make provisions for his daughter, my cousin,” Harry continued. “Her name is Sarah. She’s nearly seventeen. She’s the Dreamer of her family.” I knew what that meant – each Secret Family has one Dreamer in its midst, someone who through their dreams tells the family about any demons in their surroundings, and where to find them. If the Dreamer gets killed, the power will pass on to another member of the family. “When they strike, she’ll either die, or be left to face it all alone, without allies. And they’ll strike soon. I know for sure that these are my uncle’s last days. Sean, there’s something I need you to do for me.”

  “Of course, Harry. Of course.” To see such fear in the eyes of a man who was like a brother to me – no less than if we’d shared the same blood – I felt like my heart was breaking.

  “You must look after Sarah. When something happens to me – and it’ll be soon – you must go to Scotland and protect her. I can only trust you. I don’t have long to live.”

  All of a sudden the pain I felt turned to anger. Harry was a hunter, and yet he was letting himself be killed without putting up a fight. How could he do this to Elodie, to me, to himself?

  “I don’t want to hear you talking like this, Harry. It’s like you’re dead already!”

  “You don’t understand, Sean. I am dead already. Look. Look at me.”

  I looked. And I saw. The gauntness, the mortal pallor, the rasping breath. The opaque eyes, covered by a milky film. I had seen it happening in Japan, I knew the signs – but with Harry, I had willed myself not to see.

  “Poison,” I whispered, horrified.

  “One touch was enough. Or maybe it was in my food. It’s just a matter of time now.”

  “Oh, Harry. Who did it? Who was it?” I would strangle them with my own two hands, no matter how long it took me to find them.

  “It’s difficult to believe, I know. But
, Sean … it was the Sabha who did this to me.” He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe his own words.

  My heart skipped a beat. How could that be? How could a member of a Secret Family betray us all?

  “The Sabha? Oh, God …”

  “I used to think they were just in denial, that they hadn’t had enough time to act. But now I know. They’ve been infiltrated – or even turned. That’s why I can only ask you to look after Sarah,” Harry continued.“I can’t trust anyone else. I can’t be sure of anyone … We have to take matters into our own hands.”

  “Who will listen to us, Harry? Who will believe that the Sabha are now an enemy?”

  “Not many. We managed to get to Aiko through the Ayanamis’ Gamekeepers; we’re old friends, they believed me. And then there’s the Flynns. Our families go way back, so I know I can trust them, and they know they can trust me. I’ve sent Mike to get Niall Flynn and take him to Louisiana, some-where out of the way.”

  “Mike Prudhomme? He’s the best Gamekeeper I know.”

  “Yes. He and I go back a long way too. Niall is lucky, very lucky. And so is Sarah, with you.”

  I nodded. I was at a loss for words. I hoped with all my heart I would not let Harry down.

  “Nobody else can know what we’re doing. If the Sabha find out, you’re all dead …” Harry’s breath failed him, and he held his chest. I wished I could have breathed for him.“I want you and Mike to keep in constant touch. You need his help. Only you will know how to contact them.”

  “Yes. Yes.”

  The room was spinning around me. Nowhere to go, nobody to trust.

  “What about Elodie? She must come with me to Scotland.”

  “She can’t.” Despair flooded Harry’s face. “She’s being driven to the Thames now. There’s a boat waiting for her. She’s going to Italy, where Aiko Ayanami is. She needs to help the Gamekeepers protect her. You’re safer apart than together … You and Sarah, Elodie and Aiko, Mike and Niall. If you’re all together and they find you …”