Blue Noon

30

12:00 A.M..-

Long Midnight

BONFIRE

"Come on!" Rex shouted.

He took another painful step, one gloved hand clenched around a tree branch, pulling himself along to reduce the weight on his injured foot. Even so, a strangled cry escaped through his teeth - this was much worse than the flight here. Without Jonathan's midnight gravity moving through him, Rex felt every ounce of his tall frame. The hissing flare in his free hand brushed against a wet branch, scattering blinding white sparks across his vision.

"You're Rex, right?" Cassie said from behind him. He didn't answer, but she went on. "I'm starting to remember now."

"He looks just like you drew him," Beth whispered.

"You're the one who saved me, right?" Cassie asked. "A few weeks ago?"

"I'm the one who's saving you now! Can we focus on that?" The darkling hiss in his voice silenced her and brought a fresh burst of fear from Beth. He tried to concentrate on the painful task of walking, not the defenseless scent of the two girls behind him.

Melissa... he called.

Again there was no response. Rex forced despair from his mind, hoping she was simply too busy fighting to answer. The last message he'd received from her had shown the hurricane lamp breaking, its flames extinguished, and the acid taste of darklings on their way.

He moved faster through the trees, ignoring the pain. The narrow trail before them danced in the jittering white light, and he recognized a low, twisted mesquite tree. Another hundred yards and they would reach the railroad tracks, only a few minutes away from Melissa and the cache of fireworks.

A hunting cry cut through the trees, and the flutter of leathery wings came from all directions. Rex paused, lifting the flare and shielding his eyes from its glare. Slithers darted in the corners of his vision, and larger shapes shifted among the crooked lines of branches, wary of the white light sputtering in his hand.

Rex could smell their hunger, finally unleashed after millennia, and knew that tonight there would be no respect among predators, no safety for him. This was their night at last - Samhain.

"What was that?" Cassie said.

"Monsters." Rex pulled Animalization from his belt, thrusting its hilt into her hand. Of all the metal Dess had carefully prepared, it was the only weapon he'd brought on the frantic flight with Jonathan. Of course, there were plenty of weapons at the railroad tracks, if they could only get there.

"You remember this?"

She stared down at the knife, eyes wide, head nodding slowly.

"It's called Animalization." He winced as the tridec left his lips. "Say it."

As Cassie carefully sounded out the syllables, Rex heard something flying through the trees toward them. Something bigger than a slither.

"Duck!" he cried, raising the flare as he crouched.

A roar came through the forest like a sudden storm, bringing the overwhelming smell of predator. A huge winged creature burst into view, tearing at the treetops with four outstretched arms. It uttered a shriek at the spitting white light of the flare, then passed overhead, trailing the sound of breaking branches like snapping bones.

A sudden downpour descended in its wake, sheets of water dislodged from the rain-soaked trees by the creature. A vortex of wet leaves and branches swirled around the three of them, and the flare sputtered in Rex's gloved hand, its flame almost smothered by the deluge. Just in time he dropped to his knees and sheltered the burning weapon under himself, protecting its flame from the watery onslaught.

At that moment the air was full of slithers streaking past, their timing perfect to take advantage of the flare's concealment. One stung Rex in the middle of his back, sending a bolt of ice down his spine. A burst of blue sparks shot into the night from Animalization in Cassie's upraised hands, and he heard Beth cry out.

Rex lifted the flare again, exposing it to the dwindling tempest. A slither was caught among its white sparks and burst into flame in midair, disintegrating like a shovelful of embers flung through the trees. The others split into a panicked mass and whirled off into the forest trailing a chorus of screams.

But as the torrent of dislodged water subsided, the flare sputtered weakly, barely staying lit. It burned unevenly now, half extinguished by the remains of wet leaves wrapped around it.

Rex heard the many-armed darkling circling, ready to come at them again. He saw Beth staring dumbfounded at a purple welt on her hand. "You two okay?"

"It bit me!" Beth shouted angrily.

"They're afraid of fire?" Cassie asked.

He nodded, gesturing with the flare. "They're trying to put this out."

"Why didn't you say so?" She started scrabbling among the leaves. "We can start a fire."

"It's too wet!"

"Not under here." She pushed aside handfuls of glistening damp leaves. "My grandma says you can always find dry leaves at the bottom of a pile. And they're better for burning 'cause they're rotten."

Rex raised his eyebrows. In the jittering white light the exposed patch of leaves did look dry. The flare still sizzled wetly in his hand, as if it might not withstand another pass by the creature. He reached down to thrust its blinding tongue into the pile. Flames curled the leaves' edges, and a rich smell like an autumn burn-off struck his nose.

"Bonfires," he said, remembering his images of ancient Samhains.

"Not exactly a bonfire yet." Cassie cleared more leaves, adding to the smoking pile.

"It's coming back!" Beth said. The darkling was closing in again, the sound of snapping branches building as it neared them.

This time, Rex realized, its attack would be less effective. The beast had already shaken most of the water from the rain-soaked leaves. They could hold out here indefinitely, or as long as they could feed their little bonfire. If they moved from this spot, though, the creature could douse them with fresh tree-loads of water.

But they had to reach Melissa and the fireworks, not sit here huddled around a shred of safety.

Rex felt his teeth bare, smelling the arrogance of the young and clever darkling. It thought he could be frightened into immobility, like some cornered prey.

It was wrong.

"Take this!" he cried, handing the flare to Beth. "Keep it covered!"

He snatched the knife back from Cassie, readying himself to spring, feeling the hunting frenzy rising up in him. The darkling approached again, tree branches rocking and shaking free more water, and Rex leapt into the air toward its black silhouette with a scream in his throat, hardly feeling his injured ankle. He thrust the knife out before him, plunging the steel blade into the creature's flesh.

Blue sparks spat from the wound back into his face, and the creature's arms wrapped around him, flailing to claw at his back and legs. Rex felt himself carried along on a few powerful strokes of its wings - away from the two girls. He howled, twisting the knife as hard as he could. The beast let out a cry, its grasp loosening. Rex kicked at it with his good foot...

And then he was tumbling from its arms, crashing through branches and undergrowth, slashing blindly at the slithers shooting past. He landed heavily on a bare patch of ground, his breath knocked out of him as if the earth were a huge fist. He lay there for a moment, staring at the blue fire coursing through the knife. Somehow he'd held on to it.

But the forest was alive with sounds: big things pushing through the branches, slithers on the wing. Coming for him.

Rex rose painfully, his bruised ribs creaking, the slither bite shooting pain down his spine. A shape shot toward him out of the forest, and he brought the knife up to slice into a wing. The slither kept flapping, jerking away like a broken kite into the trees.

In the distance he saw a flicker of red. Cassie was getting her bonfire going. But it seemed incredibly far away.

Rex...?

"Melissa!" he cried aloud, sensing that she was nearby. Whirling around to look for her, he realized that his brief flight with the beast had taken him closer to the railroad tracks.

"Rex!" a cry answered.

Following the sound, he saw a sheet of blue sparks through the branches and charged toward it. He was unprotected by the flare now, and the looming shapes in the trees were moving toward him. His ankle throbbed with every step, and the metal on his boots sparked as crawling slithers struck at his legs. But Melissa was so close.

The blue sparks glowed through the trees again, revealing the silhouette of a great cat raised up on his haunches. The creature was young and eager for a kill, full of the fervor of Samhain. Then Rex spotted a human form just past the darkling: Melissa tossing up handfuls of metal, hurling the bolts and screws that Dess had created into the cat's face, driving it wild with fury. It let out a cry, swiping a claw at the tiny missiles.

Then it dropped into a crouch, ready to launch itself at her.

Rex felt his body changing, transforming more than it ever had before, the full fury of the beast inside him unleashed at last. Suddenly his injured foot seemed beside the point, the great cat's size and strength meaningless - nothing mattered but saving Melissa.

He found himself crashing through the trees with a hunting scream, taking a wild leap onto the back of the darkling. He plunged Animalization into its shoulder, and the creature let out a howl. Its coiled muscles exploded under Rex, a jump that carried both him and the beast straight up into the air.

It twisted beneath him, trying to bring its powerful claws around. But Rex hung on with a wild, inhuman strength, his metal-encircled boots sparking against its flanks. He and the darkling spun around each other in midair like some bizarre rodeo ride.

The taste of Melissa entered his mind...

Get off it, Rex!

It made no sense, letting the beast free to shred him, but this was Melissa, and his human half obeyed the frantic demand without thinking. He pushed away with all his strength, leaving the knife embedded in the darkling, trying to shield his face from its flailing claws.

Rex fell hard on the damp ground, battered ribs letting out a crack, his ankle screaming with the pain he'd ignored. The beast inside him had faded a little. It had wanted to fight to the death, but he'd listened to Melissa instead....

He struggled to his feet with empty hands spread wide, defenseless.

The darkling lay a few yards away, its paws twitching like a dreaming cat's. Then it let out a horrifying scream. For a moment Rex didn't understand, until he saw the metal shaft protruding from its flank: some kind of spear, its steel still sizzling with blue fire. The creature twitched once more, then stopped moving.

Melissa emerged from behind its bulk, looking stunned, her hands black with the creature's blood.

"Uninterrupted Vivisectional Preoccupation," she said.

Rex blinked. She had set the spear on the ground and let the darkling fall on it.

"Thanks for distracting it," she said.

Rex heard slithers flapping away from them in all directions, momentarily scattered by the dying howl of the great cat. He took a painful step, put a gloved hand on her shoulder. "No problem. But what are you doing out here?"

"I got bored of waiting and figured you needed some help." She held up a backpack. "I brought fireworks. So, um... where's the fire?"

Rex looked back the way he'd come; the red glimmer was just visible in the distance. "That way."

A puzzled expression crossed Melissa's face. Her eyes closed for a moment. "You left our only fire with a couple of thirteen-year-olds?"

He nodded. "Pretty much."

Melissa shook her head with disgust. "Daylighters in the secret hour." She sighed, tossing him a long metal shaft marked with spirals of solder. The steel burned even through Rex's gloves, but its heft felt good in his hands.

"Thanks," he said. "How's Jessica doing?"

"Don't worry about her; worry about us." She lifted another spear onto her shoulder. "There's a lot more darklings on their way."

They crashed through the trees toward the bonfire's glow, swinging their spears at the slithers that struck through the air. Every step shot through Rex's injured foot and his throbbing ribs, but the pain had faded into a mindless blur. He had reached Melissa, and his human half was willing to let the beast take over.

The bonfire ahead was building, the smell of smoke swirling through the forest. More of the four-armed darklings thrashed at the trees around it, as if trying to batter it into submission. But the wind of their wings only seemed to drive the fire brighter.

As they grew closer, the slithers stopped coming at them, wary of the whirlwind of sparks and burning leaves.

"Cassie! Beth!" Rex shouted.

"Rex?" came a cry. He saw Cassie silhouetted against the flames, the highway flare still sputtering in her hand.

"We're coming!" he yelled back.

"What about them?" Melissa asked, coming to a halt.

As she spoke, the bloated forms of five huge darklings rose from the forest floor. Their mouths glistened, and the clusters of eyes that dotted their bodies glowed dully in the purple light of the rip. Their long, hairy legs were splayed like the bars of a cage around the fire.

"Spiders," Melissa said. "Your favorite."

"Not a problem." Rex held out his hand. "Give me the backpack."

He unzipped it and dug his hand in, feeling a collection of bottle rockets, Roman candles, and firecrackers threaded in long strings. "Any highway flares?"

"Sure. At the bottom."

His hand closed on the flares, and he handed three to her, keeping another for himself. "One for each of us. After I deal with those things, we'll light up and make a run for the tracks."

"There's five of them, Rex. And they're just standing there, staring at that fire like it's no big deal. They're not going to be afraid of you."

Rex smiled, feeling the beast well up in him. "They should be."

He turned, spear in one hand and backpack in the other, and limped toward the great spiders. They stood impassively, eyes aglitter with firelight. They were old, he could tell now. As he grew near, Rex felt their minds moving through him, the taste of ash and sour milk coating his tongue.

Abomination. You will die tonight.

"We'll see." He broke into a painful, ungainly run.

The spear left his hand first, shooting through the air toward the closest darkling. Two of its arms rose to ward it off, flailing like hairy tentacles. The spear glanced off one of them, coming to rest in the soft earth at its feet.

But the still-unzipped backpack was already soaring over the darkling's head. It traveled in a long arc, over Cassie and her sputtering flare, its contents already spilling from it as it flew. It all landed with a burst of sparks and smoke in the center of the bonfire.

Watch this... he thought at the darklings.

A moment later the scattered fireworks began to explode, balls of fire spitting out in all directions, the shriek of long strings of firecrackers expelling clouds of smoke, rockets bouncing among the branches. The burning tongue of a Roman candle reached out to ignite one of the spiders, and the beast screamed in pain as flame spread across its hairy surface. One of the winged darklings caught a bottle rocket and began to flail its wings, then crashed into the beast beside it, the two creatures wrapping around each other in a frantic, blazing embrace.

Beth and Cassie dropped into the wet leaves, hands over their heads. The great spiders shifted, their arms shuddering, their terror washing through Rex's mind with an electric taste.

He rolled under the nearest darkling, pulled his spear from the ground, and thrust it into the beast's belly. A foul smell spilled from the wound as the beast reared up, its mouth opening wide, its teeth as long as knives.

As Rex raised his spear, a squadron of rockets skittered randomly across the ground in the corner of his eye. Then one hit his shoulder, leapt into the air spinning head over tail, and shot into the gaping mouth of the darkling. The creature made a choking sound as Rex rolled toward the bonfire, rising to his knees to scrabble over to where the girls huddled.

"Are you okay?"

"Those things..." Beth sobbed.

"Don't worry. They're leaving." He looked up.

The beast behind him was trying to transform, wings sprouting from its back as the legs were sucked into the body. But then Rex heard a huffing sound - the rocket in its gut exploding - and tasted the beast's panic in his mind. Its glittering eyes dulled, and a gout of flame burst from the spear wound in its belly. The wings began to crumble....

Rex covered his head as the creature exploded, a mighty rush of scorching heat, the light blinding even through his slammed-shut lids. The earth bucked beneath him, a roar like a jet taking off filling the air.

And then the sound was fading, until all he heard was the screams of midnight creatures retreating in all directions.

When Rex opened his eyes, he saw Melissa kneeling nearby, lighting the highway flares from the remains of the fire. Burning leaves were spread far into the trees, but a few glowing embers and a broad dark patch of ground were all that was left of Cassie's efforts.

"They're gone, Rex," she said. "Looks like you ruined their Samhain."

He nodded, his vision swarming with glowing spots. "Yeah. I guess bonfires have gotten a lot nastier since their day."

"We can do even better with the stuff back at the tracks. And we need to get there fast." She stood, two hissing flares in each hand.

Cassie was already standing, pulling Beth to her feet. They were covered with ash and wet leaves, their faces blank with shock. But Cassie took the flare that Melissa handed her. "Are they all gone?" she asked.

Melissa closed her eyes. "Not hardly. We have to run, girls." She pointed toward the tracks. "There's tons more fireworks waiting for us that way."

"Just give me a minute," Rex said. His torso was bruised all over, his ankle aching, his vision and hearing swarming with echoes of the explosion. His lungs felt scorched, as if he'd inhaled too much bonfire smoke.

He didn't hear Melissa's words at first.

"Rex?" Her hand pulled at his jacket.

"Just a second."

"We have to go now."

"I can barely stand."

"Look." She reached up and bare fingers brushed his neck, her mind entering him in a wild rush. He saw what was coming....

"Oh, crap." Rex shuddered. He'd been a fool, all his plans empty gestures. "I never knew."

Melissa took her hand away and lifted his weight onto her shoulder, pulling him forward. "We can help Jenks, anyway."

They set off through the trees, Rex's battered body responding once more to the commands of his will. He didn't bother to look back, but the jittering of the branches ahead showed that the girls were following, their flares casting wild shadows through the forest. The tracks were only a few minutes away, but it all seemed futile....

Rex shut his eyes and ran, ignoring the pain, trying to erase the image that Melissa had given him. A flood of darklings, a wave that darkened the sky, a vast horde beyond anything in the lore. Their fireworks would present nothing but a trivial detour to the onslaught.

Jessica Day was their only hope.