Nothing really mattered. Except that Anne was gone.
But would it really be much different? For the last eighteen years, the sisters had spent Christmas apart. Juliet had tried to convince Anne to be with them, at least alternate years. She’d done her utmost to try and get their families together. But Anne had always said no, settling for a hurried phone call instead. Juliet knew it was James who’d decided, who’d kept their conversations short, even on holidays. But in the last few years, Anne seemed to be warming to the possibility of confronting James and celebrating Christmas with her side of the family, for once.
But now Anne was dead, and they’d never get the chance to spend a Christmas together again.
Would these terrible thoughts go away? Or were they going to stay with her for the rest of the day, give her yet another sleepless night?
Juliet grabbed the first few bags, clutching the car keys, her handbag strap slipping down her arm. Trevor smiled and waved at her from the window. Her spirits lifted at once. Trevor was home for a rare few days – it was a treat. Her husband’s face disappeared from the window. He was coming to help her with the bags. He’d park the car in the garage for her and make her a cup of tea. They would have a chat, probably centred around their daughters, while putting the groceries away. Maybe she could ask him again if he’d help her talk Sarah round.
Juliet took a step towards the front door. An orange rolled down the path in front of her feet. What was her fruit doing on the ground? She turned around, irritated, towards the bags piled beside the car. She was aware of Trevor yelling.
Juliet turned back towards the house, puzzled.
The pain was so sudden and unbearable, so unlike anything she’d ever experienced. It was as if the skin was being ripped from her face. As she lost consciousness, she screamed at the agony, the sheer impossibility of what was happening to her. A single word seared through her mind, then everything went black. She was mercifully unaware of the wildcat’s claws tearing her apart, tearing at her eyes and ripping into her cheeks with its searing teeth, until she was totally unrecognizable.
She did, though, have time for one last thought: that she’d never see her family again. And she also had time to hear the voices screaming in her head, screaming that one word over and over again – the word that really explained it all, all that had happened in the last few years, all the mysteries and secrets and finally, her sister’s death.
The word she heard before the wildcat sunk its teeth into her neck: Midnight.
21
Seawater
Words between us
From the impossible planet to earth
And every time you and I speak
My heart finds peace
“I’ll never take another boat again,” groaned Mike, wiping his face with his hand as he walked. “I’ve been on land for days and I’m still seasick. All that time we had to stay on the ship after the attack, I never stopped wondering whether the next wave might throw up another demon.”
A soft drizzle was falling over the city of Edinburgh, and white, thin mist shrouded the streets. Mike and Niall were walking towards Sarah’s house, and Sean’s dead drop in her garden, hoping to find news of him. The plan was to tell Sean that the signal they’d intercepted in Louisiana the night they were attacked had come from somewhere in eastern Europe. After that, there was no clear path. Hiding, going to look for the Enemy, maybe searching for more surviving heirs – it was difficult to decide what to do. All Mike wanted, for now, was to find Sean alive and well. And to stay on dry land.
Niall shrugged. “I wasn’t a bit worried.”
“Bull. You were, I saw you.”
“Maybe a wee bit. For you, mainly. I really didn’t want to face another big calamari. Anyway, here we are. We made it,” he said with a sigh.
The journey on the cargo ship after the Makara’s attack had been a ghastly affair. They had seen to the injured as best they could, using the Med kits on board. Captain Young’s wound had been just a graze – Mike was a good shot – but he was in shock, and his distress was horrible to see. He was so sure that Mike and Niall were somehow to blame. His babbling sent shivers down Mike’s spine,