Valley Fever by C J Bahr

Author:C J Bahr [Bahr, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fantasy, adventure, urban fantasy
Publisher: C J Bahr
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 18

Proceedings

A choice was made.

The communal decision flowed through the Kolgardi. Several creatures splintered from the hive, forming a new pack and migrated southward. Using the coastline as their compass arrow, the Kolgardi swarmed toward the hidden energy source they sensed but as of yet, remained unseen.

Neither the CDC nor the media noticed the somewhat peculiar habits of the disease they studied. Strangely, though the cases of Valley Fever continued to escalate, it had remained safely contained to Los Angeles County. No one noticed the restrained field of contamination, perhaps because the county held the epicenter of the quake. It would take several more days for them to notice the bizarre new spread of the unexplained illness.

As the Kolgardi moved south, they continued to feed and strengthen. Their trail of victims left behind to die still burned in their fever-induced comas. The bodies were harder to find, because they were spread few and far between. The Kolgardi spared little time for nourishment in their advance down the coast. The scant prey was hidden under dark piers and roadway culverts, to be discovered long past their departure.

Deep into Orange County, the Kolgardi were approaching a new county line. San Diego. Pausing rarely, not even for the revealing light of day, the creatures moved with swift determination, approaching their destination and mankind’s ultimate doom.

****

Kyran propped his shoulder against the smooth wall of the Viewer’s Loft in a studied look of idle insolence as he waited, but he knew the faint crease to his eyes and the thin pinched line of his slight smile belied his feigned stance. His gaze, usually sharp and penetrating, held an unfocused glazed look.

His fellow Fae, if they saw past his carefully presented façade, might have sensed the invisible strain, but they would have assumed it was tension from the upcoming trial. All knew he and Alden had once been close, but were now the bitterest of enemies. The Fae would be greatly disturbed to find out his real preoccupation.

Ever since he released the Kolgardi, his dreams had become troubled. But not troubled in the obvious sense, as in guilt. He believed in his motives and took not a single moment for fear or remorse. His sleep held something altogether abnormal. It was as if he was being transformed into something alien, something his intelligent mind couldn’t see or grasp, yet understanding flirted outside his awareness.

Thoughts not his own, desires and responses filled his unconscious. He’d wake oddly ill at ease, filled with a strange hunger. He couldn’t explain it and instead of lessening with time, the dreams became only more vivid. It reached a point where awake, disturbed thoughts would pop unheralded into his mind. And now he felt himself being drawn, pulled, to the south. Only one explanation came to him, after days of contemplation. Somehow, he was linked with the Kolgardi. He didn’t know how or why this had happened, but it explained a great deal of his weird dreams and sudden unexplained thoughts and feelings not his own.

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