A Shade of Vampire 37: An Empire of Stones(36)

“What do you think, James?” I asked when Maurine had finished her account.

“I think my brother was taken,” he replied stoically. “We were going to see Zombie Death House at the cinema the night he went missing. There is no way he would have missed out on that—not in a million, trillion years.”

Inwardly I sighed. Thanks to Benedict, I knew teenage boys fairly well. If the police had heard that information and taken it seriously, then they would have reconsidered their approach—that fact alone suggested that this was an abduction and not voluntary. Still, I couldn’t jump to conclusions, not yet.

“And did you see anything unusual or out of the ordinary the night that Christopher went missing? Did he say anything to you?”

Maurine looked down at her hands while James nodded with a solemn expression.

“I did. I saw massive, huge birds in the sky, about the same size as a one-man speedboat. I’ll show you—wait a second!” He jumped up from his seat and rushed out of the room again. I heard him thump up the stairs, and a few moments later stampede back down them again, clutching a kid’s encyclopedia. He already had it open, and shoved the book in front of Caleb and I. On the left-hand page was a large picture of a vulture.

“I swear this is what I saw—because it had that weird beak and those funny legs.”

I glanced at Caleb, who was studying the image intently.

“Are you sure this is what you saw?” he asked.

“I’m not totally, totally sure, but I definitely saw birds—three of them. Before Chris went missing. He had gone to the chip shop with his mates, and was going to pick me up afterward by the doughnut shop, but he never came.”

“Other than their size, did you notice anything unusual about the birds, like human faces or other human body parts?” I asked. Maurine looked absolutely horrified.

“Like the Hawks?” the boy asked.

“Exactly,” I said.

“No, these weren’t Hawks or Harpies. I thought they might be, at first, but they were different—just birds.”

“Do you have any idea where they might have come from?” I asked, knowing it was a long shot.

The boy shrugged. “I saw them come from the sea. I don’t know more than that…maybe they came from miles away.”

“What do you think?” Caleb asked, looking intently at the boy.

“I think Chris was abducted by genetically modified birds, or evil sprites that ride on the back of birds—and they came from a different dimension.”

“Oh, honestly, James!” His mother rolled her eyes. “You’ve got some imagination.”

I smiled at Maurine. It amazed me sometimes how despite the world at large knowing about supernatural creatures, some still lived in complete skepticism.

After the interview concluded, we thanked James and Maurine and then let ourselves out. Back on the busy street, Caleb and I called Corrine to inform her of what we’d learned.

“That’s interesting,” she mused. “We’ve had reports of strange bird behavior here—no one’s seen anything like what your kid described, but the birds native to the area started behaving weirdly around the days of the girl’s disappearance. Apparently, there was a mass migration of all species, a load of them traveling inland, away from the sea. The girl who went missing was last seen by the ocean. Her parents are convinced that she’s drowned, but thankfully no one’s found a body.”

“A mass migration because a predator was heading their way?” I asked.

“Could be,” Corrine replied. “Maybe worth speaking to a specialist. I’ll get someone on it.”

“Thanks. See you shortly.”

I hung up, and looked around the bay.

“There should be loads of them,” Caleb murmured as the penny dropped for us both. It was high season in a fishing town, and everything looked completely normal…apart from the complete absence of seagulls.

“I can’t believe I didn’t notice earlier,” I whispered. How had we not picked up on the absence of their great honking cries as they scavenged every morsel of food in sight?

“So,” I recounted, “giant birds appearing to come from the sea in both England and France—who are unlikely to be Hawks. I’d be interested to see what Ashley and Landis have to say…Guernsey’s an in-between island, so if they’re seeing and hearing the same thing regarding the bird population, then we need to assume that these predators are coming from a small island somewhere in Atlantic.”

“Right.” Caleb nodded. “We should also ask Corrine and Mona about the likelihood of a portal on an island – or in the sea. These birds are obviously coming from somewhere.”