Read Blood Revealed for Free Online

is a vampire, too?” Simone said. “Patrick Sauvage ?”
    Blythe looked at the handsome man standing in the background. “I don’t know,” she said flatly. “I don’t know any more than you do. That’s what this press conference is for, I think. To tell us everything we need to know.”
    “Then…humans really are in danger from monsters?” Eloise asked, her dimples fading as her eyes grew larger.
    “Honey, I just don’t know,” Blythe said helplessly and truthfully. “Let’s just listen, huh? They’re trying to explain it all.”
    * * * * *
    “The Ĉiela are what early humans first thought of as angels.” Rick’s voice was firm, authoritative and controlled. None of the fear he must be feeling right now showed. He had been exposed as a vampire. He had to be freaking out of his sweat socks, yet none of it showed. “They are drawn to the light, to mountaintops and high places, wherever the sky is open and the sun is bright. We believe their leader died while incarcerated in the Blood Stone, along with many of their number, for they would have been denied light while captive. What their political structure and strength will be now is unknown to us. They have not been seen since the Stone was broken.”
    * * * * *
    “The Elah have a leader whose name has come down to us through eastern historical documents,” Nial explained. “The Chinese referred to him as Dai Chi and we believe he might be somewhere in the great forest in northern Russia. They prefer the trees to open plains and of these three new enemies, they are the most human-looking. That does not mean they are human in any way.” He looked around the room and Winter followed his gaze. The journalists were all scribbling or typing, their expressions absorbed. They were in full reporting mode, but Winter suspected that their questions were already forming. Of course, they would have many of them, just as she’d had when she had first learned about the Blood Stone and what the breaking of it meant.
    “Before the Blood Stone was formed and the three species contained within it,” Nial continued, “the Elah were the strongest of the three. They were the political leaders. It is likely they will be the quickest to learn the ways of modern humans and to take advantage of our… your weaknesses.”
    Winter caught her breath as Nial corrected himself. Had it been a deliberate slip, to remind them he was not human? Or had he momentarily lapsed into the centuries old habits of passing as a human?
    * * * * *
    “We have saved the worst for last,” Roman said and waited for the reaction to die down. “The last of the species are the Summanus. They are the least human-like in appearance. There is very little about them that you could relate to, yet despite that, they are intelligent, self-aware and utterly ruthless. Before they were bound into the Blood Stone, they had carved their way to victory over all other species by enslaving humans and using them as the shock troops in their war against the Ĉiela and the Elah. They use humans for food.” He waited out the collective in-drawn breath of his audience. “They see humans as food,” he finished.
    This time, the outrage drowned him out.
    * * * * *
    Blythe was barely aware of the grip Simone had on her fingers. Eloise had her phone out and was texting someone, while Jake stared at the laptop screen with a fierce focus, his shaggy hair flopping over his forehead, just like Blythe’s tended to when she wasn’t strictly controlling it.
    “This is beyond major,” he breathed.
    “Mom, you should write about this, about the three enemies, on your blog,” Simone said.
    “We don’t even know if this is for real yet,” Blythe pointed out.
    “But it makes sense !” Jake shot out, tearing his gaze away from the screen. “Look at all the weird shit that has been happening. Raining frogs, floods across deserts, entire forests up and dying, trees bleeding, whole flocks of birds dropping dead.”
    Blythe