Bitten (Book 1 - Book 4) novel Chapter 72

Natalia didn’t wait for a response. She ran into Victoria’s room and grabbed her up, patting all around her body to make sure nothing was there.

“Uri,” she said again, almost screaming.

Victoria was now crying. Uri joined her in the hallway. He looked somewhat disoriented.

“What?” he said, despite he was looking down the stairs and seeing what she was seeing.

“Beetles,” she said. “The beetles are on the loose.”

Beetles were half way up the stairs, but were now retreating because of the lights. The entire floor below them was covered with beetles to the point where it was impossible to see the floor.

“Beetles?” he said.

He took a breath and then seemed to come to his senses.

“Give Bonnie a call and tell her,” he said. “We’ll need the lights.”

Natalia moved fast into the bedroom to get her phone, only to drop it and have to fish it out from under the bed.

“Bonnie. Bonnie. Beetles,” was all she managed to say before the call disconnected.

Natalia rushed back out to make sure Uri wasn’t doing anything stupid, but he was still at the top of the stairs looking down.

“That’s a lot of beetles,” he said.

He seemed to be stunned while he stared down at the mass.

“They escaped,” she said.

“We don’t have that many beetles,” he said, looking confused.

She wondered if this was some of the confusion she was supposed to be concerned about.

“Then what the hell are we looking at?” she said.

“A lot of beetles,” he said.

There was a sound from the garage door to the house, and a bright light appeared.

“Oh, my word,” Bonnie said, coming into view.

Beetles scurried away from her, looking for any dark spot to escape the light. The sofa moved and rose from the ground as beetles scurried beneath it, squeezing under those already hiding. The cushions quivered.

Mag came in through the front door with a bright light, causing the mass of beetles to head toward the kitchen. A few headed up the stairs, but then jumped through the railing to join the mass below.

“What the hell,” Mag said. “Where did these come from?”

“What do you mean?” Natalia said.

“We don’t have that many beetles,” Uri said.

“What?” Natalia said.

“We don’t have that many beetles,” Mag said.

Now Natalia felt confused.

Zena came in through the front with a bright light.

“I saw them crawling on the kitchen window and decided I shouldn’t come through the patio door,” she said.

“Yeah, that would have pushed them the wrong way,” Mag said.

“Oh, my word,” Zena said. “Where did they come from?”

“Nattie, come down and get this,” Bonnie said, coming around toward the stairs.

“What?”

Natalia was terrified of going down.

“I have Victoria,” she said as if that explained everything.

“I have a light for you. You can keep any strays from coming up by you.”

Natalia went down only a couple of stairs. Bonnie tossed the light up to her.

“Stay up there with Uri. We’ll get this lot down into the basement and see what happened.”

“If we don’t have that many beetles than where did they come from?” Natalia said.

“We’re nowhere near a farm,” Zena said.

Uri shrugged.

Natalia wondered if a whole bunch had matured that they just didn’t know about. Their grubbies had been getting a lot of good feedings.

“Over there, Nattie,” Uri said, gesturing toward a step.

A mass of beetles were heading up the stairs.

She aimed the light on them, and they scurried through the railing. They clattered when they landed on top of more beetles.

It seemed to take a long time for Bonnie, Mag and Zena to herd the beetles toward the kitchen. They disappeared through the doors. As soon as they did and the bright lights were gone, hundreds of beetles materialized out of every dark nook and cranny.

“Bonnie,” Natalia said, keeping the light she had aimed at the stairs to keep any from heading up.

The beetles keep wanting to head toward the stairs.

“I know. There are stragglers,” Bonnie said.

“Stragglers?” Natalia said, looking at the hundreds of beetles.

Kate appeared through the garage door with a bright light and a stack of black plastic wastebaskets.

“Oh, my word. Bonnie, you missed a few hundred,” she said.

“I know,” Bonnie’s voice said, sounding exasperated.

“Aren’t they just going to escape into the garage?” Natalia said.

“I’m sure they have a light pointing down the hole,” Uri said.

She flinched and looked own. Her skin was crawling, and she kept thinking one was climbing her leg, but there was nothing when she looked.

Uri left to get dressed.

“What time is it?” she said.

“About one am,” he said.

He came back out and sat on the top stair.

“That’s a lot of beetles,” he said again, staring at the floor.

Kate left and soon returned with long, thin boards and blocks. She put a block down, using it to prop up a wastebasket so that it leaned to one side. One of the long boards was placed against it like a ramp.

“Don’t bait them, yet,” Bonnie said, coming from the kitchen.

Zena and Mag appeared.

They walked around the room with the lights, flushing beetles as they went. There had to be hundreds more that they herded toward the kitchen.

“What are we going to do with all these beetles?” Natalia said.

“Eat them,” Uri said.

The four women did another sweep around the room. There still seemed to be hundreds of beetles. Then, they set the wastebaskets up and dropped a piece of raw meat into each one.

“You can go back to bed. This is going to take awhile,” Mag said.

“Bed?” Natalia said, looking incredulous.

“You, too, Uri. Go to bed. There’s nothing we can do until morning. We’re just catching stragglers,” Bonnie said.

“How can I sleep knowing…” Natalia said, looking around the room in horror.

Everywhere she looked she could still see beetles.

She glanced down at Victoria.

“We’re moving her crib into our room,” she said.

“Okay,” he said.

Uri helped her carry the crib. She shut their bedroom door and stuffed towels underneath to prevent any beetles from crawling under. He slid back into bed fully dressed. She followed, but it was a long time before she fell back asleep, and that was only because Victoria was quiet.

Natalia woke when Uri moved. It was almost six am. The sun was shining.

“Victoria is hungry,” he said.

He rose and lifted her from the crib.

Natalia was quick to look around to make sure there were no beetles.

“I’ll go to check progress,” he said, sounding normal. “I’m sure the ladies are already up and at it.”

She was glad he remembered what had happened, but terrified of him leaving.

“What? Don’t leave me alone?”

“I’ll open the drapes. No beetle is going to come into this room with all this light,” he said, throwing open the drapes.

Sunlight flooded in.

Even though he did that, she noted he took care removing the towels from under the door. He opened the door slowly, scanning the floor.

“Not a one,” he said.

He disappeared down the stairs.

Natalia didn’t want to be alone, but she took comfort in that Victoria was content with nursing and didn’t seem disturbed. She dressed as soon as Victoria was finished, putting her in the wrap around her.

‘Let’s go see what the house looks like,’ she said.

She grabbed the light and walked carefully down the stairs. The wastebaskets were still there. Every single one of them contained at least a dozen beetles.

“Morning,” Mag said, coming from the kitchen.

She dumped the wastebaskets into a pail, then put them back in place.

“Come on out to the patio.”

Natalia followed her.

There were three propane burners going. On top of each burner was a large kettle of water.

“What’s happening?” Natalia said.

“Beetle cook off,” Mag said. “We’ve got to do something with them. Cooking is it. Have a seat. Zena will be out with tea and utensils.”

“You’re serious?”

“Hell, yes.”

Natalia sat and a moment later, Zena appeared with tea.

“Did you guys get any sleep?”

Zena nodded.

“We managed some.”

“You look awfully happy, considering.”

“I love beetles. We’re going to stuff ourselves with beetles and be sick of them. I so look forward to this,” Zena said.

She went back into the house, but came back out with a bowl of melted butter, a butter warmer, and a bowl of quartered lemons. She lit the candle in the warmer and put the bowl of butter on top.

“This is breakfast?”

“The best,” Zena said.

The water in one of the kettles began to boil. Zena dumped her bucket of beetles into it.

The kettle screamed.

“Three minutes is all it takes.”

She timed it out before using a metal net to fish them out and plop them on a platter on the table.

“Use one of these to pierce the shell and pry.”

“I remember. We’ve had them once before.”

“I forgot about that.”

Despite they were still steaming, Zena picked one up and pried it open. She used a tiny fork to scoop out the white flesh, dip it into the butter, and finally, into her mouth.

“You can drizzle lemon if you want. Don’t put any in the butter. Uri doesn’t like lemon. Go ahead. There’s plenty coming.”

Uri stepped out with a bucket full of beetles. He was wearing rubber boots that came up to his knees.

“We ready to go full production yet?”he said.

“You’re supposed to be resting,” Natalia said.

“I’m just scooping. Don’t worry. Bonnie is watching.”

“Almost,” Zena said, handing him her empty bucket.

He disappeared.