First Blood

They look exactly like the people you love. Until they get hungry. Sarah Martinez thought her biggest problem was her husband's work stress. Then John came home from his Chicago business trip acting like the perfect father—more attentive, more loving, more present than he'd been in months. She should have been suspicious when he suggested a family camping trip. Now her children are dead, consumed alive while remaining conscious, and Sarah carries the screaming voice of an ancient alien refugee in her head. Across the globe, enhanced children and adults awaken to impossible memories: star-people warnings about biological predators who wear human faces, preserve awareness during consumption, and have been seeding Earth for the perfect harvest. Eight-year-old Maya Chen sees hungry things behind her doctor's caring smile. Jake Peterson's military mind adapts to cosmic warfare on his Montana farm. Annie Peterson's voice-sister teaches her to detect mimics among trusted neighbors. But their ancient guides carry fresh trauma from a war that ended before Earth had complex life—and they're terrified because something else is coming. Perfect biological mimicry means anyone could be infected. No technology can detect them. Only traumatized children carrying alien memories can identify the predators wearing familiar faces, turning suburban neighborhoods into hunting grounds where trust becomes deadly and family bonds become traps. The hungry things expected easy prey. Instead, they face the one enemy their species remembers with genetic terror: humans who carry the memories of civilizations that fought biological predators before. Some wars span fifty thousand years. Some voices never forget. And some prey species remember how to become predators.