Then the force hit them and it felt like every bone in Rob’s body shattered. He tried to scream, but there wasn’t enough breath left in his lungs for that.
Just as everything was about to go black, the world suddenly turned white again. Rob spun head over heels and smashed to the snow-covered ground. He rolled uncontrollably, then fetched up against a pine tree. Dazed, he watched Emily appear from nowhere right after him.
The lighthouse sat in the pool of melted snow and continued shining like a beacon. The green light strobed the black night.
Rob gasped for breath and pushed himself to his feet. Body filled with aches and pains, he lurched toward Emily. He felt frozen where the snow caked to his body.
“What have you done?” Orrus climbed his staff and stood on his two bad legs.
“We didn’t do anything, you stupid git,” Rob snarled. “The demon saw us and hit us with some kind of energy.” He couldn’t bring himself to say “magical spell.”
Emily rolled easily to her feet, as if she hadn’t been blown across twenty yards of landscape. She shook herself, and the snow fell away as if it had somehow been statically discharged.
“The demon saw you?” Orrus demanded.
Rob whirled on the man, intending to curse him out. But Emily answered in a calm tone before he could get started.
“Yes,” she said. “The demon saw us.”
“Who was it?” Orrus asked.
“It wasn’t handing out bloody introductions,” Rob said. He turned to Emily. “It’s time we got out of this. We’ve overstayed whatever safety margin we had.” They were lucky to get four good years out of the old farm.
“I don’t know who it was,” Emily said. “He wasn’t in any of the books of demons I’m familiar with.”
“This is bad.” Orrus shook his head. “Did the demon mark you?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Em,” Rob pleaded. “We don’t have time to stand here playing Twenty Questions with this sod.”
Emily glanced at him. “Everything we learn about the demons matters, Rob. We can control them. We can harness the powers they wield and make this world a better place. We can fight back and triumph over them. If only we learn what they know.”
“No,” Rob said. “They’ve got you believing this, but it’s not true. You can’t possibly learn to do the things those creatures can do. You saw the police and the military get torn to shreds on the day the demons invaded.”
“They weren’t prepared,” Emily said calmly. “We will be.”
“You can’t prepare for something like this. It’s not possible.”
“It is possible—”
A keening shrill occupied the forest without warning. Rob clamped his hands over his ears and tried to track the sound. It hurt so badly that his ears pulsed. Finally he realized that the sound came from the jade lighthouse.
Orrus noticed it too and stepped back with a wary look. He mouthed some words and threw a hand out at the lighthouse. A shimmering burst of energy skated over the lighthouse, but it shook even harder and finally exploded in a pistol crack. Jade fragments ricocheted off the trees and branches.
Suddenly, in the next moment, the demon they’d seen down in the cavern was among them. It snarled in rage, something undoubtedly in its own tongue.
The other cultists turned and fled back into the trees. Orrus tried to flee as well, but the demon pierced the old man’s chest with the thrown trident. Orrus kicked and flailed, but the trident kept him pinned to the snow-covered ground. Then he was still, facedown for all to see. Blood leaked from his body and spread across the snow.
Rob grabbed Emily again. The demon turned toward her and threw out its hand. A wave of shimmering force spread outward and overtook Emily.
Emily suddenly locked up as though seized. She jerked in an invisible grip. Rob felt the tingle of electricity shudder through his hand. Then his grip on her was forced off and he was thrown to the ground. He tried to recover, but his muscles wouldn’t respond.
Helplessly, Rob watched as Emily stood straight and tall. Then she floated a few inches off the ground. She stood as still and as frozen as a statue, clearly held by some force. Her eyes wept crimson tears. It took Rob a moment to realize that that liquid was blood.
Then Emily’s head exploded.
Almost out of his mind with fright, Rob pushed himself up and ran for the brush. He didn’t know if he was going to make it.
ONE
Shadows meant safety. At least, shadows meant safety most of the time. They didn’t offer shelter or a defensive position if those shadows were trying to eat someone hiding within them. And when someone hiding within them attacked, the shadows lost all effect.
Leah Creasey worked to think only good thoughts about what she was about to do. Thinking that she might die at any given moment wasn’t conducive to stealth. At the moment, stealth was her greatest ally.
She eased through the alley in southeast London’s Greenwich Peninsula. Not much of the metropolis existed here that the demons didn’t control. However, most humans stayed out of the area these days and the demons didn’t have anyone to hunt. Since they lived to hunt, most of them had gone where the hunting was better.
For the moment, the area wasn’t as heavily patrolled as it had been in the past. From personal experience, Leah knew that the demons lived to hunt. They didn’t like pulling guard duty or anything that didn’t allow them to unleash their blood frenzy.
Halfway down the alley, Leah found a fire escape that zigzagged down the thirty-four-story building. She wore the lightweight black nanoflex aug-suit, built to boost a human’s strength and speed. It covered her from head to toe.
Her
