“Please let me in!” Nest began once more. “There’s someone after me,, and I need to call-”
A storm window flew apart in an explosion of jagged shards as the demon crashed onto the porch and slammed into the front wall of the house, snarling and snapping apt the air with its massive jaws and hooked teeth. The young woman screamed in terror, and Nest shoved her back inside the house, followed her in, slammed the door shut, and threw the bolt lock. The young woman went down in a heap and lay there, sobbing. They were in a hallway leading to a series of rooms, the nearest of which was filled with other young people who stared out at them in surprise. Laughter and light conversation gave way to exclamations. Nest went past them down the hall in a rush. Behind her, the demon was tearing at the door, stripping away the wooden facade as if it were cardboard.
Party-Goers spilled out into the entry to help the young woman back to her feet, some calling after Nest, some staring wide-eyed toward the sounds coming from outside the door. “Don’t open it!” Nest shouted back at them. Not that anyone was that stupid, she thought in a sudden moment of giddiness.
At the end of the hallway lay the kitchen. Inside, she found a phone and dialled 911. Maybe the old couple down the block had already done so, but maybe not. She told the operator there was a forcible entry in progress at a house just north of Lincoln Park. She said there was screaming. She gave the phone number of the house and then hung up. That ought to bring someone.
There was a new sound of glass breaking, this time from somewhere at the side of the house. The demon was trying to get in another way. She leaned against the kitchen counter, listening to the sounds, staring into space. If she remained where she was, she was risking the safety of the people in the house. If she went out again, she was risking her own safety. She closed her eyes and tried to think. She was so tired. But she was alive, too, and that was more than she could say about Boot and Audrey and Ariel. She pushed away from the counter and went through a laundry room to a back door. The demon was still trying to break in from the other side of the house. She could hear the party-goers shouting and screaming, crowding down the hallway, trying to get away from the intruder. She could hear the phone begin to ring.
She yanked open the door and fled once more into the night.
She was running through a tall hedge into a neighbour’s backyard when she heard the boom of a gun. Maybe the shooter would get lucky. You couldn’t kill a demon with a gun, but you could destroy its current guise and force it to take time to re-form. If that happened, it would be done chasing after her.
But she knew she couldn’t count on that. She couldn’t count on anything except that the demon would keep coming. She crossed through several more backyards, then caught sight of something that might save her. A transit bus was just pulling to a stop down the street. She broke from between the houses and raced for it, yelling at the top of her lungs, waving her arms wildly. She saw the bus driver turn and look at her. The look was a familiar one by now. She didn’t care. She raced around the front of the bus and through the open door.
“Hey, what’s going on?” the driver demanded as she dug frantically into her pockets for same change.
“Just close the door and start driving,” she ordered, glancing quickly over her shoulder.
Whatever he saw on her face convinced him not to argue. He closed the doors and put the bus in Beat The bus swung away from the curb and into the street, rain beating against its wide front windows.
She had just begun to make her way down the aisle when something heavy crashed into the doors, causing the metal to buckle and the glass to splinter. There were only three other passengers on the bus, and all three froze, eyes bright with shock and fear. The driver cursed and stepped on the gas. Nest wheeled back toward the damaged doors, hanging, on the metal bar of a seat back for support, searching the darkness beyond.
A huge, wolfish shadow was running next to the bus, eyes gleaming brightly in the night.
Then a police car crested the hill in front of them, coming fast, lights flashing, It swept past without slowing, searchlight cutting through the rainy dark,
The shadow disappeared.
Nest exhaled slowly and slipped into the seat beside her, heart pounding in her chest. When she looked dawn at her hands, she saw that they were shaking.
A Knight Of The Word
Terry Brooks's books
- A Betrayal in Winter
- A Bloody London Sunset
- A Clash of Honor
- A Dance of Blades
- A Dance of Cloaks
- A Dawn of Dragonfire
- A Day of Dragon Blood
- A Feast of Dragons
- A Hidden Witch
- A Highland Werewolf Wedding
- A March of Kings
- A Mischief in the Woodwork
- A Modern Witch
- A Night of Dragon Wings
- A Princess of Landover
- A Quest of Heroes
- A Reckless Witch
- A Shore Too Far
- A Soul for Vengeance
- A Symphony of Cicadas
- A Tale of Two Goblins
- A Thief in the Night
- A World Apart The Jake Thomas Trilogy
- Accidentally_.Evil
- Adept (The Essence Gate War, Book 1)
- Alanna The First Adventure
- Alex Van Helsing The Triumph of Death
- Alex Van Helsing Voice of the Undead
- Alone The Girl in the Box
- Amaranth
- Angel Falling Softly
- Angelopolis A Novel
- Apollyon The Fourth Covenant Novel
- Arcadia Burns
- Armored Hearts
- As Twilight Falls
- Ascendancy of the Last
- Asgoleth the Warrior
- Attica
- Avenger (A Halflings Novel)
- Awakened (Vampire Awakenings)
- Awakening the Fire
- Balance (The Divine Book One)
- Becoming Sarah
- Belka, Why Don't You Bark
- Betrayal
- Better off Dead A Lucy Hart, Deathdealer
- Black Feathers
- Black Halo
- Black Moon Beginnings
- Blade Song
- Blood Past
- Bound by Prophecy (Descendants Series)
- Break Out
- Brilliant Devices
- Broken Wings (An Angel Eyes Novel)
- Cannot Unite (Vampire Assassin League)
- Caradoc of the North Wind
- Cast into Doubt
- Cause of Death: Unnatural
- Celestial Beginnings (Nephilim Series)
- Club Dead
- Conspiracies (Mercedes Lackey)
- That Which Bites
- Damned
- Damon
- Dark Magic (The Chronicles of Arandal)
- Dark of the Moon
- Dark_Serpent
- Dark Wolf (Spirit Wild)
- Darker (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 6)
- Darkness Haunts
- Dead Ever After
- Dead Man's Deal The Asylum Tales
- Dead on the Delta
- Death Magic
- Deep Betrayal
- Defying Mars (The Saving Mars Series)
- Demon's Dream
- Destiny Gift (The Everlast Trilogy)
- Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One)
- Dominion (Guardian Angels)
- Doppelganger
- Down a Lost Road
- Dragon Aster Trilogy
- Dread Nemesis of Mine
- Dreams and Shadows
- Dreamside
- Dust Of Dust and Darkness (Volume 1)
- Earth Thirst (The Arcadian Conflict)
- Ella Enchanted
- Eternal Beauty Mark of the Vampire
- Evanescent
- Faery Kissed
- Fairy Bad Day
- Fall of Night The Morganville Vampires
- Fearless (Mirrorworld)
- Firedrake
- First And Last
- Forever After