Page 1 of Angel Lost

Chapter One: Lorelei

“Die, bitch,” Lottie snarls. “Die!”

The rope loops around my neck, rough against my skin, and a silence, thick and tense, falls over the Maveriks crowded around.This is it. This is how it ends.The trapdoor creaks beneath my feet then, suddenly, crashes open. Air streams past my face as I fall. With an agonizing jerk the noose tightens. My head wrenches sideways, and pain explodes behind my eyes.

“Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars,” Lottie sings in my ear, and the last vestiges of the illusion fade away.

The brat is enjoying this, way too much. A board game with illusions is a stroke of genius. Evil genius. I rub my neck, swallowing hard.

Chano’s mom slaps the table, cackles, and snatches up the dice. The last rays of the summer sun filter through the window, lighting up the dust motes in her living room. They give Chano a halo as he sits deep in concentration, hunched over the game. A demon with a halo…It suits him.

It sure as all hells does not suit his little sister. Lottie is malevolence incarnate with a pinch of pure evil and a drop of vicious cunning, all wrapped in the body of a sixteen-year-old girl. A sixteen-year-old who just happens to be the darling little sister of my Aeternum. That kid can do no wrong.

Lottie does a ridiculous victory booty shuffle, and I roll my eyes.It’s just a game. She doesn’t really want me dead.

I think.

A shriek like a thousand banshees screaming penetrates the walls of the living room as if they’re paper thin. Chano’s first to his feet, sending the game pieces flying. Outside. Whatever that is, it’s outside. He slams open the door and his sister and I run out after him, Chano’smamiwheeling her chair frantically behind us.

“Keep back.” Chano’s deep growl catches in his throat, and I tense.

Peering past him, I blink, twice. This is wrong. Unnatural. Acid rises in my throat. The air bends, stretches, wobbles like a heat haze, and finally…it rips. I squeeze my eyes shut. It’s not real. It can’t be. From the gash, where the air is somehow rent apart, a giant claw slashes out.Where the hell is the rest of the creature?A huge, misshapen spider materializes. I blink, expecting it to vanish again. Instead, it pauses, front legs up, sensing the air, before rushing straight at us. My feet are glued to the spot. I can’t move. It’s too big, has too many legs. Way, way too many.

Barreling past me, Lottie jumps on the thing. In a flash, a knife appears in her hand, and she stabs it, right between the eyes.

“Get a grip, princess,” she hisses at me before turning to Chano. “What’s happening? What are these things?”

“It’s a rip,” he snaps. “They’re hellions.mami? Get inside now. Shut the door behind you and send for the Council. Do it quickly. They won’t stop coming. Not until the rip is closed.”

The courtyard is swarming. The ground is already a moving blanket of hideously malformed creatures. All with wicked, wicked teeth.

I fumble for my knife, patting my waistband, my pockets, my jacket.Shit. I grab up a stick and start swinging wildly.

Two rats with giant bug eyes launch themselves at my ankles, climbing rapidly up my legs. Claws score my thighs and the stench of rotten meat fills my nostrils. Flailing, I dislodge one of the fuckers. Yes. I drag the second off by the scruff of its neck. It twists, snapping at me and, panicked, I drop-kick it. It flies through the air, screeching, and lands right in the center of Lottie’s back.

“For Hades’ sake, Lorelei,” she snaps, whipping herself side to side.

The thing embeds itself right between her shoulder blades, teeth and claws sunk deep into Lottie’s skin. In two quick strides Chano’s at her side, yanking it off.

The courtyard gate clangs open, and a handful of Chano’s men rush toward us.

“Took you long enough,” Chano growls. “Raff, clean up anything the Council shouldn’t see. Quickly. I don’t want them to have reason to linger. The rest of you, kill everything that doesn’t belong. No matter how small, kill it dead.”

He presses a dagger into my hand, and I spring into action at his side, attacking the grotesque beasts crawling their way out of the rip. I’m slow, the blade alien in my grip. My hand slips as sticky black blood sprays the handle. I glance at the sky.Naeve, forgive me. Get me through today and I swear I will never, ever put your knife down again.What kind of idiot abandons their weapon because it reminds them of a friend? A dead friend.

I snarl, embedding Chano’s blade in the neck of a giant rat, pausing only to yank it out before springing for the next. We’re holding them at bay, just. But the creatures crawling out the rip are only getting bigger, more violent.

Another agonizing shriek. I’m so close to the source my ears ring and something wet trickles down the side of my face. Blood. Flinching, I clamp my hands over my ears. A horrible rending noise echoes across the stone-walled yard and I catch a glimpse of the giant claw hacking at the sides of the rip. Then, it vanishes.

That’s worse. Not seeing the claw is way, way worse. Is that…? Did the rip just expand?

With a thunderous crack a huge, hairless beast with five giant claws on each hand materializes. Twice the size of an ordinary supe, its skin is a sickly yellow, and eyes a malevolent red.

Too close. It’s too damn close. I back up, into Lottie. She’s frozen, eyes wide.

“Kragath,” she whispers, like a frightened child.

As if naming it called its attention, the hellion’s head swivels in our direction. Its black tongue flicks out, tasting the air, and its thin pink lips pull back into a snarl. Bloody drool drips slowly from its gaping maw. The thing starts for us.

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