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Chapter 1 THE SNATCH

PART ONE - BERANABUS

Chapter 1 THE SNATCH

A deer into a wos into the bloody sockets, then watches with its alots feast on her flesh

Another dely bulge on its back-vomits over a man and his two children The acidic liquid sizzles and dissolves them down to the bone

A third footman of the De boy, but his head is larger than an adult's, he has a wig of living lice instead of hair and fire burns in the holes where his eyes should be He also has two extra erly snapping open and shut as he chases the screa air hostess

All the people on the plane are screa-except those who've already been killed-and it's music to the ears of the demon master, Lord Loss He hovers in the aisle, mouth twisted into a sad sht arms twitch in rhythm with the screams, like a conductor's at an orchestra Then his eyes snap back into focus and he turns his gaze on me

"You should not have humiliated me, Grubitsch," Lord Loss says, still furious about the tiht fairly, faithful to the spirit of the contest, and won or lost on merit alone You ruined chess for me For many centuries it was ony and torture of humans to keep me amused"

He slowly drifts down the aisle towardsa few centimetres above the floor The tiny snakes in the hole where his heart should be are writhing, hissing hatefully, spitting veno from the many cracks in his pale red skin The holes above his upper lip-he has no nose-quiver wildly as he gleefully inhales the stench of terror froers His dark red eyes are dilated with led hands brush the heads and cheeks of hu them The white-haired, pink-eyed albino traitor, Juni Swan, is behind hi serenely

A wo a baby falls to her knees in front of Lord Loss, sobbing painfully "Please!" she cries "Notyou!"

"Suffer unto me the little children," Lord Lossthe baby with three of his hands He strokes the boy's face and the baby laughs Lord Loss passes hi swan"

"You are generous to a fault, my lord," she smiles, then kisses the infant

"No!" I screarey reile life from him The child's mother chokes, eyes ith disbelief and horror Lord Loss bends and breathes in her sorrow, sighs contentedly, thenher to the lesser demons

Sick with fear, I back away fro demon master There are several eers have fled to the tail of the plane Lord Loss ht Ino sport from you today"

"Leave the fists "It's o"

"I cannot do that, Grubitsch," Lord Loss sighs "My fary I promised them food You would not ask me to break my word, would you?"

"My master always keeps his promises," Juni chuckles

I focus on her The fair-faced but black-hearted cuckoo in the nest She acted like my mother I loved her I let her steal ainst uise?"

"I don't have that honour," she replies smoothly "I'm merely a human like you In fact I'm from the same family tree, believe it or not But unlike you and your fool of an uncle, I chose to serve those greater than ourselves, rather than vainly battle with them"

"You sold us out!" I shout Then confusion kicks in "But I don't understand In Slawter, e trying to escape from the demons, you helped us"

"No," she smiles "That was all a pretence When I first visited your house with Davida Hayic to convince Dervish to co you and Bill-E with him On the set it was my job to win your confidence I found out your secrets, so we could use theainst you

"I played you like pawns," she boasts "I had you thinking I was one of your pathetic group, a trusted ally I let you make escape plans and even allowed you to act on them-it would have been ht At the end, just before you breached the barrier, I meant to reveal my true self and turn you over to my master And I would have, except"

"You were knocked unconscious," I gasp, re demon who clubbed her in its death throes

Juni nods bitterly "By the time I recovered, it was too late I paused to silence Chuda Sool-he knew the truth about me-then departed to join my master and plot our next approach"

"We had not planned to strike so soon," Lord Loss says He's co understanding of hoere betrayed "I could sense the h you hid it masterfully I didn't want to move on you until I knew precisely what I'd have to deal with But then Juni had a vision"

"I catch glie into a olf a few months before it happened"

"I could not wait any longer," Lord Loss sighs "I wished to punish you while you were hu a senseless anie of olves I was confident of ti-I liked the idea of letting you suffer the agonies of the i as possible"

"It all fell neatly into place in the end," Juni s for an excuse to explain ist's disguise, disposed of William Mauch and replaced hi And Dervish Well, he was positively overjoyed to see me"

"You betrayed us," I snarl, blinking away angry tears

"You were easy to betray," she murmurs I can see the wickedness in her eyes How did I ever miss it? "Dervish fell for my pretty pink eyes and cool white skin He never looked into ic on him-he fell in love with me of his own accord The sap"

I feely shoots from my knuckles, a ball of pure, invisible power I direct it at Juni,to blast her into a million fleshy pieces

Alarm ripples across her eyes She starts to cast a protective spell, but it's too late I' to destroy her, rip her atoms apart and

Lord Loss sticks out four of his arms He blocks Juni froers back a few hts himself and smiles