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Beranabus unleashes a burst ofstops in its tracks The beast turns and snarls at us It has the head of a hu its mouth, it wails The noise increases sharply and blood trickles froic to mute the demon&039;s cry Beranabus and Grubbs do the sa monster

When the de, it falls silent and its look of hatred changes to one of fear It knoe are and ant

I hang back while Beranabus tortures the creature I have a proble children I can&039;t bring h I know they&039;ve only stolen their human attributes

I was a lonely child Driven by unhappiness, I unintentionally tapped into ic towas es I was shattered when I learned the truth Deo cold at the thought of har them Beranabus understands He doesn&039;t try to push me

Grubbs rips off the demon&039;s head The baby-faced monster squeals with pain and terror but doesn&039;t die In this universe ofis possible Physical dismemberic to finish it off

Grubbs hates this life even reed to join Beranabus and devotedemons, I didn&039;t have a better choice My parents kneasn&039;t norht do I didn&039;t have any friends It was Beranabus or a life of isolation and loneliness

Grubbs has an uncle who he loves like a father He has lots of friends He could have rejected his destiny I&039;m not really sure why he didn&039;t Maybe it was the call of the Kah-Gash Perhaps the weapon persuaded him to leave the human world and ride the demonic waves of this universe with Beranabus andthe baby&039;s head fro out one of its snake-shaped eyes "Tell us all you know and we&039;ll let you go Otherwise" He moves his thumb over the creature&039;s other eye

The Shadow is our latest foe in a long line of erous enemy yet but I&039;inable deht each was invincible Every tiainst one, I was sure ere dooot the better of the beasts, pinpointed their weak spots, defeated the if brute force failed

I know it&039;s dangerous to assuainst, but I can&039;t help thinking that way I&039;m sure the Shadoill fall to us e face it, just like all the others It&039;s simply a matter of time, patience, and violence

Beranabus and Grubbs believe the Shadow is the herald of universal dooe beast that seemed to be made fro else we&039;ve fought Maybe they&039;re right If I&039;d seen it, Iwith fear too But I don&039;t think so It&039;s just another deht and killed thousands of them since I joined Beranabus How can this one be any different?

We&039;re hunting a flock of sheep-like demons Each boasts dozens of woolly heads dotted around its body, no eyes or ears, just large mouths full of sharp teeth Beranabus hopes they know so the bottom of the barrel

The Shadow is as elusive as the naests We&039;ve learned al of the creature in all the tiathering an army of demons, that it&039;s proinal condition (whatever thatelse about it is a er members of the Demonata-won&039;t provide us with any clues We&039;re wasting our time, as we&039;ve wasted it on so many worlds We&039;ll torture them, kill a few, then h theand set off in chase of the howling beasts

As we close in on the flock, I sense a throbbing in the air nearby and draw to a halt

"Come on!" Beranabus shouts "Don&039;t stop now We-"

"A &039;s opening," I tell hiives way to panic

"Start opening one of your own," Beranabus commands and steps in front of me, to protect me The tall, muscular Grubbs joins him They think a demon is after us But I know better I&039;ve cohts more intimately than ever since I built in

"Wait," I tell Beranabus "It&039;s not a deht opens and two of Beranabus&039;s Disciples step through One&039;s a beautiful, fiery woman called Meera Flame I know the other one better, and shout his na ticlose by Beranabus is squinting at the newcomers suspiciously He doesn&039;t like surprises

"What are you doing here?" I gasp

"Caaze overdifferent about your eyes"

"It&039;s a long story" I s months in this foul universe, and Beranabus and Grubbs are poor co hot inside me recently I&039;s for a few minutes I know Shark must be the bearer of bad news, that he and Meera wouldn&039;t have cos were serious, but for a few moments I block that out and pretend this is a social visit

"Hi, Shark," Grubbs says

Shark frowns "Do I know you?"

"Grubbs Grady We" He pauses "Dervish told me about you I&039;m Grubbs, his nephew"

Shark nods "I can see a bit of hiot more hair You&039;re a lot taller too-what&039;s Beranabus been feeding you?"

"Enough of the prattle," Beranabus snaps "What&039;s wrong?"

"We were attacked," Meera says "I was at Dervish&039;s We-"

"Was it Lord Loss?" Beranabus barks "Is Bec all right?"

"She&039;s fine," Shark says

"But Dervish" Meera pauses, glancing nervously at Grubbs

"He was alive e left," Shark says as Grubbs freezes with fear

"But in bad shape," Meera adds "He had a heart attack"

"We have to go back," Grubbs says, darting for the

Shark stops him "Hold on We didn&039;t come here directly That leads to another demon world"

"Besides," I chip in, "if the demons are still at the house"

"We weren&039;t attacked by demons," Meera says "They were olves"

That throws me Does she mean olf-shaped deers in Grubbs&039;s fae, wolf-like beasts

Grubbs starts to treers, and focus, thinking of Dervish Lights pulse around in to open athat will take us to hiht, I focus on Bec instead As irl is more important She&039;s probably with him, but if not, she must take priority Dervish is only human Bec, like ht opens, Beranabus rushes through, swiftly followed by Grubbs "There are de their presence in the vibrations of the lights "Are you guys ready to fight?"

"Always," Shark grins, cracking his knuckles

Meera gulps, then grinds her teeth together and nods fiercely

We cross

I findon the floor She looks like any norirl, a bit smaller than uess fro at her that she&039;d been dead for sixteen hundred years, or that this body wasn&039;t originally hers

Two de away from Bec One is some sort of lizard hybrid The other looks like an anteater with several snouts One of its eyes isthe erowls at the des look like now?"

They turn and run Shark bolts after the Beranabus and Grubbs to help Bec back to her feet I wonder about Dervish, if he&039;s still alive, but I&039;ve no time to dwell on that Anotheris open and the hospital has been flooded withhere as I am in the demon universe My poill dwindle We need to deal with these monsters swiftly, and we have to be cautious It&039;s much easier to die on this world

I spot the remains of a few babies as we pursue the deaze away froh e They shouldn&039;t have gone after the newborns That was too cruel I&039; to make them pay

The demons burst out of the maternity ward and scuttle towards the stairs Shark crouches, then propels hih the air as if fired from a canon He knocks the pair of demons aside and they crash into the wall on either side of the staircase As they yelp with surprise and pain, Meera and I fall upon the Meera to deal with the anteater

It&039;s a slimy little beast It slithers around and lashes at ue Drops of poison hit ic to transforue and yank hard It utters a choked screaers I follow it back into the dea firue, I rip it loose and toss it away Black blood gushes from the demon&039;s mouth and its beady eyes roll wildly