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THE CALL THUNDERED THROUGH THE NIGHT SKY ALL aroundtheir replies We were an areance I treet My prey I had not fed sufficiently before, and hunger seared htti shapes stood--a whole legion of theainst thin air Hellions, they were, held back froical boundary They roared their anger, nearly drowning out the call that brought us all here

Around them, even under their feet, humans walked blindly, oblivious Out here, cut off from the leader that summoned them, the Hellions were powerless to hty demons that stalked their city Fools

Whatever barrier stopped the Hellions, it was nothing to h, a current of cold air raising chill-bumps beneath my feathers Past the barrier, the Hellions’ noise subsided, and the call ca deeper into the heart of the city

Some kind of processionstreet, dressed in colorful outfits, so the corpses More huhts and s just beneath the flesh, all that sweat and a whole buffet of eer

But the call The de There was power in that call--power and promise I followed its su, we followed it to a street in front of a cru in a deserted part of town, not far fro corpses here, but those bloodless creatures were of no interest The sky was thick with unh prey for us all I shrieked rabbed her with er Good Let her fightwould keep ht

The call boomed out, and I could see its source--a shadowy Hellion invisible to weak human eyes An ilory, it stood taller than so shade of daytiood for tearing The Hellion spread its ar to all of us: Cohted before it I joined the of this demon that had called us

We milled around the Hellion’s feet, hundreds of us, like a flock of hungry pigeons pecking for scattered crury, ravenous I didn’t want to share with these others Too h air A body’s length away, a Harpy stared at me, not at my face but at a spot in the o away!--then turned In a flash, the Harpy lunged atsnapped, was pulled away fro in her beak, but I liftedher way I lowered ly She froze

Fro with a stone at the end The stone gave off its own light, like a sht; it was the color of the setting sun And it was ed for her feathered breast She screarasped it with , away from the flock Mine

The roof was spacious, quiet The air filled e and peered at the crowd of Harpies They strutted about on the ground, cackling, arguing, lunging at each other The hissing of their snake-hair filled the air like the sound of rustling leaves A human approached--in a street croith demons, he remained blind to our presence But he stopped suddenly, as if he sensed so, and shivered He turned up the collar of his coat, ht, then chose a different path Another blind fool He’d see us clearly enough once we ripped into his flesh to dig out his juicy liver

But the thought of feeding dulled rows sharper and sharper until a Harpy s Yet at this ry I barely knewupon that human causeht caught e stone I hopped back to where I’d dropped it and pecked at the thing Mine I wanted it I must have it I would kill any Harpy that tried to steal it But I didn’t knohy I wanted the thing I couldn’t eat it It was too s stone But it was mine Mine For some reason, it was i ht "Harpies!" it bellowed "Into this building Now! Follow us!" It turned and lurched into a tall building with boards on the s Was the prey there? The site of so ain They swarmed in behind the Hellion I pushedit Then I followedabandoned by hu one wall, a few reht froe rooathered near the torch-lit end Even from the rear of the crowd, I could s to see Was this was our prey? It would not be enough More, we needed more! In the center of the roory But soer frolowed froht froed beside the ; I had no interest in her They stood before a table covered in black cloth; so At the ends of the table, torches blazed

The Hellion halted in front of the master--the roo as aited the signal to attack But the Hellion, in stiff, resisting movements, bowed before the master, then fell to its knees "Master," it said, "we are yours to coed to serve, but their tone oozed with hatred, with a strong desire for revenge A le" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>