Angels of Darkness

under his scrutiny, like tiny rabbits sensing a predator.
    Karina knocked on the door gently. “Come on, Jacob. Let the other kids have a turn.”
    â€œAlmost done.”
    Karina waited. The man kept staring at her. Gradually his face took on a new expression. Instead of staring her down, he was now studying her as if she were some bizarre alien life-form. That was even more disturbing. Karina fought a shiver.
    â€œJacob, we need to go.”
    She heard the toilet flush. Finally.
    Jacob emerged from the bathroom. “I washed my hands with soap,” he informed her. “Do you want to smell them?”
    â€œNo. Does anybody else need to go?”
    They shook their heads. Emily hugged her leg. “I want to go home, Mom.”
    â€œExcellent idea.” Karina led them down the hallway.
    The man moved to block their way. “Thank you for letting us use the bathroom,” Karina said. “We’ll be on our way now.”
    The man leaned forward. His nostrils fluttered. He sucked in the air through his nose and his face split in a grin. He didn’t smile; he showed her his teeth: abnormally large and sharp, triangular like shark teeth, and definitely not human.
    Ice skittered down Karina’s spine.
    The man took a step forward. “You ssshmell like a donor.” His teeth took up so much space in his mouth, he slurred the words.
    Karina backed away, holding her hands out to shield the kids behind her. She wished she had a can of mace or a gun—some weapon in her purse other than Kleenex, her pocketbook, and a cell phone with a dead battery.
    â€œLet us out!”
    The man advanced. “Rishe! The woman ishh a donor.”
    â€œWe’ll be leaving now!” Karina put some steel into her voice. Sometimes if you looked like you were ready to fight, people backed down and looked for an easier target.
    The man bared his teeth again and she glimpsed what looked like a second row of fangs behind the first in his mouth. “No, you won’t,” he said.
    Time for emergency measures. “Help!” Karina screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help!”
    â€œNo help,” he assured her.
    The kids began to cry.
    Maybe this is a nightmare, flashed in her head. Maybe she was dreaming.
    â€œMom?” Emily clutched at her jeans.
    Dream or not, Karina couldn’t let him get a hold of her or the kids. She kept backing away to the door behind her, the one labeled “Stairs.”
    â€œLet us go!”
    He kept coming. “Rishe! Where are you?”
    The wall on their right exploded.
    Splintered pieces of wood peppered the hallway, knocking the shark-toothed man back and missing Karina by mere inches. Stunned, she glanced into the gap in the wall. The redheaded woman—Rishe?—jumped over the counter and ran directly at Karina and the children, her face twisted into a grotesque mask. The skin on Rishe’s neck bulged, rolling up, as if a tennis ball slid up her throat into her mouth.
    This is just crazy . . .
    The woman spat.
    Something dark flickered through the air. Pain stung Karina’s left side. A long thin needle, like the quill of a porcupine, sprouted from her stomach, just under the ribs. She yanked it out on pure instinct. She should’ve been terrified, but there was no time . . .
    Something hit the red-haired woman from behind, arresting her in midstep. Rishe’s mouth gaped in a terrified silent scream. Huge claws grasped her face, jerked, and her head twisted completely around.
    Oh, my God.
    Rishe’s body fell, and beyond it Karina glimpsed a thing . Huge, dark, inhuman, it stared back at her with malevolent eyes. Its very existence was so at odds with everything Karina knew, that her mind simply refused to believe it was real.
    An odd odor saturated the air, dry and slightly metallic, like copper warmed by the sun. The thing stepped over the woman, its gaze fixed on her.
    â€œRun!” Karina turned on her heel and dashed down the hallway, herding the children before her.
    The man with shark teeth rose slowly, pulled a wooden splinter out of his eye, tossed it aside, and, with a deep bellow, charged into the lobby through the hole in the wall.
    A snarl answered him, a promise of pain and death. It whipped Karina into a frenzy. She swiped Jacob off the floor—he was the smallest—and ran faster to the heavy door barring the stairs. She jerked it open. “Up the stairs, go, go!”
    They ran up,