Angels of Darkness

whimpering and sobbing. The same fear that drove her propelled them up the stairs better than anything she could’ve screamed.
    Karina slammed the door closed, balancing Jacob on one arm, and looked for something to bar it, but the stairway was empty. Her stomach burned, the pain from the needle puncture spreading up and down her body as if her skin had caught on fire. She ran after the kids. The boy in her arms was stone heavy. They reached the top of the staircase and crowded on the landing.
    Below something clanged. There it was again, the scent of hot metal burning her lungs.
    Karina set Jacob down and wrenched the door open. They burst into the upstairs hallway. She scanned the rows of doors and tried to shove the nearest one open, but it was locked.
    Another—locked, too.
    Third—locked.
    This is a nightmare. It has to be a nightmare.
    A vicious snarl chased them. Emily screamed, a high-pitched shriek that could’ve broken glass. Karina grabbed her daughter by the hand and dragged her down the hall, to the single window. “Follow me!”
    Beyond the window a fire escape waited.
    Karina grasped the window latch and jerked it up. Stuck.
    Her head swam. The air around her had grown scalding hot. Every breath burned her lungs from the inside out. She stumbled, caught herself on the windowsill, and pulled the sash upward with all her strength. The wood groaned and suddenly the frame slid up.
    A door thumped. Kids screamed. The terrible dark beast had made it into the hallway.
    She grabbed the nearest child and hurled her onto the fire escape, then the next, and the next. Little feet thudded, running down the metal stairs. Emily was last. Karina clutched her daughter to her and climbed out on the fire escape.
    A black van waited below. Several men stood by the van. They had the children. They stood there silently, watching her, so calm while the kids screamed, and suddenly she realized that they and the beast inside were allies. They were trapped.
    A growl washed over her.
    The world gained crystal clarity, everything becoming painfully vivid and sharp. Slowly Karina turned. Her daughter hugged her, her breath a tiny warm cloud on her neck. The metal rail of the fire escape dug into Karina’s back. The thudding of her heart sounded so loud, each beat shook her rib cage like a blow from a sledgehammer. Every breath was a gift.
    She saw the thing emerge from the darkness. Slowly, it solidified out of the gloom, one gargantuan paw on the windowsill, then another. Enormous claws scratched the wood. It climbed onto the windowsill and perched there, a mere foot from her. Karina stared into its eyes, inhaled its scent, and knew with absolute certainty that she was going to die.
    The thing opened its maw, revealing huge fangs. Its deep voice issued forth in a single mangled word. “Donor.”
    â€œAre you sure?” asked a male voice from below.
    The beast snarled. Karina jerked back, shielding Emily with her hands. Her legs gave out and she fell to her knees.
    â€œMy lady?” said the voice from below, closer now.
    She barely turned her head, not daring to take her gaze from the monster in the window. A dark-haired man climbed the fire escape toward her. His face was preternaturally beautiful, his eyes a dark, intense blue. “I have a proposition for you, my lady . . .”
    His voice faded, replaced by darkness and the feel of cotton against her body.
    I agree.
    Karina sat up . . . She was in her bed. The room lay dark about her. A nightmare. That was all.
    Her heart thudded in her chest. She rubbed her face and her hands came away slick with cold moisture.
    I agree. “I agree” to what? What did she agree to in her dream?
    It didn’t matter. It was a nightmare. In the morning, she’d call the grief counselor.
    Karina frowned and pushed free of the blankets. She felt a strange sense of wrongness, as if there was something very important she was missing. Something vital. A small lamp waited on the table next to the bed. She flicked it on and a cone of soft electric light illuminated the room.
    The bedroom wasn’t hers.
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    F or a moment Karina froze, and then fear caught her in its fist and squeezed. “Emily?” she whispered. “Emily?”
    No answer.
    She was alone in a strange bedroom.
    There could be a rational explanation for this. There had to be. She just didn’t know what it was.
    I agree. An echo of her voice from the dream.