Angels of Darkness

back.
    â€œHold on to his fur,” Lucas said. Emily dug her fingers into Cedric’s brown mane and they were off again.
    They emerged from the stand of rhododendrons. Lucas stepped aside, revealing a round plaza paved with dark red stone. A bronze statue rose in the center, a nude man, muscled with crisp precision. Enormous wings thrust from his shoulders. An angel, but not a garden cupid or some mournful cemetery statue. The angel leaned forward, one arm stretched out, his muscles knotted on his frame. The wings thrust up and out, featherless, as if made of sharp bone. The angel’s perfect face stared into the distance, its gaze focused. Everything about it communicated fury and power. This was a predatory being about to kill its victim. Metal letters beveled on the side of the statue read “A. Rodin.”
    Karina glanced at Lucas. “A. Rodin? The sculptor who created The Thinker ?”
    Lucas shrugged. “He says so, but I wouldn’t put it past him to have the name slapped on there over the actual sculptor’s signature. He is vain enough.”
    What? He who? She scrutinized the statue.
    Oh, God.
    The angel wore Arthur’s face. It had to be figurative—she hadn’t seen any wings on Arthur’s back when he offered her tea.
    â€œBut Rodin died in the beginning of the last century.”
    Lucas circled the statue and kept walking.
    â€œLucas!”
    He turned and looked at her over his shoulder, light eyes under black eyebrows like two chunks of ice. “Arthur is a Wither. Subspecies 21. They live a long time.”
    â€œHow long?”
    â€œLong enough to have met Rodin. Come.”
    She wanted to freak out. She wanted to scream and kick her feet in panic, because right here, in cold bronze, was the final proof that this was not a nightmare. Instead Karina waved Cedric ahead of her and they kept going deeper into the garden.
    Lucas turned left, down a path leading to a section of the building structured with an almost Japanese flair. Except for the white roof, it could’ve been part of a teahouse. An older woman waited on the covered porch, a stack of clothes neatly folded next to her.
    They were twenty feet away from the porch when the siren ripped the quiet into shreds.

CHAPTER 7
    K arina pulled Emily off the bear-dog and into her arms.
    â€œStay close,” Lucas barked as he turned and ran back up the path. She followed him, trying not to stumble. They pounded over the bridge they’d crossed on the way in.
    â€œWhat’s happening, Mommy?”
    â€œI don’t know, baby. Hold on tight.”
    Emily was so heavy. Karina never remembered her being that heavy. It was like all of the strength had somehow gone out of her arms.
    They cleared the garden and burst into the open space between the two spires, Lucas ahead and she, out of breath, a few dozen yards behind. A group of people stood by the spires, where the road out of the settlement rolled down the hill. A familiar face looked at her with merciless sky eyes. Arthur. Daniel’s golden mane swung into view. He grinned at her, a deranged wild grin that had too much mirth. On the periphery a few yards away, Henry stood with his eyes closed, tense, his face raised to the sky. A young girl, barely a teenager, stood next to him in an identical pose. To the right an older, dark-skinned woman and another man, tall and gaunt, imitated them.
    â€œGood of you to join us,” Arthur said.
    Lucas walked up to stand next to him.
    A huge sound came from the distance, deep, booming, as if someone was playing a foghorn like a trumpet.
    The girl at Henry’s side inhaled sharply and dropped to her knees, breathing in ragged, painful gasps. Henry’s eyes snapped open. He thrust his hand out and clenched it into a fist. “Oh no, you don’t.”
    A desperate scream of pure pain came from the distance.
    Henry smiled. His face glowed with vicious joy, so shocking that Karina took a step back. He stared into the distance. “Not as fun to pick on someone your own size?”
    The scream kept ringing higher and higher, pausing for the mere fraction of a second that it took the agonized being that was making it to gulp some air.
    Behind Henry the fallen girl opened her eyes and rose to her feet. The older couple awakened from their trance.
    Henry twisted his fist and jerked it, as if ripping something in half.
    The scream died.
    â€œThank you,” the girl said.
    â€œIt’s