Angels of Darkness

shocked by a live wire. The man directly behind him tried to slow down, but his momentum carried him right into the red glow and he shook, caught in a similar seizure.
    Karina whipped to Lucas. “Can’t you do something? Anything? They’re dying!”
    â€œWe can give them a quick death once they break through,” Lucas said.
    â€œBut . . .”
    â€œLucas is correct,” Arthur said. “We will spare them the pain.”
    The air around Arthur shimmered. People backed away. He bowed his head and stood very still.
    On the prairie, the prisoners tried to swerve away from the red glow, but the pigs drove them forward. One by one the bodies crashed into the net. Karina turned Emily around. “Don’t look, baby.”
    â€œWhat are they doing?”
    Lie , she told herself. Lie. But the words spilled out on their own. “They are dying, Emily.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause the bad guys are killing them.”
    â€œAre the bad guys going to get us?”
    â€œNo, little one,” Henry said. “Arthur and Lucas will kill them.”
    The red glow bent forward under the weight of many bodies, and still more people were coming across the prairie, herded by the daeodons like sheep. Arthur didn’t move. His eyes stared into the distance, somewhere far away.
    â€œHow long till the detonation?” Lucas asked.
    Henry closed his eyes and opened them. “Three minutes.”
    Lucas rolled his head right, then left, cracking his neck.
    With a bright flash the net collapsed under the weight of the bodies. People fell into the gap, tumbling over each other, convulsing on the ground. The four huge pigs who’d herded them to the net galloped into the gap, trampling the bodies beneath their hooves. The daeodons charged up the slope.
    Lucas grunted. His skin seemed to peel off his bones in thick slabs. Bloody mist filled the air. Karina stared, unable to look away. Bones bent, ligaments twisted, and the beast burst forth. It was bigger than she remembered. In her memory, he had morphed into a dark, featureless shadow, but here, in the light of day, she saw every bulge of terrifying muscle, every fang, every sickle claw, every hair in the black crest of his mane.
    Fear washed over her, setting every nerve on fire.
    The beast turned his head. Lucas’s green eyes looked at her from a horrid face.
    Don’t flinch, she told herself. He was about to fight for them. He could die in the next few moments. She didn’t want him to go into it thinking she was disgusted by what he was. Whatever Lucas’s faults were, he was about to put himself between the pigs and her daughter. He deserved better than the blind fear the two women in the garden showed him.
    She met his gaze. They looked at each other.
    â€œGood luck,” she said.
    The daeodons roared, pounding up the slope.
    The beast who was Lucas nodded to her, leaped down, and smashed into the first pig. His claws sliced across the daeodon’s neck and it went down. Lucas swerved away from the gaping jaws, leaped onto the second daeodon, and thrust his claws through the brown hide and wrenched a bloody shard of its spine out.
    The third pig halted, unsure. The fourth veered left, around the carnage, and charged up the hill, digging into the hard dirt with its hooves.
    Karina clenched Emily closer. Her instinct told her to run, but around her nobody moved.
    Twenty yards. Fifteen. Ten.
    Daniel stepped forward and clenched his fist. With a dry crunch, the bones of the pigs’ front legs snapped. White bone sliced through the muscles and skin. The pig squealed, crashed on its side, and rolled down the hill. Lucas rose from the body of the third pig, leaped over the fallen daeodon as it tumbled down, and smashed its skull with one brutal punch.
    â€œAre we in a story, Mommy?”
    Karina looked down into Emily’s big brown eyes. I wish we were. I wish we were dreaming. She reached deep inside herself, through the fear and anxiety and disbelief, and when she spoke, her voice was calm and confident. “It will be okay, baby. We will be just fine.”
    More daeodons spilled from the prairie, dashing toward the base; so many, she couldn’t even count. A huge beast led the charge. He looked just like Lucas, except for the reddish fur. The red beast sprinted, widening the distance between himself and the mass of daeodons, moving in powerful leaps that devoured the prairie.
    Lucas backed two steps