Darren Shan - Blood Beast

They’re webs.

Something small shoots out of the cockpit and attaches itself to the face of a man in the second row. It’s the shape of a very young boy, but with too large a head and pale green skin. His scalp crawls with living lice—or it might be cockroaches, hard to tell from here—instead of hair. Fire in the bare sockets where his eyes should be. Mouths in the palms of his hands.

“Artery!” I gasp, taking a few automatic steps towards the hellchild, numb with shock.

People are really screaming now. Those close to the front can see the demon, his teeth, the fire in his eye sockets. Artery rips the man’s face off. Blood gushes. Chaos erupts. All the passengers around that row leap to their feet at the same moment and pile into the aisle, getting in each other’s way, fighting to race clear of the monstrous baby.

Another demon emerges from the cockpit. This one crawls across the ceiling and drops on to a lady’s head. It looks like a giant scorpion but has a face that’s almost human. It’s bigger than the woman’s head. Her neck breaks under the weight. The demon hisses, then strikes the person next to it—a man—with the stinger in its tail. The stinger hits the man’s eyes and gouges them out. The demon turns and spits spawn-like eggs into the vacant, bloody sockets. As the man pushes to his feet and screams, some twisted breed of demonic insects hatch from the eggs. They quickly set to work on the flesh around his eyes, spreading like wildfire. Moments later there’s not much left of his face and the demon is striking again, this time at a child.

Two more demons spill out of the cockpit, the general shape of humans but covered in boils, gaping sores and pus. They roar mutely, arms flapping, horrible beasts. They seem to be threatening even more bloodshed and terror than Artery and the other demon—but then they fall to the floor, moaning and thrashing. And I realise they’re not demons at all. They’re the pilot and one of his crew.

Something leaps over the stricken humans and those milling around the aisle. It lands on top of the seats of the fourth or fifth row. It looks like a rabbit, except with a huge, ugly bulge on its back and claws that are much bigger than they should be. (“All the better to slice you up with, my dear,” a detached part of me giggles hysterically.) The people in the row stare at it, more bewildered than scared. Then it opens its mouth and sprays liquid over them. They fall back gasping and spluttering. Then choked screams as the liquid eats into their flesh, bubbling and boiling, transforming them into mockeries of the human form, just like the pilot and his mate.

I’m standing in the same spot, frozen with fear. Not just fear of what’s happened but what I know will happen next. Thinking numbly— how? The Demonata shouldn’t be able to cross between universes like this. And how did they know I’d be here?

While I’m searching desperately for answers, and the cabin around me fills with bodies and screams, a new demon glides out of the cockpit. This one is worse than all the others put together. Tall and thin. Pale red skin covered in smears of blood which oozes from a system of cracks in his flesh. Eight arms with mangled hands—like something a young child might draw—and strips of flesh where his lower legs end. Bald. Dark red eyes with even darker pupils. No nose. A hole where his heart should be, filled with dozens of small, hissing, constantly slithering snakes.

A year after Slawter, making good on his vow to track me down and wreak revenge, timing it perfectly for maximum impact and shock, Lord Loss has found me.

“Children,” the demon master says, his voice exactly as I remember it, slow and miserable, like he’s experienced all the pains of the world. Although he doesn’t speak loudly, the word echoes through the plane, right back to the last row of seats. Everyone stops rushing, struggling, fighting and screaming. All eyes fix on the terrible spectacle hanging in the air just outside the door of the cockpit.

Lord Loss smiles weakly at us as though we’d come to a funeral, only to discover we’re the ones due to be buried. “Such a tragic way to die,” he murmurs. “Above the clouds. Cut off from the Earth from which you sprang. Most of you without your loved ones. Although isn’t it worse if they are with you? The pain of dying alone versus the torment of seeing one you love die too.” He sighs. “Such a tragedy.”

He drifts forward. People slide back into their seats, clearing the aisle, almost hypnotised by the sight of the demon floating towards them. He stops at the third row. There’s a young woman in the aisle seat, no more than five or six years older than me. He reaches out with one of his eight clammy hands and strokes her cheek, then gently clasps her jaw.

“If it is any comfort, in this time of great sorrow, I promise your suffering will be short,” Lord Loss says, smiling at the young woman. I can see tears in her eyes. His fingers squeeze together tightly. He rips the lower half of her face away and tosses it to Artery, who catches it with the mouths in his hands, snapping it in two and devouring it, yapping like a dog being thrown a tasty tidbit. “But it will be painful,” Lord Loss adds with morbid relish.

A child tries to scream. Its father puts a hand over its mouth and cuts the cry short. Everyone’s staring at the demon master, transfixed. This is the calm before the storm. Within seconds this cabin will be a place of riotous abandon. But nobody wants to be the first to break the spell. Maybe they— we —think that if we stay this way, motionless, barely breathing, the nightmare will pass. The demons won’t go wild. We won’t all be slaughtered and bled dry by these creatures of evil.

Then—movement behind Lord Loss. Somebody steps forward and looks down the cabin, leaning sideways to see past the demon master. My stomach tightens another notch but I find my voice at last.

“Juni!” I shout. “Get away from him! Quick! Before he—”

“Why, Master Grubitsch,” Lord Loss cuts in, unable to mask his delight. “You? Here? What a delightful coincidence.”

Juni slips around the floating demon. Lord Loss takes no notice of her. He only has eyes for me, leering, puffing up his chest, snakes hissing wilder than ever. For a moment I think Juni’s cast another masking spell, that he can’t see her. Hope flares within me, just the faintest flicker. Then dies just as quickly when she says, “I summoned him, Grubbs.”

A chill which is colder than ice. “You…?” I gasp. “Why?”

“He’s the only one who can cure you,” Juni says. “Remember what I said to Dervish? I told him the challenge should be made again. I said you’d be fools not to try.”

“What have you done?” I shriek. “We can’t bargain with Lord Loss. He won’t help us. He’ll kill me. He’ll kill you. He’ll kill us all!”

“Do you know something?” Juni mutters, frowning and nodding slightly, as if the thought just occurred to her. “I think you’re right. With one exception.”

There’s a man holding a child on Juni’s left. Juni reaches across and tries to take the child from the man’s arms. He doesn’t let go. She tugs, but he holds firm. She shrugs, leans in close and kisses him. I gawp at her, bewildered. But confusion quickly turns to terror when I see the man’s skin turn grey, then peel away, revealing the blood vessels and bones beneath. He shakes madly but still doesn’t let go of the child, who has started to cry.

Juni kisses him relentlessly until there’s a sharp snapping sound. She brings her mouth up and his face is attached to hers, head severed at the neck, the remains of his lips snagged between her teeth.