The Demon Road Trilogy: The Complete Collection: Demon Road; Desolation; American Monsters. Derek LandyЧитать онлайн книгу.
Amber muttered, taking the brass key from the lock and pocketing it. She opened the door. The corridor looked perfectly normal.
“If you disappear again, I’ll rescue you,” Glen said from beside her.
She patted his shoulder, and then shoved him out into the corridor. He tripped, went sprawling, but at least he didn’t disappear. She ran, jumped over him and kept going.
He did his best to keep up. “I don’t mind that you did that,” he called.
Amber ignored him.
She burst out into the night air just as Milo came striding back to the Charger, his gun held down by his leg.
“Amber! Where the hell were you?”
“Never mind that,” she said. “Any sign of him?”
“No,” Milo said as he opened the car door. “Get in. He’s probably headed to the toystore.”
“Maybe not,” she said. “He mentioned the other dollhouses – he might be going there, instead. You check the toystore, I’ll check the school.”
“We’re not splitting up,” said Milo. “It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s my fault he’s out!” she shouted. “If he hurts anyone else, that’s on me! I’ll be fine – I’m a goddamn demon, okay? Go!”
Milo hesitated, then tucked his gun into his waistband and jumped in behind the wheel. Glen hurried up behind her as the Charger was speeding away.
“Come on,” said Amber.
Glen panted and wheezed as they ran the block to the school, whereas she ran easily, giving a wide berth to every darkened doorway while Glen staggered by, oblivious to the threat Shanks posed. They got to the corner and paused, peering out across the street.
“It doesn’t look like he’s here,” Glen whispered, still panting.
“Let’s get closer.”
Glen grabbed her arm. He could barely fit his hand around her bicep. “Maybe we should wait for Milo. He has the gun, right? I mean, you’ve got claws and you’re amazing, but a gun’s a gun.”
“If we delay, he might hurt someone.”
“So? Do you really care?”
She snapped her head round to him. “What?”
He held up his hands. “Hey, sorry. I just … You didn’t exactly force me to stay with Heather, you know?”
She snarled. “You said she’d be fine.”
“Well, yeah, but what do I know? I just said that so I could come along.”
She leaned in. “Of course I care about Shanks hurting people.”
“Right. Okay. I thought maybe you didn’t really give a crap about that stuff. My mistake.”
Amber wanted to hit him, wanted to take out her anger and frustration on his stupid face, but right before she made a move an alarm rang out, drawing her attention back to the school.
“Looks like we’re the lucky ones,” she said.
“I’ll call Milo.”
“You do that. I’m going to— damn it.”
She ducked back as a police cruiser swept in, hopping the kerb and stopping right at the foot of the steps.
“Wow,” said Glen. “Response time here is fast.”
They watched Sheriff Roosevelt get out, and Dacre Shanks walk down the steps towards him.
Amber couldn’t hear what Teddy was saying over the noise of the alarm, but Shanks kept on coming with his head down. Teddy backed away, his hand resting on the butt of his holstered gun.
Amber broke from cover, sprinting towards them, Glen at her heels.
She was halfway across the street when Shanks got close enough for Teddy to recognise him. Teddy jerked back, went for his gun, but Shanks took three quick steps and plunged his knife into the sheriff’s throat.
Amber roared and Shanks turned to her, Teddy’s gun in his outstretched hand.
She pulled up, stumbling a little. Glen ran into the back of her.
Shanks smiled at her. “Where’s your friend?”
Amber hissed as Teddy sank slowly to the ground.
This just made Shanks smile wider. “He’s a dangerous one. I could tell just by looking at him. Do me a favour, would you? Call out to him? Tell him to join us, and to leave his gun behind?”
“He’s not here,” said Amber.
“But he’ll be here shortly,” Glen added.
“Well then, I had better be ready for him, hadn’t I?” said Shanks. “You are both going to accompany me into the school, if you please. Oh, and young lady, if you would do me the courtesy of changing from this beautiful red-skinned creature back to the dull little girl you really are, that would be simply marvellous.”
She didn’t want to. What she wanted to do was take her chances and dive at him. Maybe he’d shoot her, maybe he wouldn’t. Maybe he’d miss. But she wouldn’t miss. She’d carve his face up. Rip out his eyes. Tear his throat out with her teeth.
The gun in his hand didn’t waver. Amber swallowed her anger, and reverted to normal.
“There,” said Shanks. “Isn’t that better?”
THE ALARM WOULDN’T STOP WAILING. It howled through the high school’s wide corridors, an unrelenting assault on Amber’s eardrums, and escaped through the open door that led out into the night.
Glen sat with one hand cuffed to the radiator. Amber herself was on her knees, both hands cuffed behind her back. She watched as Shanks opened the glass cabinet, and trailed a long finger over the contours of the dollhouse within, the last surviving dollhouse that contained so many of his victims.
He looked back at her, and smiled.
“This is my life’s work,” he said, his voice barely audible over the alarm. “This is everything that has ever given my existence meaning. What is your meaning, Amber? What is your purpose?”
Amber didn’t say anything.
“Do you even know?” Shanks continued. “Do you have any idea? You probably don’t. Very few do. I didn’t – not when I was alive. I needed to die before I could see why I needed to live. The Shining Demon helped me. He granted me my new life, and he gave me the key that made everything so much easier. Do you have it, by the way? Did you bring it with you?”
“He wants you to help me,” Amber said.
“Sorry? What was that?”
“The Shining Demon,” she said, louder this time. “He wants you to help me.”
Shanks laughed. “I don’t think so, Amber. He plays games, as is his right as a Duke of Hell, but that is not a game he is interested in playing. He would rather we scurry about on our own, fumbling blindly in the dark. We arouse his curiosity only rarely, I’m afraid.”
She shook her head. “I’m special. He said it himself. If you hurt me, if you harm me or my friends, he’ll be—”
He hit her. It was a slap, an open palm, but it struck so fast and so suddenly that it rocked her, sent the world tilting and the floor rushing up to crack against her