appeared to be slick, slimy. It was also a lot bigger than any of the
others, almost three times the size of the ratlike creature in the
bedroom. Somewhat resembling an iguana, although more slender through
its body than an iguana, this spawn of nightmares was three to four feet
in length, had a lizard’s tail, a lizard’s head and face. Unlike an
iguana, however, the small monster had eyes of fire, six legs, and a
body so slinky that it appeared capable of tying itself in knots; it was
the very slinkiness and flexibility that made it possible for a creature
of this size to slither through the ventilation pipes. Furthermore, it
had a pair of batlike wings which were atrophied and surely useless but
which unfurled and flapped and fluttered with frightening effect.
The thing charged into the living room, tail whipping back and forth
behind it. Its mouth cracked wide, emitting a cold shriek of triumph as
it bore down on them.
Rebecca dropped to one knee and fired her revolver.
She was at point-blank range; she couldn’t miss; she didn’t. The slug
smashed squarely into its target. The shot lifted the beast off the
floor and flung it backwards as if it were a bundle of rags. It landed
hard, clear back at the archway to the dining room.
It should have been blown to pieces. It wasn’t.
The floor and walls should have been splashed with blood-or with
whatever fluid pumped through these creatures’ veins. But there was no
mess whatsoever.
The thing flopped and writhed on its back for a few seconds, then rolled
over and got onto its feet, wobbled sideways. It was disoriented and
sluggish, but unharmed. It scuttled around in a circle, chasing its own
tail.
Meanwhile, Jack’s eyes were drawn to the repulsive thing that had come
out of the duct above the sofa. It hung on the wall, mewling,
approximately the size of a rat but otherwise unlike a rodent. More
than anything else, it resembled a featherless bird. It had an
eggshaped head perched atop a long, thin neck that might have been that
of a baby ostrich, and it had a wickedly pointed beak with which it kept
slashing at the air.
However, its flickering, fiery eyes were not like those of any bird, and
no bird on earth possessed stubby tentacles, like these, instead of
legs. The beast was an abomination, a mutant horror; just looking at it
made Jack queasy. And now, behind it, another similar though not
identical creature crept out of the duct.
“Guns aren’t any damned use against these things,” Jack said.
The iguana-form monstrosity was becoming less disoriented. In a moment
it would regain its senses and charge at them again.
Two more creatures appeared at the far end of the dining room, crawling
out of the kitchen, coming fast.
A screech drew Jack’s attention to the far end of the living room, where
the hallway led back to the bedroom and baths. The man-shaped thing was
standing there, squealing, holding the spear above its head. It ran
toward them, crossing the carpet with shocking speed.
Behind it came a horde of small but deadly creatures,
reptilian-serpentine-canine-feline-insectile-rodentlike-arachnoid
grotesqueries. In that instant Jack realized that they were, indeed,
the Hellborn; they were demonic entities summoned from the depths of
Hell by Lavelle’s sorcery. That must be the answer, insane as it
seemed, for there was no place else from which such gruesome horrors
could have come. Hissing and chattering and snarling, they flopped and
rolled over one another in their eagerness to reach Penny and Davey.
Each of them was quite different from the one before it, although all of
them shared at least two features: the eyes of silver-white fire, like
windows in a furnace-and murderously sharp little teeth. It was as if
the gates of Hell had been flung open.
Jack pushed Penny into the foyer. Carrying Davey, he followed his
daughter out of the front door, into the eleventh-floor corridor, and
hurried toward Keith and Faye, who stood with the white-haired doorman
at one of the elevators, keeping the lift open.
Behind Jack, Rebecca fired three shots.
Jack stopped, turned. He wanted to go back for her, but he wasn’t sure