Naomi fear

Something moved out in the shadow, a patch that was blacker than normal black.
“Here kitty, kitty,” the psycho called. He sounded far away, his voice from another direction than the twist she’d spotted in the darkness. “Here pussy. Such a bad girl. Wish you thought we were handsome. Maybe you’ll grow to like our face once we carve you to match.”
Naomi settled into a crouch. Trying to scare me, she realized. Wants to flush me out, and he’s getting frustrated. Just keep your head. His voice made that hard, but when she glanced back at the weird knot of shadows, something else stole her breath.
Something else—that was all she could make of it, because it looked like nothing more than a distortion in the darkness that blew like smoke from behind a column, flitted across the floor, and merged into another column. Her heart thumped against the inside of her ribcage at what she’d seen: at something more fluid than form. Dread squeezed the air from her lungs and erased every rational explanation from her mind—for that instant, there was something wicked staring at her from the blackness; something had crawled from Hell and watched her with an ancient patience.
It terrified her in ways the psychopath could not. She sensed they weren’t together, because the Hellish thing crept toward the madman’s singsong voice—liquid shadows peeled from the column and appeared for an instant as the silhouette of a person, bounding to the rear of a truck and joining the shapeless ceiling. So quick it might have flown. So purposefully toward the stitch-faced man, she realized it wasn’t hunting her. She was merely in its way.
No. She’d lost track of it, and with it gone from her sight, she closed her eyes and likewise forced it from her mind. It’s not real. Just the fear playing tricks. Focus on getting out of here.

Chapter 6, Page 74-75


“I’m afraid of the dark,” she admitted, eyes shutting. “I never was until that night.” Glancing sidelong at Ryn, her pulse spiked—an explosion of fear rolled through her and she jerked, trying to escape. Her mouth widened in a frozen scream.
Snapping a look over her shoulder for the threat, Ryn realized then—
I’m it.
Naomi squirmed her hand from the deva’s grip, flailing out of the corner and into the brightness of the deck lighting. Covering her mouth, she gaped into the pool of black, fixed on the gleam of Ryn’s sunglasses.
“I won’t hurt you,” the monster whispered from her hideaway.
The words startled Naomi to her senses. With more control, she said, “I— I know, but please come out.”
Stepping into the light, the monster bowed her head. A cold reality had dawned.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to freak out. It’s just—”
“It’s the thing you saw that night,” she said.
A nod. “Not Banich, either.” Naomi folded herself in her arms, as though a chill had crept over her. “No one would believe me if I told them.”
“I would.”
Nodding, she whispered, “Banich wasn’t the only monster in the parking garage. There was something else. Something that came from Hell. Sometimes when I walk through my house at night, I know it’s close. I can feel it out there, creeping between shadows. I sleep with my lights on because even though it can’t be, I know it’s there, and I— I don’t know if I’m crazy.”
Ryn tried to breathe, to inhale around the skewer through her center, more painful than knives, bullets, and tent spikes, more painful by far. Every beat of her own heart cut her.
Naomi rushed forward, throwing her arms around the monster, holding her tighter than Ryn had ever been held—and yet she couldn’t feel it. She could only listen as her friend, her victim, whispered, “I’m so sorry. For a second, I saw you in the darkness and the way you blended into it, I thought you were it.” Her laugh was too manic. “Thank God you’re here. You’re probably the only thing that makes it go away.”

Chapter 15, Page 235