Nameless: The Darkness Comes

PROLOGUEThe demonic love the taste of little girls. Luna Masterson went to her first sleepover when she was six, armed with a Superman sleeping bag and a pink pillow, pigtails and sour candies. Before she left, her dad pulled her onto his lap.“Sweetheart,” he said and looked worried. Even though she should have been too young to tell, Luna could see the anxiety running under the lines of his face. “You’re sleeping somewhere other than home tonight. And I know you see things in the dark . . . ”“You don’t want me to talk to the Tip-Toe Shadow tonight.”His face broke a little. A man’s face isn’t designed to carry so much emotion at one time.“Sweetie, I never want you to talk to the Tip-Toe Shadow. He’s a bad thing, and he lies. But especially tonight because I’m not going to be there with you. Do you understand?”She understood. Her mother didn’t see the shadows, and neither did her brother, Seth. But for some reason, her Daddy could, and it made her feel better. Even a child k

CHAPTER TWOI’m sort of a jack of all trades, I guess. I do a little bit of everything, and all of it is mediocre. Except sticking people with needles; being stabby seems to be the only thing I really excel at. So when I blazed into town full of glory and good intentions, I snagged a phlebotomy job, no problem. Something about siphoning healthy-looking blood soothes me. I’m sure a psychologist would have a field day with that one.I was busy prepping my station for a routine blood draw when a shadow fell across me.“Hey, hotshot, I’m not ready for you yet. Wait for me to call you, okay?” I said, not looking up.The shadow didn’t move. I bit the inside of my cheek in frustration and raised my eyes.There was nothing there. That I could see, anyway.Well. This was new. There was always a person or a demon, but an invisible presence? Something unseen casting a shadow? I don’t know much about physics and its laws, but I’m thinking they’d have a hard time accepting this.“So . . . ”

CHAPTER FOURThe encounter with Sparkles rocked me more than I’d care to admit. How could somebody so vile have a child as sweet as Lydia? She’s definitely cute, I can tell you that much. And smart. And astute. I can tell she has my genes in there somewhere.And, like me, after a few minutes swabbing at the counters with a washcloth and the like, she was bored.“Right, let’s go shopping,” I told her, and then I sprayed her down with sunscreen. Hey, even out here in the Northwest, you can’t be too careful. Demons and sunburn and cancer, oh my. Not my little girl.I ran a dark red lip stain around my mouth, pulled tall boots up over my jeans, and threw on my sunglasses. Suddenly, I was a femme fatale, a woman of mystique. And all under ten minutes.Lydia had pulled out her pigtails, so we did them over again, and that took nearly ten minutes right there. She has a knack for yanking beautiful doodads out of her hair. For this, I blame her father.“Ready, Princess Pretty Fingers?” I

CHAPTER SIX“So I have a date tonight,” I told Seth over the phone. He was eating at his desk as usual. Noisily. In my ear. Brothers never change.“You? A date? With who?” He slurped loudly from his drink. Obviously, his body was crying out desperately for hydration.“Well, his name is Reed Taylor and has awful, blah-colored hair. And he was a user way back, so he says. And he has this invisible thing that hangs around with him all of the time. It kind of gets in my way, but it has its uses. Like today when the demon attacked me in the middle of the hamburger section—”“What’s wrong with his hair?” Seth asked. “I mean, what is it exactly that you don’t like?”And that’s Seth for you. He has this amazing mind, right? Quick, eager. His brain has tentacles and is always waving them around, ready to grab something interesting and suck it all in to its brain-mouth, or whatever. But the things Seth finds interesting, well. They just baffle me. I mean, I am boggled.“His hair, it’s like

CHAPTER EIGHTReed Taylor’s bike purred like a kitten, but I needed it to roar like a tiger. I was pushing it as fast as I dared, but I knew it wasn’t fast enough. You can’t outrun these things, but it didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try.Even now, darkness twined around the trees and buildings like the searching tendrils of a plant. But these were tendrils of despair; they were loss personified. The closer they got to me, the more I felt like throwing my arms in the air and giving up. Except I’m not one to bow down. They ought to know that by now.“Hang on,” I shrieked. The bike squealed, and we hung a sharp left. We zoomed down a smaller side street. The darkness pooled around us, momentarily confused.I chuckled.“You’re enjoying this!” Reed Taylor sounded panicked.“Stick with me, kid,” I said and pushed the bike to full speed again.Demons were coming out of the woodwork. Literally. I saw them spill out of houses and vomit themselves up from the ground. I had never seen so ma