ChaPter 2 - Carnival of Souls by Melissa Marr

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home.”
“We can hurt you,” he said, “but we only want to take you
The doglike one stared at her with eyes that looked as
human as her own, and she paused.
She didn’t move, couldn’t move.
It’s a daimon. Pull the trigger.
The shape of it was unsettling, not quite canine but not
quite monstrous.
“We need you to come with us,” the other one said. He
was still in the shape of a man, but his voice sounded rougher
now, like the sound had to roll over heavy rocks before words
were fully formed.
Mallory shook her head. “I’ll shoot.”
The daimon in front of her made a sound like a laugh or
a cough.
“You won’t get both of us,” the other one said.
He grabbed her arm and tugged her off-balance.
She let the momentum of his action spin her to face him—
and then she shot him. She only got off one shot, but it was
a good shot. The bullet pierced his chest, and at such close
range, the spatter was enough to make her feel sick.
It did not, however, stop him. He grabbed her gun and
yanked it out of her hand. He moved so quickly that the clatter
of the revolver hitting the asphalt was simultaneous with a cuff
to her head.
Mallory tried to evade both daimons, but they moved
quicker than she could have imagined. Her father had told her