Arrival of the Beast (Lucifer's Clock Series, Book 2)

Lucifer's Bait

Nala smiled as she watched her cousins play with each other. Mariah had just started walking. She looked like a zombie chasing her younger cousin around the dining room. Maddie wasn't walking yet, but she had a mean crawl. She could out-crawl her any day.

Nala's brothers and sister sat around the dining table, debating about Obamacare. An outsider would have thought it was peculiar that teenagers were so knowledgeable about today's politics, but then they weren't your typical teens. All of them exhibited high IQs and intellectual abilities that were above-average.

Her mother brought out the last platter to the dining table. Nala giggled as her mom swatted her dad, waking him up. He groggily sat up in his chair at the head of the table. Once he saw the food, he perked up. Her mother held out her hands, signaling everyone to join hands so that she could pray over their food, as was customary. Everyone bowed their heads.

"Our father of the darkness, we sacrifice this innocent in your honor. We hope his death gives you as much pleasure as it gives us."

What was her mom saying? Nala peeked at her mom. She was no longer holding hands with her dad and brother.

She was holding a plate in her hands with a man's head on it.

The scream that rose up in Nala's throat froze when her mom looked at her and smiled sweetly.

"What's wrong, baby?"

All Nala could do was shake her head. She looked around the table at the others. They were all smiling, as if they didn't see what her mom was holding.

"What's going on?" Nala asked, standing up and backing away from the table.

She felt someone behind her, and turned around quickly. She was flooded with relief when she saw it was Angelica.

"Thank God it's you," Nala said, clutching her chest.

"God?" Angelica said, smiling. "What has he done to deserve your thanks? It's my father you should be thanking."

"Your father?" said Nala, frowning. "What does he have to do with anything?"

The room erupted into laughter. Nala looked around the room at everyone, confused as to what was so funny.

"Nala, he has everything to do with this. He's the reason why I'm going to destroy you."

"What? You would never hurt me!" Nala began to back out of the dining room.

"Don't take it personal. It's what I was created for," said Angelica.

Nala screamed as Angelica's face transformed into a hideous monstrosity and she lunged at Nala.

Nala's head hit the bars of the cage, yanking her out of the dream. The relief she felt at the dream not being real was short-lived, when she remembered where she was.

When she had finally come to, after being mysteriously sedated by those women, she had found herself in a steel cage. The cage was big enough for her to stand in and was locked with a giant padlock. It was a human birdcage.

Nala fought the claustrophobia that tried to overcome her. The room looked like a dungeon. The walls and floor were made of stone. An odor of urine and feces encompassed the room. There was a fire in the middle of the room, with a huge cauldron over top of it. She almost cried out, when she saw a mountain of human bones in a corner of the room. Mice scurried along the walls of the room, running in and out of the bones.

Against one of the walls, there were shelves filled with various books and bottles. The bottles contained colorful liquids, and powders. Nala was sure human body parts were in some of them.  Cages like the one she was in, hung from the ceiling around the room.  Groaning behind her drew her attention. She twisted around in her cage to see Nadia in a cage hanging behind her.