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CHAPTER 1

I knew we were screwed when the Akkadian sand demon erupted from the ground and tore our point man’s head off.

Unsurprisingly, things had gone poorly after that.

The boys and I had been tracking the demon for days. Some Egyptian general had summoned it in a plot to assassinate the Egyptian president. As plans involving malevolent beings often do, the play had gone awry. Anwar Sadat was still alive, the general dead, and the summoned monster was off on a rampage. I didn’t know all the details, just nine men and me had been tasked with tracking down and destroying the vile creature before it made its way into the civilian populace of the Sinai.

Legally, my unit didn’t exist. The Kidon was a special section of the Mossad—the Israeli intelligence agency. If any of us were captured on this side of the border, Israel would disavow us and deny involvement. Which made sense, all things considered. Our two countries were still reeling from the most recent conflict and peace was tenuous at best. Being a woman, I really didn’t want to get taken prisoner here.

Something had to be done about this demon, though. The Egyptians hadn’t been able to handle their mess, and they knew we had the best anti-monster specialists in the region. So diplomats had talked in secret, concessions had been made, and the Egyptian army had looked the other way long enough for us to cross the border. When it comes to ancient demons devouring their populace even the most stubborn nations can temporarily set aside their differences long enough to ask for a favor.

It wasn’t the details of this mission that left me feeling uneasy. This sort of clandestine operation was the Kidon’s bread and butter. I’d been feeling troubled lately, plagued by dreams that I needed to return to a place that I’d not been for a very long time. Decades, actually. I was here instead of home for good reasons, so I’d pushed those premonitions aside and focused on the mission.

But I couldn’t shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

The dawn was a cold one. Typically, February remained warm during the day and got chilly at night, but with the cloud coverage and light rainfall overnight, the temperatures had actually dipped down enough for even Gideon to complain. Given that he’d spent his childhood in northern Italy before returning to Israel for Aliyah, that was an impressive feat.

We were on foot, sore, tired, and almost out of food. There was supposed to have been an airdrop for resupply the night before, which didn’t pan out. We were out of fresh water, and were using purifying tablets in our canteens, filled with water from a small spring where I hoped the arsenic content wasn’t high enough to kill us quickly.

The group had just rotated our duties at sunrise. Since I had the best eyesight I’d been on point when the light had been at its lowest. As the sun began to lighten the sky, Haim ordered a switch-off and Shmuel had taken the lead. I’d gone back to rear watch, which was far more taxing than it sounds. Point was simple—you watched for signs of ambush, tried not to step on any mines, and hoped you got off a warning cry before you died. Bringing up the rear meant a lot of walking backward, always checking behind the team, and making sure the tracks we left wouldn’t be too easy to find. And fighting off my natural urge to wander off and explore on my own. Sometimes my instincts make it hard for me to be a good team player.

The odds of anything human attacking us here were slim but not zero. We’d just finished a shooting war, after all. Lots of under-the-table politics later and now we were wandering our sworn enemy’s countryside doing them a favor, but since it was a secret favor, there would still be plenty of people around who’d shoot us on sight.

Cold, hungry, utterly exhausted, and thus distracted, of course this was when the sand demon erupted from the ground and killed Shmuel.

It happened so fast the kid didn’t even have a chance to be alarmed. One second Shmuel was standing still, looking up toward a ridge with a curious expression on his face, and the next his head was flying toward us. His body crumpled to the ground as his head landed at the feet of Haim, our team leader.

“Shit!” Haim shouted as he looked down at the confused expression on our dead comrade’s face. The attack had been so sudden that Shmuel had died without even knowing why.

With wings unfurled, the sand demon cut an imposing figure. Carved in a male form, eight feet tall, horned, with skin the texture of sandstone, he cackled with glee as his forked tongue licked Shmuel’s blood off his claws. He eyed all of us before the demonic gaze settled on me in particular.

“Half-breed.”

“Motherfucker,” I agreed, and triggered a short burst from my Galil, striking him in the chest with several 5.56 rounds.

They were good shots. Too bad demons are tough.

The rest of the Kidon reacted a bit slower than I had and started shooting, but the demon had already unleashed his terrible magic.

Wings spread wide with a violent crack, and the sand around us went flying. I moved, trying to avert my eyes as the visibility suddenly dropped to near zero. The cold and damp vanished in an instant. The air turned bone dry so suddenly that it sucked the moisture out of my mouth.

My friends were pulling down their goggles, trying to protect their eyes. Haim started bellowing orders. I could hear Faud and Gideon moving to flank the monster while Yehuda and Eli kept shooting where the monster had been. Nobody else had an angle. Without a clear visual, they’d hold their fire. It was one of the many tough lessons our team had learned while hunting monsters: confirm, then destroy, because friendly fire isn’t.

No goggles for me. I just squinted and blinked away the grit and pain, and was able to track the demon’s shape through the impromptu sandstorm. He was moving to the left, toward where Faud and Gideon were running. I shouted a warning. Uncertain whether they heard me over the howling wind, I went after them. They were between me and the demon so I couldn’t fire.

The already blistering sandstorm was growing worse by the second. Stinging particles were hitting hard enough to lacerate exposed skin. Even I was mostly blind now, and when I got to where I thought the demon should be, he was already gone. Somewhere to my left I heard Haim cry out in pain. Someone fired a single shot, which was quickly followed by a curse. It sounded like Yehuda but I couldn’t be certain. Then all I could hear was the howling wind and sand beating the keffiyeh over my ears like a drum.

I’d never experienced anything like this. There was so much sand in the air it was like trying to walk underwater. It was growing harder to breathe by the second.

A heavy blow to my pack sent me sprawling to the ground. As I rolled away I caught a faint glimpse of the demon through the tearing dust, and it looked like the thing was smiling down at me, razor-sharp fangs white in stark contrast to the golden skin.

Before I could get up, he kicked me in the ribs. The air whooshed out of my lungs from the force of the blow. I was lifted off the ground a few feet before landing hard on a pile of rocks. One of the sharp ends stabbed me in the thigh, piercing the skin. It wasn’t super deep, but it hurt.

Somehow, I kept hold of my carbine. I clutched at the stab wound with my free hand and tried to get to my feet. Even over the now-hurricane force winds the demon made sure I could hear his condescending tone. I hated magic like that.

“Weak. I expected more from your kind.”

The wings continued their flapping motion, each beat kicking up more and more wind and sand.

“You interest me more than these others, half-breed. What is one of your kind doing here?” The summoned creature sounded offended, as if something like me didn’t belong on his continent, and to be fair, I was pretty far from the land of my birth.

I brought the Galil up and fired it one-handed, peppering the demon’s torso. The demon retreated through the storm as though he were a part of it. Still, I managed to hit him at least three times, so I definitely got his attention.

I was wounded, sure. A quitter? Never.

The demon returned on the wind. Claws sliced through my arm, laying open the skin.

Rage began bubbling in my chest as the demon danced away once more, laughing. There were other cries of pain as the demon flew about, tormenting my friends. He was doing hit-and-run attacks while we staggered around blind and confused. He was toying with us.

Another hand grabbed my arm, only this one was human.

“Let it out!” Haim shouted in my ear.

“No! It’s too dangerous!”

Haim knew what he was asking for. It was what had gotten me assigned to this very special unit to begin with. Haim always pushed for me to use my bestial side on missions more, because he had more far confidence in me than I did, but there was no way I could afford to let it out.

Only the maddening wind had gotten to the point we could barely stand. The demon wouldn’t need to kill us because we were about to get blown away. Someone shouted a warning followed by the heavy staccato of machine-gun fire ripping through the air. The demon roared with laughter. Whoever had fired had missed, and badly.

Haim had to shout directly into my ear. “This demon is stronger than expected! If you don’t, we’ll all die!”

“We can’t risk it.”

“Let it free. That’s an order.”

Rarely had I ever let the nagualii out of its cage because when I did, I was nothing but a passenger in a vehicle of violence.

“I’ll take responsibility for whatever happens, Chloe.”

We were getting our asses kicked and time was running out. I reached down within my soul, found the caged animal part of me, and opened the prison door. The change began immediately. The drumbeat in my chest doubled in time. Smoke spread through my brain as the nagualii began to take control.

The sand demon reappeared and grabbed hold of me, wearing a triumphant look as his razor-sharp claws dug into my soft flesh. However, his expression changed to one of surprise as the nagualii roared defiantly, and I bit the demon on the face.

I could smell it, thick and heavy.

Fear.

The foul monstrosity was afraid of me. To a normal human nose it would have smelled like nothing but sulfur, a stench typical with demons and their like. Only I could smell the underlying garlic under the brimstone. It was the scent of a predator who suddenly realized a more dangerous threat had arrived.

And it was delicious.

I was past the point of no return now. The monster within was totally free.

I’d been blinded by sand, but now my entire awareness was clouded by something different. Smoke, thick and black, boiling off an obsidian mirror. The drumbeat grew louder.

I was barely aware that my body changed, ripping free of my clothing. I was a spectator on a disjointed fever dream, catching glimpses here and there as monster battled monster. Claws tore. There was the foul taste of demon blood in my mouth.

The nagualii was enraged. The demon, terrified. There were no more taunts from it now. Only a vain attempt at survival.

The demon had been right. My kind didn’t belong here. But that punk shouldn’t have disrespected royalty.

The sand annoyed the nagualii. Stung our eyes. Got in our nostrils and burned our lungs. So we stopped the wind, sinking claws into the demon’s membranes and violently ripping off one wing, and then the other. The demon screamed, until we reached down his throat to yank out his steaming guts, then kept on tearing.

Then I saw nothing but black. Thankfully.

Until a human voice screamed in agony.

The nagualii, lost in the bloodlust, had turned and bit what had been perceived as a new threat. Red-hot human blood filled my mouth, and it had been a long time since I had tasted that, only that was a flavor you never forget.

The smoke cleared and I recoiled in disgust as human reality came rushing back.

The nagualii didn’t care for my feelings. The beast continued to rip and tear, luxuriating in the screams of the dying. Ribs cracked and popped. Blood sprayed everywhere as the nagualii howled in triumph. I could only see bits and pieces through the falling sand, but what I did see shocked me to my core.

Stop, I begged the monster. Only she ignored me, because I had kept her locked inside for so long, a prisoner of iron will and self-control. The primal needs of the beast had been ignored. I only called upon our power when my own life was in danger. She was angry at my selfishness.

I felt someone trying to pull me off the man whose neck I’d been gnawing on. The nagualii lashed out and blood sprayed from a torn throat.

I fought to regain control of my wicked half. My vision shifted. The nagualii screamed in frustration, the cry of the jaguar hurting my throat. Control was returning, but the nagualii was fighting hard to stay in charge of our body and I didn’t know if I could win.

I saw Haim, and begged, “Kill me,” through disfigured lips and fangs. The monster finished my statement with a savage roar. She wasn’t going away easily this time. I hoped Haim could see the raging inferno struggling for control and put me down.

Something cracked against my skull. Staggered from the blow, I turned to see Jacob holding his rifle. He raised it a second time and brought the steel butt plate crashing down on my temple. I fell to the ground with a crack in my skull.

With neither of us driving now, the nagualii slunk back into her prison, sullen, but contained at last.

My body was fully human again, and I lay there, bloody and naked on the sand, surrounded by shredded demon body parts. Shame welled up within me. For the first time in decades, I’d let the monster out, and good men had died by my hand. I waited for the bullet to come, the one that would end my existence. It would be justice. I deserved it. There was no denying what was to happen next.

Only no killing blow came. There was no merciful end to my disgrace.

Mission complete, my friends tied me up and carried me back across the border.

My name is Chloe Mendoza. I am both a monster, and a monster hunter.


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Framed