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American Monsters
Derek Landy
The epic conclusion in the mind-blowing supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant.
Bigger, meaner, stronger, Amber closes in on her murderous parents as they make one last desperate play for power. Her own last hopes of salvation, however, rest beyond vengeance, beyond the abominable killers – living and dead – that she and Milo will have to face.
For Amber’s future lies in her family’s past, in the brother and sister she never knew, and the horrors beyond imagining that befell them.
Copyright (#ulink_74ff4e99-3557-581e-a92f-b584954b3ca0)
First published in hardback in Great Britain by HarperCollins Children’s Books 2016
HarperCollins Children’s Books is a division of
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street, London SE1 9GF
Visit us on the web at www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)
Derek Landy blogs under duress at www.dereklandy.blogspot.com (http://www.dereklandy.blogspot.com)
Copyright © Derek Landy 2016
Jacket photography © Larry Rostant 2016
Jacket design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2016
Derek Landy asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008157104
Ebook Edition © 2016 ISBN: 9780008157074
Version: 2016-08-10
This book is dedicated to Morgan.
You’ve changed, man …
Contents
Cover (#ubd904506-8b75-5062-9bde-2575c78ac6eb)
Title Page (#uaa65d821-8a3c-5345-95fb-924fb7b810fe)
Copyright (#u2bfb0a90-2f0d-5ca9-83b7-26a3871a8fc2)
Dedication (#u18465f9d-da8d-54ee-a63c-0f5046d6c214)
Chapter 1 (#ucc4a3983-fa67-56b8-943f-4cde4f77728b)
Chapter 2 (#u6d6d2d86-2ab2-5ce6-80b4-34eb866e0186)
Chapter 3 (#u30f78c6b-ab67-5ee0-93cb-d138939da4d0)
Chapter 4 (#u99ff612b-1eb1-594d-a19e-4de1130b9e99)
Chapter 5 (#ueff9d719-9521-5fea-98c0-5350aa75cd52)
Chapter 6 (#ud9be69ee-ebc3-5eb1-9e82-9f9a36e1b2b8)
Chapter 7 (#u31acd446-b7eb-5ce5-8941-f2deffef372d)
Chapter 8 (#ueea1fd11-9f21-5480-b7ce-af5d02c797c3)
Chapter 9 (#ub8c79ece-2751-5553-9f1b-315ab8b527d4)
Chapter 10 (#u596c8460-9490-5dd1-abba-5dd01bd55eec)
Chapter 11 (#ua000e770-22a8-5acd-aed5-954d4fc41342)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 36 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 37 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 38 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 39 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 40 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 41 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 42 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 43 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 44 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 45 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 46 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 47 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 48 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 49 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 50 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 51 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 52 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 53 (#litres_trial_promo)
Also by Derek Landy (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
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THE DEMON WAS TALL and strong, red-skinned and beautiful, and she had two black horns that curled up from her forehead. She sneered, and even her sneer was beautiful. “You really think you’re getting out of this alive?”
Amber ignored the whisper, ignored her demon-self, ignored everything that wasn’t real, and stepped through the darkness of the department store.
A creature stood on the glass counter ahead, trying on sunglasses and gazing at itself in the mirror on the display spinner. This was real. As bizarre as it was, this wasn’t a hallucination. Amber could tell the difference now. The critter was maybe two feet tall, its body and head covered in light brown fur. It stood on spindly legs and its arms were thin. It turned this way and that, admiring itself, gurgling happily. It had a wide, wide mouth, and a small snout. When it took off the sunglasses, its eyes were big and blinking.
Amber had never seen a bogle before. Hadn’t even seen a drawing of one. It was, she supposed as she got closer, kind of cute, like an adorable Disney animal. It certainly wasn’t anything like she’d imagined. She’d broken into this Walmart expecting to be greeted by a horde of vicious monsters – not a solitary, cute and furry creature trying on sunglasses at night.
But, even so, she shifted. Just in case. Her body transformed, and now she was the red-skinned beauty; she had the strength, and the height, and the horns. She passed a mannequin wearing the same outfit as her – yoga pants and tank top – but while the mannequin’s outfit was flashy orange on grey, Amber’s was black, and she wore it better. She didn’t want to spook the bogle, though, so she gave a low, soft whistle before emerging.
“Hey there,” she whispered, moving even closer. “Hey, little guy.”
The bogle looked at her. It cocked its head, made an inquisitive gurgling sound.
“Who’s the best little bogle?” Amber continued, smiling, showing it her empty hands. “Who’s the cutest little imp? Is it you? Is it?”
The bogle figured it might well be, because it grinned happily, its long tongue flopping out of its mouth.
Amber couldn’t help but return its smile. She hoped her fangs wouldn’t scare it off. “I’m looking for your master,” she said quietly. “Could you take me to him? Could you do that?”
The bogle waddled to the edge of the countertop and held its arms out for a hug.
“You are a cutie,” Amber said. “Maybe when I’m finished with your master I could take you with me. Would you like that? How does a life on the road sound to you? Sound good?”
The bogle chittered, and Amber chuckled. She doubted that Milo would approve of her keeping a pet in the back of the Charger, but he was in some other part of the store, and so his opinion was rendered invalid.
“Then it’s a deal,” she said. “You take me to Paul Axton and I’ll adopt you.”
It looked at her with its huge eyes and she almost scooped it up there and then, but something stopped her. Maybe it was how eager the bogle was for her to get closer, maybe it was that wide, wide mouth with all those teeth, or maybe it was the fact that the bigger its eyes got, the more red veins Amber could see in all that white.
Whatever the reason, she hesitated before picking it up, and the bogle didn’t like that. It didn’t like that one bit.
Its little hands grew little claws and it swiped at her and Amber jerked back. A trail of blood ran from the narrow cut on her cheek.
