# HELLSPAWN HUNTER## Chapter 1: The Day the Gate OpenedThe alarm sirens had been wailing for three minutes when Kael Draven realized he was probably going to die today.He pressed his back against the concrete wall of Miller's Hardware Store, trying to make himself as small as possible while the thing that used to be Mrs. Henderson shuffled past the alley entrance. Her Sunday dress was torn and bloody, her gray hair matted with something that definitely wasn't hair gel, and her jaw had unhinged like a snake's to accommodate the rows of needle-sharp teeth that had sprouted from her gums."Well, shit," Kael whispered, because honestly, what else was there to say?The Emergency Broadcasting System had called them "Extra-Dimensional Entities." The news anchors, in their final broadcast before the station went dark, had used clinical terms like "hostile biological anomalies" and "reality distortion events." Kael preferred "hellspawn," because that's exactly what they looked like.The th

# HELLSPAWN HUNTER## Chapter 3: Pack MentalityThe shadow-hounds moved like liquid smoke, their forms shifting between solid and ethereal as they circled Kael in the street. Their eyes burned like crimson stars, and when they breathed, frost formed on the broken asphalt.*Fascinating,* Vex'thul observed. *They're using thermal displacement to lower the ambient temperature. Clever. Makes their prey sluggish.*"Great science lesson," Kael muttered, his breath already visible in the sudden cold. "How do I kill them?"*You don't. You survive them.*"That's not helpful!"*Neither is your attitude, but here we are.*The largest hound, easily the size of a small car, stepped forward. When it opened its mouth, Kael could see straight through to the hellscape beyond—a throat that led to somewhere else entirely."Okay, that's deeply unsettling," Kael said.*Wait until you see what comes out of it.*The hound's throat began to glow, and something that looked like liquid fire started pooling in

# HELLSPAWN HUNTER## Chapter 5: The UndergroundThe entrance to Vespera's hideout was through the basement of what used to be Tony's Pizza—a place Kael had worked at for exactly three days before getting fired for "attitude problems." Now it was a smoking crater, and they were climbing down through a hidden passage that definitely hadn't been there when he was making terrible pepperoni pizzas."This is surreal," Kael muttered, following Vespera down a spiral staircase that seemed to go on forever. "Two days ago my biggest worry was whether I'd pass Ms. Rodriguez's history test."*You wouldn't have,* Vex'thul observed. *Your knowledge of the Byzantine Empire is embarrassingly shallow.*"Thanks for the vote of confidence."*Don't mention it.*"History tests," Vespera said over her shoulder. "How wonderfully normal. Tell me, half-breed, what were you planning to do with your life before the world ended?""I don't know. College, maybe. My dad always said I should study engineering, but I

# HELLSPAWN HUNTER## Chapter 7: LockdownThe screaming was coming from the cafeteria.Kael ran through the hallways of Millbrook High, his enhanced senses picking up scents that definitely didn't belong in a school—sulfur, ozone, and something that smelled like a morgue on a hot day. The emergency lighting cast everything in hellish red, and the lockdown barriers had turned familiar corridors into a maze of dead ends.*Left,* Vex'thul directed. *The cafeteria is through the main hallway.*"I know where the cafeteria is. I've only been going to this school for three years."*You've been going to the human version of this school. This is something else entirely.*Kael rounded the corner and immediately saw what Vex'thul meant. The hallway stretched on for what looked like miles, lined with lockers that definitely hadn't been there this morning. Some of them were breathing."Okay, that's new," Kael muttered.*Spatial distortion. They're folding the building in on itself.*"They can do t

# HELLSPAWN HUNTER## Chapter 9: The Angels' GambitThe temperature in the Underground cavern had dropped ten degrees in the past hour, and no one could explain why.Kael pulled his jacket tighter as he studied the crude map Mitchell had drawn of Peterson's facility. The layout was a maze of corridors, laboratories, and security checkpoints that would make infiltration nearly impossible for a normal human. Fortunately, he wasn't entirely human."The main lab is here," Mitchell said, tapping the paper with a scarred finger. "Sublevel 7. That's where Peterson conducts his primary experiments.""What about the enhanced soldiers?" Nyx asked. "How many are we looking at?""At least fifty, maybe more. They're stationed throughout the facility in rotating shifts."*Fifty enhanced soldiers,* Vex'thul mused. *This should be interesting.*"Define 'interesting,'" Kael muttered under his breath.*The kind where we discover whether demons can actually die permanently.*"You're not helping."Around