Death's Shadow

Death's Shadow is the seventh installment in Darren Shan's Demonata series, which was released in May 2008.

It takes place six months after "Demon Apocalypse" and is narrorated by Bec McConn.

Synopsis
Six months after Demon Apocalypse, Bec is back in Dervish's household, but isn't being treated well - she has access to all Bill-E's memories, and is constantly being forced by Dervish to give him more information on his beloved nephew. She feels that Dervish is treating her as an 'interpreter' for Bill-E's feelings and memories, and consequently ignoring Bec as a real human being.

She also discovers during this time that she has gained the ability to absorb memories through touch, but is frightened by the power and therefore avoids contact. She puts up with Dervish's questions, until one day she confides in Meera, who persuades her to tackle Dervish over it. She tells him about Bill-E 's last thoughts, and the pair reach a new understanding - right as the house is attacked by werewolves!

Three have broken into the house, and catch Bec, Dervish and Meera in the magically defended study. Trapped, they try a obvious escape route outside, and discover there are gunmen marking the house. However, Dervish reveals he has two escape routes, and after a tussle with the werewolves, end up at the cellar. Dervish calls Shark and Sharmilia, then has a heart attack.

By the time Shark and Sharmilia arrive, the werewolves and the mysterious human gunmen have dissappeared. Dervish is taken to hospital, while Shark and Meera search for Beranbus to bring him to their aid. Unfortunately, the hospital falls victim to a demon attack, led by a regenerated (but horribly mutated) Juni Swan. During a fight on the roof, she disables Sharmila, pinning her to a wall and has other demons bite her legs off, and briefly engages Bec in battle - when Dervish recovers and blasts her into submission. She retreats through the window, injured but alive.

Beranabus, Grubbs, Kernal, Shark and Meera then arrive. They decide on what to do - and discover that Dervish will die without constant magical aid from the Demonata's universe. Grubbs and Bec swap places - Grubbs goes to investigate why and how the werewolves attacked, and Bec goes with Beranabus, Kernal, Dervish and Sharmila. While in the Demonata universe, they fashion new legs for Sharmilla, and strengthen Dervish's heart with magic.

After some brief recuperation, they discover that Juni has moved to a boat in the human universe. Suspecting a trap, they follow anyway, knowing that this is their best oppotunity to find out about the mysterious Shadow. On the cruise liner, they find 4000 humans, all of them slaughtered. They also discover that the ship is encased with a bubble of magic, akin to Slawter. This allows Sharmilla's artificial legs and Dervish heart to work. Leaving Kernel behind to guard the window, they proceed to the lower decks, acompanied by Kirilli, a 'spy' disciple that survived the attack by shielding his presence.

At the base of the ship they find Juni, a lodestone of magical power and a magicaly restrained Cadaver. Lord Loss speaks through the mouth of Cadaver, and gives his usual taunts whilst attempting to persuade Beranabus to join the Demonata. When this fails, Cadaver's head explodes, soaking the lodestone with blood - and releasing the Shadow demon seen at the end of Demon Apocalypse. It causes all the slaughtered bodies on the ship to re-animate and attack the humans, and it attempts to kill Bec and obtain her piece of the Kah Gash. Bec manages to gets away, but not before discovering some of it's memories. They greatly alarm her, and she tells Beranabus.

With this new knowledge, Beranabus takes desperate action, and fully unchains his demon side, transforming into a demonlike form. He then rushes to the lodestone and attempts to destroy it, with the Shadow attacking him viciously. Beranabus succeeds in breaking the lodestone, however the Shadow rages and lands a fatal blow on Beranabus, before sulking like a child. Beranabus uses his last ounce of strength to lift up his head and pass on one final word to Bec: "Flower".

The Shadow demon is pulled through the bottom of the ship, and Juni escapes again. The ship starts to sink, and the group battle their way up through the hordes of zombies to Kernel and the window. When they reach him, he is engaged in battle with one, but something explodes on or near him, destroying the window and possibly Kernel. However a new problem arises, the ship is trapped in the magical bubble which won't fade until the boat has sunk and drowned all of it's passengers.

Stuck, and with no handy demons to use to destroy a hole in the bubble, Sharmilia demands they stick her crippled body to the bubble and kill her to tear a gap in it - and after some emotion debate they comply. Eventually getting out through the hole on life boat, Dervish's heart weakens again in the non-magical enviroment.

With just Bec, Dervish and Krilli left, Bec reveals what she had learned from the Shadow's memories - that it was no demon, but is "Death" itself. This most likely explains why Juni Swan could be bought back to life, and how all of the slain humans were reanimated to zombies.