Page 10 of Dancing With Demons

We didn’t get a wink of sleep.

Tristan barricaded the door with the wardrobe, the chair, the desk, and the bed, but the relentless banging, shouting, and hissing didn’t let up for hours.

“What do we do!” My nails dug into the sides of my head, clamping down on my ears. What was it about vampire hissing? Why did it strike the same fear in your heart as a snake’s rattle? “How do we make them stop! How do we get out of here!”

Tristan leaned against the barricade. He was sweating buckets holding them back. “Any plan we make, they’ll hear!”

Of course. I forgot about that cursed super hearing for a second.

I snatched up my new phone, typed up a message, and held it up for him to read.

Me: Sabrina once told me there’s a spell to thicken your skin so vampires can’t bite you. Isn’t that my only chance?

Tristan was shaking his head before he finished reading. Wedging his shoulder against the wardrobe, he took my phone and typed a reply.

Tristan: If it was that easy, every wolf would use that spell. But the price is too high. The longer you use the diamond skin spell, the more your other senses start to dull until you end up blind and deaf with no sense of taste, touch, or smell.

My eyes bugged. Dammit, dark magic! Why are you so twisted!? Who comes up with these sick downsides!

Me: So what do we do?

Tristan: They’re mindless with hunger. They’ll never stop trying to get through that door. The only one who can possibly stop them now is an Elder. The penalty for not obeying an Elder is immediate death.

A thick, sludgy, horrible feeling spread through my body. I typed in my reply with numb fingers.

Me: Is Professor Radu an Edler by any chance?

Tristan’s response was quick.

Tristan: Yeah. How did you know?

I could’ve thrown up right there on the carpet. I remember once thinking that the worst thing I could possibly do was get into a situation where Professor Radu was the only one who could help me get out of it.

Seemed that bastard was thinking the same thing.

I stepped back, tipping my head to the ceiling. “Okay, you’ve made your point!”

“Charlie?” Tristan hissed. “What are you doing?”

“We’ll work something out! I swear,” I cried. “I promise! Just— Just do something!”

Can he hear me? Is he listening? I flicked to my phone. Should I download this DeadDrop app and message him? How is—?

“All right, all right, that’s enough.” A voice I’d never forget for as long as I lived rang out clear from the other side of the door. “Fuck off, the lot of you,” said Radu.

“This one’s mine.”

THREE HOURS LATER, my clock told me it was almost breakfast time, but neither Tristan nor I even twitched toward the barricade.

“Should we go out there— Oooh,” I moaned.

Tristan bore down on a particularly tight knot under my shoulder blades. At some point in the middle of my pacing, ranting, and fretting, Tristan came over and interrupted me with a massage. He said it was because I was tense and freaking out, and it’s not like I could deny it.

“We can go out there whenever you want,” he said. My knees snapped together when a soft, caressing finger trailed down my spine. “I’m not afraid of any fucking leeches, but those fucking leeches are afraid of the Elders. They won’t disobey him, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Of course that’s what I’m worried about! They’ve been starving for hundreds of years. One of them might get it into their head that one last taste is worth the death sentence.”

“I won’t let anyone hurt you, Charlie.”