I slammed my laptop shut and groaned.
Sleep. I needed sleep.
Maybe that would help clear up the madness taking root in my brain.
Coffee kept me afloat the following day, and the one after that. I hadn’t seen Professor Quinn since I stormed out of his office, and he hadn’t reached out about the missing assistant hours. Considering how we parted, he likely wouldn’t. Which was for the best. Not that I was avoiding him exactly. Part of me desperately wanted to see him again, to demand answers, and it took all my energy to refrain from reaching out.
The anomalies had ceased since that night. No demon sightings, no nightmares, and nothing misplaced at home. My paranoia only shot higher the longer time stretched without a glimpse of some unnamed horror. Those incidents hadn’t been a dream, nor some fucked up figment of my imagination. And the more I stewed on my last interaction with Professor Quinn, the more I questioned… everything.
I felt so untethered and alone.
All my assignments were caught up and despite the extra time to research, I still couldn’t decipher my grandpa’s notebook. Late nights and little sleep would only carry me so far through the semester. And if the professor’s warnings were true, then I didn’t have much time before another incident occurred.
With classes running full steam ahead, I had so little time to myself. Each hour spent on campus reminded me I was blatantly ignoring the way I’d abruptly left his office.
Only because I still had questions, I lied to myself.
It had been terribly shocking to come out of one of the best orgasms of my life and remember that getting intimate with an instructor was explicitly forbidden. Not only had he fucked me in his office, but he had used sex to bring me down from the asphyxiating terror of seeing something paranormal in the dark. No one had ever managed to pull me out of a panic attack, and certainly not like that. Ignoring the fact that he made my overactive mind quiet and turned my body into willing putty, I couldn’t avoid him forever.
And I certainly wouldn’t think about the feeling of his cock throbbing inside me. Or how warm he was with his body fully pressed into mine. Or the captivating scent that clung to his skin. Or how I wanted to run my tongue along the veins in his…
Those thoughts almost unnerved me more than the skin-deep itching anxiety of running into another monster. I couldn’t understand why I wanted to run back to him. He was a monumentally arrogant bastard at the worst of times, but there was something about him that was absolutely enthralling. It was bad enough that his proficiency as an instructor and his connection to my favorite subject caught my attention. He impressed the bookish, intellectual side of me and had from the start.
It didn’t hurt anything that he was beyond conventionally attractive. I mean, the definition in his hands and forearms when they flexed alone was enough to make me drool.
Regardless of my bludgeoned equilibrium, hadn’t he been the only person to give me any answers? Perhaps he would have told me more if I hadn’t fled the scene of our illicit encounter.
And he’d helped me—saved me. Then he tried to take care of me.
He’d told me to eat something.
But if I was meant to come to terms with demons being real, then I needed a way to protect myself. Would Professor Quinn be cordial or resistant if I went running back to him like a kicked dog with my tail tucked between my legs?
I was halfway across the quad to my next class when figures emerged from the afternoon mist and crowded me. Fear skittered across the back of my neck and down my spine. I was seconds from screaming when a friendly face emerged, smirking as usual.
“Hey, Blondie. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Moth pulled his hands from his pockets then went about his refinedperformance of lighting a cigarette. Thin snakes of smoke coiled in the air before dissipating into the ever-present fog coating the campus.
“Sort of,” I answered before thinking twice.
Moth’s expression twisted with a puzzled chuckle. “What the hell does that mean?”
“Oh,” I realized how bizarre I must be acting, “nothing. I think I’m just overly tired.”
Niffy and Talon materialized into view the way statues split through the mist in a horror film. Neither spoke, only watching the interaction before them as if nothing more than passing observers. Talon smiled tightly. Only Niffy’s eyes flickered, catching the yellow glare of a nearby lamppost.
“Hey, ‘tis the season for ghosts and ghoulies. Half the faculty are monsters, and I’m pretty sure a good chunk of the students are possessed.” Moth took a long drag, and the red glow mesmerized me. But the smell wasn’t rich and sweet, it was sharp and acrid.
My nose wrinkled, and I cleared my throat. Foreboding darted through me as comprehension of his throwaway statement landed.
“Possessed?” Composure escaped me as nervous laughter won.
Moth opened his mouth to speak, smoke billowing from his mouth and nose like a dragon on the exhale.
Niffy cut him off, stepping in to answer first.
“It’s the fall season. Almost Halloween. Haven’t you seen the decorations going up downtown? There are pumpkins everywhere.”
I wanted to smack myself in the face. Of course, they meant the time of year. The season for beasties and creatures to walk around with none the wiser. Moth didn’t mean anything sinister,but my anxiety had wrenched up to impossible levels in the past week.
