White eyes dyed pure, soul-sucking black turned his orbs into mirrors. Angry purpling veins cut fissures in his once perfect, unmarred skin. Dripping, dagger-tipped fangs sprouting from a maw of razor-sharp teeth. It was right then I knew that I’d been tricked. Lucifer could not be what the legends and stories described... because the true face of the devil was before me.
“Say it!” Sabrina shouted.
“It— It’s not—!”
I blinked, and his shadow consumed me. Balancing hands and feet on both tables, Radu bore over me like the winged specter of death.
“It’s not—!”
Another blink and he was on me, crushing life and breath out of my chest. Panic blotted out my senses as he grabbed my head and shoulders, and snapped them apart—exposing my neck.
“—b-blood,” I wheezed. “I’m n-not... bleeding!”
He stilled.
“I’m not bleeding,” I screeched—heart pounding in my ears. “I was just k-kidding— Please... let me go.”
Radu stared at me. The inky blackness that flooded his eyes the second he went on the attack, reflected my sweating, terrified visage. “But... but you said...” His voice was a low, dreamy hiss as if he was coming out of a trance. “You said you were...bleeding,” he growled. “And for a second you smelled so...” Radu salivated, dripping burning saliva on my face. “Good.”
“But I wasn’t!” Throwing out my arms, I knocked him off and scrambled away.
He followed my retreat like a hunter tracks a deer.
“It— It was just a joke, like I said,” I huffed out, still scooting back. “You know us demons.” I forced a shaky laugh. “Joking about bleeding around a leech? Too funny. Just too—” I blinked and he blurred. A sob clawed up my throat as he stuck his face in mine. “—funny.”
“Are you sure?” Drool soaked his chin and dripped onto my pants. Radu fixed on my inky-black-blood-covered face with pinpoint focus. “You can’t be sure— We must be sure—” he whispered, reaching for my cheek. “Let me taste, just in—”
“No,” Sabrina blared. “What he’s seeing and smelling is just an illusion, human! If he tastes it, he’ll know it’s real blood, and you’ll be dead before you can scream.”
Terror punched through the sob, and released my voice. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I blurted. “We both know vampires aren’t loved around here, and if I had to guess, you fought tooth, nail, and fang to get this position. So what’s going to happen if it gets around that you’re preying and perving on a demon student?”
His slim, seeking fingers froze in mid-air.
Emboldened, I scooted back farther. “You’re not going to throw everything away just to confirm the putrid sludge leaking out of my body really is putrid sludge, so let’s just...” I slowly got to my feet. “...end this here.”
I took another step, then another to the door.
Radu didn’t follow me, but I didn’t take my eyes off of him—not even to blink—as I ascended the stairs and reached behind me for the door.
Throwing it open, I’m not ashamed to say I sprinted outside and slammed it behind me—panting like I ran for my life... because I was fairly certain I did.
“What the hell just happened?” I shrieked. “Why did he suddenly freak out on me like that!”
“Because, you senile oldfool, I’ve told you a million times that a glamour is just an illusion, and illusions only work on the ignorant! Saying that you’re bleedingwhileyou’re bleeding is more than enough to break the spell—if only for a moment.”
“Then—then—” I stumbled down the hall, wanting as far away from Professor Santino Radu as possible. “What stopped him?”
“My lord did. He laced your eyes and voice with a subtle persuasion spell so that people will want to believe you,” shesaid. “But what really stopped him is that he won’t risk tasting your blood until he’s absolutely sure you’re not a demon.”
“Why?” I kept glancing over my shoulder, but who knew why? I understood better than ever now that if Radu was after me, I’d never see him coming. “Is demon blood bad for vampires?”
“Of course it is,” she snapped. Sabrina was more than a little peeved at me for putting her in so many near-death encounters in the space of a single morning. “Would it be bad for you to suck the blood out of a dead animal carcass?”
I gagged, heaving at the very thought.
“Exactly,” she said, feeling my stomach contract. “Demon blood is poisonous to vampires—even fatal. This should make it easy for demons to wipe them out, but as I said, they’re simply too fast. You can’t poison a creature you can’t get close to.”
I just nodded. Looking over my shoulder one more time, I met Radu’s eyes.
