Wood.
“A door?” I slid to the left, groping the frame until I found the handle. “Please, be the way out of here. Please—”
“Agghhhh!”
I jerked, heart shooting into my throat. “What?!” I cried over the sudden, loud keening wails that ripped through the corridor. “What happened!”
Light filled the room and rushed into my eyes, making me wince. Vision slowly clearing, my gaze fell upon Radu first.
He stood at the entrance to what seemed to be an old, dusty sitting room, holding a torch over the threshold for all to see—
No...I gasped, clapping my hands over my mouth.For me, and my very regular eyes to see.
The bodies.
Splayed on the floor, over the armchairs, and even stuck into the wall were five murdered vampires. How did I know these men of various ethnicities and wardrobes were vampires? Well, every single one of them was brutally impaled through the chest, but there wasn’t a single drop of blood.
No,I thought, turning my attention to what set off all the vampires rushing in to see what was going on.There is blood.
Painted on the wall in the symbol of the raven and crossbones.
Radu looked at it, his bored expression gone for good, and said, “Avos.”
Chapter Nine
Tristan grabbed the slightly terrifying face of a demon with a massive ant head, and threw him clear across the room. “Get the fuck out of the way.”
Stalking to the table, he picked up a howling monkey-like demon by the collar and sent him flying too—emptying the table. Turning to me, he lost his hostile snarl immediately in favor of a sheepish grin.
I could only stare dumbfounded as he set my plate down and pulled out the seat for me, gesturing for me to sit down.
“All yours, Charlie.”
“Um... th-thank you,” I stuttered out, “but you didn’t have to throw them out. I would’ve happily sat at literally any of the other dozens of empty tables.”
“Nah, this one’s the best.” Tristan took my hand and guided me down. “It’s right next to the dessert table.”
He said that and then darted over to said table and started loading up another plate with all the sweet treats he could get his hands on—most likely for me.
Once again, I could only sit there in stunned silence like an idiot. I’d been doing that all day—ever since I walked out of my dorm room that morning and almost had a heart attack, because Tristan was right outside the door waiting for me.
I didn’t think it was possible for him to be even more stuck to me, but since telling him he was my friend and I liked him, he’d been on me even better than my shadow. While the rest of the school was buzzing over the murders of the vampires andthe second sighting of the witches’ sign, Tristan was shoving people out of my way, growling at anyone who stared at me too long, holding textbooks for me, pulling out chairs for me, and all-around acting like the world’s most violently obsessive boyfriend.
If Ronin was still pushing me around, they’d have both no doubt been violently butting heads, but my demon tormentor was still pretending like I didn’t exist.
Tristan returned to the table with a tray piled high with more cookies, cakes, muffins, and brownies than a whole sleepover party could’ve eaten by themselves.
He sat down, and I stood up.
“Tristan, can I speak to you in private, please?” I jerked my chin at the door. “You and me. In my room.”
Tristan flushed the deepest red his dusky cheeks could muster. “Wha—? Alone? But— we can’t!”
“Can’t? What do you mean we can’t?” Laughing, I grasped his wrist and tugged him along.
For someone who was protesting as much as he was, the big, buff wolf let my tiny self drag him along easily. We made it back to my room and I shut and locked us both in. Then, I stuffed my hideous metallic jacket at the bottom of the door. Sabrina snoozed on her armchair, not in the least bit worried about either of us.
“Okay,” I announced, spinning around. “What’s up with you? Why are you being so nice to me?”
