The voice outside laughed again. “You sound territorial.”
“We are observing a ritual bond,” the woman in the coat interrupted quickly before things became worse. “No hostility is necessary.”
“Then ask him to return.”
The apartment fell still again while the woman hesitated near the doorway, and the hesitation alone was enough to make my stomach drop.
I turned to her cautiously. “…Why does that sound like something he can't do?”
An answer didn’t come quickly enough, and that alone told me something was wrong.
Nina lowered the kitchen knife a few inches. “Oh my God.”
“I am getting REALLY tired of people saying that.”
The bandaged cult guy rubbed both hands over his face tiredly. “Demonic bonds are complicated.”
“That sentence should’ve stayed in Hell.”
My demon finally loosened his grip on my wrist slightly before glancing back at me for the first time since the door started cracking apart. His expression softened almost instantly when his eyes landed on me, and that was more dangerous than the threats outside.
Then quietly, like he was trying not to alarm me further, he said, “You should stay away from the door.”
That was the exact moment my survival instincts completely betrayed me. Because instead of feeling scared, my brain immediately went: oh no that was attractive again.
Nina took one look at my face and groaned loudly. “No Eva. No. Not the right time ”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“You’re looking at him weird.”
“I’m looking at him stressed.”
“That is not a stressed face.”
Before I could defend myself, the apartment door split wider down the middle with a horrible cracking sound before everything went completely still.
My demon’s shoulders tensed instantly beneath my hoodie. And from the hallway outside, something scratched against the broken wood of the apartment door. Every single person in the room froze. The sound dragged downward again, slow and deliberate, like claws testing the crack carefully just to remind us they were there.
Nina disappeared fully behind the couch at that point. “Nope,” she announced from somewhere inside the cushions. “Absolutely not. That sound belongs in horror movies and abandoned hospitals.”
The woman in the black coat's composure slipped for the first time, which was deeply unhelpful considering she was apparently the closest thing we had to a demon professional. “That should not be happening,” she whispered.
I stared at her while trying not to panic visibly. “I would LOVE if somebody explained things before the apartment becomes haunted permanently.”
The scratching stopped. Then a calm voice spoke directly through the crack splitting down the middle of the door.
“She smells human.”
My stomach dropped instantly.
My demon moved slightly farther in front of me before anybody else could react. The movement was small, almost automatic, but I noticed it anyway. His hand again found my wrist beneath the sleeve of my sweater while his attention stayed fixed on the hallway outside.
The voice laughed softly. “Protective already.”
“Leave,” my demon said flatly.
“No.”
