Page 33 of Dancing With Demons

“Woo!” we whooped, laughing and carrying on as we soared through the skies—flying over the tall, imposing, and in so many ways, beautiful manor.

Every minute of every day in hell had been terrible... except for this one.

Our laughter echoed across the scorched plains. Holding my arms out, I shared in the joy with my sister, and my friend, and I flew.

“Yeah!” I cried, giggling as a baby crow came for my head too. “You guys aren’t so bad when you’re not pecking me to death. This is so cool—”

Everything winked out.

In an instant, the crows, the sweeping turrets, and the dead and barren wasteland spreading before me were gone.

I pushed up on my knees, blinking to find myself suddenly in a space I’d never forget. Only a month before, Tristan took me into this courtyard to show me the dead and maimed bodies of the demons my own mother sacrificed on the statue of the half man, half goat.

“Marie?” Dora peeled herself off the black cobblestones. “What’s going on? Why aren’t we flying anymore?”

Kazuya, Pravat, and Bruno stepped out from behind the statue. Something dark, sludgy, and cold coated my heart as Kazuya grinned.

“Take a guess.”

“Dora!” I snatched her hand, yanking her up. “Run!”

“Run where, mortal?”

Kazuya snapped his fingers and a shower of cobblestones ripped off the ground and flew to the doors.

It was like watching a DIY home improvement video on fast motion. Before my eyes, the cobblestones lay at the threshold and stacked themselves in rapid, precise succession. Where there were once doors—was now nothing but hard, bumpy, impenetrable walls.

We weren’t going anywhere.

“Stay back,” I screamed—whipping around and shoving Dora behind me. “Leave us alone! We haven’t done anything to you!”

“Haven’t done anything to us?” Kazuya laughed a strange, almost purring laugh from his feline maw. “That mutt beat us within an inch of our lives all to keep your precious pussy to himself. And then,” he crowed as the three of them spread out, blocking every path, “because of you, he didn’t kill us!”

“Didn’t kill you?” I cried, whipping between them. “Are you— You’re mad that I stopped him from killing you?!”

“You should’ve just pissed in our fucking faces,” he hissed, his furry face twisting into something unrecognizable. “It would’ve been less embarrassing! Instead, the whole class saw us get our asses handed to us by a filthy mutt who only spared us because a sneaky mortal bitch told him to! We’re laughingstocks!”

I could only gape at him. “Then maybe you should get mad at the people doing the laughing! Hating someone for saving your life is as stupid as throwing someone you just met off a cliff for no damn reason. You’re insane!”

That terrible Cheshire cat’s grin curled into his cheeks. “No one’s going to be calling us stupid, insane, or weak when we’ve got something that no one’s had in hell for the last three hundred years.

“The power from a human sacrifice.”

My nails pierced half-moons in my palms, coating the tips of my fingernails in blood. Eyes darting left and right, I looked for a way out—something. Anything!

“But first...” Taking a step closer, Kazuya popped the top button of his scorched blue polo shirt. “I’ve been fucking cunts with fish heads, monkey tails, rat claws, and cheap glamours for too long. Today”—his red eyes flashed—“I’m having the real thing.”

The baying of dozens of greedy, slobbering voices fighting to rape me pummeled my ears. I shook—eyes filling as I looked into Kazuya’s and saw that it wouldn’t matter if I begged, if I cried, if I pleaded, or if I appealed to the humanity he didn’t have. This was a dead and empty husk before me—devoid of compassion or empathy.

This... was a demon.

Kazuya closed the distance and reached for the top button of my bellbottoms.

I smashed him across the face with my phone. “Noooo!” I screeched, and flashed out—kicking him square in the chest. “Get away from us!”

Kazuya rocked back—the surprise hit popping him off his feet.

Flying back, he flipped in the air and skidded across the ground on his soles—recovering quick and fast like the cat he was. He launched off his haunches, a furry humanoid missile that I had no chance to avoid.