Page 34 of Dancing With Demons

He slammed into my chest, knocking me back into Dora and blowing us both off our feet. “Pravat, hold her legs! Bruno, get the sister!”

“No! Leave her alone!”

Bruno snatched Dora by the hair, dragging her screaming away from me.

I scrambled after them when a hard, vicious blow struck my stomach—knocking the wind out of me and shocking my system to the core.

“Agh!” Red bled into my eyes, pain singing all the way up my abdomen. There was no time to recover before one hundred and seventy pounds of tiger demon sat on my chest—pinning me firmly to the ground.

I wasn’t going anywhere.

“Get off! Get off of me!” Desperation shredded my voice. “Let my sister go! She didn’t do anything to you. Leave her alone!”

Hands grabbed hold of my legs and tore my pants down. Kazuya wasn’t listening to me. None of them were. My cries fell on the most uncaring, sociopathic ears.

Bruno yanked Dora onto her feet, only to slap her across the face. Her head snapped around and she spun like a top—collapsing to the ground once more.

“STOP IT!” I went nuts—thrashing, clawing, kicking, and punching. “Get off,” I screamed, pummeling Pravat’s back and smashing the phone into his spine.

He didn’t even react, and in that moment, Ronin’s face flashed before my eyes.

I didn’t hesitate another second. I turned it on and dialed the only saved contact.

He picked up after a single ring. “This is a surprise. What do—?”

“Yes!” I screamed into the phone, blood swallowing my vision. “Yes! My answer is yes!”

Kazuya’s long, sharp teeth shredded my underwear.

“Stop it! Get off!”

Dora’s screams battered my eardrums.

“Ronin, help me! Oh, gods, please, help me!”

Something hard and wet pressed against my entrance.

“HELP!”

“Charlotte, where are you!” For the first time since I met the perpetually bored and sleepy demon, urgency laced his voice. “Tell me where you are!”

“The courtyard with the goat-head man!” I kicked wildly, connecting with something hard and fleshy and ripping a grunt from Kazuya. “Where the first five demons were killed—!”

Boom!

Light exploded in the courtyard—carried on a tidal wave of heat and static charge. I could’ve almost thought it was lightning if not for the fact that I’d never seen a single rain cloud or anything approaching a weatherly atmosphere since entering hell.

No. This wasn’t the light and fury from Zeus.

As Ronin dropped from the skies—the force of it crumbling the stone beneath his feet and lighting the fire in his eyes—I knew one thing with absolute certainty. There were no gods in this courtyard... and none were coming.

Electricity sparked and crackled off Ronin’s skin and horns—black and unnatural as the dark magic running in his veins. Before my eyes, his tempting, handsome wrapping melted away.

Gone was his perfect nose, pouty lips, and booby-trapped ruby eyes. And in their place, was a beast.

Ronin exploded out of his human-safe wrapper. Ripping away the handsome visage, a hairy, almost bat-like face snarled down at us. Pale skin darkened to a dark, mottled gray that grew and rippled under grotesquely huge muscles. Claws ripped from his fingertips, and burst through his boots. Hair that was once long and lush became scraggly, limp strands hanging around foot-long, lethal-tipped horns. He was horrifying. He was terrifying. He was—

“Argh!” Roaring, Ronin swung his massive hand and slapped Bruno, Kazuya, and Pravat aside—sending them flying into the stone wall.