Page 32 of Starry with a Chance of Nightshade

Shaggy Professor twisted fast, his eyes wide. “Are you hurt?”

“N-no,” I said, banged up but otherwise okay.

He grabbed me and yanked me off the table, pulling me close to his steely frame. His heart was beating a mile a minute as he held me to him tenderly. The entire ordeal, from the demons down to him holding me like we were romantically involved, should have been extra awkward.

Oddly, it wasn’t.

The ring on my necklace began to heat slightly. It had never done that before. I grabbed for it through my shirt and found myself fixated on Shaggy Professor’s lips. It was so not the time to be thinking about how kissable they looked. I knew that, but my brain didn’t seem to care.

The next thing I knew, he was kissing me, his tongue darting into my mouth as he growled, holding me tight to him. I understood it wasn’t the best time to make out with a guy, and that kissing a professor was like ten kinds of bad ideas, but my hormones vetoed my brain’s slight protest. I kissed the man back, my chin rubbing against his beard. I had a funny feeling that if I lived through this all, I’d have the same rash on my chin that Mina had on hers.

I didn’t even care.

I was ripped back from Shaggy Professor by something or someone.

Shaggy Professor didn’t so much as blink. He moved at me with lightning-fast speed, and reached past me, somehow managing to fend off a demon with one hand. Whatever the hell the art department was doing, it had left him very agile and very strong.

He pulled me back into his embrace and kissed my temple. “Stay close.”

I nodded.

His friend, the other professor who had cop written all over him, snapped the neck of a demon in a way that said it wasn’t his first time. He kicked it away from him as it fell to the floor. His gaze collided with Shaggy Professor. “She okay?”

“Yes,” said Shaggy Professor, sounding relieved. “What the hell is going on here?”

“No idea,” said the other man. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Massive stomps sounded from the front entranceway, bluish-purple light flashing behind him, giving him an ominous backdrop. I twisted in Shaggy Professor’s arms, expecting to see another horned demon or a monster my father had made. As I stared at the huge, buff man with bat-like wings, wearing a loincloth, I froze. He looked to be made of stone. He also looked a hell of a lot like one of the statues from the common area on campus. In fact, he bore a striking resemblance to the one Torid had peed on earlier.

Torid was thrown by a demon and slid to a stop before the newcomer.

The stone man glanced down at him and curled his lip. “When we are done dealing with this threat, you and I are going to have a long talk about the number of times you’ve peed on me.”

“No frigging way!” I shouted. It was the statue.

“Franks!” shouted Craig as he came running into the house, his eyes wide. He spotted me. “Oh God, are you okay?”

His body was propelled forward by a man with a weird symbol on his forehead. He charged into the house with several others, all of whom were wearing brown ceremonial robes and who looked alike.

“Craig!” I shouted, my gaze whipping to Shaggy Professor, who still had a hold of me.

He glanced past me at Craig, appearing conflicted. “You need to run. Get far from the house! Go! I’ll help him.”

I clung to Shaggy Professor, and the ring on my necklace began to heat more. “I can’t leave my friends. I can’t leaveyou.”

Something crashed through the dining room window. When it came up and off the floor, I saw it was another of my father’s creations. It set its sights on me, dragging its left leg, which was on backward. It was totally missing the lower portion of its left arm. Its lower jaw hung at a strange angle.

Shaggy Professor thrust me behind him and faced off against it.

My hands went to his broad shoulders, and I went to my tiptoes to see past him. “No! Leave it. You don’t understand what it is. It’s dangerous.”

He glanced at me, and the edge of his mouth curved upward. “That goes without saying, sweetheart.”

The next I knew, I was planting a kiss on the man’s cheek. “Be careful.”

He stared at my lips and not at the monster headed right for him.

The other professor jumped over the table and landed in front of the newest monster. He reached out fast, snatching hold of the thing by its neck. Bold move considering it was held together by a mad scientist’s version of duct tape and paperclips. “Where in the hell is she?”

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