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“It’s probably your heavy breathing,” Dewey said, ducking to peek through the small slit. “Sounds like a nine-hundred-number hotline in here.”

Paige threw an arm in the air and scoffed. “Oh, I’m so sorry the day-walking vampire stalking me made me breathe heavily.” She shook her head and waved her hand at the window. “And, anyway, that’s on the outside, not the inside.”

“Well, it can’t be. There’s no fog tonight.”

“Obviously, there is,” Paige shot back through clenched teeth.

“There isn’t,” Dewey retorted before shouting across the room, “Lexa, is it foggy?”

Blue light filled the room for a moment before a female voice answered, “There is no fog in Shadow Harbor this evening. You can expect clear weather with a low of fifty-three degrees.”

“There, you see,” Dewey said. “No fog.”

Paige slid her eyes closed as she flexed her jaw. “Then what is all over the window, Dewey?”

“I don’t know, Paige. But it can’t be–“

Another bang resounded.

Paige stumbled back a few steps. Dewey wrapped his arms around her neck and squeezed.

Two red eyes peered through the tiny opening in the blinds. A screech sounded as claws scratched down the glass.

“AHHHHHHH!” they screamed simultaneously.

“RUN!” Dewey screeched, still clinging to Paige.

Paige spun on a heel as the claws continued to paw at the glass and raced from the room into the living room. She skidded across the hardwood in her socks, glancing around the space as she sucked in hard breaths.

She grabbed at Dewey’s arm and tugged. “You’re choking me.”

“Oh, oops, sorry,” Dewey said, releasing his death grip on her neck and trading it for wrapping his arms around her head.

“Ow, Dewey!” she shouted, her voice muffled by his scaly skin.

“Sorry, Paige, but there is a day-walking vampire scratching at your window,” he said through clenched teeth.

Paige’s eyes widened as she scanned the room. “No kidding! And it’s after me. And it’s definitely not trying to protect me like Blade.”

Paige pressed a palm to her forehead. “What are we going to do? Should we leave?”

“Go outside? Are you crazy?”

“Well, I don’t know. Clearly, it’s trying to get into the apartment. Maybe we should go to your nest at the library and hide out.”

Dewey let go of Paige’s head and flew into the air, hovering in front of her. “Uh-uh, no way. I’m not going out there with that thing lurking around. It could kill us! Well, me. It won’t be able to find you.”

Paige swallowed hard, her lips forming a grimace. “Maybe if we–“

A loud crash interrupted her statement.

They both whipped their heads in the direction of the noise. Crisp air gusted past them from Paige’s bedroom.

Paige shot a wide-eyed glance at Dewey. “It broke the window!” she whispered.

Dewey winced and uttered one word. “Hide!”

Paige nodded, scanning the room again in search of a hiding place. Panic laced her thoughts as feet slapped across the floor of the adjacent room.