Page 118 of Solar Shadows

The figures joined me in the dark, losing their shape. Nothing but flickering fireflies of solar light hovering around me.

Ugh. Now what?

“Time to burn,” Tony said, his voice bouncing in the darkness around me.

The fireflies glimmered in response.

He cast a spell to break the door down, calling, “Open!”

The door flew off its hinges, crashing down the hallway beyond.

Dim lights shone in sconces on blood-red walls, the shadows around the edges of the glow looking alive.

Goosebumps prickled up my arms, but Tony stomped across the mahogany floor without a care in the world.

A vampire leaped from an open door on the right, crashing into him. He slammed into the wall, knocking a painting off its hook, the vampire moving so quickly she had her fangs buried in his neck within seconds.

Make thatmyneck. And I felt nothing, sealed away from all physical sensation.

Others arrived, moving around us, muttering, too many to count.

“Your turn!” he cried. “Your turn!”

Who was he shouting at? Me? He could get fucked.

“I’ll just watch, thanks,” I retorted.

The vampires closed in, and for a moment I thought they’d drain him dry enough to give me my body back. Then I’d take the lead and make this right.

Only, he shouted, “Your turn!” again, and clapped out the white magic in his hands.

Oh. Shit.

A surge of buzzing power shot through me, thedarkness of my prison bathed in daylight. The fireflies swirled around me, picking up speed until they conjured a violent wind.

“Tony!” I roared, unable to do anything but stand here in the spinning gale, this prison crumbling around me.

“Make me proud, babe!” he bellowed.

I returned to my body completely, my hands ablaze with golden fire. Pain scratched at my neck, and I felt blood running from the vampire bite.

“Kill him!” a voice hissed.

The vampires were still there, keeping their distance, none of them attacking on account of the pool of sunlight around me.

My turn,I thought.This is my turn.

Shit. That wasn’t me. Not really. Whatever Tony had done to me still held the reins and the whip.

Our turn,many voices spoke, my ears aching as if enduring too much noise.Release us. Release us and let us burn as we should.

“I won’t let you,” I rebutted, sweat pouring down my face. Every inch of me was tight and throbbing with resistance. A real strain on everything, a battle I was losing as the figures inside me fidgeted, desperate for release, longing to be out there to burn, burn, burn. They would kill every vampire in this house, making Tony’s wishes come true.

He was right. It wasn’t easy to kill a vampire. Sunlight did it, as did cutting off their head with a silver blade, or by setting them on fire. Oh, and youcould make them sick with garlic, which always seemed weird to me.

But they were cunning, clever enough to live their lives safely. And why kill them? They never bothered anyone and didn’t drink blood they weren’t allowed to drink. Probably the safest race in the world, barring a few incidents back in ancient times. But things were wilder in general back then.

Much wilder, although this current timeline was giving them a run for their money.