Page 119 of Solar Shadows

“Get out…get out of here…” I warned the vampires. “It’s not…it’s not safe.”

Shania appeared then, arriving in her famous red pantsuit, her hair raven-black, striking against the luminous white glow of her skin.

“Leave this house,” she demanded, her vampires filing out around her.

“Be careful, mistress,” a man warned. “He is The Sun.”

“I know who he is.” She spoke in her famous lascivious tone which sounded like she was about to indulge in some dirty talk.

“I don’t…I don’t want to hurt you…” I managed, the solar fuckers swelling, pressing against the confines of my internal barriers.

I couldn’t hold on for much longer.

Hurt her,the shadows whispered.Burn the things of the night away. You are the day. We are the day.

Fuck this. If I could get outside and away from this house, maybe?—

The shadows crashed harder into my barriers this time, almost breaking through.

Time was running out.

“Run!” I bellowed. “Run before…before it’s too late.”

Shania’s dark eyes widened, and she let out a mighty roar. “This is my house! I will not be chased out by anyone!”

“Please…” I tried, throat a pit of agony.

But she was having none of it, the pride rife in this vamp. “For three-hundred years I have ruled this house. And I will do so for another three-hundred.”

That long, eh? But there’d be no ruling anything in this life if she didn’t swallow her pride and haul ass.

Let her stay and let us out!

Shania moved toward me. “I’ll kill you before you hurt anyone here.”

Why wouldn’t she just listen to me? Clearly, seeing three centuries pass by did not a modest vampire make.

All I could do was move backward and try to get outside.

Let us out!the voices roared.

I clutched my head against the rise in sound, the heat in my hands intensifying, as if they were being held too close to a fire.

Our turn! Our turn! Our turn! We are pure now! We are able now!

To kill them all!

I staggered back, doing my best to cast them out,to do anything but be Tony’s puppet. But resistance really was futile in this fucked-up situation. These things got the better of me, kicking every wall down, seeping out into the real world. The pool of light expanded, the flames in my hands spreading up my arms.

What a plan Tony had concocted. Filter these things through me to become pure solar power, unleash them upon a vampire house, and make me the face of murder.

How amazing.

Not.

“Die, witch!” Shania roared.

The solar shadows tore out of me, killing her first. In a flash of light, her body collapsed into a pile of ash as quickly as a tissue paper meeting a log fire.