The monster shrieks and recoils just outside a framedwooden doorway, the bones of his hand and upper forearm fully exposed.
I glance up to see we’ve burst into a largeish room. We must have crossed the threshold into the church. Collin was right. Like sunlight, holy ground appears to be another vampire weakness.
Rafa drops me to the ground and spins around, discarding his shotgun and raising a stake in his fist. Dozens of savage crimson eyes now glare at us from outside the building. The vampires pile on top of each other, heaving forward, desperate to get in.
But their writhing bodies are held back more than a foot away from the threshold. They can’t move past it. We’re safe.
I lie on my side on the dirty wooden floor, not wanting to move. We seem to have gone in through the back of the building, and now we’re in an unlit vestibule. Weathered coat rack. Bulletin board with colorful but faded announcements. The smell of old wood, furniture polish, and lingering incense. There’s a door to an office on the side. A narrow hallway behind us leads deeper into the church.
The elf—chest heaving, blood streaming over the gashes in his armor—collapses in a corner. The floorboards creak under him. His sword, still frosty, lays at his side on the hardwood. “Well done, everyone. Top marks. Now what?”
“Shut up. I’m thinking…” Rafa says.
“Think faster. Several of those creatures might be sticking around to guard us, but at least a dozen of them just left—to summon human allies, I would imagine. Tellme, Hunter, will you be as comfortable using your shotgun on them?”
Rafa’s body tenses and his head snaps toward the fae, clearly wanting to give him a piece of his mind. “For fuck’s sake?—”
But on the way, his eyes land on me, sprawled on the ground. And just as quickly, his fury dissolves. “Christ…”
He kneels next to my shoulder. “Alvin… how are you doing?”
HowamI doing?
I’ve now rolled onto my back in the middle of the floor. I can barely lift my arms. My body feels like it’s been run through a meat grinder, both inside and out. My throat is raw from sour stomach acid I can still taste. I’m exhausted. And I'm covered in my own bloody vomit, which is crusting on my face.
“I’m fine, Rafa,” I say, not wanting to be any more trouble than I already have been. I try to smile in a reassuring way.
He knows it’s bullshit, but he’s not pushing me. Instead, he leans in, voice quiet. “I’m out of shotgun shells. The elf is useless. We’re not getting through those vampires, and it’s hours until dawn. Your, uh, friend wouldn’t have any other miracles for us, would he?”
I glance over at the handsome blond spirit who only I can see. He is pacing around the room, touching things, like he’s taking inventory.
“Collin, we’re still in trouble,” I say. My voice sounds very rough.
As soon as I turn to him, he appears beside me.
“I know. And you’re badly hurt. It’s affecting yoursenses, which means I’m only getting so much. Feeding would sort everything”—I get an elbow under me to sit up to protest, and he immediately raises his palm, conciliatory, which allows me to settle back down—“but I know that’s off the table. For loads of reasons. If we had more time, we could call in help, perhaps even from law enforcement, but—” His head jerks toward the side office. I hear something wet splash against the wall just outside the building, a sloshing splatter followed by another and then another. “Shite. They move so fast. And they’re clever.”
“Rafa,” I say. “Look out the office window. What are they doing?”
He jogs into the side room, not appearing half as tired as me or the elf. “There are three of them. They’ve got a large red jug with a spout that they just threw to the side, and now one of them is… Oh,fuck.”
I push myself up fully. With a whoosh, a flickering orange glow springs up behind the panes of glass in front of Rafa. It’s quickly followed by the acrid chemical stench of burning gasoline.
These vampiresareclever. They’re setting the church on fire.
3
It’samazing how fast things burn.
There’s a roar of ignition around the entire structure of the church that sends vibrations through the walls. Tongues of flame stab up into view, flickering snake-like through the office window. Faint crackling drifts down the hall from the nave where the front doors must be. Every possible way out of the building is blocked.
Except the back door, of course, where all the vampires are. That’s the one escape route they left open, the one exterior wall they didn’t splash with gasoline. The creatures have conveniently backed off several yards, just enough to give the illusion that we might be able to make it past them.
Vampires are supposed to be scared of fire. I’ve seen for myself they’re flammable. But apparently these ones can think like humans—very evil, very motivated humans—so I guess they figure the risk-reward ratio works out in their favor. They aren’t wrong.
My eyes immediately start to sting. There’s a tickle in the back of my throat. They say it’s not the fire that gets you, but the smoke—and there’s a lot that can burn here.
The elf thrusts himself back on his feet. “Alvin Alonso! You have the Avatar.Fixthis!” His expression is desperate, his eyes wide.
