I leapt toward them, knowing that my sprint wouldn’t get me there in time to keep the vampire from ripping off Shane’s head. Even as my feet left the sand, I saw Newton motion from the corner of my eye. I shot forward like I had a rocket attached to my back. I thought I was going to zoom over them, but my body was whipped downward, crashing into the vampire’s levitating form, then colliding with the earth.
Shane howled again as an invisible force dragged him from where the three of us landed, the vampire’s claw ripping free of its hold inside his jaw.
“Now!”
Caitlin’s furious voice was enough to cause my body to take over, and a sphere of flame engulfed the beach with the vampire and me at its epicenter.
I watched the skin char and get eaten away from the vampire’s skull in a slow-motion instant. In the glow of the flames, his bones shone brilliant white before they too began to blacken.
“Stop, Brett!”
He was the eyeless monster who’d stood over me in the alley, his foot raised above my head.
Only his fangs continued to gleam.
“Stop! Brett, we need him!”
Caitlin’s cries cut through the trance of the vampire’s hypnotizing death.
I waited a heartbeat longer, desperate to see him crumble into ash.
“For the mers, Brett! For Finn.”
I called the fire back within me, the sudden absence of flames leaving the scorched beach unnaturally dark.
Nothing but a skeleton remained beneath my fingers. My skin glistened bright white over the blackened monstrosity.
“Get up, Brett.” Newton gingerly touched my shoulder. “Quick, there’s not much time.”
I didn’t move, only continued to stare down at the creature that had haunted my dreams. “I think I really killed him. I tried to stop.”
Newton pulled at my shoulder now. “You didn’t. Get up.”
Caitlin gasped and stepped closer. “Holy fuck.”
Even as I kneeled on the skeleton, charred fibers began to weave their way over the bones, making a paper-thin layer of tissue. It reminded me of seeing Finn repair the damage I’d done to his bedroom all those millenniums ago, the fabric of his headboard weaving itself back together.
Another second and a thicker layer separated the bone from the air.
“Get up, Brett.”
This time I did as the fairy commanded.
I glanced up at Newton. The planes of his face were drawn in a mask of power I wouldn’t have thought possible of the waifish-looking fairy.
“I’ve got this, Caitlin. Help the wolf.”
“He’ll be—”
He didn’t take his eyes off the vampire as he snapped at her. “Argue later, witch. Help the wolf.”
I glanced over at Shane, his now-naked human body crumpled and bleeding several yards away, close to the trees. Caitlin’s shoes sprayed sand behind her as she hurried toward him.
Feeling like I was betraying him, I turned my attention away from Shane and looked back at the vampire. Although still miles away from truly resembling anything human, the layers of tissue were now thick enough to hide the bones beneath.
“Stay back, Brett, but be ready, I may need you to burn him again. I don’t know how long before his brain will regenerate to the point his body will function again.”
I scrambled back, giving him space. Newton had described how the vampire’s body would respond after being burnt, but I hadn’t quite grasped what’d he’d meant. Maybe it was impossible for me to actually kill a vampire. Even with my fire.
