Page 56 of Let Sleeping Vampires Lie

A spike of fatigue punched behind my eyes. “You’re serious.”

She managed the ghost of a smile. “You didn’t come this far to stop at containment, did you?”

Con’s grip tightened. “That’s enough for tonight.”

“No,” Raven and I said together.

We shared a small, humorless laugh, then I focused again.

“All right,” I said. “Burning, but not too fast. If I scorch your core, Rene will kill me.”

“Rene will kiss you,” she murmured. “And then kill you.”

I huffed. “Fair.”

I focused on the first caged cluster of poison, now pulsing inside the ring of my magic. Carefully, I fed a trickle of heat into the construct. Not fire. Not lightning. Something steadier. A constant, white-hot glow that tightened the cage, heating the contents from all sides.

The poison stirred, writhing like something alive. It slammed against the walls of my construct, testing for weakness.

I didn’t give it any.

The longer I held the heat, the more the dense darkness began to break apart. Not spreading, but shrinking. The edges frayed, like ash disintegrating under pressure. Particles vaporized, dissolving into nothing as my power ate through them.

Raven groaned softly, fingers digging into my arm.

“Talk to me,” I said.

“It burns,” she whispered. “But… cleaner. Not like the blade. Like pulling thorns out.”

“Good,” I said. “I can work with thorns.”

I repeated the process with each cluster. Contain. Heat. Dissolve. Every round took more effort than the last. My own energy reserves drained steadily, leaving my limbs feeling heavier, my thoughts fuzzier around the edges.

At one point, my vision swam, and I swayed.

Con caught my shoulder in a firm grip. “Cass.”

“I’m fine,” I muttered. “Almost done.”

The last pocket of poison clung stubbornly, coiled near the deepest part of Raven’s center. It was smaller than the others, but denser, as if it had sunk its hooks in deeper.

“This one doesn’t want to go,” I said.

“It’s probably anchored,” Raven rasped. “A failsafe. You don’t have to⁠—”

“Yes. I do.”

I poured the remaining thread of my focus into the last cage. Heat wrapped around it, steady and relentless. The poison twisted, then finally began to unravel, fragment by fragment, until nothing remained but the echo of its presence.

I checked the pathways around her core again.

Clearer. Still bruised. Still raw. But no longer clogged with that oily corruption.

Raven drew a long, deeper breath. Her shoulders slumped, some of the tension draining from her frame.

“I can feel my magic again,” she whispered.

Relief punched through me so hard it nearly knocked me over.