Page 111 of Let Sleeping Vampires Lie

Somewhere in the chaos, Marcus cursed.

I felt him. Off to the left, moving along the edge of the seating area, angling toward the stage. He was not running for an exit. He was trying to intercept.

Good.

If we survived, I would forgive him for being smarter than I had expected.

“Cass,” Con shouted. “Do not use the fire.”

He saw it rising. He always did.

“I have no choice,” I said.

I had one, actually.

Let the monsters take the serum and live, or stop them and risk everything.

The answer had never changed for me.

I stepped into the aisle and opened myself.

Magic flooded my veins.

The bond with Raven flickered, then surged. I felt her, miles away, sitting in her room with Rene, suddenly straightening as fire licked across our shared connection.

“Sorry,” I whispered.

I drew in a breath and pulled.

Heat answered.

It roared up from a place beneath the bones of the earth, from the blood of everything I had ever burned. It ran down my arms, gathered in my palms, wrapped around my fingers like living light.

It hurt.

It always hurt when I pushed too far.

Flame licked across my skin, not as normal fire, but as something leaner and hungrier.

The first mercenary coming down our row did not have time to react.

I thrust my hand forward and released a narrow arc of white-gold fire.

It hit him square in the chest.

No scream. His body simply lit from within for a fraction of a second. Flesh turned to ash, metal warped, bone cracked, and then he was gone. A smear of blackened residue on the marble.

The seats around him remained untouched.

Patrons nearby flinched but were not burned.

I had not aimed at them.

Magic listened to intention when it felt like this. Wild, unstable, dangerous, but still mine.

For now.

Another soldier charged.