Amaa watched, amused, as Taas held his hand out. His eyes were focusing on the center of his palm in deep concentration. It was nearly ten o’clock at night. The moon was well on its way to rising, but with all of the spring rain it was hidden behind the heavy clouds. After they had checked on the dragon portal, they still weren’t ready to go back to the mansion. Needing to blow off steam, they decided to venture into the city to see if they could locate any of the rogue vampires.

Once there, Taas, who earlier discovered why his hands were burning and tingling, decided to show Amaa his new talent. The only problem was, it wasn’t working as fast as he wanted it to.

“I’m waiting,” Amaa said wryly, knowing his tone would frustrate the other vampire.

“Give me a moment,” Taas snapped. “It’s working. Watch.” He switched his focus back to his open hand, pouring concentration into it until a small but bright blood flame erupted in the center of his palm. It was as if the entire flame were comprised of rippling blood. A wide smile spread across his face and he looked triumphantly over at Amma.

“Ha! I told you.” He boasted. He moved his hand left and right, up and down, and the flame followed each time. When he closed his fist, it vanished, as if it were never there to begin with.

“Badass, huh?” He went on, nudging Amaa in the ribs. When he only responded with a grunt, Taas sombered.

“I know it’s small now but I’ll work on it. I’ll be able to throw crimson fireballs soon, just watch.”

Amaa rolled his eyes. “You know you could have just developed that naturally, right? You’re three-hundred and twenty-six years old. It’s not uncommon for vampires to start gaining other abilities after the age of two-hundred or so. It could have nothing to do with her becoming part of our coven.”

Taas shook his head as he stared at Amaa.

“I don’t get you, brother. One minute you’re pushing me to give Sam a chance, the next you’re not, then all over again. What’s going on? Do you not like her or something?”

Amaa let out a frustrated sigh and stood up. He focused on some far off spot on the city skyline, and crossed his arms.

“It’s not her,” he said at last. “Of course, I like her. We all do. She’s smart, beautiful, has a fun sense of humor. What’s not to like?”

Taas shrugged. “I don’t get it then,” he admitted.

Amaa grabbed for Taas’s hands, holding both palms up. “Keep practicing,” he urged, “new powers are very unstable, and with what we have going on, you don’t know when we’ll have to use it.”

He fell silent for a long time before he started talking again, but Taas, knowing his brother needed patience, took his coven brother’s advice and continued practicing with his Red Fyre until Amaa was ready to talk once more.

“Sulma was wrong before,” he said at last, breaking the silence. “About what he said in regards to my previous beloved. And to be honest, it’s really bothering me that he found it so easy to discredit my experience. He wasn’t there, so he has no idea how attached I was to Twila. She was beautiful. From the outside in, she was just…radiant. She wasn’t the problem. Another house wanted her, so they kidnapped a witch and forced her to cast a spell over the house.

“Our leader ended up killing Twila before setting himself on fire. Two other members ran far and fast. I’ve never seen them again. And from what my sources tell me, Loran has somehow ended up at the House Gormeth. As for me, I lived in solitude for nearly six decades before I ran into Sulma and found House Rinna.”

Taas’s eyebrows went up in surprise, letting his fire die down. “Damn. That’s horrible, brother. I’m sorry that happened.”

“Me too,” Amaa rasped, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I got bad for a while. Real bad. The things I did…the people I hurt, it can’t be taken back. I did those things out of pain for my lost beloved, and when Sulma said what he did I just…” His voice trailed off as he pinched his eyes shut and shook his head.

“Why didn’t you tell Sulma that?” Taas asked, his tone low. “That’s a lot of important information that I’m positive he wouldn’t have ignored.

Amaa looked at him, his ice blue eyes gleaming with blood tears.

“How could I? I could barely admit it to just you while we were alone. The heartache… the pain that comes from losing a beloved…it’s almost too much to bare. I think we all lost our minds for a long while afterwards.

“I know that Sam is a real beloved, and I’m beyond relieved to have one in my life again, but-” He shook his head, having trouble forming the last words. “You have no idea how much it will destroy you if she is lost.”

Taas examined his brother. He knew he was in pain, but it seemed as if there was no cure for his particular kind. He knew his other brothers thought that he didn’t like Sam as much as they did, but they were wrong. The moment she fell into his arms that first morning, he knew that she was his. He had thought that he’d get the chance to hold her again, but every spare moment she had had seemed to be spent in the library. His mind went zooming trying to figure out how to tell Amaa such things, or even offer him condolences, when a strong western wind pushed in a foul scent.

Taas nearly gagged at the stench of rotting flesh as he reached over and shook Amaa’s shoulder.

“We have company,” he growled, moving to the edge of the rooftop.

Amaa lifted his nose to the wind, caught the scent, and nodded. Closing his eyes, he used his enhanced sense of smell to find their exact location.

“How many do you think?” Taas asked.

“Six,” he replied. “And they have already found their way into a sorority house. We have to go. Now.”

Immediately Amaa took a step off the rooftop, letting his body fall to the ground where he landed as silently and softly as a feather. Taas joined him a mere second later, and together they headed towards the house. With their speed, they were there in less than a minute. The door had been ripped from the hinges, which meant that the other vampires used fear to accrue an invitation.

“We need in,” Taas urged, his head moving around to catch a glimpse into the front hall.

“I got it,” Amaa replied, his eyes closed as his fingers drew symbols into the door frame. It was a basic spell, nothing that would impress a High Witch, but it was more than enough to get the job done. The spell was effective, but temporary. It only granted them an invitation for a half hour or so, which meant they had to hurry. The moment the mystical barrier was down they charged in, finding the problem relatively easily.

They detected only three humans in the house, and the other vampires had gathered them into the kitchen area. They had two of them laid out on the countertops, obviously in a thrall of some sort. Their eyes, wide and glossy, were empty as they stared up at the bottom of the cupboards. The other girl was still awake, and being passed around like a can of soda. As they took turns drinking from her, they were making crude jokes about who was going to take the last drink when Amaa kicked the door open and he and Taas flew into the room, fangs bared.

“Look who joined the party!” One dark-haired, dark complected vampire announced. He had the blonde tight in his grip, her long strands of hair acting as a leash for him to hold on to. She whimpered as he jerked her, her face one of pure terror.

“Did you come to have dinner with us?” Another vampire asked. “There weren’t as many in the house as we had hoped. I’m afraid we’ll have to go somewhere else for dessert.”

“This is our territory,” Amaa said, his tone dangerous. “You know good and well that no killing is allowed here, especially by you. Baltimore is a protected city.”

The man holding the blonde pulled her body closer until her back was flushed to his chest. With his hand still gripping her hair, he yanked her head to the left until her neck was completely open to him.

“We’re hungry,” he hissed, exposing his fangs. “We’ll leave when we’ve finished. If you have a problem with it you can take it up with the house leaders, they’re the ones who allowed us to travel here.”

As if to prove his point, he lifted the blonde and sank his fangs into her with a fresh bite. The girl struggled in his arm as she screamed in fear. Amaa was on him in an instant, grabbing the bigger vampire by the nostrils like a hook to pull him away from the girl. He howled in pain and tried to get himself turned around to fight Amaa, but despite the other vampire nearly being twice his size, he was able to pick him up rather easily and toss him into his friends as if he weighed nothing more than an average bowling ball.

The big vampire crashed into his friends with great force, knocking them all down and cracking the tile beneath them.

“I think that’s a strike,” Taas joked.

“Your turn,” Amaa told him, “use that little fyre trick you showed me.”

Taas let out a grunt of laughter before he called the flame back into his palm. This time he let it grow, pulling all of his strength from his core as the flames grew to the size of a volleyball. With a battle roar Taas let the ball of flames go, shooting it straight into the group of vampires. Within seconds they were dashing outside, screaming in pain as their bodies became engulfed in flames. They knew all too well that they had precious seconds before the fire turned them to ash. Vampires were sensitive to sunlight, but there were two things they feared most of all: silver and fire. Those two meant intense pain and death. The Elder Vampires were less vulnerable, but even they avoided those elements.

Amaa went after them, making sure they all met their end. When he came back, he found Taas on his knees, shaking and pale. His gift for pyrotechnics was new, and unstable. Growing a new gift took months, so when Taas grew his so large and fast, it was the equivalent of a human attempting to first run a 50k marathon, then swim the length of the English Channel immediately after.

“Easy,” Amaa warned, helping Taas up. “Are you okay?”

Taas leaned heavily on the countertop, but nodded his head yes. Lifting his eyes, he looked over at Amaa and smiled.

“That was actually kind of fun.”

Amaa let out a stressed laugh, and clapped Taas on the back. “Good.”

“Did I get them?” Taas asked, wiping a trickle of blood from his nose.

“Damn straight, you did,” Amaa replied. “And don’t worry, I made sure they all turned to ash. Come on. Let’s get these girls to bed and go home. I’ve had enough excitement for one night.”

Taas was about to agree when from behind them, the sound of clapping began. An all too familiar scent tangled itself in Amaa’s nostrils, and all the hairs on the back of his neck seemed to stand and shake with rage.

“Amaa, our little brother,” the vampire greeted, stretching out his arms as if open to a hug. “It’s been so long. You don’t call. You don’t write. Then suddenly you burn six of my brothers. What’s with that?”

“I had a feeling that this mess was your doing, Belal,” Amaa bit out, turning to face his old coven member. The vampire was at least eight hundred years old, but he didn’t look a day over forty. He was great at replicating human characteristics. Even when they were living together, Amaa and the others, even Twila, used to call him The Professor, because he just looked the part so well. He looked old, but not decrepit. He had kind blue eyes and an endearing voice that just made women want to trust him, and many let him lead them right to their deaths. Being a perfect predator, he never let his victims know they were going to die until he was ready for them to.

“Oh, I’m sure you did,” Belal mused, walking slowly into the kitchen. “Our little warlock.” He looked over to Taas and laughed outright. “This is who you run with now? He’s even more green than you were when we took you in! Does he know how we saved your life? A little baby vampire that couldn’t stop killing his prey?”

“That was a long time ago,” Amaa snarled. “I’m a different person now, and you? You’re nothing more than a thieving son of a bitch who’s willing to start a territory war because you’re too much of a little pissant to not teach your coven the proper way to feed!”

Belal shook his head and tsked his tongue.

“We have lines,” Taas gasped, fighting to stay upright. Blood trickled out of his nose and tear ducts, a sign of internal weakness.

“Territories for hunting. You’re not supposed to be here.”

“And you, my dear boy, aren’t supposed to be able to throw fireballs either, and yet that happened.” Belal shook his head slowly, a dark chuckle rising from his throat.

“I’m guessing you’ve found another beloved, Amaa? Good for you.” He smiled as he read their faces. “Yes, yes that must be it. You must be good at drawing them in. After all, wasn’t it you that brought Twila to us?”

“Leave her out of this,” Amaa growled, his fangs growing larger.

Belal scoffed. “Well, enjoy her while you can, because I’ll be coming for her. Beloveds are my favorite snack, in case you can’t remember.” He hitched his thumb towards Amaa as he turned his focus to Taas.

“He used to get so upset when I would feed off her and not heal her wounds,” he said, an evil smile on his face.

“You’re not coming anywhere near her,” Taas snarled, pouring the rest of his energy into a final blast of fire aimed at Belal’s chest.

Amaa held the young, blue-haired woman in his arms, looking deep into her eyes. He smiled warmly at her as he brushed a stray lock away from her cheek. Getting them released from the other vampires’ thrall had taken a complicated spell, but he was finally able to erase it and use his own.

“You’re safe,” he soothed, his voice gentle. “And warm in your bed. Nothing happened in the kitchen earlier. In fact, you don’t remember coming out of your room at all at night. You just stayed up here, listened to music, and read all night. Do you understand?”

The blue-haired woman nodded her head as she smiled pleasantly back up at Amaa. “Yes, and I’m dreaming now. That’s why you’re so handsome. You’re not real.”

“That’s right, cupcake,” Amaa told her, easing her back into her bed. “I’m just a figment of your dreams. Now close your eyes. I know you’re tired.”

She nodded her head once, then completely lost consciousness. The blue-haired girl was the last one he needed to hypnotize. He took his leave and went towards his friend.

“How are you doing, Taas?” He asked as he came down the stairs.

From his slumped, seated position Taas looked up at Amaa with his glazed dark green eyes, and gave him the smallest of smiles.

“I don’t think I’ve felt this weak since I was a human,” he admitted, shaking his head. “Of all the things I thought would happen, this was not it.”

“You did great,” Amaa told him, sitting on his haunches. “I had no idea you were going to do that.”

“Neither did I,” Taas admitted. “I was so furious at that asshole I didn’t even feel my hands burning. It just all rushed from me at once.”

“Well, it was awesome. And it saved our asses. Belal is…different. Even for a vampire, he’s especially cruel and twisted. You did the best thing you could have done.”

Taas smiled, his breathing labored as he struggled to lift his hand in the air.

“Thank you, thank you, I’ll be here all week.” He tried to laugh, but choked up blood.

“Okay Jim Carrey, let’s get you home and cleaned up.” Amaa scooped Taas up into his arms easily. He carried him out of the house, both of them cringing in pain as they crossed the silver.

The protection spell went live just as they stepped off the porch, and Amaa breathed a sigh of relief that they had made it out in one piece. After taking a final glance back at the house, he started running towards the mansion, their figure nothing but a blurred shadow slipping through the night.

When they were almost there, he felt Taas’s grip on consciousness start to slip.

“Your powers are new and aren’t used to being exercised so vigorously,” Amaa told him, picking up speed. But don’t worry. Sam can fix you right up. She’ll have you right as rain in no time.”