I couldn't just scare her off, or she'd leave with my jacket. I didn't want to kill her, not when she hadn't even attacked me yet. But I did have a trick that might work for this.
I hadn't used it in a while. It was never meant to see combat, it had always been intended to scare Molly straight- and it had done that job admirably- but I was pretty sure I could pull it off.
I cupped my free hand and whispered, "Fuego." Gathering my anger, my frustration, and- let's not kid ourselves- my utter terror at being alone in a house with a barely-restrained vampire after my blood, I worked it all into a tiny, focused ball of flame.
It wasn't large- maybe half an inch across- but it was intense, light and heat radiating from it enough to leave my palm uncomfortably warm as it floated between my fingers.
But this time, I didn't want a slow, steady progression. That wasn't the point I was trying to make, here. Instead, I dropped my hand with a gesture, and it flew toward the vampire, pausing inches from her face.
"Now, apparently you're not the kind of vamp I'm familiar with, so I just have to ask. How do you guys respond to fire?"
This bluff was becoming exhausting. I was wearing myself out quickly, between my desperate focus on the pentacle in my hand and the intensity with which I was holding together my fire spell.
Yeah, the whole 'magic dampening' effect in this village could bite me.
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I couldn't just scare her off, or she'd leave with my jacket. I didn't want to kill her, not when she hadn't even attacked me yet. But I did have a trick that might work for this.
I hadn't used it in a while. It was never meant to see combat, it had always been intended to scare Molly straight- and it had done that job admirably- but I was pretty sure I could pull it off.
I cupped my free hand and whispered, "Fuego." Gathering my anger, my frustration, and- let's not kid ourselves- my utter terror at being alone in a house with a barely-restrained vampire after my blood, I worked it all into a tiny, focused ball of flame.
It wasn't large- maybe half an inch across- but it was intense, light and heat radiating from it enough to leave my palm uncomfortably warm as it floated between my fingers.
But this time, I didn't want a slow, steady progression. That wasn't the point I was trying to make, here. Instead, I dropped my hand with a gesture, and it flew toward the vampire, pausing inches from her face.
"Now, apparently you're not the kind of vamp I'm familiar with, so I just have to ask. How do you guys respond to fire?"
This bluff was becoming exhausting. I was wearing myself out quickly, between my desperate focus on the pentacle in my hand and the intensity with which I was holding together my fire spell.
Yeah, the whole 'magic dampening' effect in this village could bite me.