Page 71 of Bright Soul

Something like fear lit in his bloody gaze, along with something pleading, something that said,“Maybe three million?”

“I don’t want your blood money. I don’t want your contacts or your resources or even your pocket dimensions,” I told that expression, hoping to see that light of hope die when he realized he was about to pay for his sins.

He glanced away and made a muffled sound. It wasn’t until Phaeron spoke that I realized he’d snuck up on us out of the shadows. “There’s one thing I want before you go on.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin. “Goddamn, Big P. We’ve got to put a bell on you,” I muttered.

“I would not wear it, Little B,” he said.

I stepped aside for him, figuring he had a few things to say to Garroway after his time under the tender mercies of him and Myuna. Phaeron looked like he’d rolled in flour, something white and powdery smeared on his face, horns, and clothes. Otherwise, he seemed…fine? Maybe better than fine, with somenew confidence in how he held himself. Cress eyed him closely, and he winked back at her before reaching for Garroway.

He unbuckled the sword strapped at the vampire’s side with one hand and the aid of his shadows. More muffled sounds came from Garroway, along with a futile thrash of his whole body.

Phaeron fastened the sword to his belt and tipped his head my way. “Sorry to interrupt. Might I help? Though it looks like you all have it well in hand.”

Well, that was the gist of my grand revenge speech anyway. I glanced up at the peaceful blue sky left now that the storm had passed. “He needs to greet the sun,” I said.

“I’ll carry him,” Geo rumbled.

“And I’ll keep him bound in shadows,” Cress said in a two-toned voice.

I saluted them playfully, and together, they took him down to the bottom floor. Phaeron offered his free hand, the other curled in a loose fist. “Little B?” I asked.

“If you must call me something silly, am I not permitted to do the same?”

“I think…” I slowly grinned up at him and took his hand. “I’m finally rubbing off on you.”

“Frightening.” He grinned back, baring his fangs, then turned into shadows slower than normal, giving me plenty of warning to close my eyes before we were jerked to another location.

When I felt tile below my feet again, I jumped back in surprise with a shout of “holy shit!” A massive rat-shaped unnatural scurried toward the doors we’d entered the mall through, joining a stampede of monsters and people alike. They hadn’t bothered with the mechanism of the doors, instead going straight through the glass in the middle.

Cress, Geo, and a viciously struggling Garroway stood just to the side, while Phaeron and I had landed amidst a groupof stragglers. I palmed a dagger, but these unnaturals weren’t interested in fighting anymore. They ran like their life depended on it.

“She’s taken control of them. She knows we’d kill them otherwise,” Phaeron remarked. He casually grew shadow talons and ended the lives of a pair of rat creatures that brought up the rear. Whatever good cheer that’d come over him faded quickly as he dragged the corpses outside by their naked tails. “They took the torchbearers I unbound from her will. And the burn pile.”

“Looks like we’re not going to be invited to do another supply run anytime soon,” I snarked.

Unfortunately, this was being recorded on stream, which meant Roe’s mom was going to bepissed. The truck was destroyed—the wheels popped by ragged slashes, the doors and hood torn clean off. Truck guts littered the front of the mall. Here, a half-shredded seat; there, a chunk of metal that could’ve been part of the engine torn straight from the front.

“Roe is going to be so mad we didn’t bring her,” Cress whispered.

Phaeron had ditched the rats to help pick up and bind Garroway instead. He had the ankles in one hand while Geo had the shoulders. The vampire resembled a worm with how he was bound in two layers of shadowy ropes and reduced to squirming as the two men carried him out of the shade of the building.

“Right here’s great,” I said. They dropped him on the wet pavement, and I made sure he was face-up to greet the sun properly. His skin was already starting to redden as rays kissed his face.

“That looks like it hurts,” I taunted the vampire, squatting by his head. Phaeron lingered close by, weaving shadows back into place when the sun threatened to fray away the ropes that bound Garroway.

“In your most needy moments, where is the goddess who declared you her right hand?” the dimensional added with a low chuckle. He was watching for Garroway’s death nearly as avidly as I was. Did that make us a fucked-up pair?

I pulled the phone out of its sling, swiftly killing the stream and pulling the mic off my ear before Bianca could cuss me out. The public didn’t need to see us gloating over this.

Black spots broke out over Garroway’s face, the skin charring and flaking away. “I want you to remember how many people you killed like this. Burning in their own agony, often from the inside out,” I said with a sneer.

The shadowy gag was wearing away, poorly muffling his screams. He jerked, trying to roll over and hide from the unforgiving sun. Obsidian hands seized his legs, slamming him back onto his back. Geo nodded toward us and backed his shadow away. He put his arm around Cress, who watched from a healthy distance, a concerned frown on her face.

I pinned the vampire’s shoulders down, careful of any snapping fangs as the heat damage accelerated. “Better enjoy the coolest moments left,” I said with malicious glee. “Hell is hotter still.”

His skin and facial hair caught fire, his whole body going concave as he entered the last stages of burning to ash. Garroway’s screams faded to one last moan of agony before only char remained of him and what he’d been wearing. The breeze started to break apart the man shape left around the burnt clothing when Phaeron and Cress withdrew their shadows.

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