Page 37 of Desperately Seeking Vampire
“What’s the best way to destroy a spell?” I asked the love of my life when the crowd broke out into several shouts of approval.
“Burn it?” Ivo said, glancing at the others.
“I would say that’s the best method,” Christian answered.
“We’re going to burn it, OK?” I asked the women.
“With all due respect,” Wanda said after a minute, when two of the women consulted with her, “we’d like to see you do it. Just so everyone can make sure it’s gone, and we can get back. I need to pump like something crazy since Janet here didn’t want to switch nipples for dinner.”
“Do we have a lighter—ah. Thank you. Um.”
“Would you like me to do it?” Ivo asked.
“You light it, and I’ll hold it until the fire is too close to my fingers,” I instructed, and opened the box.
A hush fell on the crowd, even the three wizards who had fought one another now quiet. Gingerly, I picked up the bit of vellum by the corner that was free from any writing, holding it up for the people to see.
There were a number of ooohs and aaahs; then I held it over the open box, and nodded at Ivo. “Go ahead.”
He flicked the lighter a few times until he got a flame that wobbled in the slight breeze, cupping his hand around it as he held it to the opposite edge. It took a few seconds before the vellum caught on fire, but almost immediately I noticed two things: the first was a horrible oily black smoke that billowed off the scrap and immediately wrapped around my wrist, and the other was that faint red symbols were visible for a second in the smoke.
“Drop it!” Ivo commanded, his voice hard as stone.
Surprised by the vehemence, I did as he ordered, letting the spell fall into the box. He slammed the lid closed on it.
“Why did you do that?” I whispered, glancing worriedly at the crowd. “It won’t be able to burn in there.”
“Didn’t you see the symbols? The spell almost touched you. If it had done so, you would have been its new receptacle.”
The people below us looked puzzled for a moment; then a few gave a feeble cheer.
“That’s it!” I called to them, and, holding my hand strategically so as to hide the half-burned bit of vellum, displayed the interior of the box. “It’s gone.”
“Well, that’s a relief. Now I can go pump. Come along, Gary. We’ll see to your collarbone back in town,” Wanda told her husband, who was listing heavily to one side.
The rest of the people seemed disinclined to leave, their torches wavering as they hesitated to follow Wanda and her hurt wizard.
At least they hesitated until Finch called out, “Shall we move this gathering to the Flogged Bishop? First round is on me!” The torches were raised high in tribute before there was a general stampede down the road toward the town.
“What are we going to do?” I asked Ivo, who had taken the box from me and was studying the bit of vellum.
“It’ll have to be destroyed. It’s too powerful to remain as is.”
“Perhaps if we use some sort of tongs to hold it?” Finch suggested.
“We can try that,” Christian agreed, and disappeared inside only to return a few seconds later with fireplace tongs, which he handed to Ivo.
“I’ll hold it this time,” he told me. “You light it.”
“Are you being brave, protective, or thoughtful?” I asked, taking the lighter from him.
“All three?” he asked.
“That’s going to earn you bonus forms of physical demonstrations of just how much I love you. Go on, my brave poet. Burn that sucker up so we can go to your room and do an untold number of carnal things to each other.”
He managed to get the scrap clutched by the wrought iron of the fireplace tongs, and held it out for me. I lit it, then stepped back when he gestured me away.
“Just in case the smoke goes for you—shit!”
