Building From Ashes

She snarled and Declan pulled Jack up by his shoulder. “Jack,” he said. “Watch your mouth and tell us what happened.”

“This girl took me to one of the private rooms for a quick snack and…” He glanced at Brigid. “…well, a quick snack. She was gorgeous. And she smelled so good, I practically came just from sniffing her—”

“Just the facts, please,” Brigid said.

Jack scowled at her, but continued. “We were just getting down to business when I… What happened?” He squinted. “I don’t fecking remember, Dec. I think…” Jack reached over his shoulder. “Something pinched me.”

Declan frowned. “Pinched you?”

Jack was rubbing his shoulder, then his hand drifted over the base of his neck, slid down. “Not a pinch. More like—”

“A bite?” Brigid hissed as she looked over his shoulder to the twin holes in the back of Jack’s shirt, right between his shoulder blades. She quickly split Jack’s shirt so she could see his skin.

“Jesus, Brigid, if you wanted my clothes off, all you had to do was ask.”

“Declan, look at this.” There were two punctures in Jack’s skin, not unlike small tears. They weren’t bites, didn’t seem to go very deep, and they were already healing. The area around the punctures was singed, as if Jack had been hit by two very small beams of sunlight. “What the hell is this?”

“I think I know.” Declan’s voice was grim. “I’ve seen it on humans before, just not vampires.”

“What is it?” Jack was reaching to feel the wounds. “It actually hurts. That’s… odd.”

Declan was furious. “Why the hell haven’t we thought of this before?”

She was still confused. “What are you talking about?”

“I think… it’s from a Taser.”

Her heart dropped. “Oh hell.”

Of all the weapons that could be used against them, Brigid had been warned about swords most of all. It may have sounded medieval, but cutting off a vampire’s head or burning it were really the only two ways they could be killed. Guns, knives, none of them were truly dangerous unless the spinal column was severed at the neck. They were immune and self-healing, even able to regenerate limbs over long periods of time. The sun or fire could burn them, and burns took a long time to heal—as evidenced by the scars on Carwyn’s chest—but even those did mend eventually.

Amnis, everyone repeated. It was the key. Amnis was what regenerated them. Kept them strong. Let them connect to their element and manipulate their energy. It was the electrical current that ran under their skin, the unseen armor that every immortal depended on.

So why had she never considered a Taser?

“I don’t know why we never considered it before,” Murphy said quietly. They were sitting in the office. He’d sent Angie home, so it was just Tom, Declan, Brigid, and a still-recovering Jack. He was shaky and drinking a bag of donated blood cold. “It makes so much sense. Bloody technology will kill us all in the end.”

“Hits us right where we’re most vulnerable,” Tom said. “Amnis controls everything. It may seem like magic sometimes, but it’s all just energy, isn’t it? Same as electricity. If you shock us—”

“It’d be like a power surge in a computer,” Declan interrupted. “We’ll restart, but be all scrambled. We’re used to being the ones frying electronics, not being fried. If a human—”

“Or a vampire,” Brigid interjected. “A vamp could customize one. We’ve all become used to making accommodations for other electronics. Plastic coatings and cases. If a vampire wore gloves, they could probably use a Taser.”

“You’re right,” Murphy said. “And if you used one of the ones that shoots out the wires, you could shock a victim without getting close enough to have it affect you, too.”

Brigid said, “Damn it, this is the perfect weapon.” She frowned. “But why was he soaking wet?”

All five were silent for some time. Finally Jack said, “What if it’s a result of the shock?”

Everyone turned to him.

“Think about it. What if it makes your amnis… surge right before it shorts you out? If that happened, your element would react. We’ve all had that experience before. Our amnis gets excited by something and we have an elemental reaction. All the water in the air might have been drawn to me like a magnet, which would drench me and make the electrocution from the Taser worse, too.”

Brigid gasped, thinking about what her own reaction might be. “Oh, this is not good.”

“Any word from The Abbey?” Murphy asked Tom.

“I sent men over to question the guests and employees, even had them use amnis, but no one claims to know anything. A few people saw the girl Jack disappeared with, but she was already gone and no one recognized her. Not a regular.”

“The owners?” Declan said.

Murphy answered. “I’ve already called them in for a meeting tomorrow night. They claim to know nothing, of course. Apologized for a lack of security, but then asked why my men hadn’t made their club safer, considering all the tribute they were paying me.”

“What?” Brigid said. She felt her fangs descend. “They should have their own—”

“We’ll make it clear tomorrow, Brigid. Calm down.” Murphy stood up and patted Jack on the shoulder. “Time to head home for the day. Everyone take precautions and avoid being alone, if possible. This is… new.”