Sylvie

Impressed by the display of magical prowess, Jennifer bowed lightly to Tatum and ran her fingers over the soft pods that had replaced the bloodstones. “So, inside each pod is pure powder?”  Once Jennifer saw Tatum nod and then sit back down, She walked over to the opposite side of the table where Tatum sat. “How long will the dust work?  Does anyone know?”

Patting the two vampires on the shoulder, Martin finished explaining what shadewraiths were to the young couple. “Unfortunately, I have no idea, Jenny.”  He shrugged and picked up a few more stones and crushed them with his enhanced ward strength.  Walking to the corner where he’d put bottles of blood for vampire use, Martin poured the plasma over his hands and rubbed the powder so that his fists were coated in the bloodstone and blood paste. “Let’s hope this works.”

Tapping Tatum on her shoulder, Jennifer smiled and then asked a question. “Miss Blackwell, how did Sylvie fight the last shadewraith?”

Turning in her chair to face Jennifer Tatum waved her hand again and pulled an image bathed in white for everyone to see. “They were fighting a nasty one that resided in the body of Haley Grant.”  She advanced the scene until Sylvie turned into a ghost. “This is where Sylvie took the dust and blended with it to fight off the shadewraith.  I am not completely certain how hurt the thing was, since it left while laughing and enjoying its own pain.”  Tatum then dissipated the image and flexed her hands as the magic faded away. “While Denise casually used magic without regard to her own body, I have to watch how much I use at once before I eat…certain things.  Denise traded life for unlife and magic without limits.”

Waving her hand, Jennifer looked at Tatum sternly. “I didn’t need to hear about your bestie.  The image of Sylvie was enough for me.”  She popped a couple of pods and let the white powder flecked with green and red pour on the table. “From what I saw, it was part of Sylvie.”  She used the ends of the broken pods and formed thin lines and then rolled up a small piece of paper into a tube. “Don’t do this at home boys and girls.”  She lightly giggled and expertly snorted the dust as though it were cocaine.  Once all the pods were emptied and lines inhaled, Jennifer pinched her nose and shivered. “I wouldn’t recommend this as there is nothing but itching in my nose now.”  She rubbed her nostrils in a vain attempt to get rid of the itch the powder caused. “No high either.”  She sighed and folded her arms. “Now what?  We just wait for them to come get me?  That sounds like a terrible plan.”

“I couldn’t agree more, Miss Rivers.  Staying down here will get someone killed.”  Tatum pointed to herself and Jennifer. “I say we walk right out and get in my car.  I can hide you better in my own home..”  She paused, “...where I have better resources.”

“What about the two guests and Caroline?”  Martin flatly asked. “She has passed out, and these two don’t have the means to fight them.” Martin tossed a few bloodstones to the vampires. “Crush them, use them, they are your only chance.”

Whispering to themselves for a few seconds the two vampires smiled, kissed and smashed the rocks to handfuls of dust and snorted them just as Jennifer did. “She had a good idea, we think..and there is no downside to us sucking in the dust.”  The guy smiled and began stretching, “I know I don’t have to do this, but it's a habit?”

Leaning across the table, Tatum gently squeezed Jennifer's hand. “If things seem to go badly, stay near me.  I will walk us right out of here, under a bubble spell.”  She winked. “Assuming it works, but it’s better than nothing, right?”  Tatum released Jennifer’s hand and winked.

Other than the ticking of the clocks above them, the few down in the shelter stood and sat in complete silence.  After what seemed like forever, Jennifer stood up seconds before the group heard knocks at the door.

“FBI, We have a warrant to search the premises!”  The four officers announced loudly.  Waiting a couple minutes Deputy Director Powell flashed her diamond eyes. “Do it, cave in the door.  We have a few people to…heh..heh…heh…absorb.”

Nodding to their leader, the three possessed agents battered the front door down without any fanfare.  Sprinting inside the house with their guns drawn, the Shadewraiths drew on the memories of their hosts to sound as official as they could. “Jennifer Rivers, Virginia Beach has issued a warrant for your arrest in relation to the possession of illegal substances.”  The three pretend agents searched the house and found nothing except the drugs that they’d suspected were in the home.  “Fleshlings.”  One agent-wraith muttered and headed for the front door and closed it. “The one named Jennifer Rivers is not here.”

Powell-wraith shook her head, and sent a wave of torture to what was left of the personality within its host, feeding from the terror. “Can’t you smell them?  Always doused in something that changes their barbaric scent.”  She walked into Jennifer’s room and yanked the blanket off the bed. “Their desire is embedded in this place.”  She wrinkled her nose in disgust. “There is a nightstalker caretaker in this place.”  Powell-wraith pointed to the side of the bed Martin slept on. “That one might be a problem.”

It was only after the lead Shadewraith pointed at the bed, did she notice that all four of them were outlined in a shimmering silver-white light.  Anger welled up and Powell-wraith let out a horrific howl that echoed through the house. “Human magic!”  Fueled by its inability to have sensed the magic, it found an outlet for its frustration by making a fist and punching the closest wall, shattering the bones in its host's hand.  The residual pain radiated through its captured body, yet calmed and fed the Powell-shadewraith, “I can’t leave this horrible shell..” 

Shoving their useless pistols in their holsters, one by one the other shadewraiths tried to leave their hosts.  Mirroring the same terrifying howl, the others affirmed the same situation. “Trapped.”

“Fucking magic.”  Powell-wraith licked the blood from its broken knuckles and stood in place, thinking. “It can’t last forever.  I can smell the caretaker…Time for it to perish..”  Flashing her diamond eyes and sniffing the air, the lead Shadewraith circled around the hidden lightout door a couple of times before it spotted a small red light. “Look here.”  It sniffed the panel door and nodded. “They are down below.”

Two of the shadewraiths charged the door and smashed the wood into splinters, spilling a thin line of sunlight down the stairs and into the shelter.  “Convenient.”  The two laughed and handed out a few pointed shards from the broken barrier.  A second later, the two lead shadewraiths were gripped by a pair of tendrils that slammed them into the wall and floor, leaving holes behind where they’d impacted.  Powell-wraith spotted Tatum focused on her spell and remembered that it had a human weapon.  Forcing its broken hands to operate, the pain fed it the fuel needed to draw the gun and fire at Tatum.

When Tatum heard the hammer of a pistol click, she pulled back her tendrils and made herself a makeshift shield out of the two agents she’d been tossing around.  Shots rang out in succession, and Tatum managed to block all but two of the incoming bullets.  Piercing her arm and upper torso close to her lungs, Tatum fell to her knees and then flat on the floor, unmoving.

Feeling the magic wane, the shadewraiths laughed with glee and peeled the human bodies off of their amorphous frame, leaving the bones and flesh in chunks all over the floor. “Free…”  The three former Agents started flying in circles around the rest of the people in the basement.  One flew to its leader and pointed to Tatum. “Take the mage, the body’s magic will be a lovely boon.”  It laughed and flew down and grabbed Tatum by the throat and immediately found itself tumbling through the air from a bloodstone-enhanced punch.