Free A Shade of Vampire 32: A Day of Glory by Bella Forrest

better watch their backs.
    Time to finally wake up to reality.

Victoria
    A s I accompanied Bastien to Blackhall Mountain to fetch some clothes for his family (this was Bastien’s wish—in spite of all they’d done, he wished to treat them with at least this basic civility), I couldn’t find words to express my relief. Assuming that Mona’s procedure had done its work already, Bastien and I were okay. We had survived it. And the Mortclaws were back to their original state.
    As for the diluted elixir, Mona said that she would carry it back to The Shade with us and keep it somewhere safely in her spell room.
    “See if you can still fly,” Bastien told me, as we neared the mountain entrance.
    I found myself filled with trepidation as I attempted to rise.
    I couldn’t.
    Disappointment gripped me. I had been hoping that I might be able to keep that power. I had become a kind of Superwoman. I supposed that my increased strength would’ve gone now too… and my speed. Bummer . It was a shame I’d never gotten the chance to explore the full extent of the powers I had adopted—it really would have been cool if I had the ability to shoot lasers from my eyes. Oh, well . That ship had sailed.
    I couldn’t feel too sore, just as I doubted Bastien felt too sore about losing his own exceptional abilities.
    As far as I understood Mona’s procedure, the elixir was still active but in some kind of neutralized state—diluted by whatever that other brownish substance that she had mixed it with was. I doubted that there would be any way to restore the elixir to its former state, even if it did somehow get into the wrong hands. Mona had mixed the bowl thoroughly.
    Although everyone in the mountain was mourning—and this was something that werewolves needed to be left alone for—Bastien couldn’t help but yell out, “The Mortclaws are no longer the monsters they were! The spell has been broken. They are outside now, you can see for yourselves!”
    This captured the attention of dozens of werewolves. They poked their heads out of their doors as we passed, many of them even leaving the corridors and making their way to the exit.
    Once we had gathered enough clothing, we hurried back out and laid a set of clothes in front of each of the Mortclaws, whom Mona still had frozen and immobile. I didn’t pay much attention to male and female clothing, though I tried not to give any men a dress.
    As I glanced back at the entrance, it looked like the news had quickly spread throughout the entire mountain and everybody was crowding out to witness the scene.
    Bastien looked at Mona. “Do you think it’s safe to release the spell now?” he asked.
    Mona shrugged. “I’m pretty sure that it’s as safe as it will ever be. I wanted to wait for you to see if you are ready.”
    Bastien nodded. “Yes, I think I’m ready.”
    As Mona lifted her spell, there was a scurry among each of the Mortclaws, snatching up clothes angrily and dressing themselves before they all stood to their full height.
    They looked like they wanted to run at Mona and attack, but after being frozen and unable to move a single limb for gods knew how many hours, they were hardly about to charge at her.
    Instead, they snarled and hissed curses. Then Bastien’s mother stepped forward and approached him, Bastien’s father behind her.
    Bastien’s arm immediately shot to me and shoved me behind him. I had to remind myself that I could no longer fly away, as I had been able to do when escaping Yuraya. I had to scrub that boldness from my system from now on, or I could find myself getting into big trouble.
    I was the human girl again… at least until, maybe, I decided to turn into a vampire like my parents.
    Sendira and her husband stopped two feet away from us. She stared into the eyes of her son, searching, as though a part of her still disbelieved that Bastien had allowed this to happen to them.
    “And where do we stand now, Bastien?” she asked, her voice deep and