Free The Vampire's Reflection by Shayne Leighton

shoved both her hands in the flames, biting back a tortured cry. The Witch dashed back over to Charlotte and placed her smoldering palms over Charlotte’s scar, chanting something she didn’t understand. Was this what Hell was like? Had she done something to deserve this? Oh yes, she recalled, all of the mortal lives she’d sacrificed to the darkness—to Valek. All of the people just like her. She’d been committing this murder her entire life, but the manifestation of her guilt was only just beginning to set in.
    “Valek will be home soon,” Sarah said in a soothing tone. Her hand brushed gently across the back of Charlotte’s head, and she was gone. Charlotte barely slit her eyes open and looked around to find she was alone. She couldn’t concentrate on anything except the internal immolation as she curled up in a fetal position and rolled over onto her side, clenching herself into as tiny of a ball as she could possibly become, hoping just to dissipate into the carpet. After a few moments, as if by magic, the pain was gone. Not abruptly, though. It drifted away like a diminishing rain storm, the light licks and flurries making her wince until they were gone completely.
    Making sure she hadn’t in fact, blacked out, Charlotte straightened out a bit on the floor. She clenched and unclenched her fingers and opened her eyes to the baroque chandelier in the center of the ceiling. The room went into super-human focus, as if she were seeing everything for the first time with this odd, newly over-sensitive vision. Certain things about the room bulged and dipped, some of the tinier details moving in and out of focus. Digging her nails into the floor beneath her, she blinked violently, trying to dispel the unsettling side effects. Her breathing remained a shallow panting as she contemplating calling for Sarah.
    But soon, the intensity died down, just as the pain had, though her focus remained extra sharp. She watched the glimmering particles of dust above her like suspended snowflakes in the air, so vivid; she couldn’t bear to pull her gaze from them. Wood logs crackled in shimmering amber under a massive fire in the cobblestone fireplace against the south wall. Sitting up slowly, she tucked her legs underneath her bottom in the center of the woven, garnet-colored area rug with the billions of impossibly tiny threads. Charlotte swore she could count them all with these strangely acute eyes. The hem of her ragged, pale dress fanned out on the floor around her as the itchy material of the rug pinpricked at her legs through her stockings like hundreds of tiny shocks.
    Her attention quickly refocused on the vision just outside of the window. She heard something, like branches crunching in the distance. She wondered what kind of creature could be responsible. The sky over the tall pines was a dusty sienna—almost red. The clouds swirled in this enamoring shade of indigo against it as she watched. Her breathing returned to normal, and she tried very hard to calm these new, over heightened senses. She sat there for at least an hour as the fiery shades in the sky grew ever darker. Her hands folded neatly in her lap, her curls combed off her shoulders, she waited for Valek to return.

Chapter Five
     
    Afflicted
     
     
    It is very strange to live in a house where almost everyone in it wants to eat you , Charlotte mused. Her fingers wound around in one of the holes in her skirt. Valek hated when she dressed this way, after Sarah had given her so many of her old clothes. Charlotte just didn’t fit into any of them. It wasn’t her body. It was life. She couldn’t picture herself trapped in that house in Sarah’s beautiful hand-me-downs, awaiting nightly feedings by her adopted Vampire coven, when Valek was out there trying to figure out how to save their world. She wished they’d all just move beyond their fears of being caught by a forgotten Regime member, and go hunt other humans on their own. She wished they’d all just