Excerpt from my current project

“Why won’t you fucking die already?”

                Energy ripped through my body, shaped into the essence of fire and directed at the undead by my will alone.  My body, untouched by the fire itself, still burned as if submersed in the flames.  Gritting my teeth I dumped more of myself into the fire and watched as the flames swallowed him whole again. His laughter cut through the deafening roar and he emerged, still making his way towards us. His charred skin sloughed off in chunks, only to be replaced by fresh skin before the old could hit the floor.

                “Awe, what’s the matter little dragon? I just want a little taste, it won’t hurt. Much. I promise,” the fire reflected off his cold, dead vampiric eyes and somehow made his exposed fangs look that much more deadly.

                This would be our third encounter with Vaughn. Mythology depicts vampires as being full of bloodlust, craving human blood but able to survive on the blood of animals if that is all that is available. The truth is, vampires crave power, energy rather and the easiest, most efficient way for them to get it is to suck it right out of the veins of the living. The dead have lost the energy of their soul, normally their bodies would decompose and the energy of their bodies would be lost as well, returned to the earth. The undead, however, are somehow stuck in the middle. The energy of their soul has left them, but their flesh has remained whole magically enhanced and forever craving the energy of their lost soul. Unable to ever have their soul returned to them, they are driven insane without it and all humanity is lost.

                Some people have stronger, more powerful souls than others. Vampires are usually attracted to them, often times without understanding why. Older vampires, having learned more about themselves and what it is that they really need to survive, will seek out those with the strongest souls to feed. The stronger the souls that they feed on, the stronger the vampire becomes. With animals and pure-blooded humans this is minimal. For those of us with magic, our blood packs quite a punch for a vampire. This brings us back to the here and now. I have the blood of dragons in my veins, and this vampire wants it bad.