“Ha, yeah. It was some kid’s birthday party and he invited the whole class. I kinda killed the vibe reciting my mom’s gun control lessons to a group of unforgiving twelve-year-old boys who just wanted to shoot lasers at each other.”
Dom laughed. The sound was light and soft, and with his back to her, he realized he hadn’t really seen her laugh. He couldn’t even imagine it.
“I’m guessing you didn’t do too well?”
“Hid in the corner the whole time. After my attempted lecture, I got chosen last for teams, and I was so afraid of messing up and being a burden, I did nothing.”
Dom was quiet. Then, a buzzer sounded.
“I guess we’re starting,” Dom whispered. “Eyes open.”
A moment of stillness and silence passed, and Brennan started torealize why Nellie and Sunny liked laser tag so much. It was different as a vampire. He could see more, hear more, move more quietly.
“This is weird, right?” Brennan asked.
“What?”
“We’re immortal, undead vampires. And we’re playing laser tag. I just… didn’t see this one coming.”
Dom snorted. “Yeah. I didn’t expect a lot of things that happened this year.”
Brennan didn’t know how to respond, knowing that Dom had killed her own sister. That Dom was happier being a vampire than Brennan was, even though she had done something so terrible and permanent.
“Your sister,” Brennan said, and Dom cut him a glare that said he was approaching dangerous territory. “Were you close?”
Dom chewed on her lip for a minute. Then, “She was my best friend.”
Pew! Pew!
In the distance, the tinny electric sound of a gun going off pierced through the background music. A small trill of victory music sounded in response, then distant laughter and yelling. One of them had hit the other.
“I have eyes on Nellie,” Dom said, shifting behind him to stand at a crouch near the window. “She’s approaching the base.”
“Do you have a clear shot?”
“No.”
“Then we wait.”
Laser tag with a group of vampires was intense.
When Nellie found them, she got a shot in on Brennan and Dom got a shot on her, and then Nellie had reared back and literally cartwheeled back from whence she came. With Sunny approaching the base, they abandoned their post to give chase.
They practically flew, with all the speed and strength of their vampiric abilities, and the thrill of a hunt sang in Brennan’s veins like the harmonies from his favorite song.
They chased Nellie right into a dead end. Brennan pointed and shot.Pew!
Nellie’s vest trilled with the confirmed shot. She had one more lifeleft on her, which meant she had gotten a hit from Sunny earlier. The lights on her vest flashed with the cooldown period that protected her from being shot multiple times in quick succession.
“Sorry, Mom,” Dom said, and trained her gun on Nellie, waiting for the lights to stop.
Nellie kept her gun up and aimed, swinging it back and forth between Brennan and Dom.
“Don’t do this,” she said. “You need me if you want to beat Sunny.”
They might. Brennan looked to Dom for her thoughts.
In their moment of hesitation, Nellie let loose a stream ofPew pew pew pew pews and both Brennan’s and Dom’s vests lit up. Nellie cackled, and Dom shot her right back. Nellie’s vest made a sad tinkle of notes that meant she had died.
