“Once more.”

Brigid locked her jaw and felt her fangs slide down, but she did it again.

“Okay, one more time.”

“Are you fecking kidding me?” she finally exploded. “I’ve been doing this for over an hour!”

Cathy rose and rushed to her. “Are you questioning me?” The spicy smoke of the other fire vampire tingled in her nose, but she did not back down.

“Yes, I’m questioning you. I’m questioning the idiocy of going over and over the same drill for an hour when I’ve obviously mastered it.”

Anne said quietly, “Calm down, both of you.”

Cathy leaned down, growling in Brigid’s face. “You’ve mastered it when I say you’ve mastered it, little girl. Do it again.”

“No.”

Cathy’s hand shot out and gripped her neck, lifting her feet off the ground as Brigid tugged at her hands.

“I can’t—”

“Do it.” Cathy growled with bared fangs. “Again.”

Brigid tried to ignore the instinctual panic, knowing she didn’t need to breathe, but for a brief second, she was a small girl again, hiding in a closet with stifling hot air. She tried to build up the fire along her arms, but it swirled and sparked completely out of control. Cathy dropped her and she tumbled to the ground.

“You’re weak and immature. Do it again.”

Brigid felt the flames erupt from her hands just as Anne sent a cool mist over her. It sizzled against smooth skin. She’d burned off all the soft hair on her arms. Again. She lifted a hand to check her head and Cathy saw her.

“Don’t worry about your fucking hair!”

She shot to her feet. “Don’t tell me what to do!”

Cathy roared in her face. “You’re an idiot, Brigid. Don’t you realize? It’s not going to be when you’re in some controlled place that you have to worry. It’s going to be when you’re angry or afraid. That’s when all of this is going to have to be like second nature. That’s when you’re going to have to control yourself.”

Her heart was pounding. Her breath came hot and fast. “I always control myself.”

“You didn’t just now, did you?”

Brigid’s fangs were long in her mouth. She felt the blood drip over her lower lip where they pierced the skin. “You were deliberately provoking me.”

“I know!”

She and Cathy began to circle each other like two animals spoiling for a fight. The amnis washed over her. Hot. Angry. She could feel the air shimmer around her.

“Brigid.” Anne’s soft voice drifted to her, piercing the red haze that fell over her eyes. “Brigid, what are you really angry about?”

She blinked. “What?”

“Why are you angry with Cathy? She’s your teacher. She’s only trying to help.”

“She’s treating me like a child.”

Cathy scoffed. “You are a child.”

“I am not!” She tasted more blood in her mouth, and her throat burned as she glared at Cathy. “Children are weak. I’m not weak!”

“Brigid,” Anne’s voice came again, even as her eyes were locked on Cathy’s. Circling. Growing closer. Closer… “Why do you say children are weak? They’re not weak. They’re children.”

“They snivel and cry and need too much attention.”

“But they’re children, Brigid.”

Brigid and Cathy circled each other in the meadow, both staring at each other as Anne continued to ask her maddening questions. Sparks lit between them. Brigid balanced on the knife-edge of control and chaos. Part of her, she realized with a sick twist in her stomach, was enjoying it.

She growled through bared fangs. “I never cried.”

“Of course you cried when you were a babe, Brigid. It’s natural. There’s nothing weak about that.”

“No.” The flames licked down her arms. Over her fingertips, dying to reach out.

“Everyone cries. It’s a perfectly healthy response to stress or grief.” Brigid listened to Anne, but her eyes were locked with Cathy’s. The other fire vampire sauntered slowly around her, eyeing her like a plaything. “When was the last time you cried, Brigid? Did you cry when Ioan died?”

“No.”

Cathy sneered. “Typical self-centered human.”

The fire leapt out from her arms. “Shut up! You don’t know anything.”

“I know you’re a frigid bitch who doesn’t give a shit about anyone but herself. I know that.”

Brigid snarled and flung herself at Cathy, but the older vampire only batted her back with one hand.

“I’ll kill you!” she screamed and jumped up.

“Brigid, you loved Ioan. Why didn’t you cry?” Anne’s voice was still soft, but closer.

She shook her head, looking back and forth between Cathy’s sneering face and Anne’s soft, concerned eyes. “I… I can’t cry.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t, Anne!”

“Why?”

The fire reached out, circling around her. “You know why!”

“Tell me.”

“Because she would hear me!” The flames shot toward a clump of nearby gorse, which exploded in the still night air. Cathy grew still, watching as Brigid turned her focus on Anne. A terrible burning started in her chest.