Sammy arched an eyebrow. “It isn’t like you to want to leave early. Are you well?”
Barbara bowed her head. “I’m sorry. I’m just really worried about Ambrose. Last I saw of him, the cops were hauling him away.” She blushed. “And he didn’t have a shirt on. That can’t be good. I bet he’s dying from his day exhaustion. Especially without his shirt.”
A stack of papers on Sammy’s desk burst into flames. “What happened to his shirt?”
“He took it off.”
The flames surged higher.
“For some reason.”
She raised her head and noticed the inferno happening on his desk. “But it’s not like I did anything. I mean…” She remembered hauling shirtless Ambrose to the bed. “I didn’t do anything improper.” I really didn’t. It needed to be done.
Sammy observed the flames edging towards his computer. He took a deep breath and exhaled.
The flames died into ashes.
“He didn’t hurt you?”
“No.” She remembered his kiss and everything he said to Elsie. She smiled. “No, he didn’t hurt me at all.”
“Good.”
“Can I please go to him? I need to know he’s okay. He must be so frightened.”
“He means a lot to you.”
It wasn’t a question, but she said, “Yes.” anyway.
“Then, go to him. Be safe, Ms. Addleston.”
She smiled. “Thank you! You can’t even guess how much I appreciate it.”
She ran out of the room.
***
Sammy sat back in his seat and thought about her.
Ms. Addleston.
Barbara.
The papers’ ashes rose into the air and took the form of a phoenix. A particularly dirty phoenix. It soared in long loops around the room.
He held out his hand and the ash phoenix flew to him and landed light on his wrist.
He smiled.
It threw back its head and sang in clear crystal tones.
“She’s a treasure.” said Sammy. “And I will not let her be destroyed by a vampire’s fickleness.”
The phoenix’s song ended and the creature returned to ashes.
“If he ever hurts her—” His eyes turned green with widened slit pupils. “—I will burn him.”
ambroseandelsie 
Oooh
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Thank you!
I really enjoy writing Sammy’s involuntary acts of destructiveness. 🙂 I still haven’t figured out how to reveal his true extraordinary identity. All I know is it will probably have something to do with protecting Barbara and it will be a big, epic moment. 😀
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Those are the best!
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Aww! Thank you so much! 😀
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Oh wow, love this chapter with Sammy. In the beginning I saw him as a minor character who was just adding to the scenery, but now I see he’s chewing through the scenery 😉 Can’t wait for his epic moment!
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Thank you!
I’m very happy with how Sammy’s character has turned out. When I first brought him onto the scene, I knew what I wanted his secret identity to be, but I wasn’t sure how he was going to impact the story.
I can’t wait to see your reaction to his epic moment of revelation. 😆
His big reveal was one of those parts I’d been worrying about. And it just sort of happened in its own good time at just the right story moment. 🙂
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Love the momentary appearance of the phoenix.
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Thank you! 😀 As soon as I wrote that ‘the flames turned into ashes’, I just knew I had to do something with those ashes when Sammy started to think about Barbara. And a phoenix felt like the most logical thing for the ashes to turn into.
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