It's a neat concept!

Thanks!

This all really started in one of the first furry stories I wrote, an urban fantasy story involving a kitsune private detective rescuing a human girl from a werewolf attack. I decided to interpret the classic 'fox spirits show their true forms in mirrors' as being that any indirect viewing showed their true forms, that their shapeshifting was psychic making you see what they wanted you to see. This, needless to say, makes life difficult for such creatures because cameras are everywhere now.

Once I started writing other stories in the same world, I realized I needed to pin down the rules a bit and work with the implications. And one of those was that if shapeshifters show their true forms in mirrors, and vampires don't show up in mirrors, then what would their 'true form' be?

Sometimes the big drivers of story are the constraints.

Love it! Mercedes' expression sells it as something more serious than an insect swarm.

Which, of course, it is. And while vampires are dangerous enough, the one in the story was about to sic an entire town on a few witches he had a personal problem with, and he didn't care who, if anybody, would survive the fight.

This looks cool, the costume fits perfectly

Mercedes wears that most of the time she might be dealing with humans; it helps hide the fact that she isn't.

Spraying colloidal silver suspended in holy water would be a truly mean thing to do to a vampire. :3

It definitely would be; unfortunately it would also be harder for her to work with as well. That's the sort of weapon you give to purely human allies (like Marie in these stories) and not to other spirits or shapeshifters who might be affected as well if there's enough of a breeze.