Pretty When She Destroys (23 page)

“Oh. No, she didn’t. But would she? If she was out of her body, too?” Amaliya gave Benchley a quizzical look.

“Well, probably not. It would have been a projection of her body, but not her actual state,” Benchley decided. He was busy helping his sister make an obscene amount of sandwiches. The battle had exhausted everyone and they were cramming calories to recover the energy they had burned.

Cian wished he could eat a sandwich and replenish himself. He craved blood and his veins were starting to burn.

“Anyway, she appeared just for a second. Right there.” Amaliya pointed to a spot near the back door. “Then I heard Samantha screaming outside.”

“That’s when they were assaulting the ward.” Samantha was peeling the crust off her sandwich like one long ribbon. “Alexia and I were going over all the emails from the stupid Assembly when they started hitting the ward. It was really loud. We rushed outside to make sure it was holding and that’s when we both saw him down in the street. I’d recognize that asshole anywhere.”

“He was scary and creepy in a handsome way,” Alexia added. She licked the peanut butter off the butter knife before tossing it in the sink. It clattered loudly.

Benchley did a little hop, startled.

“Shark Boy, you okay?” Samantha asked.

“A little rattled about the big bad showing himself,” Benchley admitted.

“Why do you call him Shark Boy?” Baptiste leaned one elbow on the kitchen table and slanted toward Samantha. “I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“Peter Benchley wrote
Jaws
.” Samantha shrugged her shoulders. “I’m random like that.”

“Ah,” Baptiste said, though he sounded a little mystified.

Cian listened to the people around him prattling on, but his thoughts were concentrated on the trouble at hand. The incursions into his city were growing more numerous. Cian was certain that The Summoner was trying to ascertain exactly how much firepower Cian had on his side.

“There were a lot of vampires tonight,” Benchley continued, his attention on Samantha. “They were really young, hungry, and out of their heads.”

“It explains all the missing people, doesn’t it?” Alexia took a seat at the table and tapped on the map she had laid out. Red dots showed the locations of all the people who had gone missing in the last few weeks. There was no real pattern to discern.

Cian knew that the human girl had been working on trying to locate The Summoner’s haven in San Antonio using police reports and news articles. Aimee couldn’t penetrate the massive black magic spells coating the city. San Antonio was in chaos. The crime rate was escalating while earth tremors made the authorities and inhabitants nervous. Though the media joked about the ground shaking was a sign of the coming 2012 apocalypse, Alexia took it very seriously. Earthquakes were not common in the region.

The cabal chattered on, but Cian didn’t pay them any heed. The night’s events had revealed something very important and he wanted to use it to his advantage. Raising his eyes, he saw Amaliya staring at him with curiosity. They were more connected than ever, intertwined in a way that was thrilling and comforting. She settled back in her seat, flashed a grin, and played with her pack of cigarettes on the table. Apparently, she had overheard his thoughts.

“It’s time to make a move,” Cian said at last, and the conversations around him fell silent.

Part Five

Trap

Chapter 19

November, 2012

Amaliya watched Samantha eating the hamburger and fries with a look of utter distaste on her face. It had been eight months since the vampire had eaten actual food and staring at it now did not make her miss it. It looked disgusting and smelled even worse. Yet Samantha happily dunked the potato spears into ketchup and wolfed down the juicy burger.

“That’s so fuckin’ gross,” Amaliya said at last, her lip curling with distaste.

“Look, bitch-face, you dragged me all the way to Waco, so the least you can do is let me eat my supper in peace, okay?” Samantha gave Amaliya wide, fake smile, then took an obscenely large bite of her burger.

“Do you have to eat it so...messily?”

Rolling her eyes, Samantha shoved another fry in her mouth.

Seated inside the Denny’s on the outskirts of Waco, Texas, the two women were awaiting the arrival of two emissaries from the vampires who ruled over Dallas and Houston. The restaurant was attached to a big truck stop that catered to the long distance drivers. A few weary-looking families were clustered around tables and a young teenage couple flirted outrageously in one corner. Two truckers sat at a corner table nursing cup after cup of steaming coffee.

Though it was Thanksgiving Day, there were already Christmas decorations on the walls. A year ago Amaliya would have been sitting in her father’s living room watching TV while recovering from a massive feast of fried turkey and all the traditional side dishes. This year she was steeped in the middle of vampire politics, a supernatural war, and considered dead to her family.

Tilting the brim of her black straw cowboy hat, Amaliya glanced out into the darkness filling the world beyond the windows of the restaurant. Her necromantic power slithered out of her, tasting the night. The dead tucked into the graveyards in the town stirred in their graves, but Amaliya left them to their rest. She didn’t sense any vampires lurking, but in the last few months she had learned that she wasn’t always able to detect supernatural creatures.

“Roberto says it’s all clear,” Samantha informed her. She dabbed the remains of her burger into a blob of ketchup before shoving it into her mouth.

The mere mention of the ghost Samantha used as her personal assistant brought a
frown to Amaliya’s face. She didn’t like Roberto in life and definitely not in death.

Folding her arms on the table, the heavy studded leather bracers on Amaliya’s wrists clunked against the surface. “Tell him he better keep an eye out for black witches. We don’t need to get jumped by them again.”

“He heard you. He’s not deaf,” Samantha reminded Amaliya. “You know, I can make it so you can see him.”

“I have an idea. Why don’t you touch him and make him solid so I can punch him in the face a few times.” Amaliya flashed a wide smile.

The blonde flinched a few seconds after Amaliya’s comment.

“Did he just say something?” Amaliya demanded.

“Kinda.” Samantha made a big show of drinking her soda.

“What did he say?” Amaliya leaned forward, her blue-gray eyes raking over the area surrounding their table. The arrogant ghost was probably being a dick again. They had not liked each other when he’d been alive, and that animosity had not diminished with his death.

The phasmagus continued to gulp down her drink, making sure she couldn’t answer right away. Maybe she was right to avoid answering. The atmosphere was tense enough as it was without adding to it.

“I need a cigarette,” Amaliya groused.

“You’re a vampire and still addicted. So sad,” Samantha shook her head. She was teasing Amaliya, trying to alleviate her anxiety.

Amaliya snarled, but it was playful. Her long black hair spilled over her shoulders to her waist, covering her tank top. Her rebellious streak had hit her at the last minute before their departure from Austin and she’d shed her plain black shirt for one that read “Jesus was a long-haired rebel against the establishment.” Waco was the home of Baylor University, a very conservative Baptist enclave and during her mortal life Amaliya had been the brunt of some nasty comments when in the area. She had to admit she had dressed to provoke. Already she had garnered a lot of uneasy looks due to her skin tight black skinny jeans, her high-heeled platform sandals with studded heels, her tank, leather bracers, and her straw
cowboy hat adorned with raven feathers and a bird skull on the brim.

Samantha, meanwhile, was in blue jeans, a pale pink sweater, boots, and a dark-rose leather blazer. It was bitingly cold outside, but Amaliya was immune to it.

The waitress set down a refill for Samantha’s drink and stared at Amaliya’s arm for a long moment. “What happened to the middle of your tattoo?”

A scar adorned the spot where a rosary had been etched into her skin. When she had transformed, the image had burned away. “God doesn’t like vampires,” Amaliya said.
“The cross went bye-bye.”

“Austin freaks.” The waitress rolled her eyes and stalked off, her full hips swaying.

“Could you be nice?” Samantha hissed, leaning forward, blue eyes narrowing.

“We’re in fuckin’ Waco.” Amaliya shuddered. “Why the fuck did we have to meet them here?”

“Because this is where they said to meet, bitch-face. Be nice.” Frowning, Samantha sat back, shoving her empty plate aside. “It took Cian a long time to get them to agree to this meeting. Besides, it’s all part of the big plan, remember?”

Exhaling, Amaliya tapped her black nails against the table. “I just hate Waco.”

“Yeah, I got that. You know, since you said that a billion times on our way here.”

Amaliya sighed. “It just makes me cranky to be here.”

Samantha checked her pink iPhone. The case sparkled with rhinestones. A small smile touched her lips.

“Jeff?” Amaliya asked.

The vampire hunter was cute in a geeky sort of away. He and Samantha made an adorable couple. The diamond sparkling on her ring finger said all that was needed about their relationship. It had appeared without fanfare. Amaliya had taken note, but hadn’t asked. If the couple didn’t want to talk about their engagement, there was probably a reason for it. Well, that reason was probably that they were probably all going to die very soon. The fact that the usually bubbly, over-the-top blonde had remained mum about it had even kept Amaliya from questioning her.

“He just wanted to make sure we’re okay,” Samantha answered. “You know how men are.”

Amaliya’s own battered iPhone kept flashing messages from Cian. He was worse than Jeff. It made her boyfriend nuts that he couldn’t leave the Austin city limits without risk of a serious incursion the moment he left.

The vampire stared at her cooling coffee. She couldn’t bring herself to drink it. Basically, she stirred the brew and pretended to sip it. “I don’t know how the fuck we’re going to keep The Summoner from ripping down the veil.”

“We still have one of the rings. He needs all thirteen. Right there, we’re far ahead of him.” Samantha flashed an encouraging smile at Amaliya. “And he doesn’t have
you
. It must make him nuts.”

Amaliya rolled her eyes. “It’s like having the worst ex-boyfriend in the world.”

“Or is it girlfriend? I mean, since he’s in Bianca.”

“Either way, it’s annoying as hell. So sick of this bullshit. Is it wrong to just want it all to blow up so we can get it over with?”

Samantha cast a leery look. “Even if we all die?”

Shifting uncomfortably, Amaliya wondered if she should confide in Samantha about what she’d been experiencing since July when she had first seen Bianca and known The Summoner was embedded in her body. Their small group was counting on Amaliya in a way that made her very uncomfortable. As the only other necromancer-vampire, she was the only one who could truly fight back against The Summoner. She couldn’t fail them. Yet, every night she struggled with the invisible ties that tethered her to The Summoner encapsulated in Bianca’s tiny body. There were days when she woke up with her body on fire with the lust for the one who had created her. It went beyond sex to something darker, more powerful, dripping in death and evil. She wondered if Cian suspected. Sometimes she’d catch him worriedly watching her with his beautiful hazel eyes.

Tonight, her necromantic power was buzzing around her, craving release. Just like she desired blood, she desired to raise the dead. Each time she brought them forth from their graves, they fed her with death and power.

“Well?” Samantha was demanding an answer.

Sliding her hands across the table, she lightly touched Samantha’s fingertips. Their power flared between them, spinning around in a whirlwind of ebony streaked with glowing white luminescence. They alone could see it, but it was reassuring. “I’m not going to let you die, Samantha. Or anyone else if I can help it. I just want to kill
him
.”

Samantha grinned. “Me, too. So bad.” Tilting her head, she said, “Shut up, Roberto.”

Amaliya was always surprised with how much Samantha’s touch grounded her. Their abilities meshed perfectly, bringing balance.

“You better let go of me. The ghost isn’t the only one thinking we’re lezzing out,” Samantha said, gently squeezing Amaliya’s hands. Her eyes slide to one side, indicating a table filled with people staring at them openly.

Releasing Samantha, Amaliya immediately felt the churning sensation return. Her cellphone buzzed again. Picking it up, she saw the message she’d been waiting for. “They’re here.”

“Time to be bad asses,” Samantha said, grinning.

Amaliya smirked. “Totally.”

“Just don’t scare them off. No, snarling, threats, or bad attitude, okay?”

Amaliya rolled her eyes. “Fine. Whatever. Is it wrong to wish they’d be assholes so we could have a fight?”

“Yeah. Very wrong! Now behave,” Samantha chided her.

With a weary sigh, Amaliya nodded. “Gotcha.” She’d do her best, but she couldn’t promise anything.

Samantha was seriously worried about Amaliya. Everyone was under a lot of duress, and so everyone just assumed Amaliya was showing signs of the strain they all felt. In theory it made sense, but Samantha could
feel
something was wrong. As much as it pained her to admit it, there was a link between the two women. Sometimes it flared to life giving Samantha a glimpse into Amaliya’s internal struggles.

With so much on the line, she had expected more people to step up to the plate and join them in Austin to hold off The Summoner’s minions. Jeff kept pointing out that the Assembly had actively tried to stop The Summoner from acquiring the rest of the rings, but entire factions had been wiped out by The Summoner’s forces. Samantha didn’t understand why they couldn’t get anyone to actually volunteer to move to Austin to help hold back The Summoner. It pissed her off.

Jeff’s last estimate on how many of the rings The Summoner had acquired was between ten and twelve. The only reassurance was the fact that Cassandra and Aimee had hidden the last one. None of the experts on the occult were certain how much damage could be caused without the complete set. Some were estimating that only sections of the world would be permanently opened to the abyss, which, of course, included Texas.

Now seated across from Amaliya in a Denny’s waiting on the emissaries from two of the most powerful vampires in Texas, Samantha wondered if they were doomed to fail. She didn’t want to be negative, but it seemed like they were constantly scrambling to anticipate what would come next.

“They’re here. Both are human. Both are infused with vampire blood. They obeyed the negotiations for the temporary peace pact and brought one guard each,” Roberto’s voice said. “Which you broke by bringing more.”

Samantha didn’t dare answer the ghost. She didn’t want to be overheard. There was no way the emissaries could detect Roberto, so technically Amaliya was Samantha’s only visible guard. She never dreamed being Cian’s right-hand would be so terrifying, but she didn’t have a choice anymore. There was no going back to a nice normal life now that The Summoner was close to destroying the world.

“Here they are,” Amaliya said, slouching into the corner of the booth.

Samantha swiftly switched sides, sliding in beside Amaliya. The vampire beside her always smelled like cigarette smoke and roses. The scent used to annoy Samantha, but now she found it reassuring.

The two mortal right-hands of the vampire masters of Houston and Dallas avoided the hostess and headed straight for their table. Their two guards slid into a booth near the doorway to the convenience store part of the building. Jeb was all blond curls and cowboy charm in tight jeans, a light blue button down shirt, and white Stetson. Varra was clad in an elegant navy pantsuit with a pale pink silk blouse shimmering against her very dark skin. Her hair was skimmed back into a high bun on her head and delicate diamond and pearl earrings glittered in her earlobes. Everything about her screamed sophistication and money. Samantha eyed the red-soled Louboutins on the other woman’s feet with admiration. The unlikely pair slid onto the bench across from them, Varra pushing Samantha’s soiled plate further away with distaste.