Pretty When She Destroys (28 page)

Daring to look at him, she saw his true form transposed over Bianca’s. The double image wavered, but maintained itself. The doors to the room thumped shut as the light overhead fell dark.

The rings on the velvet glowed with hellfire. The illumination formed a sword with one piece of the hilt missing.

“Isn’t it lovely? The instrument that will bring this world to an end and begin a new one?” The Summoner stepped out of Bianca. The younger woman instantly slumped against Amaliya.

Catching the blonde girl, Amaliya supported her weight while she fought against the growing malaise in her limbs. The viscous atmosphere in the room was making it difficult to focus on anything other than the vibrating power of the rings. The phantasmal sword repulsed her.

The apparition of The Summoner approached the rings and held his ghostly hands over it. Gradually, his form grew in density until he appeared to once more be made of flesh and blood. With a sly smile, he turned toward Amaliya.

“This can’t be happening,” Amaliya said with disbelief.

The Summoner stood before the two women completely nude. He was breathtakingly handsome with his fair hair, blue eyes, finely etched features, and sculpted physique. Amaliya vividly remembered what his body had felt like when he’d fucked her in the blood of her first victims. It had been one of those most fulfilling and erotic experiences of her life. It disturbed her to no end that she had lost herself in blood and sex with the man who had killed her.

Amaliya dared to stretch out her hand and touch his chest. It didn’t quite feel like flesh, but it was solid. The sensation left her fingertips buzzing and the tingle spread through her limbs until it settled between her legs. He appeared to read her mind for he smiled lasciviously at her.

“It took some time to harness all the ectoplasm needed to form this temporary shell, but it suffices when I need it.” The Summoner rested his hands against her cheek and Bianca’s. “Doesn’t it, Bianca?”

The girl had tears in her eyes, but she nodded mutely.

Amaliya’s fingers closed over his wrist and she could feel the fine hairs on his skin tickling her palm. “How?”

“Do you think me weak?” The Summoner inclined his head near hers, his eyes narrowing. “Do you really believe you could keep me from returning?”

“Yes,” she answered truthfully. “I did.”

Chuckling, he shook his head with amusement.

Bianca’s slim body pressed tighter against Amaliya’s as the younger woman clung to her.

“Bianca has been witness to my greatness. You have much to learn.”

“Maybe, I do. I have like a bazillion questions to ask you. But let’s start with this one. If you want to fuck your pretty little things, why don’t you just take over someone else’s body? Why the big show?” She gestured toward his erection.

Her mockery clearly amused him. “I know from our history that you prefer my true form.”

Bianca squeezed Amaliya’s side as a warning. Amaliya ignored her. She rather enjoyed provoking The Summoner.

“It was okay. But maybe I’d rather you possessed Santos. He’s pretty hot.”

The Summoner arched an eyebrow. “Oh?” He ran his hand through the radiance of the rings. “It requires a completely subservient person and then I am trapped by their
limitations
. I don’t like to be limited.” His eyes shifted downward to his cock.

“Men! Why is it always about
the size of your dicks?” Amaliya rolled her eyes.

Again, Bianca’s fingers dug into Amaliya’s waist. The fear in her eyes was growing.

Amaliya didn’t give a rat’s ass. There was the distinct possibility she was going to die and if she was going to meet her end, she was going to enjoy herself on the way out. That meant annoying the hell out of The Summoner.

“So why possess Bianca on a regular basis? She’s got tits and a pussy. Obviously, you’re limited there.” She pointedly looked at his penis, before raising her eyes to stare at him definitely.

The Summoner tilted his head and bestowed her with a bemused look. “Because I am connected to her. She’s my creation like you are. It’s easier for me to tuck myself inside her.” His smile broadened. “In more than one way.”

Amaliya dug her cigarette case out of her back pocket. It had a devil woman embossed on the lid, a gift from Cian. The thought of him hurt, so she pressed it away. Popping open the case, Amaliya drew a cigarette out. “So basically, this is all about you getting laid.”

“Do you think me so crass?” The Summoner asked, surprised.

“Fuckin’ absolutely.”
Lighting her cigarette with the electric lighter she kept in the case, she inhaled the smoke, then slowly blew it in his direction. “You’re the one who flicked my bean as you killed me. You’re all sorts of kink. So is your reason for wanting me here so we can do the nasty?”

Bianca flinched.

“I want you here because you belong here with me,” The Summoner said calmly.

“Which is why you’re doing the big show?” Again she gestured at his fake physical form. Despite her bravado, she continued to struggle against the stupor threatening to drag her down into its embrace.

“He’s limited in this form, too,” Bianca dared to say. “And he can’t maintain it for long periods of time.”

“Ah, there you go. Telling secrets, Bianca.” The Summoner gave the blonde a sharp look. “What did I tell you about that?”

“She’s one of us,” Bianca answered, defiance in her eyes. “Isn’t she? So why not tell her?”

Stepping closer to the women, The Summoner towered over them, forcing them to look upward to meet his gaze. The penetrating blue eyes slid from one face then the other. “Yes, she is. Aren’t you, Amaliya?”

The lethargy slipping into her bones and muddling her mind frustrated her. It reminded of her being drunk, or feverish. The world was hazy and didn’t feel quite real.

“Amaliya, aren’t you?”

The sharpness of his question focused her. The answer she wanted to say was not the one she actually uttered. Blowing out a plume of smoke in his direction, she said, “Yes. I am.”

The Summoner plucked the cigarette from her trembling fingers and extinguished it by crushing against the tiled floor. “Your defiance always intoxicates me.”

“I never wanted to destroy the world,” Amaliya retorted. “That’s your dream. I just want to live my own life.”

“You’re my dream,” The Summoner answered. “My death goddess.”

The kiss he pressed to her mouth was hungry, demanding, passionate, and full of lust. Again, he didn’t feel quite like flesh, but she could feel his tongue darting into her mouth, claiming hers. Sharp teeth grazed her lips and she tasted blood. His elegant fingers wound into her hair, pulling her tighter to him. Amaliya attempted to keep her necromancy tightly bound inside of her, but it began to unfurl as the pleasure in her body began to build. Cold tears seeped from her clenched eyelids as she recognized that a part of her never stopped craving him. She had been created to stand at his side and rule a dark world.

But so had Bianca...

The Summoner’s lips abandoned Amaliya’s to kiss his other progeny. His fingers continued to caress Amaliya’s neck, pulling her against his naked form.

A vivid vision filled her mind’s eye. The Summoner stood between Bianca and Amaliya as their army of zombies ravaged a darkened world, blood spilling onto the ground. Among those dying were all the people who had ever hurt her, mocked her, and dismissed her as nothing more than a failure. A terrible delight filled her.

“They never knew what you were.” The Summoner gripped both women by their hair, pulling their heads back so he could gaze into their faces. “But I did. I saw what you both were and I took you. You are mine.”

Dizzy with the low humming power of the rings, Amaliya struggled to regain control of her magic. But death called to death, blood to blood, and it was entangled in the magic of the other two beings.

“Do you feel it?” The Summoner demanded, his gaze capturing hers. “Do you feel it, Amaliya?”

With a shuddering sob, Amaliya nodded, then met his hungry kiss with her own. She had always felt that she belonged with him. That is why she’d destroyed him before and would again.

Chapter 24

Samantha stared at the air mattress on the floor of the attic. The battery for the air pump was dying, so it had taken her forever to blow it up. It was a twin size, so she’d folded some of the king-sized blankets Jeff owned and tried to make a decent bed for Cian. It was a far departure from his usual sleeping chambers.

The sound of the hammer striking the nails being pounded through boards and into the window frame gave her a headache. Jeff and Cian were almost done with covering the small windows of the long narrow space filled with boxes of holiday decorations and old family heirlooms. Samantha had tucked the small bed into an area behind a huge stack of boxes. Though she was still peeved at Cian she didn’t necessarily want him bursting into flames if sunlight somehow found its way into the attic.

“This should be sufficient,” Cian said finally.

“I’ve never had a vampire stay over before.” Jeff cast nervous look in Cian’s direction. “I’m sorry about the loss of...” Faltering, Jeff closed his mouth. There was really nothing to say that could possibly offer Cian a bit of comfort.

Cian strode away from the human, his fingers raking through his long hair. His goatee was now more of a beard. The vampire looked tired and a bit lost.

“Here’s your bed,” Samantha said, pointing to the air mattress. “It’s not much.”

“It’ll do.” Cian gave her a slight hug. The distracted air about him was disconcerting. He’d never seemed so lost before.

“Cian, I’m really, really sorry I yelled at you earlier. And hit you.” She attempted to look as apologetic as possible, but wondered if she was successful because she was actually still peeved at him.

“It’s all right.”

“Bitch-face is going to be fine, you know. She’s such a total pain in the ass. He’ll not be able to stand her and will send her back.” Samantha gave him a fake perky smile.

When Cian actually cracked a slight grin, she felt a surge of satisfaction. “She is a bit of a handful.” The vampire sat on an old chair and clasped his hands together as he leaned forward. “Samantha, I need you to do something for me.”

“Whatever you need, Cian.”

Jeff finished putting away his tools and joined them. His hands settled on Samantha’s shoulders and his thumbs gently circled against her tense muscles.

Raising his hazel eyes, Cian said, “I need you to find a way to reach her through your magic. You’re connected. She told me so. She was counting on that if The Summoner took her.”

“But what if
he
does something?” Samantha felt stark terror at the thought of The Summoner somehow reaching through their connection.

“Your magic is linked to her, not him. I believe it’s set apart from her bond to him.” Cian stared at her steadily and she sensed his desperation.

“What if you’re wrong?” Jeff asked.

“Aimee can help protect Samantha. I know Amaliya will be waiting for us to contact her so she’ll be able to feed us the information she’s gathering.”

Cian sounded completely confident that this was the case, but Samantha experienced a small twinge of doubt. What if the bond between Amaliya and The Summoner was brainwashing her? Samantha wasn’t about to express that thought to Cian, but it did bother her.

“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” Jeff admitted.

“I would have to do it before the sun goes down when vampires are the weakest.” Samantha scratched her temple and pondered the situation. “I suppose her necromancy might be a little stronger during the day when vampires are usually asleep. I could try to reach her and find out where she is.”

“That sounds good.” The sadness in Cian’s eyes tempered his smile.

“Then we can plan our rescue mission.” Jeff sounded tired and a little scared, but she could hear the resolve in his voice.

“We’re not going to rescue her,” Cian said softly. “We’re going to stop her and The Summoner from tearing the veil.”

“What?” Samantha gawked at him. “Are you saying she’s on his side?”

“No, I’m not saying that. We can’t waste our miniscule resources on trying to rescue her. We need to focus on stopping whatever he’s planning.” The vampire stood and folded his arms over his chest. “Trust me. My instinct is to find her and rescue her, but that’s not what she’ll want. She wants to stop him. She wants him dead. Permanently.”

“He’ll expect us to launch a rescue, won’t he?” Jeff asked.

Cian
concurred. “We’d be playing into his hands. I don’t think he considers us a true threat now that she is with him, but he’d also expect me to rush to her rescue. It’s what I’ve done in the past.”

“Like when you tried to rescue Roberto,” Samantha said, understanding. “And what I did for you. And what we tried to do for Bianca, Sergio and Innocente. We have a history of rushing in to do big rescues.”

“Exactly.”

“So he’ll be waiting.” Jeff rubbed his eyes wearily. “Definitely. He’ll be waiting.”

“So we need to concentrate on reaching her and finding out what he’s planning and where we need to go to stop him.” Cian glanced at the makeshift bed.

Again, Samantha was struck with the utter loneliness that filled his gaze. He loved Amaliya in a way he had never loved her and though it should have pissed her off, it made her heart bleed for him. Without thinking, she threw her arms about him and hugged him. To her surprise, he clung to her, burying his face in her hair.

“Cian, I’m so sorry about bitch-face,” Samantha whispered.

The vampire was silent, but she felt his shoulders quaking. His remote behavior and eerie calm made sense in that moment. He was barely keeping himself together.

“I would rip the world apart to save her,” Cian said, a quaver in his voice. “But I can’t. It’s not what she’d want and I can’t risk falling into another trap.”

“If you die, he wins,” Jeff agreed.

Slipping from her embrace, Cian retreated to the bed. The sun was close to rising and he looked exhausted. “Yes. He’ll win.”

“I’ll see what I can do. I promise.” Taking Jeff’s hand, Samantha moved toward the attic door. “When you wake up, I’ll let you know what I figured out.”

“Thank you,” Cian said, a grateful look in his eyes.

When Samantha closed the door, the last thing she saw was Cian wipe a tear away.

Amaliya stirred, her eyelids gradually peeling open as she awakened. She’d been dreaming of her grandmother, but lost the old woman’s urgently whispered message when she woke. The cloying scent of blood, incense, sex, and black magic hung in the air reminding her of where she was and all that had occurred the night before. The emptiness within her was agonizing and she fought back the sudden desire to cry.

Cian wasn’t at her side slumbering through the daylight hours. He was in Austin sleeping alone. She craved his touch, his kiss, and the sound of his voice whispering her name.

Last night it was not Cian’s kiss or touch that had brought her exquisite pleasure, but the one who had created her. It had actually been a relief that The Summoner had wanted sex and hadn’t tried to force her into some bizarre black magic ritual. After witnessing the twisted manifestation of the black witches’ magic, she was afraid of what he might force her to do. Sex was something she could handle without many qualms. She’d just turned off her emotions and enjoyed the physicality of it.

Stretching out her legs, she ignored the pleasant soreness between her thighs. Whatever The Summoner was now, he had been just as ravenous and passionate as the first time he’d tried to claim her. Unable to bite and drink her blood, he’d been especially rough. It had frightened her a bit to realize just how much he wanted to make her his own. How far would he go to try to secure her loyalty?

Rubbing her face, she tried not to think too much about what had occurred. She had no regrets, but she hated to admit that it had been a bit more than just casual sex. It was undeniable that the power that existed among the three of them was terrifying in its intensity, but it also bound them together with a strength and fervor that was difficult to process. Whereas Cian’s touch made her feel safe and loved, The Summoner and Bianca awoke the darker aspects of her nature in a frightening, yet enthralling rush. Locked in their embrace, she’d felt like a goddess ready to demand blood, death, and darkness. In the aftermath, she was shaken by how alluring the promise of the new world was when she was drunk on the potency of their combined power.

A tender touch on her shoulder drew her out of her dark reverie. Rolling over, she saw Bianca was already awake, one hand tucked beneath her cheek. She wasn’t staring at Amaliya,
but past the end of the bed. Moving her fingertips away from Amaliya’s skin, she pointed toward the far side of the dimly lit room. Still nude, the necromancer was on his knees before the glowing rings, his hands held aloft over the illusion of a sword. Eyes closed in rapture, he was chanting in a language Amaliya had never heard before.

“He does this every day,” Bianca whispered. “It’s what helps him gain a corporeal form when he’s in this room, and only in the room.”

“Is that why he possesses you outside of it?” Amaliya inched closer to Bianca, the silky sheets brushing over her naked flesh.

Pressing her lips together, Bianca nodded sadly.

The Summoner appeared lost in his meditation.

“Is he aware of us right now?”

“No. Not right now.” Bianca sighed and curled into a little ball. The room was incredibly cold and the silk comforter was not very warm.

Pulling another blanket that had been shoved to the end of the bed over them, Amaliya tucked it in around their bodies. It was strange that they were actually feeling the low temperature in the room. Usually cold didn’t affect vampires. With dread, Amaliya realized that the icy air was supernatural.

Snuggling under the covers, Bianca said, “Thank you.”

“Have you tried to escape while he’s doing that?”

“Yes.” Bianca’s gaze slid away from The Summoner to Amaliya’s face. “I can only make it a few steps before it stops me.”

“What does?”

“The sword.”

Propping a few pillows under her throbbing head, Amaliya wished she could get away from the hellish sword. The energy flowing in waves from Lucifer’s weapon made her feel oddly disconnected from herself and the world. The sensation was not entirely unpleasant, which worried her.

“How does it stop you?” Amaliya concentrated her attention on Bianca and ignored The Summoner’s chanting and the pull of the horrible rings.

“I get confused. Muddled. I can’t remember what I’m doing. Or why I’m trying to leave. Once, I stood in the same spot in front of the doors for hours until The Summoner came out of his trance. He was very upset.” Bianca returned to watching the man that had brutally killed her, but was now her captor and lover.

“I’m so sorry,” Amaliya said, and meant it. Despite all she had been through, Bianca gave off an aura of innocence. It made Amaliya want to protect her. “I wanted to save you once I knew you were still alive in your body. I just didn’t know how.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have tried to reach you. I was just so scared and desperate.” Bianca nervously bit her bottom lip. “I should have known he would find a way to bring you here. He always wanted you so much more than he wanted me.”

Bits of memory sifted through Amaliya’s mind. “You were there the night I died, weren’t you?”

A slight shudder slipped through Bianca’s body. “I tried to save you. I failed. You died. He killed me.”

“I think I remember,” Amaliya frowned as she tried to recall the night The Summoner had murdered her. Their date had been so wonderful until the moment he had torn out her throat. Maybe it was a false memory, but she had a recollection of Bianca trying to touch her hand as she died. “You whispered something to me.”

“I told you to find me,” Bianca said. “I thought we’d rise together and that we could find a way to defeat him together.”

“But I rose before you.”

“And he possessed me as soon as I awakened.”

“I’m so sorry.” She laid her hand on Bianca’s cheek. “I failed you.”

Edging closer, Bianca rested her fingers over Amaliya’s. “Don’t say that. You didn’t know. It took me a long time to fight through the possession. It was like I was in a very deep sleep and caught in a nightmare I couldn’t escape. Once I managed to slip past his power, it took a long time to find your grandmother. I’m so sorry about her dying. I never dreamed he would kill her.”

“So you did try to reach my grandmama?”

“I thought she would be like my mother and be able to fight him.”

Amaliya tried to banish the image in her mind of her grandmother’s tiny broken form. “Your mother fought The Summoner?”

“He tried to claim her. She fought him and won. I was very little when it happened. When he couldn’t reach her inside the house, he burned it to the ground. She died saving me. I didn’t see him again until he arrived at the college. I recognized him, but thought he didn’t know who I was. I was wrong.”

“Fuck me. He’s been watching us for a very long time then?”

“We are his grand experiment.” Bianca peered at Amaliya over the edge of the blanket. “We’re his chosen.”