“Oh?” Jeff sat back down. “What did you come up with?
While Amaliya continued to grow in power, Samantha was feeling stuck of late. Though she constantly saw ghosts, she found it difficult to control them the way she was supposed to be able to. Only when Amaliya was with her was she able to get the ghosts to do her bidding. Alexia and Benchley had provided a lot of information for her to read and she was sure she had finally found a way to get her abilities firmly under her dominion.
“I want to go find Roberto in Fenton.”
“Roberto?” Baptiste cocked his head. “Who’s Roberto?”
Samantha saw Jeff flinch. Taking a deep breath, Samantha said in a rush of words, “He was Cian’s bitchy human right-hand dude that drove me fuckin’ crazy until he betrayed Cian and Amaliya to The Summoner. He became a vampire and betrayed them again, then got himself staked by a zombie under Amaliya’s control. Then he survived this epic ghost apocalypse when The Summoner basically used all the ghosts in the graveyard in Fenton to infuse himself into Bianca all the way over in Louisiana. So he’s still out there and cranky.”
“And you want to go talk to him and then what?” Baptiste looked skeptical.
“Get him to come with me,” Samantha said, avoiding Jeff’s look of disbelief.
“You hate Roberto,” Jeff said.
“Well, yeah. He’s a snarky bitch,” Samantha said, “but he’s the only ghost I know really well. We kinda have a connection. He’ll totally want out of that town and I can offer him a way out. Aimee is going to make me a foci.”
“It’ll tether him to Samantha,” Aimee explained.
“Can you do that with another ghost?” Jeff leaned toward Aimee to emphasize his next words. “Because any other ghost may be a much better option.”
“Well, yeah,” Aimee said, “but then she’d be stuck with a ghost who may not be sentient or cooperative.”
“Jeff, Roberto knows me. He knows our situation. He’ll be on board.” Samantha tried to sound more confident than she felt.
“He tried to kill Cian and Amaliya. How do you think they’ll feel about this?” Jeff stared at Samantha with an incredulous look upon his face.
“They’ll deal. Because I need him. I know him. He knows how to fight. He knows what’s up. He’s a fuckin’ jerk and a half, but he knows what’s up. The Summoner would have eaten him up like all the other ghosts and he knows that. He’ll want payback. Plus, Jeff, he did try to warn us something was up in the graveyard the night it all went to hell.” The thought of Innocente’s tiny broken body brought tears to Samantha’s eyes. Using a napkin, she dabbed at her eyes. “He tried to warn us.”
Jeff exhaled and flopped forward, his head in his hands. “Shit.”
“If this can help her...” Baptiste said, then fell silent.
“You need to do it.” Aimee’s voice was firm. “You need to be at full strength. If you need a ghost to help you channel your power, then go get him. Cian will understand.” A slight smirk appeared on the witch’s lips. “Maybe Amaliya won’t, but Cian will.”
“How can we chance this?” Jeff asked. “If she leaves the city, it’s a big risk.”
“I can go during the day,” Samantha suggested. “I thought Benchley and Alexia could take me.”
“You need another supernatural with you.” Jeff looked toward Baptiste. “Are you game?”
“I’ll go where needed.” Baptiste sat back in his chair, his usually placid face slightly tense. “This is the graveyard where Prosper died, isn’t it?” His long fingers played with the edge of a napkin.
“Yeah.” Samantha squirmed in her seat. She often thought of the graveyard as the place where Innocente had died, but Rachoń had lost Prosper and Amaliya had lost her childhood friend, Pete, that very same night.
“I’ll go,” Baptiste said. “I want to pay my respects.” The solemn pain dwelling in his eyes spoke of how much he had loved his fallen father-figure.
“Oh...kay.” Jeff tapped his fingers on the table. “Aimee, could you-”
“I can get them set up.” Aimee gave him a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry.”
Samantha met the concerned gazed of her boyfriend with a wide grin. “It’s okay. Really.”
“Uh huh,” Jeff said, not sounding confident. “When should we do this?”
“Tomorrow. I need time to prep.” Aimee grabbed her empty bowl and spoon.
“And we need to talk to Cian,” Baptiste added. “Our fearless leader.”
A snort from the hallway gave away Benchley’s eavesdropping.
Samantha arched an eyebrow at Baptiste. He returned the gesture, then grinned.
“Ready to go ghost wrangling?” she asked.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Baptiste answered with a wink.
Jeff’s head hit the table with a clunk and he moaned. “Could this get any worse?”
“Bench, we need to talk.”
Jeff watched his friend shift his weight on the sofa as he paused the game he was playing on Jeff’s old Xbox console. Benchley set the controller on his lap, folded his arms over his hefty chest, and gazed at Jeff. “Okay, talk.”
Taking a seat opposite Benchley, Jeff rubbed his hands together nervously. He hated dealing with the interpersonal dynamics of the group and it was worse when he had to give a talk to his best friend. Maybe this was why Cian was the one to lead. Cian could be an asshole. “It’s about earlier.”
“Yeah. So? I already said I’ll go to Fenton. It will at least give me something to do,” Benchley said moodily.
“I meant about the situation with Cian being in charge.”
“Does it bother you that we’re trusting a bloodsucking vampire?” Benchley’s glower intensified. “I mean, I kinda like Cian, but he’s a vampire. So is Amaliya. I kinda like her, too. But they’re shifty as fuck.”
Jeff narrowed his gaze, studying Benchley thoughtfully, then had an inkling that something was up that his friend had yet to tell him about. “What’s going on?”
“Are you my leader or not?” Benchley demanded.
“Uh, is this a research scenario?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’m your leader.”
“Good!” Benchley hurled the controller aside and leaned forward. “Amaliya came to me a while back and asked me to research possession. She gave me notes about this freaky dream she had. She didn’t want me to tell Cian about it. Which is very shifty.”
“Okay, I’m lost.”
“It’s about Bianca. Amaliya thinks Bianca is still alive and trapped in her own body by The Summoner. Amaliya believes that Bianca is communicating with her and asking to be rescued.” Benchley widened his eyes. “And we all know what happened when Innocente tried to rescue Bianca.”
Jeff flopped back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. “Okay, so Amaliya came to you about possession, told you to keep it on the lowdown, and you’re in a bad mood because she told you not to tell Cian?”
“No, I’m in a bad mood because I discovered something.” Benchley covered his face with his hands. “She might be right.”
Jeff gawked at him. “Bianca’s alive?”
“Yeah, I think so. Our original assumption after the events in Fenton was that Bianca never rose as a vampire. That it didn’t take. Remember?”
“Yeah...”
“And that The Summoner used all those ghosts to infuse himself into her body. So basically he rose from her grave, not Bianca.”
“Yeah...” The whole conversation was starting to make Jeff’s head hurt.
“I’ve been searching through some really old cases. Most vampires rise from their graves within three days of their deaths. Three days is the established cut off. Bianca rose four days after.” Benchley pulled out his cellphone and opened an app that he used to take notes. “So...the assumption was that Bianca really, really died. Gone. Moved on. But I don’t think so anymore. There are a few rare cases of other supernatural beings becoming vampires.”
Now Jeff knew he
was getting a migraine. Resting his hand on the top of his head, he stared at Benchley in disbelief. “Are you shitting me?”
“No, dude. I’m totally serious here. Those supernatural beings took longer to rise. A vampire back in the day made vampires out of an elemagus, were, and true witch. They all took much longer to rise as vampires. And they were scary, because they retained their old powers plus gained their new vampire powers. The three went on a rampage and were put down finally by the Russian army back in the late 1700’s. An army, Jeff.” Benchley lifted his head, and gave Jeff his most worried look. “See what I’m getting at?”
“Bianca is still alive and retained all her powers.”
“Which means The Summoner has all her powers, plus his own. And Amaliya is totally going to want to rescue her.”
“Fuck me.” Jeff exhaled long and slow. “Fuck me!”
“Amaliya has been badgering me for this information. I gave her all the details on Josephine Leduc like she wanted. All the stuff on astral projection. But I held this back because once she knows about it...”
“I getcha. Totally. She’ll take off to San Antonio to save her.” Jeff folded his arms over his chest and glowered at nothing in particular. “Go ahead and tell Amaliya before she does something crazy anyway. But I’m going to tell Cian, too. We can’t have her going off without us. He can keep her from doing something nuts.”
“We are talking about the same Amaliya, right?”
“Point.” Jeff sighed.
“Look, I hate all this sitting around bullshit, but I also don’t want us to lose Amaliya on some crazy rescue mission. She is our big gun. We don’t even know where The Summoner is located.”
“That won’t stop Amaliya. She’ll tear San Antonio apart.”
“Exactly. And drag Samantha with her.”
Outside the tall windows the summer sun was busy scorching Texas. The bright light washed over the tall trees which in turn cast long shadows over the backyard that appeared to reach toward the house like inky claws. Jeff couldn’t help but take it as a sign. Darkness was coming.
“You have a point,” Jeff said at last. “We’ll hold it back from Amaliya, but I’m going to tell Cian tonight.”
Benchley made a scoffing noise as he slumped on the sofa and picked up his controller.
“Bench, seriously, the others were right about Cian. He’s the guy we’ve got to trust.”
“Even though he has been a self-serving prick in the past?”
“Yeah.” Jeff shrugged. “Because the truth is that we’re doomed without that self-serving prick and his girlfriend.”
Turning his game back on, Benchley’s fingers flew over the controller. “Life was so much easier when I thought the monsters were only make believe.”
Jeff had to agree.
Slumping onto the computer chair next to Alexia, Cassandra peered at the array of monitors. “What’s up, Lex?”
The younger woman sighed. “Same bullshit as always.”
Alexia spent most of her days in Cian’s basement hub doing research and chatting with the remnants of The Assembly. Since the area was remodeled to look like just another swanky floor in the vampire’s home, it wasn’t like she was situated in a musty, ratty basement. Yet, it was still cooler than the floors above, so Alexia was wearing two hoodies instead of one. Her fingers fidgeted with both sets of strings.
“No one knows anything and they wish us good luck?” Cassandra rolled her eyes.
“I hate people.”
“Well, a lot of them suck.” Tapping in a lascivious message to Aimee on her phone, Cassandra grinned with pleasure. “Some better than others.”
“You’re so lewd,” Alexia said with the wrinkle of her nose, but she looked amused.
“I have it on good authority that you spend quite a bit of time flirting with some Russian guy online.”
“Aimee is a snitch.” Alexia stuck out her tongue as she opened a message box on one screen and typed a quick line before closing it again.
An alarm beeped on Cassandra’s phone just as Aimee sent a message back. Blushing slightly, Cassandra killed the alarm before she opened her contacts list. “Time to behave and call my mom.”
“Oh, tell her hi for me. I miss her. She’s so sweet.”
Galina’s photo filled the screen. She greatly resembled Cassandra, but with much longer hair and a few more lines. Due to the blood she had imbibed while part of the Austin cabal in the seventies and the drops of Cassandra’s blood she took every day (thinking the bottle in the refrigerator contained B-12), she appeared to be in her early forties and not at the tail end of her sixties. The photo had been snapped while Galina had been in a very happy mood one day and her smiled was radiant. A pang of homesickness resounded through Cassandra. She missed her mother so much. Calling the number, she listened to the phone ringing.
“Hello?” her mother’s voice said, the slight Russian accent a welcoming sound.
“Hey, Mom. It’s me.”
“Cass! How are you? How’s camp?”
With a slight wince, Cassandra answered, “Mom, I’m grown up now. Check the back pages of your notebook.”
“Grown up?” Galina sounded flustered. “Are you calling from Paris? Are you getting a lot of modeling jobs?”
“That’s the wrong notebook, Mom. Look for the one with the pink leopard print cover.”
“Okay.” The sounds of shuffling filtered through the connection. Galina must have set the phone down because Cassandra could clearly hear her flipping pages. There was quite a racket when her mother picked up the phone again. “Oh! You’re so beautiful! You look like your father!”
“I look like you.” Cassandra smiled as she plucked at the frayed cuff of her jeans. It was an old argument that they repeated in every conversation. Though, now that Cassandra knew Cian better, she could see that they greatly resembled each other in appearance and manner.
“You’re with Aimee in Austin,” Galina read. She said Aimee’s name with great fondness. “I remember now. You’re visiting your father.” There was a long pause, then Galina asked the questions Cassandra dreaded. “Does he miss me? Does he want me to come back now?”
“Mom, he’s really busy right now.” Cassandra flinched. She had yet to tell her mother about Amaliya. “You know, with vampire stuff.”
Alexia tossed a worried look over her shoulder at Cassandra.
Galina was very quiet, but Cassandra could hear her breathing. “Does he still love me?”
“I love you. That’s what matters.”
“Always! Oh...Delta came today and we made tacos because I miss Texas,” Galina said, obviously recounting her latest entry in the notebooks that substituted for her memory. The vampires had left her mind riddled with massive holes.
“How is Delta?” Cassandra asked glad to change the topic.
For the next few minutes she listened to Galina prattle on about the caretaker Cassandra had employed to drop in every other day and check on her mother. Galina was fine with performing simple things around the house and was getting much better with recalling her daily schedule, but she would often forget to take her pills and vitamins. Sometimes she would not remember Cassandra was an adult and panic when she couldn’t find her daughter. There were framed reminders throughout her house, but sometimes Galina had severe episodes. Cassandra felt guilty for not being with her, but she consoled herself with the thought she was doing the right thing by being in Austin.
When she finally closed the call, she flung her arms into the air and let out an exaggerated, “Ugh!”
“She’s not okay today, huh?” Alexia gave her a sympathetic look.
“She’s a little more off than usual, but she’s okay. I just miss her and I feel guilty for not being with her.” Cassandra slouched in the chair, frowning. “I miss her. A lot.”
Alexia, who had no living parents, gave her a sad smile. “I know how that feels.”
Cassandra gave her friend a tight hug. “I know, Lex. Ignore me being stupid.”<
br />
“You’re never stupid,” Alexia said, squirming out of the hug. “Just way too huggy.”
“Ha! I’m giving you lezzy cooties! It’s already working on your butch hair!” Cassandra playfully ruffled Alexia’s short locks.
“I hate doing my hair! It takes up too much time! And I like penises!” Alexia protested, but giggled while smacking Cassandra’s hands away.
The teased each other for a bit longer, then settled in to watch movies on Netflix while Alexia continued to keep an eye on her emails and the websites she frequented for information. Cassandra couldn’t wait until Aimee got home. She needed to snuggle with her girlfriend and forget that the world was slowly going to hell.
As Alexia discreetly kept typing to her online boyfriend, Cassandra was glad to see that people didn’t stop falling in love and living their lives. She wondered if they would continue to after the earth was plunged into the abyss.
Chapter 15
Sitting across from Samantha on the ground in the yard behind Jeff’s house, Amaliya tapped her fingers on her knees. She could tell the blonde was nervous about something from the way she kept glancing toward the house. Amaliya flexed her toes in her boots and wiggled about, trying to get comfortable. Her jeans were a little snug and the waistband was biting into her midsection. She lamented her inability to lose weight, but it was her own fault for buying clothes without trying them on. Samantha, meanwhile, was dressed comfortably in black yoga pants and a pink tank top with an adorable chainsaw wielding bunny on it. The vampire reluctantly admitted the blonde looked cute.
“Are you going to concentrate at all, little bitch?” The affection in her tone still surprised her. Though Samantha could annoy her to no end, she did really care about the phasmagus.
Samantha scrunched her face. “I’m trying.”
“No, you’re staring at the house out of the corner of your eye.” Amaliya poked the center of Samantha’s forehead with one finger. “C’mon. Pay attention.”
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