“Are you listening to me?”
“Yes. I am. Unfortunately.”
“Be nice, Roberto. I saved you.” Samantha frowned, worried that maybe this had been a bad idea after all.
“I am grateful for that, but a ghost can have many regrets once their life is over. I know I do.”
“Feeling bad for betraying Cian?” Samantha sat on the edge of her bed, setting her iPad on her lap.
The ghost flicked in and out of reality as he moved toward her. With a sigh, he sat next to her. “I should have killed Amaliya right away. Then you’d be married to Cian right now and none of this would be happening.”
Samantha was surprised by his words, and also a little unnerved. “Don’t say that.”
“I brought The Summoner down on all of us by not doing my duty to Cian. When I recognized Amaliya as a threat, I should have handled it. If I had, you and I wouldn’t be in this position right now.”
“A phasmagus and a ghost,” Samantha said.
“Exactly.”
“But you forget, I’d be married to Cian, who is a bit of a cheating bastard, you’d still hate my guts, The Summoner would take over the world, and we’d all die.” Samantha lifted her shoulders. “You may be worse off, but I’m better off. Jeff is a sweetie and I love him. Plus I’m a phasmagus and I will kick some serious butt. I’m scared, but happy here. Plus, bitch-face and I have a truce now. We’re even...kinda...sorta...friends. Honestly, Roberto, you fucked yourself over by betraying your friend. If you hadn’t been a jerkwad, you’d still be alive.”
The ghost whipped his head toward her, his features smearing together, his eyes holes of darkness, then his face returned to some semblance of normalcy. “Maybe Cian betrayed me! Just as he betrayed you!”
A year ago Samantha would have been terrified; now she was just slightly unnerved. She exhaled, her fingers fidgeting with the cover on her iPad. Even though she was the aggrieved party in their past drama, she had forgiven Cian and resolved a lot of her issues with Amaliya. She was also relieved that the romantic fantasy that she and Cian had created had fallen apart. There was no way Amaliya could have come between them so easily if they had truly been in love.
“I can tell by your expression that you know what I’m saying is true,” Roberto said after her silence had dragged on a little too long.
“I don’t think Cian betrayed you at all. Yeah, he didn’t listen to you about Amaliya, and he didn’t listen to me either, but that’s because he was lying to himself. I’m not saying he was right to ignore us. I’m saying that in the grand scheme of things, him being a bullheaded dick is a lot different from you going off and siding with The Summoner.” Samantha fastened a steady glare on the ghost.
“I was angry,” Roberto said with what could have been a slight pout.
“Yeah, so? I was furious. But I didn’t go siding with the enemy. I tried to save Cian from Amaliya. I didn’t betray him.”
“After so long together I could see that Cian was going to move on without me.”
“Oh, God. Were you two boning?”
Roberto bestowed her with a sardonic smile. “And if we were?”
Scrunching up her face, Samantha said, “Eh, whatever. I’m over Cian. I’m with Jeff. You’re dead and a ghost. Fuck the past.”
Visibly deflating over not being able to rile her up, Roberto sighed. “Though we have shared many women over the years, and endured much together, we were not ‘boning.’ We were like brothers, or so I thought. I knew Cian was unhappy when he started trying to be human again. You were bad enough. But Amaliya...when he wouldn’t send her away even when he knew The Summoner might descend on all of us, I knew my time with him was at an end.”
“So why didn’t you just go off and find your own life?”
“Without a vampire’s blood, I would grow old and die. I wanted neither of those things.”
“Well, at least you won’t grow old now.”
Roberto’s grimace deepened.
“I was trying to look at the bright side.” Samantha hesitated, then asked, “Why didn’t you just ask him to make you into a vampire?”
“I was angry, impatient, and wanted to hurt him for destroying the life we had built. I also knew he was opposed to making fledglings. Maybe Cian wouldn’t have completely abandoned me. I don’t know. But I also didn’t want to depend on him to make the choice for me.”
“So you betrayed him even though you had a super-long friendship.”
“There is only so long you can cling to the past.”
“And now you’re dead.”
“And I won’t grow old,” Roberto said with a sardonic smile.
The door opened. The light spilled in from the hallway to illuminate Jeff’s startled look.
“It’s not what you think,” Roberto said swiftly.
“My girlfriend is laying down the law on your ghostly ass?”
Roberto frowned. “An automatic response from my...living days.”
“You were such a whore, weren’t you?” Samantha rolled her eyes. It felt strange to be locking horns with Roberto again, but in a weird way she had missed him. He had been a part of her life for nearly a year, then had suddenly been gone.
“Yes, yes, I was,” Roberto said, his voice filled with longing.
“Eww.”
“Do you mind taking your ghostly ass out of my bedroom?” Jeff pointed at the doorway.
Roberto’s hollow eyes menacingly darkened.
“Go patrol, Roberto,” Samantha said, waving her hand at the apparition. “You’re not welcome in the bedroom anymore.”
One second the ghost was beside her, the next he was in the hallway. With a grunt, Roberto blurred into a smear of darkness and was gone.
“Can everyone else see him, too?” Jeff asked, entering and shutting the door behind him. “Or is Cian’s blood still affecting me?”
“Oops. Pulling the plug,” Samantha answered, internally disconnecting her thread of magic from Roberto so he would fade. “He’s invisible again.”
Sitting next to her, Jeff fastened one of his sweet looks on her, his hand sliding over her fingers. “I wanted to talk to you about something. It’s serious.”
Samantha set her iPad aside with her other hand. “Those words make me a little scared.”
“Well, I’m a little scared, too, but I really need to talk to you about this. Especially after tonight, seeing you like that. It was amazing, but scary.”
“Are you sure this isn’t a bad talk?” Samantha’s stomach coiled into a tight knot. If Jeff was going to dump her, she didn’t know how she’d deal with it. She really loved him, but she was evolving into something that even scared her a little. Maybe he couldn’t hack the change.
“I don’t think it’s a bad talk. Of course, you might think it is.” Jeff sighed.
“Jeff, just tell me what is going on.”
With a sigh, Jeff nodded his head. “Okay. Here we go.”
When her boyfriend drew out a small platinum ring with a single diamond, Samantha literally stopped breathing.
“This is my mom’s. It’s been in my family a long time. Before my dad died he said to give it to the woman I loved. That’s you.” Jeff held out the ring.
“You’re just going to give me a diamond ring? As a gift?” Samantha was dizzy not only with the whirl of emotions inside of her, but because she couldn’t seem to catch her breath.
Jeff’s eyebrows drew together. “No, no. It’s not a gift. I’m asking you to marry me.”
“But you didn’t really ask,” Samantha pointed out.
“Oh, yeah.” Jeff hesitated, then lifted the ring. “Sam, will you marry me?”
“No! Wait! Is this because we’re going to die?” Samantha had already made a mistake once when answering ‘yes’ to a marriage proposal and she wasn’t about to get married for the wrong reason.
“Not the answer I hoped for.”
“Is it?” Samantha pressed one hand to her wildly beating heart. “Because we’re goin
g to die?”
Jeff adamantly shook his head, his floppy hair getting messier. “No! No. Well, sort of. Not really.”
“Well?”
“Look, Sam. This is the thing. I love you. I love you being in my house with me. It feels right. I want this to be our home together. And, yes, the thought that we might die in a few months scares me enough to compel me to say things that I might have talked myself into waiting on. You know, waiting for the perfect moment. Yet, there might not be one. A perfect moment.” Jeff was flummoxed. “I’m doing this all wrong. I’m sorry. I’m sure Cian did this much better.”
Samantha stared at the ring in his hand and watched it gradually go out of focus as tears welled. Cian had done it perfectly with a carriage ride, tons of red roses, champagne, a proposal on one knee, and a whopper of a ring. It had all been a charade. Jeff’s floundering proposal had her breathless, speechless, and stunned.
“I forgot to get down on one knee,” Jeff muttered. “Okay, this was probably a bad idea. I’m doing this all wrong. Maybe I should try again later?”
Wagging her head, Samantha managed to say, “No.”
“No?” Jeff visibly deflated.
“I mean, no, don’t ask me later.” Samantha grabbed his wrist before he could draw away. “Not don’t ask me. I mean. Yes.”
Jeff squinted at her. “Okay. Lost.”
“Yes. Let’s get married.” The second the words left her lips, Samantha burst into tears.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry!” Jeff reached out to draw her close.
Behind them, Beatrice meowed with irritation, trying to sleep.
“I’m crying because I’m happy.”
Despite all the insanity in her life, Samantha was sure that she wanted to be with Jeff. No matter what supernatural weirdness was occurring within her or around them, Jeff was her stalwart supporter. He believed so entirely in her, loved her so completely, that she couldn’t imagine not having him at her side. She loved him in a way that brought her an incredible amount of peace. She wasn’t afraid of sharing her future with him, even if it did end disastrously for both of them. As long as she was with him, whatever was left of her life would be worth living.
“Oh, thank God. I know I’m doing this all wrong, but I’m a little frazzled.” Jeff pressed his lips to her hands, then slipped the ring on the wrong finger.
With a little smile, Samantha switched the ring to the proper one. “Engagement finger,” she explained, wiggling her digits. “Marriage finger is the opposite hand.”
“Oh.” Jeff grinned. “I’ve never been engaged before.”
Samantha clutched his trembling hands tightly. “I was, but it was totally not with the right guy.”
To her surprise, Jeff’s eyes were wet with unshed tears. “Samantha, I’m so glad you found me that day at the Spiderhouse. Life has been so incredible since that day. Just being around you makes me so happy. I love you so much, honey.”
Wiping away his tears, then her own, Samantha pressed a tender kiss to his lips. “I love you. You make me happy.”
“I’m doing this because I love you. Yeah, the whole end of the world thing speeded it up a little, but I would have done it anyway.”
Samantha snuggled into him as they fell back on the mattress together. Beatrice hissed and haughtily hopped down off the bed.
“I would have said yes anyway.” Samantha held up her hand so the lamplight could catch the sparkle of the diamond.
“It’s curse free, by the way. Aimee checked it.”
“Then it’s perfect,” Samantha said, grinning. “Like you.”
Combing his fingers through her blonde hair, Jeff grinned. “No, you’re perfect. And a little scary. When I was high on Cian’s blood, I could see your new nature. It was...intense.”
“Did I look supercool? Because Amaliya totally looked supercool.”
“You were beautiful. It was like you had ghostly wings and a halo around your head. Like a goddess.”
Samantha liked that description. It made her feel even more confident in her new abilities.
“So even though Cian was being a total dick when he force-fed me his blood, I’m kinda glad he did.” Jeff’s lips lightly brushed over hers.
“It was mean.” Samantha had been pissed off when Jeff had told her what had happened. Cian had quickly received an earful, though she could tell he wasn’t really listening to her at all. He’d been worried about Amaliya, who had looked somewhat pale and a little sickly after all was said and done. They’d left soon after to go hunt.
“Yeah, but I think I may ask him to do it again in the future. It was reassuring to actually be able to see the magic going on around me. Seeing the ward and your powers made it more tangible.” Jeff exhaled. “I just don’t like the whole blood thing.”
“It’s pretty gross,” Samantha agreed.
“Well...” Jeff rubbed his face. “It’s more than that. Don’t tell anyone this, but Cass nearly killed me when she hit puberty. One of the side effects of being a dhamphir is bloodlust. We didn’t know that though. We were young, foolish, and thirteen. I had the biggest crush on Cass. She was so beautiful and I was a hormonal teen. One day, I grabbed her and kissed her.”
Samantha immediately knew what had happened next. “She bit you.”
“Actually, she shoved me off her, tackled me, beat me up a little bit, then bit me.”
“I can see why you didn’t want this story getting out,” Samantha said, patting his arm.
“My dad found us and saved my life. It was not a good moment for any of us. Cass and I have never even talked about it. We just pretend it never happened.”
“It must have been really hard for you to let Amaliya feed off you when we were trapped in that farmhouse.”
“Well, it was hard for me to ask her to save you because of what had happened with Cass. Yet, it saved your life.”
“And changed me into a phasmagus.”
“I didn’t see that coming!”
“None of us did.” Samantha laid her head on his chest, listening to his heart beating.
“If I decide to become an infused human, I’ll have to let Cian drink from me and then drink his blood to allow his blood to imbue me for much longer than a few hours.”
“You don’t have to, Jeff.”
“No, but I may need to.”
Jeff’s warm embrace, the rise and fall of his chest, and his heartbeat were quite soothing. “Let’s not think about it for now.”
“Right. We’re engaged. We should celebrate it.” Jeff grinned at her. “Have any ideas?”
With a wicked smile, Samantha lifted her head and kissed him.
Part Four
Interlude
Chapter 18
September gave way to October. October faded into November.
The heat of the summer gradually faded away as cold fronts slithered across Texas, dropping the temperature in Austin to a much more palatable degree. Austinites started to don their sweaters, hoodies, and boots, leaving their shorts, tank tops, and flip-flops in their closets. The leaves of several species of trees turned dull orange and yellow, while others shed their coats completely. The chaotic energy of summer gave way to a more relaxed atmosphere as the holiday season loomed on the horizon.
The transformation of the city around the small cabal was barely noted as they fought their battles against the growing tidal wave of darkness threatening to devour the world.
It became increasingly evident that while Cian did not want to make vampires as cannon fodder, The Summoner was perfectly willing to do so. As the reports of missing people in San Antonio and the surroundings towns escalated, fledgling vampires crazed in the madness of bloodlust began to invade Austin on an almost nightly basis. Aimee’s perimeter spells instantly alerted the witch to any incursions. Tracking spells immediately went into effect, allowing Cian’s cabal to chase down the intruders and eliminate them. Most of the trespassing into Cian’s territory took place in less populated areas, which the vampir
e master regarded as The Summoner’s attempt to observe either Samantha or Amaliya’s powers from afar.
With that in mind, Cian deliberately kept Amaliya and Samantha back from the front lines. Cassandra, Aimee, Baptiste, Eduardo, Cian, Jeff, and Benchley managed quite well against the intruders with the invisible assistance of Roberto and his growing army of sentient ghosts under Samantha’s remote control. Amaliya, though frustrated, raised her zombies and sent them out to patrol nightly while remaining behind. She no longer had to have her blood spilled in the cemeteries around Austin to raise the dead, though she still had to shed her own blood to activate her magic. It was obvious by the startling human appearance of her zombies and their super-human strength that she was growing in her power. She could now observe through the eyes of her raised zombies, something she could never do before.
Even as the cabal grew in strength, they were aware of the dwindling number of days until the inevitable battle against The Summoner.
***
Cassandra vaulted through the air and landed behind the rabid vampire. The creature twisted about, baring long fangs. The dhamphir barely registered the woman’s youthful appearance before slamming the stake through her heart and barreling toward the next vampire.
White flashes of light zipped through the night as Aimee tossed orbs of magic at the rush of vampires descending on the old neighborhood on the east side of Austin. Bronze hair flying about her face, she levitated off the ground, her magic swirling around her like a rainbow.
Meanwhile, Baptiste cast conflagrations at the vampires, setting them aflame. Before the dying vampires could set the dry foliage about them on fire, the elemagus wrapped them in swirling winds and lifted them into the air to let them burn to ash.
Cian slashed his way through the vampires, decapitating them with a swipe of his obsidian blade. Around five of the blood-crazed fledglings leaped onto him trying to take him down, but he easily flung them off before dispatching them.
Benchley hurled spell bags at the assaulting forces. On impact magical vines of power wrapped around the vampires and dragged them down to the ground where it was easier for Jeff to plunge stakes into them.
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