“Which was the real trap.” Amaliya realized how foolish they had been. The Summoner loved to play games with people’s lives. He had easily maneuvered them into delivering him straight into their haven. “How did you open the portal? Oh, wait. Of course. The portal spell was inside Etzli, too.”
“See. You’re clever.” Bianca’s face proudly beamed at her.
“And somehow you were able to connect the portal here...” Amaliya pondered what she had seen when she had arrived. The dark red designs were significant. “Blood?”
“Santos and Etzli are related by blood.”
“So you formed a bridge through their blood.” Amaliya pressed a hand to her forehead. Of course. She had smelled blood when she exited the portal. It was Santos’ blood that had created the portal. “We were so stupid.”
“You’re children,” The Summoner said with a sigh. “Mere children.”
Guiding her through a set of doors, they entered into an enormous bedroom. It wasn’t furnished except for a massive bed covered in ivory silk bedding and an antique table in one corner. As soon as they stepped over the threshold, Amaliya’s head swam and her body sagged. The air throbbed with malevolent energy. The pulse of the magic surged against her body in potent waves. Feeling disoriented, she staggered as The Summoner drew her to the table. Resting on the surface was a length of red velvet with twelve gold rings sitting upon it in a glittering row.
“Oh, God,” Amaliya gasped.
“There is no god here other than you, me, and Bianca.” The Summoner’s voice was male, strong, and exactly like her nightmares.
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.
Pretty When She Destroys Page 27
