“You and your secret compartments,” Amaliya grumbled.

Cian glanced up at her, slightly smiling. “I’m always full of surprises.”

Leaning against the door jamb, Amaliya rested one hand on her hip and glowered at him.

“We’re still fighting?” Cian asked.

“Yes.”

Squatting next to his secret stash, Cian withdrew a sword and studied the blade. “All right. You go first.”

“Do we have to get physical? My sword-fighting skills aren’t all that great.” She quirked an eyebrow at him.

Cian rolled his eyes at her joke. “Amaliya...”

“I talked to Sergio and my grandmother. She had another visitation.”

“From Bianca?”

“Yeah. From Bianca. The other chick The Summoner killed.”

Cian set the sword down and withdrew a wicked-looking dagger that appeared to be made of black stone. “And?”

“She’s not a ghost.”

Flicking his gaze toward her, curiosity bloomed in his expression. “Go on.”

“She’s a vampire, and she’s astral projecting.”

Amaliya smiled triumphantly as Cian stood up abruptly. His slightly sarcastic demeanor was gone. He looked deadly. “Go on.”

“She’s like me. She’s a necromancer. She raises the dead.”

“How do you know that?” Cian crossed the room swiftly to stand at her side.

“Sergio saw her eyes glowing when her apparition appeared in my grandmother’s room. My grandmother saw it in her dream when she spoke to Bianca. Bianca begged her for help. She said that the woman with the red eyes is holding her and planning to use her to kill me.”

“Rachon...”

“Yeah. Probably. Bianca is terrified and begging for help. My grandmother said that the girl has been seeking her out for months and finally found her.” Amaliya poked Cian in the chest with one finger. “I can’t astral project, fucker, and she can. What the fuck, Cian? What is she?”

“I haven’t the slightest. Astral projecting is quite complicated. I’ve known a few witches who could do it, but I never heard of a vampire doing it.” Frowning, Cian glanced down at the blade in his hand. “This is disconcerting.”

“Oh, fucking yeah, it’s disconcerting! I told you that Rachon is coming for us to kill us. I don’t know why the hell you can’t accept that. She has her own gawddamn necromancer, Cian. She doesn’t need to make a pact with you. I’m not so rare now, am I?”

“It makes no sense. Why are there two of you?” Cian brushed past Amaliya and headed down the hall. “He never passed his power on before to anyone. At least not that I know of.”

“Well, The Summoner did and now there are two of us!’ Amaliya stalked after Cian. “Can Rachon make her try to kill me?”

Glancing over his shoulder, Cian gave a short nod.

“Uh, could you, like, give me some details?”

“If Bianca rose shortly after her burial, Rachon has had four months to feed her blood. Rachon’s own blood, therefore, binding Bianca to her. She can use that bond to force Bianca to do her bidding.”

“Wait. I drink your blood.” Amaliya stopped dead in her tracks just as they reached the staircase. She suddenly felt ill, not physically, but emotionally. “Fuck you. You bound me to you!”

Gripping the rail, Cian turned toward her. “I drink your blood. You bound me to you. Plus, we were made by the same Master, so that adds to our bond. You and I had no choice but to be drawn to one another, Amaliya. That is why we...” he hesitated.

“What?”

He ascended a few steps to stand below her, his hand reaching out to touch her. She pulled away from him, horrified that she might be under some terrible spell he had cast on her. If he had robbed her of free will, she was going to kill him.

“That is why we lusted for each other, why we were entangled so quickly. But that isn’t why I love you. Lust is lust. But I do love you and that is because of who you are.”

Gazing into his hazel eyes, so earnest and full of adoration, Amaliya felt her fear starting to fade. “And who am I?”

“An infuriatingly hard-headed woman who lives her life with an intensity that I find exhilarating and frightening. Who is kind even though she won’t admit it. Strong, despite her desire to sometimes run away. Intelligent. Talented. Beautiful.”

Amaliya went into his arms and clung to him. “Fuck you, Cian. You’re going to make me cry.”

“That’s my girl.”

He pressed a kiss to her cheek, then took her hand. “C’mon. We need to talk to Jeff and his vampire hunters. We’re supposed to be meeting them at midnight anyway, but we need to meet now. “

“So I was right and you were wrong.”

“Somewhat,” Cian said, flashing a smile at her.

The emotion that swelled inside of her at the sight of his smile didn’t feel like some magical bond. It felt like love. Maybe they were bonded to each other, but there was something more going on between them. Something real, and Amaliya clung to that truth as Cian drew her along behind him.

She just hoped they survived long enough to enjoy it.

Chapter 13

Exhausted, Jeff was not in the mood to deal with the gathering of people in the back room of his bookstore. It was a little past ten and the only thing making him feel alert was the caffeine and sugar he was pouring into his system. He had hoped for a nice nap before his midnight meeting with Cian, but that had not come to pass. Cian’s urgent phone call had come right after Jeff’s head had hit the pillow.

The hot steam from his black coffee tickled his nose as he took another sip, his eyes watching the people gathered around the long table over the rim of his Bela Lugosi mug.

Cian, Amaliya, and Samantha had been the first to arrive. Now the vampire master of Austin lurked in the back of the room, leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest. Jeff often wondered how humans couldn’t tell when they were in the presence of a vampire. Cian was unnaturally alluring to both sexes with his keen hazel eyes and magnetic gaze. Jeff often felt himself wanting to give in to a need to make Cian happy. He saw Benchley react in the same manner. They wanted to be his buddy, to please him. It made Jeff very uncomfortable to recognize the power Cian had when he wasn’t even attempting to wield it.

Yawning, he glanced toward Amaliya and Samantha. They were seated next to each other at the opposite end of the table. They were being surprisingly civil to one another. That fact made Jeff extremely nervous. Samantha’s earlier rage was gone, replaced by a quiet surrender that he wasn’t sure he liked.

Benchley had arrived next with his sister Alexia, who resembled a teenage boy with her short brown hair and unisex way of dressing. She was slumped down next to her brother wearing a hoodie, skinny jeans, and Converse sneakers. She was the tech-girl of their outfit and wickedly smart.

Eduardo had arrived last. He was the only one of the hunters who looked remotely alert. Then again, he was nocturnal by nature. His specialty lay with his dual nature, part human, part coyote. Dark hair slicked back from his recent shower, his lean body was clad in a tight black T-shirt, jeans, and battered cowboy boots. He was short, but powerful. When he had entered the store, he had acknowledged Cian with a low bow of his head. Cian policed the vampires entering the city and Eduardo kept an eye out for weres.

Despite Austin being a hotbed for pagans, Wiccans, and other alternative religions, there were no actual magical witches in the city. Jeff had been on the lookout for years. He could really use one on his team, but the supernatural world was very good at hiding itself. There was always the possibility of other supernatural creatures in Austin riding under the radar.

It was Benchley who broke the uneasy silence that followed Cian, Amaliya, and Samantha’s rundown of all the recent developments.

“How does this even make sense? She’s supposed to be the oddity. The freak!” He pointed at Amaliya with an accusing finger.

“Gee, thanks,” Amaliya grumbled.

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Benchley combed his hands through his already-messy hair. “I mean, how can there be two of them? Two necromancer vampires? What the fuck is going on? Why are all the rules changing?”

“Rules are made to be broken,” Eduardo said with the flash of a smile. “So now there are two of them. Who cares?” He gave a dismissive shrug of his impressive shoulders.

“But there was one necromancer vampire for how long? Thousands of years and then suddenly, we have two?” Benchley stared at Amaliya with a mixture of awe and fear. This was only his second time meeting her and his nerves were showing.

Jeff wished Benchley hadn’t drunk most of the pot of coffee on his own. The guy was jittery as hell.

“I blame The Summoner,” Sam declared. “It’s his fault! He did something to Amaliya and this girl, Bianca.”

“The question is why and how?” Alexia’s voice, like her appearance, was very boyish.

Amaliya shrugged and hooked her legs over the armrest of her chair. She was wearing very sexy leopard print high heels with red soles. “He’s dead. Not like we can ask him.”