Nearby, Cian gathered his daughter into his arms. Cassandra appeared groggy from a head wound, but it was a relief to see her alive. Eduardo stooped low, ears back, teeth bared at the dead. Rachon, surprisingly, was still with them. In her hand was the dagger with which Amaliya had tried to kill Bianca.
Instead of attacking, the dead raised up their hands to Bianca and Etzli while sinking to their knees in supplication to the necromancer and vampire.
“Cian, you and your people stand down and we may let you live,” Etzli said, her black eyes glittering.
Bianca wove her way through the dead, studying their outstretched hands.
“Why are you here?” Cian asked, helping Cassandra to her feet.
“He called to me and I answered,” Etzli answered simply. She was dressed in a black dress that was split to her thighs on both sides. A belt around her hips was graced with daggers made out of bone. Amaliya had never seen her look so much like the blood goddess she claimed to be.
“But you're not his child,” Rachon said in disbelief.
“But I am bound to him by blood,” Etzli responded. “Don't you remember my abduction oh so long ago? He bound me to him and showed me the glory of his ways.”
Climbing to her feet, Amaliya felt hopeless in the face of Bianca's power and Etzli's appearance. If a silver dagger through the heart didn't even faze Bianca, how was she supposed to kill her? And Etzli's power was terrifying on its own. Cian had told her horror stories about what Etzli was capable of.
“Does Santos know?” Cian asked.
“Santos knows what I want him to know,” Etzli answered, shrugging.
Bianca tilted her head toward Amaliya. “Do you know what I want?”
“Your ring,” Amaliya answered.
“Do you know why?”
Amaliya hesitated, then shook her head.
Bianca plucked a golden ring from the palm of a zombie and held it up for all to see. “Here it is.” Slipping it onto her index finger, Bianca crushed the zombie's head. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, she tore it apart, vengeance in her face.
“Not to kill them,” Bianca said, gesturing toward the defiant vampire and his comrades.
“So much for not killing us.” The sarcasm in Cian’s voice made Amaliya slightly smile.
“Who should we kill first?” Etzli asked. “Cian? Rachon? Or their pet dog?”
Eduardo growled, edging toward the Aztec princess.
Amaliya.
Studying the area, Amaliya realized no one had called her aloud. She glanced at Cian, but he was crouched low to the ground, the obsidian blade in one hand, watching their enemies, preparing to strike. Cassandra also had her blades drawn and looked far more alert, though blood still trickled from her brow.
Maybe they could kill Etzli, but how would they kill Bianca?
Again, Amaliya heard her name, but this time she realized it came from within her. Trying to remain alert to her surroundings, Amaliya let her mind sift through her power. The blackness of her necromancy was tangled with the remains of the witch's black magic, both edged with the fiery red of Cian’s powers. But there was something more buried in all the layers. It was silvery and throbbed with power. Mentally grasping it, Amaliya heard Samantha's ardent whisper in her mind.
I need to help you. I need to help you fight him.
As Samantha's voice floated through her mind, Amaliya saw the armies of the dead attack Cian and the others. Instantly, she sent out her power, unleashing it, pulling the dead to her through her spilled blood.
Bianca gasped, her fury assaulting Amaliya, but Amaliya resisted. Concentrating on her link with the dead, Amaliya leashed them to her, calling them to her side. Bianca fought with her for control, her hiss of anger sizzling in the air.
Amaliya was dimly aware of Eduardo gnashing his teeth and tearing into dead flesh. She heard the clink of knives clashing and smelled Cian's blood spilling into the air. Amaliya wrestled the dead from Bianca only to have them called back.
“Come to me!” Amaliya said through clenched teeth.
Cian and Etzli spun through the air, clashing in an aerial battle above the heads of the zombies. Eduardo ripped through the zombies, trying to fight his way to Bianca.
Amaliya dug her fingers into the earth. “Come to me!”
To her shock, Samantha spilled out of the ground next to her, coughing and gasping.
“Sam!”
“Bitch!” Samantha spit up dirt, then her eyes widened at the spectacle around her.
Etzli battled Cian and Rachon at the same time, twisting and thrusting through the air. The tiny woman fought savagely, slipping in and out of the darkness like a wraith. Her daggers were made of bone and each cut was deep. She was a whirlwind of violence and Amaliya could barely track her with her eyes. Each time Etzli drew blood, it was a fountain that arced through the air. Cian had once told Amaliya that Etzli could summon blood from the very bodies of her enemies. Now she was witnessing it with her own eyes. Blood rained down on the zombies below as Cian sent Etzli howling into the darkness with a swift stroke only to have her reappear behind Rachon. Cian grabbed Rachon’s arm and flung her aside, Etzli’s killing blow missing.
Cassandra meanwhile fought her way through the zombies, slashing her way through creatures that were looking more and more human and exerting supernatural strength. Bianca was imbuing them with her power, making it increasingly difficult for the coyote and dhamphir to fight their way to the necromancer.
Amaliya sent out her power like a net and caught the zombies within it. Again, she turned them against Bianca.
“I have them!”
Rachon fell to the ground, her slashed throat pouring blood into the ground. Gagging, the vampire pressed her hands to her wound, trying to heal, but her blood arced into the air toward Etzli. The blood goddess was enshrouded in a halo of blood. Cian managed to slice off one of her hands, the bone dagger spinning into the night. Etzli screeched with pain.
“Oh, my God!” Samantha gasped.
Amaliya felt Bianca once more drag the zombies away from her control and she cried out in frustration. “I lost them again!”
Eduardo let out a pained yelp from somewhere amidst the zombies while Cassandra clambered onto a mausoleum, claiming the high ground in the battle with the undead.
“I'm supposed to help you!” Samantha shouted at Amaliya.
“How?” Amaliya demanded. “How?”
Samantha hesitated, then grabbed her hand. “Our connection! If you can drag me through the fucking ground to your side, it has to be something powerful!”
Amaliya felt the link between them soar the second they touched. Samantha's power was ghostly and beautiful. It easily meshed with Amaliya's own power, wrapping around it. Amaliya could see it clearly in her mind.
“I see it!” Amaliya gasped.
“Me, too!” Samantha’s voice was awed.
The glittering darkness of Amaliya's power wove together with Samantha's sparkling ethereal mist. Interconnecting the two women, a beautiful tapestry of their magicks shimmered between them. It was then the purple miasma of the witch's black magic broke free.
“What’s that?” Samantha exclaimed.
“The spell…I got it!” Amaliya exclaimed. “I know what to do!”
Abandoning her struggle with Bianca for the zombies, Amaliya closed her eyes and concentrated on the spell. In her mind, she imagined it pushing it out of her body and spreading it out to cover the graveyard, the farmhouse, the hotel, the gas station and the edges of the town. A great dome of purplish-black power, shoving back her enemies. Repulsing them, driving them away.
Bianca's scream was one of fury.
Amaliya opened her eyes to see Etzli and Bianca caught in the wave of the spell. It snatched up both of them and hurled them to the ground. Instantly, Amaliya felt the zombies return to her control.
“Rest,” Amaliya whispered.
The zombie horde instantly sank into the earth, leaving the graveyard strangely empty. Still gripping Samantha's hand, Amaliya stood. Cian floated above the graveyard, bloody, but alive. Rachon trembled on the ground, Etzli’s blood magic releasing her and allowing her to heal. Eduardo was covered in wounds. Collapsing, his body shifted into that of a man, allowing him to heal. Staring at the two women laying on the ground, Cassandra warily crouched down waiting to attack.
“What just happened?” she asked.
“Watch,” Amaliya told her, then fed the last of her power into the spell.
Simultaneously, both Etzli and Bianca were jerked to their feet and slid along the ground as though gripped by a great hand. Their faces were eerily blank of thought as they were swept away into the darkness of the night.
“What just happened?” Cassandra gasped.
Cian set down on the ground, glancing upwards at the shimmering spell, then at Amaliya. “How?”
“The spell that witch cast the night of the accident. I swallowed it into my power. Samantha helped me...uh...vomit it up… kinda,” Amaliya answered.
“Was that what that purplish stuff was?” Samantha asked.
“Yeah. I think it was caught inside of me, but now it's...free.” Amaliya let go of Samantha's hand just before Cian swept her up in his arms. He kissed her mouth tenderly.