“You’re amazing,” he whispered against her lips.
Amaliya sighed with contentment.
“A spell?” Cassandra leaped off the mausoleum landed next to Rachon.
“A repulsion spell,” Rachon said to Cassandra. Healed now, she knelt beside the dead vampire. His body would soon be nothing more than dirt. “Instead of casting it on humans to keep them away, she cast it on The Summoner and Etzli.”
“How long will it last?” Cassandra glanced around warily.
“Till sunup. That's how long they usually last,” Cian answered.
“Oh. That's good then.” Cassandra sheathed her daggers and touched her bleeding head gingerly. “Who’s that?”
“My cousin, Prosper. They murdered him,” Rachon answered, her voice pained.
“Pete!” Amaliya gasped, realizing she had forgotten him. She yanked away from Cian and scrambled over the broken headstones to where she had seen him fall. When she found him, she was surprised to find Jeff at his side trying to staunch the blood flowing from his chest. He had pulled off his own shirt to try to stop the bleeding.
“Jeff?”
“I can't stop it,” Jeff said, his tone defeated. “I think she hit something major. An artery or something.”
Settling on her knees, Amaliya leaned over Pete. She could see his blue eyes had a hint of life left, but not for long. Resting her hand on his forehead, she felt tears on her cheeks.
“Pete, I'm so sorry,” she said.
Samantha crouched next to Jeff and covered her mouth. Sorrow filled her expression.
“He wanted to help restore you to human,” Jeff explained though Amaliya didn’t ask.
Stroking Pete's beard with her fingers, Amaliya stared into his compassionate blue eyes. She could see his love for her glimmering in their fading depths. Blood bubbled on his lips and words he tried to whisper were lost in the gurgling of his last breaths. He had hurt her so badly that night in the Dixie Motel, but now as she studied his sweet face she wondered how she had ever been mad at him.
Taking his hand, she held it to her cheek. “Thank you for trying to save me,” she whispered.
“He just wanted a life with you,” Samantha said in a voice fraught with emotion. “He wanted to make it up to you for rejecting you. He was just so afraid, he didn't understand.”
“How do you know that?” Amaliya asked, glaring at Samantha. The words the woman had uttered hurt more than she wanted to admit.
“I can hear his voice as he grows closer to...” Samantha trailed off, studying Amaliya’s stricken look. “Do you want me to not tell you?”
“No, please, do.” Amaliya cast off her dark thoughts. She kissed Pete's hand and held it to her lips. “Tell me.”
Samantha nodded, her hand finding Pete’s other hand. Holding it gently, Samantha closed her eyes. “He says that he's so sorry. That all he ever wanted was to be with you. He wants you to know that he has no regrets about trying to save you.” Samantha wiped at her own tears. “He says...he says that he only regrets not growing old with you and watching your children grow up.”
Jeff wrapped an arm around Samantha to comfort her.
Amaliya found it hard to speak, but she forced out the words. “I'm sorry, too, Pete. That would have been wonderful. A perfect life.” It was a lie, but one she would say in this final moment to give him comfort.
As Pete's last breath escaped his lips, Samantha whispered, “He says he loves you.”
Pressing a kiss to Pete's lips, Amaliya whispered, “I love you, too.”
And then he was gone.
“I'm so sorry, Amaliya,” Samantha said, meaning it.
Amaliya wiped away her tears with the heels of her hands. “Where is my grandmother and cousin, Jeff?”
“Sergio is in the truck. He got knocked out,” Jeff replied.
“And my grandmother?” Even as she said the words, she knew the answer.
Jeff shook his head.
Amaliya sobbed and covered her face. “He killed her out of revenge.”
“I think so. Yes,” Jeff said, lowering his eyes.
“I'm going to find a way to fucking kill him. And he won't ever come back!” Amaliya swore bitterly, anger filling her. “He'll fucking stay dead!”
* * *
Cian watched Pete's passing from the other side of the cemetery. He didn't want to intrude, but he still heard the sorrowful farewell between Amaliya and Pete through Samantha. Cassandra lingered at his side, also watching, but saying nothing. Rachon ignored the scene, burying Prosper's remains with her bare hands. Eduardo sat naked on a tombstone staring at the sky.
“So The Summoner is back,” Cassandra said at last.
“Yes,” Cian said. The grimness of the moment tainted his voice.
“And he has the ring again.”
“Yes, he does,” Cian sighed.Cassandra pivoted toward him. “So what did we accomplish tonight?”
“You delayed the inevitable,” Rachon answered, smoothing the dirt with her hands into a mound. “And discovered the truth.”
“Which is basically that the big bad necromancer is back from the dead in the body of a hot chick and we're all going to die fighting him and his Aztec bitch-vamp,” Eduardo summarized.
“You missed something,” Rachon said, standing and wiping her hands on her jeans.
“What's that?” Cassandra asked.
“Etzli was wearing the same ring, too,” Rachon replied.
“Fuck me,” Cassandra grumbled.
“Can I? And your girlfriend, too?” Eduardo teased.
Cian knocked Eduardo off the headstone with a punch to the jaw. Eduardo sprang up, growling, but didn't attack. Sulking, he slid back onto his perch.
Looking a little impressed, Cassandra said, “Thanks, Dad.”
“Don't say that unless you mean it,” Cian said crossly.
Startled, Cassandra said, “Okay. So what do I call you?”
“Cian,” he answered.
“Okay, Cian.”
He looked into Cassandra’s eyes and knew he would not hurt her. Eduardo's crass remark had sparked inside of him something that had long been missing from his internal makeup. He had felt a father's protective love for a second. It had felt wonderful.
“Wait,” Rachon said, looking mystified. “You have a kid?”
Cian slightly smiled at Cass as she grinned back. “Yeah. Isn't she beautiful?”
“So I'm an aunt?” Rachon lifted her eyebrows in disbelief.
“If I forgive you and don't kill you.” Cian regarded his vampire sister thoughtfully.
“You can't blame me for fulfilling his last desire. Vengeance against the one who killed him.”
“Then Etzli and Santos could have killed me, taken Austin, and began their quest to dominate Texas and Mexico.”
Rachon shrugged. “That's what she said they wanted. I told her I didn't care how it went down after Amaliya was dead.”
“And now?” Cian arched a brow.
“Honestly, I want that asshole dead. He killed Prosper and he would have done worse to me if you hadn't shown up. I...” Rachon fell silent.
“Now you know how it feels to be his pawn, huh?” Cian knew his manner was barbed, but he couldn't help it. “He played you perfectly through Bianca. And it wasn't you he turned to, but Etzli.”
“Maybe he's right,” Rachon said, lifting a shoulder. “Maybe I'm too attached to my family for his tastes. He never liked split loyalties. I always made sure he never saw mine.”
“Until now.”
She nodded.
“So are you in?” Cassandra asked.
“What do you mean?” Rachon tilted her head.
“Those rings tear the veil,” Cian explained. “The veil that holds back the creatures of the pit and the darkness that devours all.”
“Fuck me,” Rachon gasped.
“And if The Summoner wants the rings, your family won't be very safe for long,” Cassandra continued.
“He never told me about any rings,” Rachon said, her betrayal evident for all to see. “He didn't trust me.”
“So are you in or not?” Eduardo asked, showing his teeth.
Rachon slowly nodded. “Yes, I'm in.”
Cian extended his hand to her, and Rachon took with a nervous smile. “This is going to get messy, isn't it, Cian?”
“You have no idea,” Cassandra muttered.
“It'll be fun,” Eduardo said confidently. “Until we die.”
* * *
By the time they left the graveyard, the story they agreed upon to tell the police was simple. Ethan had hoodwinked Pete, Sergio, and Innocente into believing that Amaliya was alive and that he would take them to her. Instead, he had tried to kill them in a black magic ritual. Sergio, in a rage, managed to overpower him and break his neck. Drugged, Sergio had passed out, not waking until morning when he drove to the nearest town to inform the authorities.
The police would find the camper stuffed with bizarre occult items and a folder full of stolen police records. If they were lucky, the police might even believe that Ethan Logan was the true mastermind behind the Satanic Murders.