Pretty When She Destroys (Pretty When She Dies #3)(30)

“Well, you do own a pink Glock.”

“Uh huh.” She tilted her head to catch his kiss on her lips. “I’m dangerous.”

“And I love it,” Jeff whispered, his grin affectionate.

Walking with him to the front door, Samantha held onto his hand, reluctant to let him leave. Every day she spent with Jeff was another day of her falling more deeply in love with him. He was funny, smart, and the nicest person she’d ever known. His quiet strength and support of what she was going through only made her love him all the more.

“I’ll be the best phasmagus that ever existed in no time at all,” she said confidently.

Jeff grinned at her, pressed a kiss to her cheek, and opened the front door.

Benchley and Alexia stood on the stoop ready to knock. The sky was darkening behind the siblings, stars dotting the indigo. The gentle buzz of the cicadas in the trees always made Samantha think of peaceful summer evenings on the porch of her childhood home. She longed to curl up on her porch swing with Jeff and enjoy the last bit of the sunset. However, she knew the night was the most dangerous time now for all of them.

“Hey, Shark Boy!” Samantha waved, trying to keep herself lighthearted despite the fear she felt slowly blooming inside of her. Using her powers was always a bit unnerving. “Hi, Lex.”

“Ready to teach my girlfriend how to kick ass and take names?” Jeff asked his friends.

Benchley’s round cheeks reddened. “Uh, sure, but only if she wears a super heroine costume.”

“Sexist,” Alexia growled, shoving her brother into the house. “We’ve got it covered. No worries, Jeff.”

Samantha gently pushed Jeff out the door. “Go do what you have to do. I’ll be good and train.”

“I just feel like I’m leaving you defenseless,” Jeff said, sighing.

“I’m fine,” she answered. “The ward is up and holding.”

Jeff looked upward, but she knew he couldn’t see the transparent dome that encapsulated her house. It resembled a soap bubble, the colors of the rainbow sliding over its surface as the light caught it. Aimee had set a ward over the house right after the battle with The Summoner and Samantha had worried that the neighbors would freak out at the sight of the magical barrier. It had taken her a few days to realize that regular humans couldn’t see it.

“It’s been too quiet since that night in the graveyard,” Jeff said finally.

“Don’t jinx us,” Samantha chided.

“Right. I’ll shut up now. Love you.” Jeff pressed one last kiss to her lips then hurried to his beat-up Land Rover.

Samantha waved until he drove off, then stepped back into the house. Benchley was already rummaging around in her kitchen for snack food while Alexia hooked up a laptop to Samantha’s television.

“I got this whole presentation ready for you to watch,” the diminutive young woman said from behind the flat screen. “It’s going to rock. Benchley figured out some exercises for you to do to develop your abilities.”

Flopping onto the sofa, Samantha propped her bare feet on the coffee table. “Teach me, oh wise one.”

Benchley appeared with a bag of chips. “It’s really cool. We got some scans of an old journal from a hunter in France. Real rare stuff.” He shoved some of the crispy snacks into his mouth and settled onto the sofa beside Samantha. “You can do some seriously cool shit.”

“Bring it. Let’s do this.” Samantha really hoped their presentation would help her focus her abilities. She was now acclimated to seeing ghosts around Austin, but wasn’t too sure what else she could do. Amaliya and Samantha had experimented a bit on their own. They’d figured out that Samantha could definitely enhance Amaliya’s abilities, but they weren’t too sure if it could work in the reverse.

Alexia finished and sat cross-legged on the floor next to a laptop adorned with stickers of obscure bands and a vampire version of Hello Kitty. “Okay, so being a phasmagus is different from being a medium, because you not only see ghosts and talk to them, but you can make them physical creatures.”

“Right,” Samantha said, nodding.

“You can get the dead peeps to do your will and help you out. You have an auto-connection to the dead,” Alexia continued.

Samantha watched the various sketches and paintings of phasmagi with ghosts swirling around the lone figures. “Hey, those are all dudes.”

“Well, you know, if a woman did this kind of thing...” Benchley made motions that took a moment for Samantha to decipher.

“They blew bubbles?”

“They were drowned,” Alexia interpreted her brother’s very bad pantomime.

“Or burned at the stake,” Benchley said around a mouthful of chips.

Alexia scowled. “Because having breasts and a vagina is so scary to certain men.”

“Not me! I love them,” her brother said defensively.

Samantha raised her eyebrows.

“Well, not Alexia’s! Eww.”

“But mine are okay?”

Benchley crammed more food into his mouth. He was still smarting over Jeff and her officially being a couple. While Samantha usually found his crush cute and not annoying, if he kept being an idiot, they were going to have words.

“Bench, stop being a wanker and shut up. Giving a lesson here. Stop hitting on Samantha. So...anyway...according to the etchings we acquired a phasmagus could even use spirits to transport themselves.”