Pretty When She Destroys (Pretty When She Dies #3)(59)

Not certain of what exactly she should do and acting purely on impulse, Samantha concentrated on the nearest phosphorescent nodule resting in the hills outside Austin. Instantly there was a dizzying rush around them, then they stood in the center of a graveyard.

“Whoa,” Samantha breathed.

Amaliya gripped Samantha’s hand ever tighter. “Do that again!”

Nodding, Samantha stared across the strangely illuminated terrain and concentrated on the brightest spot in the west. Again, there was an exhilarating whoosh, then they stood among the gravestones of yet another cemetery. Before Amaliya could say a word, Samantha looked toward the next spot. This time they appeared among a grove of trees, with no graves to be seen. Yet, the ghostly dead were nearby, watching curiously.

“Wherever there are bodies...” Amaliya said in awe.

Again and again, they moved through the world at an exhilarating pace until they stood in an eerily dark and dreary cemetery. The only glow came from a single figure sitting in the center of it. The beautiful luminance of the other graveyards was absent here. The graves were black, hollow holes.

“He took them all,” Samantha wailed. “He took them all and burned them up like candles.” The horror of The Summoner’s act washed over her. All the fragments of memories of lives lived and lost were gone. Only one ghost remained. He wasn’t a memory, but sentient and weeping.

“Roberto,” Amaliya said, pointing.

“Have you come to finish his work?” Roberto asked, his voice raw. He sat upon a grave, his body hunched over with his arms hugging his upper body.

Holding hands, Amaliya and Samantha approached him. The dark necromancer power slithered over the ground, seeking the dead, but finding none. Samantha’s own magic twisted and twirled about her in wispy ribbons, cautiously approaching Roberto, but not touching him.

“We did come to find you, but not to do The Summoner’s bidding,” Samantha answered.

“You’re more powerful than before. Isn’t this his work?” Roberto’s form looked like the cutout of a black and white photo. It crackled and speckled as he moved.

“No, it’s ours,” Amaliya said.

“Plus, he’s the bad guy. We’re the good guys.”

“Are you?” Roberto looked doubtful.

“We are.” Amaliya’s power receded to pool around her, covering her like a great cloak.

Roberto stared at them fearfully. “Are you here for revenge? For what I did?”

“Actually, we’re here to make you an offer.” Samantha wondered briefly what she looked like. Amaliya looked like a death goddess, so did Samantha look like some sort of ghost goddess? Was there such a thing?

“So what is this offer?” Roberto lowered his arms slowly. The lost expression on his face was slowly fading into a hopeful one.

“I need a ghost minion. Someone who can help me.”

“You don’t look like you need help.”

Samantha studied the bleak world around her. Maybe Roberto was right. Now that she was at full power did she need him? It wasn’t doubt, but her own instincts born of her magic that whispered in her soul that she did. “Yeah, true. But I thought you might want to get out of your limbo and get some revenge on The Summoner.”

A subtle smile crept onto the ghost’s lips. “I would like that.”

“But not against her,” Samantha said, pointing to Amaliya. “She killed you because you were a dick.”

The ghost’s body sputtered as he slid off the tombstone, his black eyes boring into the vampire. “I thought you would be Cian’s death, you know.”

“Yet you were willing to betray him and torture him to get what you wanted, weren’t you?” Amaliya retorted.

Roberto chuckled, a dark sound in the barren world. “Love and hate are close siblings.”

“If you’re a psychopath maybe,” Samantha sniffed.

“I will help you, Samantha, but only if the past can be laid aside and forgotten.” Roberto was staring squarely at Amaliya.

A delicate thread of Samantha’s power curled around his head, not quite touching him, but close enough that she could detect the tumult of emotions and thoughts filling him. “He means it, Amaliya.”

The vampire’s glowing white eyes studied the radiant halo of Samantha’s power pulsating around the ghost’s head. “I will leave the past behind if you don’t do anything to f*ck us over. Understood?”

Fear, loneliness, and desperation vibrated through the faint connection between Samantha and Roberto. Roberto was half-mad from the isolation of this terrible limbo. Unable to leave the graveyard, he was in his own hell.

“I understand,” Roberto said, not a hint of malice or cockiness in his voice or manner. “And I accept.”

Samantha plunged her magic into the ghost, the threads of her power weaving around him. Resting her hand on his shoulder, she faced toward Austin. “Let’s go home.”





Chapter 16


Jeff pushed at the zombies, but they wouldn’t relent. They stood in such a dense formation that he couldn’t squeeze through. If not for their glowing eyes, they would have resembled living humans wearing zombie costumes for Halloween.

“You cannot pass,” the zombies spoke as one.

“They’re talking!” Jeff gasped.