Pretty When She Destroys (Pretty When She Dies #3)(91)

“What if you’re wrong?” Jeff asked.

“Aimee can help protect Samantha. I know Amaliya will be waiting for us to contact her so she’ll be able to feed us the information she’s gathering.”

Cian sounded completely confident that this was the case, but Samantha experienced a small twinge of doubt. What if the bond between Amaliya and The Summoner was brainwashing her? Samantha wasn’t about to express that thought to Cian, but it did bother her.

“It wouldn’t hurt to try,” Jeff admitted.

“I would have to do it before the sun goes down when vampires are the weakest.” Samantha scratched her temple and pondered the situation. “I suppose her necromancy might be a little stronger during the day when vampires are usually asleep. I could try to reach her and find out where she is.”

“That sounds good.” The sadness in Cian’s eyes tempered his smile.

“Then we can plan our rescue mission.” Jeff sounded tired and a little scared, but she could hear the resolve in his voice.

“We’re not going to rescue her,” Cian said softly. “We’re going to stop her and The Summoner from tearing the veil.”

“What?” Samantha gawked at him. “Are you saying she’s on his side?”

“No, I’m not saying that. We can’t waste our miniscule resources on trying to rescue her. We need to focus on stopping whatever he’s planning.” The vampire stood and folded his arms over his chest. “Trust me. My instinct is to find her and rescue her, but that’s not what she’ll want. She wants to stop him. She wants him dead. Permanently.”

“He’ll expect us to launch a rescue, won’t he?” Jeff asked.

Cian concurred. “We’d be playing into his hands. I don’t think he considers us a true threat now that she is with him, but he’d also expect me to rush to her rescue. It’s what I’ve done in the past.”

“Like when you tried to rescue Roberto,” Samantha said, understanding. “And what I did for you. And what we tried to do for Bianca, Sergio and Innocente. We have a history of rushing in to do big rescues.”

“Exactly.”

“So he’ll be waiting.” Jeff rubbed his eyes wearily. “Definitely. He’ll be waiting.”

“So we need to concentrate on reaching her and finding out what he’s planning and where we need to go to stop him.” Cian glanced at the makeshift bed.

Again, Samantha was struck with the utter loneliness that filled his gaze. He loved Amaliya in a way he had never loved her and though it should have pissed her off, it made her heart bleed for him. Without thinking, she threw her arms about him and hugged him. To her surprise, he clung to her, burying his face in her hair.

“Cian, I’m so sorry about bitch-face,” Samantha whispered.

The vampire was silent, but she felt his shoulders quaking. His remote behavior and eerie calm made sense in that moment. He was barely keeping himself together.

“I would rip the world apart to save her,” Cian said, a quaver in his voice. “But I can’t. It’s not what she’d want and I can’t risk falling into another trap.”

“If you die, he wins,” Jeff agreed.

Slipping from her embrace, Cian retreated to the bed. The sun was close to rising and he looked exhausted. “Yes. He’ll win.”

“I’ll see what I can do. I promise.” Taking Jeff’s hand, Samantha moved toward the attic door. “When you wake up, I’ll let you know what I figured out.”

“Thank you,” Cian said, a grateful look in his eyes.

When Samantha closed the door, the last thing she saw was Cian wipe a tear away.




Amaliya stirred, her eyelids gradually peeling open as she awakened. She’d been dreaming of her grandmother, but lost the old woman’s urgently whispered message when she woke. The cloying scent of blood, incense, sex, and black magic hung in the air reminding her of where she was and all that had occurred the night before. The emptiness within her was agonizing and she fought back the sudden desire to cry.

Cian wasn’t at her side slumbering through the daylight hours. He was in Austin sleeping alone. She craved his touch, his kiss, and the sound of his voice whispering her name.

Last night it was not Cian’s kiss or touch that had brought her exquisite pleasure, but the one who had created her. It had actually been a relief that The Summoner had wanted sex and hadn’t tried to force her into some bizarre black magic ritual. After witnessing the twisted manifestation of the black witches’ magic, she was afraid of what he might force her to do. Sex was something she could handle without many qualms. She’d just turned off her emotions and enjoyed the physicality of it.

Stretching out her legs, she ignored the pleasant soreness between her thighs. Whatever The Summoner was now, he had been just as ravenous and passionate as the first time he’d tried to claim her. Unable to bite and drink her blood, he’d been especially rough. It had frightened her a bit to realize just how much he wanted to make her his own. How far would he go to try to secure her loyalty?

Rubbing her face, she tried not to think too much about what had occurred. She had no regrets, but she hated to admit that it had been a bit more than just casual sex. It was undeniable that the power that existed among the three of them was terrifying in its intensity, but it also bound them together with a strength and fervor that was difficult to process. Whereas Cian’s touch made her feel safe and loved, The Summoner and Bianca awoke the darker aspects of her nature in a frightening, yet enthralling rush. Locked in their embrace, she’d felt like a goddess ready to demand blood, death, and darkness. In the aftermath, she was shaken by how alluring the promise of the new world was when she was drunk on the potency of their combined power.