Pretty When She Dies (Pretty When She Dies #1)(85)

He would have preferred neutral ground.

In his short time knowing Samantha, he realized she had a will of steel. So here they were, outside of Cian's apartment with Samantha banging on the door.



“Maybe they're out,” Jeff said after a minute.

“I have a key, but if they are doing something, I don't want to walk in on them,” she snapped at him with her face screwed up with disgust.

“Do you really think they're-” He stopped at the look on her face.

“Sorry.”

Samantha hesitated, then began rummaging in her big purse. “I cannot believe that I'm scared of going into my own fiancé's apartment because of some stupid bloodsucking whore!”

Jeff turned away to suppress his laugh. She was really cute when she was upset, but he did feel bad for her. He knew it had become increasingly clear to her the last few days that she really didn't know her fiancé as well as she thought.

“Are you laughing at me?” Samantha pouted and smacked him, her keys jingling in her hand.

“No,” he said somberly. “Let's go in and talk to Cian. But there is a good chance Amaliya won't leave.”

“Then we stake her tomorrow,” Samantha said firmly. “Besides, aren't you supposed to yell at him for having another vampire in the city?”

“Something like that,” Jeff agreed.

Samantha entered the alarm code and unlocked the door. Thrusting it open, she stomped inside. “Cian, it's me. Where are you? We need to talk.”

Jeff entered slowly behind her, looking around with curiosity. Movie posters, some funky Mexican artwork, and very modern furniture filled the apartment. A massive desk with computer gear on it drew his attention. The last vampire lair he had been in was a converted basement at the bottom of a high rise in Chicago. That had been an exceptionally nasty vampire who chose only children as his victims.

This apartment just looked like the place of any successful computer geek.

Samantha's boot heels clicked sharply on the wood floor as she searched without fear or trepidation for her fiancé. Even Jeff didn't feel particularly anxious. Cian and his father had a long friendship during his father's life and if Amaliya was dangerous, he was sure Cian would keep her under control.

But his primary concern was that Amaliya's presence meant The Summoner was nearby. That death and destruction. Jeff worried about the large homeless population in Austin. The Summoner could already be up to his old tricks and it would take awhile for it to be noticeable if his victims had no one to miss them. By now, The Summoner could have a nice little army of undead minions.

Curious, Jeff walked over and peered down at the state of the art computers. They made his aging Dell computer look archaic. His brow furrowed a tad when he realized one of the monitors was on. It had a map drawn up of a tiny town around three hours west of Austin.

“Samantha, I don't think they're here,” Jeff said as he slid the cursor over and clicked on the print button.

She was halfway up the stairs and stopped. “Why?”

“There is a map on his computer of a town out West. I know that town. It's abandoned. Nothing there but falling down buildings.” The printer hummed and coughed, then spat out a copy of the map.

She stomped her foot. “Dammit. Why would they go there?”

Jeff sighed softly. “It sounds like a perfect place for them to go meet The Summoner, doesn't it?”

Her expression instantly became distraught and she scampered across the floor to the computer to look at the map. “Oh, no! He's going to kill Cian because of that stupid bitch! Where the hell is Roberto?”

“I guess Roberto went with them,” Jeff said as he ran his fingers through his hair. He was unsure of what to do next. The whole situation was complicated and increasingly dangerous.

Samantha looked at him with wide eyes and said in a trembling voice, “We have to save Cian.”

Jeff looked up at her in disbelief. “Do you have any idea how dangerous The Summoner is? No hunter that has set out against him has come back alive. We just can't go rushing after them and expect to rescue them from the most dangerous vampire in history.”

“I thought that was Dracula,” she said with utter sincerity.

Jeff laughed despite the seriousness of the situation and sat down in the chair before Cian's computer. “Well, he's not the one we have to worry about right now.”

“So? We should go there right now! Let's go!”

“Look, Samantha, I didn't have a problem coming here to talk to Cian because he was my father's friend. But there is no way I am traveling, in the middle of the night, toward what may be the lair of The Summoner. If we go, we go in the daylight.”

“But he could be dead by then,” Samantha protested.

“At night, that is when the vampires are at their pinnacle of power.

The Summoner is a vampire and a necromancer. That makes him doubly dangerous.” Jeff looked at the flustered young woman with his most calm expression, but his stomach was in knots.

Samantha stomped her foot and turned away from him, but he could tell she understood.

“We'll go first thing in the morning. It's our best chance to locate them and rescue them and perhaps kill The Summoner. But to go at night is suicide.”