Pretty When She Kills (Pretty When She Dies #2)(16)

Eyes narrowing dangerously, she pointed a finger at her cousin. “If not for him, we would not be here. You wouldn’t be what you are, living your grand life. So shut your f*cking face.”

“You still love him, huh?”

Rachon sighed, slightly shaking her head. “He was my Master. My lover. My salvation. I loved him and hated him.”

“You two were always f*cked up.”

“Yeah, but now he’s gone. I at least owe it to him to do as he wished.”

Prosper shrugged dismissively. “What are we doing when we go to Austin? Going to kill Cian and that new bitch?”

Rachon glanced down at Bianca. The young woman was watching the flickering images on the old TV again.

“I have to take care of one last task for The Summoner.”

“If you kill them, I ain’t taking Austin. I hate Texas. You know, in a way they did you a favor,” Prosper said, his voice almost timid.

Narrowing her eyes, Rachon fought down the swift anger that filled her and fought the urge to punish Prosper for his impudence. Her long fingers flexed, the need for violence making them tingle.

Ducking his head in subservience, Prosper stood cowed before her.

“Don’t speak ill of the dead,” she said at last, blinking her eyes so the heat in them would fade.

“Forgive me,” Prosper murmured.

“You may hate him, but I loved him.” And she’d feared him. Maybe that had been part of the allure of The Summoner. She had courted death and found love in his arms. The swath of destruction they had left in their wake when she had liberated her family had been glorious. She still remembered how the flames engulfing the plantation mansion had reflected in the fresh blood covering their bodies.

Crouching next to Bianca again, she stared at the pale creature thoughtfully.

“Maybe he made her because she looks a little like him,” Rachon said.

“Pasty,” Prosper agreed.

Rachon swept the whitish hair away from the lovely face. “Ghostly.”

Bianca turned her blue eyes toward Rachon. For a moment, Rachon thought she saw a sliver of clarity in their depths, then it was gone in the blankness of her stare. Slicing open her wrist with one long fingernail, Rachon watched the girl’s face. It did not alter as the girl gripped her arm and fed.

“You should have killed her, you know,” Prosper sighed, shaking his head. “She’s brain dead.”

Tenderly stroking the girl’s hair, Rachon just smiled slightly. “No, no, she’s much more than that. She’s his power incarnate. She’s now an extension of me. She gives me power as I give her life.”

With a grunt, Prosper wandered back down the hall to the living room.

Pressing a kiss to the silent girl’s head, Rachon whispered, “We will do great things together, won’t we, my little ghost?”





Part Two

Saturday





Chapter 6


The sun was barely a sliver of gold over the tops of the trees and it was gearing up to be an exhaustingly warm day. Despite the early hour, the humidity was already thick and gross against her skin.

Samantha jogged at a steady pace, keeping to the path that wound around Lady Bird Lake (formerly known as Lake Travis) in the shadow of downtown Austin. The new high rise buildings were close to completion and she still couldn’t get used to the radically changed skyline. Austin was growing in leaps and bounds, much to the disgust of her family.

Austin was once a small college town with a quirky personality. Now it was a burgeoning metropolis with an identity crisis. Keep Austin Weird bumper stickers and t-shirts had been common for years, but Samantha had seen far too many Make Austin Normal memorabilia of late. In just a short period of time, the whole city had changed dramatically.

But then again, so had her life.

Her blond ponytail swung back and forth behind her head as she jogged. She actually liked its rhythm. It was like a pendulum clock. The beat helped her focus on her breathing and pace. Dressed in the burnt orange and white colors of the University of Texas, Samantha ran past other early morning exercisers. Her green eyes glanced toward the tall apartment building where her former fiancé, Cian, and his new slut girlfriend were sleeping through the daylight hours. The sting of his betrayal still remained, even though she tried very hard to ignore it.

She was kind-of-sort-of dating Jeff Summerfield, the owner of the local occult bookstore and part-time vampire hunter. They got along very well and her family adored him. Jeff and Samantha saw each other a few times a week and always had a great time. They had yet to share a kiss, let alone anything more intimate. She was technically on the rebound from her broken engagement with Cian. Though she told everyone it was a good thing they had called off the wedding, that she was fine, and that Cian and her just weren’t suited for each other, she had cried like a baby when she had dropped her wedding gown off at Goodwill. The worst thing is that everyone believed her. They all believed she really was okay.

Except for Jeff.

Somehow, he knew she wasn’t moving on yet. It almost made her mad how sweet Jeff was to her. He was so perfectly understanding it was annoying. She didn’t want to admit that she was still heartbroken over Cian. She wanted to be stronger than that, but maybe she wasn’t. It was hard to accept that a piece of her still hurt whenever she heard his voice or saw his face.