Pretty When She Kills (Pretty When She Dies #2)(32)

The memories of her death were flooding her mind’s eye and Amaliya closed her eyes, pressing her palms against her eyelids. “I hate to say this, but I hope she visits my grandmother again.”

“This is really bad, right?” Samantha’s voice sounded weak, but close.

Amaliya looked up as Samantha opened up a cabinet, grabbed a glass, and filled it with water. The other woman’s hand was shaking, too.

“I doubt it is anything significant. We already know that Etzli and Santos are intent on killing us. Rachon is coming because she has a hidden agenda. I hate to say it, but the ghost of Bianca isn’t really saying anything we don’t know,” Cian said.

“It has to be significant though,” Amaliya protested. “If she’s haunting my grandmother, her warning has to be important.”

“I’m not saying that it’s not, Amaliya. I’m saying that it’s not anything we don’t already know,” Cian said. He appeared quite calm as he gazed down at her. His touch was gentle, but she could see by the look in his eyes he wanted her to calm down.

“I’m pretty sure this is really bad,” Samantha said, daring to defy Cian. Amaliya could see the fear in the blond woman’s face as she gazed at the male vampire. Cian was imposing in the moment. He was exuding calm and strength, but also a dangerous violence lurked underneath his exterior.

“I agree with her,” Amaliya said.

Cian lifted his eyebrows, chuckling. “Oh, really?”

“Ghosts don’t haunt unless they have a reason. Unfinished business, that sort of stuff,” Samantha insisted. “I’ve been reading up on it all day since I saw that ghost this morning. This Bianca chick is trying to warn us about something through Innocente. You can’t ignore that! You can’t say, ‘Oh, well, we know everyone wants us dead.’ Yeah, maybe they do, but this is a very specific warning. A woman with red eyes.”

Cian started slightly, his hazel eyes growing distant as he folded his arms over his chest. “Huh.”

“What?” Samantha and Amaliya chorused.

“Rachon has maroon eyes. It’s a trait that runs in her family.”

“She’s not coming here to help us then. She’s coming here to kill us,” Amaliya exclaimed.

“She is The Summoner’s favorite kid. She’s totally going to be gunning for both of you. You can’t let her into the city!” Samantha protested.

Cian stared off at some distant point in the horizon, then shrugged. “I’d rather she come here and get it over with then.”

“What?” Samantha screeched.

Amaliya shoved him. “What the f*ck, Cian?”

“Listen to me. I would rather she come and make her move now instead of joining forces with Etzli and Santos. We can handle her and her minions, but we can't go up against her, Santos, Etzli, and the San Antonio Cabal. Let Rachon come. If she attacks, we kill her. And that will be a warning to anyone else out there that wants to attack us.” Cian’s voice was firm. His mind was clearly made up.

“Why don’t you have more vampires in this cabal? There are only two of us! We’re so f*cked!” Amaliya shook her head, agitated. “Why don’t we have a witch?”

“Yeah, what she said,” Samantha said.

“Because I didn’t want to deal with all this bullshit! All this political maneuvering! Dealing with the f*ckin’ dynamics of the undead world!” Cian responded in a gruff voice.

“Well, you’re having to deal with it now!” Amaliya shouted at him.

“Because of you!” Cian snapped.

Amaliya sputtered she was so furious in that second.

“Fuck you, Cian!” Samantha said, stepping in front of Amaliya. “Fuck you! You decided to shelter her! You brought this on yourself! On all of us!”

“When did you two become best friends?” Cian looked amused and pissed at the same time.

Samantha threw Amaliya a dark look over her shoulder. “Yeah, why am I defending you? Is this that blood thing?”

Amaliya shrugged. She was still angry. They were all f*cked.

“Rachon is coming. We need to deal with that. Then we deal with Santos and Etzli,” Cian said in a firm, authoritative voice.

“You’re not the boss of me!” Samantha set her hands on her hips and glared. “I think we should vote on this.”

“This isn’t a democracy,” Cian shot back.

“Well, you’re a shitty dictator!”

Amaliya reached out and snagged Samantha’s arm and drew her to her side. A surge of power swelled up between the two women for a moment, startling Amaliya, but Samantha didn’t seem to notice. Recovering, Amaliya said, “He’s not going to listen.”

“We’re so f*cked,” Samantha sniffed.

“Could you just trust me?” Cian asked.

“No,” Amaliya said.

“Nope,” Sam answered.

Cian frowned. “Why not?”

“Because you’re not listening to the warning!” Amaliya exclaimed.

“Ghosts don’t show up for no good reason, Cian!” Samantha added.

“Oh, so you see a few ghosts and now you’re an expert?”

Amaliya and Samantha exchanged looks. Cian may be the badass vampire master of the city, but he was being an idiot and they both knew it.