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“Bitch-face is going to be fine, you know. She’s such a total pain in the ass. He’ll not be able to stand her and will send her back.” Samantha gave him a fake perky smile.

When Cian actually cracked a slight grin, she felt a surge of satisfaction. “She is a bit of a handful.” The vampire sat on an old chair and clasped his hands together as he leaned forward. “Samantha, I need you to do something for me.”

“Whatever you need, Cian.”

Jeff finished putting away his tools and joined them. His hands settled on Samantha’s shoulders and his thumbs gently circled against her tense muscles.

Raising his hazel eyes, Cian said, “I need you to find a way to reach her through your magic. You’re connected. She told me so. She was counting on that if The Summoner took her.”

“But what if he does something?” Samantha felt stark terror at the thought of The Summoner somehow reaching through their connection.

“Your magic is linked to her, not him. I believe it’s set apart from her bond to him.” Cian stared at her steadily and she sensed his desperation.

“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.”