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the veil to the abyss and darkness consumes the earth.”

“But he’ll let out all the demons, the monsters of the pit...” Alexia sunk lower in her chair, looking overwhelmed by the idea. “Of course, he’d love that.”

Cassandra finally spoke up. “So he wants to destroy the world. Great.”

“So we stop him,” the witch beside her said in a calm, determined tone.

“But how?” Sergio asked. “We’re just a bunch of...uh...”

“Fuck ups? Rejects?” Amaliya grinned, lifting her eyebrows.

Eduardo frowned. “Speak for yourself. I’m pretty awesome.”

Rachon dismissed Eduardo’s comment with the flick of her hand. “Some vampires will help him, you know.”

“And you?” Cian’s question was sharp. Amaliya knew Cian didn’t trust her.

“I love my family, he was right about that. And some members of my family aren’t vampires. I don’t want them to die.” Rachon met Cian’s gaze evenly and defiantly.

Sergio leaned his big body over the table to confront Cian. “What about you? Do you want an eternal night?”

“No.” Cian gave Amaliya a furtive look. It was unreadable, but somehow she got the gist of it. The idea of an eternal night was alluring, but Cian would not sacrifice those he loved to obtain it.

Cassandra pounded the table with a clenched hand. “I say we send out what we know to the hunters and get a coalition going. We need to track down these rings and keep them from him.”

Amaliya raked her fingers through her long hair, leaning back in her chair with exasperation and nervousness. “If we do that he’ll know that we figured out what he’s up to. He’ll come for us.”

Beside her, Samantha reached out to touch Amaliya’s shoulder. “He’s going to come for you anyway. At some point, he’ll come for you, because it’s obvious he tried to make you and Bianca for a reason. Now that he’s in her body, he’s going to try to claim you.”

“What do you mean?” Amaliya narrowed her eyes at the blonde, nervous that she was right.

“He must need another necromancer to help him pull off whatever he means to do.” Samantha gave her arm a gentle squeeze.

Jeff nodded and shut the book he’d been reading from earlier. “She’s right. Why else would he have tried to make you and Bianca? It makes perfect sense that he needs you.”

Cian took Amaliya’s hand. “So we have pieces of his puzzle that he will come for.”

“Yeah.” Jeff winced.

“Then we’ll be ready for him.” Cian’s hand tightened around Amaliya’s.

Rachon gave a curt nod of her head. “We create a coalition then, and we stop him.”

Cian also nodded. “We have no other choice.”

Cassandra leaned forward in her chair. “We fight.”

Eduardo grinned fiendishly. “Until we die.”

The witch gave him a dire look. “Or win.”

“Like Buffy and the Scoobies,” Samantha said, sounding almost jovial.

“Nothing will take you from me.” Cian stared into Amaliya’s eyes, a vow in his words.

“I won’t let him take me,” Amaliya said, pressing her lips to his hand.

“So let’s get to planning...” Jeff said.