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The energy of her command flowed out of her and trembled in a visible cloud around Roberto. It sank into his being and he nodded.

“I will.”

Samantha carefully laid the thread in his hand. As soon as his fingers wrapped around it, his body was swept away along the link.

Returning to her body in Austin, Samantha opened her eyes. “He’s gone.”

Aimee nodded somberly. “Now we wait.”

The tension in the Victorian mansion could have been cut with a knife. Jeff sat next to Alexia on the couch in the family room as she worked on her laptop, her face scrunched with concentration. Benchley was playing a video game on the Xbox, while Cassandra spent half the time glowering at the television and the other half trying to reach her mother. Eduardo wandered into the house close to sunset and served himself some leftovers from the refrigerator before settling on the loveseat to watch Benchley’s game play. If could have been just another day around the house if not for the major magic going on in the library.

Brushing his fingers through his hair, Jeff cast a longing look toward the hallway. He kept hoping Samantha would appear with some good news.

“Everything is fucked,” Alexia muttered.

Jeff completely agreed. In the beginning of all of this they had all believed they could somehow build an army to fight The Summoner. Instead, they were on their own, abandoned by everyone. The Assembly was in shambles, the vampires were waiting for the eternal night, and the human world was obsessed with the possible end of the world when the Mayan calendar ended.

“Did you find anything?” Jeff asked Alexia, leaning over to observe her screen.

“More missing people in the San Antonio area. Escalation of violence. Those weird tremors are continuing and scientists can’t figure out why. And the Christmas shopping season is in full swing. It’s Black Friday.” Alexia’s head flopped back against the sofa as she gave Jeff a tired frown. “Christmas is coming. Maybe. Ugh. Stupid shopping crowds. As if things weren’t bad enough.”

“You went the wrong way,” Eduardo said to Benchley, gesturing at the screen between bites of food.

“Yeah, dude. I know,” Benchley growled, his fingers nimbly punching away at his controller.

Alexia pointed at the computer screen. “I’ve been tracking the violent crimes in Austin like you asked and it’s actually holding steady. But...more missing women. Another one last night.”

“Where?”

“Well, weirdly, Cian’s old neighborhood. About two streets over. Speculation is that she’s in the sink hole. Which is all over the news, by the way.” Alexia pointed to the picture of the missing dark haired beauty with blue eyes in the news report

Jeff’s shifted his gaze to Eduardo, who was eating leftover jambalaya and not paying attention to anything other than the video game Benchley was playing. “Thanks, Alexia. It’s good work.”

“I emailed all the people who are still active in The Assembly this morning to give them an update and in hopes of someone coming to join us.”

“And?”

“No one answered.” Alexia showed Jeff her inbox. “More than half bounced back because the email addresses don’t exist anymore.”

“So it’s just us.” Jeff regarded the people in the room thoughtfully.

“Yep.”

“Dude, you keep going the wrong way,” Eduardo complained from across the room.

“I got turned around. I’m nervous!” Benchley wiped at the beads of sweat dotting his brow. “I’m almost to the big boss fight.”

“Heh. Aren’t we all?” Eduardo continued eating.

Scrutinizing Eduardo, Jeff pondered the options before him. The sun was sinking below the horizon and Cian would be up soon. Hopefully, Aimee and Samantha would emerge from the library with some good news. Baptiste had been on the phone with his relatives in Louisiana earlier in the day, but Jeff hadn’t had a chance to discuss with him what he had learned.

Scratching at his knee, Jeff decided that none of the options before them seemed particularly good. In fact, he wasn’t too sure how they could possibly live through what was coming, but he wasn’t willing to just give up.

r /> Footsteps in the hall drew their attention and compelled them to sit bolt upright in anticipation. Benchley paused his game and Eduardo shoved his empty plate onto the coffee table.

Baptiste entered first, followed by Aimee. The witch immediately joined Cassandra, wrapping her arms around the dhamphir. The looks on their faces made Jeff very uneasy.

“Where’s Sam?” he asked.