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“We had an outage,” Jeff answered. Cautiously, he opened the door to the bathroom and peered in.

Samantha leaned past him, then shook her head. “She’s gone.”

Eduardo strolled down the hallway, a thermos in one hand. Every night Eduardo poured Amaliya’s blood onto a grave in each cemetery in Austin. It allowed her to call the dead. Tossing it to Jeff, he said, “Did my duty, now I’m off to have some fun.”

“What do you do for fun?” Samantha asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

The grin Eduardo gave her was a little disconcerting. “Stuff.”

Jeff unscrewed the top of the thermos and looked inside. “Would it kill you to clean it?”

Eduardo turned to go, then hesitated. “Oh, yeah. I don’t usually hang with the weres, but I ran into another coyote that does. She had something interesting to say about San Antonio.”

Samantha saw the sudden interest bloom in Jeff’s gaze.

“Which was?”

“The wolf pack that was on the south side has disappeared. No sign of them. Just gone. But – and this is interesting – some jaguars were spotted lurking around the River Walk. If you want my opinion on what this means, here it is: The Summoner cleaned house across the board and is bringing in his own people.”

Samantha frowned at the thought, but they had all known that The Summoner wouldn’t just sit by idly. He had definite, terrifying plans for the world. And probably for them.

“Did you tell Cian?” Jeff sounded only a little annoyed at deferring to the vampire.

“Nah. I ran into his woman when she was visiting Benchley’s place. I was going to tell her, but she came onto me pretty strong. I got distracted.”

“Liar,” Samantha said, the word just slipping out. Again it surprised her how easily she defended the woman she had once hated.

“What?” Eduardo held out his arms. “I’m a hot piece of ass. She wants me. You all know it. She’s just playing it coy because of her asshole boyfriend.”

“She would never leave Cian for you,” Samantha declared, setting her hands on her hips and lifting her chin.

“Who said anything about her leaving Cian? Fucking is fucking, and nothing more.” Eduardo patted Samantha’s head. “You’re so innocent.”

“Oh, fuck off.” Samantha irritably pushed his hand away.

“Eduardo, stop provoking Sam,” Jeff said, his annoyance clear.

“But it’s so much fun,” Eduardo said mockingly, winking.

Samantha narrowed her eyes. Something about Eduardo always had her on edge. It wasn’t just the fact he was obscenely good looking and incredibly overconfident, but something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Jeff said it was because he was a coyote, a trickster.

“Anyway, I’m out. Tell the asshole vampire what I told you. Let him mull that over.” Eduardo strutted toward the front of the store.

“Lock the door,” Jeff called out.

Eduardo saluted, then turned the corner. A few seconds later the front door shut and locked.

“I don’t like him. At all.”

“I know.” Jeff pulled out his phone and checked the time. “I need to get on Skype.”

Samantha trailed behind him to his office, her hands still on her hips. “He’s such a jerk.”

“I know. He’s been like that since I met him in college,” Jeff said, “but he’s a great help.” Stopping in the doorway of his office, Samantha’s mind switched from pondering how to neuter Eduardo, to something the ghost said. “Jeff, she said the same thing Cassidy did.”

“Huh?” He redirected his gaze from the computer screen to Samantha. “What do you mean?”

“They both said ‘you let him do this to me.’ Remember? Cassidy said that.”