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Benchley appeared with a bag of chips. “It’s really cool. We got some scans of an old journal from a hunter in France. Real rare stuff.” He shoved some of the crispy snacks into his mouth and settled onto the sofa beside Samantha. “You can do some seriously cool shit.”

“Bring it. Let’s do this.” Samantha really hoped their presentation would help her focus her abilities. She was now acclimated to seeing ghosts around Austin, but wasn’t too sure what else she could do. Amaliya and Samantha had experimented a bit on their own. They’d figured out that Samantha could definitely enhance Amaliya’s abilities, but they weren’t too sure if it could work in the reverse.

Alexia finished and sat cross-legged on the floor next to a laptop adorned with stickers of obscure bands and a vampire version of Hello Kitty. “Okay, so being a phasmagus is different from being a medium, because you not only see ghosts and talk to them, but you can make them physical creatures.”

“Right,” Samantha said, nodding.

“You can get the dead peeps to do your will and help you out. You have an auto-connection to the dead,” Alexia continued.

Samantha watched the various sketches and paintings of phasmagi with ghosts swirling around the lone figures. “Hey, those are all dudes.”

“Well, you know, if a woman did this kind of thing...” Benchley made motions that took a moment for Samantha to decipher.

“They blew bubbles?”

“They were drowned,” Alexia interpreted her brother’s very bad pantomime.

“Or burned at the stake,” Benchley said around a mouthful of chips.

Alexia scowled. “Because having breasts and a vagina is so scary to certain men.”

“Not me! I love them,” her brother said defensively.

Samantha raised her eyebrows.

“Well, not Alexia’s! Eww.”

“Bu

t mine are okay?”

Benchley crammed more food into his mouth. He was still smarting over Jeff and her officially being a couple. While Samantha usually found his crush cute and not annoying, if he kept being an idiot, they were going to have words.

“Bench, stop being a wanker and shut up. Giving a lesson here. Stop hitting on Samantha. So...anyway...according to the etchings we acquired a phasmagus could even use spirits to transport themselves.”

Staring at the image on the screen, Samantha widened her eyes. “I can fly?”

“Well, not sure if you can actually fly, or if a ghost is carrying the phasmagus and is invisible,” Benchley said.

“That painting makes it look like I can totally fly!” The idea definitely had its appeal.

“It kinda does,” Benchley agreed. “You could like wear a Supergirl outfit and-”

Samantha hit him. “Shut up.”

Alexia tugged on the strings of her hoodie while frowning at them. “C’mon, you two. I worked hard on this!”

Samantha focused on the screen and the image of a phasmagus ordering ghosts into battle. “I’m paying attention.”

“So, just like The Summoner, there was a phasmagus who could create entire armies of ghosts and send them against his enemies. If a ghost is angry with the person they’re attacking, it makes them stronger and even more effective. That’s why the vampires tried to get rid of all the phasmagi. Imagine all the ghosts of your victims going after you.” Alexia pulled her hood onto her head, still tugging on the strings. She was obviously nervous.

“Wow.” Samantha could easily imagine how terrifying that would be for vampires. Amaliya had told her all about how she’d raised the dead at Santos’s mansion. Those were only the victims he’d been dumb enough to bury around his home. Add in hundreds of years of killing, an army of angry, powerful ghosts, and it wasn’t hard to see that the vampire would end up so much mush.

“According to the journal of this hunter, the phasmagus could pull ghosts from all over the world,” Benchley added. “He could just open portals and suck them through.”

“That’s hardcore,” Samantha said in awe. “So, what happened to this phasmagus?”

Alexia’s voice was barely audible. “He was killed.”