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“Get in the car. We should be more worried about Santos than the dead. ”

She wrenched the door open and crawled in. “But my bag,” she cried out. “They took it. ”

“I'll buy you new things,” Cian assured her and slammed his door shut. He quickly turned on the car and began to back up.

Santos erupted from the house, slashing at the dead creatures that relentlessly pursued him.

“Think you could call them off? We've scared him shitless. He will respect us and our territory even more now. ” Cian was grinning with satisfaction as the Master of San Antonio looked after the car with desperate fear.

“I can try. ” Amaliya rolled down the window. “Hey! Hey! Dead guys!”

The dead stopped their assault and turned as one.

Cian felt his skin crawl at the sight.

“Go back to the earth and rest,” she ordered waving her hand at them.

Instantly, the dead began to sink back into the ground.

“It worked,” Amaliya whispered. “I can do it. ”

Santos fell to his knees in shock and stared at Amaliya in terror.

Cian gave the man a curt nod, then he turned the car around. It sped down through the gates and away from the great house.

Chapter Nineteen

Amaliya waited until they were on the highway before slugging Cian as hard as she could. The Mercedes veered sharply to the left. Luckily, a car wasn't traveling in that lane.

“What the hell was that for?” Cian demanded.

“Dumping my ass here in San Antonio! What the hell was that all about?” She was furious. The pain in her face and chest were a throbbing reminder of Santos' lack of hospitality.

“I did not do that,” Cian said to her sharply. “You should know that!”

“You wanted me gone so you could marry Samantha! You told me that yourself! You could have just told me to get the hell out of Austin and I would have!” she screamed at him.

“Did you just miss the fact I rescued you?”

“It was more like I rescued myself and you just happened to be there,” she huffed, and restrained herself from slugging him again.

“Well, I came to rescue you,” he said with a growl in his voice.

“God, my face hurts. ” She moaned and laid her forehead against the dashboard. “You could have shown up before they pummeled my face into the ground. ”

“I called Santos as soon as I heard where you were,” he said in a gentler tone, and his hand stroked her back gently.

“So, Roberto dumped me, huh? Or was it Sam?”

“Roberto was trying to protect me,” Cian admitted.

Amaliya lifted her head up to see they were heading back to Austin not via I-35, but US 281. She knew from her time living in Austin that it would loop them around through the outskirts of Hill Country up to US-290 so they would enter Austin from the West, not the South.

“Why this way?” she asked.

“You need to feed. We can pull over out here easier. Plus it’s darker. No continuous city lights,” he explained to her.

Falling back in the chair, she ran her hands over her arms. She was feeling hungry, but she was angry. “Look, just let me off somewhere. Give me whatever cash you have and I'm going to just head out. ”