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“Heather?” Cian's expression was just as confused as Amaliya felt.

“I didn't want to do it, you know,” she said in a strangely monotone voice. Her eyes were oddly jittery as she sat there looking pretty in her jogging outfit.

“Do what?” Cian asked in a low voice.

Her eyes continued to waver strangely as she forced them to look at him. “I shot Roberto. ”

Cian nearly launched himself off the bed, but Amaliya caught hold of him and drew him back.

“It's The Summoner,” Amaliya whispered to him.

“He made me after he. . . he. . . ” she touched the back of her head with her hand. “I should be dead. I hit the wall so hard. I can feel the cracks in my skull, but I'm not dead. He won't let me die. ”

Amaliya slowly slid to the end of the bed and set her feet on the floor. She tried to pull on that dark power within her and sling it around Heather to bring her under her control, but it sat dormant inside of her, unmoving.

Heather swallowed hard. “He made me shoot Roberto. Then I had to go back to my apartment. He was there. He told me things. Horrible things. ” Her fingers twitched over the gun again.

“This is impossible. He can't control the dead or the near dead when he's sleeping,” Cian declared. He looked angry and stunned by the turn of events. His gaze swept over the apartment looking for Roberto.

“He doesn't sleep anymore. He's so old he doesn't have to. He can now stay awake all day. Sit in a dark room, play with dead girls, and make the dead walk the streets. ” She stood up slowly. “The bullets won't kill you, but they'll hurt. A lot. He told me to shoot you if I had to. You're supposed to come with me if you want Roberto back alive. ” Amaliya didn't like anyone pointing a gun at her, even if she was a vampire. She flinched when Heather aimed the gun directly at her chest.

“Get up. Get dressed. He is calling me to him. He's waiting. ”

“Roberto doesn't mean jack shit to me. Let The Summoner kill him,” Amaliya said with a shrug. “Besides, how do we know you really have him?”

Cian climbed off the bed, sleek, muscular and naked. She saw a flash of lust in Heather's eyes, then it was replaced with dullness again. “Yes, how do we truly know you have him, Heather? Did The Summoner give you proof?”

Heather coolly tossed Roberto's keys and money clip at Cian's feet. There was blood on them.

Cian stared down at the personal possessions of his servant with a dark expression on his face. “Get dressed,” he ordered Amaliya.

“I am not going to go out there and risk my life to save your freaking, backstabbing servant,” she said, and crossed her arms over her bare breasts.

“Fine. Then I'll go alone,” Cian said.

Heather trained the gun slowly toward him. “The Summoner whispers to me that if you don't come I am to shoot Cian in the head. ”

“He'll heal,” Amaliya sneered.

Cian's brow furrowed. “What sort of bullets are those?”

“The exploding kind,” Heather answered.

Cian looked at Amaliya pointedly. “Chances are, I could not heal from that. ”

For a moment, she pondered just running away. Just fleeing into the night and away from all this insanity, but looking at Cian, she knew she couldn't bolt. Slowly, she stood up. “Fine. ”

Naked, she walked over to where her jeans were and began to pull them on. They had blood on them, but it wouldn't matter where they were going.

“I'm getting dressed,” Cian said to Heather.

“I'm coming with you,” Heather answered.

“Why don't we just kill her and be done with it?” Amaliya asked zipping up her jeans.

“Because if we don't go tonight, he'll up the ante. He'll do something even worse than taking Roberto,” Cian answered.

“He says he knows where your Grandmama lives,” Heather said in a voice that held no emotion, yet her voice quavered.