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“It’s going to get worse, isn’t it?”

Amaliya nodded. “Yeah. ”

“Will we live through it?”

“We’ll try. ” Amaliya answered with grim determination in her voice.

“I’d like to fall in love, get married, and have a family one day,” Samantha admitted. “I’d like to not be always afraid. ”

“You and Jeff dating still?”

“Kinda. ” Samantha sighed.

“Rebounding is a bitch. ”

“Not for Cian,” Samantha said, sadness more than bitterness filling her words.

“We’re vampires. We’re. . . ” Amaliya shrugged. “We’re assholes. ”

Samantha busted out laughing. “Oh, yeah. Definitely. ”

The door opened behind them. Amaliya twisted around to see Cian. His expression was grim.

“What’s up?”

“I plugged in your new phone and there are around thirty messages from your cousin and grandmother. You better check it out. The phone is still charging. ”

“Shit!” Amaliya shoved past him and ran to the kitchen where she always plugged in her phone. A shiny new one was sitting on the counter next to the box it had come in. Snatching it up, she quickly scanned the list of missed calls, then hit the screen to dial voicemail. Listening to the first message, fear punched her in the gut.

“Something is going on. Grandmama had a visitation,” Amaliya blurted out to Cian and Samantha who were standing nearby, but not so close as to be

obviously eavesdropping. Amaliya quickly dialed her cousin’s number.

Sergio answered on the second ring. “About damn time. ”

“Sorry. My phone was busted in a. . . in an accident. I just got my new one. What’s going on?” Amaliya’s fingers were trembling. One sentence from the voicemail had stabbed her through with fear.

“Let me get Grandmama,” Sergio answered.

Amaliya heard him calling out for their grandmother. The TV was playing in the background and his kids were talking loudly. It reminded her of the better times in her childhood when her mother had still been alive. That sort of normalcy was a dream of the past. It made her rather sad for just a moment.

“Amaliya,” her grandmother said breathless. “You’re in danger!”

It was so like her grandmother to cut straight to the point and ignore the small talk of conversation.

“Tell me about her,” Amaliya said in a worried tone.

“She was very pale, not just because she was a ghost, but because her hair was that blond that is almost white. She looked young, maybe in her late teens. Blue eyes. Very fair. ”

“She said The Summoner killed her,” Amaliya’s voice sounded weak and fearful even to her own ears. Her hand was shaking even more violently now. That one sentence in her grandmother’s voicemail had struck through her like a bolt of lightning.

“Yes, she did. She gave me her name, but I forgot it when I woke up,” her grandmother confessed.

“Was it Bianca Leduc?” Amaliya felt Cian’s hands gently rest on her shoulders and she leaned back against him.

“Yes, that sounds right. I think so. Do you know who she is?”

“She was the girl that was buried in the forest. He killed her, too,” Amaliya said, looking over her shoulder at Cian. “She’s the one that didn’t rise up to be a vampire. ”