Page 50

“It would have been irresistible to him,” Cian noted.

“But Grandmama isn’t famous,” Amaliya protested. “She kept all that on the lowdown on purpose. ”

“Not true,” Alexia said, looking up. “After your grandmother killed The Summoner, I did a little digging. She was in the newspapers when she was a teenager. There was a devastating tornado in her town and she helped find the survivors buried in the rubble. When they asked her how she

knew where the living were located, she said the dead told her. She was thirteen at the time, so she probably didn’t realize the reporter would actually put that into his article. ”

“Are you serious?” Amaliya sat back in shock. “She did that?”

“Yeah. There was just one more follow up article where there was a backlash from the local churches against her. Her dad, your great-grandfather, said that the reporter hadn’t told her who he was and that she had misspoken,” Alexia explained. “I told Jeff all about it. ”

“Oh, really?” Amaliya tilted her head toward the end of the table. “Really, Jeff?”

Jeff could feel Amaliya’s eyes boring into him. “Hey, it was just two articles. I didn’t think it was important enough to bring it up to you. I mean you know what she is, right?”

Amaliya shook her head, annoyed. “So sick of people not telling me shit. ”

“It wasn’t on purpose,” Jeff said defensively.

“So he could have found out about Amaliya’s grandmother pretty easily?” Samantha asked, obviously trying to move the conversation on.

“It wasn’t hard to find actually,” Alexia confessed.

“It was on a website about the supernatural. It was filed under unexplained paranormal events with mediums. ” Benchley shrugged. “Of course, Josephine was a much bigger story. She was so good at what she did cops from all over the country would come to her. ”

“So why didn’t he just turn her. Josephine Leduc?” Amaliya looked cross and her eyes flashed slightly red.

“Maybe because she died in a horrible fire,” Alexia answered Amaliya’s question. “They could never prove it was arson, but it was strongly suspected that someone deliberately killed her. There was a lot of hostility aimed at her. People accused her of being in league with the devil. ”

“Give me a freakin’ break,” Amaliya muttered.

“Humans fear what they don’t understand. ” Cian folded his arms across his chest. “That’s why the supernaturals remain hidden. ”

“Yeah, my people were nearly hunted to extinction,” Eduardo agreed. “There aren’t a lot of us left. I admit that a few of my ancestors did some shady things. Personally, I don’t think dragging off a few babies is really a good excuse to wipe out all of my people. ”

“They ate babies?” Samantha looked aghast. “Gross!”

Eduardo shrugged. “They were hungry. ”

Jeff gave Eduardo a warning look. Eduardo loved to instigate arguments. It was part of his shifter nature to like a good fight, but it wouldn’t be helpful in the moment. Eduardo just shrugged and flashed his teeth. Jeff knew better than to interpret it as a smile.

“So back to the subject at hand,” Jeff said, trying to redirect everyone’s focus. “Rachon, The Summoner’s favorite child, is coming to Austin tomorrow night supposedly to create a pact with Cian. She’s bringing Bianca, who apparently is a necro-vamp like Amaliya. ”

“Necro-vamp?” Amaliya raised her eyebrows even higher.

“I just made that up. Don’t like it?”

Amaliya gave a dismissive shrug. “Whatever. ”

“Okay, so we need to be prepared for trouble,” Jeff continued.

“Don’t they need to be ready for trouble?” Eduardo said. He pointed to Cian and Amaliya. “We’re not their minions. ”

Jeff saw the flash of red in Cian’s eyes. “No, but we’re their allies. ”

Benchley and his sister exchanged looks, then looked toward Jeff. “Uh, Jeff. What are you saying?” Benchley’s voice quavered.

“Uh, what I’m saying is that we need to figure out how to deal with this situation. Remember, if Cian falls as master of Austin we’re fucked. Because whoever takes over is going to come looking for us. ” Jeff folded his arms across his chest. This was the conversation he had been dreading.