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Amaliya surged out of the trees, eyes glowing bright white. One of her arms was broken, the bone protruding just below her elbow. As she stomped forward, she popped it back into place.

“Fucking cunt!” Amaliya screamed, slashing one wrist with her nails.

“Amaliya, stop!” Cian ordered. He held out a hand to ward her off.

“Don’t make me give you flying lessons again,” the witch threatened.

“They’re friends!” Alexia shouted again. “Amaliya, don’t do anything!”

Amaliya’s eyes continued to glow as her blood dripped onto the ground. “Cian, what’s going on?”

“I’m not certain yet. ” Cian couldn’t tear his eyes from the face of the young woman standing before him. She strongly resembled Galina, the human lover of the former master of the Austin cabal, the woman Cian had spared from the massacre because he had loved her. But there was a hint of another familiar face in her features. He could barely comprehend what he was seeing. “Who are you?”

The woman slowly lowered the stake and stood before him with a defiant tilt to her head. “My name is Cassandra. This is my girlfriend Aimee. We’re here to find Jeff. ”

Both of the women were in jeans. Cassandra was wearing a form-fitting t-shirt with the Batman logo on it while Aimee wore a frothy white blouse over a tank top. He noted Cassandra’s combat boots and Aimee’s cowboy boots. They both looked like any of the young women in Austin, but he knew they were not.

Cian found it difficult to speak for a moment. “You’re a dhamphir and she’s a witch. ”

“Yeah,” Cassandra answered.

Aimee smiled slightly. “Surprise. ”

Cassandra warily returned to her girlfriend’s side, taking on a protective stance. “We’re friends of Jeff. We’re tracking someone and you’re in our way. ”

“Do you know who I am?” Cian asked, his voice a bit harsher than he liked.

Cassandra smiled widely. “Oh, yeah. Cian Lynch, Master Vampire of Austin, Texas. ” Cassandra paused, then leaned toward him, her eyes sparkling with mischief. “Howya doing, Dad?”

* * *

Sweat poured down Pete's face as he trod carefully through the graveyard in the direction of Sergio's truck. The muscles in his back and arms screamed in pain, but he ignored the discomfort. He was absolutely sure that what he was doing was the right thing. Restoring Amaliya to life was all that mattered. His aching joints and sore muscles would have to endure until the task was done.

He passed Ethan huddled over one of the graves they had uncovered sorting through the remains in the rotting coffin. Pete assumed the hunter was looking for bits of The Summoner again. It disturbed Pete to unearth the old bodies, but most were nothing more than bones. So far they hadn't found what Ethan was searching for. Pete wasn't sure how Ethan could tell the difference between a human dead body and that of a vampire, but he supposed there were some sort of telltale signs.

Wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, he exhaled with frustration. The night was oppressively warm and the darkest black he had ever seen. A thick cloud cover obscured the cold light of the stars and he wished they had brought more lights with them.

Innocente stared past him toward the graveyard when he approached the truck. He had expected to find her napping, but her eyes were alert and her posture tense.

“Need to grab some water,” he said, stopping before her.

“Do you ever feel like you're doing the right thing, but that it will not end well?” Innocente asked.

“All the time,” Pete admitted. Opening the back door, he leaned and opened the cooler. He scrounged around in the frigid water created by the melting ice and jerked out a water bottle. “That's why they gave me Prozac for a while. ”

Innocente frowned at him. “You know what I mean. ”

“It's just the graveyard. We wouldn't be human if we didn't get the willies being around the dead,” Pete assured her.

“It's not the true dead I worry about. It's the others. The ones who are dead, but still moving around. ” Innocente took the water he offered her. “Thank you. ”

“Look, the way I see it, all of us out here are doing the best we can for

Amaliya. It doesn't help that we now all recognize that all those scary stories we thought weren't real apparently are very real. You've seen Amaliya since she came back. So have I. ” Pete gulped the water, trying to forget the image of Amaliya's bloody tears and sharp teeth. “It changes everything once you realize that vampires are real. ”

Innocente lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I always knew ghosts were real. Vampires aren't so surprising. I just don't like my granddaughter being one. It makes her life so much harder. ”

“I want to make her life easier,” Pete said in a timid voice. He was certain that his intentions toward Amaliya were pretty clear, but it was embarrassing to know that Innocente was aware of how he had rejected Amaliya and the circumstances around it.