“You’re amazing,” the girl gasped, then kissed Amaliya ravenously.
Amaliya lost herself for a few minutes in the afterglow of her feeding, relishing the softness of the other woman’s body and her full lips. Giggling, they finally parted, flushed, and sated. Stepping back, Amaliya helped the pretty brunette off the sink.
“Are you sure you won’t come home with me?”
Amaliya lightly ran her hand down the girl’s arm. “I wish I could, but my husband’s a real tyrant. He doesn’t get my needs.”
Pouting, the mortal nodded her head. “I used to have one of those. I ditched him.”
“He’s rich and has a big cock. It’s hard to give up,” Amaliya said. She sensed Cian’s amusement, but didn’t look toward the place where he was hidden by his power.
“I hear ya,” the other woman sighed.
Slipping out into the club, she gave the girl one last peck on the lips before weaving her way through the tight cluster of people near the bar. The harsh music thrummed through her body and she wanted to lose herself in it. It made her a bit grumpy to know that any fun nights out would have to wait until after she ripped The Summoner’s head off his shoulders and finished him for good.
There weren’t a lot of people on the sidewalk, so Amaliya spotted Cian right away. He was leaning against a lamppost waiting for her. Strolling up to him, she put her hands on her hips.
“Did you get her number?” Cian asked.
“Nah.”
“She was very pretty,” Cian said, his tone teasing.
“Well, yeah. I know how to pick ‘em.” Amaliya slanted her body toward him, giving him a sly smile. “So did you give her a really awesome memory of me?”
“You were amazing. The best ever. You’ve ruined her for all other women. And probably men.”
“Yes!” Amaliya high-fived him.
“You could probably still go get her number. For after the apocalypse.” Cian caught her about the waist with one arm and guided her down the sidewalk.
“Oh, you liked her!” Amaliya had to admit the girl had been delicious. “I can go back.”
“Nah.” Cian kissed her temple. “I just thought she might be a nice meal and a bit more sometime in the future.”
Snuggling into his side, Amaliya felt content despite the cloud of impending doom hovering over their heads. This is the life she wanted. Freedom to be with Cian. Freedom to hunt. Freedom to feed from and flirt with pretty young things, or dangerously hot metalheads. Blood, sex, magic, metal, and Cian were all the things that made her happy. She still felt guilt that Pete had died trying to save her from the life she loved. Pete had dreamed of a life with her filled with sunlight, a perfect home, marriage and children. She was grateful that he didn’t know that those were the things she had never really imagined for herself. The thought of marriage made her skin crawl and she could never imagine herself being pregnant.
“You, pregnant.” Cian chuckled.
“Fuck you.”
“I can’t imagine that either. Or the marriage thing. Though you would be a lovely bride. All dressed in white.” He was mocking her.
“Fuck you again.” Amaliya shook her head.
A slight smile graced Cian’s lips. He was being the mysterious, moody vampire tonight. She wondered if it was because of what had occurred between her and Samantha.
“No, no. It needed to happen. You both needed to rise to full power. It’s something else.”
“You’re not freaked out because I now have this deep connection to your ex-fiancée?” Amaliya had actually wondered if it would bother him. Though both of them had a big disconnect between sex and love, the emotional bond between them was very real and even sacred.
“Do I suddenly fear you’re madly in love with Samantha and want to leave me for her?” Cian smirked. “Why, yes I am.”
“You’re such a dick,” Amaliya exclaimed.
“I’m not worried about that. I’m concerned about something else altogether.” Cian drew her around a corner and they walked up a darkened side street toward the parking lot.
“What is it?”
Cian stopped in mid-stride, turned toward her, and took her hands gently in his own. “Bianca.”
“What about Bianca?” Amaliya knew before he even answered. The vision she’d had and the dreams had already told her the truth, but now she was going to hear it from Cian’s lips and her emotions began to harshly bubble in her chest.
“Benchley discovered that there’s a good chance she’s still alive,” Cian answered, then poured out the rest of what he had been told by Jeff.
Standing in the shadows of an old vacant bar, Amaliya fought against the urge to be furious at all three men. She balled her hands into fists and struggled with the impulse to storm off.
“Benchley had no fuckin’ right to tell Jeff. And Jeff had no fuckin’ right to tell you! Behind my back,” Amaliya wanted to scream with her frustration.
Cian folded his arms across his chest and gave her his most intense look. “Do you want to know what scares me, Liya? Bianca. Because I know you will do everything in your fuckin’ power to save her.”
“She’s like me!” Amaliya cried out. “I can’t abandon her! Our roles could have been so easily reversed. Why did I rise in three nights when she didn’t?”
“Jeff thinks it’s because you suppressed all your magical abilities and were living as a human. All accounts about Bianca are that she was struggling constantly with what she was, Liya. She was severely haunted by her power.”
A vivid memory of Bianca stepping out in front of her on the last day of her life sprang into her mind. The hesitant nervousness of the other girl had been off-putting. Bianca had tried to talk to her. She had said something, then The Summoner had come out of the building.
“I think she tried to save me,” Amaliya said, her voice catching.
“What?”
Though her death was shrouded in a haze, Amaliya had distorted dreams of dying. Sometimes, she saw flashes of Bianca’s face. “I think Bianca tried to warn me about The Summoner. I think she may have tried to save me, but failed.”
“You never said this before.” Cian’s brow furrowed beneath the fringe of his hair.
“It’s always been a really messed up memory. More a dream than anything, but I think it’s real.” Running her trembling fingers through her hair, Amaliya held her long tresses back from her face. “Shit, Cian. I can’t just abandon her!”
“But you also can’t go off half-assed,” Cian retorted. “You can’t go running off to rescue her when we don’t even know where she is. And how are you going to remove The Summoner from her body?”
With a cry of anger, Amaliya slammed the side of her fist against the building next to her. There was a loud crack as a spider web of fissures formed in the bricks. He was right and it infuriated her. Her inclination was to commandeer his car and drive immediately to San Antonio. But she knew that was foolhardy.
“We’ll sort this out together,” Cian said calmly, but with steel in his tone.
With an exasperated sigh, Amaliya stared past him, her vision blurred by the tears in her eyes. “I’m not going to kill him if she’s still trapped inside her own body.”
“Okay.”
“I mean it. I won’t kill her, Cian. I won’t sacrifice her for him.” Too many people had already died trying to save Amaliya’s life. She wasn’t about to let Bianca die a second time.
“I understand. We’ll find a way.” He met her glare with a steady gaze. “I promise you.”
The fight left her at his vow. The one thing Cian never did was let her down. Once he committed to doing something, he did it. He wasn’t lying to get her to not do something foolish.
“I won’t bullshit you on this.” Cian gave her a weary smile. “I know that if I did it would backfire immediately.”