“I’d go to San Antonio and find a way to save her.”
“Or die trying.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re incredibly, annoyingly stubborn.”
“Fucking-A.”
Cian dragged her into his arms, his lips pressed to her forehead. Wrapping her in his embrace, he rocked her gently. “I love you for it even if it scares me to death.”
“Sucks to be you.” Amaliya twined her arms around his neck and allowed herself to calm down. If she wanted to, she could keep her anger going for hours, but it wasn’t worth it. In the end Cian would help her disengage The Summoner from Bianca’s body and she would save the world.
“It’s as simple as that,” Cian agreed.
“Exactly.”
Chapter 17
Roberto prowled around the bedroom Samantha shared with Jeff, ignoring the cat sitting in the middle of the bed hissing at him. The ghost’s body was frayed around the edges and his face tended to be out of focus, but it was almost like the old days when Roberto and Samantha had given each other hell. Though she was grateful he had agreed to help her, he was already on her nerves.
Throwing out his arms, he declared, “It’s so...plebian.”
“Fuck you,” Samantha automatically answered.
“Though the antiques have potential. If they were properly restored.” Roberto sniffed.
“You’re not here to snark on the house’s decor.”
“I wouldn’t call this decor. I would call it a...catastrophe. This is far worse than Cian’s IKEA obsession.”
“Yeah. What’s up with that?” Samantha shook her head and returned to her task. Scrounging around in her large purse for her iPad, Samantha wondered how something so big could get lost. Pulling a stack of bills, a couple of fashion magazines, and her makeup bag out of the purse, she finally spotted the tablet. Jerking it out, she flipped open the case.
“What’s that?” Roberto asked, drifting closer.
“My notes on how to deal with you, dickface.” Samantha drew up the information she had collected from Benchley and Alexia’s research.
The ghost smirked.
“What?”
“Your power is wasted on you.”
Samantha raised one finger, ignoring him. “First off, you can’t leave the property without my permission.”
The moment she said the words, she felt her magic surge out in a big wave. She was peculiarly aware of it building a perimeter around the house. It was as if she had some sort of supernatural radar that pinged back information to her. Maybe she did. Tilting her head, she let her new powers decipher what she was feeling. It was a bizarre sensation, but she could feel, see, and almost taste the ward she had placed to keep Roberto in check.
Roberto narrowed his eyes. They looked more like smudges of black in his slightly blurred face. “Hmm...”
Giving him a victorious look, Samantha said, “See. My powers aren’t wasted. I can do this.”
“Apparently,” the ghost answered with a hint of grudging respect.
“Where was I? Oh, yeah. You’re not allowed to enter any of the bedrooms without permission. Especially this one. We don’t need you spying on us having...you know...relations.” Another ripple of her magic flowed out, creating new wards within the house.
The ghost winced, then began to slide along the floor as misty tentacles of her magic gripped him and dragged him toward the door. Pinwheeling his arms, he tried to grab onto something.
“Samantha!”
“Oh, you have permission to be here right now!”
Roberto’s skid stopped just before the door. He glared at her.
“Oops.” Samantha made a mental note to remember that her magic took her words literally.
“What is my job exactly?” Roberto’s voice was cold, angry, and stubborn.
“You’re going to be the general of my ghost army,” Samantha answered. “Cool, huh?”
“Possibly,” Roberto replied noncommittally, but appeared intrigued.
“Also, play nice with the others. Cian’s in charge. Don’t piss him off.”
His hazy form slightly drooping, Roberto averted his face.
“Are you listening to me?”
“Yes. I am. Unfortunately.”
“Be nice, Roberto. I saved you.” Samantha frowned, worried that maybe this had been a bad idea after all.
“I am grateful for that, but a ghost can have many regrets once their life is over. I know I do.”
“Feeling bad for betraying Cian?” Samantha sat on the edge of her bed, setting her iPad on her lap.
The ghost flicked in and out of reality as he moved toward her. With a sigh, he sat next to her. “I should have killed Amaliya right away. Then you’d be married to Cian right now and none of this would be happening.”
Samantha was surprised by his words, and also a little unnerved. “Don’t say that.”
“I brought The Summoner down on all of us by not doing my duty to Cian. When I recognized Amaliya as a threat, I should have handled it. If I had, you and I wouldn’t be in this position right now.”
“A phasmagus and a ghost,” Samantha said.
“Exactly.”
“But you forget, I’d be married to Cian, who is a bit of a cheating bastard, you’d still hate my guts, The Summoner would take over the world, and we’d all die.” Samantha lifted her shoulders. “You may be worse off, but I’m better off. Jeff is a sweetie and I love him. Plus I’m a phasmagus and I will kick some serious butt. I’m scared, but happy here. Plus, bitch-face and I have a truce now. We’re even...kinda...sorta...friends. Honestly, Roberto, you fucked yourself over by betraying your friend. If you hadn’t been a jerkwad, you’d still be alive.”
The ghost whipped his head toward her, his features smearing together, his eyes holes of darkness, then his face returned to some semblance of normalcy. “Maybe Cian betrayed me! Just as he betrayed you!”
A year ago Samantha would have been terrified; now she was just slightly unnerved. She exhaled, her fingers fidgeting with the cover on her iPad. Even though she was the aggrieved party in their past drama, she had forgiven Cian and resolved a lot of her issues with Amaliya. She was also relieved that the romantic fantasy that she and Cian had created had fallen apart. There was no way Amaliya could have come between them so easily if they had truly been in love.
“I can tell by your expression that you know what I’m saying is true,” Roberto said after her silence had dragged on a little too long.
“I don’t think Cian betrayed you at all. Yeah, he didn’t listen to you about Amaliya, and he didn’t listen to me either, but that’s because he was lying to himself. I’m not saying he was right to ignore us. I’m saying that in the grand scheme of things, him being a bullheaded dick is a lot different from you going off and siding with The Summoner.” Samantha fastened a steady glare on the ghost.
“I was angry,” Roberto said with what could have been a slight pout.
“Yeah, so? I was furious. But I didn’t go siding with the enemy. I tried to save Cian from Amaliya. I didn’t betray him.”
“After so long together I could see that Cian was going to move on without me.”
“Oh, God. Were you two boning?”
Roberto bestowed her with a sardonic smile. “And if we were?”
Scrunching up her face, Samantha said, “Eh, whatever. I’m over Cian. I’m with Jeff. You’re dead and a ghost. Fuck the past.”
Visibly deflating over not being able to rile her up, Roberto sighed. “Though we have shared many women over the years, and endured much together, we were not ‘boning.’ We were like brothers, or so I thought. I knew Cian was unhappy when he started trying to be human again. You were bad enough. But Amaliya...when he wouldn’t send her away even when he knew The Summoner might descend on all of us, I knew my time with him was at an end.”