Pretty When She Dies (32 page)

Can I help you?”

She looked a little unsure of herself for a second, then raised the gun and shot him in the chest. “No, I have it covered.”

***

The two dead homeless men The Summoner had sent to help her, stepped out from around the corner, and moved to gather up Roberto's body.

Somewhere in Heather's muddled mind, she was screaming, but the rest of her thoughts were consumed with The Summoner and his commands. He was powerful and she must obey his power. She could feel him, in her apartment, waiting for her. He didn't have to sleep anymore. He had said he was beyond that now and his legions walked both the day and the night.

She wasn't dead yet. She had wondered at first if maybe she was dead. But her heart was still beating unlike the two huge men busy wrapping Roberto up into the hallway rug. Those two men were truly dead. She rubbed the gun against her leg nervously.

What she was doing was wrong, right?

She wasn't sure anymore.

The Summoner called out to her through the darkness of her mind and she moved toward the elevator. Looking down at the gun, the thought of shooting him flickered through her mind. But he needed her. He had told her so.

She needed to obey him. Serve him. Love him. Until he killed her.

***

Sergio was intent on sleeping in. It was Saturday morning and his wife had taken the kids to visit her relatives. Because he had to work a double shift the night before, he had been given a reprieve from his glowering mother-in-law. She absolutely hated him because of his Mexican blood and he absolutely hated her because she was a bitch.

He had woken up long enough to kiss his kids and wife goodbye, then had collapsed onto the sofa to sleep the morning away.

As he dozed, he was dimly aware of the cat lying on his back, kneading his shoulder as her tiny claws lightly scratched him. The sound of the neighborhood kids playing outside tried to pull him from his light slumber and he grumbled. He'd give anything for there to be Saturday morning cartoons again so the kids would be inside being little TV

zombies. Then at least he could sleep deeply.

A loud banging on his front door made him jump. The cat yowled and drew blood as she scampered off.

“Thanks a lot, Tinkerbell,” he muttered, and wondered why he had let the kids name the cat.

Grumbling, he sat up and stared at the door. There was no one visible through the glass panes set in the door in the shape of a fan. Deciding he must have dreamed the banging, he lay back down.

The door shook as the banging started again. This time his grandmother's voice joined the harsh knocks.

“Sergio! Sergio! Open the door!”

Blinking, he sat up again and rubbed his eyes. “Grandmama?”

“Open the door!”

Pulling his undershirt down over his stomach, he staggered to the door, unlocked it, and swung it open.

His tiny grandmother stood on the stoop clutching her big tote bag with the flag of Texas on it. She was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt with a picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe on it and her tiny feet were tucked into bright pink sneakers. “Get dressed. We're going to Austin.”

“Huh?” He rubbed his eyes again and tried to figure out why his grandmother was bugging him on a Saturday morning at the ungodly hour of nine AM.

“Amaliya hasn't answered her phone in two nights and something is wrong. Get your gun.”

“Grandmama, I want to sleep in,” he muttered, and was shoved aside as she barged in.

“No time to sleep.”

“Hey, why do I need a gun?” He shut the door and stared at her in confusion. Sergio's muddled brain couldn't take all this in quite yet and he sat down in his recliner, blinking tiredly.

His grandmother sat down on the sofa and the cat instantly appeared on her lap. “I gave Amaliya that phone.”

“Right.”

“And she called me and told me about this Cian.”

“The Key Inn?”

“No. It's a name. Cian. Anyway, she said he was going to help her. But she hasn't answered her phone in two days and now I am worried.”

“You know, Grandmama, technically, she is already dead,” Sergio said timidly. The events of the other night still haunted him and he tried hard not to think of it too much.

“I don't care. She's alive in a new way,” his grandmother answered.

Her lips set into a firm little line as she lifted her chin. “And we're going to go find her and save her.”

“Grandmama, I don't mean to upset you, but Amaliya is not the most reliable person in the world.”

“Maybe not. But she's our blood. And she is my granddaughter and your cousin and we protect family.”

Sergio looked at her through bleary eyes trying to figure this whole thing out when something occurred to him. “Hey, how did you get here? She took your car!”

“My boyfriend brought me,” his grandmother answered primly.

“You have a boyfriend!” Sergio suddenly felt very awake. “You have a boyfriend?”

“Yes, I do.” His grandmother rubbed the cat under her chin vigorously and made soft noises to the furry creature as she obviously ignored Sergio's reddening face.

Sergio waited a beat, then said explosively, “Who?”

“Juan Carlos.”

“The old guy who rides around on the moped. He brought you over on the moped?”

His grandmother rolled her eyes and pointed at him with a gnarled finger. “Get dressed. Get your guns. We're going to Austin.”

Sergio leaped to his feet. Not to run for his gun, but to look out the window. “Where is he?” He had a strong desire to go outside and shake the old guy and threaten him something good.

“He left. I told him you would take me to Austin. But we need to go to my house. I have my stuff packed.”

Sergio blinked and turned to look at his sweet, tiny grandmother. He knew she was feisty, but he was realizing she had this whole other life he was not aware of. “You have a boyfriend and didn't tell me.”

“I didn't think you'd be okay with me having sex,” she answered.

“Oh, God! I don't want to hear it, Grandmama!” He covered his ears with his hands and stood staring at her in disbelief.

“I told you. You're such a wussy,” she said with a sad shake of her head.

“I am not. You're just...” he stammered to a halt. Calling his grandmother an old woman would get his ass kicked. So he clamped his mouth shut.

She smiled at him victoriously, seeing she had the upper hand. “Now, go get dressed. We need to go save Amaliya.”

Sergio rubbed the top of his head with one hand and frowned.

“Nothing I say or do is going to keep you from going to Austin, right?”

He could feel himself giving in despite his tiredness and his desperate desire to crawl back onto the sofa and sleep.

“I'll steal your truck while you sleep if you don't go with me,” she answered truthfully.

“Fine! I'll get ready!” Stomping out of the living room, he couldn't help but smile and by the time he was in the shower, he was laughing.

***

Amaliya woke up first and stretched with a soft yawn. She felt a little hungry and she rolled over onto Cian and lightly bit his neck. He woke up with a start, then wrapped his arms around her. Teasingly, she held his flesh between her teeth, but didn't draw blood. He ran a slow, seductive hand up over her back. She let go of his skin to kiss him. It felt wonderful considering everything that had happened the last few days and she let herself enjoy the tenderness of it.

“I'm hungry,” he said in a low voice, and pushed her gently off him.

“We both better feed.”

With a little growl, Amaliya sat up and ran her hands over her hair to smooth it down. Cian rolled over and opened the wall. It slid upward and revealed the young blond woman from the elevator the night before sitting in a chair. She had been waiting for them to awaken and she sat with her legs crossed. Her hand was resting on the gun on her lap.

“Heather?” Cian's expression was just as confused as Amaliya felt.

“I didn't want to do it, you know,” she said in a strangely monotone voice. Her eyes were oddly jittery as she sat there looking pretty in her jogging outfit.

“Do what?” Cian asked in a low voice.

Her eyes continued to waver strangely as she forced them to look at him. “I shot Roberto.”

Cian nearly launched himself off the bed, but Amaliya caught hold of him and drew him back.

“It's The Summoner,” Amaliya whispered to him.

“He made me after he...he...” she touched the back of her head with her hand. “I should be dead. I hit the wall so hard. I can feel the cracks in my skull, but I'm not dead. He won't let me die.”

Amaliya slowly slid to the end of the bed and set her feet on the floor.

She tried to pull on that dark power within her and sling it around Heather to bring her under her control, but it sat dormant inside of her, unmoving.

Heather swallowed hard. “He made me shoot Roberto. Then I had to go back to my apartment. He was there. He told me things. Horrible things.” Her fingers twitched over the gun again.

“This is impossible. He can't control the dead or the near dead when he's sleeping,” Cian declared. He looked angry and stunned by the turn of events. His gaze swept over the apartment looking for Roberto.

“He doesn't sleep anymore. He's so old he doesn't have to. He can now stay awake all day. Sit in a dark room, play with dead girls, and make the dead walk the streets.” She stood up slowly. “The bullets won't kill you, but they'll hurt. A lot. He told me to shoot you if I had to. You're supposed to come with me if you want Roberto back alive.”

Amaliya didn't like anyone pointing a gun at her, even if she was a vampire. She flinched when Heather aimed the gun directly at her chest.

“Get up. Get dressed. He is calling me to him. He's waiting.”

“Roberto doesn't mean jack shit to me. Let The Summoner kill him,”

Amaliya said with a shrug. “Besides, how do we know you really have him?”

Cian climbed off the bed, sleek, muscular and naked. She saw a flash of lust in Heather's eyes, then it was replaced with dullness again.

“Yes, how do we truly know you have him, Heather? Did The Summoner give you proof?”

Heather coolly tossed Roberto's keys and money clip at Cian's feet.

There was blood on them.

Cian stared down at the personal possessions of his servant with a dark expression on his face. “Get dressed,” he ordered Amaliya.

“I am not going to go out there and risk my life to save your freaking, backstabbing servant,” she said, and crossed her arms over her bare breasts.

“Fine. Then I'll go alone,” Cian said.

Heather trained the gun slowly toward him. “The Summoner whispers to me that if you don't come I am to shoot Cian in the head.”

“He'll heal,” Amaliya sneered.

Cian's brow furrowed. “What sort of bullets are those?”

“The exploding kind,” Heather answered.

Cian looked at Amaliya pointedly. “Chances are, I could not heal from that.”

For a moment, she pondered just running away. Just fleeing into the night and away from all this insanity, but looking at Cian, she knew she couldn't bolt. Slowly, she stood up. “Fine.”

Naked, she walked over to where her jeans were and began to pull them on. They had blood on them, but it wouldn't matter where they were going.

“I'm getting dressed,” Cian said to Heather.

“I'm coming with you,” Heather answered.

“Why don't we just kill her and be done with it?” Amaliya asked zipping up her jeans.

“Because if we don't go tonight, he'll up the ante. He'll do something even worse than taking Roberto,” Cian answered.

“He says he knows where your Grandmama lives,” Heather said in a voice that held no emotion, yet her voice quavered.

“I hope he can see this,” Amaliya said, and gave Heather the finger.

There was no way she was going to let The Summoner get her grandmother. She had to go.

With Heather standing guard over them, they quickly dressed. Cian handed Amaliya a David Bowie t-shirt. She shrugged it on and tied it at her waist. Her bloodied boots would have to do. Cian changed quickly into a black shirt and jeans and pulled on sturdy combat boots. His hair was now past his shoulders and his goatee looked a little scraggly. He was looking more and more her type all the time, she thought.

“Let's go,” Heather ordered.

“Where are we going?” Amaliya demanded.

“A ghost town,” Heather answered and waved them to the door.

“Great, just great,” Amaliya muttered. Her luck, as usual, was in the pits.

“Where?” Cian slid his mouse over the mouse pad to awaken the computer.

Heather blinked, looking confused. “I can get us there.”

“Where?” His voice was firm.

“Fenton,” she answered. “He says to come now.”

“I want to see how far away that is,” Cian answered her in a authoritative voice.

Amaliya was confused at first, then realized Cian wanted to know how far away they were going to be out of the city. They were restricted by the night and if they escaped, they would need to know if they had time to make it back to Austin or make another plan altogether.

Cian typed into the Google search and watched the map pop up.

“Okay. Let's go.”

Heather waved the gun at them. “You're wasting time on purpose.

He says you're stalling thinking Roberto isn't with him. But he is. I shot him and gave him to The Summoner.”

“Fine. Then take us to Roberto,” Cian said in a cold voice.

Cian took her hand as they slipped out his door. His touch was surprisingly calming. Her fingers tightened on his they walked into the elevator.

***

Jeff felt uncomfortable barging into a vampire's lair. Hunters only tracked their prey by day. Entering a vampire's lair at night was suicide. But after a day of arguing and planning, Samantha was determined to give Cian one last chance to see the truth. She had been unshakable in her belief that he was a good guy and needed to just see the light. Jeff wasn't sure coming to the apartment was the wise thing.

He would have preferred neutral ground.

In his short time knowing Samantha, he realized she had a will of steel. So here they were, outside of Cian's apartment with Samantha banging on the door.