Pretty When She Dies (28 page)

“Yeah, sure.” She felt a little nervous at the thought of hanging out with a complete stranger. She had her mace in her purse and she consoled herself with that thought.

Jeff limped to the door and locked it. Laying the keys on the counter in plain sight, it was clear he did not want her to feel ill at ease. He had changed his t-shirt since this morning and it read “Vote for Pedro.”

“I love that movie!” Samantha said, pointing. “Napoleon was like this kid that used to always stare at me and drool in high school.”

“It seems a lot of guys would do that without being a super nerd,” Jeff responded and winked.

“You're sweet,” Samantha decided as she followed him into the hallway leading to the back.

“Nah, just a nerd,” he teased. “I own an occult bookstore and wear t-shirts from movies.”

“True. True,” she conceded.

The room they entered was also loaded with books and opened up to yet another room. This last one was much larger and had a long beat up wooden table in the middle with mismatched chairs around it. It looked quaint and sort of like an old library. To her left, she saw a door marked “Restroom” with a little drawing of a female ghost on it with a pink bow. A few feet from it was one with a male ghost.

Between them was a small table with a coffee pot and Styrofoam cups set out. A cookie jar with a donation cup next to it looked alluring and she went over to pry it open.

“I made those,” he said as he settled into a chair at the table. “They're vegan.”

Pulling out a cookie, she felt its freshness and the smell was wonderful. “Vegan? Really? They smell good! Oh, yummy.”

Rummaging in her bag, she looked for some change.

“You don't have to donate,” he said quickly.

“No, no. I want to!” She found a dollar bill lurking under her sunglass case and tucked it into the jar. Pouring herself a cup of coffee, she already felt a little less nervous. The smell was heavenly.

“I just do that so people will feel at home. It can be nerve wracking to come in here looking for actual answers and just not fun reading material.” Jeff rubbed his leg and tapped the leather bound books stacked next to him.

Setting her drink down, she sat next to him and munched on her cookie. It had a different texture than what she was used to, but it tasted great. “Do a lot of people do that?”

“Oh, yeah. South Austin has a lot of haunted houses. Then on top of that, add in college students messing with the occult and not having a clue what they are doing. They end up with trouble and have to find a way out of it.”

“And you take care of that? Fix the situation?”

“To the best of my ability,” Jeff answered. “I can't always resolve it, but I do my best.”

“You're kinda like-”

“Please, don't.”

“Van Helsing,” Samantha piped and ate another bit of her cookie.

“I thought you were going to say Buffy. Again,” Jeff said with a laugh.

“I look more like Buffy than you do,” Samantha grinned.

“And you date vampires,” Jeff agreed with bemusement.

“But seriously, you do this all the time, right? Deal with the supernatural?”

“Not all the time, but enough to give me some really good nightmares.”

“Well. I guess getting your leg torn off by a vampire would do that,”

she said with a frown, and immediately regretted saying it.

With a somber expression, he nodded and said, “Well, you know, it's not something you easily forget.”

“Was it Cian?” she asked fearfully, the terrible thought suddenly enveloping her.

“No. No. It was actually in another state that it happened. I was a baby, so I don't remember it. We were on vacation and Dad took a job getting rid of a local vamp. It found out and did a preemptive strike.”

He sighed. “That's when I lost my Mom and my leg.”

Samantha was utterly horrified and her mouth opened, but she couldn't find words to speak.

“It's okay. I grew up and helped my Dad with his hunts until he died.

Of natural causes, thankfully.” He looked quite somber, but in an effort to shake himself free of his dark thoughts, he grabbed a book and opened it. “My Dad kept copious notes on all his cases and he had a lot written about Cian going back quite a ways. Dad was supposed to destroy this book per an agreement he had with Cian, but it was his life's work and he couldn't bear to do it. Cian was actually one of the first vampires my father hunted.”

“That is so totally weird. So your Dad found out a bunch of stuff about him and stuffed it in a book, huh? What does it say?”

“Originally, Cian came up out of Mexico where he was located with his human servant Roberto for a very long time.”

Samantha finished her cookie and leaned forward to look at the newspaper clippings, notes, and other bits of information stuffed in the book. “I know Roberto. He's a jerk.”

“Well, yeah. His history is not all that spectacular. Before Cian took him in, he was connected with multiple murders. He was even suspected of his brother's murder. There is speculation that is how he became so wealthy. Married women he seduced tended to become widows and he would stick around long enough to receive some very generous gifts. Cian and Roberto were in Mexico City for an extended amount of time after they joined up. Cian found favor with the Master of Mexico City who sympathized with his past. Both of them had been slaves at some point in their history and she was enamored with him.

Word is, she banished Santos, her brother who is now the Master Vampire of San Antonio, from her territory in favor of Cian.”

“Wait, wait, Cian was a slave?”

“You didn't know that?”

Samantha shook her head, her eyes growing larger.

“When Cromwell came into Ireland in the late 1600's, he decimated the Irish population. He sent a large portion as slaves to the West Indies. Cian and his family were sent to Barbados. He lived as a slave most of his life until he was around twenty-four. He actually gained favor with his master and was set up as a foreman of the sugar cane fields. He had a wife and two children when The Summoner arrived in Barbados. We think we found the actual ship he arrived on. It suffered a plague in transit and most of the crew and passengers died.

Soon after, The Summoner killed Cian. Though we cannot prove it, we believe the Bridgetown fire was caused when some of the slaves tried to burn Cian or The Summoner out. It killed thousands of people, which, of course, would have been very satisfying to The Summoner. My father asked Cian about it and he doesn't remember why the fire happened. At the time, Cian was mad with the hunger that struck him after his rebirth as a vampire. But he said he remembered the flames. Cian fled and hid in caves for weeks in the aftermath. When he regained his senses, he knew was undead and was terrified because of it. He tried to go home, but the plantation had burned and his family was dead. People were speaking about red-eyed devils and he knew he had to get away from Barbados.”

“How did he escape?” Samantha felt oddly overwhelmed. It was suddenly quite clear she knew nothing about Cian at all.

“A pirate ship, believe it or not. He hid away on board the ship and slowly drank most of the crew to death. They didn't know he was there and never found him. When they finally reached land, he disembarked and began his journey across South and Central America. He has never returned to Europe.” Jeff hesitated, obviously seeing she was trying hard to absorb all the information he was giving her.

“So, he...he...well, he's over three hundred years old for one thing. I knew he was old, but okay-” Samantha clutched her hands together and processed all of this. “So, he was in Mexico for a long time?”

“Yes, until he sent a request to the former Master of Austin. He asked to relocate here. He stayed in Mexico City far longer than he ever planned because it was safe. But he grew increasingly bored and had to move on. That is his story. My father actually believed that The Summoner was after him once more. Anyway, the Master of Austin agreed to have Cian join the cabal. As soon as Cian got here, there was trouble. The Master's companion took a liking to Cian and it caused inner turmoil. Beyond that, the cabal was extremely dangerous in their size and daring. A lot of vampires are hard to track nowadays because they do not kill. Like Cian, they take just enough from each victim to satisfy. But the cabal in the Seventies began to kill. Of course, there was the whole craze over the Zodiac killer and Charles Manson at the time, so the Austin police were looking for a group of Satanists. My father knew the truth and was looking for the vampires, but they were very elusive. Then, Cian came to him one night. And they made a deal. Cian gave him the cabal's location. My father swore he would not interfere with Cian's life as long as he did not kill or make any other vampires. It was also agreed that no other vampires would be allowed into the city.”

Samantha pressed a cold, sweaty palm to her forehead. “Oh, my.”

“Later, my father found out that The Summoner and Cian had made a pact. The Summoner would release him if Cian became the Master of his own city.”

“And with the cabal dead...”

“Exactly.” Jeff was flipping through pages, showing her time lines, drawings, and newspaper clippings. There were even several small sketches of Cian from different time periods. They all had Roberto's signature.

“Did Cian...set up the cabal?”

Jeff shrugged. “I don't know. My father didn't think he did. But then again, my father was fascinated by Cian. His history enthralled him and they had many meetings. They would sip tea and speak of the history of the vampires in America. But there have not been any other vampire related deaths in the area since the Seventies, so who is to say one way or the other.”

“You think Cian set up the Austin cabal, don't you?”

Jeff looked very solemn. “I do wonder. But if The Summoner was after me, I don't know what I would do.”

“He's after the new vampire. Amaliya. The Summoner made her and he's after her.”

“Then he's probably in the city by now. I've spent today studying up on her. She's not even a week old,” Jeff said, pulling a new leather book off the pile. He had already started collecting newspaper clippings, online articles and had several photos from different sources cut out and pasted to the pages. “I tracked her from where she was killed in East Texas across to Dallas. She disappears for a day, then arrives in Austin. I did check on her family history and found that her grandmother and some cousins live in Eastland County near the Abilene area. My guess is she went there.” Jeff showed her a map.

“So, did she kill a lot of people?”

“Yeah. The first night she woke up, it was close to a dozen. Vampires usually awaken mad with the hunger. This woman in East Texas is my guess for a second victim. A third was in Dallas. A truck driver. One of her childhood friends was hospitalized, so that could have been her, too.”

“So she's evil,” Samantha decided.

“Not necessarily,” Jeff sighed a weary sigh. “Vampires are scary creatures. They don't think like we do after awhile. They are above us on the food chain and when they are hungry, that is all that matters.”

He paused, then looked at her worriedly. “Has Cian drank from you?

Or you from him?”

“Ew. No.” She shook her head. “No. No. Hell, we don't even do...um...sex...much.” She shrugged a little. “I thought maybe vampires aren't super into it or something.”

“It's probably because vampires mix blood with sex and he was trying to spare you.” His tone was very gentle and his expression embarrassed.

“Oh.” She absorbed this, then said in a soft voice, “So that points to him being good, right?”

Jeff gave her a reassuring smile. “Yeah. I'm sure it does.”

She ran her fingers over the picture of Amaliya with blond hair from her high school yearbook. Amaliya looked a little sad and bored in the picture.

“What do you want to do?”

Jeff's voice startled her and she looked up. “What?”

“What do you want to do?”

“Save Cian. Get rid of her,” Samantha said finally.

And after that, she wasn't sure.

Now she wasn't sure about anything. Marrying a vampire had seemed so ultra romantic and wonderful. Now she was scared out of her mind. But she knew he was a good man or creature or whatever and he didn't deserve to die.

Or at least she didn't think so.

Jeff reached over and took her trembling hand in his. It was nice and warm, not cool like Cian's. “I'll help you do that then. Besides, I always told my father I would honor his promise to Cian.”

She gripped his hand tightly between hers and fought back tears.

“Amaliya being here is bad, isn't it?”

Jeff nodded. “I think so.”

Samantha cleared her clogged throat then said, “Okay. Then we kill her so The Summoner leaves and everything goes back to normal.”

***

It was almost eleven o'clock when Cian finally arrived at Santos' home in San Antonio. It had taken an hour of phone negotiations before he could leave Austin. It was a little over another hour to drive down.

Roberto had been furious to be left behind, but Cian did not want to deal with his right hand man as well as the Master of San Antonio. It was maybe foolhardy to go alone, but he did know Santos was a man of reason, even if he was a brutal bastard most of the time.

Santos was the son of an Aztec princess who had been raped by a Spanish invader, or so he claimed, and the anger he carried inside of himself had not diminished with time. Santos did consider himself a man of his word, and when he swore that Cian would not be harmed, attacked or killed, Cian believed him.

Besides, Santos wanted information about The Summoner.

Cian parked his Mercedes where one of Santos' guards directed him.

A party seemed to be getting underway with plenty of beautiful Latina women and Santos' faithful compadres or his “boys” as he liked to put it. Dressed in black trousers and a black silk shirt, Cian had dressed up for the Master of San Antonio. He knew that Santos basically held court and expected a certain amount of respect. Cian's shiny black shoes felt a little too snug, but he had barely worn them since buying them.