There was a soft click when she hung up.

“Shit!”

“What are we going to do?” Samantha asked, her face pale and her lips trembling.

“Get to the shop, organize, and plan. We’ve got four hours before Cian and Amaliya are awake. We’re on our own,” Jeff answered.

“Do you think he really just wants The Summoner’s ashes?”

“Maybe. But for what?” Jeff hurried to Samantha’s bedroom and began to gather his clothes.

“Maybe he really does have the cure for Amaliya?” Samantha’s voice was full of doubt, but he could see she was struggling not to be terrified by the turn of events.

“I doubt that he was hired to save Amaliya. It’s just a convenient lie. One that Pete, Sergio and Innocente all fell for.” Jerking on his clothes, Jeff struggled not to be ragingly pissed at Sergio and Innocente for not contacting him. Love made fools out of everyone.

On the other side of the room Samantha dressed in black jeans, cowboy boots and a silky black tank. Tugging her hair back into a short ponytail, she glanced over at him when she realized he was watching her.

“What?”

“You look amazing,” he said bashfully.

“This is my badass outfit,” she informed him, holding out her arms and rotating. “If I am this phasmagnus thing, then I’m going to look uber-cool kicking bad guy butt.”

Catching her about the waist, Jeff drew her to him and kissed her ardently. The love he felt for her was overwhelming and he couldn’t endure the thought of anything bad happening to her. When his lips reluctantly left hers, Samantha’s eyelashes fluttered as she moaned.

“Dammit! I want more sex!”

“Later,” Jeff promised, grabbing her hand and rushing her out the door. He hoped there would be a later.

* * *

The long highway weaving through the hills was nearly empty of traffic. The sun had burned away all the lush greenery of the spring, leaving a dry, yet lovely tapestry of the Texas Hill Country.

Pete took a long sip of the lukewarm soda he’d bought at a small gas station when they had filled up the gas tank again and wondered how much longer they had to drive. Sergio’s huge navy-blue Ford truck sped along in front of them, the shadowy outlines of the big guy and the diminutive old woman barely visible through the tinted rear window.

Ethan had lapsed into silence. The tall man wasn’t particularly talkative when driving. He didn’t even like to listen to music while they traveled, so Pete listened to music on his phone by streaming it through his Bluetooth. Johnny Cash was his fallback when he was nervous and the Man in Black was crooning in his ear. He still remembered Amaliya as a child dancing in her backyard to her little radio as it played her favorite Johnny Cash song, singing along loudly as the sun played in her blond hair.

Rubbing his goatee, Pete wondered if Amaliya would return to her golden locks once she was mortal again. He kind of missed them, but he didn’t really care in the end. As long as he could ask for her forgiveness and start again. His heart longed for her and he couldn’t wait to hold her in his arms again. She had to forgive him. He would find a way to make it up to her. Never again would he reject her or hurt her. He had been a fool to spurn her.

A strange beeping noise sounded in the console. Ethan flipped it open to retract a rather large phone with a long antenna sticking out of the side.

“Hello,” Ethan said briskly, inclining his head slightly in Pete’s direction.

Pete pretended to look out the side window, ignoring Ethan. He made a bit of a show tapping his fingers on his knee to the music. His cellphone didn’t have any bars at all and he wondered if the phone Ethan was using was one of the special ones that had access to satellites.

“Yes, I have located the master vampire. Apparently he was killed in a small ghost town called Fenton. Sergio Guerra and his grandmother are taking me there now. By tonight I should have all the ingredients for the ritual to restore Amaliya. So, yes, everything is fine. Nothing to worry about.” Ethan’s voice was calm, measured, and a somehow reassuring. “Okay. Talk to you later.” Once the phone was stored away, Ethan said to Pete, “That was my employer. They’re pleased with how things are progressing. If not for you, I’m not sure I could have gotten this far.”

“I want to help Amaliya,” Pete answered. “Who does your employer want to help?”

Ethan cast a shadow of a smile in Pete’s direction. “Believe it or not...Amaliya.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“You don’t find that strange? That someone that’s not her family is trying to make her human again?” Pete lifted his eyebrows, turning to view the driver.”

“The world is a lot more complicated than you realize, Pete. It’s not all nice and tidy like most of humanity thinks it is. Those who become aware of the truth, that the monsters really are lurking in the dark, either go crazy or adapt. I have adapted. My employer has as well.”

“That’s not answering my question.”

“Maybe not. Besides, you’re going to get what you want. Amaliya human again.” Ethan said pointedly. “Am I right?”

Pete frowned as he stared at Sergio’s truck speeding along before them. “Yeah, but I don’t get why you were hired.”

“Maybe my employer just wants one less vampire in the world.” Ethan shrugged slightly. “Did that occur to you?”

“So someone hired you, a vampire hunter, to go and kill Amaliya’s creator and then make her human just because they want one less vampire?” Pete pondered on his own words, mulling them over. Could it be that simple? Maybe it was. Why couldn’t it be possible that someone out there was so afraid of vampires they wanted them dead or turned back to mortals?

“Again, does it really matter what the motives of my employer are? I’m a vampire hunter. People hire me to eliminate vampires one way or the other. I’m good at it. It’s what I do. Be happy that I’ve been hired to make her mortal, not stake her through the heart and chop off her head.”

“You’d do that?” Pete gulped, the mere thought making him a bit sick to his stomach.

“It’s the only way to make sure they don’t come back.” Ethan shrugged slightly. “But your girlfriend is lucky. She’s young enough for the ritual to work. She can go home, say she was in hiding, and start her life all over again.”

“Yeah,” Pete said thoughtfully, picturing it all in his mind. A smile tugged on his lips and he glanced out the window at the hills streaming past him.

“It’s a second chance. Most people don’t get those, do they?”

Pete shook his head. “No they don’t.”

“So stop worrying and relax. We’ll find a few bits of that bastard’s body, burn it, and prepare the ritual. Easy as that.”

“Easy,” Pete said, his voice full of wonder, hope, and a little fear. “Can it really be that easy?”

“Why not?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah, why not?” Grinning, Pete settled in his chair. Maybe this was God’s way of working it all out and he just had to accept it. He was helping rescue the woman he loved and it was a good and noble thing.

Chapter 18

Samantha stared out the passenger window of Jeff’s battered Land Rover at the crowded sidewalks lining Congress Avenue. Even though the thermometer had tipped over the 100 degree mark, there were plenty of people out and about. Dogs trotted in front of owners while babies in strollers stared out at the world through tiny sunglasses.

The food trailers clustered in a lot were under siege by hungry shoppers. Women in filmy summer dresses and sandals and men in shorts and t-shirts huddled in the shade sipping water and eating delicious entrees or sweet desserts.

It made Samantha want to cry. It was all so beautiful and normal. Families, young couples, old couples, friends, siblings, pets with their owners, all living their lives without the knowledge that the world was not as it seemed.

Among them, Samantha could now clearly see the specters of those who had passed on. They wandered amidst the crowds, unseen and unnoticed. A few of the dead looked confused by the chaos around them, but others tilted their heads to gaze at her when the SUV drove past. A male ghost in a pink thong, boa, and big sunglasses stood on a corner and waved to her as she passed. Samantha returned his smile and blew him a kiss.

Jeff turned down a residential street and the shade of the trees was a welcome relief from the blazing sunlight.

“Are you okay?” Jeff asked, reaching out to touch her hand.

“There are so many ghosts,” Samantha answered. “I never realized.”

“You’re growing stronger, aren’t you?”

“I think so.” Samantha tore her gaze away from the hazy figure of an old woman sitting on the porch of a house. She looked straight ahead and curled her hands into fists. “It feels weird not being human anymore.”

“You’re still human,” Jeff assured her. “Just with extra powers.”

“Like a superhero,” Samantha said, flashing a smile in his direction.