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“Then don’t scream at me for saving you!”
“This never would have happened if you hadn’t come to Austin and fucked everything up!”
“This never would have happened if The Summoner hadn’t fucking killed me and buried me in the fucking forest!”
Samantha started as if she had been slapped. Amaliya raised a trembling hand and pointed at Samantha. “Don’t you fucking dare act like you’re the only victim in all of this. ” Blood-tinged tears slowly slid down Amaliya’s cheeks.
Lowering her eyes, Samantha said nothing.
“We’re all fucked because of him. Because of The Summoner. Cian is what he is because of that asshole. I am what I am because that shit decided to play a game with my loser life. You’re. . . a ghost whisperer because of him. Don’t lay this on me!”
“If anything, it’s my fault for not sending her away,” Cian added, guiltily.
“No, it’s not,” Samantha said at last. “None of this is your fault. ” With a bitter laugh, she handed Amaliya a fresh tissue from the wad she was clutching in one hand. “You’re so totally right. I’m being a complete bitch to you when it’s not your fault. ”
“It’s about fuckin’ time you realized that,” Amaliya growled, shoving the door to the balcony open and escaping.
Cian slid to his feet and moved to comfort Samantha. She held up a hand, warding him off.
“Please don’t. ”
“Samantha. ”
“No, don’t, Cian. I’m so sick of you being nice to me. I’m tired of the guilt in your eyes. You’ve said your piece. ” With that, Samantha followed Amaliya, shutting the door deliberately behind her, cutting him out of whatever came next.
Behind him, his phone began to ring.
Chapter 11
The sparkling beauty of the Austin skyline usually calmed Amaliya. Seeing the UT Tower lit up beyond the glowing white countenance of the state capital building was always a reminder of her happiest days in Austin as a young, hopeful college student. But tonight, staring at the bright lights and listening to the hum of traffic only made her feel like running away. The city felt claustrophobic and her skin crawled with the desire to flee.
When the door opened and slammed shut behind her, she knew who it was. It wasn’t the smell of margaritas on Samantha’s breath or the scent of her perfume, but the anger she felt pouring out of the woman she had usurped.
“I’m sorry,” Amaliya said, exhaling a puff of smoke. She surprised herself by apologizing, but her rage had left her as quickly as it had come. The Summoner had wrecked all their lives to some degree, but Amaliya couldn’t ignore the guilt pricking at her.
Samantha stepped up to the rail and curled her hands over the cool metal. She didn’t respond, just stared outward, sniffling.
“You’re a fucking annoying bimbette, but I really am sorry. ” Amaliya sighed.
“For what?”
With a shrug, Amaliya flicked ash into the wind. “All of it. I should have bailed. Left you and Cian to your lives. ”
With a strangled laugh that was mixed with a sob, Samantha shook her head. “It wouldn’t have mattered. How much longer do you think we could isolate ourselves from the truth?”
Tilting her head, Amaliya scrutinized the tear streaked face of the woman beside her. “What do you mean?”
“It was all going to fall apart anyway. I can see it now. I mean. . . what would’ve happened? Cian and I would have had our pretty candlelight wedding and then what? Be happy for a few years? And then what would happen? I told him I didn’t need to have kids to be happy, but that’s only because I had this glamorous idea about one day being a vampire, too. He’d change me on my twenty-ninth birthday and I’d be fabulous forever. I was in love with the whole fairytale of living forever with him. Being forever young. Never dying. ”
Amaliya finished off her cigarette and reached for another one. “But you were happy. ”
“I didn’t know him, bitchface,” Samantha said wearily. “I know that now. In fact, I have known since you showed up that we weren’t meant to be. If Cian and I were really as solid as I thought, you wouldn’t have landed in our lives like a nuclear bomb. ”
Amaliya couldn’t argue with that point. She had shattered the illusion that Cian and Samantha had constructed by their mutual desires. Cian’s to be human again; Samantha’s to be an eternal creature.
Glancing back into the apartment at Cian, who was talking on the phone, Samantha sighed. “I still believe Cian’s a good guy, but I look at him and it’s like I’m seeing a different person. I miss the image I had of him in my head. The fantasy I was in love with. I don’t know him. Who he is now. . . he’s yours. ”
Lighting up, Amaliya shrugged. “For now. ”
