“Can’t say I’m not glad to see that bastard dead.” Benchley tapped his fingers on the table. “But he did change things. Somehow.”
Jeff nodded as he flipped through one of the books his father had kept on The Summoner. “Cian, there is no other record of this happening. Are you sure you haven’t heard of him making necromantic vampires before?”
“Positive. I would have heard about it. Hell, he would have boasted about it.” Cian unfolded his arms and sighed. “This is very unexpected.”
“I got the impression he was surprised by my powers.” Amaliya tugged on the ends of her long hair, studying them for split ends. “But then again, he never said he was surprised that I was a necromancer like him. Maybe he was surprised that my powers manifested the way they did. He could call the dead without shedding blood like I have to.”
The frown on her face deepening, Samantha asked, “But why did he leave Bianca behind?”
“She didn’t rise when expected.” Cian finally joined them. He snagged a chair and dragged it to the end of the table, sitting near Jeff. “He may have thought that she wasn’t going to change. Sometimes the blood transfer doesn’t work. The person never transforms, or only partially transforms.”
“Which is where ghouls come from, right?” Benchley asked.
“Ghouls are gross,” Alexia grumbled.
“Yes, that’s where ghouls come from.” Cian leaned forward to look at the book Jeff was flipping through. “Ghouls are the bastard children of vampires.”
“What’s this ghoul thing?” Amaliya asked, arching her eyebrows.
Benchley raised his hand as though he were in school, realized what he was doing, then awkwardly put it down. “Uh, they’re really nasty looking. Kinda like zombies meet the Gollum. They eat dead bodies.”
“And sometimes live bodies,” Alexia interjected.
“We saw one once. In a graveyard in Fredericksburg,” Benchley continued. “Really nasty.”
“They have a taste for vampire blood. I had to fight a pack once. They nearly took me down.” Cian frowned and stopped Jeff from flipping pages.
Jeff looked at him curiously, but Cian had bent his head to read something.
“So, maybe he thought she was a ghoul?” Benchley looked dubious. “So he leaves her behind and goes after Amaliya because he thinks she’s the experiment that worked?”
Samantha eyeballed Amaliya thoughtfully.
Amaliya returned the look with her eyebrows raised. “What?”
“Maybe he’s been trying to do this kinda thing for a long time but it didn’t work until you because of your grandmother,” Samantha said breathlessly.
“Huh?” Amaliya glanced toward Jeff curiously. “Is she making sense?”
“I think she might be,” Alexia said, sounding impressed. “Isn’t she, Jeff?”
Samantha looked pleased with herself.
Jeff suddenly felt a lot more alert. Cian was studying a news article on Bianca Leduc that Jeff had added to the back of the book when her body had been discovered during the Satanic Murders coverage. Jeff scooted his chair closer to Cian and craned his head to read the article.
“Well? Is she onto something?” Benchley asked, sounding cross.
“They’re looking at something. Calm down.” Eduardo slid to his feet and prowled around the table to the coffee and muffins set up nearby.
“I’m right, aren’t I?” Samantha excitedly jumped to her feet and scurried around the table. She nearly crawled onto Jeff’s lap trying to see what they were looking at.
Jeff gave up and slid over on his seat, giving her a corner to perch on.
“I’m so right!” Samantha stabbed at the article excitedly.
Cian’s gaze met Jeff’s. “This is disconcerting to say the least.”
“Disconcerting is his favorite word tonight,” Amaliya informed Samantha.
“Spill it! Suspense! Killing us!” Benchley cried out.
“Two words: Josephine Leduc.” Jeff glanced up at the two primary ghost hunters.
“Oh, wow!” Alexia exclaimed. “That chick was hardcore! A freakin' legend!”
“Wasn't she the one who solved actual murders? They could never prove her to be a fake. We’ve got a whole book on her!” Benchley loudly scooted his chair back and rushed into Jeff's office.
Amaliya glanced over at Eduardo. “You have any idea what the geek squad is talking about?”
“Nah.” Eduardo slid into the chair that Samantha had abandoned next to Amaliya and smirked. “They all talk in riddles. I’m just the muscle.”
Poking one of his impressive arms with her finger, Amaliya said, “I can see that!”
Eduardo flexed for her benefit while Cian loudly cleared his throat.
“Bianca Leduc has a similar bloodline to you, Liya,” he said. “Which means that The Summoner may have been experimenting on both of you.”
“Still in the dark here.” Amaliya shrugged.
“Bianca Leduc is the granddaughter of a very famous medium from the Shreveport area,” Jeff explained. Rubbing his chin, he looked at Samantha and Cian. “This is what we missed all those months ago. The connection between Amaliya and Bianca.”
“We didn’t know Bianca was important until now. She was just another body, another victim,” Cian pointed out.
Samantha slid onto Jeff’s lap to better read the article. He happily wrapped an arm around her waist, enjoying the feel of her so close to him. Her hair smelled of shampoo and her skin of flowers. He must have been obviously staring at her because she blushed as she stole a look at him. He returned it with a shy smile.
“Okay, found the file!” Benchley dropped a leather book onto the table. Alexia immediately bent over it with him.
Cian sat in the chair next to Amaliya, giving Eduardo a warning look.
Eduardo just smirked.
Amaliya settled her legs onto Cian’s lap and grinned at him teasingly. “So someone explain this to me. What the hell are you talking about?”
“If both of you are descended from mediums, he may have been trying to see if your power would connect with his.” Cian gently swept Amaliya’s hair back from her face. “He made you with a purpose in mind.”
“Well, I don’t know if that makes me feel better or not. Knowing there was a purpose to what he did to me kinda freaks me out.”
Samantha slid into the chair Cian had vacated and Jeff instantly missed her in his arms. She leaned her elbows on the table and stared at the article. “So I’m right, right?”
“It does make sense. His necromantic power has to do with the dead. If the affinity to see and talk to the dead is in your bloodlines, then he could have been hoping that you would inherit his power. So Samantha is probably right.”
“Ha! Score! See, I can figure this shit out!” She smiled triumphantly at those gathered around the table.
“Color me impressed,” Alexia muttered.
Benchley leaned over the table to high-five Samantha. “Way to go, Sam!”
Jeff returned Samantha’s smile when she glanced at him. She looked a lot more peaceful than she had earlier in the evening. He hadn’t been too happy to hear she had gone to confront Amaliya, but it seemed to be just what she needed to do to get a grip on the situation.
“Josephine Leduc’s daughter would have been a primo target for him,” Alexia decided. “He got lucky finding two descendants of famous mediums in the same place.”
“It would have been irresistible to him,” Cian noted.
“But Grandmama isn’t famous,” Amaliya protested. “She kept all that on the lowdown on purpose.”
“Not true,” Alexia said, looking up. “After your grandmother killed The Summoner, I did a little digging. She was in the newspapers when she was a teenager. There was a devastating tornado in her town and she helped find the survivors buried in the rubble. When they asked her how she knew where the living were located, she said the dead told her. She was thirteen at the time, so she probably didn’t realize the reporter would actually put that into his article.”
“Are you serious?” Amaliya sat back in shock. “She did that?”
“Yeah. There was just one more follow up article where there was a backlash from the local churches against her. Her dad, your great-grandfather, said that the reporter hadn’t told her who he was and that she had misspoken,” Alexia explained. “I told Jeff all about it.”
“Oh, really?” Amaliya tilted her head toward the end of the table. “Really, Jeff?”
Jeff could feel Amaliya’s eyes boring into him. “Hey, it was just two articles. I didn’t think it was important enough to bring it up to you. I mean you know what she is, right?”
Amaliya shook her head, annoyed. “So sick of people not telling me shit.”
“It wasn’t on purpose,” Jeff said defensively.
“So he could have found out about Amaliya’s grandmother pretty easily?” Samantha asked, obviously trying to move the conversation on.