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"Maybe he made her because she looks a little like hireed

Rachon swept the whitish hair away from the lovely face "Ghostly"

Bianca turned her blue eyes toward Rachon For a ht she saw a sliver of clarity in their depths, then it was gone in the blankness of her stare Slicing open her wrist with one long fingernail, Rachon watched the girl’s face It did not alter as the girl gripped her arm and fed

"You should have killed her, you know," Prosper sighed, shaking his head "She’s brain dead"

Tenderly stroking the girl’s hair, Rachon just shtly "No, no, she’s much more than that She’s his power incarnate She’s now an extension of runt, Prosper wandered back down the hall to the living rooirl’s head, Rachon whispered, "We will do great things together, won’t we, host?"

Part Two

Saturday

Chapter 6

The sun was barely a sliver of gold over the tops of the trees and it was gearing up to be an exhaustingly warm day Despite the early hour, the huainst her skin

Sa to the path that wound around Lady Bird Lake (formerly known as Lake Travis) in the shadow of don Austin The new high rise buildings were close to coet used to the radically changed skyline Austin was growing in leaps and bounds, ust of her fae toith a quirky personality Noas a burgeoning metropolis with an identity crisis Keep Austin Weird bumper stickers and t-shirts had been common for years, but Samantha had seen far too many Make Austin Normal memorabilia of late In just a short period of tiain, so had her life

Her blond ponytail swung back and forth behind her head as she jogged She actually liked its rhythm It was like a pendulu and pace Dressed in the burnt orange and white colors of the University of Texas, Sareen eyes glanced toward the tall apart where her forirlfriend were sleeping through the daylight hours The sting of his betrayal still renore it

She was kind-of-sort-of dating Jeff Summerfield, the owner of the local occult bookstore and part-ti very well and her family adored him Jeff and Sareat ti more intie they had called off the wedding, that she was fine, and that Cian and her just weren’t suited for each other, she had cried like a baby when she had dropped her wedding gown off at Goodwill The worst thing is that everyone believed her They all believed she really was okay

Except for Jeff

So on yet It almost made her mad hoeet Jeff was to her He was so perfectly understanding it was annoying She didn’t want to admit that she was still heartbroken over Cian She wanted to be stronger than that, but maybe she wasn’t It was hard to accept that a piece of her still hurt whenever she heard his voice or saw his face

An earlywaves of the dark waters of the lake and clung to the trunks of the juniper trees The birds called out froround, evading the early ers The wide pathas sparsely populated thisup srit She frowned after the in the early s aching, side stitching, lungs straining, Sa back into running and it was not welcoet up every et out the door, but she was deterer, healthier version of herself She had even enrolled in self-defense classes Jeff joked she wanted to be Buffy He was sort of right

Though she had known Cian was a vaerous he truly was When she had first uy with beautiful eyes She had never truly understood that there was so much ht one too many times, but she had secretly adored the idea that a vampire was in love with her It had been like some sort of modern day fairytale until she realized he really was a monster and she had never truly known hiht be other vampires out in the world until Aht lurk in the night Maybe she couldn’t fight the ht her, she would do her best toe The early weekendShe was tempted to buy a new iPod to replace the one she had broken a week before The sounds of nature in the early , but sheto keep an even pace was growingonto the footbridge that sprawled under the very busy Mopac Expressway, Sa beneath the ru She slightly slowed her pace, trying to catch her breath

"Help me," a feloom

"Hello?" Samantha answered