Amaliya felt the link between them soar the second they touched. Samantha's power was ghostly and beautiful. It easily meshed with Amaliya's own power, wrapping around it. Amaliya could see it clearly in her mind.
“I see it!” Amaliya gasped.
“Me, too!” Samantha’s voice was awed.
The glittering darkness of Amaliya's power wove together with Samantha's sparkling ethereal mist. Interconnecting the two women, a beautiful tapestry of their magicks shimmered between them. It was then the purple miasma of the witch's black magic broke free.
“What’s that?” Samantha exclaimed.
“The spell…I got it!” Amaliya exclaimed. “I know what to do!”
Abandoning her struggle with Bianca for the zombies, Amaliya closed her eyes and concentrated on the spell. In her mind, she imagined it pushing it out of her body and spreading it out to cover the graveyard, the farmhouse, the hotel, the gas station and the edges of the town. A great dome of purplish-black power, shoving back her enemies. Repulsing them, driving them away.
Bianca's scream was one of fury.
Amaliya opened her eyes to see Etzli and Bianca caught in the wave of the spell. It snatched up both of them and hurled them to the ground. Instantly, Amaliya felt the zombies return to her control.
“Rest,”
Amaliya whispered.
The zombie horde instantly sank into the earth, leaving the graveyard strangely empty. Still gripping Samantha's hand, Amaliya stood. Cian floated above the graveyard, bloody, but alive. Rachon trembled on the ground, Etzli’s blood magic releasing her and allowing her to heal. Eduardo was covered in wounds. Collapsing, his body shifted into that of a man, allowing him to heal. Staring at the two women laying on the ground, Cassandra warily crouched down waiting to attack.
“What just happened?” she asked.
“Watch,” Amaliya told her, then fed the last of her power into the spell.
Simultaneously, both Etzli and Bianca were jerked to their feet and slid along the ground as though gripped by a great hand. Their faces were eerily blank of thought as they were swept away into the darkness of the night.
“What just happened?” Cassandra gasped.
Cian set down on the ground, glancing upwards at the shimmering spell, then at Amaliya. “How?”
“The spell that witch cast the night of the accident. I swallowed it into my power. Samantha helped me. . . uh. . . vomit it up… kinda,” Amaliya answered.
“Was that what that purplish stuff was?” Samantha asked.
“Yeah. I think it was caught inside of me, but now it's. . . free. ” Amaliya let go of Samantha's hand just before Cian swept her up in his arms. He kissed her mouth tenderly.
“You’re amazing,” he whispered against her lips.
Amaliya sighed with contentment.
“A spell?” Cassandra leaped off the mausoleum landed next to Rachon.
“A repulsion spell,” Rachon said to Cassandra. Healed now, she knelt beside the dead vampire. His body would soon be nothing more than dirt. “Instead of casting it on humans to keep them away, she cast it on The Summoner and Etzli. ”
“How long will it last?” Cassandra glanced around warily.
“Till sunup. That's how long they usually last,” Cian answered.
“Oh. That's good then. ” Cassandra sheathed her daggers and touched her bleeding head gingerly. “Who’s that?”
“My cousin, Prosper. They murdered him,” Rachon answered, her voice pained.
“Pete!” Amaliya gasped, realizing she had forgotten him. She yanked away from Cian and scrambled over the broken headstones to where she had seen him fall. When she found him, she was surprised to find Jeff at his side trying to staunch the blood flowing from his chest. He had pulled off his own shirt to try to stop the bleeding.
“Jeff?”