A snort from the hallway gave away Benchley’s eavesdropping.
Samantha arched an eyebrow at Baptiste. He returned the gesture, then grinned.
“Ready to go ghost wrangling?” she asked.
“I thought you’d never ask,” Baptiste answered with a wink.
Jeff’s head hit the table with a clunk and he moaned. “Could this get any worse?”
“Bench, we need to talk.”
Jeff watched his friend shift his weight on the sofa as he paused the game he was playing on Jeff’s old Xbox console. Benchley set the controller on his lap, folded his arms over his hefty chest, and gazed at Jeff. “Okay, talk.”
Taking a seat opposite Benchley, Jeff rubbed his hands together nervously. He hated dealing with the interpersonal dynamics of the group and it was worse when he had to give a talk to his best friend. Maybe this was why Cian was the one to lead. Cian could be an asshole. “It’s about earlier.”
“Yeah. So? I already said I’ll go to Fenton. It will at least give me something to do,” Benchley said moodily.
“I meant about the situation with Cian being in charge.”
“Does it bother you that we’re trusting a bloodsucking vampire?” Benchley’s glower intensified. “I mean, I kinda like Cian, but he’s a vampire. So is Amaliya. I kinda like her, too. But they’re shifty as fuck.”
Jeff narrowed his gaze, studying Benchley thoughtfully, then had an inkling that something was up that his friend had yet to tell him about. “What’s going on?”
“Are you my leader or not?” Benchley demanded.
“Uh, is this a research scenario?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’m your leader.”
“Good!” Benchley hurled the controller aside and leaned forward. “Amaliya came to me a while back and asked me to research possession. She gave me notes about this freaky dream she had. She didn’t want me to tell Cian about it. Which is very shifty.”
“Okay, I’m lost.”
“It’s about Bianca. Amaliya thinks Bianca is still alive and trapped in her own body by The Summoner. Amaliya believes that Bianca is communicating with her and asking to be rescued.” Benchley widened his eyes. “And we all know what happened when Innocente tried to rescue Bianca.”
Jeff flopped back in the chair and stared at the ceiling. “Okay, so Amaliya came to you about possession, told you to keep it on the lowdown, and you’re in a bad mood because she told you not to tell Cian?”
“No, I’m in a bad mood because I discovered something.” Benchley covered his face with his hands. “She might be right.”
Jeff gawked at him. “Bianca’s alive?”
“Yeah, I think so. Our original assumption after the events in Fenton was that Bianca never rose as a vampire. That it didn’t take. Remember?”
“Yeah...”
“And that The Summoner used all those ghosts to infuse himself into her body. So basically he rose from her grave, not Bianca.”
“Yeah...” The whole conversation was starting to make Jeff’s head hurt.
“I’ve been searching through some really old cases. Most vampires rise from their graves within three days of their deaths. Three days is the established cut off. Bianca rose four days after.” Benchley pulled out his cellphone and opened an app that he used to take notes. “So...the assumption was that Bianca really, really died. Gone. Moved on. But I don’t think so anymore. There are a few rare cases of other supernatural beings becoming vampires.”
Now Jeff knew he was getting a migraine. Resting his hand on the top of his head, he stared at B
enchley in disbelief. “Are you shitting me?”
“No, dude. I’m totally serious here. Those supernatural beings took longer to rise. A vampire back in the day made vampires out of an elemagus, were, and true witch. They all took much longer to rise as vampires. And they were scary, because they retained their old powers plus gained their new vampire powers. The three went on a rampage and were put down finally by the Russian army back in the late 1700’s. An army, Jeff.” Benchley lifted his head, and gave Jeff his most worried look. “See what I’m getting at?”