Secretly Sam by Heather Killough-Walden Page A

recognized him as Nathan McCay. His dirty-blonde hair seemed even longer than it had always been, which as far as Dietrich was concerned, had always been far too long. And, like his compatriot, he too had been transformed.
    Two vampires, both of them Dominic Maldovan’s closest friends. What could this mean?
    His mind worked a thousand miles an hour, his head spinning through the multitude of possible implications. If Dominic’s friends were vampires… was Dominic as well? Had he been compromised? And if they were vampires, then that meant that Sam Hain had managed to absorb power from somewhere after all. From Logan? From those words she had scribbled?
    He didn’t know, and it didn’t matter. Sam was becoming himself again, and that meant that he would be going after Logan… most likely as something she had created with her own pen.
    Thank the gods for the spell , Dietrich thought. The spell he and Meagan had cast at the last minute would at least protect Logan from Sam. And if Logan were still alive, then there was still hope of defeating the Lord of the Dead and perhaps, as Katelyn suggested, of saving everyone else.
    Beside him, Meagan’s body felt as if it were surrounded with static electricity. It brushed up against him like Velcro, dragging at his skin and raising the hairs on his arms. He glanced down at her. Her magic was begging to be used. She always had been one of his most promising studies, and the elders of their grove had all been right. She was by far the most powerful among them. She was different , as was Logan. It made sense that the two were friends.
    “You should have killed them by now,” McCay reprimanded, clearly speaking to Shawn, who yet stood by the ravine behind them. The two vampires had caged them in, one on either side.
    “We’re not killing Stone,” Briggs replied, his voice deep and clearly audible despite the roar of the ravine. “She’s mine.”
    McCay’s gaze slid from Dietrich to Meagan. His red eyes considered her. “Little witch with the purple eyes, huh?” McCay said softly, as if speaking to himself. “This the one you wrote that song about?” he asked, obviously still speaking to Briggs.
    “The very same.”
    “Fine,” McCay consented. “We turn her and we kill Lehrer.”

 
    Chapter Eighteen
    Logan’s dashboard turned red. She looked down.
    “Shit,” she swore, realizing that for what was probably the first time in her entire life, she’d forgotten to fill up with gas when she needed to.
    But she shook her head. “It doesn’t matter,” she told herself. She was meeting Katelyn here anyway. She turned the wheel toward the opening of an empty Mason’s lodge parking lot. The lot was half-way between Logan’s house and the train tracks south of town. Once Katelyn arrived, they could just take Katelyn’s car the rest of the way and leave Logan’s here.
    Logan squinted as she pulled into the parking lot. The rain obscured the landscape, but a flash of lightning illuminated the muddy gravel and revealed the single vehicle parked at the far end. A deep red Volkswagen Beetle gleamed under Logan’s headlights. Katelyn had beat her to it.
    She pulled up and parked beside it.
    Katelyn opened her car door and got out, shielding her face and hair as best as she could from the deluge.
    Logan leaned over, unlocked the passenger side door, and sat back as Katelyn hurriedly got in.
    “We should take your car instead,” Logan told her right away. Katelyn turned to look at her, a little breathless. “I’m out of gas” Logan explained, “and your car isn’t a piece of crap.”
    Katelyn blinked. Then she nodded. Logan noticed a darkness under her friend’s hazel eyes as Katelyn turned to look out through the windshield. The rain had completely obliterated the landscape, and all either of them could see was mottled darkness and the occasional flash of purple-blue light.
    They fell into a mutual silence, both girls stunned by recent events, both of them needing a