“How many people have you murdered like this?” Caryn demanded, her voice wavering.
“I don’t think you really want to know,” Aubrey answered coolly.
“Don’t you have any conscience at all?”
“Not that I know of,” he said with nonchalance. “Now, much as I love your company, I really do prefer to dine alone.”
He was enjoying this, Caryn realized. He could easily have avoided the argument by disappearing and finding prey elsewhere, but instead he was playing with her.
“You’ll kill her,” Caryn protested.
“So?” Aubrey responded, sounding amused, as he took a step toward her. Caryn flinched but did not move away from Shannon. If he was determined to kill tonight, she had no hope of preventing it, but her conscience would not allow her to leave. “Are you planning to stop me?” he mocked. “If you were one of your cousins, I might at least pretend to be worried … though probably not. As it is, I know you’d never fight me even if you had the strength.”
He was speaking the truth. No one in her line had harmed another creature since Evelyn Smoke, the first of the Smoke line, had stopped hunting vampires.
“Please, Aubrey,” Caryn entreated, beginning to despair.
“Caryn, go away. You’re beginning to bore me.”
“Let her go,” Caryn persisted, though her tone was hardly commanding. She was sickened by his game, and worse, she worried what would happen when he reached the end of his patience.
“That would accomplish very little,” Aubrey pointed out. “I would just have to draw someone else from the house. Would you like to say that this girl’s life is more important than, oh, her boyfriend’s? Or —”
“You’re having a great time, aren’t you?” Caryn finally shouted, standing and stalking toward him as her anger gave her courage.
Waiting for her to continue, Aubrey lounged casually against an oak tree. Had she been from any other line — Vida, or Arun, or even Light — she would have killed him then. But the last of the Light line had died nearly three hundred years earlier, and the Vidas and Aruns had other vampires to deal with that night. So Caryn Smoke did the only thing that her training would allow her to do in this situation.
She took a deep, calming breath and stretched out her left arm with the palm up, exposing the pale tracery of veins at her wrist.
“Here,” she said softly, her fear almost hidden. “My blood is stronger than human blood.” Her voice quaked for a moment, but she forced herself to continue. “You wouldn’t need to kill me.”
Aubrey’s gaze flickered to the pulse point on her wrist, but that was the only sign that he cared for the offer at all. “And what is to stop me from draining you dry?”
“Your word that you won’t.”
She saw the amusement in his gaze. Had the situation been reversed, she would have understood the humor. Taking his word for her safety was like a vampire’s accepting the word of any other witch. Most witches lied and broke promises almost by habit when it came to Aubrey’s kind. Vampires weren’t considered people, so even the proud Vida line had no hesitation about deceiving them. In general, only the Smoke line considered honesty important when dealing with Aubrey’s kind.
A vampire’s word was said to be broken as easily as a wineglass, and Caryn had no doubt that Aubrey’s was just as fragile. In reality, the only thing that might keep her alive was Aubrey’s awareness that killing a Smoke witch brought down instant retaliation from all the vampire hunters in the other lines.
Caryn’s heartbeat quickened with fright, but she used all the discipline she’d been taught to keep her resolution from wavering.
Aubrey took the wrist she offered and used it to draw her toward him. He put a hand on her forehead and gently tilted her head back. Her heart rate tripled in an instant, but she balled her hands into fists to keep from trying to pull away.
Don’t worry, she heard him say in her mind. It won’t hurt.
She felt a sharp stinging when his teeth pierced her skin, but it faded almost immediately The combined anesthesia of vampiric saliva and his whispering voice in her head dulled the pain completely. Caryn’s legs gave out under the pressure of Aubrey’s mind, and she felt him put an arm around her back to hold her up.
You taste good, he said absently.
I don’t know whether to take that as a compliment or a threat, she mused. Her fear had disappeared, and her thoughts were becoming incoherent as she lost blood and his mind tightened its grip on her own.
Caryn tried to focus. She had been taught so much discipline … why couldn’t she think?
She had been prepared for pain, but there was none. She felt extremely relaxed, as if she was floating … She was dreaming … wasn’t she? Did it matter?
She imagined herself resting on a beach in the warm sun, or maybe meditating atop a mountain beneath the full moon. She was relaxed, peaceful, calm, happy to forget …
Forget what?
Caryn tried to focus, but it was nearly impossible. Aubrey’s mind pulled at hers, numbing and soothing it. With intense effort, she drew herself out of her trance. There was far too much danger to forget what was happening.
His mind still held hers, and it was increasingly difficult not to let herself fall back into the seductive void. But if she gave in, would she ever surface again? He would probably kill her.
Would you rather it hurt?
Caryn had the vague idea that Aubrey was taunting her, but she could do nothing about it.
Eventually, after what seemed to be hours, Aubrey reluctantly pulled away. Caryn collapsed, suddenly aware again of her own body.
She was dizzy and weak, and her pulse was hurried as her heart attempted to circulate her thinned blood. Through foggy vision, she saw Aubrey hesitate, as if debating whether he really wanted to let her go.
Then he disappeared.
She put her head down for a moment, trying to clear her mind, then carefully crossed the clearing to make sure Shannon was all right. Hopefully, when the girl woke she would just assume she had drunk too much. She would never know how close she’d come to dying.
With this thought, Caryn put a hand over her own heart, feeling the rapid beating. Unlike Shannon, she was completely aware of how close Death had brushed by her tonight.
CHAPTER 13
JESSICA HAD BEEN WRITING all evening, but by the time midnight came the inspiration had died. She was restless and knew she wouldn’t be able to fall asleep anytime soon. The best way she could think to burn some energy was to go for a walk.
The round moon lit her path through Red Rock Forest, and she soon found herself at her favorite spot: a large oak tree about a quarter of a mile in. She pulled herself onto one of its large branches and relaxed. Something about the night always calmed her.
Finally, under a broad canopy of leaves, she drifted into sleep.
Jazlyn’s heart labored hard, unused to its task. Her lungs burned with the constant effort of breathing. But finally she fell into blissful unconsciousness.
Instead of the death-sleep that she had grown accustomed to, she dreamed of the world she was now trying to escape. She dreamed that she was running through a city street at midnight, chasing her frightened prey. She dreamed that she was flying far above the nighttime desert in the form of an eagle. She dreamed that she was walking in a graveyard, toward the grave of her once-husband.
Jazlyn woke gasping for breath. It took her several moments to realize where she was, which was something that hadn’t happened to her in a long time. Her very survival had frequently depended on her ability to wake instantly.
During those confused moments, a vague memory flashed in her mind of meeting a witch who called herself Monica, a witch who had offered to give her back her hard-lost humanity.
But why had the witch —
“Do you usually sleep outside in trees?”
Startled awake, Jessica sat up too quickly and almost fell from her perch. Alex was the one who had spoken. He was sitting, compl
etely at home, on another branch.
“Couldn’t you rustle some leaves next time?” she grumped, though she felt herself beginning to smile at her odd but welcome visitor. “I nearly fell out of the tree. How’d you get up here without my hearing you?”
“I flew.”
Jessica just shook her head.
“Well, if you don’t like it, I’ll get down.” Alex jumped from the branch and landed gracefully, like a cat. Jessica followed more slowly, having no desire to break an ankle by showing off. They walked aimlessly through the darkened woods as they spoke.
“Don’t you live somewhere? Or do you just follow me around all day?” Before, she had asked him a similar question as a joke, but this time she truly wanted an answer. It seemed a bit too much of a coincidence that he was out here tonight.
“I live nowhere,” Alex answered, his voice serious despite the hint of teasing she could see in his eyes, “and it isn’t day.”
Jessica shook her head again as she realized there was no way to get a straight answer from him.
As she contemplated this fact, she noticed a design on his right wrist, which was only visible because his sleeve had slipped up when he had leapt from the tree.
“What’s that?” she asked, pointing to the tattoo.
Alex rolled up his sleeve to reveal the entire design: a black wolf with golden eyes and white fangs stalked across his wrist. Jessica knew this beast; it was Fenris, the giant wolf who swallowed the sun in Norse mythology. Aubrey had the same design on his right wrist.
She took a deep breath to keep herself from speaking until her thoughts were under control.
This could not possibly be a coincidence.
Over the past day, she had struggled to come up with an explanation — besides the impossible one that Alex was Aubrey — that would account for all the similarities between the two of them. Now a stunningly obvious scenario at last occurred to her: Alex was a fan of Ash Night. Aubrey was described down to the last detail in Tiger, Tiger. What would stop someone, if he was so inclined, from getting black contact lenses, a matching pendant, and replicas of Aubrey’s tattoos?
But before Jessica could comment on Alex’s tattoo, he asked her, “What are you doing out here so late at night?”
“I couldn’t sleep,” she answered, still unnerved. “You?”
“Maybe I am stalking you,” he teased.
“Well, then I’m flattered,” she joked back, though the light words masked more serious thoughts. If her theory about his fascination with Aubrey the vampire proved true, how far might he take this role-playing game of his?
She began walking in the general direction of her house, and he walked with her. Their conversation fell into silence.
“You’re quiet suddenly,” Jessica observed. They were within sight of her house, and she had stopped walking to look at him. “What are you thinking about?”
Alex sighed. “Nothing you would care to know.”
“Why don’t you tell me, and let me be the judge of that?” she pressed.
“Blood and death and people who know too much,” he answered, his voice more tired than threatening. “Go inside, Ash Night. I’ll speak to you another time.”
He walked away silently not giving Jessica a chance to respond. By the time her mind had processed his words, he was out of sight.
Her anger rose again for an instant, in reaction to the fact that yet another person had somehow discovered who Ash Night was.
However, the anger was quashed by a prospect that was intriguing, yet frightening. If he was Aubrey, and vampires did exist, and he and his kind knew who she was … her life could end up being a great deal shorter than she had intended.
CHAPTER 14
“HOW CUTE,” Fala spat, approaching Aubrey as he entered Las Noches. “How disgustingly cute.”
“Excuse me?”
Fala laughed, a biting sound that told anyone within hearing to beware. “Do you honestly think I haven’t been keeping my eye on the author, after all the trouble she’s been causing? And you’ve been out there practically flirting with her!”
For a moment Aubrey hesitated, fighting an urge to check on Jessica and make sure Fala hadn’t harmed her after he had left.
“Leave Jessica alone,” he commanded, his voice hard. It wasn’t wise to show any attachment to a human, but he refused to let Fala harm the girl.
“What is it about this human?” Fala sneered. “Aubrey the almighty the hunter, the warrior, who feels nothing but contempt for anything mortal … If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were attracted to her.”
He laughed in answer to her taunt, which she had obviously hoped would bother him more. “You’ve made up my reason, Fala. What’s your interest in her? Fala, the child who has been abused and hunted by almost every immortal creature on Earth, the coward who wants power without risk, the fake goddess …” He paused and watched the rage flicker through her eyes in response to his references to her humiliating past — the past Ash Night knew all too well. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were jealous.”
Aubrey knew this last accusation was ridiculous. Fala hated him far too much to be jealous of his attraction to anyone, much less a human. But the expression on her face as he said those last words was priceless.
“You vain, arrogant, human-loving idiot,” Fala snarled. Then she disappeared before he had a chance to retaliate.
Aubrey ignored her words and chuckled as he wandered over to the bar. He wasn’t worried about Jessica for the moment. Had Fala actually killed her, she would have made it clear that she had done so. She would have insisted on sharing every bloody detail with him.
CHAPTER 15
CARYN RASHIDA WAITED inside the front door as Anne Allodola went to wake her daughter. Caryn ran over possible scenarios in her mind for the hundredth time.
“She’ll be down in just a moment,” Ms. Allodola said as she returned.
Caryn nodded nervously. She had made up her mind, and this time she would not let Jessica’s frosty putdowns turn her away. Of course, waking her up might not have been a good idea, but how was she to know that Jessica would still be sleeping? It was almost noon.
When Jessica finally came downstairs, Caryn could instantly tell that she was in for a challenge. Jessica’s aura hummed with annoyance and anger, as well as some confusion. As soon as she saw Caryn, the emotions found an outlet.
“What the hell do you want?” Jessica snapped.
Caryn flinched slightly “I need to talk to you, Jessica.”
“About what?”
“Alex.”
Jessica’s eyes narrowed as soon as Caryn said the name, and she stopped trying to herd Caryn out the door.
“What about Alex?” Jessica asked carefully. When Caryn looked toward the kitchen, where Anne was not-so-subtly eavesdropping, Jessica sighed. “Come upstairs. We can talk in my room.”
Caryn hesitated at the doorway to Jessica’s room, which was threateningly dark. There was no light besides the glow that came from a red Lava lamp on the shelf. Jessica removed the lamp’s bottle so that the light shone pure white, but that only served to illuminate the room’s gloomy monochrome.
“This is your room?” Caryn asked before she could think not to. She noticed one lonely hint of color: a violet pillow on the corner of the bed, half lost beneath the black comforter. She wondered how Jessica would react if she told her that violet was the color of humanity.
Caryn had a sudden, irrational desire to rescue the pillow from the blackness. That much she could do easily. Unlike Jessica, the pillow would not fight her.
“Say what you came to say, Caryn,” Jessica growled.
Caryn went over the million different scripts she had prepared to tell Jessica the truth, then discarded them all. She walked to the shelf and sifted through the rough manuscripts until she found Jessica’s copy of Dark Flame.
“I’ve heard about this,” she said. Most of the world — excluding the humans — had heard of Ash Night’s
Dark Flame.
Jessica frowned, and Caryn could tell she was trying to make sense of the comment. Before she could formulate an answer, Caryn continued.
“How did you … get the idea for that book? And Tiger, Tiger?” she asked.
Jessica laughed, appearing shocked by the ordinariness of the question. “You came here to ask me how I get my ideas?”
Caryn took a deep breath to steady herself. “Not entirely” Her next words came out in a rush. “I wanted to ask if you knew they were true.”
Jessica’s expression was suddenly drained of its amusement.
“Get out, Caryn,” she ordered coldly.
Caryn took a step back from Jessica’s sudden vehemence. Denial, she reasoned. Jessica knew the truth but refused to accept it. It made perfect sense that she would fight back against anyone who attempted to convince her of what she was desperately trying to ignore.
Caryn inhaled deeply when she realized that she’d been holding her breath for the past few seconds.
“What do you know about Alex?” Caryn pressed. Jessica was exceptionally strong. When forced to see the truth, she would be able to accept it. If only Caryn knew how to convince her!
“I said, get out of my room,” Jessica repeated.
“Will you think about what I said?” Beyond that simple request, Caryn was out of ideas. “Please?”
“If you’ll leave.” The answer was little more than a growl.
Caryn reached into her pocket and pulled out the letter she had written earlier, after several drafts. She held it out to Jessica, who snatched it from her hand.
“Happy now?” Jessica snapped.
Jessica’s rampaging emotions were starting to make Caryn dizzy, so she nodded meekly and hurried out of the room. As she paused in the hallway, wishing she could think of some way to reason with Jessica, she heard the lock turn in the door. A few moments later loud music began to spill into the hall.
CHAPTER 16
JESSICA SPRAWLED across her bed with mindless noise blaring in her ears and tried to reason things out.
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