Demon in My View

For the moment, Aubrey appeared to be exactly what he was: stunning, mischievous, and completely deadly all at once. She could feel the aura of power that hung about him, a tangible sensation like a cool pocket in the still night air. Here, outside the confines of the sunlit world, Aubrey was every inch the dark, seductive vampire of popular myth.

'Leaving so soon?' he asked, glancing for a moment back at New Mayhem.

Jessica's thoughts turned to Fala. 'I might have stayed longer, but the threats were a bit discouraging.' Her tone was light, despite the truth in her words. She had always preferred sarcasm and jokes to fear and pleading.

'Many are calling for your blood,' Aubrey answered seriously, 'but there are actually very few of my kind who would dare to kill you.'

She could not read the emotion in his face as he spoke those words, but there was something there, just beneath the surface — a meaning she was missing. However, she knew the danger of holding a vampire's gaze, so she didn't try to read the truth in his eyes as she otherwise might have done.

Instead she stepped forward, on the offensive. She was tired of this guessing. 'I suppose you're one of the few,' she said, but somehow the words didn't ring true.

Aubrey's voice when he answered was soft. 'I'm one of the reasons they wouldn't dare.'

'And why is that?' she pressed, moving still closer.

He didn't respond, but instead watched her, the look in his eyes disconcertingly intense.

'I don't like being toyed with, Aubrey,' Jessica announced,   forcing  her thoughts back into focus. 'If you or anyone else is planning to kill me, then get on with it. I have better things to do than wait for you to act.'

Aubrey looked vaguely amused, but at the same time she could tell he was becoming defensive. She knew he wasn't used to hearing any human speak to him boldly. Still, he raised an eyebrow, inviting her to continue.

She answered by slapping him, hard enough that his head snapped to the side and her palm stung.

The act had not been planned. Impatience and anger and confusion had been rising in her system for too long and had simply reached their zenith.

She had wanted him to take her seriously, and now he would. The expression on his face had changed to pure shock. Jessica knew that he would kill most humans for less, but right now she was too stirred up to feel afraid.

CHAPTER 19

AUBREY'S AGITATION rivaled Jessica's. He had never been more surprised by a human than he was at this moment. Despite the fact that she had just committed a shockingly reckless act, the expression on her face was utterly fearless.

She stepped forward again, aggressive. Her ebony hair tumbled down past her shoulders like a waterfall of midnight.

'Well? What does your kind want with me?' she demanded. 'Why am I not dead already?'

'That seems to be a point of dispute,' he answered, trying to keep his voice nonchalant.

'You're the only one here. What's stopping you?' she challenged, meeting his gaze without the slightest hesitation.

She stood in front of him, arms across her chest, head held high as if she was looking down at him, black hair shaken back from her face, green eyes strong and defiant. Her entire stance screamed 'predator.'

A predatory mind-set was something one was or was not born with. Even some vampires still acted like prey. Jessica acted as if she was afraid of nothing.

'Well?' she said, stepping forward again. She was intentionally invading his space, forcing him to react.

'What do you want from me?' Aubrey asked finally. Her mind was a blank to him at the moment. Despite all the years he had spent learning to manipulate every situation, he had no idea what she wanted him to do.

'I know as much about your kind as you do,' Jessica said. 'Probably more. I've written it all down and allowed other humans to read it. I've even told them about the only fight you've ever really lost in your life. And I'm not going to stop writing, no matter how many times your kind threatens me with death. I'm not afraid of the inevitable.' She took one more step forward so that she was all but spitting her words in his face. 'What do you want to do about it?'

Jessica looked into his eyes fearlessly. She stood so close that he could feel her breath, but he held his ground, his arms motionless at his sides. They were locked into a challenge that was like a confrontation between two wild cats, each refusing to be the first to look away.

Aubrey was struck by the color of her eyes: a perfect green he had never before seen in any human — somehow impossibly deep. For a moment he experienced the disorientation that he knew his own gaze had so often caused.

His shock was now complete. Jessica had looked into his eyes brazenly, and he had been the one caught.

He blinked once, trying to clear his mind, and his thoughts returned to her question.

Over the past few days, he had occasionally wanted to throttle her for her unrealized knowledge and stubborn innocence, and he had once or twice entertained the idea of simply sinking his teeth into that fair and   tender throat,  which  the  outfit  she wore tonight displayed so well. Most often, though, he had had the urge to do exactly what he wanted to do right now.

'What do I want to do about it?' he mused aloud.

Jessica gasped as he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her forward to close the few remaining inches between them. Before she could react, he caught her lips with his own. The kiss was strong but over quickly, and then he willed himself away.

CHAPTER 20

JESSICA STOOD STUNNED for a few minutes after Aubrey had disappeared; then she flopped back against a tree and tried to make sense of the world.

She had thought she was facing death tonight. She had resolved to face it unflinchingly. Instead…

The scene replayed in her mind, frame by frame. The stillness while she had waited for Aubrey to answer her challenge. The vision of him standing there like a creature formed from the very breath of night.

Finally there had been the brief sensation of his lips on hers, over before she could respond, but potent enough to make every thought in her mind lose its cohesiveness.

If he had simply killed her, she would have understood. But this…this she could not explain.

The night air did nothing to cool her thoughts as she headed home, finally slipping into the house at nearly one in the morning.

Sleep eluded her, so she paced in her room for nearly an hour before turning on the computer with the hope of losing herself in her writing. Sometime shortly before sunrise, exhaustion finally claimed her restless mind. She dreamed.

For a few moments, Jazlyn didn't know what had happened or who she was. She had vague memories of meeting a witch who called herself Monica Smoke, a witch who offered to give her back her hard-lost humanity.

But why had the witch made this offer? Why had Jazlyn accepted? Everything was so faint in her mind. Monica had been afraid to even speak to Jazlyn. Why had she given back the life that Jazlyn had willingly tossed away?

Jazlyn's mind drifted back to the night she had died.

She had known for years the black-haired, green-eyed creature who called himself Siete, and