Demon in My View

only a second before she caught Jessica's wrist and tossed her into another tree. Jessica's hands and arms hit the tree first, absorbing some of the blow, but then she felt her head and bad shoulder strike the unyielding wood, and black spots danced in front of her eyes. She suspected this was her second concussion in as many days.

'Damn you, human!' Fala spat. 'You aren't going to wake up. Your death will be your death. Do you understand? You are prey, and always will be. Mortal… weak … prey.'

Jessica stood painfully, trying to clear her vision. She had far too much pride to face Fala like the feeble prey-beast the vampire saw her as.

'I know your talents at inflicting pain, Fala,' she grumbled. 'But even with them, you will never make me your prey.'

CHAPTER 28

RAGE FLICKERED across Fala's face for a few seconds, until a lazy, dangerous smile grew to replace it.

Wise up, child, came Fala's voice, suddenly smooth and eerily civil. Jessica felt a moment of panic as she heard the voice in her mind— as she felt the words overlaying her own thoughts. Then the fear faded, and there was only the sound of the cool, unarguable voice.

I've read your writing, Fala continued calmly, and Jessica had no choice but to listen. You know the difference between predator and prey. You were born human, and you will die human—prey and nothing more.

As Fala stepped forward, Jessica moved to meet her. Fala pulled Jessica's hair back yet again to bare her throat, and Jessica relaxed, allowing the vampire to do so. Fala was simply a higher race, and there was no arguing with the fact. By nature she was a predator.

And Jessica was just her prey….

Prey?

That last thought didn't sit well. Instead, it brought crashing down the house of cards Fala had so easily erected in Jessica's mind.

Jessica shoved the vampire away with both arms, ignoring the screaming pain in her right shoulder as she did so.

'Get the hell out of my mind.' She spat the words, a hoarse command, and Fala's expression went still, frozen in anger and disbelief. Jessica had slipped her mind control twice now.

'It seems to me that you were human once, Fala,' Jessica continued, ignoring the blood that trickled from several of her wounds, and the black spots that bounced along the edge of her vision. 'But I suppose you don't need to be reminded of your experiences as prey.'

Fala's hand whipped forward and clamped over Jessica's throat, pressing her into a tree and cutting off her oxygen. 'Watch your words, human. Unless you want me to squeeze your vertebrae straight through your windpipe.'

Jessica couldn't answer as she struggled to breathe. Fala let go, throwing her to the ground hard enough to send splinters of pain through the arm she caught herself with.

'You picked the wrong person to fight, Jessica,' Fala told her, pacing near her head. 'Because I like pain— your pain—and I really like causing it.'

'That's called sadism, and I think it's some kind of psychological disorder,' Jessica grumbled, rolling onto her front so that she could use her left arm to push herself up.

Fala kicked her in the back of the head while she was still on her knees. 'So are suicidal tendencies,' she countered.

Black and red spots fought for domination in Jessica's mind as she felt herself being yanked to her feet by one of her injured arms. The world suddenly lost all focus, and she was dropped back to the ground.

'Pitiful,' she heard Fala grunt.

Slowly, excruciatingly, Jessica forced herself to her feet as Fala walked away to lounge on the riverbank. Leaning against a tree for support, Jessica touched the back of her head and found it sticky with her own blood.

As soon as she felt capable of walking, Jessica scanned the clearing for the knife that Fala had thrown earlier. She spotted it partially embedded in a tree trunk nearby and staggered to it. She bit her lip to hold back a yelp of pain as she wrapped her hands around the knife's hilt and yanked it from the wood. Both her arms screamed at the effort.

She recognized the blade as Aubrey's and was surprised that Fala had managed to steal it from him. Though simple, it wasn't a knife one would mistake; the word Fenris was inscribed in the handle. Jessica knew the damage it could do to vampiric flesh, with all the poisonous magic burned deep into the silver of the blade by the vampire-slayer witch who had forged it. The knife felt almost alive in her hand, and she could feel its magic slither up her arm. Some of the pain dulled.

Never having handled a knife before as a weapon, she had no hope of fatally wounding Fala, but maybe she could hurt her enough that she would go away.

Jessica planted the knife loosely in the tree, a plan slowly forming in her mind.

'So, I see you're walking again,' Fala sighed, appearing in front of her only seconds after Jessica had stepped away from the tree. 'I must not have hit you hard enough.'

Jessica backed up toward the knife, protecting her right arm. The wounded-bird routine was old but effective. Fala wouldn't consider the knife a threat because it would be impossible for Jessica to remove it one- handed, behind her back.

Fala stepped forward again, and Jessica felt behind her with her left arm as she backed up. Her hand was on the knife, but before she could do anything with it, Fala grabbed her again and dragged her forward.

Jessica's vision spun at the sudden movement, and the next instant she felt the sting as Fala's teeth pierced her throat once more.

This time, Fala made no effort to make it easy on her. The pain began instantly, not dulled by mind control or any hint of tenderness.

Though she had written about it many times, Jessica was not prepared. The pain in her head and her arms was nothing compared to the burning, suffocating sensation that now replaced those earlier annoyances. Despite her efforts not to, she heard her own voice shout out, a useless cry.

A wave of blackness spread across her vision, but she managed to fend it off as she yanked an arm free from Fala's grip.

Fala shifted a bit, and Jessica felt as if her skin had just been flayed from her body; she moaned in agony as her knees gave out under her, but somehow, just barely, she was able to grope for the knife.

She pulled the knife forward in an arc, and though she had no strength and no sight with which to aim, the blade glanced off Fala's side, slicing open the vampire's arm.

To a human, the wound would surely have been fatal. If Fala had been weaker, she too might have died. As it was, Jessica was certain it hurt like Hell.

Fala shrieked in rage and pain and hit Jessica, hard, on the left side of her chest. Jessica heard something snap and was knocked backward into the tree, hitting the wound on her head again.

Fala disappeared, cradling her arm against her chest. That was all Jessica saw before she sank into unconsciousness.

CHAPTER 29

Fala could shield her mind too well for Aubrey to locate her, and neither Jager nor Moira would help him.

Only twenty minutes had passed since the tussle with Dominique, but he well knew the damage Fala could have done even that quickly. He had spent the time looking for Fala and berating himself for leaving Jessica alone,