Amelia Atwater-Rhodes - Demon in My View

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.

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.

"Shell 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.

JESSICA SPRAWLED across her bed with mindless noise blaring in her ears and tried to reason things out.

Caryn was playing with her. She knew the Rashidas and Alex had some relationship; they hated each other too much to be perfect strangers. For all she knew, Alex and Caryn used to date. Now they had ganged up to play a game of "let's mess with the author's mind."

It was cleverly done, she admitted reluctantly. Alex's portrayal of Aubrey was perfect. She wondered who Caryn was trying to be. If it was a game, it was well practiced and planned between them.

There is no if, she scolded herself. Vampires do not exist!

Jessica had no love of mind games, especially ones played by childish idiots like Caryn. She wondered if Caryn realized just how little sense of humor Jessica had when it came to her books.

Frustrated, she opened the letter that Caryn had handed her and scanned it quickly.

Then she read it again, more slowly, and then a third time.

Jessica —

I realize how confused you must be now. I don't know how to explain to you that everything you are thinking right now is true. I can't imagine how you got involved in this world; all I know is that what you write puts you in danger.

With your permission, I will try to help you, but I can't do anything unless you ask me to. I'm not a fighter, but I know others who are. If you will let me, I will ask them for help.

Stay away from Aubrey, away from all of them. Stop writing your books about them. Maybe then they will not see the

need to destroy you. You well know how dangerous they are. Please, be careful

Blessed be, Caryn Smoke Daughter of Macht

I am signing with my true name now. I don't wish to lie to you as all the others would.

"What is going on here? " Jessica asked the black walls. They said nothing—they rarely did, though when she was dead tired they sometimes made an exception.

Everyone who had read Ash Night's first book knew who Aubrey was—what he looked like, where he was from, how he spoke, and how he thought. The two books that had gone through her editor's office revealed the dark corners of Aubrey's past and his present, and had reached into the wider vampiric world to show its customs and politics.

Never once had these books mentioned the Smoke line of witches or their immortal mother, Macht, whom Caryn had so casually referenced in her letter.

Without conscious thought, Jessica picked up one of the manuscripts that had been sitting on her shelf for months now. Though she hadn't read the novel since she had written it, she remembered the characters inside. The story was set years earlier; the witches mentioned in it would be Caryn's distant ancestors. Jessica knew, through the eyes of her vampiric characters, all about the Smoke line. But only she should have known, because the manuscript had been read by no one else. The fine layer of dust on the binder was proof that no one had picked it up recently. There was no way Caryn could ever have read it.