Amelia Atwater-Rhodes: Demon in My View

"She would," Aubrey answered dryly. What would Jessica think, he wondered, if she knew there were bets being made about her potential death?

"May I ask why you didn't kill her?" Jager said, not disguising his curiosity.

Aubrey wondered about the answer himself. The phrase "she's beautiful" came to mind, and of course it was true. Jessica seemed almost to embody the graceful perfection of a vampire. But Aubrey had never before hesitated to kill someone because she was attractive.

More than her physical appearance, Jessica had a rare aura of strength about her. Aubrey remembered Ash Night's describing him as having the same kind of aura while he had been human, but he had seen it in very few others. Risika had been one of the exceptions; that strength had drawn Aubrey to her before she had ever caught Ather's eye. Now Jessica was another.

"Is the question too difficult? " Jager asked, his tone patronizing.

Aubrey resorted to the simplest answer. "I wasn't in the mood."

Jager accepted the explanation, and the two vampires sat awhile in companionable silence.

Suddenly the fiery Fala appeared in front of them.

"I see you've returned from your little game in the sunlight," she purred at Aubrey. Her voice was like poisoned chocolate, deceptively smooth and sweet. As she brushed by Jager, she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Fala was Jager's first fledgling. Born in Egypt, she had naturally dark skin that had paled little in the almost five thousand years she'd been a vampire. Her black hair was pulled back from her face by bloodred combs, but that was the only bit of color in her otherwise black outfit.

"I suppose you've met Night," Fala spat, as if the name was not one to be mentioned in polite society. "Is she quite dead, I hope? Even better, is she writhing in pain somewhere?"

"She's alive," Aubrey answered, not in the mood to exchange sadistic banter with Fala.

"Mind if I kill her for you?" Fala asked casually as she walked behind the bar and poured herself a drink from Aubrey's bottle. "This is good," she commented, holding the bottle up to the red light, which did not help to illuminate its contents. "Anyone know what it is?"

She emptied the rest of the liquid into her glass, then threw the unlabeled bottle over her shoulder. The bottle shattered, and several people at the tables turned at the sound. One human stood up and brushed glass off her jeans, but she didn't seem upset. Breaking glass was hardly an unusual occurrence at Las Noches.

Fala sighed luxuriously as she turned back to Aubrey and Jager. "I love the sound of breaking glass. Now, about Ash — "

"No, you can't kill her for me," Aubrey interrupted.

"You're going to stop me? " she asked, her voice going lower, slightly menacing.

"I have more of a quarrel with her than you do," he answered coldly, not bothering to explain the statement.

"Unless she has drawn blood, Aubrey, you have nothing," Fala snapped back, stalking closer to him.

Fala was referring to one of the few standing rules of their kind: blood claim. Humans, unless they lived in New Mayhem, were free prey of any vampire. However, if a human drew the blood of a vampire, that human could only be hunted by the vampire who had been harmed. Had Jessica attacked Aubrey and somehow made him bleed, Fala would have been unable to hurt Jessica without Aubrey's permission.

"She hasn't, and she never will," he answered.

"You wouldn't admit to being wounded by a human even if you had been," Fala scoffed. She finished her drink and threw the glass over her shoulder. "But I suppose you wouldn't be in such a good mood if you'd lost another fight."

She said nothing more. Aubrey struck her with his mind, and she fell backward into the bar, hissing in anger. Several heads turned toward them, and a few humans chose that time to exit Las Noches; it was dangerous to be in the same room with two fighting vampires.

Jager was still nearby, and he was watching the argument with narrowed eyes.

"Would you care to repeat that?" Aubrey asked Fala, his voice cold as ice as he casually threw another bolt of power at her, causing her to double over in pain. He hadn't even broken a sweat.

"Aubrey." Jager spoke only his name, a calm but clear warning.

Aubrey answered by drawing back his power instead of hitting Fala again. Jager would not start a fight over what had happened thus far; Fala wouldn't appreciate the help. But even so, Aubrey knew that Jager was too fond of Fala to look the other way if she was truly threatened.

"Damn you, Aubrey," Fala cursed. She scowled but was wise enough not to insult him again.

"Already been done," he answered calmly.

"Damn you again!" she shouted, delivering a glare that would have stilled serpents in their dens.

"Too late," he quipped. "And after five thousand years, I'd think you could come up with something better than that."

Fala growled but didn't attempt to attack him. Though she was far older than he was, he had always been stronger, and he was a better fighter. If she fought back, she would lose.

"Fine," she snarled. "But if you don't kill the human, or otherwise dispose of her, I will. Is that perfectly understandable to you, Aubrey? "

"Yes."

In the next moment they were both gone, Aubrey retreating to his room. The nightclub's heavy music reverberated through the building, but he was used to it. He fell into bed and a sleep of complete oblivion. Like most of his kind, he did not dream.

When Aubrey woke he brought himself to the edge of Red Rock, the forest that surrounded New Mayhem and fringed Ramsa. The ability to instantly move from one place to another was a power he used often, as he had for more than two thousand years.

The full moon was about a week away still, but Aubrey could easily sense a few untrained witches and some werewolves lurking in the busy forest. There were also several vampires nearby, all of Mira's bloodline.

Ramsa was supposedly Mira's territory, but that barely worried Aubrey. Mira, though ancient, was one of the weakest of their kind, and her fledglings were little stronger than most humans. Few in Mira's bloodline had lived through Fala's extermination of them a few hundred years before, and now they were hardly even considered part of the vampiric community. Most of them were so sensitive toward their prey that they only fed on animals and willing humans.

There was a party going on at a house on the edge of the woods. Shannon had unwittingly invited Aubrey to it, before he had frightened her. The house was filled with people, and the faint scent of alcohol floated from it to where Aubrey stood watching, many yards away. He easily reached out with his mind and sifted through the thoughts of those inside.

The minds he touched were hardly entertaining—either hazy from drinking, silly from joking, or angry from gossiping. He found Shannon quickly. She had drunk some beer and her defenses were down; little effort was necessary to convince her to come outside alone.

Shannon wandered absently into the woods, and jumped in surprise when she came upon Aubrey.

"Um… Hi, Alex."

She greeted him tentatively, glancing back at the house in obvious confusion as to how she had arrived here. Before she could decide to leave, he reached into her mind and her nervousness faded.

"Shannon, right?" he asked, taking a step toward her.

"Yeah," she answered with a coy smile. "Why are you hiding here in the — "

Sleep. Aubrey sent the command to her mind as soon as he was close enough to catch her as she fell.

She collapsed, unconscious in an instant, and he caught her without effort. He could have caught someone ten times her weight with no difficulty. Though he could control any human physically, he didn't relish the possibility that the girl would scream and attract inconvenient attention. It was easier to have her asleep as he fed. He had done this many times before.