Amelia Atwater-Rhodes - Demon in My View

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.

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, completely 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.

"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."