CHAPTER 18

JESSICA WAS BARELY OUT of New Mayhem, still in the woods that surrounded the single path back to the human world, when she heard the rustle of leaves behind her.

Spinning to face the potential threat, she let out a tight breath as she saw Aubrey.

He had murdered any illusion of the human Alex Remington. The golden pendant had been replaced by a spiked dog collar, and he was wearing a black T-shirt that hugged his form and showed off the many designs on his arms: Fenris on the right wrist, and Echidna, the Greek mother of all monsters, high on his left arm. The Norse world serpent was wrapped around his left wrist, and a new design had recently been added: Cerberus, the three-headed dog who guarded the gates of Hades. The World Serpent was partially covered by a black leather knife sheath, which held the silver knife Aubrey had taken from a vampire hunter a few thousand years earlier.

His hair was slightly tousled, as if he’d been running, and a few strands fell across his face.

Looking at him now, Jessica couldn’t imagine how she had ever mistaken him for a human. But illusion was Aubrey’s art. And it was simple to fool people who expected nothing else.

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.

The Den of Shadows Quartet
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