The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [42]
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.
CHAPTER 11
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 Miras bloodline.
Ramsa was supposedly Miras 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 Miras 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