The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [50]
However, there was no way for her to simply turn back and ignore what she knew. Instead, she had an irrational desire — no, a need — to see the creatures of her novels.
In a daze, she made her way to the heart of New Mayhem, not hesitating to push open the door and enter the chaos known as Las Noches.
Jessica couldn’t tell if it was the room or her head that was spinning. Her reflection was distorted wildly by the shattered mirrors, and the black wooden furniture seemed to dance in the moving lights.
As she stood just inside the door, she was hit by such a strong sense of recognition that she reeled back a step. She knew almost everyone in the room.
A slender, dark-skinned woman leaned against the bar. She lifted the crystal glass she held and sipped from it a viscous red liquid that Jessica had no desire to identify. She did recognize the vampire, though: it was Fala.
Fala looked up, and her black eyes immediately fell on the human author with distaste.
Welcome to my world. Fala’s icy voice echoed through Jessica’s mind, sending a chill down her spine. Or is it your world?
Jessica knew she was being tested, but she only shook her head. It isn’t mine, she thought in answer, knowing Fala would hear her.
Damn right. The ancient vampire lifted her glass as if to propose a toast. To knowledge, and to pain.
Understanding the threat, Jessica turned away and left quickly. She had no wish to engage in any kind of confrontation with Fala.
Outside Las Noches she stopped and leaned against the cool wall, waiting for her dizziness to subside. But after a minute or so, she forced herself to move. Though vampires were not allowed to kill humans inside New Mayhem, Jessica doubted that anyone would object to Fala’s making an exception in the case of the author Ash Night.
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 The golden pendant had been replaced by a spiked dog collar, and he was wearing a black T-shirt that hugged his form and showed off the many designs on his arms: Fenris on the right wrist, and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,