The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [53]
Walking, Jessica reached the church about fifteen minutes before the service was scheduled to start. She waited at the corner of the building as Hasana, Caryn, and Anne approached, laughing. She didn’t try to get their attention, and vaguely realized that she reminded herself of one of her characters, stalking prey.
As Hasana and Anne became lost in the crowd near the church doors, Jessica caught Caryn’s arm.
“Caryn, I need to talk to you,” she said in a hushed tone.
The girl jumped a bit but seemed to relax when she saw who had grabbed her. They slipped out of the group and into a less crowded area of the churchyard.
About?” Caryn asked.
But before Jessica could answer, Caryn gasped. Her face froze in a look of horror as she pointed toward the side wall of the church.
It took Jessica a few moments to register what Caryn was seeing. The second she did, she bounded across the yard — toward Anne and the vampire who had her in his grasp.
Jessica didn’t recognize the vampire, which she supposed was a good sign; if she hadn’t written about him, he probably wasn’t very strong. She was counting on that fact.
Tearing the vampire away from Anne, she slammed her fist into his jaw before he could even figure out what was happening. Anne stumbled back against the wall, and Caryn and Hasana, from opposite ends of the churchyard, hurried to her side. The rest of the churchgoers, clearly under the mind control of the vampire, continued to chat and make their way cheerfully into the building.
Before Jessica had a chance to check on Anne, the vampire turned and hit her hard enough that she found herself on the ground, her head spinning.
The vampire looked nervously from the witches and Anne to the group of people near the doors of the church, and Jessica could all but see his thoughts. If Caryn and Hasana interfered, he wouldn’t be able to keep his control over the crowd, and this confrontation would get even messier.
Then he looked at Jessica, staring fiercely at her for one long moment. She tried to stand but couldn’t find her balance; he had probably given her a concussion with that little love tap. She braced herself for his next strike. But he was gone.
Why had he left when he could have killed her in an instant? Suddenly last night’s conversation popped back into her head.
There are actually very few of my kind who would dare to kill you.
I suppose you’re one of the few.
I’m one of the reasons they wouldn’t dare.
“Thank you, Aubrey,” she said softly.
Caryn moved from Anne’s side to Jessica’s. Her face was pale, and she said nothing for a moment.
Jessica tried again to stand, and a wave of blackness passed over her vision. Caryn put a hand on her arm to help her up, then gently touched the side of Jessica’s head where the vampire had hit her.
Jessica jerked back when she felt the warm wave of energy that flowed out of Caryn.
“Jessica —”
“I’m fine,” she snapped, infuriated by her own weakness. She refused to accept help from Caryn.
But as she pulled away, she forced herself to add, “Thank you.” The dizziness was gone completely.
As her thoughts focused, Jessica asked, “What about Anne?”
Caryn looked at her mother, who just shook her head.
Jessica’s legs went out from under her.
“Jessica, I’m sorry …” Hasana was speaking, but Jessica hardly heard the words.
Caryn tried to take her hand, but she shook it off and went to Anne’s side.
Anne was pale, but Jessica could tell that it wasn’t blood loss that had killed her. The vampire hadn’t had the time, so instead he had broken her neck.
She balled her hands into fists, so tightly that her nails drew blood from her palms. Why had he killed her? He had done so intentionally not just to feed.
As she took the dead woman’s hand, Jessica saw a piece of paper tucked into Anne’s grip. Pulling it out, she needed to read no more than the first line before she recognized it as a page from the Dark Flame manuscript. It was a page on which Fala was described.