The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [61]
She grabbed Jessica by the throat and threw her almost casually into a tree. As Jessica’s right shoulder slammed into the trunk, she gritted her teeth past the pain. The bone probably wasn’t broken; Fala would do worse before this was over.
“I guess you know what you’re describing,” Jessica growled, her anger rising above her common sense. “From your days in that sandy, dirty cell where you were chained like the dog you are.”
Fala was almost upon her. Jessica struck Fala’s cheekbone with her closed fist, which fazed the vampire for only a second before she caught Jessica’s wrist and tossed her into another tree. Jessica’s hands and arms hit the tree first, absorbing some of the blow, but then she felt her head and bad shoulder strike the unyielding wood, and black spots danced in front of her eyes. She suspected this was her second concussion in as many days.
“Damn you, human!” Fala spat. “You aren’t going to wake up. Your death will be your death. Do you understand? You are prey and always will be. Mortal … weak … prey.”
Jessica stood painfully trying to clear her vision. She had far too much pride to face Fala like the feeble prey-beast the vampire saw her as.
“I know your talents at inflicting pain, Fala,” she grumbled. “But even with them, you will never make me your prey.”
CHAPTER 28
RAGE FLICKERED across Fala’s face for a few seconds, until a lazy, dangerous smile grew to replace it.
Wise up, child, came Fala’s voice, suddenly smooth and eerily civil. Jessica felt a moment of panic as she heard the voice in her mind — as she felt the words overlaying her own thoughts. Then the fear faded, and there was only the sound of the cool, unarguable voice.
I’ve read your writing, Fala continued calmly, and Jessica had no choice but to listen. You know the difference between predator and prey. You were born human, and you will die human — prey and nothing more.
As Fala stepped forward, Jessica moved to meet her. Fala pulled Jessica’s hair back yet again to bare her throat, and Jessica relaxed, allowing the vampire to do so. Fala was simply a higher race, and there was no arguing with the fact. By nature she was a predator.
And Jessica was just her prey …
Prey?
That last thought didn’t sit well. Instead, it brought crashing down the house of cards Fala had so easily erected in Jessica’s mind.
Jessica shoved the vampire away with both arms, ignoring the screaming pain in her right shoulder as she did so.
“Get the hell out of my mind.” She spat the words, a hoarse command, and Fala’s expression went still, frozen in anger and disbelief. Jessica had slipped her mind control twice now.
“It seems to me that you were human once, Fala,” Jessica continued, ignoring the blood that trickled from several of her wounds, and the black spots that bounced along the edge of her vision. “But I suppose you don’t need to be reminded of your experiences as prey.”
Fala’s hand whipped forward and clamped over Jessica’s throat, pressing her into a tree and cutting off her oxygen. “Watch your words, human. Unless you want me to squeeze your vertebrae straight through your windpipe.”
Jessica couldn’t answer as she struggled to breathe. Fala let go, throwing her to the ground hard enough to send splinters of pain through the arm she caught herself with.
“You picked the wrong person to fight, Jessica,” Fala told her, pacing near her head. “Because I like pain — your pain — and I really like causing it.”
“That’s called sadism, and I think it’s some kind of psychological disorder,” Jessica grumbled, rolling onto her front so that she could use her left arm to push herself up.
Fala kicked her in the back of the head while she was still on her knees. “So are suicidal tendencies,” she countered.
Black and red spots fought for domination in Jessica’s mind as she felt herself being yanked to her feet by one