The Den of Shadows Quartet - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes [66]
Instead, the child was a reminder of her past. Jessica was flawless, brilliant … and shadowed by the night. She looked nothing like Carl or Jazlyn; instead, she had Siete’s fair skin, black hair, and emerald eyes.
Those eyes could look upon someone and see the darkest parts of their soul.
Jessica had spent more than twenty years in Jazlyn’s womb, kept alive only by Siete’s blood. She was more his child than Jazlyn’s.
There was no way for Jazlyn to raise the child who brought back her every painful memory. No child deserved to have a mother who could not brush her raven hair, or look into her gemstone eyes, without shuddering.
Jazlyn put the child up for adoption, so that she could be given to caring parents who knew only of sunlight and laughter. Jessica deserved that life; she had done nothing wrong.
Jazlyn prayed that her child would never be touched by the darkness of her past.
CHAPTER 32
JESSICA’S HEART HAD STOPPED. Her face was almost white, and as cool as the fall air surrounding her. She had died only moments before, as Aubrey’s blood had entered her system. He left her side reluctantly to check on Caryn.
Caryn’s breathing was slow and deep, and she seemed to be fine except for the cataleptic sleep she was in. At the moment Aubrey’s hunger was more of a danger to the witch than anything else.
Almost without thinking, he brought both girls and himself to his seldom-used house in New Mayhem, where no one would bother them. The forest had far too many predators in it to leave them alone there, and he didn’t know what Caryn would want him to tell her mother.
He put Caryn in the one bedroom with windows, knowing that no witch would want to wake and not be able to see either the stars or the sun. But he left Jessica in a bedroom with heavy blackout curtains that would block the sun while she slept.
Then, before the mingled scents of Jessica’s and Caryn’s blood could defeat his usually iron self-control, he went searching for dinner. Having fed well, he returned home to watch over the girls, and finally allowed his mind to turn to other things.
Like how many ways he could fillet Fala, for one. Or how many ways he would fillet Fala, for two.
An hour before sunset, Aubrey dragged himself away from Jessica’s side. Fala needed to be dealt with before Jessica woke.
He appeared just behind Fala in her room, his knife at her throat and his mind clamped on hers to hold her in place.
“I hope she sliced you open very well,” he snarled, pressing the edge of the blade into her throat just slightly.
“And I hope she’s very, very dead,” Fala answered in kind, softly so as to not put any more pressure against the blade. Despite her caution, a thin line of blood appeared on her dark Egyptian skin. “If she isn’t, I’ll correct that error soon.”
“I suggest you don’t,” he said. Considering how the last fight had gone, Jessica might win if Fala chose to pick another.
“She drew blood, Aubrey,” Fala answered. “I have claim, and you can’t stop me from acting on it.”
What he had done for Jessica would have been illegal had Fala conquered her pride earlier and admitted that Jessica had been the one who wounded her. Instead, she had waited until now to actually call on blood claim, and now was too late.
“The law only applies if she’s human,” he answered coldly.
Then his attention was drawn away as he sensed a familiar presence just outside the door.
Jessica had washed the blood off her skin, but her pallor showed that she still needed to feed.
“Don’t stop her,” Jessica said. Aubrey released Fala but didn’t move away; Jessica was certainly not strong enough to best Fala in a fight now, before she had even fed. Yet she walked calmly toward Fala, looking at the vampire with scorn. “Wounded by a human … what a blow that must have been to your pride.”
Fala growled, but she restrained herself from attacking with Aubrey so near.
“I have no