His face could have been modeled after the portrait on a Roman coin. Hair the color of raven feathers contrasted with his fair skin, and when he turned a bit she saw that a few strands had fallen across his eyes, shading them. He was dressed entirely in black, except for a gold chain around his neck. The pendant on the chain looked like a cross, but Jessica couldn’t be sure from where she was standing.
A shock of recognition struck her. Aubrey.
Aubrey was, without a doubt, her favorite character from the books she had written. He had been the villain in Tiger, Tiger and the main character in Dark Flame. Gorgeous, powerful, and somewhat mysterious, he was every teenage girl’s fantasy … or at least, he was hers. Considering her present status in the world of teenagers, she couldn’t pretend to speak for the rest of the female population.
Of course, Aubrey was a vampire.
Get a grip, Jessica. You write fiction, she reminded herself. Aubrey doesn’t exist. She would hardly have minded if her vampire hero had existed, but such a thing was impossible. Vampires were not real.
Yet the resemblance between this new boy and Aubrey was uncanny, and the sense of familiarity lingered despite her efforts to shake it. She forced herself to turn away and walk to her homeroom before the boy could notice her watching him.
She sat in the back of the room once again, and this time no one came to talk to her. Caryn looked over once from the group she seemed to have been accepted into, but Jessica sent a fierce gaze her way and Caryn cringed, visibly shaken.
A few moments after attendance had been taken, the boy from the office walked in. He handed a form to Mrs. Katherine but didn’t bother to explain why he was late.
“Alex Remington?” Mrs. Katherine asked, reading the form.
He nodded, barely paying attention to the teacher as he sought out an empty seat.
Alex paused when he saw Caryn, who was watching him with wide eyes. Unlike most of the other females in the room, Caryn looked terrified.
When the bell rang, Jessica watched with curiosity as Caryn pulled on her backpack and slipped quickly through the crowd and out of the room. She was clearly being careful to stay as far from Alex Remington as she could.
Before Alex had even reached the door, a girl named Shannon caught up with him. Jessica could recognize Shannon’s methods of flirtation a mile away and shook her head in disgust. Shannon already had a boyfriend, but that had never stopped her when there was a drop-dead-gorgeous male in her line of vision.
Jessica was about to leave when Alex glanced up for a moment, meeting her gaze over Shannon’s shoulder. His eyes were jet-black and shadowed by dark lashes. Jessica smiled wryly in response to the amusement she saw in those eyes — no doubt a reaction to Shannon’s not-so-subtle advances.
Then something Shannon said caught his attention and he looked away from Jessica, returning his gaze to his more assertive admirer.
A bit reluctantly, Jessica headed down the hall, leaving Alex at the mercy of Shannon the Conquerer.
CHAPTER 6
JESSICA WANDERED into the courtyard at lunch time, having no desire to sit alone at a table in the cafeteria so that she could be assaulted by the stench of the day’s mystery meat.
Her thoughts traveled for a moment to Alex; she remembered how he had caught her eye. Then she mentally chided herself for focusing on a guy who probably had already forgotten she existed. And even if he hadn’t, he would never be desperate enough to risk his social standing by associating with the leper of Ramsa High.
She pulled an unlined notebook and a mechanical pencil from her backpack and proceeded to sketch, simply for something to do with her hands, as she discreetly watched the people around her.
Shannon was standing with a few of her friends, but instead of talking to them, she was staring intensely across the courtyard at Alex. Alex, leaning casually against a tree, was smirking slightly as another boy berated him. Jessica recognized the guy as Shannon’s boyfriend, and she judged by his posture and tone of voice that he had heard about Shannon’s conversation with Alex that morning.
Finally Alex seemed to lose his patience. He locked eyes with the other boy who, though a few inches taller than Alex and much broader, took a step back. The boy said something Jessica couldn’t hear and left quickly.
Jessica shook her head, not surprised. Something about Alex made it evident he wasn’t someone to mess with.
As Jessica had watched the confrontation, she had continued to draw. Now she looked down at the pencil sketch and felt a chill run through her.
Even though her model had been nearby, the likeness was remarkable. But the thing that struck her the most was the pendant, which she hadn’t yet been able to look at closely but had somehow drawn in careful detail.
The cross was upside down and carefully molded with a viper twined around it. It was the same design as the one that Aubrey wore, and it startled Jessica to see that she had drawn it into her portrait of Alex.
“Mind if I join you?” someone asked.
Not just someone. Alex. Jessica recognized his voice and whipped her notebook shut. His tone was confident, unmarred by adolescent awkwardness. Hearing his silk-smooth voice made her shiver, because she was once again assaulted by a wave of familiarity.
Snap out of it, Jessica ordered herself. Over her mental argument, she heard her voice calmly reply to Alex, “Go ahead.”
Suspicious of his motives, she couldn’t immediately come up with anything more to say. The last time any guy had tried to talk to her, he had done so only on a dare. With that painful memory in mind, she kept her expression cool, waiting for Alex Remington to explain himself.
As he sat down near her, she studied his appearance. The pendant was exactly as she had drawn it — exactly like Aubrey’s.
“Do you always keep to yourself out here?” he asked.
“Do you always go out of your way to talk to people who look like they want to be alone?” she answered, instinctively defensive. She bit her tongue after speaking the words. If Alex actually wanted to get to know her, she was an idiot to try to chase him off.
He just looked amused. “Would you prefer to be alone, or are you avoiding someone in particular?” As he asked this, he glanced over at the windows of the cafeteria. Jessica followed his gaze and noticed Caryn sitting inside with a group of other seniors.
“If I was trying to avoid anyone, it would be Caryn,” she answered truthfully. “She seems convinced that my inner child needs a friend.”
A mixture of empathy and annoyance crossed Alex’s features. Jessica felt confident that the annoyance was reserved for Caryn.
“It’s her nature to try to draw people out of the dark,” he said.
“You two know each other?”
“Unfortunately,” he answered. The scorn in his voice was palpable.
He silently watched Caryn for a moment, until she looked up as if she could feel his gaze. When she saw Jessica and Alex sitting together, she stood, gathered her belongings, and hurried away.
“She sure doesn’t try to draw you out of the dark,” Jessica commented.
“They’ve tried, and they’ve failed miserably,” was his reply.
CHAPTER 7
CARYN HAD RETREATED to the school library after seeing Jessica with the creature who was calling himself Alex. She had a study hall there soon, anyway; other students were already spilling out of the cafeteria and going to their classes.
She had been staring out the window for about five minutes when she suddenly saw Alex and Jessica walk past. It seemed there was no escape from them.
“Are you stalking me?” she heard Jessica say to Alex in a light, maybe even flirtatious, tone. Caryn frowned at how easily Jessica seemed to trust him. Alex was the last creature on Earth that any human should trust.
“Why would I do that?” Alex asked with pretend innocence.
Why indeed? Caryn thought. Maybe because you’re a manipulative leech? If only Jessica knew what she was talking to.
“Anyway, I’m not quite so obvious when I’m stalking someone,” Alex was saying to Jessica, amusement in his voice.
Caryn shook her head. Of course you are, she thought. If they don’t know you’re there, they aren’t afraid.
Suddenly she heard his mocking voice clearly in her mind. I suppose you would know from experience?
She threw up her mental shields, even though she knew they were little better than glass against his kind. Get out of my head, she thought angrily. Alex laughed in return.
Meanwhile, he and Jessica had continued to speak. It was obvious that Jessica had no knowledge of the silent conversation that had been going on. Her tone was jovial and unguarded, as if she was speaking to a friend.
Friends with the leeches but not with the humans, Caryn thought bitterly.
She couldn’t exactly blame Jessica, though. Even knowing the truth about Alex, Caryn herself could barely sense his bubble of mental control. Without conscious effort he kept humans in thrall, so that they were comfortable around him despite their instinct to avoid his kind.
Only twice during the day had Caryn seen him let down his guard: with Shannon that morning and with the boy who had insulted him at lunch. Shannon had quickly stopped her flirtation and slunk away but had managed to laugh about her sudden unease when describing the situation to Caryn later.
Caryn forced herself to start her homework rather than think about Alex and Jessica any longer. She had no fighting skills with which to defend Jessica physically. And the girl had made it clear that she wanted no part of Caryn’s friendship, so she certainly wouldn’t be willing to heed her warning.
Caryn was not going to get in Alex’s way — especially here, surrounded by so many defenseless humans. Arguing with a vampire in the middle of a crowd would only get people killed.
CHAPTER 8
AFTER SCHOOL Jessica took the bus to the center of town. She walked to the bookstore, hoping to find Tiger, Tiger on the shelves. The book was supposed to have come out more than a week before, but this was the first chance Jessica had had to look for it. The advance copies she had at home didn’t hold quite the same allure as the sight of her work in a bookstore display.
Jessica sighed when she saw Caryn browsing the shelves, but she wasn’t about to let the annoying teen chase her away.
“Oh … hi, Jessica,” Caryn said, sounding surprised. “You looking for anything?”
“A book. What else would I be in a bookstore for?” Jessica answered crossly.
It took her only a second to spot Tiger, Tiger on the shelf next to Caryn, and she reached past the girl to grab a copy. As the book was written under Jessica’s pseudonym, Ash Night, Caryn wouldn’t be able to connect Jessica with it. Even so, Caryn’s eyes widened when she saw the book.
“I’ve read that one,” she said in a voice that sounded falsely casual.
“So have I,” Jessica answered, turning away from Caryn and toward the counter.
“I wonder what the author is like,” Caryn commented. “Where do you suppose her ideas come from?”
Jessica ignored Caryn effortlessly until she added, “What if it was all real? If Ash Night’s vampires actually existed? If Ather and Risika and Aubrey —”
Jessica spun on Caryn as she spoke that last name. “Vampires don’t exist,” she snapped. “Get over it.” After having had this conversation with herself all day long, she was glad to finally have an excuse to say the words aloud.
“But —”
“Caryn, I’ve been subtle, rude, and even offensive,” Jessica interrupted. “Now it’s time for direct.” She met Caryn’s delicate blue eyes with a glacier-cold glare. “I don’t care if you think vampires exist. I don’t want to talk about it, just like I don’t want to chat about combination locks or anything else. I don’t want to talk to you at all. Do you understand?”
With a bit of a sigh, Caryn nodded, deflated.
That had been rather satisfying. Next Jessica just had to convince herself that Alex Remington wasn’t the Antichrist, and she could return to the regularly scheduled tedium of her daily life.
“Cold,” she heard behind her. “Very cold. I approve completely.”
Jessica turned and saw Alex leaning against a shelf. His gaze as he watched Caryn hurry away reminded Jessica of a wolf watching a rabbit run to cover.
“Maybe I’m paranoid, but I could swear you’ve been following me.” The words were out of Jessica’s mouth before she had a chance to consider them. Hearing her own tone, she almost choked. If she caught herself flirting, she was likely to become ill.
“On and off,” he answered vaguely, and didn’t add anything more. He turned to wander down the aisle, glancing from shelf to shelf as if looking for something. After a few yards he looked over his left shoulder to see if she was still behind him, and it occurred to her that she was following him. Embarrassed, she stopped doing so.
“Anything good in here?” he asked, returning to the shelf where Jessica had found Tiger, Tiger.
“What’s your definition of good?” she asked, making a point not to move toward him.
He pulled a book from the shelf: Renegade, by Elizabeth Charcoal. Showing it to Jessica, he said, “You’ll love it. Trust me.”
“You’ve read this?” Jessica had seen a magazine article about the author, though she hadn’t had a chance to read the book. Elizabeth Charcoal claimed that she was a vampire, and that Renegade was actually her autobiography.
“I know the author,” Alex answered matter-of-factly. “She gave me an autographed copy of the manuscript. Right after she tried to slit my throat, but why sweat the details?”
“Oh, really?” Jessica said skeptically. He was either teasing her or trying to impress her.
He shrugged. “We got into an argument.”
“Does this happen to you often?”
“Fairly frequently,” he answered, his tone nonchalant. “Elizabeth and I don’t like each other very much, but her book is … interesting. It’s the kind of thing you’d like.”
“How do you know what I like to read?”
“I can tell,” he answered cryptically and then he turned to the checkout. He paused so that she could catch up and walk beside him, not behind.
The woman at the counter looked at Alex with contempt and whispered something under her breath.
“Hasana, what a surprise.” Alex greeted her coolly. He smiled malevolently. The woman glared at him, but he ignored it.
“You two know each other?” Jessica asked foolishly seeing the angry sparks fly between them.
“Hasana is Caryn’s mother,” Alex offered, as if that explained everything. Jessica remembered Caryn’s reaction that morning when she had first seen Alex, and wondered what had happened between him and this family.
“Watch out for this guy” Hasana warned, nodding toward Alex. “He probably knows more about you than your taste in books.”
“And how could that be?” Jessica asked dryly.
“I can read your mind, and learn your secret fears and darkest desires,” Alex answered.
Jessica paused, examining his expression. She had written those exact words, Aubrey’s words, in Dark Flame, the novel that was presently waiting on her editor’s desk. She couldn’t remember whether she had used them in Tiger, Tiger.
“Do you always talk like that?” she asked, unnerved.
He looked at her challengingly as he said, “Don’t you know?”
She just shook her head, alarmed but unwilling to show it.
As Alex paid for his book, Jessica realized that she was still holding Tiger, Tiger. She placed it on the counter, not intending to buy it; she had plenty of copies at home.
Alex’s gaze drifted to the cover, and his expression leapt immediately from amusement to anger. He spun away and, without another word, stalked out of the store. Jessica was left staring after him, too shocked to react.
“If I were you, I’d just avoid him,” Hasana advised.
“Why? Is he going to hurt me?”
Jessica’s sarcasm was sharpened by her confusion regarding Alex.
“Unless you keep away from him, he most likely will,” Hasana answered seriously “He has a temper.”
Jessica was out of sharp remarks. To hide her discomfort, she picked up the copy of Tiger, Tiger and said, “I guess I’ll put this away before it makes anyone else freak out.”
“If you want it, just keep it,” Hasana answered softly. “You are the author.”
Jessica froze, dumbfounded.
“I’m sorry,” Hasana said quickly. “I just —”
“How did you know?” Jessica interrupted, annoyed to learn that this woman had connected her to Ash Night. She had used a pen name to avoid recognition.
“I’ve read it, and I … recognized you as the author,” Hasana fumbled. “You just have a look about you …”
“What look?”
“Never mind,” Hasana said, shaking her head. “Take the book and the advice, and ignore me.”
She turned away, suddenly very busy with some papers, and Jessica left in a daze.
CHAPTER 9
AUBREY HAD LEFT THE STORE to avoid hurting someone — probably the witch.
Though he had a house on the fringe of town, he preferred to spend his time in the heart of New Mayhem, in his room behind the nightclub known as Las Noches. There he paced angrily wondering what to do about the human called Jessica.
She didn’t know that everything she wrote was true. She thought vampires were just another myth. She thought her characters were just figments of her own imagination. She had no idea what Alex was.
That wasn’t quite true. He knew that Jessica had recognized him the instant she saw him. Only her human rationality had kept her from believing that Alex Remington was actually Aubrey.
Aubrey had heard of the author Ash Night through a young vampire who worked as an editor at Night’s publishing company. The vampire had even given Aubrey a copy of the Dark Flame manuscript. The news of this book had quickly spread through the vampiric community, as it had when Elizabeth Charcoal had published her autobiography.