Disclaimer: Concepts of Night World belong to LJ Smith and are used for fun only. Concepts of arcobaleno dragons belong to Sukida Hashteher (Sukida_Hashteher@YOURWAP.com) and are used with permission.
Summary: A group of renegade Circle Midnight witches kidnap a girl with mysterious powers to use in a dark sacrifice to wake an evil force. They send a ruthless Night World assassin to guard her, and as long as nothing goes wrong, the sacrifice should run smoothly. But how often do things run smoothly for Night World assassins?
Author's notes: Feedback of any kind would be appreciated greatly. *word* = italics //word// = telepathic speaking ^word^= personal thought.
Part 1
"I don't think this is such a great idea, how can we be sure no one will find out about...you know." Jessika looked around nervously, hating the gloomy old basement of the family mansion.
It seemed to go on for miles, stretching into dark nothingness like an underground cave. She wouldn't have been surprised to see stalactites or mites. She could never remember which were the ones that grew up and the ones that grew down. Or maybe an underground lake in the parts she never dared to venture, where the light never reached.
"Oh get over it, you never think anything is a good idea unless it's yours," her older sister Nienna snorted in contempt, taking a blanket and some other things Jessika couldn't quite make out from an old trunk. "If you're that worried, get one of your friends to housesit or something. That Saffron girl'll do it, won't she?"
Jessika frowned and nodded as she followed Nienna back out the basement, watching as Nienna reset the padlock on the basement. She didn't understand her sister's interest in her new friend Saffron Iria. Nienna never showed any interest in Jessika's Daybreak friends, calling them dull boring, and a bunch of other things Jessika was too polite to repeat in good company.
"I guess so, considering every other kid in town is convinced the house is haunted," Jessika snorted, feeling relief running through her as she reached the ground floor, the huge foyer, with it's gigantic glass doors and skylight in the ceiling providing ample light.
"Yes, well, let them think what they want," Nienna said with a strange smile. Her reflection was oddly distorted in the glass front doors of the mansion, tall and slender, mane of chestnut hair sweeping back from her forehead, falling in natural curls to her waste, nicely toned skin, tanned to a perfect bronze by the California sun, her smile was unusually twisted, even for Nienna, her green eyes glittering oddly.
"What are you up to?" Jessika asked, studying her own reflection, trying to draw herself up a little taller, than her measly five foot six, pushing her unruly mop of fluffy blonde hair out her eyes.
Nienna turned away from admiring her own reflection. "Nothing," she said sweetly. "Listen, I've got to go out for a while. We're supposed to be leaving for the family party at seven, so your friend needs to be here before then." And with that Nienna walked out the door into the afternoon sunshine.
After finally graduating a few weeks ago, Jessika had found herself with very little to do. She had a Summer Circle to look forward to on the Solstice and a few Circle Daybreak meets for people living in L.A. There was talk of a visit up to the headquarters in Las Vegas.
When the new girl had come to town, Saffron Iria had been odd from the start. Her unusually bright purple hair, and even weirder gold eyes flecked with blue, which were apparently natural. The other kids had snickered, passing her off as a weirdo. But Jessika actually liked the girl. They had met in a makeup shop at the mall, Saffron had seemed totally lost and didn't seem to be sure what she was looking for.
Jessika had talked to her, and learned Saffron would be starting the local university with her in September. She had been a little surprised when Saffron had shown her one or two very unusual witch-shops in the not-so-respectable parts of her hometown. Magic potions and powders, spells in ancient languages, voodoo dolls and crystals she had never heard of.
It soon became clear that Saffron was no ordinary witch, though Saffron wouldn't say exactly what she was. Jessika had taken one of the scrolls, just out of pure interest because the runes were so weird.
Nienna had found it and asked where she'd got it. Thinking at the time it was a perfectly reasonable question, Jessika had told her. And Nienna's interest in Saffron had grown, though Jessika never knew why.
Saffron had said rather bluntly one afternoon Nienna was evil, her core was dark and had no soul. Jessika had just laughed it off. "She's a Circle Midnight witch, what'd you expect?"
She picked up her phone and called the number Saffron had given her. "How do you feel about house-sitting for a few days?" she asked.
"House-sitting? In your giant mansion? Where are you going?"
Jessika groaned. "It's my Grandfather's 80th birthday, and there's a big family party in some fancy hotel in L.A. We all have to go, but we've got" (^a nasty secret buried in the basement we don't want anyone to wake up and if that happens it could be disastrous^ Jessika thought) "lots of valuable things here, and most of the staff will be coming with us."
"Um...I guess, I don't have anything else to do for the weekend."
"Great. We're leaving about seven. Come about half an hour or so before." Jessika felt oddly guilty as she hung up.
* * *
"Where did you *get* this?" Claire stared at the scroll in Nienna's hand in disbelief.
Nienna smirked proudly. She had known from first sight that there was something unusual about that Saffron girl. Her unusually bright colouring was a dead give away she wasn't human for starters. The scrolls had caught her eyes. It was shapeshifter language, but not of any shifter in the House of Drache today.
"My idiot sister's new friend Saffron Iria showed her some weird witch shops where they have this kind of stuff."
Claire shook her raven head in fascination as she studied the scrolls, holding it up against the light of a collection of black candles to see it better. "Deva will be interested in this." She rolled the scroll up and placed it in front of the candles.
Nienna frowned a little. "So what is it, it's some kind of ancient shapeshifter thing, I know that."
Claire eyed her for a few moments, pacing around the small chamber. Nienna watched her, the sound of the black robes Claire wore made irritating swishing sounds on the stone floor. This was her discovery, she had simply brought it to Claire because Claire was Second in Command of their Circle. She had easier access to Deva than she did.
"It looks like the writings of an arcobaleno dragon."
Nienna's mind was blank. "A what?"
"Roughly translated, Rainbow dragon." Claire laughed harshly. "Sounds kind of nice, doesn't it? There's one buried under your house."
"The one that we're going to try and raise next week when my family are out the way in L.A. As far as I was aware it was just a regular dragon. What the hell is the difference?"
Nienna knew next to nothing about dragons, but on researching her family's history, the plot of land on which her house had been built, there was a number of violent deaths, weird occurrences people in the town had put it down to ghosts and evil spirits and other sort of ghost crap. Nienna's Circle had discovered the truth.
Claire shrugged. "Deva knows more than she's saying. We need a good dragon's blood to wake that of the dark one we want to raise. That Saffron girl will be perfect. We need to get her to your house in time for the sacrifice."
Nienna smirked. "I've convinced Jessika to ask her idiot friend to house-sit. She doesn't have any clue on what we're planning on doing."
"Good, because if she knows, then we'd have to kill her." Claire glanced over at her, eyebrow raised meaningfully.
"What a shame," Nienna snorted. "No, Jessika will be at the party, so we don't have to worry about her. I'll make some excuse and leave. Why'd we need Saffron for the sacrifice?" What did Claire know that she wasn't saying?
Claire looked at her for a few minutes, then laughed again, this time more of a giggle. "You almost sound like you know what you're talking about. The scroll is merely an added bonus."
Nienna opened her mouth, then shut it, glaring mutely. Now she was totally confused. She knew there was dark and powerful dragon buried under her house that her Circle was going to try and raise. The ritual required a sacrifice, some weird girl had come to town, someone else had mentioned she would be good to use, now it turned out there was some other species of dragon wandering around, and from what she could work out this girl was one of them? It didn't make a whole lot of sense at the moment.
"Just make sure Saffron is at your house around midnight tomorrow. I've got to make a few last minute arrangements, you get to go now," Claire said dismissively, taking a cell phone out the pockets of her robes.
Nienna scowled and walked out the room, and out the Circle's headquarters. What was she letting herself in for here?
* * *
Summary: A group of renegade Circle Midnight witches kidnap a girl with mysterious powers to use in a dark sacrifice to wake an evil force. They send a ruthless Night World assassin to guard her, and as long as nothing goes wrong, the sacrifice should run smoothly. But how often do things run smoothly for Night World assassins?
Author's notes: Feedback of any kind would be appreciated greatly. *word* = italics //word// = telepathic speaking ^word^= personal thought.
Part 1
"I don't think this is such a great idea, how can we be sure no one will find out about...you know." Jessika looked around nervously, hating the gloomy old basement of the family mansion.
It seemed to go on for miles, stretching into dark nothingness like an underground cave. She wouldn't have been surprised to see stalactites or mites. She could never remember which were the ones that grew up and the ones that grew down. Or maybe an underground lake in the parts she never dared to venture, where the light never reached.
"Oh get over it, you never think anything is a good idea unless it's yours," her older sister Nienna snorted in contempt, taking a blanket and some other things Jessika couldn't quite make out from an old trunk. "If you're that worried, get one of your friends to housesit or something. That Saffron girl'll do it, won't she?"
Jessika frowned and nodded as she followed Nienna back out the basement, watching as Nienna reset the padlock on the basement. She didn't understand her sister's interest in her new friend Saffron Iria. Nienna never showed any interest in Jessika's Daybreak friends, calling them dull boring, and a bunch of other things Jessika was too polite to repeat in good company.
"I guess so, considering every other kid in town is convinced the house is haunted," Jessika snorted, feeling relief running through her as she reached the ground floor, the huge foyer, with it's gigantic glass doors and skylight in the ceiling providing ample light.
"Yes, well, let them think what they want," Nienna said with a strange smile. Her reflection was oddly distorted in the glass front doors of the mansion, tall and slender, mane of chestnut hair sweeping back from her forehead, falling in natural curls to her waste, nicely toned skin, tanned to a perfect bronze by the California sun, her smile was unusually twisted, even for Nienna, her green eyes glittering oddly.
"What are you up to?" Jessika asked, studying her own reflection, trying to draw herself up a little taller, than her measly five foot six, pushing her unruly mop of fluffy blonde hair out her eyes.
Nienna turned away from admiring her own reflection. "Nothing," she said sweetly. "Listen, I've got to go out for a while. We're supposed to be leaving for the family party at seven, so your friend needs to be here before then." And with that Nienna walked out the door into the afternoon sunshine.
After finally graduating a few weeks ago, Jessika had found herself with very little to do. She had a Summer Circle to look forward to on the Solstice and a few Circle Daybreak meets for people living in L.A. There was talk of a visit up to the headquarters in Las Vegas.
When the new girl had come to town, Saffron Iria had been odd from the start. Her unusually bright purple hair, and even weirder gold eyes flecked with blue, which were apparently natural. The other kids had snickered, passing her off as a weirdo. But Jessika actually liked the girl. They had met in a makeup shop at the mall, Saffron had seemed totally lost and didn't seem to be sure what she was looking for.
Jessika had talked to her, and learned Saffron would be starting the local university with her in September. She had been a little surprised when Saffron had shown her one or two very unusual witch-shops in the not-so-respectable parts of her hometown. Magic potions and powders, spells in ancient languages, voodoo dolls and crystals she had never heard of.
It soon became clear that Saffron was no ordinary witch, though Saffron wouldn't say exactly what she was. Jessika had taken one of the scrolls, just out of pure interest because the runes were so weird.
Nienna had found it and asked where she'd got it. Thinking at the time it was a perfectly reasonable question, Jessika had told her. And Nienna's interest in Saffron had grown, though Jessika never knew why.
Saffron had said rather bluntly one afternoon Nienna was evil, her core was dark and had no soul. Jessika had just laughed it off. "She's a Circle Midnight witch, what'd you expect?"
She picked up her phone and called the number Saffron had given her. "How do you feel about house-sitting for a few days?" she asked.
"House-sitting? In your giant mansion? Where are you going?"
Jessika groaned. "It's my Grandfather's 80th birthday, and there's a big family party in some fancy hotel in L.A. We all have to go, but we've got" (^a nasty secret buried in the basement we don't want anyone to wake up and if that happens it could be disastrous^ Jessika thought) "lots of valuable things here, and most of the staff will be coming with us."
"Um...I guess, I don't have anything else to do for the weekend."
"Great. We're leaving about seven. Come about half an hour or so before." Jessika felt oddly guilty as she hung up.
* * *
"Where did you *get* this?" Claire stared at the scroll in Nienna's hand in disbelief.
Nienna smirked proudly. She had known from first sight that there was something unusual about that Saffron girl. Her unusually bright colouring was a dead give away she wasn't human for starters. The scrolls had caught her eyes. It was shapeshifter language, but not of any shifter in the House of Drache today.
"My idiot sister's new friend Saffron Iria showed her some weird witch shops where they have this kind of stuff."
Claire shook her raven head in fascination as she studied the scrolls, holding it up against the light of a collection of black candles to see it better. "Deva will be interested in this." She rolled the scroll up and placed it in front of the candles.
Nienna frowned a little. "So what is it, it's some kind of ancient shapeshifter thing, I know that."
Claire eyed her for a few moments, pacing around the small chamber. Nienna watched her, the sound of the black robes Claire wore made irritating swishing sounds on the stone floor. This was her discovery, she had simply brought it to Claire because Claire was Second in Command of their Circle. She had easier access to Deva than she did.
"It looks like the writings of an arcobaleno dragon."
Nienna's mind was blank. "A what?"
"Roughly translated, Rainbow dragon." Claire laughed harshly. "Sounds kind of nice, doesn't it? There's one buried under your house."
"The one that we're going to try and raise next week when my family are out the way in L.A. As far as I was aware it was just a regular dragon. What the hell is the difference?"
Nienna knew next to nothing about dragons, but on researching her family's history, the plot of land on which her house had been built, there was a number of violent deaths, weird occurrences people in the town had put it down to ghosts and evil spirits and other sort of ghost crap. Nienna's Circle had discovered the truth.
Claire shrugged. "Deva knows more than she's saying. We need a good dragon's blood to wake that of the dark one we want to raise. That Saffron girl will be perfect. We need to get her to your house in time for the sacrifice."
Nienna smirked. "I've convinced Jessika to ask her idiot friend to house-sit. She doesn't have any clue on what we're planning on doing."
"Good, because if she knows, then we'd have to kill her." Claire glanced over at her, eyebrow raised meaningfully.
"What a shame," Nienna snorted. "No, Jessika will be at the party, so we don't have to worry about her. I'll make some excuse and leave. Why'd we need Saffron for the sacrifice?" What did Claire know that she wasn't saying?
Claire looked at her for a few minutes, then laughed again, this time more of a giggle. "You almost sound like you know what you're talking about. The scroll is merely an added bonus."
Nienna opened her mouth, then shut it, glaring mutely. Now she was totally confused. She knew there was dark and powerful dragon buried under her house that her Circle was going to try and raise. The ritual required a sacrifice, some weird girl had come to town, someone else had mentioned she would be good to use, now it turned out there was some other species of dragon wandering around, and from what she could work out this girl was one of them? It didn't make a whole lot of sense at the moment.
"Just make sure Saffron is at your house around midnight tomorrow. I've got to make a few last minute arrangements, you get to go now," Claire said dismissively, taking a cell phone out the pockets of her robes.
Nienna scowled and walked out the room, and out the Circle's headquarters. What was she letting herself in for here?
* * *