Nightfire Part Five

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Nightfire Part Five

"Blue? What?" Cern was obviously as confused as Jal felt. "Did I miss something? Like a noun?"

"Blue is my little brother," Cougar said briefly. Jal wanted to shrink away from the fury that turned his eyes from gold to pure streaming sunlight. "He's...wrong."

The witch boy sighed. "Oh, and I was worried you were going to be vague about this. Do I get any more explanation than that? Lisa?" His warm gaze flicked to Jal, sharing his confusion. Something so simple, but she was astonished at how glad she felt. "Ruby?"

"All the explanation you need is in your back garden," the tribal girl whispered. The other girl; Ruby, with her pretty, soulful eyes and dark red hair, simply shuddered and covered her face with her hands.

"Buried in your back garden," amended Cougar. Cold rage had seeped into his ravishingly sensual voice, poisoning him like slow-burning acid. It scared Jal. Anger she could handle, but icy, still wrath like this reminded her horribly of Kaajen. Of the hurt and the darkness and her own voice screaming endlessly.

"He killed the goldfish?"

There was dead silence, then something relaxed in the lovely tribal girl. "I wish. That was Jepar."

"He killed Flipper?" Cern looked mildly surprised. "He might have said. So what has this Blue guy done?"

Both of them hesitated, and Jal saw a flicker of sadness cross Cougar's savage face.

"He killed Sonj," he informed quietly. "You never knew her...she died a few months before you ever turned up. She was a half-breed and that was why Blue killed her. Because she wasn't *pure*."

"You're a half-breed too," Lisa said suddenly. Devastating fear leapt from her eyes and Jal understood with a start; she cared for Cern. A lot. Jal turned her gaze on Cern. Did he know? No. "What if—"

"Another half-breed hunter?" Cern said and even laughed. "Guys, I've been dealing with them since I was born. I can handle it."

"Not Blue," Cougar said, shaking his head. Pitch hair fell across his pale skin. "He's different. You can't reason with him. You can't fight him. You don't have a hope in hell of killing him."

"So...general wailing and gnashing of teeth then?" murmured Cern. "Truly that bad?"

"Truly." Lisa's low, strong voice didn't shake and neither did her gaze. But the sorrow still sighed in her eyes like ghosts of yesterday.

"He was the one who..." Ruby was speaking, her crimson eyes shadowed and her voice thin and scared. "He told the Elders about Cougar changing me. He...talked to me. He said...things."

From her face, Jal guessed that it wasn't so much what this boy had said, but what he had done. Blue. What an odd, innocent name for someone who inspired such fear. Blue. The colour of skies, of seawater, of gems. One word that could bring people to their knees, pleading for mercy to someone who had none.

"And he promised he'd come back," Cougar declared hollowly. The proud face was pale as winter clouds, so pale Jal thought that if she touched him, her fingers might leave a mark. "Because of..."

His head snapped up and he and the tribal girl were staring at each other in pure, blind dread. "No..." the girl breathed, her terror brandished by that alarmingly honest stare. "Gods, no..."

"Guys?" Cern looking from one to the other, frowning. "Are you okay?"

"Look after Jal. We have to find Toya." The lamia boy leapt to his feet, rummaging in his bag. What he produced was a sleek burgundy stake and a honed blade that he held with perfect confidence. That alluring face had hardened indefinably, hard with old aches and new hate.

"Toya?" Concern, softening the witch boy. It hurt her to look at their closeness and see she was only on the fringes, looking into these people who drew together like strands of a strong, gleaming web. "Why?"

"Don't worry about it," Lisa told him briefly, and then the two were gone.

Cern let out his breath in a sigh. "Great. Not another dark, mysterious secret." He glanced at Jal. "Got any you'd like to confess, while we're here?"

She shook her head quickly, remembering what that strange cold boy had said to her earlier. The one with the blue hair and blue eyes and—him? He was this...Blue? She shuddered and didn't notice the way Cern's eyes narrowed. He had killed a girl...and he wanted to hurt Jal.

Goddess protect me, she thought. No one else will.

* * * *

Chatoya was held utterly passive by fear as the boy, who she refused to think about even in nightmares, carried her into an empty room and kicked the door shut. He put her down almost carefully. He had been carved, this creature of elegance and wildness, carved into a killer and a monster cloaked in mere beauty.

"Now," he said calmly. "I think we need to get one or two things straight."

She backed away from him, fast. Her mind was shrieking that something was wrong, something was desperately wrong, but she couldn't think what.

"There's a cupboard in the corner if you'd like to go and cower in it," that hypnotic voice drawled and she could feel the dark crawling through it like sly vipers. "But you will listen to me and you will obey me."

Arrogant, cold-blooded bastard. As always, he set her blood ablaze with his wintry superiority. "What gives you the right to waltz in here again? In case you've forgotten, you can't kill me—"

"Oh, please." He cut her off, his distant stare hard. "Do you really think I'd come back here for *you*?"

She had absolutely no reply for that.

"And what gives me the right to 'waltz in here again' is the fact that I am here on business. Nightfire business. And you will not interfere. You will stay out of my way and I will stay out of yours. The fact you are my soulmate is an incidental. Nothing more. *You* are an incidental."

Nightfire. He had mentioned that name three years ago, in passing. And the passage of Bane Maelfici left only destruction and ravages in its wake.

"I will *not* be dictated to by you."

He smiled, that slight, feral curve of his mouth that said; I am something very dangerous. I will not hesitate to use and torment you – and we both know it. "You will. Maybe I can't hurt you, but you seem rather attached to your friends. I won't hesitate to hurt them."

"Have you been watching me?" she asked in disbelief.

A sigh that sounded more amused than anything. "Yes. I can't keep away from you. I've become quite the voyeur in my spare time." Those boundless blue eyes locked with hers, speaking only an ancient tongue of coldness and slaughter. Again, that feeling of wrongness somewhere flickered in her gut. "No, I have better things to do than watch the machinations of your attempt at a life. For a girl who was born part of the Nightworld, you are amazingly naïve of how it works. There's always someone who can be bought."

"Who?" she said angrily.

"Don't worry about it," he told her. "They had an unfortunate accident."

The question slipped out before she could stop it. "What?"

"They tried to bargain with me." That serpentine smile again, making a mouth that should have been soft and sensual nothing but another weapon, another mirror of his empty, merciless mind. "I don't haggle."

No, she thought, because that would be normal and reasonable and you are neither of those things. Then she saw the way his gaze had slithered to her throat. There was something dreamy, desiring in his look and as he took an easy step forward, her stomach contracted in disquiet.

"What are you doing?" she said, retreating. His blistering stare had moved to her mouth and her throat instantly went dry.

A step forward, graceful and slinking as a snake given feet. "Wondering what you taste like."

"What I what?" He was serious, lips half-parted to show glinting fangs, eyes full of thick, wistful craving.

"Foolish, isn't it?" Another pace forward, and she was moving back, as far away from him as she could get. "But three years on, and I see this creature before me who is far too tempting and sweet to resist."

"I think you have the wrong girl," she said tightly. She was backed up to the wall. Damn.

"I know I have the right girl." Still walking forward in that easy, boneless glide. Every motion screaming monster, every nuance of his voice filled with velvet darkness and power. "Aren't you at all curious?"

"No."

"Liar." He said it softly, his eyes widening slightly, then he was only a metre away, and it was far too close and far too far at the same time.

"Murderer," she flung back. It was the first thing she could thing of, and for a second, she saw that tiny ring of gold around his iris grow to swallow the blue.

"Correct. But enough labels." The wall cold on her back, utterly ungiving as he stepped within inches and let one finger trail down her cheekbone. She could feel the gentle heat from his body, the scent of the winter's first snow drowning her frail senses. Flinching away, she finally realised what was wrong.

There was no soulmate link.

"What...how did you do it?" she whispered, more afraid than ever because she had no hope of shattering that diamond-cold control, no hope of stopping him from killing her if he wanted. "Why?"

"I wanted to. I needed to." One hand curled around the back of her neck, the other pushing back her hair with a touch light as butterflies' feet. She was very aware that he held her life in his hands. "I did."

A little sideways tilt of his head and she knew he was going to bite her. "Don't." It sounded so pitiful, thin and fear-filled. "Leave me alone."

"Is that really what you want?" His breath tickling her skin, the only warmth that he would ever give.

"Yes."

He let go and her water-filled knees gave. She would have grabbed something to stop her, but the only thing to cling to was him and Chatoya was damned if she'd touch her stunning, corrupt soulmate.

Hands under her elbows caught her before she got close to hitting the ground. "You can be very stubborn."

"Well, you can be a vicious murderer," she said as coldly as she could, aware of that little tremor that wouldn't quite disappear and that made her even angrier. "How about we call it quits?"

"Is that what you call it nowadays?" A lazy, amused smile she had never seen on him before that was shockingly disarming. "Oh, don't look so puzzled. Am I not allowed a sense of humour?"

"You're allowed one. You simply don't have one," she said tightly, unable to escape the piercing daggers of those phenomenal eyes that seemed to trail off into cold infinity. Were those stars glittering so minutely, so perfectly in his soulless pupil? A galaxy in his stare, and a vortex in his soul. "Now let go of me."

He let go and she was surprised and did hit the floor.

"Falling at my feet?" A little flick of his eyebrows and then he bared his teeth for an instant. "It may be the first time, but it won't be the last. See you around."

She didn't see him leave, because she had her hands over her eyes, trying to block out the reality of what happened. Slumped against a wall with her legs to her chest and her hands to her face, she tried to deny it.

But it was true.

* * * *

"Do you want to talk about it?" Cern said mildly. His eyes were unreadable, that startling shade of purple she had never seen before. Beside him, Ruby was regaining her control slowly, one hand clutched around Cern's. He didn't seem to mind, despite the blood the girl's nails left.

"Talk about what?"

"Your deep dark secret." As she opened her mouth to protest, he held up a hand. "Don't lie to me, please. I know when people lie. Something's upset you, and...I felt something when I looked at you."

"Indigestion?" she said, unable to stop herself. The comment was utterly unlike her; it was so...mean.

A smile. "You spent too long in Cougar's mind. That's a Redfern remark if ever I heard one."

She flushed, embarrassed at being so callous, embarrassed that she had to lie. It should have come easier to her. She had spent so long lying to Kaajen—the thought slipped away again, leaving only that cold fear.

Looking up, she found his eyes fixed on her again, thoughtful. "You remembered something, didn't you?"

"Almost," she muttered, unable to meet his stare. "It...always stops."

Silence, while she avoided his face and he continued to watch her. "I won't ask," he said abruptly. "It's not my business. I can feel it hurts you though...if you do ever want to talk, I'll listen."

He meant it. "Why?" Her voice filled with pure puzzlement as she *did* meet his eyes then and he could see, more than anything, the fear there. "What do you get out of it?"

"You really *did* spend too long in Cougar's mind." He didn't seem at all offended, simply spinning the crumpled can on the table around and around. "It's not about getting anything. It's just...I've seen a lot of people with a lot of secrets. I can't explain it well but...look, do you know what half-breeds are?"

The word triggered something and for a moment, all she heard was a voice, old as iron and deep as the darkest cavern, echoing around and around her mind. ~ Halfbreeds...halfbreeds...halfbreeds... ~

A jolt and she was hit hard, her head snapping forward with a vicious crack. The last thing she heard was his voice, hands shaking her shoulders. "Jal...Jal...*Jal*!"

* * * *

She found herself lying on the dunes in a desert night as deep and clear as her soul had once been, her hair spilling loose and free over her face. She sat up, pushing the satiny golden mass away like she might a veil, enjoying the sensation of it sliding over her skin and found a boy staring at her.

He was lying on his side, head propped up on one hand and eyes like pools of inky blackness, stretching into the fathomless deeps that she had sunk through and would never touch again. A place filled with screaming souls, with writhing prisoners and the countless raw moans of broken people.

"Hello, Jallakri."

His lips had a curious red sheen to them, his hair pale as moonlight and slipping between his fingers carelessly. It was long as her own, easily, and in places, the night's light seemed to strike odd russet hues upon its shimmering surface.

"Who are you?"

"You do not know me." He shrugged, skin gleaming. It had a beautiful, living bloom to it and she longed to touch him, just to feel human warmth and human trembling under her hands. "You touched me once."

"I've never seen you in my life."

"I suppose that is true." Something was beginning in his eyes, a tiny pinpoint of light swirling in the depths like the hub of a whirlpool. "Yet you touched me deeply, you touched me with your hands and your voice and a tiny fragment of your soul. It was enough."

"Enough for what?" she whispered, and he sat up, that light swelling and spilling over the blackness. And it was red, deep true red that stirred a feeling of recognition in her. She should know that colour; surely she had been cloaked in it once, had thrown back her head and danced in it, sung out her soul for it.

"Enough to bind us," he said softly, and his voice was husky, as if he had been screaming without stopping. "Enough for me to reach out through the void, and to cling with all my anguish to the creature who burns in that darkness like a torch. You burn in the endless night, Jallakri, you blaze and I want to burn up in the heat of your soul. And I want it so much...that it can be real."

He leaned over and Jal shrank back, yearning for escape. For the first time, she saw that around her lay only that cavernous, ancient darkness and the harsh silver sands and knew her escape was impossible. Instead, she could only watch his molten red eyes growing in her vision.

"You have to know," he said calmly. "I will not have thrown my life at you for nothing."

Her hands pushed at him and simply sank into his chest. There was nothing there, only an empty, hollow cavern. He had no heart. Her eyes widened, wells of pale, flawless green that belonged to a brighter world and she swallowed hard.

"What are you?"

"What you made me." His laugh was low, breathy and bitter. "You broke me and now I will break you. And all it takes, Jallakri, is one touch."

She stared into that ravaged face and felt pity. Pity and terrible, soul shaking fear. "What have I done to you that you hate me so?"

"What have you done? What have you *done*?" He bared his teeth and she saw fangs, useless, lovely and his breath fell onto to her skin like a thousand darts of ice. There was no warmth in him, no heat. "You touched me, Jallakri, and with your poisonous touch, you sent me into the darkness. And I have lain there, neither dead nor alive, but unable to speak, for time beyond comprehension or care. I have screamed silently and bled to death while you have walked on this mortal world."

"I have been there too," she cried out. "I don't know what you think I've done, but I haven't! I was lost in that place, in that darkness. And I am awake, but I have been awake for *days*, only days! I have never seen you, or known you, or touched you."

His eyes remained full of loathing, but beneath it was the most lost and suffering look she had ever seen.

"You have," he said, leaning so close he only had to whisper. "You recall nothing...some things even a monster cannot bear to remember...but let me show you. Know what you did."

And then his slippery, slick mouth touched hers and he kissed her without passion and without love. His touch was frozen, chilling her from the outside in and she realised what the lustre on his mouth had been as the taste of it lingered achingly on her mouth.

It was blood.

It was his blood, and she had killed him. But she had never woken from her sleep; she had not killed him.

And yet...images filled her head; her own laughing voice, her own glittering eyes, her hands clutching at his heated skin and whispering words of darkness, words of pleasure to him and all the while laughing, laughing, laughing until she drove her hands into his thundering, yearning heart and tore it out and with it, sent his soul plummeting into the abyss. Laughing in a barren desert world under a starless sky.

Stop, she thought, stop, stop, stop!

He did. And those eyes, red with his blood and horror, shrieked. "You see," he told her. "And you know."

"That wasn't me!" she screamed, feeling horror clutch coldly around her heart. "I couldn't! I wouldn't!"

"And if it wasn't you," he said softly, drawing a finger across her cheek. She recognised with horror that it was an icy claw and it was cutting her flesh. "Pray tell, who was it?"

"I didn't kill you!"

"No," he agreed, disarmingly gentle. "You did not. You threw me into hell, Jallakri ap Ganra, you threw my broken soul in to darkness and I can never leave. Until you burn brightest, I can never leave. I want you to burn, burn and take me with you."

"I don't understand..." The tears slid helplessly from her eyes, fear shaking her.

"You have to. You have to find out." His voice was urgent, frantic. "If you do not understand, I will be trapped forever. How many more will you send to the darkness because you do not know what you did?"

"Please!" she gasped. "Leave me alone! I don't know anything..."

"Start with what you do know," he said softly and stroked that claw, warm with her blood across her hair, leaving a slender trail of crimson. "Learn what you are. And maybe you will save us all."

* * * *

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Ki