They did this every festival

Thank you to all the lovely people who commented on the last part :-) May the sun be bright, the rain be light and your soulmate turn up on your doorstep!

The divine Dead Flower: ::grins:: Trust me, that ain't short! Hmmm...BLue and Toya - if you'd like I have a couple of unseen scenes I could send you? Just drop me a line: kiananw@hotmail.com (I did have your addy but after my comp crashed, it took my address book with it, damn it!) First...uh..Jal. Second: Cougar and Ria. Third: Blue and Toya. I *think*. :-) Thank you!

The delightful Dee: I didn't know you resided here! :-) Yup, this is Cern's story ~ and you're spot on about Ria. Ruby gets on my nerves too, to be honest. I have this feeling she's my bad side. You see Jepar and SHar soon! (In fact, unless I'm mistaken, you just did g) Ah, her secret...it's a dark one. But then again, I have yet to meet a secret that isn't. Thanks!

The illustrious Ice Princess: Thanks! I always feel kind of sorry for Ria...she seems to be pretty left out, It's about time she had a friend. Jal is explained :-) Piece by piece! I'm glad you're enjoying the story - it's my escape from a) reality and b) my mock exams.

The marvellous Myst: Thanks for telling me you enjoyed them! You read all six at once? Ikarumba! That must have taken a while. Weird? Oh, definitely :-) I'm starting to think I've forgotten what normal is. And thank you! I'm elated you like them!

~*~ Comments would be quite simply adored J Please tell me what you think! ~*~

Nightfire Part Seven

There was complete chaos in Jal's new home.

"Put it under the sink!" yelled Lisa as Chatoya waved a flaming pan around madly. "No, *don't* turn the tap on, it's got oil in..."

The Circle had begun to gather in Cern and Thom's house for the Solstice by early evening.

Not all of them were there; Ruby and Ria weren't turning up, while an ashen, anxious Thom had had to take his little sister to hospital with what he thought might be tonsillitis. A morose Cougar slunk in and kept away from anywhere that hard work was going on. He and Cern had been banned from the kitchen after what Lisa coyly referred to as the 'arsenic' incident.

While people busied themselves in the kitchen Jal sat quietly on a chair and watched. Lisa was chopping vegetables so fast her hands and the knife were a blur. She seemed to be doing six things at once, without burning or overcooking anything. Chatoya told her Lisa could cook like an angel, and they often suspected she was one.

"My mom had a drink problem," she informed Jal, who wasn't sure what he meant – maybe she didn't drink enough. "So I had to learn to look after myself."

"How many do we have tonight, Lise?" asked Chatoya, her long black hair scraped back and her face gleaming with sweat.

Lisa shrugged. "Not many, really. You, me. Cougar, Cern and Jal. And Zara and this apparently yummy fiancé of hers."

"He's gorgeous," confirmed Chatoya. She grinned at Jal from where she was stirring some kind of sauce. "Zara met her soulmate. He's a bit of a power in the Nightworld...and he looks like sin incarnate."

Cern had explained this custom of theirs earlier; it had started off as a joke one Samhain, when Cougar had suggested that instead of summoning the dead (after something he called The Exorcist meets the Candyman, which Jal didn't understand at all), they cook and eat the dead – that was, the dead pigs that had been pounded into sausages in the freezer. And it just carried on from there.

Every festival, Circle Strange would meet up and check they were all still alive. Anyone who could cook would and when it was all prepared, they'd sit down at the vast wooden table and catch up on the news.

Cern had once jokingly called it 'the Nights at the Round Table' and it had stuck.

"You any good with curry, Jal?" Chatoya looked at her with pleading. "This recipe's just impossible."

"What's curry?"

"Ah." The witch paused. "Go and talk to the boys. Things are only going to get even more messy."

* * * *

"'Twas the night before Solstice and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..." Cern quoted and grinned. He loved the spicy scents that wafted through from the kitchen.

"You got that one wrong." Cougar had his sullen, depressed face on. "Round here, it's 'Twas the night before Solstice and all through the kitchen, the girls of the Circle were cooking and bitch—Ow!"

A well-aimed spoon from the kitchen shut him up.

"Hey! What was that for?"

A dark head appeared through the hatch. Chatoya Irkil's face was mock serious, her soft eyes glowing at the vampire. "I can't believe you don't *know*."

"Zara's late," Cougar said, conveniently ignoring the witch. He rolled his eyes. "You'd think she could at least be on time since we haven't seen her for six months."

"I thought Dragon and Matt were supposed to be heading up here," remarked Cern lazily. "What's their excuse?"

"Wait!" Cougar Redfern held up a hand from where he was lounging in front of the TV. "I know that one...they're fighting the forces of darkness. The delectable Dragon rang and said they're all tied up."

"Kinky."

Jal was wrestling with a soft drink someone had thrown her, her face fixed with concentration. Cern couldn't imagine how it was for her. He had found it hard enough to leave his home. But she had stayed still while time spun around her like stars caught in a tornado.

With an exasperated sigh, Cougar leaned over and flicked opened the can, gold eyes glittering with something akin to amusement. In so far as anything made Cougar laugh lately.

"Anyway," drawled Cougar, "Tali and Jepar say they should be getting back soon, so we can look forward to more sappiness than the Natural History Museum's entire collection of amber."

Lisa padded in, wiping her forehead. "Gods above, it's chaos in there. I just set the toaster on fire."

"No, that's the one Ruby rigged up to electrocute Jepar," murmured Cern. He had had a shock or two from that himself. "I can't believe I thought she was a lot like Zara. She maybe not be the sharpest knife in the draw, but that's only because she's holding it."

"Ruby'll get over it," said Lisa firmly. "She's just needs to accept that Jepar is happy now."

Cougar snorted. "She never shuts up about him. 'What's *she* got that I haven't?'," he mimicked. "How about phenomenal dragon powers, eight hundred years of Old Soul history and oh, a binding contract on his soul."

Cern could see Jallakri listening intently, unconsciously scooting nearer. Her pale green eyes were wide and intrigued. She didn't look wild anymore, simply normal with that mess of golden hair drawn back in a clip, the fey red streak tucked behind one ear neatly.

"And how," the lamia continued in the same angry vein, "can Zara, of all people, be getting *married*?"

"You'll understand when you meet the husband-to-be," Chatoya said, putting her head around the door. "Lisa, how do you know when to stop adding chilli to a curry?"

The made vampire frowned. "Bring it in."

Cougar and Cern exchanged glances. They had both been subject to Chatoya's perilous cooking. "Bring a glass of water too!" the witch boy yelled.

Chatoya came in carrying a saucepan. Lisa took one taste and grabbed the glass of water the witch was carrying, her chestnut eyes watering.

"There's enough in there. Add some yoghurt to *try* and tone it down."

"What flavour?"

Looking horrified, Lisa leapt up and headed into the chaos of the kitchen.

"You do this every festival?" asked Jal, clearly fascinated. Her eyes were bright with interest. She looked, he thought, startlingly cat-like, with her hands linked under her pointed chin and her feet tucked neatly together.

"Come hell or high water, and occasionally, it's been both," said Cern wryly. "And—"

The doorbell rang and with an apologetic smile, he got up to answer it.

* * * *

"Oh..." The brown-haired girl stretched lazily. "it's so nice to be going back home."

"Home?" The boy driving gave a startled laugh. "You've only been there a few weeks."

She shrugged, and turned the motion into an easy rolling of her shoulders. "It's where the heart is. Watch it, Jepar!"

The boy slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to a halt.

"I knew there was a reason they called you the Jubatus Road Peril," the girl muttered. Her eyes, a clear dark blue like sapphires in shadow, glowed affectionately.

The boy gestured to the road ahead. It was a clear stretch of wide open scrubland, sandy and dusty. "You want to drive, Tali?"

She pulled a face. "You know I can't." She sighed. "I wonder if anything's happened while we've been away."

Jepar swung the car into gear. "It's Ryars Valley. I haven't had a moment's peace since I moved there." He grinned, eyes like twin emeralds narrowed against the sun. "It's been brilliant."

"I had a really weird dream the other night," she said thoughtfully. "I think it was true."

"What was it?"

She laid a hand over his and the boy hit the brakes as the dream pounded violently into his skull.

It was night, and it was somewhere within the verdant woods of the valley, he knew that much. The ground lay still, leaves piled on it. In his mind, he heard distant howls, their rhythm rippling through him. Stillness lay all around, like a thick blanket.

Then the ground erupted, sending a spray of dirt and dust into the air as two pallid hands slammed onto the ground, clawing into the damp earth and flexing as something drew itself out of the earth. It turned a too-human face to the crescent moon and gave a long wail. Golden hair fluttered down its back in lank, muddy tails as it seemed to stand to arch, to stretch up for that glittering slice of pearl before it collapsed.

The boy shuddered as his soulmate drew away. Alisha Althasson looked at him, worried. "I don't know what it is," she confessed. "But it scares me."

"It scares me too," he said grimly. "Gods, Tali, what the hell was that?"

"I don't know," she answered. "But we should find out. It didn't feel human, or even alive. Whatever it is, Jepar, it's long dead. But I don't know if it knows that."

* * * *

"Is that you, Cern Akafren?" a sweet voice said as he opened the door to see a familiar figure. "It is!" Then there was delighted screaming and he was hit by nine stone of enthusiastic friend. "Are the others in there?" Zara gasped as she flung her arms round his neck and tried to affectionately strangle him.

He disentangled himself and looked at her. Still the same Zara, barely pushing five foot with her bright blue eyes and short dark hair that clung to her face. Being made into a vampire hadn't changed her at all.

"Where else would they be on Solstice?" he demanded. "And some new faces too." As she darted inside, he yelled, "And *don't* annoy Cougar!"

He turned his attention back to the other person at the door. And met the slightly weary obsidian gaze of a boy who looked about his age with the dazzling looks of a vampire and hair so dark a red it was almost black. "You'd be the fiancé?" he inquired.

"Got it in one. Does she never stop?" the vampire sighed as they all heard Zara's voice shrieking happily and rapidly rising in pitch and volume. "You know, I was meant to be having someone killed yesterday, but she makes it very difficult."

Cern looked at the vampire, wondering if he had just heard that. "If you don't mind – why? Oh, and come in," he added, as the vampire strode in.

"She keeps talking to them and telling me that evil isn't all bad and couldn't they just be tortured instead. And she can be very...distracting," the vampire admitted with a rueful smile.

"Darling!" Zara came bouncing out of the kitchen again and hauled the vampire into the living room. Cern noticed that despite the fact her fiancé could probably have squashed her like a bug, had he the mind, he submitted with nothing more than a slight sigh and an embarrassed smile. "By the way, Cern," she shouted back at him. "This is Dark and he's the fiancé."

* * * *

"What took you so long, midget?" Cougar Redfern demanded, obviously delighted by the appearance of the sleek, chic girl. He was smiling, his eyes lit with the odd sweetness that so few people saw.

"Nice to know you missed me, Redfern," she drawled in a voice as cool as ice. She *was* tiny, at least a foot shorter than him. "Just thought I'd drop in."

"From *Vegas*?"

"A mere three days drive," Cern put in, switching the TV off. "C'mon Cougar, quit giving her a hard time."

"Oh, been there and done that," the girl said, giving the lamia a glare.

"I made you very happy," protested Cougar.

"Happy?" the girl said and gave a hard laugh. Her eyes flashed like sapphires, filled with impossibly bright colour and radiance. "Debatable, but from the way you've been screwing up lately, I'm not seeing much happiness in your future. At this rate, I'm not even sure you'll *have* a future."

"You won't if you keep talking like that, Zara. It's my business if I mess my life up."

"Yeah, and it's our business when you take someone else down with you." Zara flicked back the mane of glossy black hair that curled down to her stubborn chin. "You're messing up Ria, Cougar. Poor girl loves you so much it hurts her and you're too goddamned stubborn and hurt yourself to do anything about it."

Jal had to admire the way she stood up the vampire. She glanced around the room and saw Cern in the midst of a suspicious coughing fit. The girl's fiancée, who was lounging quietly on a chair, was hiding a smile behind his hand.

His black eyes swung to meet Jal's and she nearly gasped aloud at the depth there. His eyes seemed to reach into infinity, and she could see strange specks of light glinting in them, as if the night sky had been cut down and locked into his stare.

He looked back, and she slowly saw puzzlement cross his face. Almost recognition. Despite the fact hse knew she had never seen him, fear filtered coolly under her skin.

"... and what business of yours is it anyway?" the lamia boy was snapping, his teeth bared. Jal wondered if the only way he knew how to stop anyone getting to close was to lash out.

"As your ex-girlfriend and current friend, it's my business," she said steadily. "I'm the only one out of this lot who hates you just about enough to see what you're doing and likes you just about enough to tell you."

Jal could see Cougar searching for an escape, his face filled with an almost frightened, caged look. "Well, maybe I don't want to hear it."

"I don't give a damn what you want."

"Enough!" said Lisa, striding in. "This meant to be a reunion, and listening to you two yelping isn't anyone's idea of fun. Introduce me to this gorgeous man, Zara..."

* * * *

Dinner was a strange affair. Zara's enigmatic fiancé turned out to have a bewitchingly soft velvet-dark voice and a lot of confusion concerning Circle Strange.

"So let me get this straight," he was saying quietly. "You," he pointed at Lisa, "are a made vampire. And you're soulmates with—"

"No, no, that's all wrong," interrupted Zara. "Honestly, Dark, it's not that difficult!"

"Of course not," the boy murmured. His eyes flickered to Jal again and that odd bemusement filled them.

"Cougar is soulmates with Ria," began Zara, helping herself to Cajun chicken. "Ria isn't here...because moron here has—all right, Redfern, you don't need to glare, I'll leave it be. He also changed Ruby, the resident neurotic, into a vampire illegally. Neither she nor Thom, our Old Soul bizarre boy, are here. Alisha, who used to be Cougar's sister in a past life – Toya, are you *sure* about that?"

"*I'm* sure," put in Cougar sullenly. "And it was my past life, so I should know."

"You'd think, wouldn't you?" said Zara snidely. "Alisha is also Jepar's soulmate. You met him, Cougar and Toya when they came to visit. Alisha and Jepar have gone off somewhere – and what's this Alisha girl like?"

"Like Jepar, only with a brain," said Cern dryly. Zara grinned.

"Lisa, here, our cook, is a made vampire. She came here because she robbed a Nightworld vault. And finally, you have Cern, who doesn't really like to say why he's here. Unless you'd like to elaborate...?"

Cern raised his eyebrows. "Don't ask and I won't have to lie."

"Fine." The tiny girl flicked her hair back from her face. "And that's everyone."

"Not quite," her fiancé observed quietly. His piercing stare swung to Jal again. He was unnerving her. "You haven't told me who this is?"

Zara shrugged and looked at her friends. "I don't know."

"Jal," said Cougar tersely. "Our latest. She's a wolf—"

"I'm not," protested Jal. "I can't be! I'd know!"

She didn't feel any different. She didn't look any different, except for that strange crimson streak slicing down her hair. How could she have changed in such a fundamental way and not know?

The darkness, she thought suddenly. You were lost in there for so long. Thousands of years passed...who knows what else changed? The world has altered irrevocably. Why not you too?

Cougar's golden eyes glittered like the sun on amber. "Maybe. Maybe not. Dozens of people don't realise they can shift if they're changed while they're unconscious. It's been done before – you don't necessarily have to drink their blood, just a transfusion is enough."

"But..."

"He's right," Cern put in gently. He smiled at her, his mellow tones soothing. "We're Nightworld, Jal. We know our own. Even the Pack said you were a wolf. Look, I can see auras, and yours is Nightworld."

She looked at his solemn face, at the sheer truth that blazed out from his violet eyes and had to believe him. She could see the truth in him.

"What colour is that anyway?" said Zara. "You always told me I was turquoise."

Jal blinked. Auras? He could see the light of the soul?

Cern tilted his head on one side, squinting at the girl. "You still are, mostly. There's just a sort of silver sheen laid over it. That's what the Nightworld gives you." He shivered. "The older you are, the more silver. Like Dark, you're a really deep silver colour, more like lead. Though Lise, you're almost that colours too, only with a gold tinge. But you're only thirty."

Lisa fiddled with her knife. "Yeah. Well...there's always exceptions." The bangles on her arms jingled and gleamed in the light as she spread her hands. "And you all know how exceptional I am!"

Cougar snorted. "Dream on, Lise. What colour am I?"

The witch didn't hesitate before he said, "Gold. Streaked with black. You aren't happy."

Cougar scowled. "No kidding, Einstein."

"Oh, it's all your own fault," snapped Zara, and the pair of them were off again, snapping and snarling like cornered wolves, any trace of peace vanishing under accusations and argument.

"Could you pass the salt?" asked Cern absently. He was listening to the rapidly escalating argument between Zara and Cougar, head propped on one hand. His wavy mahogany hair caught burgundy in the light.

"Sure." Jal stretched over, watching Cougar's snarling, curling mouth and the contrast of the other girl's amused, yet gentle eyes.

He reached out and their hands brushed, and it was as if someone had shot a jet of icy water through her body into her soul...

Jal felt darkness wrap around her and take hold.

* * * *

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? I'd love to hear what you have to say!