First off, my vast, humble apologies to those of ye who're reading ::grimace:: I've been up to my myopic eyeballs in exams lat

First off, my vast, humble apologies to those of ye who're reading ::grimace:: I've been up to my myopic eyeballs in exams lately (but I passed so yay!) so I haven't had a chance to write much on here! Thank you so much to all the incredibly fabulous people who commented last time round :-) You made my week! All the proper thanks are below the story J Thank you so much!

Anything you have to say would be adored, pored over, adulated and venerated. Any feedback would be adored; it is the literary substitute for chocolate without the calories, and it sweetens life immensely, so I would be unbelievably grateful if you'd be kind enough to send it! Tell me what you think, what you'd like to see or wouldn't!

I hope y'all enjoy :-)

Nightfire Part Nine

Jal didn't know what she was expecting when she ran. Freedom? Forgetting? Oblivion?

Certainly she wasn't thinking at all as she pelted desperately out of the house. The air outside was a hot slap in the face, hitting her with the heat of summer sunshine and the sweet scent of cut grass.

She heard footsteps after her – someone shouting her name – but she was vaulting over the garden gate by them, the wind deliciously light and teasing in her hair. Jal fled to the place where she could give voice to her sorrow, where the night would swallow her grief and make her whole...

The change came unexpectedly like water sliding over her skin, painful grindings and crackings in her body. She fell forward, unable to keep upright as her legs folded and reformed, she would hit the ground—

A glossy wolf landed, with a golden tinge to its coat and a red blaze running down between its ears. And she ran and ran and ran, howling out her heart in a wild, eerie song until the woods were a dark-green blur and the horror was far behind.

She felt she could run forever.

And the shape that followed her, giving easy, loping chase, went unnoticed.

* * * *

"I take it that went well," remarked Cougar, who had obviously been spying on Jal's escape through the window. "Going on the way she's nothing more than a cloud of dust in the distance."

"Shut up." Cern heard the unusual harshness in his voice, but was too shaken to apologise.

"I know that girl from somewhere." Dark's black eyes were narrowed and brooding. "I can't place her."

"So that was why all the funny looks," said Zara chirpily, deliberately calming the atmosphere. He could feel her sending soothing thoughts at him like the brush of feathers. "How do you mean you know her?"

"I've seen her face before...in a painting somewhere. It must have been in our vaults...damn, I'm sure it's important." He raked his hands through that dark red, nearly raven hair. "I've got a bad feeling about her. I need to find out where I've seen her."

"Now?" asked the tiny vampire girl. "Can't you get one of the minions to find out?"

"No." An apologetic smile, his voice velvet-deep. "Sorry, mienne, but the painting was in one of the classified vaults. Only thing that's in there are organisations that even the Nightworld doesn't talk about. K'shaia, Pursang, Nightfire." Oddly, Chatoya's mossy eyes widened. "We're talking serious peril here, if I'm right. And I'm the only one who sees what's in there."

Cern didn't want to ask what happened to the people who found the information. He had the feeling he knew. And he could see everyone else looking uncomfortable too.

"Why don't you stay, Zar?" offered Lisa, her voice gentle. "The house is a bit of a mess, but I'm sure we could make room somehow..."

Zara shook her head. "Nah. Where he goes, I go," she admitted. "That's where the fun is."

"You poor sod," Cougar said, glancing over at the Darkstar with pity in his gold eyes.

"It's not so bad," he conceded with a light shrug, half-smiling. "I'd like to think I've corrupted her a bit."

"Hah!" was all Zara said, punching her fiancé in the shoulder. It couldn't have possibly hurt him. "Look guys, I'm sorry I have to leave, but I'll be back very, very soon. A day, maybe two. And...Redfern?"

Cougar tensed, expecting another verbal attack. His eyes went the wary sunlit gold that meant he was angry, and Lisa, sitting nearby, edged away and picked up the closest cushion in case she needed a shield.

"I'm sorry I was so nasty," Zara said. "You just really irritate the hell out of me. But you're still my friend and I have to say, you're a sweetheart when you want to be. So...sort it out. I'm getting tired of your on-off relationship. You should have a bungee cord attached to your back."

"Yeah. I'll try. But it takes two to tango, and it's pretty difficult when one of you is doing the samba."

The vampire girl blinked, her pretty face baffled. Then she grinned. "Learn a new dance."

They were gone not long after in a screech of tyres.

"He must have been serious," said Cougar mildly, looking at the scorch-marks on the road as evening rolled in, the sky a deepening shade of blue. "Guess Jal's got something she isn't telling us. Cern? Anything to add to this, as the latest member of the 'oh hell, not me too' club?"

He didn't know what to say, but before he could speak, Chatoya, who had been fiddling nervously with her long black hair, pre-empted him.

"I don't know what Nightfire is," she said softly. "But I think it wants Jal."

* * * *

Jal had stopped running finally, hanging her head. All the energy and the fear was run out of her and it had left this kind of numb green sickness that lay in her limbs like slow poison. She was bleeding from a dozen places, but she didn't care. Inside, she was bleeding far more fatally.

Far away, low baying sounds rose and fell. It was the depths of the night now, the moon swelling above and casting her cold white light onto the world. Not yet full, but becoming bloated on time. Waiting.

Soon. Her wolf-voice whispered exotic words she didn't grasp. Sweet soon, the hunter's moon is coming...

Slowly, her body relaxed, and as if she had thawed into liquid, flowed into human form. And she *ached*.

"Very impressive." She started at the voice, and sat up to see the lean, dark form of Blue Malefici who had struck such terror into her earlier. "I nearly had to stretch myself to keep up."

"What do you want?" Jal snapped, unaware of how wildly her hair was mussed and tangled, how her skin was dotted with mud. Her pale green eyes stood out like chunks of crystal in her face.

"World domination, unequivocal worship...but right now, I'll settle for a chat."

Jal looked him up and down disdainfully, the way she had seen Zara look at Cougar. "Mud settles too."

"Oh, do be quiet, ancestress," he said softly.

Her heart skipped a beat. No...surely she had heard him wrongly... "What did you call me?"

He laughed delightedly, the sound almost feral. Against the dark green of the woods, his spiky cobalt hair stood out like a leaping flame. "Oh, didn't you know? We're related."

"Over my dead body."

He was lying, of course. There were no similarities. He was comely beyond the dreams of mortals, pale and blinding. She was ordinary, a tiny golden glow in the dark. Time immortal stood between them.

"No, but not for want of trying," he murmured. "Don't you remember your child, Jallakri? Your bastard half-vampire child? When you changed, it didn't die. Nightfire brought up that sweet child of yours."

"But..." she said faintly. "That's not possible..."

"Oh, it is, dear ancestress. I assure you, it is."

"I was asleep..." Her face was waxen. She would have known, she thought dazedly, if she had given birth to a child. A *child*, flesh of her flesh. "I was lost in the darkness..."

He smiled, a tiny curve of his mouth like the claw of a cat. "Are you still deluding yourself about that? Nightfire made you for a purpose, Jallakri. You may not remember, but you served us very efficiently. *Too* efficiently, and we dropped you into slumber supposedly forever. Obviously, someone erred. I got quite a shock when I discovered you were awake."

It was impossible to imagine this boy being shocked about anything, with his anciently arctic eyes. "You are not my relation."

"The link may be tenuous," he said mildly, "but it is there. Aryana mal Ifiche was the start of my blood line...oh, the name may have mutated a little, but it's close enough to make no difference. Mal Ifiche...Malefici...it means the same thing, my dear; made by evil. And made...by you."

Furious, she struck out. He had moved before she even knew, hitting her so hard her head reeled and his lazy, mocking voice fell harshly onto the air. "The truth isn't pretty, is it? Or have you *really* forgotten?"

She spun, and he was leaning against a tree. Her cheek glowed red-hot with pain. "You're lying!"

"You have, haven't you?" he said, ignoring her. "You don't remember a thing...though you obviously remember Kaajen mal Ifiche. Oh, I know all about you, ancestress. Why did you run away this evening?"

"That's not your business!" But she couldn't stop the memories flooding into her mind. Cern Akafren had come so perilously close to seeing her secret...

"You should learn to shield your mind," he murmured, stretching lazily. "Yes, your revolting little secret. It must eat at you."

"You don't know," Jal said scornfully, secure in her secret's safety. "No one ever knew. Not even Kaajen."

His laugh was glacial. "Why don't I tell you a story?"

"Why don't I rearrange your face into a more pleasing expression?" she suggested.

And Jal was surprised to find she actually had to fight to keep from carrying out her threat. Anger was soaring through her veins. Come too close, her bladed wolf-voice growled, and I'll burn you away.

He didn't heed her. And for the first time, Jal noticed something very strange. His eyes weren't pure blue. Just around the iris there was a thin ring of flaring gold. For a second, it made her catch her breath in alarm. Golden flame, like Kaajen's eyes...

"Once upon a time," he began, pacing casually, "in a far-off land, there lived a girl. She wasn't a princess, she wasn't heartbreakingly beautiful and she certainly wasn't particularly intelligent. But she was dedicated to her Goddess, and every moon she would go to her temple and she would pray to her Goddess.

"Who knows what she prayed for? Maybe she prayed for a long life, or beautiful children or a man who loved her. But I don't think so. I think she prayed for darker things, and when no answer came...she chose another path. An older path, that led into darkness..."

* * * *

"Bless my family, and bring us good harvest. May the air and the earth and the water and fire be one with us, as they are one with you. May we be one with the land and the land with us. So mote it be."

The statue she prayed to was of the Crone-goddess; a stern, withered woman. Although she knew the glower in her eyes came only from two obsidians set there, they seemed to hold a question: do you dare?

She risked a glance around, one hand stealing involuntarily to the charm lying in the hollow of her throat, warm as her own skin. No one to her left. Only one to her right, a weeping girl who called the name of one she had lost over and over.

The temple was filled with light and air. She had always thought it beautiful, a serene haven away from the unyielding heat that made every breath like swallowing the sun. Here, the air was cool, light dancing from white pillars that stretched up, she imagined, to the stars.

Alone, then. Good.

The edges of the flat charm dug into her hand. Should she? Yes. She had gone this far. Jal tugged sharply and the chain around her neck tightened almost unbearably for a second then snapped with a tiny chime, the loops of metal pooling around her hand.

She knew the symbol so well. It was one of the forbidden five. The signs that were not to enter the temple, that were sorcery and death, black power beyond reckoning. And Jal had brought it in.

Again, her thin, shaking fingers traced the delicate lines. The gold glowed softly, as if it drank in the light of the temple and consumed it, turning into this image of…she hesitated to say it. But the word crept into her head unbidden. *Evil*.

A draak-on, the sorcerer had called it, and he had whispered the word in his rattling voice as if it were a demon to steal her soul. "Sacred to the goddess, to her dark side, child," he had hissed. He had scared her, with his mad smile and darting movements. "The face they keep hidden from all but her chosen-ones."

"Why?" Jal had breathed, fascinated despite herself.

He cackled. "Because it is uncertainty. Do you think your Goddess is only merciful and gentle? Is life that way, Ra's child? She has many faces, and not all of them are that of life. She is floods and sandstorms and famine. She cleanses and reaps and then grows anew. Darkness is in her, as well as the light. And this draak-on is part of that; the bringer of sorrows...but also the granter of desires."

And how she desired. How that craving took over her waking world.

Oh, more than *anything*, she wanted peril and ardour, to feel emotions that would carry her away, to feel excitement that could make her heart scream and soar, that could free her from this mundane place. End her loneliness, her outcast isolation and make her wanted, needed, accepted.

She smiled suddenly, her eyes glowing with determination. And she would have it. She would.

Jal placed the charm onto the statue. Her shaking fingers were sliced open by its keen edges; all to the good, she wouldn't have to do it herself. She spread the blood over the gold, and whispered the words that had been caged in her too long.

"Grant me my heart's desire."

Silence, while a kind of relief mixed with sadness bubbled in her and she thought, it hasn't worked...

The winds blasted into the temple.

Fierce, grating, awful, they dragged in the sand from outside, scouring it over her flesh until she screamed with the pain but could not even hear her own voice under the dreadful elemental howl. All the time, she prayed to the Goddess, she begged for her life. Anything, anything!

And suddenly the air seemed to have a voice. Through the unearthly sounds of the air, she felt words that coiled into her ears as soft as a snake's hiss.

"Open your eyes." And though the words were so soft, so gentle, thunderstorms struck behind them. Jal could no less have disobeyed than she could have taken back her actions.

"What is it you ask?" The unearthly voice drowned all else, feminine undertones ringing in it.

The longing flared in her heart, sharp as the pain that ate at her eyes, granting her the courage to answer.

~ You know, ~ she thought. ~ You know what I wish. ~

No answer, but the space was filled with the rage of the elements that arched her back and stirred her blood to scream, that snatched her hair with bladed fingers. "And will you pay the price of your desire?"

Pain. Her body and mind beginning to spiral away, that thrilling wind-torn scream taunting her ears and plucking at her limbs. Away from this one chance that would be all she ever had. "Yes!" she screamed with heart and soul, the need reaching into her voice. "Whatever the price, I shall pay!"

A long pause, and the winds fell silent, the pain evaporating into a sweet, euphoric bliss. "Then you shall never be alone."

* * * *

Ruby had been waiting for her opportunity to do what Blue had asked. The thought of his promise kept her patient, kept her strong. When the two vampires left, Ruby slipped into the house, unnoticed, uncared for. It was easy, and she left carting two heavy bags with her, silent as a wraith. Dead, perhaps, already.

Soon, she thought delightedly. Oh, soon.

* * * *

"You want to explain that comment, Toya?" said Cougar with an attempt at casualness, his golden eyes pinned on her. "Or should we wait for the ominous roll of thunder?"

She shivered slightly, averting her gaze. "You remember when Blue was hunting me?" she said so quietly Cern had to strain to hear. He didn't have a clue what she was on about.

"I do seem to recall a time of frantic homicidal activity, yes," the lamia drawled. "What about it?"

"He...told me that he worked for an organisation called Nightfire. And when he found me earlier, he said he was here on 'Nightfire' business. What if it's Jal?" Her face was miserable.

"Nightfire did something to her," Cern said softly. He felt three pairs of eyes snap to him. "But it wasn't an organisation as such. In her time – and it felt like thousands of years back – it was some kind of cult. She was in love with one of the members, and he tried to make her a sacrifice to the temple."

"Unfinished business, then?" suggested Lisa. "I have to say, that does sound like Blue. After all, he came here to find Toya."

Cern looked from one serious face to the other. Chatoya had her hands pressed to her temples, as if trying to erase her memories. "What happened then? I didn't even know about this Blue guy until you told me and from what you're saying, he caused some serious damage."

"The short version is this," said Cougar flatly, his voice vibrating with emotions Cern couldn't qualify. "He hunted Toya because he thought she knew how to wake dragons. It was actually her brother – who Blue killed by the way – and his spell had just siphoned off its power. The power passed to Toya without her realising, and Blue got the shock of his damned life when he tried to kill her. He couldn't, and he left."

"Basically, he's bad news, and he's after Jal," surmised Lisa grimly. Cern could see that there was far more to it than Cougar's brief summary, but he didn't ask. "So the question is, how do we protect her?"

"Any way we can," said Cern shortly. "Look, it's getting late. I'm going to wait up for her." He saw Cougar's sly grin, Chatoya's arched eyebrows. "To *talk*. Get some sleep...tomorrow, we find Blue."

Chatoya and Lisa left shortly after. Toya looked pale and drained, but somehow determined.

"I'm going to catch some sleep in a while," Cougar said, yawning. "First...I have a craving for rare steak."

Cern wrinkled his nose. "You would. There's some in the fridge."

The lamia returned shortly, looking slightly baffled. "Uh...there is no meat of any sort in the fridge or freezer. Or anywhere in the house. Or anything containing meat."

"What?" Cern blinked, disbelieving. "Don't be dumb, Cougar, I had bacon for breakfast."

"I'm not," he insisted. "The house is empty of meat. None at all."

And he wasn't kidding either. Cern stared at the freezer containing only ice-cream and vegetables an hour later, having turned the house upside in a futile search. The vampire was wearing the exact same baffled expression as he was. "This is ridiculous!" he said furiously. "No one would want to steal all our meat!"

But patently, someone had.

* * * *

Shaking, Jal stared at Blue's cold face. "Your temple was destroyed that day, Jallakri. You wanted excitement, passion, thrills. It was *you* that called Kaajen mal Ifiche, that called the Nightworld to that place. And you are paying the price."

Yes, that was true. It was she who had summoned Kaajen.

He had come from nowhere, in the arms of that same sandstorm that whipped the skies in a fiery frenzy and tore the temple apart. And as sand fell back to the ground in a cascading curtain, he had stepped from it with the air shimmering around him and not a grain of dust on him anywhere.

The Nightfire Temple had risen in place of the old one and the endless night had fallen upon her land. But she hadn't cared; she had thought Kaajen loved her, she had no longer been alone.

That was her secret, her phoenix rising shrieking from the ashes to haunt her heart again.

"Nightfire made you," he hissed. "We can destroy you...and we will."

"I have a right to life!" she cried.

His eyes were dark and terrible, filled with absolute cruelty. "No. You gave up that right when you became the monster you are." He shrugged. "You must have a lot of control. Try and keep it that way. I rather like having the monopoly on homicide round here."

"I don't remember!" she screamed.

"So?" The cold voice was slick on her ears as oil. "You aren't required to remember. All I ask of you is that you don't try anything intensely stupid like putting up a fight. I will kill the monster, Jallakri, because creatures like you and like it can no longer live. There is no use for you."

"I am *not* going to lie at your feet and die!" she hissed, rage making her eyes glow a sudden, vivid red, as if two pools of blood sat in her stare.

He slid into the shadows. "I thought you might not. But do you know what?"

His voice was a fading whisper that clung to the furthest reaches of her senses.

"Go quietly, go screaming...you'll die all the same."

She fled, far from his amused and chilly voice, far from the memories of what she had done. Back to the only place of safety she had now, back to the people who didn't know and couldn't guess her secret. She needed company, she needed to tell them about Blue...or tell them some of it.

He would kill her otherwise, she felt certain.

* * * *

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? All would be slavishly adored!

Thank you with all my heart to these amazing people:

Dee: You probably could see Jal and Cern a mile off...I probably deserve to be shot for that. Yeah...the whole 'discovering your soulamte nad falling instantly in love' thing doesn't intrigue me as much. I like conflict better :-) And the idea of loving people who *aren't* your soulmate. Ruby is messed up :-) I mean, she's stalking *Jepar*. Blatantly warped :-) I love writing FoF - and if you like it too, that's a double bonus! Thanks so much!

Ice Princess: ::beams:: Thanks so much! I'm totally elated that you like the story! Cern and Jal - they're interesting to write because they don't know each other at all. It's quite bizarre. And Ruby, well, she's kind of terrified of Blue because he wasn't exactly nice to her last time they met....quite the opposite! Anyways, thank you so much - and I'm sorry this took so long!

Katherine: Hiya! ::grins:: Thanks so much - I'm really knocked out! Thank the French for Chatoya's name - chatoyer in means 'to shimmer', and wow, I'm gobsmacked that there's some cute puppy running round with her name :-) Blue...I don't know if he can ever be nice. It's not his nature. He'll go where he wants to. Thanks!

Persephone: I-karumba, if you just read all of this, you have my admiration :-) It's a bit of a saga! ::grins:: Cougar's a lot of fun to write, because he's just so...himself. Arrogant, kind of sweet in a moody way...I have no idea how he ended up that way! There are...six other stories in this series I think ::thinks:: Flamechild, Heartsong, Darkstar, Trifolia, Ouroboros and Shimmer. I keep meaning to put 'em up. Blue...I don't think he'll ever be the deranged one - he's perfectly sane. He'll be what he wants :-) Which I think will be fun - the next story's about him. Thanks everso!

Taito's Child: I only discovered FFNet in October. And I love it - it's just like, *wow* I didn't know this much fanfiction *existed*. It's insane! ::grins:: Thanks for reviewing - and for putting me on your favourites list. I'm honoured! What are you on TT under? (I don't recognise the email addy.) Many, many thanks!