Nightfire Part Eleven

Thank you so much to all of you who reviewed last time round :-) Sorry this took so long! I only got back from France (with food poisoning) yesterday. Thank you to the divine Dead Flower (not always this depressing, promise! Anyways…Toya and Blue, the next story.), the incredible Ice Princess (Thanks so much :-) I'm about halfway through now, I think!), the marvellous Me (I have the next few chapters done, they should be up pretty soon…and I have a nice long holiday coming up, so I'll get a lot done then.), the magnificent Myst (Thanks! There'll be more soon...I'm working hard J ) and last but never least, the phenomenal Persephone ( Thanks! I'm writing more as we speak ! ) You're all wonderful!

I'd love to hear what you have to say – it really does make my day, and makes me write faster. All comments, criticisms, questions, rants and raves are absolutely adored. Please tell me what you think!

Kiana

Nightfire Part Eleven

"Hey."

Lisa Ochai looked up at the voice. She should have been in maths, but somehow, she couldn't hack numbers right now. With these fractures running along her emotions, it was hard to be cool and logical.

Cougar Redfern, a dark silhouette against the blazing sun, came and leaned against the wall. "Sitting outside, in lesson-time? That's my prerogative, Lise. I'm the bad one round here, remember?"

"No, you're the big-mouthed stroppy one," she said mildly, trying to raise a smile so he would see she was all right and go away. But it didn't work. "Your brother's the bad one."

"Not always. He was really cute before he learned to talk. Then we realised he was only smiling so much because he'd figured out five easy ways to conquer the planet." The lamia boy squinted down at her face. "So, you want to tell me what's up?"

"Not really." What was up. What a stupid phrase. She was down, down, down, falling into dark places.

What had it been? Three, nearly four years now. Good years for the most part. Lisa was somewhere between fourteen and fifteen hundred years old now. If her friends had known, their jaws would have hit the floor. All believed she had been born in the sixties. She let them believe that; Lisa had her reasons.

But in her entire life, since she was born in Africa, since she lost her humanity for the sake of a rite, no one had ever affected her like Cern Akafren did.

Affected. It was too meek a word really for the way her heart leapt and her mind and body seemed to fill with exuberant energy. She knew the right words but she didn't even say it to herself. Friendship was all it would ever be, that was all she ever saw in Cern's quiet smile or heard in his voice. That was what she had settled for, and maybe it wasn't and would never be enough, but it was a lot.

Every other drawing in her sketchbook was of Cern. Sometimes, she swore she could draw his face in her sleep. Dark red wavy hair, short and tousled; he wasn't the tidy kind. Cynical eyes the colour of clouds on a summer evening, olive skin and a playful smile, generous beyond sense – he was always in debt.

Her secret sketches, for her secret emotions. Her secret love, oh, how it hurt, and now, her secret pain.

"No," she said softly, staring at the clouds that moved so uncaring above, at the dark hawk that swooped lower than most did, almost brushing the ground at moments. "It's nothing at all."

Cougar snorted. "Yeah, and that was a pig I just saw flying past."

"How dare you?" shrieked an irate voice as a girl with russet hair and a furious expression slapped Cougar.

The flabbergasted lamia toppled over, and the girl promptly hauled him up again with preternatural strength and punched him again. "I am *not* a pig—"

"Tali!" A new boy appeared, his clear emerald eyes torn between aghast and amused as he dragged the girl off. "He didn't mean it personally, he definitely didn't know that hawk was you. It's a figure of speech."

"Oh." The girl let go of a now very battered Cougar, her fresh, open face filling with dawning horror. "Oh God, Cougar, I'm so, so sorry...flying in hawk-form always makes my brain shrink…"

"Why didn't you stay in it?" the lamia said sourly, gingerly feeling his jaw. "I could have shot you then."

Alisha Althasson, better known as Tali, pulled a face. "I *am* sorry, Cougar. It's just...been a really long trip. I had to fly back, and idiot here had to run after he crashed the car—"

"What do you mean *I* crashed the car?" the green-eyed boy said in outrage. His longish blond hair caught white and gold in the light. Jepar Jubatus looked like some savannah creature, with his healthy tan and cheetah-fur hair, and in fact was. "Who was it who said 'You've got right of way?'"

"But I did tell you to stop when I realised," Tali protested, as Cougar and Lisa traded resigned glances.

"I believe the whole of your warning went 'Mind that truck,', 'What truck?', *crunch*."

"Yes...well..." The dragon girl faltered, then happiness lit her face. "Anyway, aren't you glad we're back?"

Lisa looked at her lanky shapeshifter friend and his dragon soulmate, both so blatantly content with one another, positively glowing with health and happiness and felt like throttling the pair of them.

"To be honest, you've come at a hell of a time," Cougar said glumly. "You have no *idea* what's happened while you've been gone. I mean, comparatively, colonic irrigation would be more fun."

"Evil cult again?" said Jepar. The lamia boy shook his dark head.

"Insane witches and power-mad shapeshifters?" put in Tali. Cougar glared at her and muttered, "Nope."

"Slaughter of relatives, dark mysterious strangers and a kidnapped friend?"

"Nuh-uh, but kind of close. Worse."

"Oh god," Jepar said. "Britney Spears has another single out."

"Maybe it isn't that bad," Cougar muttered. "But still, pretty close."

"Insane dragons, secretive newcomers and soulmates?"

"Two out of three," Cougar allowed, shooting a slyly amused glance at Lisa.

Alisha and Jepar, looking intrigued, sat down. "Fill us in," they said in unison.

* * * *

"Well?" The knife spun in the air. Once, twice, deadly flashes that reflected in the endless elsewhere eyes.

"Well what?" Chatoya found voice to snap. No, she wouldn't let him intimidate her. She *wouldn't*.

"Did you really get yourself cut to pieces just to see me? I don't think so, witch of mine, get to the point." The knife thudded into the ground and stood, quivering. "Fast."

"I want to you to get out."

Bane Malefici laughed, and the low sound rippled through the air. "Do you really? I'd like you to strip."

"Leave Jal alone," she continued through gritted teeth, torn between hitting him and kicking him. "She's just some girl. Leave Cougar alone...for gods' sakes, he's done nothing to you. And leave me alone."

"Firstly, you came here." Those eyes burned hellishly against his pale skin, only enhanced by the unending black pupils. "Secondly, Cougar sought *me* out to shout at me. Not exactly endearing himself." His smile was bright as diamond, cold as sorrow. "And...Jallakri. I'm afraid that's impossible."

"Why?" she snarled. How she hated his utter calm, the lack of effort or care in each and every movement.

He shrugged. "I don't have to explain myself to a mere witch. My business with her does not concern you. And if you dare to meddle, I promise you, I will break you into pieces and listen to your soul's screams."

"She means something to my friends, and you're trying to kill her." The summer sun was stifling, but she didn't feel the heat for the icy fear darting through her bloodstream like a plummeting eagle.

"I think it's time I defined the term 'successful assassin'. Killing people is a large part of my job." His face hardened and sharpened; to her horror, ivory fangs gleamed. "And by happy coincidence, also my hobby."

"You can't kill me." But somehow, she wasn't so certain of that.

"The last person who told me I couldn't do something became geography," Blue murmured archly. Silver wound into his eyes, the web of a poison spider. He stood, so light on his feet and stalked towards her. Just as quickly, Chatoya started backing away.

Edge round him, a voice hissed. He's drawing this out...you're play, not prey. "I think you mean history."

"Not after the grenade. Definitely geography." He grinned, sleek and feral and in an instant had caught her. Chatoya screamed the words of a spell, her hand splayed as green fire seared from it towards him—

He caught her wrist hard and the green crashed into black fire that she stared at with growing dread. Swelling, oily black fire, tainted as his soul. "Dragonfire," she gasped.

"Quite. Your twin passed it to you, and you...you, my witch, you passed it to me." He laughed again.

Dear Goddess. He had dragon powers...the ability to destroy the world, and it was in the lethal hands of someone who didn't care at all.

* * * *

The morning passed in a husky haze for Jal, a haze of sinking unhurriedly in the mellow voice of Cern Akafren, their minds twining about one another ever more comfortably as they talked, regardless of whether they were face to face or rooms apart.

Minutes passed as they spoke about everything and nothing, became uncaring time. They blended like two melodies that combined to make a song so unique and ever-changing that it would never be heard again.

Between lessons, they met briefly, walking together. Neither saying a word aloud, but while the world passed them by, they moved through it in the silken cocoon of one another. And Jal knew that whatever emerged would be a thing of great and fragile beauty, fluttering in radiance, though it would take a long time to grow. Such a rarity was to be nurtured, to be crafted with care, or it would burn itself up.

~ Is this what love is? ~ she asked him at one point, remembering how she had always thought love to be a wild, raging beast. Not this sweet and simple river, refreshing, full of dozens of tiny surprises and shocks.

He paused, his breath halting briefly. ~ No...love is...more than liking someone. It's something eternal, it can't be captured by words. Just a feeling that makes us want to change all the parts of our soul that shames us. ~ She felt his discomfiture having revealed such a deep belief. ~ Just what I think, ~ he added hurriedly.

~ I didn't think this was love, ~ Jal murmured, smiling at him. ~ Do you think it will ever be? ~

~ That's a difficult question, ~ he said quietly. They were of a height, and those purple eyes as they walked glinted with unsaid words. ~ I don't know, Jal. ~

~ But maybe, maybe in some tomorrow... ~ she whispered silently, in the distant reaches of her soul.

~ One day, ~ he answered. ~ Tomorrow will be today. ~ She hadn't realised how deeply their minds were bound until that moment, that he could hear a thought that was little more than a butterfly's shadow.

And while they talked, Ruby Luthman watched and obeyed the instructions given to her by a blue-haired boy with a void where his compassion should have lain. Watched, and waited...

* * * *

"I can hurt you more than you can ever imagine," Blue said gently. "*Don't* interfere with me."

"There's nothing you can do to me," she hissed. "I'm still strong."

He smiled. It was warm and amused and almost compassionate. "I'm afraid you're wrong there."

If he had been angry, cold, insane, *anything*, she could have handled it. But his mind was like walking through a maze in darkness, never knowing what pitfalls and horrors lurked around each corner. A maze that changed at every second but above all, a maze that was frighteningly ordinary with the coming of light.

She met those eyes that stretched a beckoning hand from times long gone with age-old recklessness, with that fierce, primal love of killing.

"Go on then," she said, her throat dry. Her fear beat and writhed like a caged creature. "Kill me."

"Kill? Oh no, that wasn't what I had in mind at all."

And before she could even blink, his hold on her had tightened with a strength that was as unnatural as that silken voice. She blinked and he was smiling. Not coldly, not cruelly, simply as if she amused him.

His lips parted, fangs glowing with the iridescence of fish scales, and his eyes became heavy with blood-soaked wishes. She knew what he was going to do then. Feed from her again. Leave her pale and lifeless.

He shook his head. "Wrong again," he whispered.

She closed her eyes rather than see his feline satisfaction. So he had won again. She was helpless again, to be whatever he wished to make of her. And she would pay for that. Like Sonj had paid. Like Josh had paid.

The kiss shocked her.

It was nothing more than a gentle touch on the corners of her mouth at first. But it was enough to make her breath catch in sheer shock and then she had no breath left to catch as his lips touched hers with a tenderness she would have sworn didn't exist.

And then he stopped shielding his mind and she was swamped with sensation that was like standing underneath a waterfall in summer, frozen still so she made not a protest, not a sound.

Tender was becoming sensual, sensual becoming passionate and she was kissing him back without being aware of anything, not who she was, who he was, nothing except the music of that tumbling stream and letting the feelings wash over her. Wordless moments, subsumed in the depths of ancient sorcery.

But under that tenderness, under the hands that stroked her hair and traced reverent patterns over her skin, there was always *control*. His cold, steady mind holding rule over cold, steady emotions.

Oh, oh gods, if only he would lose control.

If only.

He drew back and she was left trembling in the icy wash of that waterfall delight.

Then she became aware with dawning horror that she was in that willow grove, that she had been kissing the boy with the lazy, fathomless eyes and that cruelly confident smile. Part of her was still lost to the melody of the link, part of her was still lost to the waterfall.

"I can make you fall in love with me," he said calmly. "I can rip your soul in two."

Her stare was filled with liquid pain as the cold words dragged her back into reality. "You..."

"I promise you," he said, the words almost silent, "that if you stop me, I will destroy you. I won't kill you. I will leave you to rot in darkness, to long for friends and love that will never come. You will beg and you will plead..." His eyes no longer silver but black, empty nights. "And no one will ever hear."

Before she could move, the knife flew into his hand and lashed across her wrist. The pain was phenomenal as scarlet gushed down her skin, over his hand and onto the ground. Oh Goddess, he'd hit an artery.

He let go, let her fall, and licked the blood from his hand slowly, his eyes glowing starry silver. Watching her with distant interest as she ripped the sleeve from her top with difficulty, binding it around her wrist. She felt dizzy; Chatoya knew she couldn't afford to lose the blood that darkened the earth and the cloth.

"Don't try throwing fire at me again," he said softly. "Although if you don't make it out of here, you won't ever be throwing anything. It's a long walk back, witch of mine. *That* was your warning..."

She saw the unmovable cold inside him, the uncaring dark that leapt into his every action. He moved like nothing she had ever seen, every step sleek and hungry and unearthly. Turning at the edge of the glade, he left her collapsed there, his face half in shadow.

"Don't get in my way."

* * * *

"Hey, look who's back!" Cern grinned at Tali and Jepar. Lunchtime, and he and Jal had migrated from the stifling, drowsy heat of the classrooms, out to the campus through the hordes of people lolling around.

"And look what's happened to *you*," the dragon-girl said significantly, giving him a warm smile. Lying on her stomach, she propped her chin onto her hands and turned her attention to Jal. "You must be—"

She stopped abruptly, her ocean-dark eyes widening. Baffled, Cern looked at Jepar, whose face was just as shocked. Both were simply staring at Jal, who dodged behind Cern so he shielded her from their gazes.

"Guys?" he asked. ~ Jal, they aren't going to hurt you. ~

~ They're looking at me. ~ Her voice was shaken, soft with fear. He felt an urge to comfort her, to soothe away her dread and gently let his mind curl around hers like a sleeping kitten. ~ I don't like it. ~

"I'm sorry," Tali was saying. The dragon brushed long tendrils of earth-rich hair from her smooth face. "It's just...how did you say you got here?"

"I woke up," Jal said timidly. Still from behind his back, Cern noticed with something between exasperation and amusement. He stepped sideways and pulled her forward before she could scuttle into his shadow again. "And I was in the woods. That was all. I couldn't remember anything much."

"This is going to sound really weird," Jepar put in, fidgeting, "but you didn't...howl at the moon, did you?"

"No." Jal's eyes flicked to his and Cern shrugged slightly. He didn't know why Jepar and Tali were being so strange. "I looked at it though," she offered, sitting down. She didn't keep to the shade like most of the other, but sprawled out in the blasting heat with all the devotion of a true sun-worshipper.

"Yeah..." Jepar grinned faintly at the puzzled looks. "Just, um, weird dreams. Might have been the lobster."

"We didn't have lobster," his soulmate reminded him.

"I know, but it would have been nice if we had," he murmured, with a sigh that sounded more like a gentle purr. Jepar, being a feline shifter, had a love of all kinds of seafood.

Tali patted him on the head as though he were some poor roving madman. "All right, Jay, the straitjacket's waiting for you at home."

"Didn't know you were into that kind of thing," Cern said dryly, and laughed as Tali aimed a kick at his shin and hit an incensed Cougar instead. "Jal's a wolf...maybe your dream was just a prophecy, that's all."

"Maybe," the shapeshifter said, his trademark sunny smile creeping onto his face. "Anyway, tell me the rest of the gossip, and let me in on how we're going to kill that bastard Blue...and where's Toya?"

Cougar blinked from his spot in the shade. "She went after Lise..." he said, brow creasing. "But...she didn't catch you up, did she?" He nudged the made-vampire, who looked wearier than Cern had ever seen her, that shapely head resting on Cougar's shoulder in utter apathy. Only the beads in her hair had any colour.

He would talk to her, Cern decided. They had been friends for a long time now, and if anyone could find out what was wrong, it would be him.

"Nope," the girl muttered, shaking her head. The bright beads clicked in unison. "Haven't seen her today."

"Where would she be?" Jepar demanded. He and Toya had always been close (just *how* close, no one knew, despite the probing of Thom, Cern and Cougar who had a bet on.) and where one was, the other invariably turned up, usually resulting in chaos, due to near-fatal curiosity, and huge amounts of danger.

"I don't know." Lisa closed her eyes, and Jepar frowned, mouthing something at Cougar, who shrugged.

"I still can't believe you've got a soulmate, you mongrel," the cheetah-shifter said cheerfully.

"Why do they call you a mongrel, Cern?" Alisha asked, her intense stare flicking from one to the other. "I keep meaning to ask."

He grinned. "C'mon, Shar, you should be able to guess that one. It's all the different depths of the night running in my blood." Her eyes narrowed, trying to fathom what he was saying. "I'm part vampire, part shifter, part witch. Your good ol' traditional halfbreed."

Cern felt a sudden wrench in his mind and he flinched, thinking it was another of those deadly visions, and instinctively reached out to Jal to check if she was okay.

And found her mind closed off from him. He blinked as she got up suddenly, her golden hair bright as fool's gold in the blazing light. Squinting at her, she seemed a goddess of yore, a feral hunting creature. Was it his imagination, or had something in her face hardened? "Jal? Where're you going?"

Her voice hummed richly, throbbing with a strange resonance. "I have something that must be sorted." She sounded...familiar. Where had he heard her voice like that? "I'll deal with you later."

Cougar wolf-whistled. "Guess we know who wears the pelt in that relationship!"

"Whoever skins the beast," Jal replied, and her crystal-cold eyes fixed on Cougar, shuttered and barren. Unaccountably, the lamia shivered and looked away. What the hell was going on? Her eyes flicked to Cern, and he felt that stare strike a coldness in his soul. "Later."

It was a promise. And some part of him didn't want her to keep it, because in her voice, he heard the hunting howl.

She was gone in an instant, her stride no longer light and hesitant, but sure and stealthy. He thought he heard her growl...but that was stupid, completely insane.

"What was that?" Tali murmured, one eyebrow raising. Nothing much startled her...but he had the feeling that had.

Cern stared after her, and finally realisation dawned. "She gets...scared sometimes," he said mildly. "Defensive. She's had a hell of a time in the past, what I've seen of it. I don't know what happened to her..."

"Find out," Jepar and Tali said.

"Remember what happened last time someone had a secret?" muttered Cougar, with a pointed glance at Tali, and a gesture towards the four raking scars on Jepar's face and the still-healing scratches on Lisa's bare shoulders.

"Excuse me, oh ye who didn't think to tell us that the vampire you made was certifiable," Lisa said mildly, "you can talk!"

"Babe," Cougar said, fixing her with a smoky stare, "I do a lot more than that. Batteries included."

And far away, Ruby Luthman followed Jal into darkness, and had no awareness of the danger that followed her on shadowed feet.

* * * *

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