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.
* * * *
Thoughts, comments, opinions? I'd
love to hear what you think!
