Part 15

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Nightfire Part Fifteen

"They did *what*?" a furious Donna Ares shouted.

Her husky voice scored the air like a serrated blade, rich with its rage. That cloud of copper hair writhed and flailed as she stared from her meek, inert Pack, to Jal, slight and golden in the face of the wolf's wrath.

"They tortured me," Jal explained softly, but she didn't baulk.

"They can *not* have!" Donna shouted. "They wouldn't *dare* break Pack oath!" Her emerald eyes blazed a scorching path over Jal to Cern. "Tell her, witch boy."

He grinned savagely. "Ask nicely, Donna."

The redhead's eyes narrowed dangerously, and he could see her fighting her temper. A fight she was bound to lose at some point. "*Please*," she said finally through gritted teeth.

He sighed, wondering how to explain the Pack's odd set of values. "Donna is the Pack's Altalupa. She leads them and her word is law. The night you turned up here, I made her swear she wouldn't harm you. Any oath Donna swears binds the Pack, because they have all sworn to obey her." He saw understanding begin to shine in Jal's eyes. "And if the Pack tortured you before the trial...they broke their oath."

"They did," Jal said forcefully. "They hurt me. I was only fighting back."

Hands on her hips, Donna turned on her horde of cowering wolves, her anger hanging like shards of flashing glass in the air. "Well? Is this true?"

Slowly, one melted into a sullen teenage boy. He glanced at Jal and Cern felt a tinge of unease. There was something in his face that he didn't like. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and the boy's aura came into focus.

The pale shimmering silver of a young Nightworlder, laced with slats of red. Bloodshed, raw and quivering. This boy had killed. But that wasn't what was important...wavy lines squirmed over the silvery light, choking out all other colour and leaving only putrid green.

The colour of a lie.

"No, it ain't," he snapped loudly. "Raving lunatic attacked us. Think we're dumb enough to break th'law?"

"He's lying," Cern blurted. "I can see it in his aura."

The werewolf woman snorted. "That's ain't proof, witch boy. I don't know anything about auras." Her cold eyes flicked to the young wolf. "Romulus? Sure you don't want to change your story?"

"He's not lying," another wolf shrilled. A scrawny girl who kept licking her lips. Cern knew why they were lying. Donna didn't believe in first offences. If you were dead, she reasoned, that would teach you an extremely thorough lesson. "She's nuts! You saw her, Altalupa! She just went for Flick!"

~ Two-faced little creeps! ~ Jal said stridently in his head. He could see the memory of how they had toyed with her, beaten her, flashing through her head. ~ How can she be so blind? Why can't she *see*? ~

~ Donna's never been known for her insight, ~ he murmured, sending restful thoughts. Ocean songs, long hushed nights. Slowly, he felt her relax. ~ But she knows better than to believe the Pack's every word. ~

"Well," Donna said delicately, looking from her Pack to Jal. "It seems we have an impasse. But I ain't ever heard it said I'm unfair."

Cern often had, usually with the phrase 'and I didn't say that about the callous bitch'. Still, he kept quiet.

"So my judgement is this," she said, stalking around the clearing. Her land, her ruling. "There will be trial by combat, as before. But now it will be for the truth of this matter. If it goes in favour of my Pack, the charge of trespassing may also be accounted for. If it goes in favour of you, girl, it will be forgotten."

"You can't expect her to fight now!" he said angrily. Jal was laddered with cuts and bruises, and he could feel her exhaustion although they weren't touching.

Donna turned that gem-hard stare on him. Looks of a temptress...mind of steel. "Then it shall be tomorrow night." Her full mouth curved. "Yes...the hunter's moon demands our respect, and what better way?"

He wanted to object, but before he could, Jal cut in, her voice breathy and her face flushed. "Tomorrow."

* * * *

It was a long walk back, once Jepar left with a sweet smile and a murmur of hunting. Just her and Cern, and all the unspoken questions between them, a thousand thousand elusive spectres.

She was afraid. Jal had thought that her fear would fade under this newfound friendship. But it hadn't. The visions haunted her like distant, mumbling voices....she was losing control, and she didn't even know why.

That frightened her most of all.

She didn't know how to say any of it though. How could she tell someone about something so deep and jagged inside her, something so awful? How did she say: I have killed. I have taken other people's lives and laughed with joy while I did it.

She felt his quick glances, the way those puzzled lavender eyes would slide to her from time to time, sweeping over her face. It hurt her somehow, to know he didn't understand, couldn't understand.

It was a long time before he said anything.

"Why did you leave?" He had stopped, and there was an odd expression on his face.

Jal swallowed, feeling icy numbness creep into her limbs. She didn't like it...it felt as though she might fall over at any moment. "What do you mean?"

His smile was crooked. But his gaze held steady and Jal thought she could drown in him, drown in the velvet violet depths. There was a summer set inside him, and all it touched began to bloom and grow.

"You leave in a hurry, for no reason at all. You fall into the Pack's trap...you kick seven kinds of hell out of them. I don't know what to think." His voice was quiet, rolling around her like a caressing wind.

She looked down. So here was where it would be.

Here was where he would demand his answers, foul and blackened answers that would creep around her soul but never leave her lips. Here was where it would end, this sparkling, unsullied creation between them, because she would cling onto her secret to keep safe all of them.

His touch was very light.

Light as the tickle of cut grass on the wind, so light it sent tiny tremors through her. It began on her cheek, grazed her mouth and moved down so he could lift her head and look at her properly.

Of all the horrors that lay in her past, none had left such marks on her soul as he could.

The clarity of his eyes struck her more than anything. The deep, resounding lucidity of a stained-glass bowl filled with water. Your life has been simple, she thought. Where are your hauntings? What stalks you in your dreams and hounds you in your days?

The connection was draped around them in the faint unseen coolness of a mist, shivering her senses.

"I can't tell you," she whispered, clinging to him, wanting the security of his warmth. The baking heat all around, and she was colder than the stones of a crypt. "I can't. You wouldn't understand."

"Look at me," he commanded. There was a note of steel in his voice Jal had never heard, and startled, she obeyed. Yes, he was smiling...but his eyes were dark and turbulent, and lost in places she dared not walk.

"When I was a lot younger, my little sister died," he told her with breathtaking calm. She had to squint to see his face, but when she did, she understood that the shadows on there were not cast solely by the sun.

"She was murdered because she wasn't pure enough, and she died in front of my eyes. I nearly died that night as well. I can't even begin to explain to you how much it hurt. How long it took me to even pretend it was all right while I was falling apart inside because I wouldn't let anyone see that it hurt."

Her lips were parted on a soft breath of dismay. She could feel his anguish, half-crazed but controlled, shaking the soft, deep indigo of his mind. Tight pain from his hands as he held her. Oh, Jal thought. How could I have missed this? How?

"I got good at hiding my feelings," he explained on a rush of breath. His voice was fierce, even a little angry. "But...you can't. You can't keep everything inside, Jal. Everything just...exploded one day. I hurt someone, Jal. I nearly killed them. The only thing that stopped me was a friend. They'd...found out about me when I wouldn't tell them, and they wanted to help. They *wanted* to listen."

She was utterly spellbound, watching his emotions saying a thousand times more than mere words could.

"So don't tell me I don't understand, don't. I *do*. I've been there, okay, I know it hurts like hell, and..."

This new revelation spun about her mind, cartwheeling. And Jal realised that before, she had been wrong to think him as all gentle, all tender...he hid behind a mask as well as she did. Better, maybe. There was strength in him, the quiet strength of a mountain, unnoticeable until it moved.

"...I just wish it would *stop*."

She was surprised when he kissed her.

It wasn't the sweetness of last time. This was a kiss to make her blood bay, thrilling and demanding, and Jal welcomed it. It sizzled like fire in her mouth, and set her soul alight. His touch was sure as the hunt, and she had to wonder dazedly which of them was predator and which prey...neither, neither, she decided, for the hunt had not this delicious passion and wildness.

The connection surged around them, and her senses dissolved into flames.

* * * *

"Sit down," Ria ordered Cougar and Chatoya as the three walked, stumbled and staggered respectively in. The lamia and witch obeyed, Chatoya wondering if she was as ghostly pale as Cougar. "I'm fixing coffee."

"You might find a blood transfusion of more help," a voice remarked from behind them. It was dark and droll, filled with a power that turned Chatoya's bones to pure ice and made her words freeze on her lips.

All three stares leapt to the open doorway, and the cold smile of Blue Malefici. He was lean in a black T-shirt and white, blue and black camouflage trousers, his stance screaming of the patient, sinister hunter.

"And a lock," he purred, cruelty filling his voice like rich liqueur. "You would have thought after all the times the three of you have narrowly missed death, you'd be a little less cavalier about security."

Chatoya pressed her lips together tightly. Something was nagging at the far reaches of her mind, just out of reach, and when she looked at his impassive face, it strengthened. In his stare, the ice leapt out at her, promising to freeze her like it had frozen him. Under the surface of his eyes, the blue of dawn on a primal world, faint, trapped emotions beat.

"I hardly think you count as a danger," Cougar drawled, the old familiar anger beginning to edge into his tone. The old, familiar fear. "This is the second time you've managed not to kill Toya."

~ Don't give him ideas, ~ she flashed at him quickly and was shocked to find how much those few telepathic words took out of her. She had to be weak.

Blue strolled in assertively, kicking the door shut behind him. "Oh, come on, brother dear. I can't kill my soulmate any more than you can kill yours." He yawned. "Such a pity. It does rather limit one to torture."

Chatoya froze. He had told them...no, she realised, Cougar didn't look at all surprised. He saw her face and gave a faint, gloomy grin.

~ I've known for three years, ~ he said. ~ And I can see why you didn't say anything. It'd be like announcing you were marrying an alligator, only with less teeth and more downright viciousness. ~

In a way, she felt relief. Someone knew; she was that small bit safer. But...she had to admit that this vile, terrible being was her soulmate. That she knew his mind, knew his tainted wit and calm sanity.

~ You look positively thrilled, ~ Blue murmured. He was looking around the room casually, but she could sense that all his attention was trained on her. And like the crack of a whip, she felt his chilling mind-touch in hers, seeking for something...and leaving, satisfied. ~ The sordid little secret is out...you know, you provide such wonderful leverage for any of your enthusiastic friends who try to kill me. ~

"And who is this stranger?" Blue continued aloud blithely, gaze sweeping Ria. The girl stood, immobile. Not afraid though. Perplexed. "Could this be the lovely lady I have heard absolutely nothing about?"

Ria gave him one of her wide-eyed, naive looks. "And you must be that murdering git everyone hates."

His smile widened. "I was aiming for avidly loathes, but I can settle for mere hate. No sugar, no milk."

"What?"

"My coffee." No, you, Chatoya thought as his hooded eyes flashed. No sweetening of that reptilian soul, no paling of his cruel will or cool stare. "I like to indulge my whims now and again." Was it her imagination, or did the eyes skip to her as she felt a dim, mesmerizing tug on her senses?

Ria's face became briefly blank, Chatoya saw. As though she was talking to Cougar...could it be those two were actually communicating? Cougar never looked away from Blue, but Ria nodded as though agreeing to something and went into the kitchen with a swing of her red-blond hair. Yes...they were talking. At last.

"Hardly your type," the vampire said derisively, arching his eyebrows. Cougar didn't react. "Not really blond, is she, and certainly lacking on the hourglass figure. Though her time may still be running out."

Cougar's dark head snapped to his younger brother. "You lay one—"

"I will leave the laying to you," Blue cut him off flatly. "I have no interest in that diminutive half-breed – half-human, isn't she? – darling of yours. Yet."

Chatoya found her voice at last as moss-green and ancient blue eyes clashed. She felt herself being sucked into the pitiless, primordial pits of his stare, however she struggled not to. "Then why are you here?"

"Divine creation, one assumes," he stated, folding his arms. "But here, now, I'm giving you a warning."

Cougar snorted. "Don't tell me you grew a conscience. I'd believe the apocalypse had come first."

That same small, unnerving smile still sat on Blue's face. "What you believe is of no interest to me. But if you go down to the woods tomorrow, you're in for a big surprise."

She frowned. What on earth was he talking about? She couldn't read his face, or see anything except casual grace as he leaned against the wall. "Why would you warn us?"

He straightened, quick and deft. "Keep away. All of you, keep away," he advised lazily. "Or I *will* be entirely responsible for what befalls you." His cobalt hair was a flame against the pastel lounge. "I can be *very* creative with people who vex me."

He left as Ria came back in, taking the coffee with him.

"Damn," Cougar said vengefully. "I would have liked to throw hot coffee all over the bastard."

Ria shivered. "Why was he warning us? What against?"

The lamia took the mug from her, not noticing the scalding heat. "Whatever it is, I'm going to find out."

I know, Chatoya thought distantly, I know I know...but I just can't reach it.

* * * *

Jal gasped as fire shot up around her with a fierce roar in jagged, flickering walls. She shielded her eyes from the blaze as the reek of smoke began to choke her. Oh, oh, what *was* this? Coughing, she waved at it with her free hand and stumbled back, bewildered.

Arms caught her, supported her, but whoever it was shook fractionally. Her mind cleared, and she leaned back into Cern, reaching for his hand. Gods that were, he was cold. Cold! In this heat! She wriggled around in his grasp, her eyes begin to stream from the choking smoke and her skin tingling painfully in the heat, to peer at his face.

His eyes were wild, flicking about in horror. Smoke grimed his face already, as she supposed it must have tarnished her gilt hair, making the pallid tone of his skin even more prominent. Moon above, he had to be terrified...but controlling it, barely. As she watched, she could see him taking that fear and pushing it back, battling it down into the stronghold of his soul.

~ Where is this? ~ she asked almost calmly. Mustered all her courage to stay still and hold on. Over his shoulder, she was starting to make out shapes beyond the wall of hellfire. What looked like furniture, antique furniture at that. Worth a few bucks, the tiny, vampire-inspired thought sprung into her mind.

He swallowed. ~ My memory. This is...how my sister died. I went to get help...the building collapsed. ~

Such terse words, but his pain made each harsh. Beneath the rustling cry of the fire, she thought she could hear shouting. Maybe a scream piercing the air. She nestled in close to him, hearing the frantic beat of his heart with her enhanced senses.

And for a tiny fraction of an instant, she wondered what it would sound like if she ripped it from his body. She thrust the horrible thought away, not knowing where it had come from.

~ It can't hurt you, ~ she said instead, and the truth of what she was saying dawned on her. ~ This is just memory. Those flames can't burn anymore. Look. ~

She stepped away from him, ignoring his quick warning, and plunged her hand into the flames, hoping she wasn't about to make a horrible mistake.

No pain. No heat. No roasting flesh. The flames suddenly fell, collapsing into piles of simmering lights, and then were gone.

~ Memory can't hurt, ~ Jal said strongly. Yes. How stupid of her to be so afraid of showing him her past, showing him what Kaajen had done. It was in a far off place, and it couldn't touch her now. She looked up at him ruefully, to see the wild fear subsiding and realisation in his face. ~ I guess we've both been pretty stupid. ~

Her heart however, still pounded with shock. Goddess, he had to mean something to her if she was prepared to stick her hand in burning flames. Jal considered that. Yes. He meant something.

He tilted his head to one side, surveying her thoughtfully. She had the feeling that he considered his next words. ~ You're...not what I thought. ~

~ Neither are you, ~ she retorted and was pleased when he grinned abashedly. ~ I love it when you smile. ~

She caught her breath as she realised her words.

His eyes widened fractionally, filling with indefinable emotions. ~ Do you...do you, Jal? ~

She thought long before replying. But she had said it, it was here and there was no doubt in her mind. Wrinkling her nose, an old habit, she thought, to hell with it. ~ Yes, ~ she said recklessly. ~ Yes, I do. ~

His mouth curved further, his expression playful – but beneath that, other, more serious emotions that Jal saw, and that made her heart leap. ~ Do you know... ~ he told her cautiously, like a man walking across broken glass, ~ I think the feeling might be mutual. ~

She had a ridiculous urge to shapeshift and give voice to the feelings that had no words. But instead, she took the hand he held out to her, and looked into his eyes and saw the pain falling away like withered leaves. Around them, the real world filled itself in hazily, like the strokes of a child's sketch.

He kissed her then, with the heart-melting sweetness she loved so about him. Loved...how strange and fitting it felt. She didn't know how to describe love...all she knew was that every touch was like catching hold of a lightning bolt and streaking into the bright beyond. All she knew...was that she didn't know.

~ By the way, ~ he whispered, ~ I never told anyone that before. ~

And she liked it.

Jal smiled. "We've done our trial of fire," she told him confidently. "It's over now."

She was, of course, horribly wrong.

* * * *

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