Nightfire Part Seventeen

Nightfire Part Seventeen

Chatoya could feel his presence, deep inside her like a simmering blue flame.

Close by. No doubt about that. She followed her instincts, moving out past the clearing as the others went in, pushing through the overhanging branches slowly, squinting at the shapes that loomed from the shadows.

The ground began to slop upwards, until it evened out on a plateau, one that, she realised with a start, overlooked the Pack clearing directly.

And there he was.

Her soulmate. Her damned, despised soulmate, standing and looking down on the clearing. If she didn't have so much donated vampire blood floating round her body, she wouldn't have seen him or the disturbingly faint smile he wore.

"Stop it," she said softly. Her voice cleaved the heavy silence and his head snapped round. Blue Malefici's eyes blazed once, a clear blue.

"I see you're recovered," he said dryly. Damn him, how could he sit here and be so unruffled? "Go away."

She laughed harshly. "No chance. You're going to kill Jal." She knew it with bone-deep certainty.

"The thought had crossed my mind. It's funny how rarely I like to welcome my own painful death." He straightened, a god glowing in the gloom to her vision. "Don't interfere."

He said it so coolly. Chatoya felt her anger flare. "Don't order me about."

"You haven't the faintest comprehension of what that girl is," he said, gesturing to the clearing. Chatoya glanced down; she saw Jal drop into a fighting stance, saw her friends standing nearby, waiting. Cern's face was tense.

"I know your goddamned organisation wants her," she spat, calculating how close she could get to him before attacking. She edged forward, trying to make it appear a thoughtless motion. "That's reason enough to stop you."

He laughed, and the sound shocked her. "You don't have a clue what you're dealing with."

"Fine. Explain to me." She was close now, a metre or two away, close enough to glare at his hard face, to see now that there was a slender black line of energy that hugged his body, crackling and rippling. Dragon magick.

Below, they heard a yelp. Blue shook his head. "No time," he said shortly, his eyes fixed on the fight now. The line of energy flared up around him and she felt an answering echo all around. Wards. He had set up wards around the clearing. Gods...the Circle, they were trapped. The Pack too. He was going to kill them all—

She was startled at her own speed, enhanced by that precious vampire power. She hit him hard with all her magick and all her strength, breaking his link to the wards. The energy died, draining away in a flash.

In that one instant, she realised he had tied every ounce of magick he had into those wards.

He was planning to take on Jal on his own. Why?

And above, the hunter's moon broke through the clouds, white rays lancing across the woods.

Her own thought came back to her, one she hadn't even known she had. ~ When I see the hunter's moon, I will remember. ~

The knowledge flooded her head, knocking her to her knees. She knew what Blue had planned, all of it. She knew what Jal was, what she would do. She knew *everything*.

Chatoya had made a terrible mistake.

* * * *

She was awake. At last.

She shifted back into a human, tilting her face up to the chill light of the moon. Oh yes. This was her time, this was how it should be. No more fighting the weak human persona that lay here. No more toying with mind-games and visions. Just her, the hunter. Perfect and free.

A flare of power – some fool trying to keep her in. For a moment, she was alarmed, the cool crystal of her eyes brightening. She strode towards the wards – she had to get out, she had to be free – and felt them disappear as suddenly as they had appeared.

The surge of power came from above. She lifted her head and sniffed the air. Two people, a young male who was oozing with power, a female full of fear. It was he who had done this, tried to stop her.

"Jal?"

The voice sent alarm through her. This voice had the power to ensnare and hold her, to defeat her purpose. She could not allow that.

The powerful one above was trying to trap her again. But she broke into a run, feeling the ground firm beneath her and as she felt the power build, gathered speed and *sprang*—

Her body flew horizontal through the air, arms stretched out and her toes pointed. She felt the wards slam closed, but she was through, she was hitting the ground and leaping up again to run into the darkness of the night.

Behind her, she realised the boy, the one with the mellow, enmeshing voice had followed her. But she was faster, she was moving away from him easily.

She was free. She was the hunter. And she could smell her prey ahead.

* * * *

"You little *fiend*." His voice was still calm, but ice floes cracked under his words. Blue hauled Chatoya to her feet and shook her so hard she nearly fell over again, his eyes two pyres. She heard the neat snap of her arm breaking and cried out. He ignored her. "Do you have any comprehension of what you've just unleashed?"

"Yes," she said, her voice dead. Goddess, if only she had *known*.

He stopped and looked hard at her. "You do know," he said finally. "I told you to keep away. I warned you that girl was a danger." His mouth curled. "If I could kill you, I would," he said softly. "But I can't. But I am going to destroy you, have no doubt of that. I warned you what would happen if you meddled."

~ I can rip your soul in two, ~ he had told her. Looking at the fiery fathoms of his eyes, she didn't doubt that. She swallowed and stepped away from him. Her arm was healing already, the pain nothing but a dull throb.

"What are you going do?" she asked.

His expression made her want to curl up and die. "Pick daisies and sing Yellow Submarine. What do you *think*? It's fortunate that I've planned for this."

"Planned?" she queried. His cold rage was terrifying...she ha never *seen* Blue Malefici anything but cool and calm and once, annoyed. But in a mood like this...she didn't know what he would do.

"Unlike you, I believe in checking my facts before I go running in," he drawled. The venom there made her flush, made her angry. A scornful glance. "Try not to do anything else insanely stupid today. And if you do, don't expect *me* to pick up the pieces."

"Don't you dare be *righteous* about this!" she said furiously. "You're doing this to protect your bloody organisation and yourself."

"Correct," he said, producing a knife that made her swallow hard and look away. And pray he didn't have time to be vengeful. "But which one of us just made me necessary?"

He was gone moments later.

Chatoya stood for a long time, her hands to her temples, trying to make sense of this new knowledge in her head. Jal killed half-breeds, anything impure...and she had stopped Blue killing her.

The idea that Bane Malefici was doing *anything* for the good of humanity was too hard to swallow. No, it was simply that the world's interests coincided with Nightfire's. And of course, she thought suddenly, he was no pureblood. Saving the world? Saving himself, more like.

But at least Circle Strange were safe, locked in the clearing with the Pack. A Pack who didn't like to be confined – and who wouldn't like being confined with Circle Strange, especially after Cougar made it his business to run over as many of them as possible. Just the sight of a black Porsche as enough to set most of the Pack foaming at the mouth, and one or two at the brain.

Locked in...she should go down and see if she could lift the wards.

It was something to do. But it didn't make her feel any better.

* * * *

Jal was crouched in a tree. Her prey was close by, crashing through the woods, panicked. Chasing after the golden blur of a cheetah that had just lurched into the space below, no doubt. Pure blood that one, glowing with a gentle red light. Safe. Of no interest to her.

But this searcher...she had been human once. And she had become of the night. She was not pure; she was a useless thing, a parasite. She had no use but to feed on others, and the golden light of humanity had mixed with the red of the night to create the sickly orange hue that meant death.

She had known her once, in that other life. When she had been only weak, before the hunter had awakened. The name of a stone, red as the life within her. Ruby...Ruby Luthman. That was her prey's name.

She stiffened as the prey came into view. Red hair, red eyes, and something that smelled metallic clutched in one hand. The made vampire smelled of fear, fear and desire. Jal grinned slowly; her teeth skinned back, she drew in breath...

"There you are." The girl grinned slowly, but there was panic in her voice.

The cheetah's form rippled briefly and became a boy with mussed golden hair and angry, trapped eyes. "Leave me alone. I don't want you."

The girl flinched, then steadied herself. "You will. You don't want Alisha. She's all wrong for you. Don't delude yourself about her."

The boy was looking for an escape, but saw he had nowhere else to go. Determination hardened his face. "I've had that delusion for eight hundred years. I've grown to like it. Much though I hate to be the bearer of bad news, psychotics really aren't my style."

"Funny," she said sharply. "I'd have thought that was exactly what they'd be."

Wariness flickering on the boy's face. Curious, Jal thought. She looked at the tainted one, whose smile was triumphant. She knows something about him, she decided. How petty. "Why are you working for Blue Malefici?"

The girl was still approaching the shapeshifter, who stood his ground. "How did you do that?"

His smile was colder than Jal had ever seen, the humour in his eyes snuffed out. There was something very Nightworld about this one, she thought. Secrets buried, darkness unearthed. "It's all in your head."

"Mind-reading." The girl seemed to have noticed the change in the boy's tones, but nothing could have induced her to stop now. "But don't try and change the subject." She stopped dead, about a metre or two from the boy, and when she spoke, her voice was hushed. "*I know what you did.*"

The boy's smile didn't waver, but it warmed a fraction. "Oh, he told you, did he?"

The girl seemed startled, taken aback at his casual confidence.

The shapeshifter laughed carelessly. "I know...you were expecting me to be ashamed, right? To say I'm sorry for what I did. But I'm not. The only thing I regret is that my friend died because she messed with something she didn't understand." Sorrow a sting his voice. "I just took revenge."

"A dozen times over," the vampire whispered. There was something new in her face when she looked at he boy now. Jal couldn't read it. Respect perhaps, or disbelief. "You murdered twelve people."

"Thirteen actually." The British accent was cool and polite. "It was a baker's dozen. Kind of appropriate really. Don't look so shocked, Ruby. I dealt with my past long before you came along."

"Does Alisha...?" The question seemed dragged from the girl before she could stop herself. Slowly, Jal saw her adjusting, rethinking how to deal with the boy. She still wanted him, that was plain. She didn't care about what the boy had done...but she cared that he didn't care. That bothered her.

The boy raised an eyebrow, the green of his eyes an intense glow. "Of course. I told her. She didn't care...and her opinion is the one that matters."

Ruby drew her head up sharply. "Not for long."

The boy grimaced, the trapped look slipping back into his eyes. "Don't, Ruby. There's no point. I have someone else."

"I don't care." The girl drew out the ring, her smile becoming satisfied. "Why don't you run, Jepar? Let's see how far you get."

Jal was amused. Children. How they loved to play their little games. But her eyes darted to the boy. There was a faintly puzzled air to his stance, and she saw his nostrils flare as he sniffed the air.

~ Jal? ~ His voice, fire and sunlight in her head. Pure of the night, this one. Rich in power. She was curious.

~ Perhaps. ~

~ You're not Jal. ~ Flat negation. He didn't look at her, but she knew the shapeshifter had seen her. Jal was impressed. She was hard to find; the moon's power cloaked her from the sight of all but the most perceptive. ~ You sound like her...and you smell like her...but you're not. Who are you? ~

~ Nothing to concern you, ~ she told him. ~ Go away, little shapeshifter. ~

~ No chance. ~ Curiosity. It had killed the cat, humans said. Maybe she would kill this one. He was getting annoyingly persistent. ~ What are you? ~

The right question. She had to wonder if this boy was as charming as he appeared. The weak one inside her, the one who feebly tried to fight the hunter's moon, had thought of him as kind.

~ Why don't you ask Nightfire? ~

Silence from him, and then inquisitiveness sharper than ever. ~ That's not an answer. Are you afraid to tell me the truth? ~

Below, she saw the girl slip the ring on and the shapeshifter's mind snapped away from her, pulled by the tug of the rich magick Jal felt exuding from the ring. The tainted halo around the girl flared brighter than ever, vivid with her emotion. It hurt Jal's eyes, stabbed like needles into her temple. She could not allow this abomination.

It hurt, it hurt like the way they had made her, in fire and blood and anguish, and she would only be rid of the pain when the girl was gone.

She sprang.

Letting her body slide into her true form, a clawed and snarling beast, she bayed her huntcry, an eerie wail that made the vampire's head snap up. She saw the terror loom large in the girl's eyes.

Jallakri ap Ganra's nightmarish face was the last thing Ruby Luthman ever saw.

* * * *

"Oh hell," Chatoya muttered shakily, rubbing at her blistering hands. She was a foot away from the wards but they threw off enough to heat to burn her even at this distance.

"Toya?" Cougar's clear voice, thrumming with anger. "What the hell's going on? I just got some first-degree burns here trying to get out. What the hell is this?"

"Dark magick," she called back, eyeing the simmering flames. "Blue. Are you all okay?"

"Fine." From Cougar's voice if he got his hands on Blue, fine wouldn't be a word in anyone's vocabulary. "Jal's done a runner and Cern followed her."

Chatoya froze. Oh gods. No... Cern was a half-breed. And if Jal caught him...

She glared at the flames. Damn the heat, she didn't have time for this!

She strode forwards, slamming her hands onto the fire and blasting her magick through it. She held on as the pain ate away at her, chanting dumbly, I have to break it, I have to break it, I have to!

It gave with a faint hiss, and she stumbled forward. Ria steadied her, her face stunned at the raw mess of Chatoya's hands.

"I need healing," Chatoya said desperately, looking at the concerned faces of friend and Pack alike. The wolves seemed disorientated, fearful. Only Donna Ares held herself with her usual poise, her dramatic eyes as sharp as a snake's. "And I've got to explain..."

* * * *

"Stop it!" someone was yelling. Hands with surprising strength dragged her from the steaming kill, throwing her away. "Leave her alone!"

She spun, her mouth a mass of cloying scarlet. "Why are you complaining, little shapeshifter? She was no good to you."

The boy's eyes were wide, startled. So deep a green as to be black, and filling fast with thought and plans.

"This is what I am," she declared proudly. "Here is your answer. How do you like it?"

His thoughts rang clear as a bell. "I don't," he said flatly. He looked her straight in the eyes and held her stare. She had never met anyone who had done that. How...odd. "She didn't deserve that."

"She was impure," she said dismissively. "I will not allow such pollution of our races." She paused. "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Nightfire had been. She remembered Kaajen mal Ifiche when she had awoken, and slaughtered them all. They had made her; they could unmake her easily. She could not suffer them to live. She had never met anyone who wasn't afraid of what she was.

He shrugged. "You're not the worst thing to come here. Not by a long shot." She saw his thoughts again. He was going to try and stop her.

She moved sleek as a swooping bird and caught him, slamming him back against a tree. One hand wrapped around his throat, leaving the girl's blood on him. Still his calm eyes. "I am not a thing," she said evenly, licking at her lips, tasting the coppery succulence of blood. "I am the hunter, and the hunt has begun."

"No," the boy said mildly. Sunshine in his stare, mingled with the all-pervading gloom of the night. He had faith, she realised, faith in his friends. He truly thought that *they*, such puny, tainted things, could stop her. "You're the prey. You just don't know it yet."

"Wrong," she said sharply.

And snapped his spine.

She heard the faint creaks of his bones healing even as she dropped him to the ground, smeared with the blood of the vampire. His eyes were still aware, flecked with the first hints of fear. He was learning. And she would teach him the lesson. "It is you who knows nothing."

She dropped to feed from the vampire, and showed him the true power and beauty of what she was.

Yet, something she didn't understand, from his thoughts came only horror.

* * * *

Someone was following her.

She raised her head from the body, her mouth slick with blood, and listened. Far off footsteps, light and sure. But not too sure...a little hurried, a little hesitant. Stumbling often.

It intrigued Jal. She inhaled deeply. The scent of autumn, a subtle musk. And the vague acidity of magick. It tingled in the back of her head and she laughed throatily. The boy. The one whose soul was tied to her.

The impure one.

Oh...this would be fun.

She wavered over where to wait for him. Mmm...the moon lay hidden from her view among these trees. She wanted to drink in its bright, crisp power. The life of this one – she raked her claws across the useless thing – had been satisfying, but it was not enough..

It was never enough. The hunter could not be sated.

She stood, and stretched until her limbs ached...then with a series of soft pops, she felt her body collapse back into the leggy sprawl of this mortal whose gold hair was turned russet, whose clothes were ripped and jagged. Even the tough wolf-hide jacket she wore was marred.

She stood lightly, her head turning to feel where the moon's pull was strongest. A swift glance at the blond boy. It would be an hour, maybe more until he was healed. No bother from him

Her senses caught a high place, scant miles form here.

There. It would be there. An empty smile curved her mouth and she began to run. Follow me, she urged the witch-boy. Follow me into hell.

* * * *

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.