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Nightfire Part Nineteen
"This way, witch," Donna said
gruffly. They were climbing up the gentle slopes of the valley's mountains.
"Our hunter's a smart cookie. Good vantage point here. No way anyone could
sneak up on you."
"Why are you helping?" Chatoya
managed, concentrating on her footing. She already had scraped knees and elbows
from stepping on scree that had slid from under her feet. "Shouldn't you be
with your Pack?"
"'Because of his age and his cunning, because of his gripe and his paw,
in all that the Law leaveth open, the word of the Head Wolf is Law,'" the
redhead cited.
Chatoya frowned, sweeping
tangles of raven hair from her eyes. "Why are you quoting Kipling?"
Donna's gravely voice was low
in the darkness. "Honey, Kipling was a werewolf. He knew what he was talking
about. That girl broke Pack law – we don't kill for the pleasure of it. We kill
to survive."
"What about all those people
who fall into your pit?" she demanded, recalling the horror stories.
Donna laughed. "Name one."
She was caught out. "I...you
can't tell me no one's fallen in there!"
"I can." The werewolf's eyes
flashed green, throwing enough for light for Chatoya to see the mischievous
smile on her face. "It's all just rumour. No one's ever got that deep into the
Ghost Roads. 'Cept you, and your circle. That girl was the first – and we
offered her a fair trial. But I'm done playing fair."
A step up, and the wolf stood
on a plateau...and was frozen stock still. "Luna bright, our girl's thorough."
Chatoya felt her heart plummet. "Cern?"
"What's left of him."
She pulled herself onto the
plateau. He was there, lying unmoving in the shallow shelter of a cave.
Hurrying forward, praying, she knelt down by him, laying her fingers on his
neck.
Silence and stillness, her muscles feeling strung tight and quivering.
Then...a faint beat.
"He's got a pulse." She grinned radiantly, relief surging through her.
He would be okay. "I can heal him."
"Better get to work, witch,"
the werewolf said, moving to stand guard at the edge of the cliff. "He looks a
mess to me."
He was a mess. But she could
handle this. She'd seen worse. Chatoya put her hands to his temples, and
determined, began to heal him.
* * * *
Jal ran blindly, sobs catching
in her throat. She half-fell down the slope, rocks catching at her skin and
tearing it, but she didn't care. She scrambled to her feet and carried on
running. If she ran far enough, fast enough, she could leave the world behind.
She was running towards a stretch of inky water, drowning deep...but
she was already engulfed by guilt and sorrow
She had to stop sometime.
The lake drew nearer and
nearer, until finally she could see the ripples on the water, only feet away
and had to slow, gasping for breath and for peace. She had run miles, and it
wasn't nearly far enough.
She stood and watched it, no
longer feeling the tears on her face. There was a numbness creeping through
her, as over and over again, she saw Cern. She saw herself as she truly was.
She saw everything she had been too stupid and too scared and too blind to see.
And worse, she could feel the
hunter deep inside her, waiting to rise again, Striving, struggling. But she
fought it. What she had done...she fought it with that. Her horror was far
greater than its lust could ever be.
"There's no use crying over
spilt blood." The voice was deliciously dark, hypnotic almost, and she wasn't
surprised that she hadn't heard his footsteps behind her, too wrapped up in her
own misery.
She remembered what the final vision had said to her. The sweet-eyed
boy, the one who had professed to love her. ~ Find the one who can help
you...they are part of you, and you will know them. ~
She had thought it was Cern –
it was he she had revealed everything to. But that had been wrong.
She met Blue Malefici's cold,
snake-serene gaze. A part of her...yes, he was. Her blood ran in his veins. He
was her descendant. And only he could help now.
"What do I do?" she said
flatly, hopelessly. Every moment was a draining battle with the other part of
her.
"You already know," he said
calmly. "You should never have existed. Evil like you has no place here."
"And you do?" she whispered
softly.
"Whatever I am, this is my time
and my world," he said coolly. "I belong. You...your lifespan ended centuries
ago. You've been dead a long time, ancestress. You just didn't realise."
"I breathe, I feel, I hurt!"
she said angrily. "How can you say I'm dead?"
His hooded cobalt eyes snapped
with a flicker of emotion. "You were dead the moment you summoned Nightfire. It
has changed with the times but you have not, and anything which cannot change
cannot live."
"I've changed!" she said
desperately.
He reached out, and lifted up
her chin so she had no choice to look at him, his grip hard and painful. He
didn't care that he hurt her. "Tell me that you can control the hunter,
Jallakri. Tell me that with one taste of blood, you won't kill. Tell me, but it
will be a lie."
She saw her own death writ on
his stark, cold face, saw the truth. As long as the hunter lived, there was no
hope. Such dark magick could not be fought...she held it back now, but every
moment, the hunter fought more fiercely and Jal's hold slipped a little more.
The scornful curl of his mouth
acknowledging her fear. "For it to die...you must die."
She wrenched away, her eyes
fearful and furious. "No!" she cried . "There must be another way!"
Blue simply watched her. "There
isn't."
"I'll find one!" she snarled.
A small, cold smile.
"Ancestress, let your head rule your heart for once." He moved past her, to
stare down at the swishing water. "It is a simple ritual. It will not take
long. You will be free. The hunter has won for ten thousand years – do you
honestly think you can banish it forever? Or is it that halfbreed witch of
yours that makes you so blind?"
She felt her breath catch, and
her heart with it.
"Ah. It is." He didn't look
away from the water, where a wavering mockery of the moon lay trapped. "True
love may conquer all in fairytales, but the chances of it happening in real
life are about the same as me dressing in drag and dancing a samba. And let me
point out that I don't even know the steps."
Jal stared at him. He thought
this was *funny*. Her pain amused him. She opened her mouth to shout at him,
but then he looked up, and his stare bit into her with the fierce strength of a
lion, bold and infinite.
"In real life, death is the only one who ever wins."
"No," she said flatly. She
couldn't leave this. She couldn't leave *him*.
A shrug, and he crouched to
pick up a stone and skim it across the water effortlessly. It bounced with tiny
splashes, sending ripples across the water. And where those ripples met, waves
formed.
"Stop denying it, ancestress.
It's a hard truth, and maybe it's a cruel one for you, but you are a killer.
Don't pretend that hunter is a different person. You said it yourself – spells
can't work on the unwilling."
She froze. He had been there.
On the mountain, as she said those words to Cern Akafren. He had watched her
attack him, he had watched and he had done *nothing*. "You were there?"
"Like death and taxes, I get
everywhere," he agreed dryly.
Jal could barely speak for her
fury. "You could have saved him!"
"I could have," he concurred.
"But I have your blood in me, ancestress. I am a vampire with wolf blood.
Considering what you did to your other half, I don't even want to think about
your family rates."
"Don't joke about this!" she
screamed.
"Why not?" He shrugged. "Oh,
run away, Jallakri." His voice was bored, contemptuous. "Go and pretend to
search for ways to save yourself. And when the hunter is roaring in you, when
you can't control it any longer, when dozens more are dead, if you can, come
crawling back. Maybe I'll help you then."
She stared for a moment,
heaving breaths as she was caught between anguish and rage. Then she turned and
ran from him again, ran from the boy who was her only deliverance and her only
doom.
* * * *
Lisa Ochai paced the Pack
clearing endlessly, a rare hardness in her face. Cern had gone after her, he
had *gone after her*, the mad, stupid fool. She stopped clenched her fists
under her nails were cutting into her palms. It didn't help, that tight knot
was still lodged in her stomach like a rock, the fear was building and building
until she couldn't bear it anymore.
"Lise?" Ria, all soft voice and
shyness, looking at her. "Are you okay?"
"Worried," she bit out. Any god
who existed, let him live, even let Jal live, if only he would be all right.
"Me too." The girl was nestled
among the wolves, who were surprisingly subdued. One had its head on her lap, a
little scrap of a pup with liquid eyes. "I hope..."
I don't, Lisa thought. I gave up on hope a long time ago. What has hope
ever brought me but disappointment? I don't hope. I *act*.
~ Lisa? Ria? ~ The strong voice
was Cougar Redfern's. He was moving, Lisa realised, no, running. Jepar dashed
on ahead in cheetah form. ~ Toya and Donna Ares have found Cern. They say
it...isn't good. She's healing, but we need both of you. Leave the Pack, Jal's
gone. I can't sense her nearby. ~
~ What's wrong with him? ~ she
forced out. She didn't see Ria glance quickly at her.
A pause; Cougar must be talking
to Donna at the same time. Chatoya couldn't telepath that far. ~ What's not.
Let's just say that right now, you could scrape him up, put him in a jar and
serve him as a tasty side-dish. ~
I'm going to throw up, Lisa
thought. She swallowed hard. Not now. They need you. *He* needs you.
~ We're on our way, ~ Ria sent
worriedly. ~ Be careful. ~
~ You too, babe. ~ And an aside
only Ria could hear. ~ Lisa okay? She sounded...wrong. ~
The witch looked over. The
vampire seemed to be collecting herself, taking deep breaths and calming. ~ She
will be. ~
~ Oh...babe? ~
~ Yeah? ~ There was something
tumultuous and dark in his mind, like an avalanche at midnight.
~ Ruby's dead. ~ She
gasped...she and Ruby weren't friends, no, but the vampire had saved her life
once. ~ JJ and I buried her. Jal...ripped her apart. ~
She had no words to answer him.
* * * *
Blue stayed to watch the
sunrise, settling himself on the cool grass as morning crept in cold and fresh
while he let his thoughts fly free around the valley.
His dragon powers flicked out
inquisitively, almost idly, skipping into any creature he could sense nearby,
borrowing their senses to garner information. The pinpoint vision of a hawk,
swooping low over the mountains showed him the ones who called themselves
Circle Strange carrying the witch-boy back, unconscious. All pale, all drained.
Some angry, some distraught, some grim.
Only one aware of what had to
happen. Chatoya Irkil, with her mourning black hair and her astute face, even
now searching for him with the remnants of her magick. She saw the hawk, and
wondered, but Blue carelessly forced the bird to wheel away with a screech.
The striking face of that boy
who lounged by the lake didn't change. Still calm, still confident. Still
without compassion gracing his eyes or anything but a cold cruelty.
He would be avenged for the
heedless way she had destroyed his plans. Three times he had warned, and not
once had she listened. And well...she was so easy to toy with. So fierce, so
eager, believing that she could really get the better of him if she tried. So
much more interesting than the first time he had met her.
Destroying her would be...fun.
By the time full light hit the
earth, throwing everything into sharp relief, he was gone.
* * * *
Lisa Ochai was sitting in Jepar's house, watching Cern Akafren sleep. A
book sat open in her lap, a half-empty glass on the table, but she never
glanced down at the pages or sipped the drink. Her eyes were strained and
unhappy, the first hints of anger in the whiteness of her knuckles.
Damn Jal. How could she have
hurt him? How? If she caught hold of that werewolf...Lisa wanted to wrench her
limb from limb, only that might hurt Cern. So she wouldn't.
Chatoya and Ria were asleep
downstairs, drained of every last drop of energy. Jepar had curled up in front
of the fire, equally sapped after lending his power to the witches – and all,
she knew, was not well with him, but that didn't seem to matter to her much right
now. Jepar was strong. He'd get over it.
"You okay here?" Cougar said
softly, putting his head round the door. "Ria told me he should wake up any
time now. They did some...pretty illegal spells to try and heal him."
She looked at the lamia, It too
ka moment for his words to register. "Yeah. Fine. Where are you off to?"
"Going to talk to the Pack."
The lamia's eyes were no longer gold but the creamy hazel they always melted
into when he was upset or hurt. "Explain about what happened. I figure we owe
them that. Lise...are you sure you're okay? You look like you're going to..."
Burst into tears, he'd been going to say, but trailed off as he realised that
was decidedly untactful. A rare event with Cougar.
"Hon, I'm *fine*," she said
empathically, and managed to paste a smile onto her face. There. See, now go
away.
He gave her a look that said he
knew better, but wouldn't argue, and left like a cat sliding out of a window.
She didn't know how long it was
before he woke. She simply watched his pale face, the face she knew so well and
loved so well, and had never told her love to. She couldn't believe how it had
been when Chatoya had told her he was hurt.
Numbness, then pure terror,
then nausea and a dull horror that pounded in her. She was powerless; she could
only watch while the witches healed, and maybe if she'd believed in a god, she
would have prayed.
"Lise?"
His voice made her blink and
stand, striding over at once. Just looking at him sent the usual bittersweet
feeling through her veins.
"How are you?" she said
anxiously, trying to sound bright and cheerful. Cern opened his eyes a little
and hissed softly – the intensity of the light, she guessed. She flicked off
the lamp.
"Well," he drawled. She heard
the faint ring of sadness in his voice, but ignored it as he did. "I feel like
someone put me in a sack and hit me repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Let's
see..." His eyes closed for an instant. Cern was an expert healer. "Cracked
ribs, broken leg, sprained ankle, snapped wrist, left arm broken in three
places, a lot of cuts and bruises. How close am I?"
She smiled slightly. "You
missed a broken finger and no cuts anymore. And your arm's broken in four
places, not three. Sorry, that's a B-Plus. But if you'd broken anything else,
you could have won world's biggest human percussion instrument."
That wry smile pulled up the
corners of his mouth. "Damn, another lifetime goal missed." He moved uneasily
and swore under his breath, face paling abruptly. Lisa didn't think she was
supposed to hear. "What have Toya and Ria been doing? Because it sure doesn't
feel like healing."
"Oh?" she said archly. Joy filled her. He was awake, he was all right,
he would live. She made up her mind to buy Toya and Ria a *huge* bar of
chocolate.
Cern glared at her and she
relented, not wanting to see even muted anger directed at her. "Honey, they
said the best person to be healing you *was* you. But if it's any consolation,
they fixed your other broken leg, put your shoulder back in its socket, fixed
up your spine and head and stopped you bleeding to death."
"Oh well, maybe I'll forgive them." Again, that flicker of sadness, in
his eyes as well as his voice. "Couldn't borrow a little of that vampire blood,
could I?" Hopeful look, eyes wide and imploring. "I can't keep this puppy-dog
look up forever, you know," he added when she didn't answer.
"Sure," she said finally,
uneasily. She didn't like sharing blood – it let someone see your thoughts. But
she had learned over the years to guard herself from such intrusions. It should
be safe enough.
She emptied the water from her
glass onto the floor, and broke it on the table. Slight surprise on his face at
that, but Lisa didn't care. She wanted this over and done with. Slashing her
wrist open with a fragment didn't hurt much, and she didn't need to open any
cuts on him (she knew he preferred that method to drinking blood. There might
be a touch of vampire blood in his veins, but he didn't acknowledge it.). There
were enough to choose from.
The pull at her mind was unnerving,
a sudden jolt of energy that made her slam up her shields more firmly, and
resolve not to think about him at all.
~ Lise? ~ his voice, distant,
confused. ~ Why are you shielding? ~
She didn't answer, but kept her
face smooth and empty.
His unhappiness was a dash of
saltwater in her face. ~ Please, Lise, I need to talk to you. I have to talk to
someone... ~
She bit her lip. ~ I need to
concentrate. ~
~ No you don't, ~ he said,
anger and misery all mixed up together. ~ Why are you shutting me out? I have
to tell someone about how I feel or I think I'll go crazy, completely mad. ~
~ Tell someone else, ~ she
muttered through her shields.
~What's wrong with you? ~ he
snapped.
She realised a fraction too late that he had gotten much more powerful
since the last time she had linked minds with him, nearly three years ago when
they had first met.
He punched through her shields
like they didn't even exist. And he saw.
And he *knew*.
She broke the connection with a jolt. Her stomach was leaping as though
an entire flock of crows had gotten loose. She felt as though she had been run
into a corner. Trapped. That was it. It wasn't a feeling she often experienced.
And humiliated too. If a chasm had opened in the floor, she would have been the
first to leap into it.
Cern sat up, his body already
healed. Far too close for comfort, though comfort certainly wasn't what she
needed right now. A time machine maybe, to snatch back those few moments. He
looked…stunned, that was the only way she could think of to describe it, all
his anger disappeared. Eyes gone the colour of indigo nights with sheer shock,
mouth half-open.
"Oh my god," he said quietly.
There was a dazed incredulity on his face. "You're in love with me?"
She looked at him, her lips
trembling. "Yes."
* * * *
I would love to know what you
think – please just take a minutes to write a review and tell me what you
think. :-)
Hugs n' honey,
Ki
