Disclaimer: The Night World is the property of L.J. Smith as are any of the characters you recognise like Thierry, Hannah, Keller, Lupe etc.
Spoilers: All of the Night World books especially Witchlight as this story occurs at the same time as Witchlight.
Author's Notes: A big thank you to Kay and Jasmine FoxFlame for reviewing the first part, I'm really glad you liked it.
In this story I use ^ to indicate thought and ~ to indicate telepathic communication so as long as you know that everything should be okay.
Part 2.
Desdemona sat in the back of the car, a dark navy inconspicuous sedan, watching the scenery go past.
"So," Icarus said turning to her, "what do we call you?"
"Sorry?" Des said looking up.
"What do we call you? No offence but Desdemona's a bit of a mouthful, you must have a nickname. Mona maybe."
Des felt her eyes narrow in anger, no one called her Mona not since her Mom, who had hated the fact that everyone called her daughter a boy's name.
"No," she snapped then sorry that she had been so mean the first time one of them tried to be nice added, "No-one calls me Mona, it's Des."
Icarus smiled at her, "Nice to meet you Des, I'm Icarus or Rus and when Gwern's in a bad mood it's you stupid moronic wolf."
Des smiled back it was too hard not to, Icarus had one of those infectious smiles that filled his whole face. "That's Gwern just Gwern," he said indicating the lamia, "Or Sir, right Boss," he added imitating the girls from Keller's team.
Des saw a smile tug at Gwern's lips but he resisted it and turned to Icarus, "Sir to you wolf boy and if you call me Boss again I'll happily insert some silver in that pea-sized brain of yours."
"Right Boss," Icarus replied winking at Des.
They drove on in silence and Des took the opportunity to study the two boys. They were both around the same age as her, about 18 or 19, both Night World handsome, both obviously strong but that was where the similarities ended. Whereas Icarus was short and compact, Gwern was tall and nicely muscled. Icarus had brown hair that had bleached highlights and his eyes were light green, the very light green that was almost see through. Gwern on the other hand had longish black hair that fell into his eyes, she couldn't tell what colour they were from where she was sitting.
Icarus looked at the human in the back of the car, she seemed pretty nice. He felt a stab of pity for her when he remembered Gwern's rant after they had meet Thierry, she was not going to have it easy, Gwern was going to make it as difficult as possible for her. He looked back and saw her looking out the window with a sad, pensive look on her face, she looked so miserable his heart went out to her.
^Poor kid,^ he thought, ^getting stuck with the two of us.^
Then he heard Gwern's voice in his head, ~Poor us more like it, stuck with the likes of her.~
~Don't be so mean Gwern, Thierry wouldn't have sent her if he didn't think she'd be useful.~
~You think so,~ Gwern asked bitterly.
~Yes, what do you mean?~
~I heard some of the witches talking, they said everyone was sick of how miserable she was, bringing everyone down and Thierry would have done anything to get rid of her.~
~Who said that?~
~Blaise,~ Gwern answered sheepishly.
~Blaise~ Icarus snorted causing Des to look up at him. "Sorry," he said, "just thought of something funny."
Des gave him a look that indicated she thought he was more than a little odd.
~Great,~ he said to Gwern, ~now she thinks I'm crazy.~
~She would have realised sooner or later.~
~Ha ha, so funny, I'm not the one who considers Blaise Harman's opinion as something to base a conspiracy theory on. What were you doing stalking Blaise Harman anyway? Maybe she was working her mojo on you, you were lucky to get away.~
~Please, Blaise Harman couldn't spell me if she tried, anyway she only picks on deserving targets like vermin.~
~For someone who works for Daybreak you have a surprisingly hostile attitude to humans.~
~Just because I don't want the darkness to take over and more especially don't want the Redferns or any of those bastard vampire families to take over does not mean I should have fuzzy feelings for vermin.~
~Hmmm, well at least you have your priorities set out, whatever about right,~ Icarus replied wearily, they had had this argument too many times for him to bother continuing, nothing he said could change Gwern's mind. He supposed it was because werewolves and shifters in general were considered so inferior by the Night World that he felt empathy with humans.
Des's voice soft and gentle broke the silence, "You missed the turn off."
"Shit," Gwern exclaimed, "Why didn't you say something earlier?"
Des sighed and supposed this was how it was going to be, everything would be her fault. Gwern did a U-turn and Des found herself thrown across the car, banging her shoulder off the door handle. She heard Icarus swear as Gwern swerved to avoid an oncoming car and a blast of a horn. He locked the wheel hard and they were off the main road.
"You okay back there?" Icarus asked.
"Sure," Des said lightly trying not to winch as a stab of pain ran through her shoulder.
They drove for another few hours, Des felt hungry and her bladder was threatening to burst but she didn't complain, she wasn't going to be the first to need a stop. It was her stomach that finally gave her away by growling loudly.
Icarus laughed, "I don't growl that loud."
Des felt herself going beetroot and was really angry with herself.
"If you need to stop we'll stop," Gwern said begrudgingly.
"No, I'm fine if you guys can last I can last," she replied, her stomach didn't seem to agree and growled again. Gwern swore loudly and angrily and then indicated to pull into a station up the road.
"You have five minutes," he told her getting out himself to fill gas.
Des came back to the car quickly feeling much better and laden down with junk.
"Here," she said to Icarus, "they didn't have entrails so I thought maybe M&Ms." She handed him a bag of the sweets, "I've got a load of junk here if you want some. I don't think even I can eat it all myself."
Gwern got back in, threw a contemptuous look at Des and headed off again.
It was after midnight when they finally pulled into the house Daybreak had procured for them. They got out of the car and began to bring in all their bags. As Des moved across the gravel carrying two bags and a case she felt really glad she had flat shoes on and that she had a good sense of balance. She was almost at the door when the strap of one of the bags began to rub off her shoulder, it hurt so much. She felt herself begin to fall, hands grabbed her.
"What are you doing? Trying to carry more that you're able to, that was stupid but what should I have expected."
Des steadied herself. "I can carry this much," she snapped, "and it's not as if it's all mine. I only brought one bag so much for girls bringing more things than boys."
"Most of our stuff are weapons," Gwern replied angrily, "Give me one of the bags."
"No," Des snapped back, "I can manage."
"No you can't."
Icarus watched the argument with interest, they were both strong willed, Icarus smiled faintly. ^Lets call a spade, a spade here,^ he thought, ^they're both as stubborn as Hera.^
They stood there staring at each other for a few minutes and then Des tried to move around Gwern, he stepped in front of her.
"Get out of my way," Des ordered.
"Give me one of the bags."
"Gwern," Icarus said feeling tired and deciding this had gone on long enough, "there's plenty more bags to bring in and Des are you sure you can carry that much?"
"Yes," Des replied.
Gwern glared at Icarus and went to the car.
"Don't mind him," Icarus said kindly, "he's just pissed that we didn't get to go after the wild power."
"I figured as much," Des said with a smile.
"Are you okay? Really?" he asked.
"My shoulder's a little sore from the car but I can manage."
"You sure?" Icarus asked.
"Yeah," Des replied then smiled, "at least you were more polite about it."
"About what? Oh I get it," he laughed, "sorry I guess I'd better let you get that stuff inside."
Des stood before the mirror and looked at the bruise on her shoulder, it was almost black and really, really tender. ^Shit,^ she thought, ^my first day and I hurt myself stupidly, I knew this wasn't a good idea.^
