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. The Muppets characters belong to Jim Henson, as far as I know.
Spoilers: All of the Night World books especially Witchlight as this
story occurs at the same time as Witchlight.
Part 14.
Des woke up back in her own bed; Gwern must have carried her there. She remembered what had happened the night before and felt a strange warmth fill her, it was nice to be needed, it was nice to have someone care about you. She wasn't sure if things between her and Gwern would work, they were so different, so incompatible but she realised she wanted to try, as scared as she was of getting hurt she was more afraid of not trying and losing whatever it was that was between her and Gwern.
She let her hair down to hang over her face and hide the bruise on her cheek. She studied her image in the mirror, the bruise was pretty noticeable, she had tried to conceal it with make up but it hadn't worked. It still felt tender too but she didn't want to make a big deal about it, she knew how bad Gwern felt about it and she didn't want to make him feel any worse.
She made her way to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl from the press. She was sitting at the table eating her cereal when Gwern came in.
"Hey," he said.
"Morning," she replied.
He sat down beside her and put his hand on hers. She smiled at him.
"Why are you hiding behind your hair?" he asked.
"Because," she replied and avoided his gaze.
"Oh, the bruise. Let me see." He tucked her hair behind her ear and turned her face towards him.
"Jeez Des, it's huge, I'm so sorry. Does it hurt?"
"A little," she replied pulling her hair out to cover it again.
"I'm sorry."
"You already said that, I already forgave you and if you don't accept that and don't stop saying you're sorry I'll get pissed at you."
"And I don't want that," he said with a grin.
"No you don't," she said sternly with a scowl and then grinned at him.
He leaned over and kissed her gently.
"Well, well," a voice said behind them, "I thought you guys would be at each other's throats not other parts of your anatomy."
"Hey 'Rus," Gwern said and laughed gently as Des turned scarlet and hid her face in his chest.
"Morning Des," Icarus said with a laugh.
"Morning," Des mumbled into Gwern's shirt.
Icarus laughed again, "I knew there was something up, I knew Gwern was acting nastier than normal for a reason."
"Hey," Gwern exclaimed.
Icarus laughed and Des looked up and smiled at him. "So he's not usually this bad?"
"Hey," Gwern said again.
"Nah, usually he's okay," 'Rus said with a smile.
"Yip," Gwern said smiling and putting an arm around Des's shoulder, "usually I'm okay."
Des smiled it felt good to talk with the two boys like this it felt normal.
"So what we doing for the rest of today?" Icarus asked.
"Stay here," Gwern replied, "hide out, wait and see what happens in North Carolina tonight and work out how we're going to get Winema and the disk to Thierry after Christmas, but first there's something we need to do, 'Rus and I."
"I know," Des said, "you guys got to hunt."
"Should we wait for Winema?" Icarus asked.
"I asked her earlier, she said she wanted to sleep, that she didn't need to hunt today."
"See you later," Des said.
"See you later," Gwern said and gave her a quick peck on the cheek as he left.
Des was sitting in the living room watching some Saturday morning cartoons when Winema got up.
"Morning," Des said with a smile.
"Don't," Winema said, "don't talk, don't smile, don't look happy, alive or awake or I'll be so jealous of you I'll do something drastic. I've got Animal playing the bongos in my head at the moment and it's not pretty. Actually I think they entire Muppets cast are having a party in my brain and Miss. Piggy just started a Highland fling, save me."
Des laughed, "Sorry I left my Muppets exterminating kit at home. You're the witch why don't you just whip up some cure all or something?"
"Because that would involve actually using my brain and moving my limbs."
Des laughed again, an unsympathetic laugh and without thinking pushed her hair behind her ear.
"Goddess Des, what happened to you?" Winema exclaimed.
"What?" Des asked and then realised she'd revealed her bruise. She quickly pulled her hair back over her cheek.
"What happened to you?" Winema repeated.
"Nothing," Des replied.
"What do you mean nothing?" Winema asked just a few decibels below shouting, "you've got a bruise the size of Texas on your face and you expect me to believe nothing happened."
"I fell out of bed," Des lied.
"Don't lie," Gwern's voice said from the living room door. "I did it," he told Winema.
"You did it," Winema said in a dangerously low voice.
"Yes."
Des watched in horror as Winema flew at Gwern, shifted as she moved and landed on him as a large grey wolf. The wolf snarled loudly into Gwern's face. Des couldn't help but smile slightly at seeing her arrogant, lamia soulmate trapped under the weight of a werewolf, a female werewolf at that.
"Don't hurt him," she called to Winema, "you don't understand, he's my."
Winema shifted to her half-and-half form, "He's your what?" she asked through sharp wolf canines.
"He's my soulmate," Des replied feeling a mixture of emotion at having finally told someone, having someone else know besides her and Gwern.
"What?" Winema exclaimed. "Des that makes it worse rather than better."
"No it doesn't please, don't hurt him, we've worked it out between ourselves and I forgave him, okay?"
"Okay," Winema said backing off him and standing up fully human again. Gwern stood up too and Winema pushed her face into his. "You so much as lay a hand on her again and I'll rip your throat out."
"I'd deserve it," Gwern replied.
Elissa walked through town unhappily; things were not going according to plan. She wasn't sure what would be happening if things were going to plan but she knew that it wasn't this, her all alone, rejected by Gwern Burdock, arrogant bastard, pity he was so cute. Well there was always Icarus, he was cute and a hell of a lot nicer than Gwern, still she wanted Gwern or payback at least for him having rejected her. A voice called her name from the shadows in an alley. She turned towards the sound and could see only a shadowy figure. She wasn't going walking in to the alley after whoever it was, if they wanted to talk to her they could come out in the open and talk to her. She turned to walk away.
"Wait," the voice called, a distinctively male voice, a rich deep voice full of promise and mystery and darkness, something ancient and powerful. She found herself stopping though she had no real desire to, the voice keeping her there, the voice holding her in it's powerful spell.
"I believe we may be of service to each other," he said.
She turned and saw a blond young man not much older than her with the golden eyes of a hawk or lion, the eyes of a predator.
"How is that?" she asked.
"You want Gwern Burdock, he has something that belongs to me. You help me get back what's mine, I help you to get him."
Elissa frowned, what did Gwern have that belonged to this guy. She looked at him again, he was smiling at her, a wolfish smile, a smile that was closed and calculated, she couldn't trust this boy but then he shouldn't trust her either. She smiled at him, the smile she saved for when she wanted something, charming and seductive, "Do you have a plan?"
