Disclaimer: The Night World is the property of L.J. Smith as are any of the
characters you recognise like Thierry, Hannah, Lupe etc.
Spoilers: All of the Night World books and my story Bound by Flame.
Author's Notes: Okay, I'm hoping I'll be able to get this part up seeing as I've seen a few updated fics, so I'm going to try with fingers crossed, and for once it's not my fault that this part is late.
Orange: Thanks so much for reviewing. I'm glad you liked the last chapter, it was one of my favourite to write, and there's some Gwern in this, well indirectly at least. I hope you enjoy it.
Redaura: If I'd gotten your review sooner maybe that's what would have happened, I wanted an explanation for the tree fight too but as you'll see Diablo managed to wriggle out of it. I have to say he kind of deserves being beaten up, I mean anyone who attacks a tree deserves what's coming to them. Thanks for reviewing and you should know you're the reason this is up today, I was going to wait till tomorrow but I got your review and decided to put it up today, well I hope you enjoy it.
Part 14.
Des was tired, really tired. It was getting, late, actually it was worse, it was getting early. It was that time when the night was stealing away and it still wasn't quite morning. Everything had been quite so far but she still had a feeling of fluttering apprehension in her stomach. It wasn't fair to blame Cynthia for it but up until she had said that things would be quiet Des hadn't felt worried. Truthfully she'd kind of been planning to doze on the Blessingways' very comfortable sofa.
Icarus was supposed to relieve her soon and not before time, she was so sleepy that her senses were beginning to suffer and her reaction times were off. Being on her own like this gave her time to think but it also gave her time to worry. And she was worried, worried about lots of things but two stood out in her mind more than anything else. One was Wenona, she didn't understand why the Night World would be after her. Sure she was a Daybreaker but that was it, she was an ordinary Daybreak member, not especially special. It didn't make sense and when it didn't make sense you couldn't anticipate what was going to happen.
The other thing she worried about was Gwern, sometimes she didn't even want to think about him but tonight wrapped in the peace and silence of the night she worried about him, where he was, if he was alright, looking after himself and not getting himself into trouble but that really didn't seem very likely. Trouble seemed to follow Gwern around and if it didn't find him then with his quick temper he'd find it. So she worried and wondered about him, wondered if he'd like Cynthia and Wenona as much as she did, wondered where he was and what he was doing, wondered if he missed her as much as she missed him and worried that he didn't. He had left her after all if he missed her he could always come back.
She closed her eyes tightly and leaned her head against the side of the armchair she was sitting on trying as best she could to get rid of the images of Gwern that filled her mind.
Goddess, she shouldn't have started to think about him because now she thought she could sense him, that strong, bright presence that she'd been blocking for so long. It felt so strong, so close almost as if he was next to her. It must have been because she'd been holding it back for so long but Goddess he felt so near, almost like if she opened her eyes he'd be standing in front of her close enough to touch.
She opened her eyes and the room was empty just as she'd known it would be. The only sound was her own breathing, she was so stupid for a moment she'd actually believed he might be there, that he might just have come back to her. It must have been wishful thinking on her part that made him feel so close though he was probably ten thousand miles away. She ached, she physically ached, she hurt so much it felt like her heart was shattering and the shards were tearing her apart.
She stood up quickly and began to pace around the room, she had to stop thinking about him, if she didn't think about him then it didn't hurt so much and she wanted it to stop hurting, she needed it to stop. She knew that not all soulmates stayed together, that sometimes being together was too much for them but being apart from Gwern was almost too much for her especially when he felt as close as he did because it made her remember how it felt to be with him.
"Stop thinking about him," she told herself, "think about Wenona and how to protect her from whatever's after her."
It seemed a bit strange to Des that as time went on and nothing happened to suggest someone was really after Wenona she became more and more convinced that someone was though why was the real question.
She sat into the wide windowsill of one of the windows that looked out on the street. It was still dark outside though she could see a tinge of light somewhere on the horizon. Was there someone out there? She just couldn't tell; she didn't have the night vision of a Night Person but if there was they were staying very well hidden.
She hated it when being human meant she might miss something important that a Night Person would pick up on. She sighed thinking about how Gwern would turn that emotion against her; he just didn't understand, yes she hated it, yes it frustrated her but that didn't mean she wanted to become a vampire. He had tried to use her emotions against her to convince her to change. She'd been so angry with him for that, he'd tried to manipulate her even though he knew how much she hated it; he knew how much she detested other people trying to control her especially after what had happened to her before.
"Goddess," she thought, "why does every thing I think somehow come back around to Gwern? So maybe I miss him a little, okay a lot but thinking about him isn't going to make things any easier, it's just making things worse even if it does make him feel closer, even if for just a minute it makes me think he's coming back."
Des drew her legs up in front of her and rested her chin on her knees. She was getting so sick of this, it wasn't like Gwern was her whole life, she had good friends, she had a cause for Goddess sake and things to worry about that were a lot more important than Gwern Burdock, soulmate or not. She'd been fine without him before and she'd be fine without him now.
She pressed her face to the window trying to see if there was actually someone out there, someone not Gwern, but it was still too dark for her to make anything out properly yet.
"Where are you Gwern?" she whispered softly to herself.
What Des didn't know was that the soulmate connection took her words and whispered them in his dreams and took her pain and laid it against his soul like a knife.
Sometime later Des found herself being shaken awake. She knew she must have been asleep for a while because it was already bright outside.
"Oh Goddess," she exclaimed. "How long have I been asleep? Is everything okay?" she asked looking up into Icarus's grinning face.
"I don't know how long you've been asleep but everything's fine and truthfully if anything happened it would be fault really; I was supposed to relieve you a while ago but I kind of sleep it out." Icarus told her obviously trying to look sheepish but failing miserably. "Sorry," he said meekly helping her off the windowsill and ushering her toward the stairs. "Why don't you go try sleeping in a bed for a change."
"Yes Master," Des said with a smile figuring she could give out to him about relieving her late later, when she was awake.
She climbed slowly up the stairs trying to remember the dream she'd been having, it had been a nice one for once and instead of waking up breathing hard with painful images dancing in front of her eyes she'd woken up feeling happy. Before she'd meet Gwern she'd had nightmares all the time but when they were together they had become less and less frequent until she'd thought they were gone for good but they'd come back shortly after Gwern left.
She nearly kicked herself for thinking of Gwern again then plodded up the last of the stairs thinking only of the nice warm bed that was waiting for her in the Blessingways' guest room.
At the same time across town Aniela was pulling some small splinters out of Diablo's hands with a tweezers. She held his hand as gently as she could while making sure he didn't pull it away when she tried to remove a splinter. She had finally gotten over the initial shock of seeing how damaged his hands were and was now wondering why exactly he'd decided to attack a tree.
"Ouch," he said as she took the last splinter out.
"Don't be such a baby," she said smiling at him, "I thought you were supposed to be a big strong vampire, what's a little splinter to you?"
Diablo didn't seem to find her funny and gave her a scornful look, "It hurts, okay."
"Well that will teach you," Ani replied wondering how exactly you treated a vampire's cuts, whether ordinary disinfectant would work or if she should use something else.
Diablo seemed to recognise her problem and picked a bottle out of the first aid kit, "This will do."
"Well are you going to tell me why you attacked the tree or what?" Ani asked as she opened the bottle and poured a little of the orange liquid on to some cotton wool. "What did the tree do to you? This might sting."
She pressed the cotton bud to one of his cuts ignoring the hiss of pain that he made.
"Might sting," he exclaimed pulling his hand away, "it feels like it's striping my skin off."
"Stop changing the subject," Aniela told him, "and give me back your hand or it will get infected and fall off."
"Sounds like something my grandmother would say," Diablo murmured reluctantly returning his hand to her gentle grip.
"Mine does say that," Aniela said absently as she continued to clean his wounds.
"Thanks for doing this," Diablo said suddenly, "I wasn't really sure what you'd do especially when I saw that bat. I thought you were going to hit me over the head with it."
Aniela smiled, it was strange to hear Diablo talking to her like that, strange but nice, she wasn't sure she ever expected to her gratitude and tenderness directed towards her coming from him. "It certainly crossed my mind," she said softly.
She began to wrap dressings around his hand ignoring the feelings inside her that were clamouring for her attention. When she finished she ran her thumb tenderly along the palm of his hand not really sure what she was doing but feeling sort of outside herself, especially as Diablo rose his hand to cup her face gently.
"You're beautiful you know," he told her his voice reduced to a low whisper. "And I don't just mean the outside, it must be true what they say about eyes being the window to the soul because you've got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen and the most beautiful soul."
Aniela giggled; she couldn't help it, it was just too much for her.
"What's so funny?" Diablo demanded looking hurt.
"Oh Lord save me from poetic declarations of love from vampires," Ani replied laughing harder.
"I will have you know that that is one of my best lines," Diablo said trying unsuccessfully to hide the beginning of a smile. "I never really considered it poetic before, do you really think it was?"
Ani laughed again surprised and privately really pleased that they could share a moment so normal and ordinary as this, that they could share a joke together and that every moment they spent together didn't have to be about how them being together was wrong or arguing. She didn't really want to admit it but it ignited a spark of hope within her that maybe there could be something between them after all.
She looked up at Diablo not realising that he was looking down at her warm, shining eyes and smiling lips and thinking the same thing. He dipped his lips towards hers. Ani's mother chose that moment to burst into the kitchen having seen her father off at the door.
"Ani is everything okay in here I thought I heard voices," she said before she stopped short and her mouth fell slightly open as she processed the scene before her.
"Aniela, what is going on here?" her mother demanded. "And who is this boy?"
"Oh God," Ani groaned she had thought her mom was angry but it was much worse than that; she was interested and she had her I want details look on her face. She didn't have to be psychic to know she and Diablo were in for a very embarrassing inquisition.
Spoilers: All of the Night World books and my story Bound by Flame.
Author's Notes: Okay, I'm hoping I'll be able to get this part up seeing as I've seen a few updated fics, so I'm going to try with fingers crossed, and for once it's not my fault that this part is late.
Orange: Thanks so much for reviewing. I'm glad you liked the last chapter, it was one of my favourite to write, and there's some Gwern in this, well indirectly at least. I hope you enjoy it.
Redaura: If I'd gotten your review sooner maybe that's what would have happened, I wanted an explanation for the tree fight too but as you'll see Diablo managed to wriggle out of it. I have to say he kind of deserves being beaten up, I mean anyone who attacks a tree deserves what's coming to them. Thanks for reviewing and you should know you're the reason this is up today, I was going to wait till tomorrow but I got your review and decided to put it up today, well I hope you enjoy it.
Part 14.
Des was tired, really tired. It was getting, late, actually it was worse, it was getting early. It was that time when the night was stealing away and it still wasn't quite morning. Everything had been quite so far but she still had a feeling of fluttering apprehension in her stomach. It wasn't fair to blame Cynthia for it but up until she had said that things would be quiet Des hadn't felt worried. Truthfully she'd kind of been planning to doze on the Blessingways' very comfortable sofa.
Icarus was supposed to relieve her soon and not before time, she was so sleepy that her senses were beginning to suffer and her reaction times were off. Being on her own like this gave her time to think but it also gave her time to worry. And she was worried, worried about lots of things but two stood out in her mind more than anything else. One was Wenona, she didn't understand why the Night World would be after her. Sure she was a Daybreaker but that was it, she was an ordinary Daybreak member, not especially special. It didn't make sense and when it didn't make sense you couldn't anticipate what was going to happen.
The other thing she worried about was Gwern, sometimes she didn't even want to think about him but tonight wrapped in the peace and silence of the night she worried about him, where he was, if he was alright, looking after himself and not getting himself into trouble but that really didn't seem very likely. Trouble seemed to follow Gwern around and if it didn't find him then with his quick temper he'd find it. So she worried and wondered about him, wondered if he'd like Cynthia and Wenona as much as she did, wondered where he was and what he was doing, wondered if he missed her as much as she missed him and worried that he didn't. He had left her after all if he missed her he could always come back.
She closed her eyes tightly and leaned her head against the side of the armchair she was sitting on trying as best she could to get rid of the images of Gwern that filled her mind.
Goddess, she shouldn't have started to think about him because now she thought she could sense him, that strong, bright presence that she'd been blocking for so long. It felt so strong, so close almost as if he was next to her. It must have been because she'd been holding it back for so long but Goddess he felt so near, almost like if she opened her eyes he'd be standing in front of her close enough to touch.
She opened her eyes and the room was empty just as she'd known it would be. The only sound was her own breathing, she was so stupid for a moment she'd actually believed he might be there, that he might just have come back to her. It must have been wishful thinking on her part that made him feel so close though he was probably ten thousand miles away. She ached, she physically ached, she hurt so much it felt like her heart was shattering and the shards were tearing her apart.
She stood up quickly and began to pace around the room, she had to stop thinking about him, if she didn't think about him then it didn't hurt so much and she wanted it to stop hurting, she needed it to stop. She knew that not all soulmates stayed together, that sometimes being together was too much for them but being apart from Gwern was almost too much for her especially when he felt as close as he did because it made her remember how it felt to be with him.
"Stop thinking about him," she told herself, "think about Wenona and how to protect her from whatever's after her."
It seemed a bit strange to Des that as time went on and nothing happened to suggest someone was really after Wenona she became more and more convinced that someone was though why was the real question.
She sat into the wide windowsill of one of the windows that looked out on the street. It was still dark outside though she could see a tinge of light somewhere on the horizon. Was there someone out there? She just couldn't tell; she didn't have the night vision of a Night Person but if there was they were staying very well hidden.
She hated it when being human meant she might miss something important that a Night Person would pick up on. She sighed thinking about how Gwern would turn that emotion against her; he just didn't understand, yes she hated it, yes it frustrated her but that didn't mean she wanted to become a vampire. He had tried to use her emotions against her to convince her to change. She'd been so angry with him for that, he'd tried to manipulate her even though he knew how much she hated it; he knew how much she detested other people trying to control her especially after what had happened to her before.
"Goddess," she thought, "why does every thing I think somehow come back around to Gwern? So maybe I miss him a little, okay a lot but thinking about him isn't going to make things any easier, it's just making things worse even if it does make him feel closer, even if for just a minute it makes me think he's coming back."
Des drew her legs up in front of her and rested her chin on her knees. She was getting so sick of this, it wasn't like Gwern was her whole life, she had good friends, she had a cause for Goddess sake and things to worry about that were a lot more important than Gwern Burdock, soulmate or not. She'd been fine without him before and she'd be fine without him now.
She pressed her face to the window trying to see if there was actually someone out there, someone not Gwern, but it was still too dark for her to make anything out properly yet.
"Where are you Gwern?" she whispered softly to herself.
What Des didn't know was that the soulmate connection took her words and whispered them in his dreams and took her pain and laid it against his soul like a knife.
Sometime later Des found herself being shaken awake. She knew she must have been asleep for a while because it was already bright outside.
"Oh Goddess," she exclaimed. "How long have I been asleep? Is everything okay?" she asked looking up into Icarus's grinning face.
"I don't know how long you've been asleep but everything's fine and truthfully if anything happened it would be fault really; I was supposed to relieve you a while ago but I kind of sleep it out." Icarus told her obviously trying to look sheepish but failing miserably. "Sorry," he said meekly helping her off the windowsill and ushering her toward the stairs. "Why don't you go try sleeping in a bed for a change."
"Yes Master," Des said with a smile figuring she could give out to him about relieving her late later, when she was awake.
She climbed slowly up the stairs trying to remember the dream she'd been having, it had been a nice one for once and instead of waking up breathing hard with painful images dancing in front of her eyes she'd woken up feeling happy. Before she'd meet Gwern she'd had nightmares all the time but when they were together they had become less and less frequent until she'd thought they were gone for good but they'd come back shortly after Gwern left.
She nearly kicked herself for thinking of Gwern again then plodded up the last of the stairs thinking only of the nice warm bed that was waiting for her in the Blessingways' guest room.
At the same time across town Aniela was pulling some small splinters out of Diablo's hands with a tweezers. She held his hand as gently as she could while making sure he didn't pull it away when she tried to remove a splinter. She had finally gotten over the initial shock of seeing how damaged his hands were and was now wondering why exactly he'd decided to attack a tree.
"Ouch," he said as she took the last splinter out.
"Don't be such a baby," she said smiling at him, "I thought you were supposed to be a big strong vampire, what's a little splinter to you?"
Diablo didn't seem to find her funny and gave her a scornful look, "It hurts, okay."
"Well that will teach you," Ani replied wondering how exactly you treated a vampire's cuts, whether ordinary disinfectant would work or if she should use something else.
Diablo seemed to recognise her problem and picked a bottle out of the first aid kit, "This will do."
"Well are you going to tell me why you attacked the tree or what?" Ani asked as she opened the bottle and poured a little of the orange liquid on to some cotton wool. "What did the tree do to you? This might sting."
She pressed the cotton bud to one of his cuts ignoring the hiss of pain that he made.
"Might sting," he exclaimed pulling his hand away, "it feels like it's striping my skin off."
"Stop changing the subject," Aniela told him, "and give me back your hand or it will get infected and fall off."
"Sounds like something my grandmother would say," Diablo murmured reluctantly returning his hand to her gentle grip.
"Mine does say that," Aniela said absently as she continued to clean his wounds.
"Thanks for doing this," Diablo said suddenly, "I wasn't really sure what you'd do especially when I saw that bat. I thought you were going to hit me over the head with it."
Aniela smiled, it was strange to hear Diablo talking to her like that, strange but nice, she wasn't sure she ever expected to her gratitude and tenderness directed towards her coming from him. "It certainly crossed my mind," she said softly.
She began to wrap dressings around his hand ignoring the feelings inside her that were clamouring for her attention. When she finished she ran her thumb tenderly along the palm of his hand not really sure what she was doing but feeling sort of outside herself, especially as Diablo rose his hand to cup her face gently.
"You're beautiful you know," he told her his voice reduced to a low whisper. "And I don't just mean the outside, it must be true what they say about eyes being the window to the soul because you've got the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen and the most beautiful soul."
Aniela giggled; she couldn't help it, it was just too much for her.
"What's so funny?" Diablo demanded looking hurt.
"Oh Lord save me from poetic declarations of love from vampires," Ani replied laughing harder.
"I will have you know that that is one of my best lines," Diablo said trying unsuccessfully to hide the beginning of a smile. "I never really considered it poetic before, do you really think it was?"
Ani laughed again surprised and privately really pleased that they could share a moment so normal and ordinary as this, that they could share a joke together and that every moment they spent together didn't have to be about how them being together was wrong or arguing. She didn't really want to admit it but it ignited a spark of hope within her that maybe there could be something between them after all.
She looked up at Diablo not realising that he was looking down at her warm, shining eyes and smiling lips and thinking the same thing. He dipped his lips towards hers. Ani's mother chose that moment to burst into the kitchen having seen her father off at the door.
"Ani is everything okay in here I thought I heard voices," she said before she stopped short and her mouth fell slightly open as she processed the scene before her.
"Aniela, what is going on here?" her mother demanded. "And who is this boy?"
"Oh God," Ani groaned she had thought her mom was angry but it was much worse than that; she was interested and she had her I want details look on her face. She didn't have to be psychic to know she and Diablo were in for a very embarrassing inquisition.