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.
Rating: 15.
Author: Aife Bisclaveret {or Bernadette in the real world}
E-mail: treeloie@yahoo.com or aife_bisclaveret@hotmail.com msn messenger and yahoo messenger same as e-mail.
Title: The Fire That Binds.
Author's Notes: I am so, so sorry that this part has taken so long it was a culmination of a lot of really minor distractions and some pretty big real life problems, I had one really terrible week that you don't want to hear about, then I was sick one night. I was also uninspired for a little while and when I finally knew what I wanted to write my brother managed to break word on our computer, so you see for once I have pretty decent excuses.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter you guys are angels to put up with me.
Orange: I wanted to put Gwern in this part I really did, especially when I found I'd passed the number of reviews I got for BBF, it was going to be a celebration but as usual he was being difficult. Still don't give up one of these days I'll get the better of him. I hope the studying is going okay or maybe you've finished by now considering how long this part took, either way good luck in the exams.
Mandy: I'm glad Diablo's starting to grow on you, I didn't like him so much to begin with but I do now, it might be because he's fun to write. Anyway thank you for reviewing, I hope you like this chapter.
Adelaide E: I'm glad you liked that. It was really fun to write, Diablo is a bad ass vampire but I think that Ani's mom's inquisition would make anyone nervous. Thanks so much for reviewing.
Redaura: Gwern getting up for soulmate negligence is definitely an idea, author annoyance would be a good one too, though I finally know for definite where he is and how he's going to turn up in this story so at least one good thing came from this little gap in parts. Anyway I can't thank you enough for reviewing, I hope you enjoy this chap.
Part 16.
Aniela lay in her bed letting the soft, smooth tones of the song that was playing on her CD player wash over her without really listening to it. Her mind was in other places and on other things. She was glad she didn't have to work that day because she was really tired and hundreds of different thoughts were running through her head and she knew it would have been impossible for her to concentrate on anything.
'Take things as they come,' that was what they'd agreed just a few hours ago and she'd been happy with it, just happy to have him in her life. Now she wasn't sure how she felt; she was back to being confused. She'd spent the last hour since she and her Mom had come home from Mass thinking about Diablo and what was going on between them.
She had made the mistake of looking at herself in the mirror while she was brushing her hair and that had set her off. She was the exact same Aniela that she had been a few days ago, long, thick, dark brown hair (one if the few things she liked about her appearance), dark eyes, pale skin, short and plump. She wasn't beautiful, she wasn't' even close to beautiful, she occasionally looked pretty but that was about it.
Diablo on the other hand was gorgeous, he was one of the best looking guys she'd ever met and he was exactly the kind of guy she shouldn't be with or that she'd always thought she shouldn't be with. He was, well she might as well admit it, he was loose and obviously attractive and she was fairly sure she couldn't handle that.
She'd always felt she'd be with someone ordinary like her, some one nice looking but not off the scale gorgeous and most importantly someone nice, sweet, kind and gentle and some one she could trust, someone who she knew wouldn't break her heart. She was asking a lot, she knew, probably too much. There was going to be that risk in every relationship, which was probably why she'd had so few. The bigger problem was she was even more afraid of Diablo breaking her heart than anyone else and not because he was more likely to but because she'd come to realise that if he did it would hurt more than with anyone else.
She'd just come to realise what exactly was going on between them and she was scared. She had known, he'd told her what it was, soulmates, but she hadn't really thought what that meant, not really and now she had and she was petrified. This was what she'd always dreamed of, always longed for; she believed it was what everyone longed for. To find that one person who was meant for you, the one person who could understand you completely, love you unconditionally, who touched you soul to soul and heart to heart, your soul's mate, the one for you. And she had it, she was one of the lucky ones, right, she had found it, she had found him. Shouldn't she be deliriously happy? Not afraid.
It wasn't the fact that he was a vampire that scared her though it did give her a whole new set of fears; as well as all the natural things in life to be fearful of she now had a whole set of supernatural fears to deal with. However finding him had created a much bigger fear within her, the fear she would lose him.
It was so silly really, they'd only known each other a few days and well, they weren't even really together but now one of her biggest fears was that he was going to leave. She knew it was going to happen, they hadn't talked about it but she knew that he had a job to do and once he was finished he was going back. She knew he wasn't going to stay, it would probably be best if he didn't, it would attract attention and maybe put her and her family in danger and that was the last thing she wanted.
That wasn't even the worse thing; the worst thing was that despite everything, despite who and what he'd done to her she was falling in love with him. She sighed kicked her mattress half in anger, half in resignation and finally admitted to herself that she wasn't falling in love with him she was already in love with him. She loved him for all the potential she saw in him, for the ability to do good that was buried deep inside him, she loved the lonely, abandoned little boy he'd been and the strong, self-reliant and confident man he'd grown into. She loved him unconditionally for what he was and everything he could be. And the scariest thing of all was that he might not love her back.
He'd told her he thought she was beautiful and he'd meant it, she'd felt that he meant but he'd never said anything about love. She was probably the last person he'd want to love; she was quiet, ordinary and most importantly human. But then God or the universe or whatever seemed to believe they were supposed to be together and who was she to argue with that.
She looked at Abra, who was napping in a pool of sunlight on her bedroom floor. She looked so content in her sleep that Aniela felt jealous, she wished she could be as contented but she figured she'd have to be a cat to have any chance of that. She needed to talk to someone; no she needed to talk to Wenona. Strangely they hadn't had a chance to talk much that weekend but Wenona did have visitors and she'd had her own stuff to deal with. The problem was she didn't want to talk about it over the phone and she really didn't want to talk about it in front of strangers but then she didn't want to seem rude by excluding the others. Well maybe she'd work something out when she got there.
"I'm going to Nona's Mom," she called as she bounded down the stairs and grabbed her keys from the rack.
"Okay Ani, dinner's at 6, be sure to be back in time," her mother called from the kitchen.
"Alright, bye," she called from the door then jogged lightly to her car, her beloved car, not accident waiting to happen as her Mom had called it the night before.
Wenona was incredibly cranky which was an unusual mood for her, one she didn't have much experience with and one she definitely didn't like. Everything was getting on her nerves even the tiniest insignificant things that she normally wouldn't think twice about. She wasn't used to being so petulant, she disliked it but somehow she couldn't stop herself. She normally prided herself on being so calm and levelheaded and being so hard to ruffle. She got angry of course but it was always for good reason until today that was.
She blamed her bad mood on her lack of sleep the night before. Usually she was a sound sleeper, her mother said she'd sleep through an earthquake, which was entirely possible as one morning she'd woken to discover a tree in there back yard that had fallen during a huge storm the night before. So not being able to sleep through the night was unusual for her. She blamed it on the Daybreakers, they were making her paranoid, she'd been jumping at shadows all night and had become highly sensitive to even the smallest noise, which would send her into freak out mode. It had been a long night.
Her house was also starting to feel slightly claustrophobic. It wasn't that there wasn't enough room for them all, there was plenty but she was used to it being just her and her mother. She was finding it hard getting used to having them around all the time.
There was also the talk of Des's soulmate; it was starting to make her feel lonely. Usually she was fine; she kept busy and really didn't have much time to think about him but the past few days he'd been constantly on her mind. It was a strange kind of loneliness nothing like the isolated feeling of being totally alone or having no friends, but a sort of painful knowledge that a part of her was missing. She got on fine without him, she had a life, she had friends but she missed him all the time and even worse than usual the last few days, which was why she hadn't wanted to talk about him much with the others, it hurt.
She was also missing Ani and Alex, they hadn't spent as much time together this weekend as they usually did and she'd missed them. Their Saturday nights were usually spent enjoying a video marathon complete with popcorn and too much chocolate. It often deteriorated into chaos with Alex and Ani throwing popcorn at the screen and complaining of predictability, laughing at parts that were supposed to be serious, guessing which actresses had what plastic surgery and Ani complaining that it was always the perfect, good looking, annoying girl who got the guy when there was a perfectly good normal girl there for him to get with. She presumed that they thought she'd be too busy with her guests this weekend or maybe they didn't want to intrude.
She frowned and glared at Icarus who had done absolutely nothing to deserve it besides be in her line of sight. She grinned at her obviously understanding what kind of mood she was in and not taking her too seriously, which was good and also annoying. Why'd he have to be so nice and understanding all the time? He was supposed to be protecting her but Wenona got the distinct impression that if someone attacked her he'd be more likely to want to talk it through with them than fight back. Of course she was being completely unfair to him but she was cranky.
The doorbell rang and she went to answer it. Icarus pissed her off even more by following her and lounging in the door of the living room while she opened the door. Obviously he was trying to keep her safe but dark ninja's didn't strike her as the type of people who'd knock.
A very disgruntled looking Wenona opened the door for Aniela making her wonder what exactly had happened to wind you up her usually calm friend.
"Ani," Wenona exclaimed with a bright smile, "come in. I wasn't sure if you were going to come around this weekend."
"Well I thought you'd probably be busy with your guests so I didn't want to bother you but I kind of need to talk to you about something," Aniela replied walking into the house.
As she came through the door she spotted Wenona's friend Icarus leaning against a doorframe grinning. He caught her looking and winked at her causing her to blush her most hated involuntary reaction. His grinned grew wider as he saw the red tinge spread across her cheeks irritating her immensely. Then he straightened up and wandered off to a different part of the house.
Wenona waited until Icarus disappeared into the kitchen before turning to Aniela. "Do you want to go for a walk? I need to get out of here for a while and we'll have more privacy."
"Sure okay," Aniela agreed.
"Great," Wenona said softly then opened the door as quietly as possible hoping Icarus's enhanced hearing wouldn't hear them sneaking off. She didn't like leaving without telling the others and possibly worrying them but if she didn't get out of the house of a little while she was libel to bite one of their heads off and she really didn't want to upset them, she really liked them all and she was starting to think of them as friends rather that protectors.
"So what do you want to talk to me about?" Wenona asked as she set a fairly quick pace down the road.
"It's sort of a long story," Aniela told her.
"That's good because I am in the mood for a long story," Wenona replied with a grin, "a nice long story that will keep us out of the house for a long time."
"I kind of fell in love with someone," Aniela said quickly running all her words together and blushing again as she looked at Wenona for a reaction. "Actually I guess it's not that long a story," she added self- depreciatively.
"Ani that's great," Wenona said smiling widely, "Who is it? It is great right?" she asked seeing Ani's less than ecstatic facial expression.
"Well sort of," Aniela told her, "but well I'm sort of worried that he mightn't want to love me back."
Wenona paused considering the strange way her friend had phrased her worry. Usually Ani was afraid someone didn't like her back not that someone didn't want to love her back, you either loved someone or you didn't, how could you not want to love someone back?
"Oh," she sighed as realisation dawned over her. Her mind flicked through all the Night people in town wondering who it could be. She was fairly certain it wasn't any of the local lamia family because Ani didn't have any contact with them, it could be Samuel, the coyote shifter in their class but surely they'd have known before now, which left the newcomers, she knew for a fact it wasn't Rus so that left Cassian or Diablo and Cassian already had a soulmate so.
"Diablo?" she asked softly.
Aniela looked up at her wide-eyed, "How did you know?"
"Oh Ani," she said, "We've got a lot more to talk about than you know."
And that was as far as their conversation got because just as she finished saying those words a tall, black haired guy stepped in front of them blocking their path.
"Tut, tut," he said with a smirk on his face. "Really I expected better of you. After all the time I spent watching you I thought you had at least some intelligence but as usual you daybreakers manage to astound me with your idiocy. Unfortunately for you you're going to pay dearly for that and your little vermin friend here too."
"I am so sick of people calling me vermin," Aniela thought and that was when things started to get really strange.
Spoilers: All of the Night World books and my story Bound by Flame.
Rating: 15.
Author: Aife Bisclaveret {or Bernadette in the real world}
E-mail: treeloie@yahoo.com or aife_bisclaveret@hotmail.com msn messenger and yahoo messenger same as e-mail.
Title: The Fire That Binds.
Author's Notes: I am so, so sorry that this part has taken so long it was a culmination of a lot of really minor distractions and some pretty big real life problems, I had one really terrible week that you don't want to hear about, then I was sick one night. I was also uninspired for a little while and when I finally knew what I wanted to write my brother managed to break word on our computer, so you see for once I have pretty decent excuses.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter you guys are angels to put up with me.
Orange: I wanted to put Gwern in this part I really did, especially when I found I'd passed the number of reviews I got for BBF, it was going to be a celebration but as usual he was being difficult. Still don't give up one of these days I'll get the better of him. I hope the studying is going okay or maybe you've finished by now considering how long this part took, either way good luck in the exams.
Mandy: I'm glad Diablo's starting to grow on you, I didn't like him so much to begin with but I do now, it might be because he's fun to write. Anyway thank you for reviewing, I hope you like this chapter.
Adelaide E: I'm glad you liked that. It was really fun to write, Diablo is a bad ass vampire but I think that Ani's mom's inquisition would make anyone nervous. Thanks so much for reviewing.
Redaura: Gwern getting up for soulmate negligence is definitely an idea, author annoyance would be a good one too, though I finally know for definite where he is and how he's going to turn up in this story so at least one good thing came from this little gap in parts. Anyway I can't thank you enough for reviewing, I hope you enjoy this chap.
Part 16.
Aniela lay in her bed letting the soft, smooth tones of the song that was playing on her CD player wash over her without really listening to it. Her mind was in other places and on other things. She was glad she didn't have to work that day because she was really tired and hundreds of different thoughts were running through her head and she knew it would have been impossible for her to concentrate on anything.
'Take things as they come,' that was what they'd agreed just a few hours ago and she'd been happy with it, just happy to have him in her life. Now she wasn't sure how she felt; she was back to being confused. She'd spent the last hour since she and her Mom had come home from Mass thinking about Diablo and what was going on between them.
She had made the mistake of looking at herself in the mirror while she was brushing her hair and that had set her off. She was the exact same Aniela that she had been a few days ago, long, thick, dark brown hair (one if the few things she liked about her appearance), dark eyes, pale skin, short and plump. She wasn't beautiful, she wasn't' even close to beautiful, she occasionally looked pretty but that was about it.
Diablo on the other hand was gorgeous, he was one of the best looking guys she'd ever met and he was exactly the kind of guy she shouldn't be with or that she'd always thought she shouldn't be with. He was, well she might as well admit it, he was loose and obviously attractive and she was fairly sure she couldn't handle that.
She'd always felt she'd be with someone ordinary like her, some one nice looking but not off the scale gorgeous and most importantly someone nice, sweet, kind and gentle and some one she could trust, someone who she knew wouldn't break her heart. She was asking a lot, she knew, probably too much. There was going to be that risk in every relationship, which was probably why she'd had so few. The bigger problem was she was even more afraid of Diablo breaking her heart than anyone else and not because he was more likely to but because she'd come to realise that if he did it would hurt more than with anyone else.
She'd just come to realise what exactly was going on between them and she was scared. She had known, he'd told her what it was, soulmates, but she hadn't really thought what that meant, not really and now she had and she was petrified. This was what she'd always dreamed of, always longed for; she believed it was what everyone longed for. To find that one person who was meant for you, the one person who could understand you completely, love you unconditionally, who touched you soul to soul and heart to heart, your soul's mate, the one for you. And she had it, she was one of the lucky ones, right, she had found it, she had found him. Shouldn't she be deliriously happy? Not afraid.
It wasn't the fact that he was a vampire that scared her though it did give her a whole new set of fears; as well as all the natural things in life to be fearful of she now had a whole set of supernatural fears to deal with. However finding him had created a much bigger fear within her, the fear she would lose him.
It was so silly really, they'd only known each other a few days and well, they weren't even really together but now one of her biggest fears was that he was going to leave. She knew it was going to happen, they hadn't talked about it but she knew that he had a job to do and once he was finished he was going back. She knew he wasn't going to stay, it would probably be best if he didn't, it would attract attention and maybe put her and her family in danger and that was the last thing she wanted.
That wasn't even the worse thing; the worst thing was that despite everything, despite who and what he'd done to her she was falling in love with him. She sighed kicked her mattress half in anger, half in resignation and finally admitted to herself that she wasn't falling in love with him she was already in love with him. She loved him for all the potential she saw in him, for the ability to do good that was buried deep inside him, she loved the lonely, abandoned little boy he'd been and the strong, self-reliant and confident man he'd grown into. She loved him unconditionally for what he was and everything he could be. And the scariest thing of all was that he might not love her back.
He'd told her he thought she was beautiful and he'd meant it, she'd felt that he meant but he'd never said anything about love. She was probably the last person he'd want to love; she was quiet, ordinary and most importantly human. But then God or the universe or whatever seemed to believe they were supposed to be together and who was she to argue with that.
She looked at Abra, who was napping in a pool of sunlight on her bedroom floor. She looked so content in her sleep that Aniela felt jealous, she wished she could be as contented but she figured she'd have to be a cat to have any chance of that. She needed to talk to someone; no she needed to talk to Wenona. Strangely they hadn't had a chance to talk much that weekend but Wenona did have visitors and she'd had her own stuff to deal with. The problem was she didn't want to talk about it over the phone and she really didn't want to talk about it in front of strangers but then she didn't want to seem rude by excluding the others. Well maybe she'd work something out when she got there.
"I'm going to Nona's Mom," she called as she bounded down the stairs and grabbed her keys from the rack.
"Okay Ani, dinner's at 6, be sure to be back in time," her mother called from the kitchen.
"Alright, bye," she called from the door then jogged lightly to her car, her beloved car, not accident waiting to happen as her Mom had called it the night before.
Wenona was incredibly cranky which was an unusual mood for her, one she didn't have much experience with and one she definitely didn't like. Everything was getting on her nerves even the tiniest insignificant things that she normally wouldn't think twice about. She wasn't used to being so petulant, she disliked it but somehow she couldn't stop herself. She normally prided herself on being so calm and levelheaded and being so hard to ruffle. She got angry of course but it was always for good reason until today that was.
She blamed her bad mood on her lack of sleep the night before. Usually she was a sound sleeper, her mother said she'd sleep through an earthquake, which was entirely possible as one morning she'd woken to discover a tree in there back yard that had fallen during a huge storm the night before. So not being able to sleep through the night was unusual for her. She blamed it on the Daybreakers, they were making her paranoid, she'd been jumping at shadows all night and had become highly sensitive to even the smallest noise, which would send her into freak out mode. It had been a long night.
Her house was also starting to feel slightly claustrophobic. It wasn't that there wasn't enough room for them all, there was plenty but she was used to it being just her and her mother. She was finding it hard getting used to having them around all the time.
There was also the talk of Des's soulmate; it was starting to make her feel lonely. Usually she was fine; she kept busy and really didn't have much time to think about him but the past few days he'd been constantly on her mind. It was a strange kind of loneliness nothing like the isolated feeling of being totally alone or having no friends, but a sort of painful knowledge that a part of her was missing. She got on fine without him, she had a life, she had friends but she missed him all the time and even worse than usual the last few days, which was why she hadn't wanted to talk about him much with the others, it hurt.
She was also missing Ani and Alex, they hadn't spent as much time together this weekend as they usually did and she'd missed them. Their Saturday nights were usually spent enjoying a video marathon complete with popcorn and too much chocolate. It often deteriorated into chaos with Alex and Ani throwing popcorn at the screen and complaining of predictability, laughing at parts that were supposed to be serious, guessing which actresses had what plastic surgery and Ani complaining that it was always the perfect, good looking, annoying girl who got the guy when there was a perfectly good normal girl there for him to get with. She presumed that they thought she'd be too busy with her guests this weekend or maybe they didn't want to intrude.
She frowned and glared at Icarus who had done absolutely nothing to deserve it besides be in her line of sight. She grinned at her obviously understanding what kind of mood she was in and not taking her too seriously, which was good and also annoying. Why'd he have to be so nice and understanding all the time? He was supposed to be protecting her but Wenona got the distinct impression that if someone attacked her he'd be more likely to want to talk it through with them than fight back. Of course she was being completely unfair to him but she was cranky.
The doorbell rang and she went to answer it. Icarus pissed her off even more by following her and lounging in the door of the living room while she opened the door. Obviously he was trying to keep her safe but dark ninja's didn't strike her as the type of people who'd knock.
A very disgruntled looking Wenona opened the door for Aniela making her wonder what exactly had happened to wind you up her usually calm friend.
"Ani," Wenona exclaimed with a bright smile, "come in. I wasn't sure if you were going to come around this weekend."
"Well I thought you'd probably be busy with your guests so I didn't want to bother you but I kind of need to talk to you about something," Aniela replied walking into the house.
As she came through the door she spotted Wenona's friend Icarus leaning against a doorframe grinning. He caught her looking and winked at her causing her to blush her most hated involuntary reaction. His grinned grew wider as he saw the red tinge spread across her cheeks irritating her immensely. Then he straightened up and wandered off to a different part of the house.
Wenona waited until Icarus disappeared into the kitchen before turning to Aniela. "Do you want to go for a walk? I need to get out of here for a while and we'll have more privacy."
"Sure okay," Aniela agreed.
"Great," Wenona said softly then opened the door as quietly as possible hoping Icarus's enhanced hearing wouldn't hear them sneaking off. She didn't like leaving without telling the others and possibly worrying them but if she didn't get out of the house of a little while she was libel to bite one of their heads off and she really didn't want to upset them, she really liked them all and she was starting to think of them as friends rather that protectors.
"So what do you want to talk to me about?" Wenona asked as she set a fairly quick pace down the road.
"It's sort of a long story," Aniela told her.
"That's good because I am in the mood for a long story," Wenona replied with a grin, "a nice long story that will keep us out of the house for a long time."
"I kind of fell in love with someone," Aniela said quickly running all her words together and blushing again as she looked at Wenona for a reaction. "Actually I guess it's not that long a story," she added self- depreciatively.
"Ani that's great," Wenona said smiling widely, "Who is it? It is great right?" she asked seeing Ani's less than ecstatic facial expression.
"Well sort of," Aniela told her, "but well I'm sort of worried that he mightn't want to love me back."
Wenona paused considering the strange way her friend had phrased her worry. Usually Ani was afraid someone didn't like her back not that someone didn't want to love her back, you either loved someone or you didn't, how could you not want to love someone back?
"Oh," she sighed as realisation dawned over her. Her mind flicked through all the Night people in town wondering who it could be. She was fairly certain it wasn't any of the local lamia family because Ani didn't have any contact with them, it could be Samuel, the coyote shifter in their class but surely they'd have known before now, which left the newcomers, she knew for a fact it wasn't Rus so that left Cassian or Diablo and Cassian already had a soulmate so.
"Diablo?" she asked softly.
Aniela looked up at her wide-eyed, "How did you know?"
"Oh Ani," she said, "We've got a lot more to talk about than you know."
And that was as far as their conversation got because just as she finished saying those words a tall, black haired guy stepped in front of them blocking their path.
"Tut, tut," he said with a smirk on his face. "Really I expected better of you. After all the time I spent watching you I thought you had at least some intelligence but as usual you daybreakers manage to astound me with your idiocy. Unfortunately for you you're going to pay dearly for that and your little vermin friend here too."
"I am so sick of people calling me vermin," Aniela thought and that was when things started to get really strange.