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
Title: The Fire That Binds.
Author's Notes: Again I am so sorry that this part took so long but I've been really busy the past few weeks. Thankful things have settled down again now so it shouldn't take me so long to get around to finishing parts.
Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.
Mandy: I'm glad you liked chapter 16. I felt that we kind of needed to see what Aniela was thinking and feeling before I wrote the next chapters. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for reviewing.
Adelaide E: I totally agree about the vermin thing, plus it's sort of a dead give away that their Night World. And I agree that Diablo's a total idiot if he doesn't love Ani but she's an insecure female and she's never been in love before so she's scared and she needs a little reassurance but Diablo being Diablo doesn't see that.
Orange: Sorry again for the delay life's just been crazy, anyway good luck in your exams if you haven't done tem yet or I hope they were okay if they're over. Thanks so much for the review, I'd love to see Ani kicking his ass but she's not exactly Rashel so I don't really see it happening. And I totally understand the whining about Ani and Diablo believe me I do enough of it myself, I have no control over them.
Redaura: Diablo, well knowing him he's probably at home lounging around annoying Charlotte. Yes this is the one that pissed Diablo off. Wenona and Ani definitely have to have a talk but not this chapter, I think the next one's going to be the big talk. My brother who broke the compute has actually moved out for college tonight so there's one less distraction. As for Gwern, well read on. And thank you so much, I really enjoy reading your reviews.
Tamashii: Thanks so much for reviewing, I'm so glad you like the story. The new guy's not actually a new guy. He's the guy who Diablo was arguing with a few chapters ago. I think Diablo and Ani go really well together too, I just hope they realise it too.
Jenni NW: Well finally here's more, I hope you didn't mind the wait too long. I hope you enjoyed Bound By Flame, it's one of the few stories I've ever written that I still like months and months after I finished it. Cliffhangers are definitely evil but sometimes there a necessary evil, anyway thank you so, so much for reviewing, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Part 17.
For some unfathomable reason Cynthia's caffeine search led her first to the living room, which proved just how much she needed a coffee fix. As a shapeshifter she didn't need anything to survive besides meat but if she didn't get her coffee she really wasn't at her best and she did strange things, like going to the living room looking for the coffee pot instead of the kitchen. Her caffeine dependence wasn't her fault though, it was all the fault of her old team; she hadn't even tasted coffee until she'd joined them and then it was coffee at breakfast, coffee at lunch, constant coffee. Hell, Clidna, a witch practically walked around inhaling the stuff.
Predictably she didn't find the coffee pot in the living room, she did however find Des. She was sitting at the window staring at nothing in particular; she had a sad but sort of vacant look that Cynthia was growing accustomed to seeing on her face. She decided against talking to her figuring she probably wanted to be alone.
Cynthia padded silently out of the living room and continued her coffee quest into the kitchen. Icarus was in there reading the paper and glancing at the phone occasionally.
"There's fresh coffee in the pot," he said with a grin when he saw her. "I just made it," he told her waving his mug.
"My hero," she said laughing as she took a big coffee mug from the press. "So what are you up to?" she asked as she prepared her coffee.
"Well," he said, "I'm reading the paper and drinking a mug of coffee."
"Excuse me for being curious," she retorted.
"Well I'm waiting for a phone call too," he told her.
"Really, anything important?" Cynthia asked.
"Not really, I just asked Daybreak to check out a few people in town. I probably should have done it when we first got here but Wenona knows all the Night People in town so it shouldn't be that important."
"Have you talked to Des yet today?" Cynthia asked broaching the subject tentatively as she sat down opposite him placing her mug carefully in front of her to keep her coffee from sloshing out all over the table.
"Yeah I was talking to her earlier," Rus replied, "why d'you ask?"
"It's just," Cynthia paused for a moment deciding what to say, "I saw her a few minutes ago in the living room and she looked really sad."
"She does have a lot to be sad about," Icarus responded.
"You mean her soulmate," Cynthia said.
"Not just Gwern," he said, "even before she met him she had a lot of stuff but yeah, right now I'd say it's Gwern upsetting her. I don't know what it is but since we started this mission it's been worse than usual. I've tried to cheer her up and reassure her that he's going to come back but she seems even more convinced that he's not."
"He'll be back," Cynthia said.
"You sound very convinced for someone who's never even met him," Icarus said a little sceptically.
"Yeah but I've met Des and he's her soulmate so I say he'll come back."
"I think he'll be back too but I don't know how to convince Des," Icarus told her. "The problem is that although I've known him much longer than her, she knows things about him and sees parts of him that no one else ever will; I guess she knows him better than anyone else but sometimes I think she chooses parts of him to see to suit how she's feeling about the two of them at the time. In her heart I think she knows he'll be back but I think that she just can't let herself believe that just in case it never happens. I think she thinks being pessimistic will mean she gets hurt less in the long run."
The phone rang just then breaking into their conversation. Cynthia didn't really mean to listen as Icarus spoke to whoever was on the other end but it was kind of hard not to considering he was so nearby plus it was Daybreak business so it wasn't like she was eavesdropping on a private conversation.
"God damn it," Icarus exclaimed causing Cynthia to turn around in surprise.
"I can't believe it. How could we have been so stupid, I should have known; I knew the names sounded familiar. I'm going to tell the girls and then we'll try to come up with a plan, I'll call you back."
"Des get in here," Icarus yelled as he hung up the phone.
Cynthia watched as he paced the floor, a furrowed forehead and an uncharacteristic frown revealed that he was not at all happy about something.
Sometimes when you're only seeing parts of a bigger picture something small happens and suddenly you're seeing it in its entirety. At that moment that was exactly what was happening to Aniela. For the past few days she'd been seeing different parts of the puzzle, she'd learnt about soulmates and then the Night World and vampires and she'd learnt about Diablo and what he did but she hadn't seen it all together and she certainly hadn't been seeing everything. Now with some "look at me I dress all in black I'm really scary" vampire coming towards them with his teeth out and Wenona standing beside her mumbling words she didn't understand she felt the pieces fit together.
Suddenly a lot of things started to make sense to Ani like why Wenona hadn't run screaming when she saw the vampire's teeth and why she was vermin and Nona was something else. Diablo had said there were different species within the Night World, somehow she didn't think that Wenona was a vampire or a shapeshifter so that left witch and well that certainly explained a lot about Nona and her mom.
And this vampire who, well she might as well admit it, appeared to be a lot like Diablo and who seemed to have some particularly violent interest in Wenona explained a lot too like Diablo and the others surprising interest in her to begin with and why she'd never really found out what Diablo was doing in town.
It didn't take her long to come to these realisations and while she was another part of her brain was wondering why they weren't running. That was the best plan she could come up with but Wenona was obviously thinking something else and she couldn't just leave her alone with this guy, who must be extremely arrogant to attack them on the street or maybe he just didn't care about who saw as long as he did whatever it was he was supposed to do.
Ani wasn't really sure exactly what happened but suddenly he was beside Wenona and she had barely seen him move.
"Really," he said in an admonishing tone, "I was expecting more of a fight, did you really think that little spell was going to stop me?" His hand reached out and grabbed Wenona by the throat and Ani gave a little cry not really sure what to do but Wenona just looked him in the eye and continued to mutter to herself.
Aniela watched in horror trying to come with a strategy, one that didn't involve her running away or jumping on his back and beating him over the head, one that might actually work. She was doing this when suddenly the vampire was pulled off Wenona and thrown backwards onto the pavement. A tall dark haired guy stepped out in front of them putting himself between them and the vampire.
"That's not very nice," the new guy said turning a long, sharp stick over in his hands.
"And who are you? The polite police," the vampire asked jumping to his feet.
"No, just someone who was passing by," the new guy replied.
"Well maybe you're someone who should mind his own business," the vampire retorted and rushed at him suddenly.
Aniela had thought that things were strange before but now things seemed just completely surreal as she watched the two guys fight feeling like she'd got stuck in some fast paced martial arts movie. Their saviour was really fast and really strong and seeing as he wasn't just holding his own but actually getting the better of vampire guy she figured that he must be Night World too. The fight was really violent, the kind of thing that might look really cool on film but was really worrying and sort of scary in real life.
She wasn't really sure how she felt but watching someone die no matter who they were or what they'd done wasn't something she'd want to see. Without really thinking about it she stepped towards the two fighting guys. It wasn't exactly the brightest idea she'd ever had she realised as the vampire half threw half pushed the other guy in her direction and she found herself landing hard on the pavement and banging her head. One good thing came out of it though; the vampire chose that moment to do his disappearing act.
"I'll be seeing you," he said before taking off.
"I guess Buffy's right," Ani said as she sat up gingerly rubbing the back of her head, "they always have to say something; they never just leave."
"Are you okay?" their rescuer asked offering her his hand to help her up.
"Just peachy," Aniela said.
Wenona was beside her quickly. "Don't get up yet," she ordered, "let me look at your head first, you banged it pretty hard."
Aniela grimaced as Wenona examined the back of her head gently with her long fingers. "So are you okay?" she asked the guy.
"Just peachy," he replied with a small grin.
"Thank you so much," Wenona said to him looking up from Aniela, "I guess you want to know what that was about."
"None of my business," he replied, "I was just glad to help."
"And we were glad you did," Aniela replied, "I'm Aniela by the way."
"I'm Gwern," he told them.
Aniela heard Wenona gasp slightly behind her. "Gwern," she said softly, "Des's Gwern."
Aniela saw Gwern's eyes widen slightly in surprise and a wistful look appeared on his face.
"Des's Gwern," he confessed.
"Oh Goddess," Wenona exclaimed.
And suddenly Aniela felt like she was missing half the puzzle again.
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
Title: The Fire That Binds.
Author's Notes: Again I am so sorry that this part took so long but I've been really busy the past few weeks. Thankful things have settled down again now so it shouldn't take me so long to get around to finishing parts.
Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter.
Mandy: I'm glad you liked chapter 16. I felt that we kind of needed to see what Aniela was thinking and feeling before I wrote the next chapters. I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for reviewing.
Adelaide E: I totally agree about the vermin thing, plus it's sort of a dead give away that their Night World. And I agree that Diablo's a total idiot if he doesn't love Ani but she's an insecure female and she's never been in love before so she's scared and she needs a little reassurance but Diablo being Diablo doesn't see that.
Orange: Sorry again for the delay life's just been crazy, anyway good luck in your exams if you haven't done tem yet or I hope they were okay if they're over. Thanks so much for the review, I'd love to see Ani kicking his ass but she's not exactly Rashel so I don't really see it happening. And I totally understand the whining about Ani and Diablo believe me I do enough of it myself, I have no control over them.
Redaura: Diablo, well knowing him he's probably at home lounging around annoying Charlotte. Yes this is the one that pissed Diablo off. Wenona and Ani definitely have to have a talk but not this chapter, I think the next one's going to be the big talk. My brother who broke the compute has actually moved out for college tonight so there's one less distraction. As for Gwern, well read on. And thank you so much, I really enjoy reading your reviews.
Tamashii: Thanks so much for reviewing, I'm so glad you like the story. The new guy's not actually a new guy. He's the guy who Diablo was arguing with a few chapters ago. I think Diablo and Ani go really well together too, I just hope they realise it too.
Jenni NW: Well finally here's more, I hope you didn't mind the wait too long. I hope you enjoyed Bound By Flame, it's one of the few stories I've ever written that I still like months and months after I finished it. Cliffhangers are definitely evil but sometimes there a necessary evil, anyway thank you so, so much for reviewing, I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Part 17.
For some unfathomable reason Cynthia's caffeine search led her first to the living room, which proved just how much she needed a coffee fix. As a shapeshifter she didn't need anything to survive besides meat but if she didn't get her coffee she really wasn't at her best and she did strange things, like going to the living room looking for the coffee pot instead of the kitchen. Her caffeine dependence wasn't her fault though, it was all the fault of her old team; she hadn't even tasted coffee until she'd joined them and then it was coffee at breakfast, coffee at lunch, constant coffee. Hell, Clidna, a witch practically walked around inhaling the stuff.
Predictably she didn't find the coffee pot in the living room, she did however find Des. She was sitting at the window staring at nothing in particular; she had a sad but sort of vacant look that Cynthia was growing accustomed to seeing on her face. She decided against talking to her figuring she probably wanted to be alone.
Cynthia padded silently out of the living room and continued her coffee quest into the kitchen. Icarus was in there reading the paper and glancing at the phone occasionally.
"There's fresh coffee in the pot," he said with a grin when he saw her. "I just made it," he told her waving his mug.
"My hero," she said laughing as she took a big coffee mug from the press. "So what are you up to?" she asked as she prepared her coffee.
"Well," he said, "I'm reading the paper and drinking a mug of coffee."
"Excuse me for being curious," she retorted.
"Well I'm waiting for a phone call too," he told her.
"Really, anything important?" Cynthia asked.
"Not really, I just asked Daybreak to check out a few people in town. I probably should have done it when we first got here but Wenona knows all the Night People in town so it shouldn't be that important."
"Have you talked to Des yet today?" Cynthia asked broaching the subject tentatively as she sat down opposite him placing her mug carefully in front of her to keep her coffee from sloshing out all over the table.
"Yeah I was talking to her earlier," Rus replied, "why d'you ask?"
"It's just," Cynthia paused for a moment deciding what to say, "I saw her a few minutes ago in the living room and she looked really sad."
"She does have a lot to be sad about," Icarus responded.
"You mean her soulmate," Cynthia said.
"Not just Gwern," he said, "even before she met him she had a lot of stuff but yeah, right now I'd say it's Gwern upsetting her. I don't know what it is but since we started this mission it's been worse than usual. I've tried to cheer her up and reassure her that he's going to come back but she seems even more convinced that he's not."
"He'll be back," Cynthia said.
"You sound very convinced for someone who's never even met him," Icarus said a little sceptically.
"Yeah but I've met Des and he's her soulmate so I say he'll come back."
"I think he'll be back too but I don't know how to convince Des," Icarus told her. "The problem is that although I've known him much longer than her, she knows things about him and sees parts of him that no one else ever will; I guess she knows him better than anyone else but sometimes I think she chooses parts of him to see to suit how she's feeling about the two of them at the time. In her heart I think she knows he'll be back but I think that she just can't let herself believe that just in case it never happens. I think she thinks being pessimistic will mean she gets hurt less in the long run."
The phone rang just then breaking into their conversation. Cynthia didn't really mean to listen as Icarus spoke to whoever was on the other end but it was kind of hard not to considering he was so nearby plus it was Daybreak business so it wasn't like she was eavesdropping on a private conversation.
"God damn it," Icarus exclaimed causing Cynthia to turn around in surprise.
"I can't believe it. How could we have been so stupid, I should have known; I knew the names sounded familiar. I'm going to tell the girls and then we'll try to come up with a plan, I'll call you back."
"Des get in here," Icarus yelled as he hung up the phone.
Cynthia watched as he paced the floor, a furrowed forehead and an uncharacteristic frown revealed that he was not at all happy about something.
Sometimes when you're only seeing parts of a bigger picture something small happens and suddenly you're seeing it in its entirety. At that moment that was exactly what was happening to Aniela. For the past few days she'd been seeing different parts of the puzzle, she'd learnt about soulmates and then the Night World and vampires and she'd learnt about Diablo and what he did but she hadn't seen it all together and she certainly hadn't been seeing everything. Now with some "look at me I dress all in black I'm really scary" vampire coming towards them with his teeth out and Wenona standing beside her mumbling words she didn't understand she felt the pieces fit together.
Suddenly a lot of things started to make sense to Ani like why Wenona hadn't run screaming when she saw the vampire's teeth and why she was vermin and Nona was something else. Diablo had said there were different species within the Night World, somehow she didn't think that Wenona was a vampire or a shapeshifter so that left witch and well that certainly explained a lot about Nona and her mom.
And this vampire who, well she might as well admit it, appeared to be a lot like Diablo and who seemed to have some particularly violent interest in Wenona explained a lot too like Diablo and the others surprising interest in her to begin with and why she'd never really found out what Diablo was doing in town.
It didn't take her long to come to these realisations and while she was another part of her brain was wondering why they weren't running. That was the best plan she could come up with but Wenona was obviously thinking something else and she couldn't just leave her alone with this guy, who must be extremely arrogant to attack them on the street or maybe he just didn't care about who saw as long as he did whatever it was he was supposed to do.
Ani wasn't really sure exactly what happened but suddenly he was beside Wenona and she had barely seen him move.
"Really," he said in an admonishing tone, "I was expecting more of a fight, did you really think that little spell was going to stop me?" His hand reached out and grabbed Wenona by the throat and Ani gave a little cry not really sure what to do but Wenona just looked him in the eye and continued to mutter to herself.
Aniela watched in horror trying to come with a strategy, one that didn't involve her running away or jumping on his back and beating him over the head, one that might actually work. She was doing this when suddenly the vampire was pulled off Wenona and thrown backwards onto the pavement. A tall dark haired guy stepped out in front of them putting himself between them and the vampire.
"That's not very nice," the new guy said turning a long, sharp stick over in his hands.
"And who are you? The polite police," the vampire asked jumping to his feet.
"No, just someone who was passing by," the new guy replied.
"Well maybe you're someone who should mind his own business," the vampire retorted and rushed at him suddenly.
Aniela had thought that things were strange before but now things seemed just completely surreal as she watched the two guys fight feeling like she'd got stuck in some fast paced martial arts movie. Their saviour was really fast and really strong and seeing as he wasn't just holding his own but actually getting the better of vampire guy she figured that he must be Night World too. The fight was really violent, the kind of thing that might look really cool on film but was really worrying and sort of scary in real life.
She wasn't really sure how she felt but watching someone die no matter who they were or what they'd done wasn't something she'd want to see. Without really thinking about it she stepped towards the two fighting guys. It wasn't exactly the brightest idea she'd ever had she realised as the vampire half threw half pushed the other guy in her direction and she found herself landing hard on the pavement and banging her head. One good thing came out of it though; the vampire chose that moment to do his disappearing act.
"I'll be seeing you," he said before taking off.
"I guess Buffy's right," Ani said as she sat up gingerly rubbing the back of her head, "they always have to say something; they never just leave."
"Are you okay?" their rescuer asked offering her his hand to help her up.
"Just peachy," Aniela said.
Wenona was beside her quickly. "Don't get up yet," she ordered, "let me look at your head first, you banged it pretty hard."
Aniela grimaced as Wenona examined the back of her head gently with her long fingers. "So are you okay?" she asked the guy.
"Just peachy," he replied with a small grin.
"Thank you so much," Wenona said to him looking up from Aniela, "I guess you want to know what that was about."
"None of my business," he replied, "I was just glad to help."
"And we were glad you did," Aniela replied, "I'm Aniela by the way."
"I'm Gwern," he told them.
Aniela heard Wenona gasp slightly behind her. "Gwern," she said softly, "Des's Gwern."
Aniela saw Gwern's eyes widen slightly in surprise and a wistful look appeared on his face.
"Des's Gwern," he confessed.
"Oh Goddess," Wenona exclaimed.
And suddenly Aniela felt like she was missing half the puzzle again.