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.
Warning: Mild swearing in this part.
Author's Notes: I know, I know, I'm late, I am so sorry but between storms and powercuts, work and everything else I just didn't find the time to write until now. I hope it was at least some bit worth the wait.
Thanks to the amazing, wonderful people who commented on the last part. I hope you all have/had a great Samhain (Halloween).
Redaura: Thanks so much for the review. I'm sorry I took so long to update, hopefully the next part won't take as long. But there is lots of Diablo in this part :). I'm relieved 'Rus is back to normal too, one guy who acts like that is enough (Gwern). The mystery of Wenona's soulmate will be solved soon as there's not too much left in the story. Anyways thanks again, your reviews are muchly appreciated.
Adelaide E: Yeah, that's why 'Rus has been such a pain, poor baby, he's the nicest of all the guys maybe barring Alex and yet he never gets the girl. I'm glad you think Diablo can change and that you like him so much, I really like him too, he's so different from my original idea of what he was going to be like, he's actually niceish. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and that we see more of Vague Verity soon.
Mandy: Yeah I know, the big climax is really slow in coming this story, that might be because it's that much longer than Bound by Flame or just because I'm still playing out the final few chapters in my head unsure of where they're going but things are starting to come to a head now and things are starting to happen. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Zabella: Well hopefully this chapter will answer that question. Thank you, so, so much for the review.
Tjones: I am so glad that you're enjoying the story and so sorry this update took so long, the next one won't take quite so long, I hope.
Orange: Yip Icarus was finally back to his old joke cracking self, and he is usually so cute, I don't know how he manages especially with the amount of time he spends with Gwern. Thank you so much for the review, I'm really thrilled you enjoy the story and I hope you like this chapter.
Part 20.
For the first time in her life that she could remember Aniela felt apprehension hit her stomach with the thought of school. Of course it wasn't school that was causing the problem, it was Diablo. Then again Diablo seemed to be the cause of all the problems she'd been having since she'd met him.
She was supposed to try and get information from him but he wasn't stupid and they were soulmates, how long was it going to take him to find out what she was up to? And how angry was he going to be when he found out what she was doing? She was figuring not long and a whole lot. God she wanted to stay home today, she just wasn't ready for this; she wasn't ready to see him again yet never mind anything else.
The revelations of the day before had filled her dreams, well her nightmares really. It wasn't as if she could just sleep on it and then know exactly what to do about it. She just couldn't seem to reconcile the Diablo she loved with the Diablo that had done those things but they were the same person she knew that. She didn't understand how she could love someone who had done those things but she did. It was confusing, too confusing and seeing him would just make it worse.
Still there wasn't a hope in hell her mom would let her stay home, she could be sick as a dog and her mom would still send her to school. Of course there was always the chance that Diablo wouldn't turn up when Wenona wasn't going to be there. Somehow she doubted she could be that lucky.
Her parents were cooking breakfast together when she came downstairs. She couldn't help but smile as she watched the two of them; they were so funny and sweet together, both telling each other what to do, laughing at each other and taking every opportunity they could find to touch each other. She knew she was really lucky to have parents who still loved each other so much after so many years. She just wished she and Diablo could have something like they had.
She tried her best to be cheerful around them and not to let them know how she was feeling but her parents were never easily fooled and they seemed to be particularly perceptive that morning.
"You look like you need extra pancakes," her dad said filling her plate.
Her mom nodded in agreement and gave Ani her sideways quizzical look. "Has this got something to do with that nice boy Diablo?" she asked.
Ani snorted humourlessly, "nice boy", if only she knew.
"Diablo huh," her dad said, "that blond kid from the other day? You tell him you've got a father, uncles and cousins who will be very angry with him if he upsets you."
Ani grinned despite herself; her dad was so funny when he was being protective. "What kind of family is he going to think we are when I tell him all my male, Italian relatives are going to beat him up, huh?"
Her dad winked at her. "Maybe the kind of family that will scare him into treating you right."
Aniela smiled though she didn't think there was any kind of family that could scare Diablo.
By the time she got to school her anxiety had turned into a hard lump at the bottom of her stomach making her feel sick. She didn't know what she was going to do; it wasn't as if she could just hide every time she saw Diablo though that was a very attractive looking plan at that point. Her life wasn't supposed to be this complicated, it was ordinary and she'd never asked for anything more.
She just wanted to finish school, go to college, travel around Europe, then come home, find a job and maybe fall in love and get married, that was it, she'd never wanted anything extraordinary and look what she'd got, vampires, witches and a soulmate and more problems and complications than she could shake a stick at.
She walked through the halls trying her best to look as normal as possible and try to rid herself of the feeling that everyone was looking at her. She wondered what would happen if she turned around and blew a big raspberry at everyone. Probably just prove to everyone that she was as unhinged as she looked. Still she was pretty safe for the moment; she had English first period without Diablo. The big problem was going to be art second period; not only did she have to sit beside him but the teacher had a tendency to wander off and abandon the class for most of the period. She was done for.
Ani could never quite understand the properties of time that caused it to drag along like a limp tortoise when you wanted it to go fast and decide it had a need for speed when you needed it to crawl. If time were merciful she would still be sitting in Ms. Godfrey's class listening to her drone on about Hamlet and his relationship with his mother. Instead she was standing outside the art room door wondering if avoidance of soulmate rated as genuine excuse for skipping class.
"So you want to skip?" Diablo's voice asked her from behind her ear.
Her tummy fluttered at the sound of his voice, half in fear, half in something she really didn't want to analyse at that moment.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Ani replied turning towards him.
"No but it's an idea," he replied with a wicked grin.
"Well I guess we do need to talk."
"Who said anything about talking?" Diablo said smiling at the blush that spread across her face. "Lets go."
"But we'll get in trouble," Aniela muttered casting a glance back at the art room.
"And we can't have that can we," Diablo snapped, "Perfect Ani can never do anything wrong."
"This isn't the place, Diablo"
Aniela struggled to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She really did not want to have a fight in the middle of the corridor; she didn't want to have a fight period.
"Then where is the place?" he asked.
"I don't know, lets find one."
Aniela expected them to find an empty classroom or something but instead Diablo snuck them out a fire exit.
"Where are we going?" Aniela demanded.
"I don't know, somewhere we can talk."
"Smart ass," she muttered as she continued to follow him away from the school building.
"Look," she said after a few minutes, "we have to be back for next class and it's not like we actually going anywhere so why don't we stop here. We're away from the school building, no-one's around, if we're going to talk I don't know a better place."
"Fine, what do you want to talk about?"
"I don't know, you're the one who suggested this," she replied.
"Yeah maybe but I never said I wanted to talk, you still need time right," he said derisively.
"Of course I still need time, what did you expect? Me to wake up this morning and go la la la everything's find? For God's sake Diablo you killed people."
"And that's just a little too much for the catholic girl to take isn't it?"
Ani laughed bitterly, "I knew it, I knew that you'd bring that into it. You're wrong, you know, it's got nothing to do with being catholic; I'd feel the same whether I was catholic, protestant, hindu, muslim, buddhist, pagan or even an atheist. You just don't get it do you? You took lives; don't you understand how precious life is? It's got nothing to do with religion; it's about being human; it's about having compassion and it's about understanding just how sacred life is.
Maybe being immortal or whatever you just don't get the value of life. Add to that the fact that these were people, with families, people who knew and cared for them. Can you even imagine the amount of pain you caused those people? Do you understand the potential you destroyed when you took those lives, only God knows what those people could have done, or who they could have become."
"You think I don't know that," he yelled at her. "You think it doesn't wake me in the night knowing the kind of pain I've caused, knowing that I'm damned."
Aniela gaped, she hadn't known that, she hadn't known he felt like that and she had never expected to ever see him so close to tears.
"Hush," she said softly closing the space between him to wrap her arms around him in a tight hug. "You're not damned, you can find redemption if you really want it."
"I want it," he whispered, "I want it so much. But who says that's enough, all my life nothing's ever gone the way I wanted and I've never been able to do anything right. Even this, the one thing in the world that should be so simple and I can't even do this right."
Aniela bristled and pushed herself away from him. "Yeah, you can't even do this right, you should have been soulmates with some gorgeous, well connected vampire right?" She glared at him when he tried to interrupt, "well it's not right for me either is it. You came here to kill my best friend, if you hadn't met me you probably would have by now, hell if it wasn't for this thing you would have by now and if it wasn't for this thing I would have hated you."
"Ah yes, this thing. Terrible how us poor earth bound creatures are at the whim of the higher powers, alive or dead with the nod of the head, in love or loved with a flick of the wrist. Believe me when I find out what deity is responsible I'll be writing a very strongly worded letter."
Aniela glared at him in disbelief, "What?"
"Why do you always wilfully misunderstand me?" he asked softly. "And why do you never let me finish what I'm saying? I was going to say, I can't even love you right."
"What do you mean by that?" Aniela asked her anger not quite dissipated.
"I mean that I've basically messed up your life, and that as much as I want to I can't be what you want or what you need."
"God," Aniela snapped exasperatedly, "who are you to say what I want or what I need. I want you, I want the you I can see behind all the arrogance and the bravado and the 'I'm a dangerous vampire' bullshit. I love you."
"It's not that simple."
"Why not? Just for once why can't it just be that simple? Why can't we just forget about all the other stuff and everyone else? I love you and you love me, why can't that be enough?"
"I wish it could be," he told her. "I really do but we can't forget about everyone else; you care about them too and I know you if we let anything happen to Wenona you'd never forgive yourself."
"We?" she asked softly feeling the hope she'd been keeping shuttered up inside begin fluttering around.
"Yeah we," he replied, "I've made my choice. I guess I'm just waiting for you to make yours."
"But you can't just, what about Cassian and Charlotte and your job and the entire Night World?" She stopped herself, "I'm being annoying, aren't I?"
"Well sort of," he agreed with a smile, "I just announced that I'm in love with you and I'm giving up everything to be with you and you say I can't."
"I can't help it, I'm worried about you. I don't want anything to happen to you. I love you."
"That's it? It's not that you don't want me, or that you don't want me?" he finished with an embarrased grin.
"That's it," she replied with a smile, "I want you, I want you to stay here if you can, I want you to like all my family and them to like you, I want you to like all my friends and them to like you and I want you to help with Wenona's problem, whatever that is. Okay?"
"Okay, but I wish I could say the same, I mean I don't have much of a family, my mother is I don't know where, my extended family's pretty much awful though there are some far out cousins who're not so bad and as for friends, I don't really have any."
"I know," Aniela told him, " and I know how horrible that was for you and how lonely. But you've got me now and my mom likes you already so you don't have to be lonely anymore."
Diablo wrapped his arms around her tightly, "So I guess now the hard part starts."
Spoilers: All of the Night World books and my story Bound by Flame.
Warning: Mild swearing in this part.
Author's Notes: I know, I know, I'm late, I am so sorry but between storms and powercuts, work and everything else I just didn't find the time to write until now. I hope it was at least some bit worth the wait.
Thanks to the amazing, wonderful people who commented on the last part. I hope you all have/had a great Samhain (Halloween).
Redaura: Thanks so much for the review. I'm sorry I took so long to update, hopefully the next part won't take as long. But there is lots of Diablo in this part :). I'm relieved 'Rus is back to normal too, one guy who acts like that is enough (Gwern). The mystery of Wenona's soulmate will be solved soon as there's not too much left in the story. Anyways thanks again, your reviews are muchly appreciated.
Adelaide E: Yeah, that's why 'Rus has been such a pain, poor baby, he's the nicest of all the guys maybe barring Alex and yet he never gets the girl. I'm glad you think Diablo can change and that you like him so much, I really like him too, he's so different from my original idea of what he was going to be like, he's actually niceish. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter and that we see more of Vague Verity soon.
Mandy: Yeah I know, the big climax is really slow in coming this story, that might be because it's that much longer than Bound by Flame or just because I'm still playing out the final few chapters in my head unsure of where they're going but things are starting to come to a head now and things are starting to happen. Anyway I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Zabella: Well hopefully this chapter will answer that question. Thank you, so, so much for the review.
Tjones: I am so glad that you're enjoying the story and so sorry this update took so long, the next one won't take quite so long, I hope.
Orange: Yip Icarus was finally back to his old joke cracking self, and he is usually so cute, I don't know how he manages especially with the amount of time he spends with Gwern. Thank you so much for the review, I'm really thrilled you enjoy the story and I hope you like this chapter.
Part 20.
For the first time in her life that she could remember Aniela felt apprehension hit her stomach with the thought of school. Of course it wasn't school that was causing the problem, it was Diablo. Then again Diablo seemed to be the cause of all the problems she'd been having since she'd met him.
She was supposed to try and get information from him but he wasn't stupid and they were soulmates, how long was it going to take him to find out what she was up to? And how angry was he going to be when he found out what she was doing? She was figuring not long and a whole lot. God she wanted to stay home today, she just wasn't ready for this; she wasn't ready to see him again yet never mind anything else.
The revelations of the day before had filled her dreams, well her nightmares really. It wasn't as if she could just sleep on it and then know exactly what to do about it. She just couldn't seem to reconcile the Diablo she loved with the Diablo that had done those things but they were the same person she knew that. She didn't understand how she could love someone who had done those things but she did. It was confusing, too confusing and seeing him would just make it worse.
Still there wasn't a hope in hell her mom would let her stay home, she could be sick as a dog and her mom would still send her to school. Of course there was always the chance that Diablo wouldn't turn up when Wenona wasn't going to be there. Somehow she doubted she could be that lucky.
Her parents were cooking breakfast together when she came downstairs. She couldn't help but smile as she watched the two of them; they were so funny and sweet together, both telling each other what to do, laughing at each other and taking every opportunity they could find to touch each other. She knew she was really lucky to have parents who still loved each other so much after so many years. She just wished she and Diablo could have something like they had.
She tried her best to be cheerful around them and not to let them know how she was feeling but her parents were never easily fooled and they seemed to be particularly perceptive that morning.
"You look like you need extra pancakes," her dad said filling her plate.
Her mom nodded in agreement and gave Ani her sideways quizzical look. "Has this got something to do with that nice boy Diablo?" she asked.
Ani snorted humourlessly, "nice boy", if only she knew.
"Diablo huh," her dad said, "that blond kid from the other day? You tell him you've got a father, uncles and cousins who will be very angry with him if he upsets you."
Ani grinned despite herself; her dad was so funny when he was being protective. "What kind of family is he going to think we are when I tell him all my male, Italian relatives are going to beat him up, huh?"
Her dad winked at her. "Maybe the kind of family that will scare him into treating you right."
Aniela smiled though she didn't think there was any kind of family that could scare Diablo.
By the time she got to school her anxiety had turned into a hard lump at the bottom of her stomach making her feel sick. She didn't know what she was going to do; it wasn't as if she could just hide every time she saw Diablo though that was a very attractive looking plan at that point. Her life wasn't supposed to be this complicated, it was ordinary and she'd never asked for anything more.
She just wanted to finish school, go to college, travel around Europe, then come home, find a job and maybe fall in love and get married, that was it, she'd never wanted anything extraordinary and look what she'd got, vampires, witches and a soulmate and more problems and complications than she could shake a stick at.
She walked through the halls trying her best to look as normal as possible and try to rid herself of the feeling that everyone was looking at her. She wondered what would happen if she turned around and blew a big raspberry at everyone. Probably just prove to everyone that she was as unhinged as she looked. Still she was pretty safe for the moment; she had English first period without Diablo. The big problem was going to be art second period; not only did she have to sit beside him but the teacher had a tendency to wander off and abandon the class for most of the period. She was done for.
Ani could never quite understand the properties of time that caused it to drag along like a limp tortoise when you wanted it to go fast and decide it had a need for speed when you needed it to crawl. If time were merciful she would still be sitting in Ms. Godfrey's class listening to her drone on about Hamlet and his relationship with his mother. Instead she was standing outside the art room door wondering if avoidance of soulmate rated as genuine excuse for skipping class.
"So you want to skip?" Diablo's voice asked her from behind her ear.
Her tummy fluttered at the sound of his voice, half in fear, half in something she really didn't want to analyse at that moment.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Ani replied turning towards him.
"No but it's an idea," he replied with a wicked grin.
"Well I guess we do need to talk."
"Who said anything about talking?" Diablo said smiling at the blush that spread across her face. "Lets go."
"But we'll get in trouble," Aniela muttered casting a glance back at the art room.
"And we can't have that can we," Diablo snapped, "Perfect Ani can never do anything wrong."
"This isn't the place, Diablo"
Aniela struggled to keep the annoyance out of her voice. She really did not want to have a fight in the middle of the corridor; she didn't want to have a fight period.
"Then where is the place?" he asked.
"I don't know, lets find one."
Aniela expected them to find an empty classroom or something but instead Diablo snuck them out a fire exit.
"Where are we going?" Aniela demanded.
"I don't know, somewhere we can talk."
"Smart ass," she muttered as she continued to follow him away from the school building.
"Look," she said after a few minutes, "we have to be back for next class and it's not like we actually going anywhere so why don't we stop here. We're away from the school building, no-one's around, if we're going to talk I don't know a better place."
"Fine, what do you want to talk about?"
"I don't know, you're the one who suggested this," she replied.
"Yeah maybe but I never said I wanted to talk, you still need time right," he said derisively.
"Of course I still need time, what did you expect? Me to wake up this morning and go la la la everything's find? For God's sake Diablo you killed people."
"And that's just a little too much for the catholic girl to take isn't it?"
Ani laughed bitterly, "I knew it, I knew that you'd bring that into it. You're wrong, you know, it's got nothing to do with being catholic; I'd feel the same whether I was catholic, protestant, hindu, muslim, buddhist, pagan or even an atheist. You just don't get it do you? You took lives; don't you understand how precious life is? It's got nothing to do with religion; it's about being human; it's about having compassion and it's about understanding just how sacred life is.
Maybe being immortal or whatever you just don't get the value of life. Add to that the fact that these were people, with families, people who knew and cared for them. Can you even imagine the amount of pain you caused those people? Do you understand the potential you destroyed when you took those lives, only God knows what those people could have done, or who they could have become."
"You think I don't know that," he yelled at her. "You think it doesn't wake me in the night knowing the kind of pain I've caused, knowing that I'm damned."
Aniela gaped, she hadn't known that, she hadn't known he felt like that and she had never expected to ever see him so close to tears.
"Hush," she said softly closing the space between him to wrap her arms around him in a tight hug. "You're not damned, you can find redemption if you really want it."
"I want it," he whispered, "I want it so much. But who says that's enough, all my life nothing's ever gone the way I wanted and I've never been able to do anything right. Even this, the one thing in the world that should be so simple and I can't even do this right."
Aniela bristled and pushed herself away from him. "Yeah, you can't even do this right, you should have been soulmates with some gorgeous, well connected vampire right?" She glared at him when he tried to interrupt, "well it's not right for me either is it. You came here to kill my best friend, if you hadn't met me you probably would have by now, hell if it wasn't for this thing you would have by now and if it wasn't for this thing I would have hated you."
"Ah yes, this thing. Terrible how us poor earth bound creatures are at the whim of the higher powers, alive or dead with the nod of the head, in love or loved with a flick of the wrist. Believe me when I find out what deity is responsible I'll be writing a very strongly worded letter."
Aniela glared at him in disbelief, "What?"
"Why do you always wilfully misunderstand me?" he asked softly. "And why do you never let me finish what I'm saying? I was going to say, I can't even love you right."
"What do you mean by that?" Aniela asked her anger not quite dissipated.
"I mean that I've basically messed up your life, and that as much as I want to I can't be what you want or what you need."
"God," Aniela snapped exasperatedly, "who are you to say what I want or what I need. I want you, I want the you I can see behind all the arrogance and the bravado and the 'I'm a dangerous vampire' bullshit. I love you."
"It's not that simple."
"Why not? Just for once why can't it just be that simple? Why can't we just forget about all the other stuff and everyone else? I love you and you love me, why can't that be enough?"
"I wish it could be," he told her. "I really do but we can't forget about everyone else; you care about them too and I know you if we let anything happen to Wenona you'd never forgive yourself."
"We?" she asked softly feeling the hope she'd been keeping shuttered up inside begin fluttering around.
"Yeah we," he replied, "I've made my choice. I guess I'm just waiting for you to make yours."
"But you can't just, what about Cassian and Charlotte and your job and the entire Night World?" She stopped herself, "I'm being annoying, aren't I?"
"Well sort of," he agreed with a smile, "I just announced that I'm in love with you and I'm giving up everything to be with you and you say I can't."
"I can't help it, I'm worried about you. I don't want anything to happen to you. I love you."
"That's it? It's not that you don't want me, or that you don't want me?" he finished with an embarrased grin.
"That's it," she replied with a smile, "I want you, I want you to stay here if you can, I want you to like all my family and them to like you, I want you to like all my friends and them to like you and I want you to help with Wenona's problem, whatever that is. Okay?"
"Okay, but I wish I could say the same, I mean I don't have much of a family, my mother is I don't know where, my extended family's pretty much awful though there are some far out cousins who're not so bad and as for friends, I don't really have any."
"I know," Aniela told him, " and I know how horrible that was for you and how lonely. But you've got me now and my mom likes you already so you don't have to be lonely anymore."
Diablo wrapped his arms around her tightly, "So I guess now the hard part starts."