Chapter 13

"Did it help, talking to her?" Ash asked lazily, leaning against the wall as he gazed out of the window. He'd been silent all morning up until this point, waiting near-impatiently for Angelo to decide to finish his patrol through the woods. Mary Lynette had left in the early hours of morning.

"Yes," Sarah admitted, smiling faintly. "Your soulmate's cool, Ash."

He grinned. "Of course she is." He went and poured himself a drink. "I barely taste it," he said factually, putting the pineapple juice back in the fridge. "But it's not like I'd want to go back to that club more than I have to. They're too willing."

"Too willing?" Sarah asked indignantly. "So we have to be screaming and crying to rouse your appetite?"

Ash laughed softly. "Heck, no. That's not what I mean. It's just…those girls…they fawn so much, that they make me want Mary Lynette to put them straight. I just want a drink, and they want me to make out with them."

"Okay, that is a bit disturbing," Sarah said darkly. "I wonder if Blade ever got tempted."

"It shouldn't interest you any more, right?" Ash drawled. "Anyway, I doubt he ever got the problem. He knows the area far better than me: a country boy born and bred. He has good enough contacts to find decent blood donors. Whereas I am a city boy, and proud of it."

"So you don't like the countryside?" Sarah teased, watching him from the table.

"No!" Ash said fervently. "I hate it. It's boring. Back where I came from, you would find muggers in every alley. Here, the worst that can happen is that an old lady asks you for money for charity!"

"I don't mind it," Sarah said mildly.

Ash grinned. "But you don't feel bad drinking from a mugger."

"Please tell me you haven't been snacking on the elderly," Sarah groaned.

Ash shook his head, his eyes glinting diamond-blue for a moment. "Honest, I haven't." He sighed then. "I'm counting down the minutes until Damoran calls again, and says that he's finished. Then I'm back off to the city."

"Damoran?" Sarah asked, dismayed. "He's coming back?"

"Don't you like him?" Ash asked with a grin. "But he's a softie underneath the heart of ice."

"Maybe," she said sceptically.

Angelo came to the end of the garden and nodded at Ash, who immediately left. Angelo came back in, helping himself to the leftover breakfast laid out on the table for him. "How's it going with the new Soulmate?" he asked, his eyes crinkled at the corner with mirth.

"I think we've decided it's too dangerous," Sarah said wryly, recalling Kierlan's words.

"That was last night," Kierlan announced from the kitchen doorway. He was smiling serenely.

"Excuse me?" Astonished, Sarah stood up. "You've changed your mind?"

Triumphantly, Kierlan took his hands out from behind his back. Nestled in his palms was a diamond-blue heart.

She gasped: it writhed with magic: blue fire.

"Are you stupid?" Angelo asked harshly, his eyes trained in awe on the blue fire. "You're using it trivially, you stupid brat!"

"There's plenty of it," Kierlan said carelessly. "I can feel it inside, now."

But Sarah had to agree. "It's beautiful," she told him shakily. "It's beautiful, Kierlan. But…" she didn't want to hurt his feelings at all, suddenly. "I liked it better in the other colour," she said lamely.

He stared at her, astonished; then he burst out laughing and extinguished the blue fire and summoned a ball of paler blue, misty magic that formed a perfect heart. Then, smiling recklessly, he raised his hands to his lips and blew her a kiss. The magic sped at her and she raised her hands, laughing as the mist racing around her hands. For a brief second, she felt so, so happy, like she was reliving the best moment of her life, like she was in the big pet shop on the corner from her first home, and there was the big pen where puppies swarmed around her and she, little six year old Sarah, was laughing hilariously, trying to stroke every one of the six puppies, whose tails wagged crazily, yipping and licking her…

Gasping, she stared at Kierlan, shaking.

He leaned forward and kissed her, and in that brief moment, saw her happiest memory. And she saw his, because he'd been handling the mist magic too: giddily, she saw herself kissing Kierlan, felt his overwhelming passion. And at this moment, he kissed her back, hungrily, pressing her to him: she could hear his heart thudding light as butterfly wings.

"I love you," he whispered, gently running his fingertips down her cheek.

"I love you too," she whispered back blissfully.

"We have to talk," he murmured, and they looked around guiltily: they'd forgotten about Angelo. He'd gone anyway: they were alone in the kitchen.

"What is it?" she asked trustingly.

"Are you sure you want to be with me?" There. He'd said it. "I mean, even though I have to save the world…"

Her lips twitched, she fought to keep quiet then failed miserably as she burst out laughing. "It's the way you said it!" she gasped between bouts of laughter. "For goodness' sake! Who gets a boyfriend who's a hero? I'm happy about it, Kierlan!"

He began laughing too, amazed, then hugged her impulsively. "You are amazing," he whispered, at which she smiled impishly. "As long as I'm with you, Kierlan, I'm happy." And she meant every word she said. She suddenly wanted, more than anything, to be standing beside him when he'd take on the end of the world, with the other Wild Powers.