Where There's Moonlight, I See Your Eyes Chapter 4, a night world series fanfic

Fandom: Night World, LJ Smith

Disclaimer: Not mine not mine!

Dedication: I wish it were all that easy.

Summary: The fourth and final Wild Power needs to be found, and time is running out. Circle Daybreak is taking more desperate measures. But is accepting the aid of a traitor to the Night World desperation or brilliance? And what about their own agent - loose cannon Belladonna Turner?

Author Note at the end.

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Where There's Moonlight, I See Your Eyes

Chapter One

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We stopped three times that night.

The first stop was at a gas station, and as soon as Nick pulled over I climbed off the bike, trying to shake some sense back into myself. After an hour of clinging to the strong, well-built vampire, my thoughts had gotten a little blurry, so suffused was I in his scent, his body. When for an hour your entire world, the only constant thing in your world, is a person, you tend to be disoriented after that hour. I walked around a little, trying to shake myself out of my drowsy stupor. Then I realized that I was still shivering – after a while, the body heat that Nick had provided had proved insufficient. I tried to control it, tried not to show weakness, but Nick looked up after filling the bike's tank and noticed.

"You're shivering."

"Astute of you to notice, Sherlock," I bit out bitchily, covering my ears with my palms to heat them up. Unfortunately, that movement raised my chest up as well and I saw Nick's otherworldly, eerie eyes flick to my cleavage and then back up to my face. I quickly lowered my arms, acting as though I hadn't noticed anything. A faint smirk crossed his perfectly sculpted face, and he shrugged off his leather jacket and slung it across my shoulders. I slipped my arms into the sleeves – the jacket was too big for me, my hands swallowed by the sleeves, but that was okay. That just meant my fingers would be warm too. The jacket still held the heat that had emanated from his body, making it doubly as cozy.

"Thank you." I said gratefully, my eyes looking into his uncertainly. He said nothing to acknowledge my thanks, but with a gentleness that surprised me, he reached out and pulled the jacket's collar up around my neck, his icy-cool fingers brushing the sensitive skin of my neck. Then, briskly, as though nothing had happened, he climbed onto his bike and revved the engine, as though he would leave without me. I quickly straddled the bike, linking my hands around his waist for the second time that night.

The second time we stopped was outside a club. Not a Night World club – this one was called Church, and was loud, dark. I could feel the music throbbing through my sleepy mind, the broken techno beats of SexyBack mingling with Justin Timberlake's crooning digitalized voice. I glanced up at Nick, an unspoken accusation in my eyes.

"This is Night World Headquarters?" I asked skeptically, letting my doubt show on my face.

Nick frowned slowly. Wow, this guy could actually show emotion? Then the frown disappeared, replaced by his usual arctic attitude. "No. I'm here to hunt."

Oh no. Nuh-uh. Not on my watch. "You realize that hypnotizing some bimbo and biting her neck isn't really hunting, right?"

I winced. Don't heckle the bloodthirsty vampire, Bee; I scolded myself. His eyes had turned even more silvery then they already were – the bloodlust was setting in. He must not have fed since he arrived at the mansion. Now, his oxygen-starved cells would be transporting almost no oxygen to the brain, meaning that debilitating, agonizing pain would shortly be occurring. I sighed. He needed to feed, but I didn't want to either waste more time or allow an innocent girl to be fed on, possibly killed.

What? He might. I still didn't trust this guy fully.

I grabbed his hand, surprising both him and me, and led him down the dark alley next to the club.

"I'll be a donor this time," I told him, pulling up a sleeve of his jacket and holding my wrist out to him. Nick raised an eyebrow.

"Don't give me the whole I'm-a-hunter deal right now, okay? We don't have time for you to go in and work the crowd and find the perfect floozy. Just get it over with and we can go on our way. And, uh, don't drain me. I don't wish to die prematurely."

Nick's blank, handsome face appeared sardonic for a moment. "You don't want to die prematurely so you joined a cross-species war. That does tie in with the common sense and logic I've come to expect from you."

I shook my hair in impatience. "Just get it over with please." I waved my hand at him, exposing my wrist and the sensitive blue veins that ran underneath the thin skin.

What he did next both scared and fascinated me. He slowly closed his hand around my wrist, and I shivered inwardly at the smooth feel of his fingertips. Using my wrist as leverage, he gently, slowly, softly, pulled me closer to him and when I was standing flush against him, he placed his hands around my shoulders. He gazed into my eyes for a moment, and I was transfixed at the beauty I saw in them – silver, blue, grey, maybe even some green – a color so mutable yet so intense that I couldn't help but stare in reverence.

"Scared?" Nick asked in a smooth voice that was barely a whisper.

I shook my head vehemently, my mouth refusing to work.

I knew what he was going to do, but I couldn't bring myself to stop him – the feeling of his cool hands around the tops of my arms, coupled with the warmth of his breath against my cheek made my skin tingle pleasantly. His body was flush against mine, and the hard feel of his abdominal muscles against my own softer body made my breath quicken. He lowered his head painfully slowly, until his lips met with my neck. They were almost unbearably soft, and for a moment, thoughts of how they would feel against my own flitted through my mind. I shook the thought away, mentally giving myself a slap. A painfully long pause, and then I felt twin stings in my neck, like hot metal being laid against my throat. This was quickly replaced by warmth, inexorable bliss, a sensation of release. The feeling of giving one's self up to join with another.

And then, what I had been anticipating – the blood bond.

Perhaps it was a sneaky trick on my part to take a peek inside Nick's head and see what made him tick, but I can swear that it didn't start off like that. But when his mind opened to me, and mine to his, the temptation was too great. I could feel myself flowing into his mind, and I could feel him watching me but not knowing how to stop me. I was even vaguely aware of his lips still on my throat, his arms still supporting me.

And then… I was in his mind.

It was cold, like I'd expected. It seemed icy, slightly wild – snow was all around me and ahead, crystal panes of ice formed a sort of fortress. I pushed on through the calf-deep snow and howling winds, and reached the fortress.

I hesitated. I could feel Nick, now less calm and collected, his eyes following me as I infiltrated his most secret thoughts. Doing this was an invasion of privacy, was more intimate than the touch of a lover. But still, I pressed on. The need to understand him was almost an obsession at this point – how was he always so cool, so aloof and calm?

I pushed against the walls with my palms, imagining heat – when I did this; I somehow fell through and was in the fortress. My mouth fell open as I gazed around – as the outside was cold, frozen, chilling – a veritable blizzard full of harsh ripping winds and relentless, merciless hailstones; inside the fortress – which I presumed was a symbolic representation of Nick's deepest thoughts – was absolutely magnificent. If outside this ice palace was winter, inside was spring. It was pleasantly cool – not too hot, not freezing. A warm breeze floated by and I could hear the sounds of a stream somewhere in the distance. Inside the palace of Nick's mind was a beautiful garden – lush verdant grass carpeted the floor, winter sunlight filtered through the translucent ice that formed the roof of this garden. And the most stunning, the most breathtakingly beautiful decoration this place housed – the flowers that grew everywhere. They were all the same type of plant, and they added an air of mystery and danger to the place, while still creating an ethereal, heavenly atmosphere. The plants were gorgeous – shiny black berries and elliptical green leaves, topped with pale purple flowers shaped like bluebells or foxgloves – like a bell. These bell-shaped flowers gave off a heady scent, a hypnotic smell that transfixed me.

Suddenly, they began to fade – no! It was me who was fading, being pulled down a dark tunnel, down, deeper into the blackness when suddenly –

I was back in the alleyway, looking at Nick directly in the eyes. He raised an eyebrow. "Enjoy the trip?"

I moistened my dry lips, swallowing. "That was…that was –"

"My mind? Yes. Which you snooped around in, uninvited."

"I'm sorry – I couldn't…I was curious, and I –" I stuttered, scared into silence by his suddenly merciless eyes. I hung my head. "I was just curious about what, you know, made you tick. And…"

"You gave in to the temptation of easily obtaining that knowledge by going for a jaunt in my head?" His voice was angry, although his face seemed blank. Besides his eyes – they were livid. Intense, shining silver. "I warned you earlier, Belladonna – not to try and figure me out. I warned you that it would irritate me. Did you misunderstand me?"

Something reckless and suicidal took me over – that girl I'd seen in the mirror.

"About as much you listened to me telling you to call me Bee!"

Nick grabbed my arm in a grip like a vise. "Don't you ever even attempt to do that again! How dare you?" His mouth was a grim line, his haunting eyes furious, fixated.

"Let go of me! You of all people should know about the blood bond, you should know how hard it is to resist!"

Nick dropped my arm and stared at me, his handsome face unreadable, his eyes unfeeling and angry. It seemed like he was going to yell at me again, but then he turned and stalked back, exiting the alleyway and mounting his bike, releasing the kickstand. I darted after him and slipped on behind him, trying to keep a few inches of distance between us. I didn't feel like being too close to him after his angry outburst.

"Hold on to me. There's no backrest on this bike."

Oh, no shit. My hands glided about his waist, resting gently on his flat stomach. We traveled in silence for several moments, until the guilt swimming in me prevailed.

"Nick!" I shouted above the roar of the wind and the cycle's engines.

"What?"

"I'm sorry!" I couldn't believe I was apologizing – and to, of all people, a merciless vampire that had just used me as a donor and left without as much as a 'thank you'. I felt a sigh – or at least, the minutest tremble run through the body that I was leaning on.

"I expected you to do it."

That was all. Was it an admission? Forgiveness? Retribution? Why was this guy so goddamn hard to read!

I tested the waters a little – "What were those flowers?"

"Which flowers?" He was deliberately playing me, acting as though I was asking senseless questions.

"You know which flowers! The ones in that – I don't know, in that palace."

"The purple ones." It wasn't a question, but I replied in the affirmative. And although I couldn't see his face, I knew, I knew for sure that he was smirking, that he had that smug, self-satisfied, I-know-something-you-don't expression that he had worn when he had given me his jacket.

"You don't know?" was his cryptic reply as we sped off into the night. I glared at his back as the darkness swallowed us up, trying to burn a hole through that snug t-shirt he wore that displayed every sinuous, graceful bit of muscle on his back, his arms, his neck.

Our third and final stop was outside a large house. I quickly clambered off the motorcycle before Nick had even kicked down the kickstand and gazed up at the monstrosity. Oh, it wasn't all that large – a double-storey with a porch and large wooden door. It was nondescript – white-walled, gray-roofed, and completely average.

But it gave off a deadly, feral air. Perhaps I was being overdramatic and imagining things that weren't there, but God help me, I was sure that I could feel overpowering evil leaking from the windows, from the cracks in the walls, from underneath the door. I could feel an oily, sticky darkness saturate the surrounding area, curling dark tendrils around everything in its reach. I shot a questioning look at Nick, who nodded his head.

"This is the place. You feel it too, I assume." My mouth fell open in shock, but Nick didn't bother expanding on his statement.

Was this why he had left the Night World, because he too could feel the oppressive, clinging aura that was expelled from this house the same way humans expel carbon dioxide?

I shook myself and turned to Nick, awaiting my cue. Nick arched a perfect eyebrow.

"Stare blankly ahead and don't look in any other direction besides the one you're walking in. Almost as if you're sleepwalking. No emotions – don't smile, don't frown, and above all, don't look scared. Don't speak until we're alone."

I snorted derisively.

"I know – you're not scared of anything. Well…" he leaned close to me, his face, molded for arrogance, inches from mine. "You should be."

I rolled my eyes, trying to convey that I was not impressed. My heart began to beat faster as we started towards the house. Just outside the door, he turned and reminded me again. "No emotions. Give them nothing." Then he paused, and I thought I saw a flicker of what seemed like discomfort or unease in those marble-like orbs of his. "You'd better, uh, link arms with me as well."

I smirked inwardly, part of me pleased that I had managed to elicit such a reaction in him. He'd actually paused midway through a sentence – something that, I was beginning to realize, meant he was massively ill at ease. Concise, logical, and succinct – that's what Nick was.

I linked my left arm with his right one, pressing close to him, playing the part of a mesmerized bimbo puppet. Hmm. Mesmerized bimbo puppet. That would make an interesting movie.

Concentrate, I said to myself sternly. I took a few deep breaths, and like Jez had told me countless times, tried to open up my other senses. Touch, taste, smell, hearing – eyes would be pointed straight ahead this time, minimizing their usefulness. But it seemed to work – I could hear creaking sounds, low voices from inside the house, the chirping of crickets, and even softer than all of those, Nick's light breathing, the breaths of a hunter. My own heavier, deeper breaths. I could taste the pollution in the air, topped off with a heavy, sludgy tang – I presumed from the vibe the house gave off. Stronger still, I could feel – the clinging material of my top sleekly following my every curve, the too-short dark skirt hugging my thighs and stopping nearly four inches above my knees. The curious mixture of warmth and ice emanating from the solid, strong body next to mine. The lean, sinewy musculature of the arm that was clasping my own.

But most pervasive of all – I could hear. I could hear the ringing sounds of danger, of peril.

Nick rapped on the door three times, then paused, and knocked thrice more. The door swung open almost immediately, blinding me with the sudden yellow light, forcing me to squint as I tried to arrange my face into a suitably blank expression.

Nick took a step into the house, and another, and I was brought along with him. Staring blankly ahead, I saw a the interior of a house decorated like any other – perhaps with a more gothic, dark feel to it. Plush red furniture, the light that had blinded me momentarily was dim, from chandeliers and lamps. A voice came from my side but I resisted the urge to spin.

"Hey Nick, took you long enough to get back. Who's the chick?"

CHICK? Oh, the moment this charade was over I'd be ripping this voice a new one – chick! Excuse me, I'm a girl, not a barnyard animal!

"Just some girl. From Church." Nick replied, naming the human club we'd been outside earlier.

The voice chuckled, and a figure stepped into the light – a tall, hulking figure with coarse black hair. "Well, you have fun."

I think I'm going to be sick. This was wrong – not this exact situation, I knew that it was all for show. But the thought of Nick doing these things, using innocent girls – on some level I couldn't believe it. Maybe he was unfeeling and emotionless, but the fact he was helping Daybreak along proved that he had, fundamentally speaking, a good heart…right?

At the same time, the cynical thinks-too-much voice in my head yelled out at me – that he was a vampire, that Daybreak were just using him, that he had no alliances.

And yet, I couldn't bring myself to believe that voice. No matter how hard I tried. Which meant just one thing:

Oh shit, am I in trouble…

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I think my beta has shriveled up and died. Spookie, stop messing around! xP Drop out of school if you need to. Also, please review!

Notes

SexyBack – an unbelievably wonderful song (in my opinion) by Justin Timberlake, from the album Futuresex/Lovesounds. He is an arrogant prick, but that song rocks.

The flowers – come up in a later chapter.

Church – is actually the name of a club in Adelaide (and maybe other places, I dinnae) that my favorite cousin frequents. When she was telling me about it, I found it giggle-worthy because of its name – "I'm going to Church, see you later!" sounds so much more pious than "I'm going to club!" Yes, I have a skewed sense of humor.

I'm a girl, not a barnyard animal! – taken from my dear friend Victoria T. And yes, I am beezy3.