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.
Author's Notes: I know, I know, I'm sorry this part took so long, but I haven't been doing nothing, go check out www.angelfire.com/realm2/theairyvoid/heartoftheflame/heartoftheflame.html Or read my ujournal at www.ujournal.org/users/bisclaveret and say I can't believe she was doing that when she could have been writing.
Thank you so, so much to everyone who commented on the last part, I love hearing from you guys.
Tjones: I'm really glad you like it and this chapter show answer your question :)
Redaura: Hopefully this chapter will solve the mystery of Wenona's soulmate for you. Sorry the update took so long, I hope you like this part.
Adelaide E: I wouldn't really say poor myself so I guess he needs other people to feel sorry for him. I hope you like this chapter, I really like hearing from you and I am really enjoying your story though I've been a bit slow with the reviewing, one is coming, I promise.
Orange: I for one certainly didn't know Diablo was such a softie, he was supposed to be a total bad ass, who wasn't going to change for his soulmate or anything but as usual nothing in the story goes as I thought it would, though I'm not too upset about it, I like Diablo being the big softie he is, I hope you do too.
Chapter 21.
Wenona flipped through the magazine in front of her for the third time in an hour. She was so bored; she was going to start banging her head against the wall soon if she didn't do something, anything. She didn't now how the wild powers managed it, it had only been a couple of days, well one day really since she'd snuck out the day before and she was already sick to death of being stuck in the house with nothing to do. She was actually hoping Aniela would bring her some homework assignments to do, things were that bad.
It wasn't that she didn't appreciate why they were making her do this and Des, Cynthia and Rus were trying to make it easier for her. Rus was the one who had got her the magazines and seeing the look on his face when he'd given them to her she hadn't had the heart to tell him that she never read those kinds of things; he was also off renting videos to try and keep her entertained for the rest of the evening. He was so sweet and she couldn't help feeling bad that she was going to have to sit him down and have the we can only ever be friends talk.
Her mom was trying to help her too; she'd been great about the whole thing though Wenona could tell she was really worried about her. Her reaction when she found out she'd left the house was worse than Icarus's but Nona understood because she knew how much her mother missed her dad and well as cool as her mom was since her dad had passed away she could be a little overprotective of Wenona.
Wenona sighed, this was the kind of thing that you always thought of happening to other, famous people like the Redferns or Harmans or the wild powers, certainly not to people like her. She was fairly certain she knew why it was happening but still it seemed like such a trivial reason to her and certainly not worth the Night World's time with so much else going on but then she could never understand how the Night World council thought.
Okay so she was soulmates with an incredibly old made vampire, big deal. So maybe he'd joined Daybreak after meeting her, so what, he hadn't been enamoured with the Night World at the time, and he was certainly not any great shakes with the council. It wasn't as if she'd converted Hunter Redfern from the cause or anything.
Goddess, she missed him; she wished he could be there but then he obviously knew the Night World better than she did. He'd said it would be safer for her if people didn't know about them, which was why he didn't stay with her. Instead he travelled a lot, sometimes doing work for Thierry, sometimes just travelling to make it harder for someone to track him down and of course he came to visit her as much as he could or thought safe. He also realised she needed protection when she hadn't even realised she was in danger.
Maybe she was too naïve to be his soulmate but Kane said that was one of the things he loved most about her, that she could see good in everyone while living so long had made bitter, made him expect the worst from everyone. She had opened his eyes up to the good in the world, at least that's what he told her. And she was glad of that, she couldn't imagined what it would be like to live for so long believing there was no virtue in the creatures you shared the world with.
Icarus wandered around the video store browsing the shelves. Horror, maybe not he didn't think Wenona would enjoy a scary film right now. Action, somehow he didn't think that the other girls would enjoy action movies as much as he and Des did. Des was as bad an action junkie as he was, destroying his long held belief that girls didn't like action films.
He headed for the comedy section figuring they could all use a laugh after the week they'd had. It was so hard having not only himself but also three, no make that four women to please, even more if Aniela called over.
He bypassed everything with Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts's face on it; he just didn't think the connotations of hiring a romantic comedy to watch with Wenona were what he wanted. He knew his attraction to her was futile; it wasn't a big deal, he'd been there before, a few too many times for his liking but at least he knew he'd get over it eventually.
The old standard of the Stooges beckoned to him but he stopped himself remembering that the last Stooges marathon he and Des had had was straight after they're last mission with Gwern and he didn't want to start dragging up any painful memories for her.
He groaned silently, when had his life got so complicated that he couldn't even pick out a video without taking the ramifications of his choice into consideration.
"Going for the old classics, I see."
Icarus turned around sharply, a thousand and one different emotions and responses running through his head. He didn't know whether he should be happy or angry or slightly embarrassed that yet again he managed to sneak up on him, and wondered whether a hug, slap on the back or punch in the face would be the right welcome back.
"Close your mouth 'Rus," Gwern said with a grin, "the flies are getting in."
Somehow 'I'll flies you' didn't seem like the most intelligent response to 'Rus so he just stood there still not sure which reaction was winning out.
"Sheesh, all these years of searching and I finally find something that will actually silence the most talkative werewolf this side of the milky way, all I had to was disappear for a couple of months."
"It's not funny you asshole. Do you have any idea what Des has been going through?" Icarus found his voice and it was a particularly loud one.
"Yeah, I think I do," Gwern said softly.
Icarus paused, "So, are you back?"
"That depends."
"On?" Icarus prompted.
"Des, and you."
"Okay I understand the on Des part, because she could kick your ass the minute you get in the door, but on me? I might think you're the biggest idiot alive for leaving Des like you did but that's nothing new."
"So you're not pissed at me for leaving you and Des in the lurch?"
"Man, I needed the rest," Icarus replied with a grin. "Have you seen her yet?"
"No, not yet. How do you think she'll react?"
Icarus bit his lip; he still wasn't used to seeing Gwern looking so vulnerable, especially not when it came to a girl and he wasn't sure 'she'll probably tear your intestines out' was the best thing to say to him when he was like this.
"I don't know, I mean she missed you a lot, so I don't think she'll kill you because then she'd still be missing you but I'd be worried about your vital organs."
Icarus felt like kicking himself, one of these days he would master tact.
"That's pretty much what I thought," Gwern said, "but I'm going to have to face her sometime, right?"
Icarus decided keeping his mouth shut was the best idea for the moment and made an ambiguous head motion letting Gwern make of what he would.
"So it might as well be now."
Aniela sat into her car beside Diablo and wondered what exactly the reaction would be when they got to Wenona's house. She doubted it would be pleasant; she knew if things had been reversed and it was someone else bringing him there she'd probably the loudest voice in complaint. But voices and complaints were the last thing she was worried about; in the last few days the worst thing that could happen had changed from getting yelled at to getting killed. She just hoped Diablo didn't do or say something to provoke the others.
She didn't know what was going to happen when they got to Wenona's but she believe Diablo when he said he was going to help but that was going to put him in a dangerous position. She was happy with the choice he'd made, really happy but she couldn't help but worry about what the consequences were going to be for him. Cassian and Charlotte were hardly about to just let his defection go and there was also the other vampire in town to deal with, and after that. The Night World didn't seem like the kind of people who took defection lightly, were they going to have to spend their lives running, hiding from these people; that didn't seem like much of a life to her.
Her life had already become so scary since she'd met Diablo and it wasn't all to do with the Night World. Loving Diablo was scary, it was possibly the scariest thing that had or would ever happen to her. It had happened so quickly it was hard to trust it, despite how much she knew about him now, despite and because of how much she felt for him she still wasn't completely sure, but then who was ever completely sure when it came to love and most people didn't have a connection that let them see what the other person was thinking and feeling. Still she was frightened, frightened of losing him, frightened of losing herself and she was frightened of how deep, how intense her feelings for him already were.
"So what exactly is the plan for when we get to Wenona's?" she asked him.
"How about I walk in and say hi, I'm Diablo and I'm a Dark Ninja?"
"I'm being serious here."
"So am I," he replied. "Okay so maybe not, but I'm sure you'll come up with a good idea before we get there."
Aniela grinned, "Diablo, you wouldn't know a good idea if it walked up to you and said, "Hi, I'm a good idea."
"Oh hardy, har, har."
"Sorry, I couldn't resist but we do still need a plan. We can't just walk in there and expect them to welcome you with open arms."
"Why not? Or how about hi, I'm her soulmate, deal with it?"
"If you were them would that be enough for you?" Aniela asked.
"Probably not, but they're daybreakers, they're suppose to be open-minded, welcoming and trusting."
"Being open-minded and trusting doesn't mean being stupid, Diablo. Just because they're the good guys doesn't mean they're going to fall for every guy with a sob story and a soulmate."
"Who says they're the good guys."
Aniela's hands tightened on the wheel, "Diablo, is that."
"I was kidding," he interrupted, "kidding, obviously a badly timed and inappropriate joke, but a joke none the less, Ani."
"Just don't do any of that at Nona's, okay."
"Scout's honour."
Aniela looked at him wryly, "You expect me to believe you were a scout?"
"I could have been, but I just wasn't into all the macramé, pasta pictures and I don't look good in badges."
Aniela giggled, "Oh I don't know, shorts and sashes seems very you to me."
Diablo grinned, "you just put a rather disturbing image in my head, want to see?"
"No thanks," Aniela replied, "definitely not."
Icarus pulled the car into the Blessingways' driveway and let out a great whoosh of held breath that left his chest feeling tight and painful. This was going to be hard. And it should be private, this was between Gwern and Des and no matter what Gwern said or asked it wasn't his place to be there. And of course he really, really didn't need or want to see their inevitable fisticuffs.
Still having Des and Gwern back together would be great, if that was what would happen; he could never tell with those two, they had the most volatile relationship he'd ever seen. They fought, they made up and then they fought some more, but still they loved each other just as much as any of the other soulmate couples he knew; they'd just got into the habit of fighting with each other when they first met and couldn't seem to lose it.
Since then he'd found himself in the middle, always playing mediator between the two of them; that was the habit he'd picked up on that mission. Winema had come out the luckiest from that mission; the only habit she seemed to have picked up was having chocolate flakes for breakfast thanks to Des. He could do with having Winema around right now, though she'd probably just lock Des and Gwern into a room together and leave them there until they sorted something out, only after she'd kicked Gwern's ass for leaving Des that was.
He got out of the car just as Gwern pulled in behind him, there was no going back now.
Spoilers: All of the Night World books and my story Bound by Flame.
Author's Notes: I know, I know, I'm sorry this part took so long, but I haven't been doing nothing, go check out www.angelfire.com/realm2/theairyvoid/heartoftheflame/heartoftheflame.html Or read my ujournal at www.ujournal.org/users/bisclaveret and say I can't believe she was doing that when she could have been writing.
Thank you so, so much to everyone who commented on the last part, I love hearing from you guys.
Tjones: I'm really glad you like it and this chapter show answer your question :)
Redaura: Hopefully this chapter will solve the mystery of Wenona's soulmate for you. Sorry the update took so long, I hope you like this part.
Adelaide E: I wouldn't really say poor myself so I guess he needs other people to feel sorry for him. I hope you like this chapter, I really like hearing from you and I am really enjoying your story though I've been a bit slow with the reviewing, one is coming, I promise.
Orange: I for one certainly didn't know Diablo was such a softie, he was supposed to be a total bad ass, who wasn't going to change for his soulmate or anything but as usual nothing in the story goes as I thought it would, though I'm not too upset about it, I like Diablo being the big softie he is, I hope you do too.
Chapter 21.
Wenona flipped through the magazine in front of her for the third time in an hour. She was so bored; she was going to start banging her head against the wall soon if she didn't do something, anything. She didn't now how the wild powers managed it, it had only been a couple of days, well one day really since she'd snuck out the day before and she was already sick to death of being stuck in the house with nothing to do. She was actually hoping Aniela would bring her some homework assignments to do, things were that bad.
It wasn't that she didn't appreciate why they were making her do this and Des, Cynthia and Rus were trying to make it easier for her. Rus was the one who had got her the magazines and seeing the look on his face when he'd given them to her she hadn't had the heart to tell him that she never read those kinds of things; he was also off renting videos to try and keep her entertained for the rest of the evening. He was so sweet and she couldn't help feeling bad that she was going to have to sit him down and have the we can only ever be friends talk.
Her mom was trying to help her too; she'd been great about the whole thing though Wenona could tell she was really worried about her. Her reaction when she found out she'd left the house was worse than Icarus's but Nona understood because she knew how much her mother missed her dad and well as cool as her mom was since her dad had passed away she could be a little overprotective of Wenona.
Wenona sighed, this was the kind of thing that you always thought of happening to other, famous people like the Redferns or Harmans or the wild powers, certainly not to people like her. She was fairly certain she knew why it was happening but still it seemed like such a trivial reason to her and certainly not worth the Night World's time with so much else going on but then she could never understand how the Night World council thought.
Okay so she was soulmates with an incredibly old made vampire, big deal. So maybe he'd joined Daybreak after meeting her, so what, he hadn't been enamoured with the Night World at the time, and he was certainly not any great shakes with the council. It wasn't as if she'd converted Hunter Redfern from the cause or anything.
Goddess, she missed him; she wished he could be there but then he obviously knew the Night World better than she did. He'd said it would be safer for her if people didn't know about them, which was why he didn't stay with her. Instead he travelled a lot, sometimes doing work for Thierry, sometimes just travelling to make it harder for someone to track him down and of course he came to visit her as much as he could or thought safe. He also realised she needed protection when she hadn't even realised she was in danger.
Maybe she was too naïve to be his soulmate but Kane said that was one of the things he loved most about her, that she could see good in everyone while living so long had made bitter, made him expect the worst from everyone. She had opened his eyes up to the good in the world, at least that's what he told her. And she was glad of that, she couldn't imagined what it would be like to live for so long believing there was no virtue in the creatures you shared the world with.
Icarus wandered around the video store browsing the shelves. Horror, maybe not he didn't think Wenona would enjoy a scary film right now. Action, somehow he didn't think that the other girls would enjoy action movies as much as he and Des did. Des was as bad an action junkie as he was, destroying his long held belief that girls didn't like action films.
He headed for the comedy section figuring they could all use a laugh after the week they'd had. It was so hard having not only himself but also three, no make that four women to please, even more if Aniela called over.
He bypassed everything with Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts's face on it; he just didn't think the connotations of hiring a romantic comedy to watch with Wenona were what he wanted. He knew his attraction to her was futile; it wasn't a big deal, he'd been there before, a few too many times for his liking but at least he knew he'd get over it eventually.
The old standard of the Stooges beckoned to him but he stopped himself remembering that the last Stooges marathon he and Des had had was straight after they're last mission with Gwern and he didn't want to start dragging up any painful memories for her.
He groaned silently, when had his life got so complicated that he couldn't even pick out a video without taking the ramifications of his choice into consideration.
"Going for the old classics, I see."
Icarus turned around sharply, a thousand and one different emotions and responses running through his head. He didn't know whether he should be happy or angry or slightly embarrassed that yet again he managed to sneak up on him, and wondered whether a hug, slap on the back or punch in the face would be the right welcome back.
"Close your mouth 'Rus," Gwern said with a grin, "the flies are getting in."
Somehow 'I'll flies you' didn't seem like the most intelligent response to 'Rus so he just stood there still not sure which reaction was winning out.
"Sheesh, all these years of searching and I finally find something that will actually silence the most talkative werewolf this side of the milky way, all I had to was disappear for a couple of months."
"It's not funny you asshole. Do you have any idea what Des has been going through?" Icarus found his voice and it was a particularly loud one.
"Yeah, I think I do," Gwern said softly.
Icarus paused, "So, are you back?"
"That depends."
"On?" Icarus prompted.
"Des, and you."
"Okay I understand the on Des part, because she could kick your ass the minute you get in the door, but on me? I might think you're the biggest idiot alive for leaving Des like you did but that's nothing new."
"So you're not pissed at me for leaving you and Des in the lurch?"
"Man, I needed the rest," Icarus replied with a grin. "Have you seen her yet?"
"No, not yet. How do you think she'll react?"
Icarus bit his lip; he still wasn't used to seeing Gwern looking so vulnerable, especially not when it came to a girl and he wasn't sure 'she'll probably tear your intestines out' was the best thing to say to him when he was like this.
"I don't know, I mean she missed you a lot, so I don't think she'll kill you because then she'd still be missing you but I'd be worried about your vital organs."
Icarus felt like kicking himself, one of these days he would master tact.
"That's pretty much what I thought," Gwern said, "but I'm going to have to face her sometime, right?"
Icarus decided keeping his mouth shut was the best idea for the moment and made an ambiguous head motion letting Gwern make of what he would.
"So it might as well be now."
Aniela sat into her car beside Diablo and wondered what exactly the reaction would be when they got to Wenona's house. She doubted it would be pleasant; she knew if things had been reversed and it was someone else bringing him there she'd probably the loudest voice in complaint. But voices and complaints were the last thing she was worried about; in the last few days the worst thing that could happen had changed from getting yelled at to getting killed. She just hoped Diablo didn't do or say something to provoke the others.
She didn't know what was going to happen when they got to Wenona's but she believe Diablo when he said he was going to help but that was going to put him in a dangerous position. She was happy with the choice he'd made, really happy but she couldn't help but worry about what the consequences were going to be for him. Cassian and Charlotte were hardly about to just let his defection go and there was also the other vampire in town to deal with, and after that. The Night World didn't seem like the kind of people who took defection lightly, were they going to have to spend their lives running, hiding from these people; that didn't seem like much of a life to her.
Her life had already become so scary since she'd met Diablo and it wasn't all to do with the Night World. Loving Diablo was scary, it was possibly the scariest thing that had or would ever happen to her. It had happened so quickly it was hard to trust it, despite how much she knew about him now, despite and because of how much she felt for him she still wasn't completely sure, but then who was ever completely sure when it came to love and most people didn't have a connection that let them see what the other person was thinking and feeling. Still she was frightened, frightened of losing him, frightened of losing herself and she was frightened of how deep, how intense her feelings for him already were.
"So what exactly is the plan for when we get to Wenona's?" she asked him.
"How about I walk in and say hi, I'm Diablo and I'm a Dark Ninja?"
"I'm being serious here."
"So am I," he replied. "Okay so maybe not, but I'm sure you'll come up with a good idea before we get there."
Aniela grinned, "Diablo, you wouldn't know a good idea if it walked up to you and said, "Hi, I'm a good idea."
"Oh hardy, har, har."
"Sorry, I couldn't resist but we do still need a plan. We can't just walk in there and expect them to welcome you with open arms."
"Why not? Or how about hi, I'm her soulmate, deal with it?"
"If you were them would that be enough for you?" Aniela asked.
"Probably not, but they're daybreakers, they're suppose to be open-minded, welcoming and trusting."
"Being open-minded and trusting doesn't mean being stupid, Diablo. Just because they're the good guys doesn't mean they're going to fall for every guy with a sob story and a soulmate."
"Who says they're the good guys."
Aniela's hands tightened on the wheel, "Diablo, is that."
"I was kidding," he interrupted, "kidding, obviously a badly timed and inappropriate joke, but a joke none the less, Ani."
"Just don't do any of that at Nona's, okay."
"Scout's honour."
Aniela looked at him wryly, "You expect me to believe you were a scout?"
"I could have been, but I just wasn't into all the macramé, pasta pictures and I don't look good in badges."
Aniela giggled, "Oh I don't know, shorts and sashes seems very you to me."
Diablo grinned, "you just put a rather disturbing image in my head, want to see?"
"No thanks," Aniela replied, "definitely not."
Icarus pulled the car into the Blessingways' driveway and let out a great whoosh of held breath that left his chest feeling tight and painful. This was going to be hard. And it should be private, this was between Gwern and Des and no matter what Gwern said or asked it wasn't his place to be there. And of course he really, really didn't need or want to see their inevitable fisticuffs.
Still having Des and Gwern back together would be great, if that was what would happen; he could never tell with those two, they had the most volatile relationship he'd ever seen. They fought, they made up and then they fought some more, but still they loved each other just as much as any of the other soulmate couples he knew; they'd just got into the habit of fighting with each other when they first met and couldn't seem to lose it.
Since then he'd found himself in the middle, always playing mediator between the two of them; that was the habit he'd picked up on that mission. Winema had come out the luckiest from that mission; the only habit she seemed to have picked up was having chocolate flakes for breakfast thanks to Des. He could do with having Winema around right now, though she'd probably just lock Des and Gwern into a room together and leave them there until they sorted something out, only after she'd kicked Gwern's ass for leaving Des that was.
He got out of the car just as Gwern pulled in behind him, there was no going back now.