Part One

It was a night for hunting. Simple as that.

He loved the night - how could he not? When you were brought up as a predator by a host of predators, a silent hunter who stalked through the shadows, there was no other way to be. And that was exactly how Cougar Redfern had been brought up.

He was one of the lamia, directly descended from Hunter Redfern, his fives times great-grandfather. Seventeen and a renegade. He wasn't conventional and his one-time home, the island enclave was built on convention. So Cougar didn't stay to find out what would happen when he got himself into more trouble than usual.

No one had been able to track him here. Here being Ryars Valley. It was an enclave but one for humans. It was a haven right in the middle of the scrubland, a green valley inside a ring of mountains. And of course, the whole place was packed with renegades.

It had given him a hell of a shock when he'd arrived. Cougar had thought he had wound up in a Nightworld town by mistake. But it didn't take him long to figure out it wasn't. In fact, it took about ten seconds after he'd met Bella Majwiel.

She was a witch, completely evil and completely mad, who had run a cult that sacrificed Nightpeople. No one could figure out any way to stop it. People who tried, fried. Until a girl had waltzed in a couple of weeks ago, calling herself Dragon Tiamat and turned the place upside down. She was his kind of person.

Then Dragon had left as suddenly as she'd arrived, after killing a dragon - a goddamn *dragon* - in what he was told was a huge fight, like the Night Wars all over again. And when she left, she took a human boy - only according to a 'shifter friend, he *wasn't* human - who was supposedly her soulmate, with her. And Cougar had missed the whole thing. He could've kicked himself.

Things had been pretty quiet lately though. Now that the cult was gone - not that he was complaining, though - so was most of the excitement. The vampire was always active. He just didn't see the point in sitting around aimlessly. Live for the moment, that was his philosophy. He spent a lot of time at the Black Iris in the valley, or out with his friends - who were both Nightpeople and humans.

Unlike most of his family, he quite liked humans. They were smarter than he'd been told and they weren't just meals on legs. Most of them could put up a pretty good fight, or at least make a fair attempt.

Again like most of his old fashioned family, he didn't hold a senseless grudge against the shapeshifters. Jepar Jubatus, one of his circle of friends, was neither stupid nor power-hungry and anyone calling him 'Kitty' was likely to wind up six feet under.

Though after seeing the mess that fight had made of the field where Circle Doomfire had held their 'meetings' he could see why the Nightworld was so afraid of 'shifters.

Those were the reasons why Cougar was the black sheep - or cat - of his family. Two of the reasons, anyway. The last was one he wouldn't tell anyone, wouldn't even admit to himself. It was buried and would stay so. For a damn good reason.

It was night. Or at least, that was how it looked through the towering window, looking like eyes out of the front of the house. The room they were standing in was huge. Gigantic. The whole place was made of stone. Even the banisters on the staircase. And that was the strange thing. No wood, anywhere. Glass, yes, stone, definitely. But not a splinter of wood.

Candles burned around the room in golden holders. Most of the light came from the fire roaring in the fireplace. Apart from that though, the room was deadly quiet. But not empty. Three people sat around the fire. One, a tall thin girl, with pale red-gold hair, shrank behind a shorter, elegant girl; red haired with eyes so deep a blue that they were almost purple. The taller girl seemed like a washed out version of the older, more confident one.

A man, hawk-like, tall stood up and walked menacingly over to the pair. He was angry. He had sent for the best assassins and he got this? A pair of teenagers, one so scared she dared not move. They had failed once already. But they were the only ones who kill his relative without anyone becoming suspicious. He glared imperiously at the flame haired girl. "No backing out this time, Belissima. From either her or you," he purred meaningfully. He smiled lazily, showing a mouth full of shark-like teeth, but with two fangs, milky white and razor sharp.

Belissima caught the other girl's wrist, yanking her forward. "Oh, don't worry Kobe. She won't let you down this time." Spoken casually, but there was steely determination behind her words. "Will you?" A threat more than a question, directed at the cowering girl beside her, who looked more like a child with her huge eyes and small features.

The redhead shook her in emphasis. "Will you, Fyria?" There was no love lost between them, Kobe realised. Good. They would get the job done better. He didn't like to carry out this sort of duty, especially not to one he knew so well, but it had to be done.

Timidly, the fragile girl - Fyria - shook her head. Kobe didn't have much hope for her. For a start, she was vermin. At least this Belissima was a witch, a good powerful line, though she took a vermin name.

Belissima's mouth curled contemptuously. "Good."

Cougar walked through the double doors into the building and automatically strode off towards his locker. He saw the wistful looks some of the girls gave him and grinned inwardly. Nice to be noticed for once.

Hunting always did that for him. Gave him a vague glow, making his black hair darker, like a black hole and gave hazel eyes an extra inner sparkle. Heightened his senses as well. Weird, as well though. It didn't seem to affect any of the other vampires he knew like that. But then, all of them were made vampires. Lamia tended to stay close to their families on enclaves, living like it was still the Dark Ages.

Absently he grabbed books from his locker and headed for his first class, leaving off his musings.

Fyria miserably followed her half-sister into the school. She hated this. Hated the job, her life and especially her sister. But her sister was a witch. Ria had never known witches existed until one year ago. Belissima had turned up at their house, marched in and wrecked her life. Her mother divorced her father after she found out he had another child.

And then her father had left. Just took off. Now her mother couldn't stand the sight of her, just because she looked like her father. So Belissima had said she could go and live with her. And then the trouble really started. Bliss tried dragged her into the thing she called the Nightworld. And its battles. So Ria tried to leave.

But Belissima had a spell working. It was something like voodoo, but Fyria didn't know how to stop it. Whatever it was though had put her mother in hospital. With a fatal disease. And even though she treated Ria like dirt, she was still her mother. So she had to help Belissima. Or her mother would die.

It was a pretty average day. Right up to his third lesson, when life got interesting again.

He was talking to Cern Akafren, one of the witches, when the door opened and not one but two people walked in. He didn't recognise either of them. But they were both human, both pretty and *that* meant they were both trouble. But he *liked* trouble.

He looked at them thoughtfully. One, who seemed small, with pale red-gold hair, curling down to her shoulders, seemed to cower behind the more confident girl. He turned his gaze to her.

Fire hair that fell straight down, almost to her knees like a flaming cloak, with cool, knowing eyes that looked like the sky at night, she was surveying the room while absently answering the teacher's questions.

She was Belissima Follehex. Definitely a witch.

There was, however, something in her look the vampire didn't like. It was...superior. As though she was putting a value on everything. But then she smiled and her face lit up. Cougar decided he must have imagined it.

He barely glanced at her counterpart, she was called Fyria Lutinne - the name sounded familiar to Cougar - just caught an impression that she looked faded, like a shadow of Belissima before she slunk into a seat behind him.

Belissima smiled sweetly as she sat next to Rob. Right where that Dragon girl had been sitting a few weeks ago. Rob had all the luck. He was chatting and flirting with the fire haired girl for the rest of the lesson. To the envy of every other guy in the room. Cougar included. That girl looked as if she could be interesting. And a lot of fun.

Bliss caught her in the corridor as she went off to her next lesson. She grabbed Fyria's wrist, so hard she could feel her bones cracking.

Belissima glared at her, looks marred by her anger. "Did you see him?" she snapped. Fyria shook her head dumbly. "Damn!" Bliss glowered at her, as if it was Ria's fault he wasn't there. Then she let go of Fyria and leaned back against the wall, putting on a caring expression as someone walked past. Her voice was low, so only Ria could hear her. "Well, we have different lessons next. If you see him, tell me. If you can, get to know him. Make him unsuspicious. Kobe says this one's smart." She smiled evilly, savagely. "I hope he is. It makes it so much more...fun."

Ria nodded. She wished she didn't have to do this. Wished she wasn't so scared all the time. This job was going to be worse than the others. The guy was a 'shifter, belonging to some sort of organisation Kobe was trying to get rid of. They'd been ordered to torture him before he was killed. Poor guy.

Fyria had no doubts that Bliss would catch him. She always did. No one ever believed that a girl who looked like her could hurt anyone. Let alone do some of the things Ria had seen her do. The last one hadn't deserved it. She'd been Ria's friend. So Bliss had gotten rid of her. And she'd left the body where she knew Ria would find it. As a warning. She didn't know how her sister could do that to Vicki.

When she looked up, Bliss had gone. She was insane, Fyria knew that. She belonged in an asylum - she had been in one. Ria wasn't supposed to know that. But Vicki had known. And she'd told her. Bliss had never found out, thank God. She dreaded to think what Vicki would have suffered, then.

With a gasp, she realised that she was late. Again. Quickly she ran to her next lesson.

Coolly Bliss walked into her next lesson late. She flashed a megawatt smile at the teacher and it worked, like it always did. She never got into trouble. Or at least, trouble that she couldn't handle. Bliss knew the best way to avoid misfortune was to land someone else in it. Which was part of the reason why Fyria was there.

Her half-sister really was despicable. She was a cowering useless stupid idiot. Soft, as well. In the heart as well as the head. So Bliss was trying, oh, how she tried, to teach that human the way to be. Uncaring. Smart. It was the only way to survive. If her sister ever got found out, no one would have a hard time getting information out of her. So Bliss made sure there was no way Fyria would get caught. A little blackmail never hurt anyone. Well, it didn't hurt *her* and that was the important point.

It hadn't been difficult. Fyria had said her mother disappeared a lot. So Belissima had trailed the woman one night. It was easy, what with the tracking skills her vampire acquaintance had taught her. Just a small break-in to the local hospital to check on Lierra Lutinne's records, which revealed she had cancer. So Bliss played on the idea that she had put a spell on Fyria's mother. The gullible human swallowed it. And now she was too afraid of Bliss not to obey her every word.

And when her mother died, she would be Fyria's only family. So the human would have to rely on her to survive. Which suited Bliss fine. She'd planned it all very carefully. And it was working. It was so much better to be evil. Bliss smiled secretively and left off her plans. Her sharp eyes scanned the room for the boy she was looking for. Not there. Again. But there were some interesting compensations.

Like the witch boy sitting up ahead of her. Mahogany hair and a good body. He could be fun to toy with for a while. Or the vampire on her left. Now him, she liked. He had a lovely dark glow around him which made his brown-green eyes glow and his black hair blacker than the night against tanned skin. She caught his eyes then smiled seductively. To her rage, he smiled back politely then ignored her. How could he do that!

Fuming, Belissima Follehex decided that vampire was going to be hers.

Cougar Redfern grinned to himself as he saw the look of fury on the girl's face. She was a witch, definitely. And now she was even more interested. He knew her type. They were man-traps. Hunted people like vampires did - and he was one, so he knew. So, if you ignored them, it made them even more determined. Which was fine by him.

He jumped as the teacher asked him a question. What the hell were they doing this lesson. He cast a desperate glance over at the girl two seats ahead of him. Like everyone else, she had turned round to stare at him. <>

She smiled at him sweetly, her brown eyes dancing with mischief. << You should know that, Cougar.>>

He saw the annoyance on the 'shifter teacher's face. <>

She just smiled maddeningly.

<>

<< Okay, okay. Repeat after me - but don't sound as if you're repeating, idiot...>> Gratefully Cougar answered the question.

<> the dark skinned girl sent, resignation on her pretty face. She knew as well as Cougar did that he would probably never return the favour. Lisa was too smart to get into messes like that.