Cougar kicked them all out of his house - Dragon and Matt went to stay at Chatoya's. The witch was trying to undo whatever spell Bliss had put on Matt so she could heal him.

He needed to find a way to prove that Fyria person - human or not - was working with that sneaky little witch. He was positive it had been Bliss he'd heard talking to her earlier. The sexy sweet voice, the mood changes - who else could it be?

And there was something else bothering him. Something he didn't want to think about. Ruby. What was it Bliss had said? "I know all about you, Cougar. About Ruby and what happened."

He didn't know how she'd found out. Only his family knew, and they wouldn't tell a witch. Ruby may've been a lamia name but that girl...no, she had lacked the slight coldness and arrogance every lamia had. She had been warm, friendly and *alive*.

Yes, Ruby Luthman had been human and he could still hear her laugh, see that gleaming smile and the mischief in her eyes. And then it had happened.

But that was something he'd sworn he wouldn't think about again. Cougar shook his head, trying to get rid of the memories. Trying to get his mind back to the present. And what to do.

Bliss was dangerous. She knew about his past. And that was something he knew none of his friends had a clue about. And he was guessing they wouldn't be too happy to find out. The whole reason he had run here, out of all the places he could've gone was the no- questions-asked attitude everyone had. You didn't interfere with anyone else's life if they didn't mess with yours. Simple, but essential.

It was simple punishment too. You broke the rules, you died.

He smiled coldly at nothing and got up. He had to find out where those two sisters lived. That was the best chance he had about finding anything out. They had to have orders from someone - after all, they were just hired assassins. And maybe that someone knew him which meant that Cougar knew them. And they were in *trouble* if he found out.

Calmly he walked towards the door. Suddenly he leapt back with a yell that he couldn't hear for the explosion in his ears as flames appeared on the wall. Desperately he spun round, to see fire everywhere, bright orange fire. Witch fire. Trapped. Dammit, how had Bliss done it? He looked up as something crashed above him, to see the roof cave in. Cougar try to dodge and found he didn't have the strength to move.

And watched in astonishment as flaming wood flew straight through him. It was an *illusion*. Tentatively he reached out and touched the flames. Or tried to, at least. His hand passed right through the fire. What was going on? He could hear the fire crackling, but not with his ears. In his mind. And he felt really strange. Weaker than a human. That couldn't be right. Feeling like he'd missed a week's worth of sleep in ten minutes, the lamia dragged himself to his feet and stumbled out the door, somehow knowing which way to go, without knowing where he was headed.

"Cougar," Jepar said with a grin, "doesn't like anyone getting the better of him. Especially not a witch, and a half-human one at that." He was walking back to his house, talking to Zara. She couldn't understand why the lamia had been so angry. He looked down at the human affectionately, at the beautiful face framed by shining black hair.

Zara rolled luminous blue eyes. "He's so stubborn and too damn proud." She shrugged. Zara was small, even for a human. She couldn't have been more than five feet high.

Jepar hid a smile. Zara wasn't exactly the most patient and modest person he had ever met. Thom, Lisa and Cern were walking up ahead, arguing about something. He could just hear Thom's voice. "...how do you know you haven't had any past lives?" Those three argued a lot about that. Thom was an Old Soul, Lisa didn't believe in them and Cern reckoned Nightpeople didn't have past lives. The argument had been going on for months now.

Jepar and Zara caught up with the other three and joined in the debate, throwing in comments. Jepar didn't think Nightpeople could have past lives - at least, not the lamia. How could something that was born dead have had a past life?

Lisa stopped and Jepar couldn't figure out why for a moment. Then he saw what the dark-skinned vampire's eyes were fixed on. Cougar Redfern was running through the town, out towards the mountains. The lamia boy was pale, looking like a black-haired ghost. The hazel eyes were wide, the pupils huge. He looked, Jepar thought, almost...scared. Not a word he'd normally use to describe the confident vampire.

"Cougar!" Lisa yelled to him. Cougar stopped and turned to stare at them. "Where are you going?"

The boy shrugged. "I don't know...but I have the feeling something's going to happen." Unusual for that to happen to a vampire. Though he knew the Redferns had witchblood back some generations so that might explain it.

Lisa raised a sceptical eyebrow. "Oh, really and just how-" She didn't finish. They all heard the explosion, not very loud or clear, but the ball of orange fire exploding into the air was. It looked like a meteor crashing to Earth, in reverse. Jepar stared up at in horrified awe.

"Where's that?" Zara said from just behind him. She was right, he realised. That fireball had come from nowhere in town, and as far as he knew, there weren't any buildings that way. That was the way Cougar had been heading. Jepar felt a chill, like an icy finger down his back.

The cheetah-'shifter shook his head. "I don't know, but wherever it is, someone could be there." And they'll be in trouble if that thing lands on them, he added mentally. All of them began running towards the mountains. Jepar had the feeling that whatever they found there, he wasn't going to like.

Ria opened her eyes onto dim light. She took a deep breath and almost choked on the dust that sprang up. Cautiously, she tried to get up. And straight away realised she couldn't. Something was on her back, cold and wooden. Rubble was in front of her face and she couldn't move her feet or hands. Trapped.

There was a thin stream of light flooding through a gap somewhere above that she couldn't see. Every part of her ached like she'd just gone fifty rounds with the world champion boxer. It was then Ria realised she could only see through one eye. What was wrong with the other? I wonder if this is what's it's like to lose an eye. No pain, just a black gap. Then reality started to creep in. Bliss did this. She threw the fire at me and then...I don't remember. It hit and the whole place must've gone up. Why aren't I dead? There's a whole building on top of me.

Her foot felt weird. Kind of *unconnected.* I'm going to die here, she realised. No one knows about this place. I'm going to die, starve or suffocate under this.

She listened, hoping someone was out there. Nothing. Just the soft sound of an owl far away and the whistling of the night breeze as it whipped through the rubble around.

Ria could do nothing but sit and think, try to keep from panicking. She had never seen Bliss go that crazy. She had just exploded the minute Ria had called her 'Belissima'. What was it that would make her ultra-calm sister go wild at that name?

She didn't actually know an awful lot about Bliss. Just that she had been in an asylum at one point - a Nightworld one - and that she was a witch.

Ria tried to move again. And this time she felt something shift. And felt the impact as something heavy crunched down top of all the junk already piled on top of her. Now it was harder to breath. Her ribcage was being crushed again the ground.

She had heard people used to be killed like this, crushing them with stones. She *really* sympathised with them now.

Then she heard something. Voices. *Familiar* voices.

" I never knew about this place." Female. Bubbly.

"Amazing what a good explosion can do for your knowledge." This voice was dry. She recognised it at once. .Jepar.

She wanted to scream out at them. I'm alive under here! But her throat was too dry and nothing came out but a weak croak.

"No one could've survived that." Thom, soft, cultured voice. Sorrowful right now.

"No, she's under there." That voice rang a strange chill through her. She closed her eye and could still hear the clear confident tones. The vampire.

She heard the grating of stone on stone. A muffled thump, like someone had thrown something.

"How'd you know that, then Cougar? Telepathy?" Just plain curiosity in this voice. Amused, bemused. That had to be the other vampire. Lisa.

There was a pause and the sound of more thumps and grates. Then she heard a hesitant voice. "Yeah..." Not so confident now.

"Weird. " Lisa again. "I couldn't sense a thing." She sounded very suspicious.

Cougar sounded angry now. "Yeah? And your telepathic powers are so good are they? As I remember, first time you tried to talk to Thom, you knocked him out for three days and he *still* doesn't know what happened! What were you doing - practising mental karate?"

"Sounds about right." Amused voice, that soft accent behind it. Jepar laughed. Then his voice lost its joking tone. "Let's not argue about this. Cougar reckons Ria's still alive under there. Would you rather we just walked off and found out later she starved to death 'cause *we* left her?"

There was silence for a while. Ria just lay there hoping desperately that they didn't give up.

"I can't believe that one witch did all this." That was the bubbly voice again. Now Ria could put a name and a face to it. Zara. Black hair, strange blue eyes. Cheerful face.

"Believe it."

Suddenly light streamed into her eye and she gasped and tried to turn her face away as her vision was covered in sunspots. The weight was gone from her back and she knelt up, pushing herself up with her sore, cut hands ignoring screaming muscles and bruised skin. Absently she pushed her dusty hair out of her face, and tried to push herself to her feet. Close by she heard someone mutter, "Goddess, how could anyone live through *that*?"

Someone pulled her up, and asked her quietly, "Anything broken?" She was glad they hadn't asked anything stupid like was she okay.

She just shrugged. Ria still couldn't speak for all the dust in her throat. Every time she breathed in, it was like drowning in sand. As the spots in front of her eye disappeared she could see it was Jepar standing in front of her, hair faded to brown by the ashes, skin darkened a couple of shades. She looked around and tried not to laugh, but they all looked like they had been cleaning chimneys.

Zara looked down at herself ruefully. "Well, if you think we look bad, you should see yourself," she said, only half-joking.

Ria sighed and smiled back. She was just so *relieved*. She wasn't claustrophobic or anything but being under there...not her idea of fun. She looked at where the house had been - and her mouth fell open. Eyes huge, Ria just stared in shock. The house, it was rubble. What wasn't smashed was burnt and she could see stones lying around where the Nightpeople had thrown them. And chunks missing from the hill where debris had landed when the roof exploded.

"Bit of a mess, huh?" Jepar said grimly.

Talk about an understatement. It looked like someone had been carrying out missile testing.

She turned back and realised they were all staring at her, curious looks on their faces. Sort of wondering and a little scared, almost. Except for the lamia. He was just staring at her in undisguised hate.

"What?" she said, not sure who she was talking to. Him, or them.

It was Jepar who answered. "We all saw that house explode. But you've gotten away with nothing worse that a couple of bruises and a broken ankle. You should be dead. Or at least hurt."

Ria was annoyed now. They didn't sound overjoyed that they hadn't dug out a corpse an inch thick. No, they were *complaining* that she wasn't hurt worse! "Well, I'm so sorry. If you wait a minute, I'll go and find Bliss and we can try this little experiment again! Maybe if you get lucky, this time I'll be fried."

"I wouldn't recommend that." Dragon stepped out of the shadows.

"Have you been following us?" Cougar glared at the dragon. Ria got the feeling that vampire didn't like anyone, least of all herself.

Dragon raised her eyebrows. "Getting a little paranoid, aren't you? I followed the explosion." She waved a hand at the ruined house. "Oh, and Matt's going to be okay. Myandra unravelled that spell." She smiled radiantly and Ria realised that the dragon beat Bliss in looks anytime. If she ever met Bliss again though, Ria would keep that thought to herself.

Dragon looked at Ria then, silver eyes like a laser beam. Ria had the eerie feeling that Dragon could read her thoughts. But the girl just smiled at her sympathetically. "You were lucky."

Well, Ria definitely agreed with that.

"It doesn't help when you have an assassin for a sister." Ria froze. Oh god, what did she do now? Did they know she had been involved with this as well? She could feel the blood drain from her face as she just looked at Dragon helplessly.

The silver haired girl mistook the expression on Ria's face. "You didn't know?"

Ria felt a rush of relief. Safe! She just shook her head in answer.

"See, Cougar," Jepar said with his wry smile, "you were wrong, after all."

Ria glanced at the impassive vampire for an explanation and their eyes met, just for a second. She felt that dizzy connection again as *something* drew them together. And then she felt a rush of hate, black fiery hate from him. And heard two snarled words. Get out!

Something snapped painfully in her head and Ria realised she'd been in his mind *again*! Why did this keep happening? She shivered a little as the memory of the black hate and anger in his mind ran through her. He *hated* her. Didn't believe a word of what she had said.

Ria snapped out of the trance she was in and realised Zara was talking to her. "You can stay with me for a while Ria." The human smiled sweetly. Ria stared back, skin pale unable to get the stunned expression off her face. "Just until you find somewhere else, of course," she added quickly, mistaking Ria's expression.

"Or aren't you staying?" Jepar asked, a curious expression on his face.

Ria hadn't even thought about that. She was desperately trying to erase the sense she was linked to Cougar. It was like she could feel it still, a sort of hazy *pulling* sensation. "That's...very kind of you," she said. Do I accept? I *do* need somewhere to stay and Bliss is still going to be here. Ria felt a surge of hope. Maybe, just maybe if I can somehow tell them part of the truth, they can stop Bliss. Ria looked around. She liked it here. Ryars Valley was a Nightworld town, but she had friends here. First time in her life she had ever actually wanted to stay someplace.

Besides, where else could she go? Ria knew she had no family now. Except her father, but she didn't know who he was.

She looked up calmly, feeling a lot better about life all of a sudden and grinned at Zara. "I'll take you up on that." She said with a laugh.

Jepar smiled. "You're staying them?" More than a hint of satisfaction in his tone. She nodded. "Good. Welcome to the world," he said dryly.

"This is all very well," a voice said, teeth chattering, "but it's the middle of the night, and I'm bloody frozen. So can we talk about this tomorrow?" They all looked at Thom who had a definitely blue tinge to his skin.

They all left, laughing and talking. They accepted Ria, not for her looks or her species but for herself. I could get to love living here, she thought happily. But in the back of her mind, there were still two things bothering her. Bliss and Cougar. Two *big* problems.

Cougar didn't leave with them. He waited in the shadows as the rest left. They didn't even seem to notice he wasn't there. Good. His eyes narrowed as he glared at Ria's back. That girl was lying, he knew it. Probably the whole thing had just been an elaborate hoax on her and Bliss's part, to get Jepar's trust. How else would she escape with so little harm? If that had been him, Cougar knew he'd have been dead by now.

And how had *she* got inside his head? Cougar was positive he hadn't tried telepathy on her. Which meant that *she* had to be telepathic. Some sort of weird witch bloood maybe? Whjatever it was he didn't like it at all.

They were out of sight now. Cougar walked over to the rubble and lifted up one of the stones he had overturned earlier. He lifted out what was under it. A trio of papers. He had seen those earlier, had to hide them before the witch, Ria Lutinne, had seen them and destroyed them.

His eyes flicked over the first page. It was an agreement. Cougar whistled softly as he saw the price Bliss was getting paid. And her other price. Power after the millennium. A hundred human slaves. The list went on and on. The vampire shook his head. This Kobe guy sure had wanted to kill Jepar badly. He flicked to the back pages and his eyes widened as he saw the signatures. Not two, but three.

'I sign this contract, knowing if I break I forfeit my life. Kobe Ofiofargan Bliss Follehex

And finally, below the other two signatures, the proof Cougar needed. Two words, written in a shaky hand, utterly damning.

Fyria Lutinne

But what he couldn't understand was why the two witches hadn't destroyed the contract. He gave a mental shrug. Oh well, another of life's mysteries.