It was seven o'clock. Seven o'clock and she still wasn't home; she'd been gone since eleven. By four, Eric had been a little worried, by five his mother had to tell him to stop pacing lest he wore out the carpet, by six he had been reaching hysteria, now he had come to the conclusion that she had grown tired of him, had realised that she didn't need a soulmate and had gone back to the Night World, begging for them to take her back, or that she was dead.

The second was unthinkable. It was a hard choice, but Eric knew he'd rather have Thea be somewhere else and happy than dead.

He knew for a certain fact, however, that she wouldn't have gone shopping for eight hours without phoning him, without telling him that she was alive and well. She'd know that that would get him worried, that Eric would become a blubbering mass of nerves at the thought of losing his soulmate; she would have at least called, it was the kind of person Thea was.

If she's gone to the Night World…she could have told me…

He sat down heavily on the kitchen chair, moaning, Rosemund looked up from her homework and narrowed her eyes at him, "you're worried about Thea."

It wasn't a question, it was more like a statement, he nodded tightly, then looked away. No need to let his little sister feel his pain, she'd find out that Thea had gone soon enough.

"she told me to give you this," Rosemund mentioned offhandedly, reaching under her homework and revealing a pink envelope, "if she wasn't back by eight," she looked at the clock, "It's only seven," she put the envelope back.

"Rosemund!" Eric complained, but the little girl simply shook her head, a sly smile on her face, "I'll give you five bucks."

She thought for a moment, "ten."

"Seven."

"Ten." She was adamant.

"Alright," Eric sighed, "now give me the envelope."

She did, and he tore it open as quick as he possibly could, seeing his soulmate's delicate spidery writing inside.

Eric,

If Rosemund has given this to you, I'm most likely gone – possibly dead – I went to a place that Phillip North told me was the Circle Daybreak Headquarters, but I suspected a trap so I went alone. Don't feel bad, I wanted you to live, or to escape whatever the Night World has in store for us, you might need to leave Las Vegas to keep yourself safe. If they trapped me, they must know about you also.

I'm sorry for all this, I didn't mean to put your life in danger, never meant to hurt you, even though it's so blatantly obvious that I have. If you get this (as long as Rosemund hasn't given it to you before eight) I believe that their intention will, eventually, to be to kill me. You'll feel it and it will be unpleasant, but you'll live – you have to live. For me.

Love forever

Your Soulmate

-Thea.

XXX

He stared at the letter for a moment, rereading it, then his eyes focused on two points: Phillip North told me and you'll feel it.

He hadn't felt Thea die, and he knew Phillip North's number was in the phone book.

He was going to find her.

Thea walked through the door. If you could call it that, and generally she wouldn't. it was huge, an archway matted with black porcelain roses; the doors inside a deep wood so dark it was almost black. Thea took a deep breath before entering the room, cursing herself for being so crazy as to worry it was a trap, to leave Eric at home. He would, no doubt, have loved this place. She pushed open the door,

Something red propelled itself at her, and she had to wonder whether it was witch fire, whether it really had been a trap and she'd just been too trusting. She jumped back, knocking into the doors as they slammed behind her, feeling a little like a frightened animal.

"Thea!" the red thing yelled, and it was at this point that Thea realised it wasn't fire. The small girl bounced on the balls of her feet and looked up at her, "oh, maybe you don't remember me, I'm Poppy North! You fed me when Ash kidnapped me, haha."

Her breathing was irregular, and the air in this mansion just didn't seem sufficient, she was suffocating to death, especially when the pixie-like girl reached up and wrapped her arms around Thea, grabbing her in a tight hug that she supposed Poppy didn't know how much it hurt. Poppy was a vampire; Thea felt like she was snapping into two.

There was chuckling from the other side of the lavish living room, "put her down, Poppet." Thea turned to see James Rasmussen, sitting on the windowsill – passing up opportunities at perfectly comfortable-looking sofas with red silk cushions, he smiled at her, "Hi cuz, you got yourself one of them too?"

"Mine hurts less," she breathed out in between gasps, "and he's male."

Poppy giggled, "sorry, sorry, I get a little over excited sometimes, and James told me all about you, and I feel like I've known you forever and where is he?"

"I'm right over here, Poppet," James called.

"Not you, I'm talking about thingamabob, what's his name?"

"Eric. I left him at home," Thea paused, unsure of what to say, Because I suspected you were leading me to my death didn't sound very friendly, "I wasn't sure whether Circle Daybreak was legitimate."

"Oh Jamie had the same problem when I had my vision."

Thea felt her right eyebrow move up involuntarily, Phillip had said something about visions too, "Vision?"

James opened his mouth to speak, Poppy talked instead, "oh, I'm a lost witch thingamajig, actually, I was wondering if you could teach me some stuff, seen as Jamie said you were one of the best witches because you're a whatchamacallit of Hellewise, or whoever."

Thea laughed, it was a good job Poppy was only a lost witch, otherwise saying stuff like that would be like treason to the witch circles, she found herself nodding. Poppy's crazy enthusiasm seemed to be catching.

"Oh that's so cool! I'm so glad there's another woman in the house," she winked at Thea, "I can't do girly stuff with him," she gestured to James, "he always complains when I drag him shopping or try to straighten his hair, and the guards just don't seem interested," she rolled her eyes, "we can have girl talk late at night and do each other's hair and…"

Thea tuned out of the conversation, this girl seemed to be thinking they were going to be living together, "what are you talking about."

"Oh, Thierry hasn't told you?"

Thea was about to agree when James suddenly stiffened noticeably, Poppy cocked her head to the side and listened, Thea couldn't hear a thing, but that might have been because she wasn't a vampire.

James looked out of the window and then turned back to the girls, "there's trouble, I think, someone's arguing with Nilsson, trying to get inside."

"Just one person?" Poppy asked, relaxing visibly.

"I can only see one, doesn't mean there isn't more than him. Oh Goddess, he's inside."

Now Thea could hear the niose both vampires could hear long before, "What have you done with Thea? where is she? If you've hurt her, I swear!…"

Eric, you fool. He was too brave for his own good, it was a thin white line between courage and stupidity – he just crossed it. Thea groaned and hit her head off her knee. The watch said ten to eight, she should have known not to trust Rosemund to give him the note on time.

There was quiet for a while, and then he was in the living room, picking her up, twirling her around, kissing her. "Pack it in!" she ordered.

"Your soulmate, I presume?" James asked solemnly, trying to stifle his laughter.

"Yeah," Thea blushed, so did Eric, "Eric, this is Poppy," she gestured to the girl, "and James, my cousin. Poppy, James; Eric, my soulmate." She frowned a moment, "he's not usually so…"

"Loud?" James put in.

"Mad?" Poppy giggled.

"either of them will do," Thea laughed while Eric just kept right on blushing, "so what's this that Thierry hasn't told me?"

Poppy stopped giggling abruptly, glanced at James, then back at Thea and Eric, "we have to stay here, where we're protected," she sighed softly, "we're all in terrible danger, if anyone finds us… some witches know about you Thea, you know some do – or suspect – they could still come for you."

"We have to stay here?" Eric asked, repeating Poppy.

"If you join Circle Daybreak, which is really the only place you can be…well…you… then yes."

Eric nodded, "Okay."

"what about Davis?" Thea asked, grabbing his arm. She wanted to stay at Thierry's mansion, even though it was so lushly decorated and expensive that she didn't think she could ever get used to it. She wanted to help Circle Daybreak, but Eric had already done so much for her, she couldn't ask him to give up his whole life.

"what about it?"

"you wouldn't be able to go, wouldn't be able to become a vet," Thea looked at the floor, "I don't want to ruin your life."

"That doesn't matter, as long as we're together," he said, momentarily forgetting the other couple in the room, before Poppy started making kissing noises with her lips and James started rolling his eyes.

Thea nodded once, then turned to the others, who were still gesturing behind their backs, "so, where is Thierry?"