As we opened the door to go inside Desmond stood in the entrance hall. His arms were crossed over his chest, his forehead crinkled in thought and his eyes examining me. He could be so intimidating sometimes.

"You heard?" Daydream asked, seeming a tad nervous as well, which was weird since she was never nervous around him.

He nodded but continued to stare at me. "So?" I inquired. "What are you thinking?"

"That you might be a bit crazy," he said plainly. "But that's usually what I think when I'm talking to you."

I scoffed. "What happened to me being a giant smarty? I liked that Desmond better."

Desmond raised a brow. "Yeah, well, that Desmond is on sabbatical because you're freaking him out. I'll be taking his place for a while." I gave him an exasperated look. "Anyway, I originally came down to tell you two that Connor finally woke up."

"Brilliant!" Daydream said, excitedly. "Maybe we can get his creepy prophetic opinion on the whole Lucas sitch." She rolled her shoulders like a cat getting ready to pounce.

Desmond smiled and gently kissed his mate. They were a perfect balance. She was air and he was earth. He seemed to live for those moments when her breezes cooled him. He turned to me and I blushed, realizing I'd been watching them like some kind of creeper. "Council isn't going to be very happy about you even considering teaming up with Lucas," he warned, referring to our friends, the elder vamps we'd asked to be advisers and a select few of the younger vamps and fledglings who had proven themselves capable. The latter unfortunately included Aldo.

"Yes well," I sighed, already imagining what Aldo was going to have to say about it, "it's still worth it to try."

"Is this a joke?" Jordan demanded after Daydream and I had recounted our conversation with Lucas.

"Of course not," I replied quietly. The incredulous stares from the council were making me feel like a giant idiot.

"At what point did this even seem like a good idea?" Aldo chimed in, getting to his feet.

I raised a brow. "Seemed like a good idea at the time. Oh wait, you didn't mean the idea of bringing this before the council."

Aldo sneered. "No, I definitely meant bringing a dangerous terrorist into our home as well as his four hundred closest pallies. At what point did the wellbeing of our soldiers, particularly the humans, cross your mind? Or did it cross your mind at all?"

Rosto leapt to his feet and stared down Aldo. "You're going to take that back and sit down right now." Aldo glared up at Rosto who had a good six inches on him. "Mari has done more than you can conceive to keep all of us safe. She isn't our leader because she talks the loudest and you'd do well to show her some respect. You don't have to agree with her, but you do have to respect her." Aldo's brow quivered. He sighed in submission and sat back down next to David who refused to look up from the ground. Rosto glanced back at me and I responded with an appreciative smile. I loved that kid.

"Alright," Jason said, straining to maintain a calm tone, "so I guess that most of us are having a problem getting past his…well his past. Didn't Jenn say he'd massacred a church group? Is this not a bad anymore?"

"I don't think that's what she means," Kimmy sighed, in a very diplomatic tone. "Sometimes you have to overlook things for the greater good. We can deal with his indiscretions later."

Jordan gave a bitter laugh. "Indiscretions? We're talking about murder, not about him lying about having an affair with an intern."

"Maybe there's more to it that we aren't seeing here," said Lorne, a three hundred year old Warrior we'd picked up in Louisiana.

Althea, our prophetess who had just Changed in the last week, piped up from beside Jordan. "Murder is murder. Those humans are dead because of him."

"Alright," Erol scoffed. "Everyone here who hasn't killed someone, raise your hand." Only Althea and the other two fledglings raised their hands. "See what I mean? Death sucks, that's a big affirmative. You know what else sucks? Dying. If we lose this war we die." He looked up at me. "I believe that's the point you were trying to make, yeah?"

I nodded solemnly. It sucked when someone speaking on my behalf was someone I had so recently hurt. "Exactly. I've already told him that, should we agree to combine our teams, he and his soldiers will be required to take a blood oath before Nyx, binding them to us and our cause." Many looked doubtful. "Look, I'm not going to sugar coat it. We go up against them as we are, we're going to lose. Lucas has an army and connections to other armies who are looking for someone to lead them. We need to lead them. As a collective, we have the motivation and the vision but not the muscle. He can provide us with muscle."

The meeting continued much in that manner. People, namely Jordan, Althea, Carmen and Aldo, continued to come at me, questioning my leadership. Meanwhile others, Erol, Rosto, Kimmy and Daydream, continued pushing for everyone to at least consider the idea. It was unbearably tedious. The naysayers refused to come up with any other argument to support their side, whereas those in favor of the merger kept coming up with reasons why it was a good idea. The elders kept giving me meaningful looks which, really, I couldn't quite discern. Finally I decided that enough was enough.

Everyone left the meeting a tad shaken, no matter which side they were on. I'd finally said that I was taking charge and that this was the decision I had made. Only, I said it in many more less polite words. Yeah, I wasn't going to have a friend in the world by the time this war was over.

I left the meeting before anyone else and headed straight for sick bay, to check in on Connor. When I got there he was sitting in his bed reading some comic books. I didn't even have to ask where they came from. Connor looked up at me. "You know, that Erol guy tried to explain this Meleka Fray character to me but I just don't get it." He tossed the comic aside and grinned at me. He was actually pretty cute when he wasn't going off on crazy prophecies. "So, did you guys ever come to a decision on what to do with me?"

I leaned back against a supply cabinet. "Well, it turns out you're going to be the least of our problems for a while. We're taking in this vamp army with questionable motives. Lucky you, prophets of another god have been bumped over to next weeks' schedule." He chuckled and leaned back on his elbows. "So, what god do you work for? Do you know?"

He shook his head. "I really don't. But I feel some strange…not to sound like I'm coming onto you or anything but I feel like we're connected through this god. Is that reasonable?"

I nodded and gave him a vague explanation about my origin. He seemed to understand although I hardly understood most days. "So, you sort of said last night that you were willing to fight with us, right?"

"I did," Connor replied with a grim smile. "If nothing else, that vamp girlfriend I mentioned was killed by Baggers. I'm in favor of taking them down. Also, maybe you could help me find out what god it is I'm supposed to serve."

"Maybe," I sighed, my mind lingering on the way the meeting had gone.

"You made the right choice," Connor told me with confidence. "I'm not quite sure what it was but…I can feel it."

I raised a single brow. "Thank you, that means so much," I replied, unable to hide the sarcasm.

Connor chuckled but then his face went serious. "Your decisions will pretty much always be on and you'll always doubt them because others do. But don't. You have it in you to win this. Your fate is written in the stars."

Then I realized he'd gone into a prophetic trance. "Written in the stars? What does that mean?" I thought back to when I first met Daydream and she'd told me about the dream where I was made out of stars. "Why was I made out of stars in Daydream's vision?"

He gave a vacant smile and tilted his head to the side. "I wonder what those left behind will call you." And with that he snapped back to consciousness. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"