"James! Poppy!" Thea happily hugged her cousin and friend. Since she and Eric already lived in Vegas, they had been the first to arrive at the mansion. "This is Eric, my soulmate. Eric, this is James, he's one of my vampire cousins, and this is his soulmate, Poppy." Thea's eyes got wide as she saw who entered behind James, and she stepped closer to Eric, ready to shield him.

"Quinn, what are you doing here?" Thea tried to hide her nervousness. Thierry hadn't told her who any of the other Daybreakers would be, only that she knew some of them and a few were her cousins. She had guessed James and Poppy, but she hadn't figured out who any of the others might be. Quinn, though, was first on the list of vampire-cousins she never expected to see in Daybreak headquarters unless leading an attack to kill them all. Seeing him smiling calmly and holding a suitcase confused her.

"Apparently he's soulmated to Rashel there," James said pointing at the dark haired girl next to Quinn. Thea had at first thought she was another vampire, but now she wasn't so sure. Even if Quinn were soulmated, being soulmated to another Night Person wouldn't make him switch sides.

"Hello Thea," Quinn said. "I thought you drank the Cup of Lethe. How come you remember me?"

"Someone switched it with iced tea," she stammered, then cursed herself silently. She shouldn't have told him anything.

"Who?" Thea didn't answer. She wasn't about to turn Blaise over to him. "Blaise, I bet," Quinn said. "I heard you too got into a lot of trouble over Halloween. Messing with forbidden spells and falling in love with a human. How unlike you."

"I heard something about that too. I thought that the forbidden spell part was Blaise, though. It's more her style," James said.

Jeez, rumors traveled fast in the Night World. "It was both of us. But what I did was worse, and I started everything." Before Eric could interrupt and defend her, like he always did when she took what he thought was more than her share of the blame, she rushed on to introductions. "Eric, this is Quinn. He's sort of a friend of the family. Quinn, this is my soulmate Eric."

"Hey. This is Rashel. Rashel, Thea Harman." Rashel nodded, studying Thea and Eric. Thea felt uncomfortable around this unknown girl who could tame the feared Quinn and make him turn good, but sized up other Daybreakers as if she was expecting to fight them. What the heck was she? Eric, far more straightforward, solved the mystery.

"So, Rashel, what group do you belong to? Human, witch, vampire, or shapeshifter? 'Cause I'd love to have another human around. So far I'm the only one in the whole mansion."

Rashel grinned. She enjoyed watching people's reactions when they found out about her. She might be a damned Daybreaker now, but Night People, and humans, were still afraid of her. "I'm human. I'm a vampire hunter." Just as expected, Thea's and Eric's eyes got wide.

"Wow. Are you any good?" Thea asked.

"She can beat me," Quinn said. He seemed proud of that.

Nilsson watched as the six teens walked into one of the sitting rooms, Eric asking Rashel about being a vampire hunter while Quinn and James asked for the whole story behind Thea becoming soulmated and drinking the fake Cup of Lethe. So far it looked like there wouldn't be any problems with everyone gettting along.

********

"Gillian Lennox and David Blackburn," announced Nilsson.

"Um, hello?" Gillian and David followed Nilsson into the room. It was two days later. Thierry had come home a few hours after Rashel, Quinn, James, and Poppy had arrived. Quinn was the most comfortable with him, since the two had known each other for several centuries. Poppy was a little scared, since he was the same vampire Ash had threatened to reveal her to. He had assured her that even if Ash had he wouldn't have killed her, and may have tried to bring her and James into Circle Daybreak then. (They had joined, along with Poppy's father, when they had met a Daybreaker-witch who had figured out they were hiding from the Night World and recruited them.) James was in awe of Thierry, but quickly relaxing and becoming friends. Thea was a little more comfortable than James, since she had met Thierry a few times while living with Grandma Harman. Eric was fairly at ease too, mainly because he hadn't been taught to revere the ancient vampire his whole life. Rashel respected him and was amused at how little he resembled the image she had formed of him when she was a vampire hunter. She hardly had any urge at all to kill him. Quinn was still keeping a careful eye on her though, just in case.

"Hi," Thea said to the newcomers. Then she looked more carefully at Gillian. "You must be one of my cousins. Only Harmans have hair and eyes like that."

"Gillian is a lost witch," Thierry said, standing and going over to the new arrivals. "She is a descendent of one of the lost Harman babies." Thea, James, and Quinn all looked surprised. Most Night People had assumed that both babies had died as infants. "Welcome to my home. I am Thierry Descouedres, and this is Thea Harman, Eric Ross, James Rasmussen, Poppy North, Quinn, and Rashel Jordan. Thea is a cousin of yours, and James is a cross-cousin." Everyone said hi.

"This is great!" Thea was very happy. "Another witch! Have you been learning how to use your powers?"

"A little." Gillian was much more outgoing now, but still a little shy, and a roomful of strangers, most of them not human and some of them claiming to be related to her, brought that out in her.

"Would you like to learn more? I'd love to teach you a little," Thea was going on. She missed being around other witches. Since she still lived in Vegas near her Grandmother, she had to be even more secretive about being a Daybreaker than a lot of other members, since she wasn't supposed to remember the Night World existed or that she was a witch.

"I'd like that," Gillian smiled.

"Can you teach me some too?" Poppy asked. She'd learned a lot about being a vampire, but not much about being a witch.

"Sure," Thea answered, thrilled to have an excuse to use magic and the chance to do some girl-bonding.

"Before you begin magic lessons," Thierry said, "why don't we show Gillian and David to their rooms and let them get settled in and recover from their trip?"

"We'll give you a tour of the house too," James said as they headed into the main hallway. "And a map."

"How about some breadcrumbs so we can leave a trail?" David asked, looking around at the huge hall and many doors leading into rooms, side hallways, and staircases. They others laughed, and assured him he'd find his way around soon.

"Besides," Quinn added, "the housekeeping staff would just sweep the crumbs away and give you dirty looks for making a mess."