Chapter Two
Annabelle started laughing. It began with her covering her mouth with her hands, peals of laughter escaping her lips as her shoulders shook uncontrollably, and ended with hiccups.
"Oh give me a break, Blade," she gasped out when she was finally able to speak. "You're no more the fourth Wild Power than I am."
Blade rose one blonde eyebrow in response. "Well that's what *I* tried to tell them. They were pretty sure of themselves though." He winced as he tapped his cut forehead for effect.
"This is ridiculous Blade," Annabelle said. She started back for the living room, not bothering to check if either Blade or Sarah were following and settled onto the green flowered, suede couch, remaining silent until her brother and his soulmate appeared in the doorway. "Don't you think you'd know if you were a Wild Power? Don't you think Circle Daybreak would know?"
"I'm not exactly on expert on the subject, Annabelle," Blade said wearily, leading Sarah over to the couch so that she could sit down.
"You look pale, is something wrong?" he asked as she leaned back.
Sarah shook her head, pale blonde hair falling into her eyes. *No, nothing's wrong,* she thought ironically. *Only that my soulmate's suspected of being the fourth Wild Power. No biggie.*
"I'm just worried about you, that's all," she said, squeezing Blade's hand. "But I do think that we should try to get in touch with Lord Thierry and Lady Hannah. They'll want to know about this."
"*Everybody* will want to know about this." Annabelle turned to look outside in a perfectly controlled motion, her green eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"I'm sure it's all just a mix-up," Sarah said suddenly, looking at her friend in concern. Annabelle had never seemed truly happy being a part of Circle Daybreak and it worried Sarah. When Annabelle wasn't making cracks about humans or doing her best to annoy her brother, she was moody and withdrawn, spending most of her time by herself, sometimes staring at something that it seemed only she could see.
"A mix-up," Sarah said more firmly. "And Lord Thierry will know exactly what to do. It'll all work out." She glanced at Blade for reassurance and the Lamia returned the look with a lopsided grin.
"Annabelle?" Sarah tried to get the other girl's attention again. But Annabelle continued her vigil by the window, her eyes beginning to look more squinted than narrow now.
"Who's coming by today?" Annabelle said oddly, her voice hushed. Her shoulder's tensed as her hands gripped the back of the couch so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
"What are you talking about?" Blade asked, maneuvering so that he could look over his sister's shoulder. He squinted out the window, his eyebrows drawn together. "No one should be coming."
"Then why," Annabelle said distinctly, "*Is* someone coming?"
Startled, Sarah twisted and pushed herself up on the back of the couch, following Annabelle's gaze out the window. "There's no one there..."
"Well of course *you* don't see it," Annabelle nearly snapped.
There, another reminder that Sarah was 'only' a human. Sarah looked at Annabelle in surprise. Although the other girl often talked about human's in a generally degrading way, she had never directed the comments at Sarah.
Blade, sensing the tension, leaned between the two girls. "There definitely is a silver car coming in this direction. Daybreak didn't mention anything about sending people over did they?"
Sarah blinked as a silver Buick finally came into view, its windows tinted entirely too dark to be legal. "I don't think so..." she started, cut off by the sound of something shattering.
There was a crash from the back of the house, the sound of glass splintering and falling to the ground, tinkling like raindrops. Sarah's head snapped around. "I think we can definitely say that those aren't Daybreak agents. They usually use the front door," she
said a little shakily.
"Definitely not Daybreak agents," Blade confirmed, his hand closing around Sarah's upper arm as he pulled her up and started for the front door. "Lets go, we're getting out of here."
Sarah almost tripped at the force he pulled her with. "Blade.." she started, almost tripping again as he stopped suddenly. Annabelle ran into them from behind, letting out a small cry of surprise.
"Wonderful," Blade said under his breath as someone hit the door once, hard, the frosted glass on the sides of the cherry wood door rattling. "Upstairs," he said, changing direction in one swift motion. He pushed the two girls up the blue carpeted stairs, almost knocking a silver framed picture from the wall in his haste.
It was a painting by Salvatore Dali; the painting of the melting clocks. *Time's running out,* Sarah thought illogically, her paranoia freezing her in place so that Blade had to give her arm a violent tug to get her up another step.
Sarah reached out and touched the painting with trembling fingers until Blade yanked her away, causing her to lose contact with the picture. The picture and the only thing that she was certain of at that moment. That time was running out.
"Blade," she said, fear bubbling in her throat, hot and acidic. "We're going to be trapped up here."
Blade put one arm behind her back and the other under her legs, sweeping her up. "Relax, it's going to be fine, I've got you."
*He thinks I'm in shock,* Sarah thought with something like mild surprise. She wanted to tell him that she wasn't, that she was thinking quite clearly, but she couldn't make her mouth work. Instead, Sarah buried her face into Blade's shoulder as he followed Annabelle into her bedroom.
Sarah looked up when she heard the door close behind them and glanced around at the dark purple walls. Annabelle never really liked bright colors Circle Daybreak still didn't know that one rainy day Annabelle had gone out, bought a bucket of 'Atomic Purple' paint, and brought it home, using an old paintbrush she had found in the basement to smear it over the walls. The overall effect was that the room looked as though it had been dropped into a glass of grape juice.
Annabelle loved it. Blade said that it would eventually grow on him. Annabelle's response to *that* was that it didn't have to grow on Blade because he didn't have to live in it.
Sarah had just thought that it was silly to paint a bedroom as small as Annabelle's such a dark color. But right now, she was grateful for the shadows that the walls cast, as though she were protected in the darkness. She had felt exposed and vulnerable in the bright yellows and greens downstairs. Here, in the dim light, Sarah felt safe.
"We're going to have to climb down the tree," Annabelle was saying, already pushing her heavy linen midnight blue curtains out of the way and looking out her window. "Then run as fast as we possibly can to your car, Blade. And hope that it doesn't break down while we're trying to get away," she added as an afterthought. "How *has* it been running?"
"I don't think now's the time to be worrying about that," Blade said, moving to stand by his sister. "Are you alright to climb down?" he said to Sarah.
Sarah nodded, the words still stuck somewhere in her throat, and felt the world sway beneath her as Blade set her back on her feet. She reached out, grabbing onto his arm for support. He immediately returned the pressure, steadying her.
"I don't think this is going to work," Blade said, speaking over Sarah's head to Annabelle.
"We don't have any other choice," Annabelle said through her teeth. She took Sarah firmly by the shoulders and shook her, once. "Now listen. Snap out of it. You're climbing down this tree."
Sarah nodded her head, the room slowly coming back into focus. "Alright... ok, I'm fine. Lets go," she said, her voice slowly becoming steady. Sarah took a deep breath as Annabelle threw the window open, allowing a faint breeze smelling of honeysuckle to waft into the bedroom.
Annabelle swung a leg over the side of the window and boosted herself out, grabbing hold of the old oak tree, the outer bark splintering from her hard grip on it. Using the strength in her upper arms, Annabelle supported her weight until both feet were secure. She shimmied down the tree a little so that Sarah would have room to climb on.
"Ok Sarah, grab hold of the tree. Blade and I will both help you."
Sarah wanted to argue, wanted to say that she didn't have the strength or the nerve to climb down to the ground. But she didn't. There was no other way; it was either climb or... Well she didn't want to think of the or.
Sarah reached out the window, her hand closing around one of the branches, bark biting into her palm. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then Blade was lowering her to a branch where she could firmly secure her feet.
"Go ahead," Blade said. "Annabelle's right below you, she'll help you down."
Sarah looked at him suspiciously. "You're coming with us, aren't you?"
"I'll be right down," Blade said, already glancing over his shoulder to the door of the bedroom. "I just want to make sure no one's following. Now go on, get to the car."
Sarah paused, her hands gripping the tree tightly, but she barely felt the pain. She looked up at Blade, blinking back unexpected tears. "Blade, please come with us, right now?"
Blade smiled gently at her. "I'll be right after you. I promise. Go ahead." He pulled back from the window, shutting the panes of glass and closing the curtains before turning away and starting towards the bedroom door just as it burst open.
**********************************************************
"And Thierry said that the Night World has an idea of who the fourth Wild Power is?" Rashel Jordan said skeptically, her green eyes narrowed as she leaned forward towards Nilsson who was driving the sleek black limousine that belonged to Thierry Descouedres, the leader of Circle Daybreak. "And he's just sending us to check it out now? I don't buy it." She sat back with a thump, arms crossed, against the gray leather interior.
Lupe Acevedo, a brown haired werewolf who worked closely with Circle Daybreak and Thierry looked at Rashel patiently as though she was used to dealing with the girl's sudden outbursts. "Buy it. Lord Thierry just heard about it. And if it is true, you can bet that the Night World already has agents out investigating it. Hopefully they haven't found Blade Redfern's sanctuary yet."
"And if they have?" Nissa Johnson twisted in the front passenger seat to look at the other occupants of the car. "Are you saying that we might already be too late?" She pushed a strand of sleek mink colored hair behind one ear and looked at Nilsson from the corner of one brown eye. "Hey, can't you drive any faster?" With a sigh, she turned to face the road, frowning. "I told you to let me drive."
There was a soft chuckle from the back of the limousine. "Oh we'll make it in time. We're the good guys; and that's what the good guys do. Save the poor, unsuspecting victims."
"Funny Kierlan," Rashel snapped, glaring at the dark haired, leather clad man beside her. "What we should have done was left you behind."
Kierlan Harman smiled, showing off two perfect rows of white teeth, stretching his arms out so that one slid over Rashel's shoulder and leaned back, feet splayed out in front of him. "You wouldn't miss me? Come on Rashel, say you'd miss me," he said, tilting his head so that his sunglasses slid down and she could see his almond shaped eyes, black and shiny as obsidian.
"Like the plague," Rashel muttered, shrugging his arm off and leaning forward. "I'm itching for a good fight Kierlan, don't push it."
Kierlan switched his gaze to Lupe. "I don't think I like the way I'm being treated."
Rashel turned furious eyes on the black haired witch. "Then get out of the limo," she snapped, quickly switching seats to sit next to Lupe.
Kierlan drew his legs up so that he could sprawl out on the seat that he now had all to himself. "Ah, foot room. Are we almost there?"
"We would be if I were driving," Nissa said, starting to sound tense. "No, no, no, Nilsson, you were supposed to turn *there.*"
Nilsson glanced at the vampire beside him. "Miss Nissa, will you kindly shuttup up if I let you drive?"
Nissa was silent for a moment, as if his sudden outburst surprised her. Then said, "Yes. Yes I will."
Nilsson smiled vaguely and pulled to the side of the road with a screech, ignoring the sound of blaring horns as cars around the limousine tried not to hit them. A cherry red convertible in particular had to swerve to another lane to avoid a collision. Nilsson merely waved at the driver with a smile before pushing open his door and going around to the passenger side.
He pulled his black driver's cap from his head and placed it on Nissa's, patting her firmly on the head as the mink colored vampire climbed into the driver's seat.
Nissa settled against the soft leather, adjusting the seat and mirrors to fit her height, then checked the rearview. "Everyone buckled up?" she said, her voice laced with barely hidden excitement.
"Why do I have the feeling that I'm gonna be car sick," Rashel muttered.
Nissa, ignoring the blatant jab at her driving skills, threw the limousine into gear, pealing away from the shoulder of the road with a squeal of rubber. She crossed three lanes of traffic and swerved into a U-turn, changing direction and cutting in front of a red and white truck. Then Nissa pressed her foot down on the gas petal until it reached the floor, the limousine lurching forward with a sudden burst of speed.
"Now I *know* I'm going to be car sick," Rashel said, a hand rubbing at her temples.
Nissa smirked at Rashel in the rearview mirror as she wove in and out of traffic, cutting off vehicles both bigger and smaller than her own. "This is our exit," she said, turning towards the sign the read 'San Noche-Exit 12.' "Wild Power number four here we come!"
Annabelle started laughing. It began with her covering her mouth with her hands, peals of laughter escaping her lips as her shoulders shook uncontrollably, and ended with hiccups.
"Oh give me a break, Blade," she gasped out when she was finally able to speak. "You're no more the fourth Wild Power than I am."
Blade rose one blonde eyebrow in response. "Well that's what *I* tried to tell them. They were pretty sure of themselves though." He winced as he tapped his cut forehead for effect.
"This is ridiculous Blade," Annabelle said. She started back for the living room, not bothering to check if either Blade or Sarah were following and settled onto the green flowered, suede couch, remaining silent until her brother and his soulmate appeared in the doorway. "Don't you think you'd know if you were a Wild Power? Don't you think Circle Daybreak would know?"
"I'm not exactly on expert on the subject, Annabelle," Blade said wearily, leading Sarah over to the couch so that she could sit down.
"You look pale, is something wrong?" he asked as she leaned back.
Sarah shook her head, pale blonde hair falling into her eyes. *No, nothing's wrong,* she thought ironically. *Only that my soulmate's suspected of being the fourth Wild Power. No biggie.*
"I'm just worried about you, that's all," she said, squeezing Blade's hand. "But I do think that we should try to get in touch with Lord Thierry and Lady Hannah. They'll want to know about this."
"*Everybody* will want to know about this." Annabelle turned to look outside in a perfectly controlled motion, her green eyes narrowed thoughtfully.
"I'm sure it's all just a mix-up," Sarah said suddenly, looking at her friend in concern. Annabelle had never seemed truly happy being a part of Circle Daybreak and it worried Sarah. When Annabelle wasn't making cracks about humans or doing her best to annoy her brother, she was moody and withdrawn, spending most of her time by herself, sometimes staring at something that it seemed only she could see.
"A mix-up," Sarah said more firmly. "And Lord Thierry will know exactly what to do. It'll all work out." She glanced at Blade for reassurance and the Lamia returned the look with a lopsided grin.
"Annabelle?" Sarah tried to get the other girl's attention again. But Annabelle continued her vigil by the window, her eyes beginning to look more squinted than narrow now.
"Who's coming by today?" Annabelle said oddly, her voice hushed. Her shoulder's tensed as her hands gripped the back of the couch so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
"What are you talking about?" Blade asked, maneuvering so that he could look over his sister's shoulder. He squinted out the window, his eyebrows drawn together. "No one should be coming."
"Then why," Annabelle said distinctly, "*Is* someone coming?"
Startled, Sarah twisted and pushed herself up on the back of the couch, following Annabelle's gaze out the window. "There's no one there..."
"Well of course *you* don't see it," Annabelle nearly snapped.
There, another reminder that Sarah was 'only' a human. Sarah looked at Annabelle in surprise. Although the other girl often talked about human's in a generally degrading way, she had never directed the comments at Sarah.
Blade, sensing the tension, leaned between the two girls. "There definitely is a silver car coming in this direction. Daybreak didn't mention anything about sending people over did they?"
Sarah blinked as a silver Buick finally came into view, its windows tinted entirely too dark to be legal. "I don't think so..." she started, cut off by the sound of something shattering.
There was a crash from the back of the house, the sound of glass splintering and falling to the ground, tinkling like raindrops. Sarah's head snapped around. "I think we can definitely say that those aren't Daybreak agents. They usually use the front door," she
said a little shakily.
"Definitely not Daybreak agents," Blade confirmed, his hand closing around Sarah's upper arm as he pulled her up and started for the front door. "Lets go, we're getting out of here."
Sarah almost tripped at the force he pulled her with. "Blade.." she started, almost tripping again as he stopped suddenly. Annabelle ran into them from behind, letting out a small cry of surprise.
"Wonderful," Blade said under his breath as someone hit the door once, hard, the frosted glass on the sides of the cherry wood door rattling. "Upstairs," he said, changing direction in one swift motion. He pushed the two girls up the blue carpeted stairs, almost knocking a silver framed picture from the wall in his haste.
It was a painting by Salvatore Dali; the painting of the melting clocks. *Time's running out,* Sarah thought illogically, her paranoia freezing her in place so that Blade had to give her arm a violent tug to get her up another step.
Sarah reached out and touched the painting with trembling fingers until Blade yanked her away, causing her to lose contact with the picture. The picture and the only thing that she was certain of at that moment. That time was running out.
"Blade," she said, fear bubbling in her throat, hot and acidic. "We're going to be trapped up here."
Blade put one arm behind her back and the other under her legs, sweeping her up. "Relax, it's going to be fine, I've got you."
*He thinks I'm in shock,* Sarah thought with something like mild surprise. She wanted to tell him that she wasn't, that she was thinking quite clearly, but she couldn't make her mouth work. Instead, Sarah buried her face into Blade's shoulder as he followed Annabelle into her bedroom.
Sarah looked up when she heard the door close behind them and glanced around at the dark purple walls. Annabelle never really liked bright colors Circle Daybreak still didn't know that one rainy day Annabelle had gone out, bought a bucket of 'Atomic Purple' paint, and brought it home, using an old paintbrush she had found in the basement to smear it over the walls. The overall effect was that the room looked as though it had been dropped into a glass of grape juice.
Annabelle loved it. Blade said that it would eventually grow on him. Annabelle's response to *that* was that it didn't have to grow on Blade because he didn't have to live in it.
Sarah had just thought that it was silly to paint a bedroom as small as Annabelle's such a dark color. But right now, she was grateful for the shadows that the walls cast, as though she were protected in the darkness. She had felt exposed and vulnerable in the bright yellows and greens downstairs. Here, in the dim light, Sarah felt safe.
"We're going to have to climb down the tree," Annabelle was saying, already pushing her heavy linen midnight blue curtains out of the way and looking out her window. "Then run as fast as we possibly can to your car, Blade. And hope that it doesn't break down while we're trying to get away," she added as an afterthought. "How *has* it been running?"
"I don't think now's the time to be worrying about that," Blade said, moving to stand by his sister. "Are you alright to climb down?" he said to Sarah.
Sarah nodded, the words still stuck somewhere in her throat, and felt the world sway beneath her as Blade set her back on her feet. She reached out, grabbing onto his arm for support. He immediately returned the pressure, steadying her.
"I don't think this is going to work," Blade said, speaking over Sarah's head to Annabelle.
"We don't have any other choice," Annabelle said through her teeth. She took Sarah firmly by the shoulders and shook her, once. "Now listen. Snap out of it. You're climbing down this tree."
Sarah nodded her head, the room slowly coming back into focus. "Alright... ok, I'm fine. Lets go," she said, her voice slowly becoming steady. Sarah took a deep breath as Annabelle threw the window open, allowing a faint breeze smelling of honeysuckle to waft into the bedroom.
Annabelle swung a leg over the side of the window and boosted herself out, grabbing hold of the old oak tree, the outer bark splintering from her hard grip on it. Using the strength in her upper arms, Annabelle supported her weight until both feet were secure. She shimmied down the tree a little so that Sarah would have room to climb on.
"Ok Sarah, grab hold of the tree. Blade and I will both help you."
Sarah wanted to argue, wanted to say that she didn't have the strength or the nerve to climb down to the ground. But she didn't. There was no other way; it was either climb or... Well she didn't want to think of the or.
Sarah reached out the window, her hand closing around one of the branches, bark biting into her palm. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then Blade was lowering her to a branch where she could firmly secure her feet.
"Go ahead," Blade said. "Annabelle's right below you, she'll help you down."
Sarah looked at him suspiciously. "You're coming with us, aren't you?"
"I'll be right down," Blade said, already glancing over his shoulder to the door of the bedroom. "I just want to make sure no one's following. Now go on, get to the car."
Sarah paused, her hands gripping the tree tightly, but she barely felt the pain. She looked up at Blade, blinking back unexpected tears. "Blade, please come with us, right now?"
Blade smiled gently at her. "I'll be right after you. I promise. Go ahead." He pulled back from the window, shutting the panes of glass and closing the curtains before turning away and starting towards the bedroom door just as it burst open.
**********************************************************
"And Thierry said that the Night World has an idea of who the fourth Wild Power is?" Rashel Jordan said skeptically, her green eyes narrowed as she leaned forward towards Nilsson who was driving the sleek black limousine that belonged to Thierry Descouedres, the leader of Circle Daybreak. "And he's just sending us to check it out now? I don't buy it." She sat back with a thump, arms crossed, against the gray leather interior.
Lupe Acevedo, a brown haired werewolf who worked closely with Circle Daybreak and Thierry looked at Rashel patiently as though she was used to dealing with the girl's sudden outbursts. "Buy it. Lord Thierry just heard about it. And if it is true, you can bet that the Night World already has agents out investigating it. Hopefully they haven't found Blade Redfern's sanctuary yet."
"And if they have?" Nissa Johnson twisted in the front passenger seat to look at the other occupants of the car. "Are you saying that we might already be too late?" She pushed a strand of sleek mink colored hair behind one ear and looked at Nilsson from the corner of one brown eye. "Hey, can't you drive any faster?" With a sigh, she turned to face the road, frowning. "I told you to let me drive."
There was a soft chuckle from the back of the limousine. "Oh we'll make it in time. We're the good guys; and that's what the good guys do. Save the poor, unsuspecting victims."
"Funny Kierlan," Rashel snapped, glaring at the dark haired, leather clad man beside her. "What we should have done was left you behind."
Kierlan Harman smiled, showing off two perfect rows of white teeth, stretching his arms out so that one slid over Rashel's shoulder and leaned back, feet splayed out in front of him. "You wouldn't miss me? Come on Rashel, say you'd miss me," he said, tilting his head so that his sunglasses slid down and she could see his almond shaped eyes, black and shiny as obsidian.
"Like the plague," Rashel muttered, shrugging his arm off and leaning forward. "I'm itching for a good fight Kierlan, don't push it."
Kierlan switched his gaze to Lupe. "I don't think I like the way I'm being treated."
Rashel turned furious eyes on the black haired witch. "Then get out of the limo," she snapped, quickly switching seats to sit next to Lupe.
Kierlan drew his legs up so that he could sprawl out on the seat that he now had all to himself. "Ah, foot room. Are we almost there?"
"We would be if I were driving," Nissa said, starting to sound tense. "No, no, no, Nilsson, you were supposed to turn *there.*"
Nilsson glanced at the vampire beside him. "Miss Nissa, will you kindly shuttup up if I let you drive?"
Nissa was silent for a moment, as if his sudden outburst surprised her. Then said, "Yes. Yes I will."
Nilsson smiled vaguely and pulled to the side of the road with a screech, ignoring the sound of blaring horns as cars around the limousine tried not to hit them. A cherry red convertible in particular had to swerve to another lane to avoid a collision. Nilsson merely waved at the driver with a smile before pushing open his door and going around to the passenger side.
He pulled his black driver's cap from his head and placed it on Nissa's, patting her firmly on the head as the mink colored vampire climbed into the driver's seat.
Nissa settled against the soft leather, adjusting the seat and mirrors to fit her height, then checked the rearview. "Everyone buckled up?" she said, her voice laced with barely hidden excitement.
"Why do I have the feeling that I'm gonna be car sick," Rashel muttered.
Nissa, ignoring the blatant jab at her driving skills, threw the limousine into gear, pealing away from the shoulder of the road with a squeal of rubber. She crossed three lanes of traffic and swerved into a U-turn, changing direction and cutting in front of a red and white truck. Then Nissa pressed her foot down on the gas petal until it reached the floor, the limousine lurching forward with a sudden burst of speed.
"Now I *know* I'm going to be car sick," Rashel said, a hand rubbing at her temples.
Nissa smirked at Rashel in the rearview mirror as she wove in and out of traffic, cutting off vehicles both bigger and smaller than her own. "This is our exit," she said, turning towards the sign the read 'San Noche-Exit 12.' "Wild Power number four here we come!"
