Part 10

Nia felt sorry for Caprice. It was bad enough being weird and an outcast in the type of place where everyone knew everyone else, and now she was stuck with a Night Worlder who obviously didn't like her,

"How come we don't like Caprice much?" Nia asked. Her other Circle Daybreak friends shrugged uncomfortably. Nia tried to come up with an answer to her own question, and the answer was - she didn't know.

"She's not exactly the friendliest person in the world," Ross Hughes pointed out sourly.

"Rylan seems to like her just fine," Enya Cross said, glancing over to the table where Caprice sat with Rylan and the new girl Sephra.

"Is she *really* a Redfern?" Ross asked with a frown.

So far they had escaped with a member of the infamous family. They had a Blackthorn from the vampire side of things, and an Arlin from the witches, that was enough Night World families to deal with.

"It would appear so," Nia answered,

"What'd you think he's up to?" Enya said, tilted her head to one side, her long pale brown hair spilling into a little pool on the plastic tabletop.

"I think *they're* up to something," Ross said, his eyes narrowed at Leandra and her friends, also watching Rylan, Caprice and Sephra. Then Caprice left and Rylan and Sephra were alone.

Nia sighed. She had been trying to figure out why no one seemed to like poor Caprice. Now this. But this new girl seemed to be something else all together.

"Guys, I think we need a meeting." Zelda Green was hurrying to the table with a cream envelope in her hand. It had the Circle Daybreak official seal on.

"Forget the Redferns," Zelda said, waving the letter, breathless. "Thierry thinks we've got a dragon on our hands."

That got everyone's attention. "Dragon?" Nia breathed, confusions about Caprice forgotten. "Really?"

"We can't talk about that here," Ross said sharply, all senses alert. The group stood up and headed quickly out the cafeteria.

They crowed around Zelda, skimming the letter that had been sent to every Circle Daybreak safe house. A new and dangerous prophecy? Dragons? (Well, there was a side note that Ash Redfern was convinced it was a dinosaur, but that was Ash Redfern all over.)








Something had been brewing in Nia's mind since the letter had arrived, and sparked now to a full boil. "You guys don't think..." she began, trailing off, not even sure she wanted to voice the thought out loud, it was kind of crazy.

"It can't mean *that!*" Ross snorted. "She's way too weird."

The girls exchanged glances. Clearly, everyone else *did* think.

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