Part 11

"Why did you tell her?" Leandra demanded, furious. She didn't understand Rylan some times. She had thought she'd known him, then he went and completely surprised her.

He just shrugged. "I thought she should know. Then she won't try anything stupid."

Leandra wasn't too sure about that. The girl was creepy. She knew if she said that out loud he would think she was overreacting. And maybe she was. So there was some new girl, dark and mysterious, and a Redfern. Why did that have to mean she was a secret spy for Circle Daybreak?

Were there *any* Redferns left who actually belonged to the Night World? It seemed everyone was converting. Hardly anyone was supporting the Night World at the moment.

"You're going to drive yourself nuts if you keep letting the little things get to you," Rylan said, kissing her cheek. "I'll see you later."

Leandra sighed, watching him walking away. He was the most confusing person she had ever met.

"You're Leandra Blackthorn."


Leandra turned in surprise to see the new girl standing behind her. Too close for her liking. "Yes. And you are?"

"Sephra Redfern."

Leandra eyed the black-clad girl with distaste, "If you're going to hang around with decent people, then first thing after school we go shopping."

Sephra's eyebrow raised a little. "Whatever."

Leandra frowned at her. "You want something."

"You don't like Circle Daybreak and neither do I, they're taking the fun out of everything. Now I just saw a girl in the cafeteria with a letter - that had the official Circle Daybreak seal on it."

Leandra, for once, found herself speechless. She had been convinced that they had banished all the Damned Daybreakers. Considering what had happened to the last lot, who in their right minds would want to take the risk of being a Daybreaker *here*?

"So why come to me?" she asked finally.

Sephra just shrugged. "They took one look at that girl and the lot of them shot of like the world was about to end. It merits investigating, don't you think?"

Leandra wondered if Sephra might be right. At least she had had the sense to come and tell someone. Better her than Rylan. "Who are they?"

"Three girls and a guy. One of the girls as Asian - she had a tattoo of a black rose on her shoulder. The other girl was a brunette, slightly overweight. The guy was small with red hair, glasses and freckles. The other girl was tall and blond."

Those descriptions could match about six hundred different students. But black rose tattoos weren't all that common. Maybe that might help narrow them down.

"They said something about a dragon," Sephra added casually.

Leandra stopped dead in her tracks. "*Dragon*? Who?"

Sephra shrugged. "Don't know. But hadn't we better find out before they do?"

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