Part 4

Garret stared at the woman standing in his living room, smiling at him like she was his oldest friend in the world. She was no friend of his. He was done with her. He'd thought he'd made himself clear on that.

"What are you doing here, Pythia? How the hell did you get in?" he demanded, not smiling. He glanced at the two Night People behind Pythia. He knew it would be foolish to try and stake her with them around. He really wasn't in the mood for having the crap kicked out of him.

"I got in through the sliding door at the back. You didn't lock it." Her tone was slightly disapproving. Like a locked door would present much of a challenge to a four hundred year old vampire. She took a seat on his couch. "As for what I'm doing here...I know you know who the last Wild Power is."

Garret snorted at her. "And what makes you think I'm going to tell you?"

"I expected you haven't lost your attitude problem," Pythia said with a heavy sigh, tossing back her strawberry-blonde hair.

"It was over a hundred years ago," he said sourly. He'd made a few bad decisions which had ended up with dire consequences for him. He'd woken up in a Daybreak version of what nowadays would be called Rehab, and he was more surprised to find it had done him some good.

He'd faked his own death to escape from the Night World and kept a low profile. Only now they knew he wasn't dead, and Pythia wanted him back.

Pythia held something out to him It was a gold necklace, a delicate pentagram with a diamond in the centre hung from the chain. The gold chain was stained with blood,

"You bitch," he whispered, forcing himself to contain the waves of fury and hatred sweeping over him.

"She's nowhere near dead," Pythia said with a smile. "Yet, anyway. She doesn't even have to die, you know."

So that was her sick little game, was it? Garret found himself sinking onto the nearest chair. She was using the life of the girl he loved more than anything in the world to threaten him with. If he didn't do what Pythia told him to do...he didn't want to *think*
What would happen.

~I'm sorry Dido,~ he thought. ~So sorry..."

"I can see you're smart enough to guess what I want you to do."

"We don't know if this girl really is the Wild Power or just another dead end," he said finally. Which was the truth, as far as he was concerned. How could he get this past Lareina? If he talked to her, would she understand?

Dido was more important to him than some stupid Wild Power girl he didn't even know. The whole would could go to hell and it wouldn't matter to him, as long as Dido loved him. As corny as it might sound, she was the one who had made him see there was good in people, that Circle Daybreak's principles were worth fighting for.

"Look at you," Pythia sneered. "You were almost as powerful as Hunter Redfern himself, and just as ruthless." She shook her head in disgust.

"Drop dead," he snapped at her, not sure how much longer he could stand in Pythia's presence. Unfortunately, as long as she had Dido, she could make him do whatever she wanted.

Which, of course, was the whole idea.

"Now you can either give me the name of the girl and I can use my own methods to find her." She smiled unpleasantly. "Or you can bring her to me yourself."

There had to be some way around this. It seemed so pathetic to just give up and give into her like this. He knew what Pythia's 'methods' were like when she wanted something. Whether he knew the girl or not, nobody deserved *that* kind of treatment. "I'll bring her to you," he said, his tone flat and dead.

Pythia gave him a brilliant smile. "Good boy. I knew she could."

Garret glared at her. "Where?"

"Bring her here, we'll come and get her." Pythia and her companions left through the back door.

Garret picked up a glass sat on the coffee table and hurled it at the wall. He grabbed the phone and called Lareina.

"We've got a problem."

* * *