Chapter 2

Sylvia looked in genteel disgust at the weevils in the sugar. "Not again!"

"You'd think that the whole Circle Daybreak thing would earn us unproteined sugar." Ioia groaned. Now they'd have to drink unsweetened caffeine. The day just got better.

"This would never happen in the series!" Sylvia joked, trying to keep spirits alight.

"To right!" Ioia agreed readily. "We'd be living in Lord Theirry's Mansion..."

"And have a gorgeous soulmate each..." They giggled, the sound of joy fragile over the chasm of fear. Live life to the full.

"Is there a spell we could use?" Ioia asked out of the blue.

Sylvia went into lecture-the-human mode. "You know that you can't just magic half of someone's soul into someone else! And it would be wrong! Against their will, especially if it where a Nightworld vampire."

"I know, I know... Just wouldn't it be cool? We'd get allies instead of loosing them..."

*

Three knocks at the door. Silence. Five staccato knocks. And the password, "hideout mission."

Ioia opened the door. "Merry met." It was a full Circle Daybreak team.

"Merry met!" Sylvia hurried up behind. Ioia watched with a sinking feeling. "I was doing research, are we going now?" Sylvia carried on brightly.

"Yeah." The overall mood was harsh.

"What are you doing?" Ioia queried.

"You know we can't tell you." They said gently. Ioia could probably guess. Jez. They still had her alive. And she wasn't a Wildpower like her namesake in the Chronicles. After they'd gone Ioia meandered around the house hugging herself. Names and faces flowed past her minds-eye. People that where all dead, because of the Nightworld. Tears started before she even realised that they had come.

Why do the tears come now? They hadn't come at the funerals, the memorial services. Never for someone else, only when she was feeling bad did she cry, and it was such a trivial thing. Not being part of the team that would rescue Jez. They didn't think her competent enough. It was humans that the Nightworld where aiming for because they where weaker.

With no reason to cry at that second, but finding the tears flooding her face she collapsed on a bed and cried. The very act of crying did no good, but the sobs that shuck her body seemed to ease the permanent black awareness inside of her, if only for a little while. She lay there, felling the tears dry to an itch on her probably blotchy face, her stuffed nose run and a headache form.

Lucky she found herself in Sylvia's bedroom, where all the medical equipment was stored. To make it easier to travel with...

It didn't take long for her to locate the aspirin, which while it wasn't witchy; it did cure up aches and pains. Besides, being human she couldn't cast spells, could she? She swallowed the aspirin dry and wiped her face with her sleeve. While she was in here she'd have a look at Sylvias witch books. She didn't understand half of it, and the rest she couldn't make use of but it was soothing and she needed something to do. Anything to do...

The first book on the desk was black and musty. Normally Sylvie, the ever hygienist would only have new books. This must be a rarity indeed. The title was "Joining the..." The first two words had been kindly re-written across the faded grey cover, but the last word not. Opening the book gently so it didn't fall to pieces or anything drastic in her hands Ioia gasped. The whole inside was silver. The front must have been silver, once upon a time. With awe Ioia started deciphering the archaic writing.

When she'd finished her heart was hammering in excitement. She re-read the important bits and started gathering the equipment. So what if she where human, she could only try.

*

"Door 3A clear."

"Mine clear."

"Door 4A clear."

Travis frowned. 'Mine clear', they where taught better than that. "Agent at door 3B, come in." Static. The fear of closed spaces started to narrow in on him. They where discovered, he was sure of. But they could not turn away now. He shut agent 3B off. "We're discovered, remember the goals. Go team." And they went.

From their control centre Nightworlders watching in amusement as 3B tried to contact base again to fail. 3B was trying to warn them about the fire spell placed around the building. That's why they'd had to disable his speaker. They were giving the others the 'clear' though.

Rockie started down the corridor. He daren't walk down it because he'd trigger the spell and who knew what the buggers had rigged the receiving end of that spell to. He'd been disconnected from the network as well. It sucked being agent 3B. But he had something that were of leader didn't have. Mind control. He was quite... loud with it as well.

Team? You hearing me? Good. The whole area's covered with fire spells and I think we can all guess whom they'd kill if we tripped them...

Well what the fuck are we going to do? Bittern was sounding frustrated, as they all where. It was like banging your head off a brick wall.

You know we're not meant to use mind-communication. You are not following orders, but this time it was valid.

I'm so glad. Rockie thought. Where's Sylvia? She's our witch...

So the Daybreakers where smarter than they had presumed. No matter. More hostages to torture where always needed particularly when they where getting scarce.

It would take far to long for me to unmesh all of them… We'd have to risk only using one.

Trevor hesitated. Only using one would mean they where trapped, but time was of the essence.

Mates? We're trapped anyway... Rockie sent the mental picture of what he'd sensed. It was enough for every Daybreaker to dig his own grave and plant his own tombstone...

But they had to try. Even it where futile.

*

Ioia's eyes where dry as she started at the rain beating on the car windows, coming faster than the wind-screen-wipers could cope with. Only desperate people drove on a night like this. She looked down at what she knew was in her hands. Sylvia's spell book, the silver one and her notes on it. The equipment was all in her bag. She knew what to do; now all she needed was a little information.

Sylvia, like Jez and all before her where probably never coming back. In fact no one had come back except Damien and he had been a spy.

Ioia could imagine herself freezing solid under the freezing rain, letting it soak her and numb her under the black sky.

Old Powers rise, she thought humourlessly, the spell burned on her mind. What the hell, she though, what have I to loose. At the worst it won't work. That night, when they where at the new place, she'd get the files on the Nightworld vampire and cast the spell.

*

Getting the file had been simple. No one had had the energy to question her motive. So here it was. A paper account of all his atrocities. Flame Azure… Hunter Redfern in the Chronicles. Handily there was a photo, something of him. His image, the picture that could steal the soul. Smiling grimly Ioia tore out the photo of the vampire. Blond hair, blue eyes and that inhuman beauty. I hate you, she thought to the picture as she placed in the centre of the circle. Tossing the file carelessly on her bed, she got to work.

Standing in the middle of the rune circle, nightshade and incense filling her sense of smell, she chanted:

"Old Powers rise, listen to me

Bind Flame Azure

And bind him tight!

Tie his soul, his heart and body

Bind him in mind, thought and act

Tie him to his one and only

Make him love her

And let her be good

Let her be true

Let her be human

Let her be a balance of light

To tip the scales on his evil that rules the night."

The incense ticked her throat and made her eyes water, but determination and the need for revenge kept her going. She looked at the photo, her gaze burning into it and imagined what she wanted to happen. That hard, cruel face softening whenever he saw her. That stone of a heart shattering into new life. 
Maybe she'd inhaled too much incense; maybe she was just tired. Either way, she fainted.

She awoke to Tamani kneeling over. "What the hell did you do!" When she just gazed dazedly up at her Tamani hauled her to her feet. "The power you called human. We're going to have to run again, only a dead sloth would have missed it..." Tamani went on, but Ioia wasn't listening. Her mind was else where, and she couldn't get it to come back... She frowned out of the window. Part of her was seeing the rainfall. The other part was above the clouds. That's what you get for messing with magic girl... It probably hadn't worked anyway, and it was just as well they where moving, running. Maybe they'd stay ahead. Or, as they where more likely to do run up any Nightworlder chasing them heels.

*

Leopardess, Airlia de Lioncourt, Anaita Redfern, neona-deniker, Tamashii: you all rule! Thank you so much for the reviews! Hope this was up to scratch. *Sweat drops* please review ppl. *Nibbles on cookie nervously*