The beginnings of the drive to Los Angeles was a quiet one; in both cars.
In Phil's car, a small argument over who was going to drive had started the
trip. Phil's argument of course had been that it was his car, while James
had insisted that it was smartest to have a vampire at the wheel for the
sake of no need to rest and faster reaction time if it was needed. Also,
since Ash was driving in front, it made sense that another vampire be
following his directions.
At the end, which much prompting from Poppy and Rowan, the boys had decided that Phil would drive first, while it was still light and he could see clearly, until they came up to a petrol stop, at which point James would take over, and so on. This also meant that the girls had to change places each time a swap was arranged between their soulmates if they wanted to continue sitting by them. Amused glances were exchanged between the girls whenever they caught each other's eyes or their boys were griping.
Still, it was a lighter mood than the one in Ash's car. He was so full of brooding over his parting with Mary-Lynette that it filled up the whole car, even succeeding in zapping all of Jade and Mark's happiness together. They settled on merely sitting side by side in the backseat of the car with their hands clasped unobtrusively so as not to throw in Ash's face what they still had together. Kestrel merely sat in silent contemplation in the passenger seat, looking out the window at everything they were passing.
The entire trip followed on pretty much in the same way.
Only once they were within L.A borders did the dynamics change slightly, at least in Ash's car. He was opening his mind to any trace of the kind of feeling he would expect to get from a group with the ideals of Circle Daybreak. From the beginning, he didn't hold a great deal of hope in the action, indeed, every vampire, witch, werewolf and other Night Person searching thus far in vain for the same group had probably tried the very same trick, but at the same time, Ash did not know what else to do.
Perhaps somebody from inside of the group would pick up on his thought wavelength, figure out that it was different in intent than others before him, and link up to direct him to wherever he was supposed to be heading from here. At the moment though, Ash was driving as good as blind.
"You don't know where you're going, do you?" Kestrel asked, deciding that now was a good time to turn her attention from the road outside and onto her brother.
"I've gotten us this far, haven't I?" Ash gritted. "I'll get us the rest of the way."
"Okay, that's good. But right at the moment, you don't know where you are going, do you?" Kestrel pursued.
"Kestrel, let up," Jade pleaded from the back seat. Mark squeezed her hand reassuringly, and she turned to smile in return.
"Look, I said I would get us there, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. For Christ's sake, Kestrel, we just got into L.A. borders!"
"Okay, okay, no need to get snappish," Kestrel said. "Just because you're missing your soulmate. . ."
"That's it!" Ash planted his foot on the brake instinctively, but quickly realizing that if he stayed like that, Phil's car would run up his ass, he shifted his foot back to the gas again. The whole thing resulted in a great jerking movement that shook up everyone in the car. "There will be no mentioning of Mary-Lynette in my presence!"
"I didn't mention her, exactly," Kestrel muttered.
"Kestrel," Jade repeated.
"Alright, I'm sorry. Can we just drop it now?"
Again, the car resumed its silent nature.
*
"Yikes, what the hell was that?" Phillip asked incredulously from be backseat. He leaned forward over James' shoulder. "What the hell does that cousin of yours thing that he's doing? Does he want to cause an accident with my car?"
"It wasn't exactly your car that he was doing anything with," James reminded him, once both cars were back on a smooth track.
"But he could have! Goes to prove that vampires aren't automatically better drivers," Phil muttered, annoyed that his pride and joy might have almost gotten ridden off so easily.
"It's lamia," James uttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Phil asked.
"Lamia. That's what we are called. The born vampires. Vampire isn't usually the term that we go for," James answered, not taking his eyes of the road.
"Oh," said Phil. "So what do you call Poppy then?"
"Just your garden variety ordinary vampire," Poppy answered before her brother and soulmate could get into yet another argument. Honestly, they were as bad as each other! "Nothing fancy for me, seeing as I was just made into one."
"There's nothing ordinary about you," James disputed lovingly. "I wouldn't have fallen in love with you otherwise."
"You fell in love with me because I was your soulmate," Poppy teased him. "You had no choice in the matter!"
"That's not true! Tell her Rowan," James appealed.
"It's true, James," Rowan said, dashing his hopes with only three words. "You could hate her but you would only be hating her for loving her because she is your soulmate. You don't get a choice in it."
"Well I think that's just blatantly not true," James said defiantly. "Of course, it would explain. . ."
"James," Poppy warned before he said anything about Rowan and Phillip's match.
"I wasn't going to say anything," James maintained for the rest of the drive.
*
In another corner of L.A., inside of a well guarded mansion, a made vampire by the name of Thierry Decouedres caught the mind wave of a lamia vampire from the Redfern family. The very oldest of the made vampires, and made by Maya Hearth-Woman herself; the very first of the made and lamia vampires alike, Thierry had powers of the likes that most other vampires could not even conceive!
It had been he who had put together the idea of Circle Daybreak originally. It had all started in the moment he had seen his many lifetimes with his soulmate in her eyes just after he had killed her and ruined everything. He had known then and acted on that knowledge since, that disputes between Night People and the mortal world was not the right way to go about things. It had been a way to pass the years between his soulmate's many lives as an Old Soul. He would find her again, just as he had so many times before, but this time, he knew he could not be late again. This was going to be the right life; he was sure of it!
Along with the help from a loyal and powerful werewolf named Lupe Acevedo and a former Circle Twilight witch called Melusine, Circle Daybreak had first been born. Finally Thierry had enough power and a standing in life where he could make his move and be sure it would be accepted by other Night People. The Soulmate Theory was coming back into effect, and with it, the changes in perception between many Night People and human counterparts. Another powerful made vampire by the name of Nilsson was in charge of security hereabouts, and slowly, Circle Daybreak was beginning to make an impact on the Night World at large.
Subtly searching out the intent of the mind of the lamia vampire to ensure that it wasn't a trick, Thierry was able to discover without the vampire's knowledge that this was Ash Redfern; a particularly vicious vampire by all accounts. His eyes narrowed as he stared off into the blank space that was allowing him to pull off this trick. Could this vampire actually be believed that his intents as far as finding Circle Daybreak were pure? And what of the others who traveled with him?
Four other lamia, all out of the same Redfern family. A made vampire, who was not only the soulmate of one of the lamia, but also a lost witch. Another lost witch was traveling with them, who was also the soulmate of one of the lamia, and finally, a normal human boy who was soulmates with the youngest lamia vampire in the group.
What an odd bunch to be traveling together, but as such a group, they made a credible job at believability. The only thing missing among their count was a werewolf or 'shifter of any sort.
"Lupe," Thierry found himself calling out. He had just found the perfect way to find if this was bluff or not.
The young, female werewolf answered her summons almost immediately.
"What is it you wish of me?" she asked bouncily.
"I need you to carry something out for me," Thierry disclosed. "It is a little matter of trust within Circle Daybreak. Are you up for it?"
Lupe gave a wolfish grin.
"You name it and I'll be there!" she answered with surety.
"That's just what I wanted to hear."
*
He had a tail.
Ash had been suspecting as much for some time now, but as the night grew darker and the lights from the car behind him became more obvious, Ash knew that now was the time he had to do something about it.
"Hold on everyone," he muttered tersely, before swinging the steering wheel to the side sharply and ignoring the cries of complaint from all around him. He could just imagine the kind of reaction that he was getting from James in the other car, but right at the moment, it didn't matter.
The primary concern for all of them had to be losing that tail. He couldn't be absolutely certain that his broadcasted thoughts hadn't reached the wrong people; people who would now possibly be tailing him for information on the stuff he had been sending out.
And there was nothing good about the way those sorts of Night People liked to extract their information.
"Ash, what on earth are you doing?" Jade cried from the back seat. Mark was white lipped beside her.
"Saving our lives if you must know," Ash answered. "Anyone with objections is free to jump out of the car now. Otherwise, stay quiet and don't ruin my concentration."
Immediately silence was adhered to. Ash kept turning this way and that, trying to lose the tail, and quite certain by now that he had managed to lose his cousin in the process. He just hoped that James wasn't being tailed as well. The damn pretty boy had spent his whole life among humans. He had no idea of street life; something that was damn well needed in situations like this one.
It occurred to him only moments later that there was something odd about the car tailing him. It wasn't even like they were trying to race him, or cut him off, or any of the normal things a car would be trying to do if they were tailing you for the reasons you wouldn't want someone tailing you. Testing the theory a couple of times, Ash became sure that all the tail was doing was keeping the same speed as he was and just making sure that Ash stayed in sight.
And what the hell was the point of that?
Again with the sudden movement and no warning this time, Ash swung into the next alleyway and screeched on the brakes. Looking up into the rear vision mirror, he saw that the car behind him had done the same thing, almost as though they had been expecting him to stop right then. Okay, this had to stop. And now!
Forcefully shoving open the front door and stepping out of it, Ash strode towards the car behind him that was just opening its own doors. As a tall, burly guy, a vampire Ash immediately picked out, stepped out of the front seat of his car, Ash grabbed him in no uncertain terms by the lapels of his well-styled jacket.
"What the hell was that all about, hey? What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Ash yelled directly into the made vampire's face, not even noticing when somebody else stepped out of the car from the backseat on the same side.
"Ash. Put him down."
Out of surprise that someone would actually speak to him that way, Ash loosened his hold on the other vampire, allowing him to jerk back and stare at Ash coldly. Looking up and down this new person, Ash realized that he had never seen her before in his life, so how did she know his name?
Behind him, Kestrel, Jade and Mark had left the car and were now coming up to his side; Kestrel intimidating, Jade consoling and Mark looking as if he was wishing to be elsewhere.
"How do you know my name?" Ash asked grimly, mindful of Kestrel standing beside him with annoyance radiating from every finger of her hands that were on her hips.
"I know more than that about you, Ash," the girl, who Ash now picked up was a werewolf. "For instance, I know what you are like to humans. Vermin, as I believe you like to call them. I'm very interested to know why you are suddenly so friendly as to offer a lift for one in your very own car." The werewolf's eyebrow raised up archly at the implied question.
Jade put a protective hand on Mark's arm and made sure to stay a little way back from Ash at the same time as taking a cursory look around them to make sure they weren't about to be ambushed by any other Night People where they stood unarmed in this alleyway.
"Funny how you seem to know a lot about me, but I know nothing about you," Ash commented harshly.
"Oh, you may know more about me than you think," the werewolf said cryptically. "But we will get back to that later. I'm more interested as to why you were trying to send out 'welcome us Circle Daybreak' messages ever since you drove into the L.A. borders."
"I don't have to answer to you for anything," Ash told her.
"Maybe not, but I'd say my boss has a pretty hefty interest in finding out what you know and why you're so eager to hook up with these people. Could it be that you are traitoring to the Night World? To your people and family? To, what? Make harmony with humans like the ones you have tortured and eaten from with a smile on your face and a song in your heart for so many years? Don't make me vomit."
"I didn't come here to make you vomit."
"Then what did you come here for, Ash? Cause believe me when I say that I would really like to know."
Both werewolf and lamia stood at loggerheads against each other, made vampire standing stiffly behind her, two lamia and a human standing beside him, all unknowing as to what to expect next.
"I came here so that I could be left alone. Do my own thing. And sure, if I want to take my fill of transient humans that won't be missed while I'm here, what business of it is yours? And if I don't, good luck to me. Basically, your kind and mine have never seen eye to eye on. . . well, anything really. And right now, it's looking to me as though there is a really good reason for that."
The werewolf smirked at that. Ash narrowed his eyes. There was something there; something beneath that smile that he ought to be picking up on here. If only he could just. . .
"You're from Circle Daybreak," Ash accused.
"Really? And what makes you say that?" the werewolf asked, giving nothing away.
"Just tell me straight. Is that why you've come here tonight, caused me to lose my cousin and eldest sister? Well, did we pass your test, or is there more to come?" Ash asked testily.
Again with the smirk.
"Oh, I'd say you passed the test. If there were one. Thierry was pretty sure already that you were genuine in your pursuit of us. I was just here to come collect you and lead you to him. And you didn't lose your cousin or your sister, nor either of the other two in that car."
Flashlights at the end of the alleyway they had driven in from temporarily blinded them, causing them to blink the light out of their eyes before it was shut down to a dimmer light. Putting his hand over his eyes and only just resisting the urge to growl in his displeasure, Ash focused sufficiently to find that it was James who was driving the car and all four inside of it were opening doors and striding over to meet the little group already assembled there.
"Told you they were on their way here. You don't think that Thierry would have allowed us to split you up intentionally, did you?"
"Ash, who is this girl?" James asked, stepping foremost of the group.
"Good question," Ash agreed. "One that I've asked without avail." He turned his attention back to the werewolf. "I've heard of this Thierry that you keep on talking about. Old, powerful made vampire they say. And you work with him."
"Oldest," the werewolf corrected. "And I don't work for him, I work with him. My name is Lupe by the way, and this is Nilsson. Congratulations everyone," she said, turning to the group from the second car. "You've just found Circle Daybreak."
*
Long after Ash, James, Lupe and the others had gotten back into their respective cars, they had come to drive up the driveway at Nilsson's lead, to the largest mansion most of them had seen.
"Nothing like hiding right smack in the middle of the public eye," Mark uttered absently. For Ash, James, Rowan, Kestrel and Jade who were used to the idea of Night People living in the best places the human world had to offer them, the sight was no great surprise.
With Lupe and Nilsson's help, there was no trouble in getting everyone's belongings into the house in the first run. Each of them were directed to their own rooms within the house by house servants. Rowan, Kestrel and Jade had a room to themselves, as did Ash and James. Poppy, Phil and Mark were put up together in a third room, all of which were located on the fourth level of the house. Only once everyone was settled, with all the belongings sitting in the correct rooms and such, did the group of eight relax enough to move downstairs to where Lupe, Melusine and Thierry himself were sitting around a large table waiting for them. It was question time, and this was going to take all night.
"I trust you all found your living quarters comfortable enough for the time being?" Thierry questioned as more of the house servants brought food to the table.
"Very," Poppy answered with a smile, holding James' hand under the table. Ash tried not to look upon them too enviously.
"Quite," he replied. "So now you've got us here, what do you want to do with us?"
"Always so suspicious, Ash?" Thierry asked politely. "Oh please, everyone, do help yourself to the food here. It is out to be eaten."
Jade and Mark smiled affectionately and each helped themselves, mostly to Mark's favorite food that he wanted to share with her. Phil picked at this and that, not feeling particularly comfortable here, even with Rowan still sitting at his side. Kestrel downed the glass of blood that she had quietly asked for, but ate nothing. Ash took a couple of mouthfuls, but they tasted sour in the face of his continuing ignorance in the larger scheme of things. He waited patiently for Thierry to speak again.
"Well, to answer Ash's question, now that I have you here, I would very greatly love to find out more about all of you. I believe from Ash's mental calls all of today that you know something of the organization I have started here..?"
James looked at Ash strangely, having no idea what mental calls Thierry was talking about.
"Perhaps I have assumed wrongly," Thierry questioned, catching the look between the cousins. "Would you all like it if I gave you a short rundown on the idea of this group we have here?
"Essentially it will be a haven to those Night People, and of course humans who stumble or find their way across our secret world within a world, who might have broken outdated and no longer relevant laws within the Night World community. Understand please that this does not mean we look towards breaking all the laws that the Night World stands by. That would be chaos. But we do like to keep a more broader mind and try to be more accepting of those who may be. . . different to us."
Thierry paused, and steepled his fingers against one another, looking around the table to see how his guests had taken his information.
"It certainly seems like a good idea," Phil murmured. "Personally, I never did like that rule about killing any humans who stumble upon vampires. . . or happen to fall in love with them."
With a small smile, he leaned over to take Rowan's lips with his own.
"And this brings me to another point," Thierry said, looking fondly at the couple. "The Soulmate Theory is back in effect and stronger than any time before now."
"I'm sorry, the what?" Kestrel asked. "You mean this thing that's making everyone crazy in love?"
Thierry smiled indulgently.
"Not the way that I would put it necessarily, but I believe that young Kestrel here has caught the idea very well," he agreed. "It has never been so much as a problem before within the Night World either, because always before, soulmates to the Night People were always other Night People. Obviously," Thierry said, glancing significantly around the table, "This is no longer the case."
He took a sip of the red wine in the chalice that was placed in front of him.
"Now, I couldn't help but notice what a mismatched group you have turned out to be," Thierry continued in bemusement. "Indeed, it was the part of the reason why I was so quick to trust you. You know, Ash here does not have the best track record when one is mindful of a group such as this."
His sisters seemed to find this massive understatement, coupled with his recent changes, highly amusing. Ash merely sunk even deeper into himself, and made a point of glaring at everyone around the table who dared to laugh at him.
"So, we have four lamia," Thierry reiterated. "A mortal boy and two lost witches, one of which," he looked at James, "Has been turned into a vampire. I am struck by what an interesting combination you all make."
Mark and Phillip were looking back and forth from each other with strange expressions on their faces. After a moment of uncomprehending silence, Mark was the one who opted to speak out on his bewilderment.
"Two lost witches?" he asked Thierry. "Only one mortal boy? You're mistaken, surely."
Thierry looked surprised by this question, as was Rowan. James and Poppy, after initially meeting each others' eyes, were making sure to avoid everyone else's in the room; especially Phillip's.
"Poppy? Did you know anything about this?" Phil asked, bewilderment still evident in his tone.
"What, you mean you haven't told him?" Thierry asked. "But I was certain that you knew," he said to Poppy.
"I did," Poppy admitted. "After James made me. . . he told me then. It wasn't so much like breaking the Night World law that way."
"But then, if you are. . . and I am. . . that means that I wasn't really in any danger at all by knowing about all of you. You lied to me." Phillip had the look of a man who didn't believe a word of what he was hearing. He turned to his soulmate and found worry in her eyes. "Did you know about this?"
"No! Well yes, but I thought you knew about it too," Rowan said, biting her lip.
"Oh dear, I seem to have caused a mite of trouble here," Thierry mused. "Children, I am sorry to have inadvertently dropped a bomb, but isn't it better that he does know? This way he might have some way of defending himself should the need arise; know that he has the power to do so."
Mark looked glum in his seat next to Jade.
"And here I thought that I wasn't the only normal human," he said softly, almost as though he had lost his best friend. "Now I just feel kind of useless among all of you guys."
"Don't be silly!" Lupe was quick to jump in. "I'm the only werewolf, and I don't feel useless," she pointed out.
"Ah, but you aren't the only Night Person here," Mark pointed out.
Jade squeezed his hand tightly in hers.
"Don't be like that," she murmured to him. "Why do you think I love you so much? I love you exactly the way you are."
Across the table, Phil was still looking as though someone had taken the bottom out of his stomach without him realizing it. He looked up at Poppy, and seeing her pitying eyes upon him, immediately looked away again. When Rowan tried for his attention, he stood up resolutely.
"You know, I think I'm going to go up to my room and think about this a little bit. Alone," he said to Poppy when she began to stand up after him. "I guess. . . I guess that I'll see all you guys again in the morning."
"Bye Phil," a couple of them around the table said to him as he was leaving. Poppy just sat back down next to her soulmate again, looking greatly disconcerted.
"Don't be disheartened, please," Thierry said in his fatherly tone. "It will all work out for the best in the morning. You'll see. And as for you," he said to Mark, "While you may be the only human with us at the moment, you certainly won't be the last. This only makes you the first, which means you are just as special a part of all this as the rest of us."
Mark was silent a moment as he allowed these words to filter through his mind. When the penny finally dropped, he nodded his head, a sudden smile spreading over his features.
"I'll be like a pioneer!" he decided. "A pioneer for the humans within the Circle Daybreak part of the Night World."
He said it with such surety that nobody around the table saw that there could be any reason to dispute his claim.
*
At the end, which much prompting from Poppy and Rowan, the boys had decided that Phil would drive first, while it was still light and he could see clearly, until they came up to a petrol stop, at which point James would take over, and so on. This also meant that the girls had to change places each time a swap was arranged between their soulmates if they wanted to continue sitting by them. Amused glances were exchanged between the girls whenever they caught each other's eyes or their boys were griping.
Still, it was a lighter mood than the one in Ash's car. He was so full of brooding over his parting with Mary-Lynette that it filled up the whole car, even succeeding in zapping all of Jade and Mark's happiness together. They settled on merely sitting side by side in the backseat of the car with their hands clasped unobtrusively so as not to throw in Ash's face what they still had together. Kestrel merely sat in silent contemplation in the passenger seat, looking out the window at everything they were passing.
The entire trip followed on pretty much in the same way.
Only once they were within L.A borders did the dynamics change slightly, at least in Ash's car. He was opening his mind to any trace of the kind of feeling he would expect to get from a group with the ideals of Circle Daybreak. From the beginning, he didn't hold a great deal of hope in the action, indeed, every vampire, witch, werewolf and other Night Person searching thus far in vain for the same group had probably tried the very same trick, but at the same time, Ash did not know what else to do.
Perhaps somebody from inside of the group would pick up on his thought wavelength, figure out that it was different in intent than others before him, and link up to direct him to wherever he was supposed to be heading from here. At the moment though, Ash was driving as good as blind.
"You don't know where you're going, do you?" Kestrel asked, deciding that now was a good time to turn her attention from the road outside and onto her brother.
"I've gotten us this far, haven't I?" Ash gritted. "I'll get us the rest of the way."
"Okay, that's good. But right at the moment, you don't know where you are going, do you?" Kestrel pursued.
"Kestrel, let up," Jade pleaded from the back seat. Mark squeezed her hand reassuringly, and she turned to smile in return.
"Look, I said I would get us there, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. For Christ's sake, Kestrel, we just got into L.A. borders!"
"Okay, okay, no need to get snappish," Kestrel said. "Just because you're missing your soulmate. . ."
"That's it!" Ash planted his foot on the brake instinctively, but quickly realizing that if he stayed like that, Phil's car would run up his ass, he shifted his foot back to the gas again. The whole thing resulted in a great jerking movement that shook up everyone in the car. "There will be no mentioning of Mary-Lynette in my presence!"
"I didn't mention her, exactly," Kestrel muttered.
"Kestrel," Jade repeated.
"Alright, I'm sorry. Can we just drop it now?"
Again, the car resumed its silent nature.
*
"Yikes, what the hell was that?" Phillip asked incredulously from be backseat. He leaned forward over James' shoulder. "What the hell does that cousin of yours thing that he's doing? Does he want to cause an accident with my car?"
"It wasn't exactly your car that he was doing anything with," James reminded him, once both cars were back on a smooth track.
"But he could have! Goes to prove that vampires aren't automatically better drivers," Phil muttered, annoyed that his pride and joy might have almost gotten ridden off so easily.
"It's lamia," James uttered under his breath.
"What was that?" Phil asked.
"Lamia. That's what we are called. The born vampires. Vampire isn't usually the term that we go for," James answered, not taking his eyes of the road.
"Oh," said Phil. "So what do you call Poppy then?"
"Just your garden variety ordinary vampire," Poppy answered before her brother and soulmate could get into yet another argument. Honestly, they were as bad as each other! "Nothing fancy for me, seeing as I was just made into one."
"There's nothing ordinary about you," James disputed lovingly. "I wouldn't have fallen in love with you otherwise."
"You fell in love with me because I was your soulmate," Poppy teased him. "You had no choice in the matter!"
"That's not true! Tell her Rowan," James appealed.
"It's true, James," Rowan said, dashing his hopes with only three words. "You could hate her but you would only be hating her for loving her because she is your soulmate. You don't get a choice in it."
"Well I think that's just blatantly not true," James said defiantly. "Of course, it would explain. . ."
"James," Poppy warned before he said anything about Rowan and Phillip's match.
"I wasn't going to say anything," James maintained for the rest of the drive.
*
In another corner of L.A., inside of a well guarded mansion, a made vampire by the name of Thierry Decouedres caught the mind wave of a lamia vampire from the Redfern family. The very oldest of the made vampires, and made by Maya Hearth-Woman herself; the very first of the made and lamia vampires alike, Thierry had powers of the likes that most other vampires could not even conceive!
It had been he who had put together the idea of Circle Daybreak originally. It had all started in the moment he had seen his many lifetimes with his soulmate in her eyes just after he had killed her and ruined everything. He had known then and acted on that knowledge since, that disputes between Night People and the mortal world was not the right way to go about things. It had been a way to pass the years between his soulmate's many lives as an Old Soul. He would find her again, just as he had so many times before, but this time, he knew he could not be late again. This was going to be the right life; he was sure of it!
Along with the help from a loyal and powerful werewolf named Lupe Acevedo and a former Circle Twilight witch called Melusine, Circle Daybreak had first been born. Finally Thierry had enough power and a standing in life where he could make his move and be sure it would be accepted by other Night People. The Soulmate Theory was coming back into effect, and with it, the changes in perception between many Night People and human counterparts. Another powerful made vampire by the name of Nilsson was in charge of security hereabouts, and slowly, Circle Daybreak was beginning to make an impact on the Night World at large.
Subtly searching out the intent of the mind of the lamia vampire to ensure that it wasn't a trick, Thierry was able to discover without the vampire's knowledge that this was Ash Redfern; a particularly vicious vampire by all accounts. His eyes narrowed as he stared off into the blank space that was allowing him to pull off this trick. Could this vampire actually be believed that his intents as far as finding Circle Daybreak were pure? And what of the others who traveled with him?
Four other lamia, all out of the same Redfern family. A made vampire, who was not only the soulmate of one of the lamia, but also a lost witch. Another lost witch was traveling with them, who was also the soulmate of one of the lamia, and finally, a normal human boy who was soulmates with the youngest lamia vampire in the group.
What an odd bunch to be traveling together, but as such a group, they made a credible job at believability. The only thing missing among their count was a werewolf or 'shifter of any sort.
"Lupe," Thierry found himself calling out. He had just found the perfect way to find if this was bluff or not.
The young, female werewolf answered her summons almost immediately.
"What is it you wish of me?" she asked bouncily.
"I need you to carry something out for me," Thierry disclosed. "It is a little matter of trust within Circle Daybreak. Are you up for it?"
Lupe gave a wolfish grin.
"You name it and I'll be there!" she answered with surety.
"That's just what I wanted to hear."
*
He had a tail.
Ash had been suspecting as much for some time now, but as the night grew darker and the lights from the car behind him became more obvious, Ash knew that now was the time he had to do something about it.
"Hold on everyone," he muttered tersely, before swinging the steering wheel to the side sharply and ignoring the cries of complaint from all around him. He could just imagine the kind of reaction that he was getting from James in the other car, but right at the moment, it didn't matter.
The primary concern for all of them had to be losing that tail. He couldn't be absolutely certain that his broadcasted thoughts hadn't reached the wrong people; people who would now possibly be tailing him for information on the stuff he had been sending out.
And there was nothing good about the way those sorts of Night People liked to extract their information.
"Ash, what on earth are you doing?" Jade cried from the back seat. Mark was white lipped beside her.
"Saving our lives if you must know," Ash answered. "Anyone with objections is free to jump out of the car now. Otherwise, stay quiet and don't ruin my concentration."
Immediately silence was adhered to. Ash kept turning this way and that, trying to lose the tail, and quite certain by now that he had managed to lose his cousin in the process. He just hoped that James wasn't being tailed as well. The damn pretty boy had spent his whole life among humans. He had no idea of street life; something that was damn well needed in situations like this one.
It occurred to him only moments later that there was something odd about the car tailing him. It wasn't even like they were trying to race him, or cut him off, or any of the normal things a car would be trying to do if they were tailing you for the reasons you wouldn't want someone tailing you. Testing the theory a couple of times, Ash became sure that all the tail was doing was keeping the same speed as he was and just making sure that Ash stayed in sight.
And what the hell was the point of that?
Again with the sudden movement and no warning this time, Ash swung into the next alleyway and screeched on the brakes. Looking up into the rear vision mirror, he saw that the car behind him had done the same thing, almost as though they had been expecting him to stop right then. Okay, this had to stop. And now!
Forcefully shoving open the front door and stepping out of it, Ash strode towards the car behind him that was just opening its own doors. As a tall, burly guy, a vampire Ash immediately picked out, stepped out of the front seat of his car, Ash grabbed him in no uncertain terms by the lapels of his well-styled jacket.
"What the hell was that all about, hey? What the hell do you think you're playing at?" Ash yelled directly into the made vampire's face, not even noticing when somebody else stepped out of the car from the backseat on the same side.
"Ash. Put him down."
Out of surprise that someone would actually speak to him that way, Ash loosened his hold on the other vampire, allowing him to jerk back and stare at Ash coldly. Looking up and down this new person, Ash realized that he had never seen her before in his life, so how did she know his name?
Behind him, Kestrel, Jade and Mark had left the car and were now coming up to his side; Kestrel intimidating, Jade consoling and Mark looking as if he was wishing to be elsewhere.
"How do you know my name?" Ash asked grimly, mindful of Kestrel standing beside him with annoyance radiating from every finger of her hands that were on her hips.
"I know more than that about you, Ash," the girl, who Ash now picked up was a werewolf. "For instance, I know what you are like to humans. Vermin, as I believe you like to call them. I'm very interested to know why you are suddenly so friendly as to offer a lift for one in your very own car." The werewolf's eyebrow raised up archly at the implied question.
Jade put a protective hand on Mark's arm and made sure to stay a little way back from Ash at the same time as taking a cursory look around them to make sure they weren't about to be ambushed by any other Night People where they stood unarmed in this alleyway.
"Funny how you seem to know a lot about me, but I know nothing about you," Ash commented harshly.
"Oh, you may know more about me than you think," the werewolf said cryptically. "But we will get back to that later. I'm more interested as to why you were trying to send out 'welcome us Circle Daybreak' messages ever since you drove into the L.A. borders."
"I don't have to answer to you for anything," Ash told her.
"Maybe not, but I'd say my boss has a pretty hefty interest in finding out what you know and why you're so eager to hook up with these people. Could it be that you are traitoring to the Night World? To your people and family? To, what? Make harmony with humans like the ones you have tortured and eaten from with a smile on your face and a song in your heart for so many years? Don't make me vomit."
"I didn't come here to make you vomit."
"Then what did you come here for, Ash? Cause believe me when I say that I would really like to know."
Both werewolf and lamia stood at loggerheads against each other, made vampire standing stiffly behind her, two lamia and a human standing beside him, all unknowing as to what to expect next.
"I came here so that I could be left alone. Do my own thing. And sure, if I want to take my fill of transient humans that won't be missed while I'm here, what business of it is yours? And if I don't, good luck to me. Basically, your kind and mine have never seen eye to eye on. . . well, anything really. And right now, it's looking to me as though there is a really good reason for that."
The werewolf smirked at that. Ash narrowed his eyes. There was something there; something beneath that smile that he ought to be picking up on here. If only he could just. . .
"You're from Circle Daybreak," Ash accused.
"Really? And what makes you say that?" the werewolf asked, giving nothing away.
"Just tell me straight. Is that why you've come here tonight, caused me to lose my cousin and eldest sister? Well, did we pass your test, or is there more to come?" Ash asked testily.
Again with the smirk.
"Oh, I'd say you passed the test. If there were one. Thierry was pretty sure already that you were genuine in your pursuit of us. I was just here to come collect you and lead you to him. And you didn't lose your cousin or your sister, nor either of the other two in that car."
Flashlights at the end of the alleyway they had driven in from temporarily blinded them, causing them to blink the light out of their eyes before it was shut down to a dimmer light. Putting his hand over his eyes and only just resisting the urge to growl in his displeasure, Ash focused sufficiently to find that it was James who was driving the car and all four inside of it were opening doors and striding over to meet the little group already assembled there.
"Told you they were on their way here. You don't think that Thierry would have allowed us to split you up intentionally, did you?"
"Ash, who is this girl?" James asked, stepping foremost of the group.
"Good question," Ash agreed. "One that I've asked without avail." He turned his attention back to the werewolf. "I've heard of this Thierry that you keep on talking about. Old, powerful made vampire they say. And you work with him."
"Oldest," the werewolf corrected. "And I don't work for him, I work with him. My name is Lupe by the way, and this is Nilsson. Congratulations everyone," she said, turning to the group from the second car. "You've just found Circle Daybreak."
*
Long after Ash, James, Lupe and the others had gotten back into their respective cars, they had come to drive up the driveway at Nilsson's lead, to the largest mansion most of them had seen.
"Nothing like hiding right smack in the middle of the public eye," Mark uttered absently. For Ash, James, Rowan, Kestrel and Jade who were used to the idea of Night People living in the best places the human world had to offer them, the sight was no great surprise.
With Lupe and Nilsson's help, there was no trouble in getting everyone's belongings into the house in the first run. Each of them were directed to their own rooms within the house by house servants. Rowan, Kestrel and Jade had a room to themselves, as did Ash and James. Poppy, Phil and Mark were put up together in a third room, all of which were located on the fourth level of the house. Only once everyone was settled, with all the belongings sitting in the correct rooms and such, did the group of eight relax enough to move downstairs to where Lupe, Melusine and Thierry himself were sitting around a large table waiting for them. It was question time, and this was going to take all night.
"I trust you all found your living quarters comfortable enough for the time being?" Thierry questioned as more of the house servants brought food to the table.
"Very," Poppy answered with a smile, holding James' hand under the table. Ash tried not to look upon them too enviously.
"Quite," he replied. "So now you've got us here, what do you want to do with us?"
"Always so suspicious, Ash?" Thierry asked politely. "Oh please, everyone, do help yourself to the food here. It is out to be eaten."
Jade and Mark smiled affectionately and each helped themselves, mostly to Mark's favorite food that he wanted to share with her. Phil picked at this and that, not feeling particularly comfortable here, even with Rowan still sitting at his side. Kestrel downed the glass of blood that she had quietly asked for, but ate nothing. Ash took a couple of mouthfuls, but they tasted sour in the face of his continuing ignorance in the larger scheme of things. He waited patiently for Thierry to speak again.
"Well, to answer Ash's question, now that I have you here, I would very greatly love to find out more about all of you. I believe from Ash's mental calls all of today that you know something of the organization I have started here..?"
James looked at Ash strangely, having no idea what mental calls Thierry was talking about.
"Perhaps I have assumed wrongly," Thierry questioned, catching the look between the cousins. "Would you all like it if I gave you a short rundown on the idea of this group we have here?
"Essentially it will be a haven to those Night People, and of course humans who stumble or find their way across our secret world within a world, who might have broken outdated and no longer relevant laws within the Night World community. Understand please that this does not mean we look towards breaking all the laws that the Night World stands by. That would be chaos. But we do like to keep a more broader mind and try to be more accepting of those who may be. . . different to us."
Thierry paused, and steepled his fingers against one another, looking around the table to see how his guests had taken his information.
"It certainly seems like a good idea," Phil murmured. "Personally, I never did like that rule about killing any humans who stumble upon vampires. . . or happen to fall in love with them."
With a small smile, he leaned over to take Rowan's lips with his own.
"And this brings me to another point," Thierry said, looking fondly at the couple. "The Soulmate Theory is back in effect and stronger than any time before now."
"I'm sorry, the what?" Kestrel asked. "You mean this thing that's making everyone crazy in love?"
Thierry smiled indulgently.
"Not the way that I would put it necessarily, but I believe that young Kestrel here has caught the idea very well," he agreed. "It has never been so much as a problem before within the Night World either, because always before, soulmates to the Night People were always other Night People. Obviously," Thierry said, glancing significantly around the table, "This is no longer the case."
He took a sip of the red wine in the chalice that was placed in front of him.
"Now, I couldn't help but notice what a mismatched group you have turned out to be," Thierry continued in bemusement. "Indeed, it was the part of the reason why I was so quick to trust you. You know, Ash here does not have the best track record when one is mindful of a group such as this."
His sisters seemed to find this massive understatement, coupled with his recent changes, highly amusing. Ash merely sunk even deeper into himself, and made a point of glaring at everyone around the table who dared to laugh at him.
"So, we have four lamia," Thierry reiterated. "A mortal boy and two lost witches, one of which," he looked at James, "Has been turned into a vampire. I am struck by what an interesting combination you all make."
Mark and Phillip were looking back and forth from each other with strange expressions on their faces. After a moment of uncomprehending silence, Mark was the one who opted to speak out on his bewilderment.
"Two lost witches?" he asked Thierry. "Only one mortal boy? You're mistaken, surely."
Thierry looked surprised by this question, as was Rowan. James and Poppy, after initially meeting each others' eyes, were making sure to avoid everyone else's in the room; especially Phillip's.
"Poppy? Did you know anything about this?" Phil asked, bewilderment still evident in his tone.
"What, you mean you haven't told him?" Thierry asked. "But I was certain that you knew," he said to Poppy.
"I did," Poppy admitted. "After James made me. . . he told me then. It wasn't so much like breaking the Night World law that way."
"But then, if you are. . . and I am. . . that means that I wasn't really in any danger at all by knowing about all of you. You lied to me." Phillip had the look of a man who didn't believe a word of what he was hearing. He turned to his soulmate and found worry in her eyes. "Did you know about this?"
"No! Well yes, but I thought you knew about it too," Rowan said, biting her lip.
"Oh dear, I seem to have caused a mite of trouble here," Thierry mused. "Children, I am sorry to have inadvertently dropped a bomb, but isn't it better that he does know? This way he might have some way of defending himself should the need arise; know that he has the power to do so."
Mark looked glum in his seat next to Jade.
"And here I thought that I wasn't the only normal human," he said softly, almost as though he had lost his best friend. "Now I just feel kind of useless among all of you guys."
"Don't be silly!" Lupe was quick to jump in. "I'm the only werewolf, and I don't feel useless," she pointed out.
"Ah, but you aren't the only Night Person here," Mark pointed out.
Jade squeezed his hand tightly in hers.
"Don't be like that," she murmured to him. "Why do you think I love you so much? I love you exactly the way you are."
Across the table, Phil was still looking as though someone had taken the bottom out of his stomach without him realizing it. He looked up at Poppy, and seeing her pitying eyes upon him, immediately looked away again. When Rowan tried for his attention, he stood up resolutely.
"You know, I think I'm going to go up to my room and think about this a little bit. Alone," he said to Poppy when she began to stand up after him. "I guess. . . I guess that I'll see all you guys again in the morning."
"Bye Phil," a couple of them around the table said to him as he was leaving. Poppy just sat back down next to her soulmate again, looking greatly disconcerted.
"Don't be disheartened, please," Thierry said in his fatherly tone. "It will all work out for the best in the morning. You'll see. And as for you," he said to Mark, "While you may be the only human with us at the moment, you certainly won't be the last. This only makes you the first, which means you are just as special a part of all this as the rest of us."
Mark was silent a moment as he allowed these words to filter through his mind. When the penny finally dropped, he nodded his head, a sudden smile spreading over his features.
"I'll be like a pioneer!" he decided. "A pioneer for the humans within the Circle Daybreak part of the Night World."
He said it with such surety that nobody around the table saw that there could be any reason to dispute his claim.
*
