Blaise stood, looking at Ash with a strange expression on her face. He had been sitting a little way away from the rest of the group while Kestrel did the talking to them about all the Circle Daybreak entailed. As he stared off towards the horizon line, he wondered if Mary-Lynette was sitting at home staring at the same twilit sky. Feeling her presence just behind him, Ash merely shifted his eyes from the horizon without turning around to face the witch.

"What?" he asked shortly.

"What's happened to you?" she asked.

Ash turned his head to face her slowly, one eyebrow rising.

"And what do you mean by that?" Ash asked her.

"You know what I mean," Blaise said, coming to sit down next to him without asking or waiting for an invitation. "You used to be this big bad ass vampire; you loved extracting your own pound of flesh. Frequently! Now look at you. You've come on some 'peace with the humans' mission, and are staring off into the sunset as though it is something significant to you. What the hell happened to you since the last time I saw you?"

Ash rose, brushing down his immaculate trouser pants without looking Blaise in the eyes. He began to stride back towards the rest of the group.

"That's none of your business Blaise," he said over his shoulder. "It's got nothing to do with you. Let's keep it that way."

Blaise narrowed her eyes at his retreating form. No guy spoke to her that way, she immediately flared. Not even if he was a distant relative to her family.

*

"You have a choice. You come with us, follow our rules and be true to Circle Daybreak, or you don't," Kestrel was concluding abruptly.

"There was a witch's circle that went by that name many years ago," Dani murmured to herself. "The humans that knew about it ended up killing them. Burnt them at the stake."

"True," Kestrel acceded. "But that was then. And now, you have your choice."

Thea looked at Eric. She knew she had his support; he understood that this was a part of her life and wouldn't ever dream of denying it to her. But at the same time, she didn't want to go ahead and make the decision without first taking him aside and talking to him about it.

"We're in," Eric suddenly said, holding her hand in his firmly.

Thea's head whipped around to face him. He was wearing his usually gentle smile that reminded her that they had just talked about it, through their soulmate connection, even if not aloud.

"Yeah," she agreed, making it vocal.

Kestrel nodded, looking up as Ash and Blaise returned to the group.

"I'll do it," Blaise said resolutely. Almost too resolutely Kestrel caught onto. As though she was doing it for some other reason than those that Circle Daybreak stood for.

She would have spoken up on it then, had she not glanced Ash's way and seen him shake his head almost unnoticeably.

"Good," Kestrel muttered, meaning anything but. There was just something about this girl that was really getting to Kestrel. Straightening her face before she faced the last witch there, Dani, Kestrel tried to appear genuinely questioning.

Dani glanced over to where Thea was sitting against Eric as though for some sort of hint. Thea merely avoided her eye, refusing to help make what had to be her decision.

"Oh what the heck?" she asked. "It's not like I have any great hatred for humans. You know, only when they're wanting to burn me at the stake because of their own prejudices." She cast a smile over to Eric. "No offence intended."

"None taken," Eric said flippantly.

"Well then," Kestrel said, looking again to Ash.

"I guess we're done here," he finished, carefully avoiding Blaise's eyes when he glanced over each and every one in the group. "Though it will be interesting trying to fit all of us into the one car back to Thierry's mansion."

"Thierry? The Thierry Decouedres?" Thea questioned incredulously.

Eric glanced at his soulmate quizzically, the name itself meaning absolutely nothing to him.

"I don't know of too many others," Ash responded blandly.

"But. . . he's a vampire." Thea shook her head. "I mean, not just any vampire. Maya was the one who made him. First made him. He's the very first of the made vampires."

"Yes, and also the head of Circle Daybreak." Ash paused, watching her steadily. "Is this going to be a problem for you?"

"No," Thea said faintly, wondering how someone who held such status within the Night World could be a part of this. Of course, the answer became obvious almost straight away. How could someone without said status hope to hold down something as big as this in Los Angeles of all places? "I'm just. . . surprised. No problems there," she murmured.

"Good then," Ash finished. "And now back to our original issue. Transportation."

"Mother Cybele," Dani piped up. The others turned their attention back to her. "She was headed back that way after everything from today got sorted out. She, uh, told me when she was telling me to be careful from now on and wishing me luck."

"Probably 'saw' this whole car situation happening," Ash muttered under his breath.

"She didn't need to 'see' anything," Blaise snapped, quick to defend her witch kind. "All she would have had to do was count six of us and four or five spaces for sitting in a car. Basic mathematics is all."

Kestrel looked at the dark haired witch speculatively. Then, snapping herself out of it, she attempted to rally everything into action.

"Alright then, so how do we get in touch with your Mother Cybele?" she asked.

"Simple," said a kindly voice from behind them. "Just ask."

"Mother Cybele," Dani said.

"Unity, Mother," Blaise and Thea said in unison. Thea smiled at it; Blaise only rolled her eyes.

"My children. And your escorts," Cybele said towards Kestrel and Ash. "Shall we organize seating for the drive ahead?"

As Mother Cybele's car was smaller than Ash's, only Thea and Eric traveled with her. Everyone else; Kestrel, Blaise and Dani, traveled with Ash.

*

Thierry, James, Mark and Rowan were standing outside of the mansion as the two cars full of Night People pulled up to it. Blaise was the first to set foot outside of the car, looking stunning as usually, regardless of the fact that she had just spent the better part of several hours cooped up inside of a car with three other people.

Kestrel was next, followed by Ash on the other side. He opened the door for Dani to step out of, then wandered up to the front of the house, nodding his greeting to his sister and walking past the rest of them without comment. Rowan looked at her sister curiously.

"What happened to him?" she asked quietly as the others were being ushered inside by James and Mark, who was talking avidly with Eric. Apparently it didn't bother him not being the only human boy in the house anymore.

"I don't know," Kestrel murmured. "But I think it has something to do with her."

By 'her', of course, she was meaning Blaise. Rowan focused on the young witch with her confident stride into the mansion before Dani and Thea who were talking amongst themselves, wondering how she could have affected their brother's mood. Thierry was lingering next to Mother Cybele's car and they were talking. Rowan decided that it would be best to leave them at it, as she closed without locking the door behind all of them.

*

As James reached the landing with Thea, Dani and Blaise in tow, leading them into the room that would be their shared lodgings while they were here, Phil sidled across from outside of his bedroom. James looked at him strangely, Phil just looked unsure of himself.

"Phil, what are you doing?" James finally asked.

"What, I can't meet the new ones to Circle Daybreak as well?" Phil asked.

"Well yeah, I just would have thought you would have waited until they weren't with me," James said with a shrug, before pushing his hand against a stained wooden door that opened into a brightly sunlit room. "Feel free to plant all your stuff in here. It's all yours."

Backing up a little as they passed into their room, James gave Phillip another strange look.

"What are you doing here, really?" he questioned.

Phil's jaw worked. It was obviously paining him to be in a situation where he had to exchange anything with his sister's soulmate.

"Look, I just want to know something about where I come from, okay? Is that okay with you, Mr I-Come-From-A-Long-And-Powerful-Line-Of-Born-Vampires? I suppose that an ignorance of your heritage is a foreign notion for you, isn't it?" Phil said sourly, each and every word obviously torn forcefully from him. "I just wondered if, you know, I might ask them a little about some things."

His jaw clenched, he waited for the smart remark that he was sure was coming. Instead, when he looked up, James merely inclined his head.

"Fair enough, I suppose," was all he said, before starting on down to the stairs that would take him down to the first level.

*

The group as the whole that they now were barely had anytime to settle in together before Thierry announced the next project to be seen to. It was that of another young lost witch, who had recently just escaped death but appeared to have inadvertently brought a potentially harmfully spirit back with her.

This report had been offered to them by the witch named Melusine who had set up shop in the area as soon as suspicion of a lost witch in the area had caught Circle Daybreak's ear. She had told of how she had come into contact with the girl and that support might possibly be needed.

Immediately, Ash had again volunteered to be the on to go. Not wishing to turn him down, Thierry had dispatched him only one day later, but not before Kestrel had caught Blaise setting her sights, and her spells on him.

"That won't work you know."

Blaise had hurriedly swept the ingredients for her jewelry weaving under her bed, from where she sat cross-legged beside it, and turned to face where Kestrel was leaning against the doorway.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Blaise bluffed haughtily.

"Oh no?" Kestrel took a couple of long-legged strides into the room "I didn't just see you preparing some sort of magical talisman like I heard you tried on Eric before you found out that he was Thea's soulmate? Well I've got news for you, Blaise. Ash has already found his soulmate. You haven't found yours yet, so I wouldn't expect you to understand its pull, but believe me when I say that I have watched three of my siblings go through it, and there is nothing that your little baubles are going to be able to do against it."

Blaise's chest showed her heavy, angry breathing from the lamia vampire's words.

"Well then, I suppose that you won't mind if I give it a little try?" she said defiantly.

"Try it all you like." Kestrel smiled. "I just didn't tell you the most important thing before, because you seem to think that you are some mighty and powerful witch around here. No matter what you weave into that thing, it won't affect the lamia. You think we don't have power of our own handed down by Maya herself? And perhaps I need to remind you that those sorts of spells are certainly not the sorts that should be practiced by anyone who is a part of Circle Daybreak."

Kestrel turned slowly on her heel, moving with her natural grace out of the room again. Only then did she realize how hard and fast her heart was pumping. That was odd. Just from a short spar with the little witch? She must have been more annoyed by her than she had given credit for.

Ash was gone before Blaise could put her magic into play. Maybe that was due to Blaise deliberately putting off the casting for the time being.

*

The day after Ash ran into the lost witch named Gillian, he decided it was time to go speak with Melusine about her. As the shop bell tinkled, signaling his entrance, the witch looked up with a pleasant smile on her face. Then she realized who it was.

"You have seen her then?" she asked without preamble.

Ash made a double take of the shop. It appeared that there was nobody else here, so they were able to talk freely, at least for the time being.

"I did," he owned. "Last night. She was led alone into one of the Night World clubs nearby."

Melusine looked worried.

"She is. . . is she alright?" she asked.

"I sent her on her way. She's alright for now," Ash clarified.

Melusine took a deep breath.

"What now?"

"We wait her out. It's only a matter of time. She met you; she's bound to have felt the pull towards you, a sister witch. She'll come back." No trace of doubt even entered Ash's tone as he spoke.

The bell tinkled a second time. After a quick glance towards the door, Ash stepped out of sight. It wouldn't do for the familiar lost witch to see him again, here talking to Melusine, after running into him as she had done the night before.

*

Thierry sat at the head of his table for their meal. About halfway down, Thea sat uncomfortably. She still wasn't quite sure how to act in this man's presence. It felt so wrong, almost, though more as though she were going to be punished at any moment. She supposed that her emotions were more borne out of fear than any true sense of right or wrong. Still, she had no further idea of how she personally fit into this growing slowly group than she had when she had first entered the house nearly a week before.

The lamia vampire, Jade, had been more than lovely in her welcoming of her, although Thea suspected this had more to do with the growing bond forming between their two soulmates who were even now sitting in conversation between bites of their food. Catching Jade's eye suddenly, Thea wiped off the edgy expression she knew and hated she knew she wore, favoring instead a bright smile for her newest friend.

Although she had known them to be related, they had never had any real contact with the three Redfern sisters in the past, and it had only really been Blaise who had spoken to Ash when he had come by them. There was such openness, such kindness among the group as a whole. Thea found herself constantly wondering why more of the world couldn't see and embrace the ideal of Circle Daybreak.

She also wondered when this constant feeling of guilt for punishment was going to leave her. She knew that she was doing no wrong here! Why couldn't she shake it with the ease that Blaise, and even her friend Dani had?

The made vampire, Nilsson, approached the table, bending down to speak softly in Thierry's ear. Even softer than was necessary for human or witch hearing, Thea noted at the peaking interest of the surrounding vampire senses. In this company, it was certainly needed.

"I'm sorry, if you will all excuse me," Thierry uttered, placing his napkin down on the table in front of him and following Nilsson out of the room with more than casual urgency.

Eating and general movement seemed to stop for a moment. Then, from Jade, "Now what do you suppose that was about?"

It broke the ice, allowing both movement, eating as well as hushed conversation to commence once again around the table. Everyone, it seemed, had a theory, some more nosy than others.

"It could be a group extermination needs be arranged," Blaise said with an air of confidentiality, unable to resist the opportunity to stir trouble. "Vampires in the Night World have been known to do it to keep their secrets and laws. Don't we have our own laws, and one pretty big secret? And Thierry is a vampire after all."

"Not everything is so cut and dried as that, Blaise," Kestrel retorted from the other side of the table. "Some things require some thought as well."

Thea couldn't help but notice that every time she'd seen the two of them in any sort of interchange, there had always been a highly charged argument running back and forth between them. She wondered if it was anymore than the usual vampire/witch rivalry, especially as how well she herself got on with Kestrel's younger sister.

"Who needs thought when everything is spread out so clearly there in front of them?" Blaise asked, loading the question with personal meaning.

"I don't know, I've seen that expression on Ash's face before," Rowan murmured quietly from where she sat next to Phil, partly to divert the growing argument between her sister and Blaise, and partially because she had a point to make. "It's very similar to the look he gets when he gets presented with another task that he sees as taking him one step closer to Mary-Lynette at the end of the year period they've set with each other."

"Mary-Lynette, that's..?" Dani started.

"Ash's soulmate," Jade finished, glancing at Mark to see how this talk of his sister, if only indirectly, was effecting him. "You don't think that. . . could Thierry have one as well?"

"Why not?" Poppy asked. "I mean, is the idea really so inconceivable?"

"So where is she then? Why isn't she here with him?" Blaise asked in a far less romanticizing tone.

"Perhaps she couldn't be," James put in, looking over at Poppy tenderly. "Night World law being as it is and all. I know it's almost screwed up more than one soulmate pairing."

Eric hugged Thea closer to him as he murmured both of their agreement to that statement.

"You guys, maybe we shouldn't all be talking about this like it's everybody's business," Thea put in almost timidly. "I mean, he does have his right to privacy from the rest of us."

"Thea's right," Poppy backed up. "Whatever this thing that took him away, it's Thierry's business until he chooses to share it with us. Who knows, we might be completely wrong about the whole soulmate idea."

*

"Gillian."

The lost witch turned from the boy whose arms were wrapped lovingly around her. She recognized him, she thought to herself. She's seen him before.

"You're that guy from the club, aren't you?" Her eyes narrowed in suspicion for a moment. "What are you doing here now?"

"Only to help, I promise," Ash assured her, hands out in appeal. "I've come here with an offer for you. For both of you."

"Why should I trust you?" Gillian asked, still more than a little shaken up from her bad experience with her own personal 'Angel' who had resided in her head ever since her near death experience.

"Well, that's really your decision, isn't it?" Ash told her. "I can't really do more than stand here and give you my offer now, can I?"

"I knew I should never have let you take care of this!" another voice cut in before Gillian could say anything.

The boy who was with Gillian was just looking back and forth between these two new and strangely beautiful looking people in confusion. What were they doing here, and how did Gillian actually know them?

"Gillian, you came to me when you needed help," Melusine reminded her. "Surely you know that you can trust me."

"I suppose," Gillian asked, not really wanting to be reminded of what she had needed help from.

Realisation finally struck the boy and he suddenly expressed it vocally.

"There's something about them. You all have the same sense of light about you," he murmured in wonder, touching a strand of Gillian's hair with tenderness.

"David. . ." Gillian said to him weakly, trying to figure out why that was important as she turned her attention back to Ash and Melusine.

"Yep, here we go again," Ash said on a sigh. Then to Gillian directly, "Look Gillian, there's something we've got to tell you. Now you can take it as you like, and in the end, the decision over what you'll do with that knowledge is up to you. . . and of course, your soulmate."

"My soulmate," Gillian repeated, her eyes going slightly dazed.

Melusine smiled almost pityingly at the young lost witch and the boy who stood with her.

*