"I've found her. This time I'm sure. Her name is Hannah."
All of the breath seemed to leave Thierry's non-beating heart in a rushed instant. That he had been called away from the large meals table and was now sitting in his office with Lupe in front of him seemed unimportant. The world seemed unimportant. She was back. She was the only thing still relevant in his world.
"Thierry, are you alright, sir?" Lupe asked, tilting her all too canine looking head and gazing at him with worry.
"Yes, Lupe. I'm. . ." He drifted off again, his mind awash with memories and visions of his Old Soul, human soulmate.
"Where? Where is she now? I must go to her."
*
"So. You're back."
Kestrel was leaning lazily against the doorway, gazing with half closed eyelids at Blaise. Blaise didn't even need to look up at her to know that it was all just a pose.
"I am." The witch did not pause in the lacing up of her black boots.
"What happened, then? I heard that Thierry was pretty incensed about whatever you guys found out down there, but with Lupe calling him away last night before he had a chance to fill the rest of us in. . ."
Now Blaise did look up at the young lamia vampire.
"If you're so interested, why don't you go over to your brother and cousin? They were there too, or did you already forget that?" she asked with flashing eyes.
Kestrel just smiled, a slow and predatory movement of her lips that creased the very corners of her eyes and changed the whole expression of her features.
"A little tense, are we?" Kestrel asked, stepping into the room. "Surely I'm not the one making you so uncomfortable?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Blaise hissed. All the same, she stepped away when Kestrel came close.
"I know you told Thea, you know," Kestrel said, deliberately stopping in her pursuit and watching Blaise carefully for her reaction. "You wouldn't have done that if you hadn't believed."
"How do you know anything about Thea?" Blaise asked.
"I know when someone is trying to hide the fact that they know something," Kestrel said. "Maybe it's from watching you so much ever since you got back here."
Blaise paused. Her jaw stiffened and she stared hard at the ground.
"Then maybe you had better stop watching me," Blaise said firmly, every word properly enunciated. Then, still without looking at her soulmate, she stood up and left her bedroom.
*
"This is Timmy," Rashel introduced, holding him firmly by the shoulders, at the same time as hating the fact that such a resort was necessary.
Poppy, now happily reunited with her own soulmate, had James' arms wrapped around her from behind. Looking pityingly upon the other made vampire, she knew he would always look the age of a four year old human child with eyes much older and disillusioned. She attempted to go forward and reach him on some level.
"Hello there, Timmy. How are you?" she asked in her most soothing voice, trying not to speak down to the boy she realized was in actual fact quite close to her own age.
"How would you be if you had been ripped away from everything you knew to be right?" Timmy asked bitterly. Then, looking up significantly at his elder sister Rashel, added pointedly, "Twice."
Rashel looked as though something inside of her had been torn out. Poppy's heart reached out for her as well. It was a truly terrible situation to have been forced on these two. She could only find comfort in the thought that it had never come to such where her brother Phil was concerned. She didn't know what she would have done if it had.
She met Rashel's eyes, and something passed between the two of them.
"Come with me," Poppy offered. "Let me introduce you to some of the others here. James can keep an eye on Timmy for a while, can't you?"
"Of course," James murmured, before Timmy's eyes fixed hard on James'.
"You're one of them, aren't you?" he asked, without the slightest trace of warm curiosity.
"One of. . . them?" James asked blankly.
"The lamia. Witch-vampires," Timmy summed up, as though it explained everything.
James just looked towards Rashel for advice, but she too was staring at Timmy in confusion.
"Oh, Hunter told me all about you. You age, and make others who never will. You can live like vermin, act like them, but you never will be them. You're dirty. That's what Hunter says. And we'll overthrow you all."
"Okay then, I think that's just about enough excitement for today," a new male voice cut in suddenly. Rashel looked up gratefully when she saw that it was Quinn. "Now, what's all this about what Hunter says? I'll have you know that not everything that man says is exactly true."
Timmy looked up at Quinn, and his expression turn scathing.
"You were one of his favorites. His heir. You shouldn't speak of him like that," he told the older vampire harshly.
"And you shouldn't speak like that to people who only wish to be your friends and help you," Quinn retaliated. "Especially when one of them is your sister."
"She never cared about that before," Timmy said, turning sulky.
"That's not true," Rashel began, but it became obvious that the short vampire was not listening to a word that was being said to him.
"Maybe we should leave him be for a while," James suggested quietly. "Take him to a new bedroom. I really don't think he should be sharing with anybody right now."
"Has anybody shown you to a bedroom?" Poppy asked Rashel, who only shook her head silently. "Come on then, we'll do that now."
After Rashel had been placed in a room with Fayth, James led Quinn to the bedroom that he shared with Ash.
"There's been a spare bed in here since we got here. You may as well make use of it," James offered as Quinn put down his belongings.
"Thanks," Quinn muttered, his mind still on what Timmy had said about Hunter. He turned to look James seriously in the eye. "You know, if what Timmy said was true, we've got a lot of trouble coming on our hands from Hunter."
"That's if he survived the fire blast," James quipped.
Quinn just raised an eyebrow. James visibly acceded that the made vampire had a point.
"Alright, he survived. And we've got some trouble on our hands." James paused as he looked towards the doorway of the bedroom then murmured absently, "Hopefully not before Thierry gets back though."
Quinn turned towards the doorway where James was looking and caught Ash's bottomless eyes staring into him.
"What's he doing in here?" Ash asked James, while at the same time, not taking his eyes off of Quinn.
"He's living here now," James answered, not backing down an inch.
"The hell he is," Ash stormed in a deadly quiet tone.
"Accept it or not. Your choice. I'm going down to see Poppy," James said decisively, before leaving to allow his cousin and Quinn to fight it out, or not, as they each wished.
*
"Did you hear; Maya's back."
"Maya?"
"Who's that?"
"First Hunter, now Maya?"
"Heard say that she's the reason Thierry keeps on losing his soulmate."
"How do you mean, keeps on losing?"
"Old Soul."
"What's an Old Soul?"
"Human who keeps coming back."
"Seems they're not so ordinary as everyone used to think."
"Soulmate principle isn't the only prophecy that's been uncovered either!"
"Something about a. . . Wild Power?"
As the days passed without Thierry present, speculation and rumor spread through the walls of Circle Daybreak like a fire. Tensions remained high among many of the group members as missions were put on hold while Thierry continued in his pursuit of his soulmate.
Then came the day when she arrived. In person, knowledgeable of the Night World and its people. Everything seemed to come to a head.
"Hi. My name is Hannah."
*
"Everyone. There is much it seems that I have not had sufficient time to fill you all in on," Thierry said on a heavy breath to the rather large group sitting around him. Grandma Harman had also made herself available for this special Circle Daybreak meeting, as had another obviously powerful Night Person, to whom Lupe had given reverence towards, though few others seemed to recognize him.
"It has been discovered, among other things, that the Night World Council is now officially aware that Circle Daybreak is back in operation." Thierry paused at the gasps and wide-eyed expressions that spread around the table. He attempted to speak over them all, using his own words to calm down the mood. "We all knew that this would happen eventually. We could have hardly expected to be able to keep down a secret of this magnitude for very much longer. However, it has come at a terrible time for us and the human world as a whole."
Hannah was at Thierry's side, holding his hand as though she would never let go, not surprising since this was the first time in all of their lives together that she was safe with her love and her soulmate and Maya was finally no more. They had doubled back to pick up Hannah's friend Chess who was now in the same room as Rashel and Fayth and was another human Old Soul, and on the way back, passing through California, had come by a third Old Soul by the name of Hugh who had also wished to join them.
Other than that, it was the old group that was sitting around, listening attentively to Thierry's every word. Thierry turned to Grandma Harman, and it was she who beheld the group at large and addressed them in clear tones, speaking a passage that was clearly memorized by heart.
"On a night when came from Night World three, "Together were they to guard of free;
"One from the land of kings long forgotten; "One from the hearth which still holds the spark; "One from the Day World where two eyes are watching; "One from the twilight to be one with the dark;
"From hence will come Wild Powers four, "And the worlds be changed forevermore."
Grandma Harman gazed carefully at each and every Daybreaker as though seeing directly into their very souls as they waited for her next words to explain the passage that she had just shared with them.
"It was myself, Thierry and Drache who came together on that long ago eve," Grandma Harman began. "One representative of the witches, one of the vampires, one of the shapeshifters."
Gazes from those around the table turned across to the one they had previously not recognized; Drache, Senior Head of the First House of the shapeshifters.
"It was in a time where havoc was being caused due to the fears of humans and their too great a knowledge of our people. Something had to be done about it, we all agreed upon that, and this was what was traded upon," Grandma Harman continued. "An alliance between the races within the Night World, as you all know, but as well, something much bigger. Something, however, that would take much longer in coming about."
"As human and Night People alike are aware, the millennium is coming upon us," Drache came in with. "And as well as being a great celebration date, it is also a time of great power that runs back to all of our roots; human, Old Soul, lamia, made vampire, werewolf, shifter, witch or lost witch all alike. We think that it is this indistinguishing power that is causing the soulmates of Night People to more and more often be as humans."
"Also," Thierry came back for the finish. "It means that the time when the alliance that kept the differing races within the Night World together is passing. Hunter Redfern's recent moves have just confirmed that. And now we have reason to believe that these four. . . Wild Powers will hold the key to the new alliance, which shall perhaps be one between Night People and humans together for the first time in all of our histories."
Amazement and excitement spread around the table as everyone there appeared suddenly to have something of great importance to share with everyone else. The very idea was amazing, and how come even those here who had lived in and grown up within the Night World had never heard anything of this prophecy, if indeed that was what it was.
"You must all understand," Theirry continued, bringing the calamitous talk and speculation to order once more, "That this only increases the importance of these projects that we undertake. Anyone of them could be a potential Wild Power, and until we find more of a way to narrow down the search, we much take on every odd occurrence that we get wind of as potential. We must not let any of these Wild Powers fall into the hands of the other side before ours. Now that the Council are aware of us, as well as Hunter's groups, we are going to have the battle of our lives to succeed in our endeavors."
" 'One from the hearth which still holds the spark. . .'" Thea mused aloud to herself. "But, that must be a lost witch. It could be. . ." Thea turned to Poppy, Phil and Gillian at once. "It could be any one of you even!"
Grandma Harman smiled indulgently.
"It very well could have been," she replied gently. "However, these Wild Powers have significant powers that we have just not seen in the months that Poppy, Phil and Gillian have been here with us." She smiled almost sadly at the three lost witches.
"But, it still could be a lost witch, right?" Thea persisted. "Even if it is not them. And it might still be one of them; they just don't yet know how to access that part of their powers."
"It could be," Grandma Harman allowed. "Although if it is a lost witch, it is more likely that she, or he, is not already within the immediate reach of Circle Daybreak. We must look out further than ourselves in this one."
" 'One from the Day World were two eyes are watching,'" Ash added in his quietly mild tone. "That one must be a human." He didn't go so far as to assume it must be Eric, David or Fayth. However, when his eyes rested on Mark and, thinking for a moment of Mary-Lynette as he so often did, they slowed slightly although still he said nothing more.
"I have dreamed of one of the Wild Powers," Grandma Harman announced. "And have reason to believe that they are currently within Californian borders."
She glanced briefly at Hugh, who looked down at the table thoughtfully.
"I have a few Night World contacts in that area," he murmured in the considering tones that seemed to be consistent with all awakened Old Souls. "I could go for a few days and see them out?"
"That would be welcomed," Grandma Harman replied with a small smile. There was little to smile at with the seriousness of the times they were about to face.
"Everything is a possibility, and while it is a good idea to look into these possibilities certainly, we cannot find ourselves limited by them," Thierry reminded all of them cautiously. "As well, right now, the best thing we can ensure for ourselves is that we are each well rested for the times about to come. Let me assure you they are set to be greatly tiring on us all."
*
Timmy was getting on everybody's nerves. Just now at this time when every moment was critical, he was constantly getting in the way and trying to undermine everything that everyone else was working at during any given time. Even Rashel could see what was becoming a swiftly larger and larger problem, though sibling loyalty heaped even higher after what she saw as her failure in the first place, was blinding her to what needed to be done about it.
"Quinn, man, you're going to have to say something to her," Eric was saying to him. "This morning he came in part way through our meditations. Do you know how much that almost stuffed up David's train? And just when he's starting to get it too. If I didn't know better, I would think he was getting thoughts from Hunter on exactly what to do to get us off our game right now, while he's free to pick up the first Wild Power."
Quinn rubbed his forehead with two fingers, knowing that what the human was saying to him was what everyone, including him, was thinking around here. But how the hell was he supposed to say anything? He was her soulmate. And people around here thought that should make it easier? People around here ought to know better, was what he thought!
"Look, I'll have a word with her, but. . ." he started, but was interrupted by the little bundle of disruption himself.
"Have a word with who?" Timmy asked, coming out of the shadows were he so often lingered. "Does Rashel know that her soulmate and fellow Daybreaker are co-conspiring about her behind her back? Don't think that would make her very happy to know about it, do you?"
"You keep quiet, you little snot," Quinn told him in no uncertain terms. "This has nothing to do with you."
"Oh, but I think it does," Timmy said smartly. "I think your worries about me and my contacts outside of these walls have everything to do with me. Why so silent, human?" he asked suddenly, his eyes flashing across to Eric who had stayed silent ever since the tiny vampire had shown himself.
"Nothing to say," he answered, adding pointedly, "To you."
"So unfriendly. Exactly the opposite to what Thierry wants for us all. The happy family made vampire. It's almost funny, you know?" Timmy started laughing in an off beat, eerie way that only he could manage to contrive. Both Quinn and Eric winced at the sound of it.
Then Rashel came into the room.
"Oh, I thought I heard you in here," she murmured to her little brother, or rather, the insane minion that had taken over his body when Hunter had drunk from it all those years ago.
She sidled up to Quinn, giving him a peck on the cheek with a tired smile that she always wore when Timmy was around these days.
"And what have you been up to then?" she asked him, striving for a brightness that she didn't feel.
"Just having an interesting conversation with a couple of your friends, actually," Timmy said in a parody of sweetness. "Wanna hear what I heard?"
"Rashel, why don't we go back up to your room? I saw Fayth and Chess going off somewhere with Hannah a little while ago. We should get your room to ourselves for a little while if we go now," Quinn said suggestively, a light hand over her arm.
Rashel smiled up at him, the first genuine smile she'd given anyone since she'd walked into that room.
"Sure. I'd like that," she answered. "You going to be okay in here without us, Timmy?" she asked, turning to face him as Quinn started leading her out.
"Just fine," Timmy answered with a snide smile.
*
"Doesn't it just thrill you, the idea of another lost Harman witch somewhere out there? A Wild Power witch," Thea said, her eyes shining at the thought.
"Personally, I think that there are too many of us as it is," Blaise answered sourly, pulling apart the differing threads in a piece of string. She looked up at Gillian who was learning from Thea the art of weaving magic into her threads. "Not that I have a problem with you of course," she added falsely sweet.
"Of course," Gillian replied, her tone revealing that she knew all too well Blaise's true meaning.
"Come on, Gill. I've taught you heaps of times, you have to really concentrate if you want to get this right," Thea instructed, her mind going back to her teachings instead of the Wild Powers that they had been told of the night before.
All three witches looked up at the clearing of someone's throat in the doorway. Blaise rolled her eyes and went back to picking at her thread. Thea looked vaguely uncomfortable and went back to focusing on Gillian's thread, while Gillian looked a mixture of confused and intrigued.
"Blaise, can I talk to you a moment?" Kestrel asked.
With a loud sigh, Blaise deliberately put down her things and walked over to the vampire, conscious of the other two witches' gazes on her back.
"What do you want?" she asked as soon as they were out of earshot.
"Not this," was Kestrel's answer. "I want you to tell me truthful. Tell me that you don't want this, and I'll walk away."
As Kestrel said 'this', she wrapped a slender hand around Blaise's wrist and held on while the mind link opened up and the warm fuzziness invaded the corners of both of their minds and hearts. Blaise took deep breaths, unused to such closeness and still uncomfortable in it.
Abruptly, and before any thoughts could be sent either way, Kestrel let go again.
"I'll just walk away," she reiterated, waiting a moment for her words to sink through, before turning and leaving Blaise to think on what she really wanted in this.
Moments later, her cheeks still flushed and breathing a little erratically, Blaise reentered the room, only to fiddle around a bit before announcing that she had better things that needed doing outside on so fine a day as this one.
*
All of the breath seemed to leave Thierry's non-beating heart in a rushed instant. That he had been called away from the large meals table and was now sitting in his office with Lupe in front of him seemed unimportant. The world seemed unimportant. She was back. She was the only thing still relevant in his world.
"Thierry, are you alright, sir?" Lupe asked, tilting her all too canine looking head and gazing at him with worry.
"Yes, Lupe. I'm. . ." He drifted off again, his mind awash with memories and visions of his Old Soul, human soulmate.
"Where? Where is she now? I must go to her."
*
"So. You're back."
Kestrel was leaning lazily against the doorway, gazing with half closed eyelids at Blaise. Blaise didn't even need to look up at her to know that it was all just a pose.
"I am." The witch did not pause in the lacing up of her black boots.
"What happened, then? I heard that Thierry was pretty incensed about whatever you guys found out down there, but with Lupe calling him away last night before he had a chance to fill the rest of us in. . ."
Now Blaise did look up at the young lamia vampire.
"If you're so interested, why don't you go over to your brother and cousin? They were there too, or did you already forget that?" she asked with flashing eyes.
Kestrel just smiled, a slow and predatory movement of her lips that creased the very corners of her eyes and changed the whole expression of her features.
"A little tense, are we?" Kestrel asked, stepping into the room. "Surely I'm not the one making you so uncomfortable?"
"Don't be ridiculous," Blaise hissed. All the same, she stepped away when Kestrel came close.
"I know you told Thea, you know," Kestrel said, deliberately stopping in her pursuit and watching Blaise carefully for her reaction. "You wouldn't have done that if you hadn't believed."
"How do you know anything about Thea?" Blaise asked.
"I know when someone is trying to hide the fact that they know something," Kestrel said. "Maybe it's from watching you so much ever since you got back here."
Blaise paused. Her jaw stiffened and she stared hard at the ground.
"Then maybe you had better stop watching me," Blaise said firmly, every word properly enunciated. Then, still without looking at her soulmate, she stood up and left her bedroom.
*
"This is Timmy," Rashel introduced, holding him firmly by the shoulders, at the same time as hating the fact that such a resort was necessary.
Poppy, now happily reunited with her own soulmate, had James' arms wrapped around her from behind. Looking pityingly upon the other made vampire, she knew he would always look the age of a four year old human child with eyes much older and disillusioned. She attempted to go forward and reach him on some level.
"Hello there, Timmy. How are you?" she asked in her most soothing voice, trying not to speak down to the boy she realized was in actual fact quite close to her own age.
"How would you be if you had been ripped away from everything you knew to be right?" Timmy asked bitterly. Then, looking up significantly at his elder sister Rashel, added pointedly, "Twice."
Rashel looked as though something inside of her had been torn out. Poppy's heart reached out for her as well. It was a truly terrible situation to have been forced on these two. She could only find comfort in the thought that it had never come to such where her brother Phil was concerned. She didn't know what she would have done if it had.
She met Rashel's eyes, and something passed between the two of them.
"Come with me," Poppy offered. "Let me introduce you to some of the others here. James can keep an eye on Timmy for a while, can't you?"
"Of course," James murmured, before Timmy's eyes fixed hard on James'.
"You're one of them, aren't you?" he asked, without the slightest trace of warm curiosity.
"One of. . . them?" James asked blankly.
"The lamia. Witch-vampires," Timmy summed up, as though it explained everything.
James just looked towards Rashel for advice, but she too was staring at Timmy in confusion.
"Oh, Hunter told me all about you. You age, and make others who never will. You can live like vermin, act like them, but you never will be them. You're dirty. That's what Hunter says. And we'll overthrow you all."
"Okay then, I think that's just about enough excitement for today," a new male voice cut in suddenly. Rashel looked up gratefully when she saw that it was Quinn. "Now, what's all this about what Hunter says? I'll have you know that not everything that man says is exactly true."
Timmy looked up at Quinn, and his expression turn scathing.
"You were one of his favorites. His heir. You shouldn't speak of him like that," he told the older vampire harshly.
"And you shouldn't speak like that to people who only wish to be your friends and help you," Quinn retaliated. "Especially when one of them is your sister."
"She never cared about that before," Timmy said, turning sulky.
"That's not true," Rashel began, but it became obvious that the short vampire was not listening to a word that was being said to him.
"Maybe we should leave him be for a while," James suggested quietly. "Take him to a new bedroom. I really don't think he should be sharing with anybody right now."
"Has anybody shown you to a bedroom?" Poppy asked Rashel, who only shook her head silently. "Come on then, we'll do that now."
After Rashel had been placed in a room with Fayth, James led Quinn to the bedroom that he shared with Ash.
"There's been a spare bed in here since we got here. You may as well make use of it," James offered as Quinn put down his belongings.
"Thanks," Quinn muttered, his mind still on what Timmy had said about Hunter. He turned to look James seriously in the eye. "You know, if what Timmy said was true, we've got a lot of trouble coming on our hands from Hunter."
"That's if he survived the fire blast," James quipped.
Quinn just raised an eyebrow. James visibly acceded that the made vampire had a point.
"Alright, he survived. And we've got some trouble on our hands." James paused as he looked towards the doorway of the bedroom then murmured absently, "Hopefully not before Thierry gets back though."
Quinn turned towards the doorway where James was looking and caught Ash's bottomless eyes staring into him.
"What's he doing in here?" Ash asked James, while at the same time, not taking his eyes off of Quinn.
"He's living here now," James answered, not backing down an inch.
"The hell he is," Ash stormed in a deadly quiet tone.
"Accept it or not. Your choice. I'm going down to see Poppy," James said decisively, before leaving to allow his cousin and Quinn to fight it out, or not, as they each wished.
*
"Did you hear; Maya's back."
"Maya?"
"Who's that?"
"First Hunter, now Maya?"
"Heard say that she's the reason Thierry keeps on losing his soulmate."
"How do you mean, keeps on losing?"
"Old Soul."
"What's an Old Soul?"
"Human who keeps coming back."
"Seems they're not so ordinary as everyone used to think."
"Soulmate principle isn't the only prophecy that's been uncovered either!"
"Something about a. . . Wild Power?"
As the days passed without Thierry present, speculation and rumor spread through the walls of Circle Daybreak like a fire. Tensions remained high among many of the group members as missions were put on hold while Thierry continued in his pursuit of his soulmate.
Then came the day when she arrived. In person, knowledgeable of the Night World and its people. Everything seemed to come to a head.
"Hi. My name is Hannah."
*
"Everyone. There is much it seems that I have not had sufficient time to fill you all in on," Thierry said on a heavy breath to the rather large group sitting around him. Grandma Harman had also made herself available for this special Circle Daybreak meeting, as had another obviously powerful Night Person, to whom Lupe had given reverence towards, though few others seemed to recognize him.
"It has been discovered, among other things, that the Night World Council is now officially aware that Circle Daybreak is back in operation." Thierry paused at the gasps and wide-eyed expressions that spread around the table. He attempted to speak over them all, using his own words to calm down the mood. "We all knew that this would happen eventually. We could have hardly expected to be able to keep down a secret of this magnitude for very much longer. However, it has come at a terrible time for us and the human world as a whole."
Hannah was at Thierry's side, holding his hand as though she would never let go, not surprising since this was the first time in all of their lives together that she was safe with her love and her soulmate and Maya was finally no more. They had doubled back to pick up Hannah's friend Chess who was now in the same room as Rashel and Fayth and was another human Old Soul, and on the way back, passing through California, had come by a third Old Soul by the name of Hugh who had also wished to join them.
Other than that, it was the old group that was sitting around, listening attentively to Thierry's every word. Thierry turned to Grandma Harman, and it was she who beheld the group at large and addressed them in clear tones, speaking a passage that was clearly memorized by heart.
"On a night when came from Night World three, "Together were they to guard of free;
"One from the land of kings long forgotten; "One from the hearth which still holds the spark; "One from the Day World where two eyes are watching; "One from the twilight to be one with the dark;
"From hence will come Wild Powers four, "And the worlds be changed forevermore."
Grandma Harman gazed carefully at each and every Daybreaker as though seeing directly into their very souls as they waited for her next words to explain the passage that she had just shared with them.
"It was myself, Thierry and Drache who came together on that long ago eve," Grandma Harman began. "One representative of the witches, one of the vampires, one of the shapeshifters."
Gazes from those around the table turned across to the one they had previously not recognized; Drache, Senior Head of the First House of the shapeshifters.
"It was in a time where havoc was being caused due to the fears of humans and their too great a knowledge of our people. Something had to be done about it, we all agreed upon that, and this was what was traded upon," Grandma Harman continued. "An alliance between the races within the Night World, as you all know, but as well, something much bigger. Something, however, that would take much longer in coming about."
"As human and Night People alike are aware, the millennium is coming upon us," Drache came in with. "And as well as being a great celebration date, it is also a time of great power that runs back to all of our roots; human, Old Soul, lamia, made vampire, werewolf, shifter, witch or lost witch all alike. We think that it is this indistinguishing power that is causing the soulmates of Night People to more and more often be as humans."
"Also," Thierry came back for the finish. "It means that the time when the alliance that kept the differing races within the Night World together is passing. Hunter Redfern's recent moves have just confirmed that. And now we have reason to believe that these four. . . Wild Powers will hold the key to the new alliance, which shall perhaps be one between Night People and humans together for the first time in all of our histories."
Amazement and excitement spread around the table as everyone there appeared suddenly to have something of great importance to share with everyone else. The very idea was amazing, and how come even those here who had lived in and grown up within the Night World had never heard anything of this prophecy, if indeed that was what it was.
"You must all understand," Theirry continued, bringing the calamitous talk and speculation to order once more, "That this only increases the importance of these projects that we undertake. Anyone of them could be a potential Wild Power, and until we find more of a way to narrow down the search, we much take on every odd occurrence that we get wind of as potential. We must not let any of these Wild Powers fall into the hands of the other side before ours. Now that the Council are aware of us, as well as Hunter's groups, we are going to have the battle of our lives to succeed in our endeavors."
" 'One from the hearth which still holds the spark. . .'" Thea mused aloud to herself. "But, that must be a lost witch. It could be. . ." Thea turned to Poppy, Phil and Gillian at once. "It could be any one of you even!"
Grandma Harman smiled indulgently.
"It very well could have been," she replied gently. "However, these Wild Powers have significant powers that we have just not seen in the months that Poppy, Phil and Gillian have been here with us." She smiled almost sadly at the three lost witches.
"But, it still could be a lost witch, right?" Thea persisted. "Even if it is not them. And it might still be one of them; they just don't yet know how to access that part of their powers."
"It could be," Grandma Harman allowed. "Although if it is a lost witch, it is more likely that she, or he, is not already within the immediate reach of Circle Daybreak. We must look out further than ourselves in this one."
" 'One from the Day World were two eyes are watching,'" Ash added in his quietly mild tone. "That one must be a human." He didn't go so far as to assume it must be Eric, David or Fayth. However, when his eyes rested on Mark and, thinking for a moment of Mary-Lynette as he so often did, they slowed slightly although still he said nothing more.
"I have dreamed of one of the Wild Powers," Grandma Harman announced. "And have reason to believe that they are currently within Californian borders."
She glanced briefly at Hugh, who looked down at the table thoughtfully.
"I have a few Night World contacts in that area," he murmured in the considering tones that seemed to be consistent with all awakened Old Souls. "I could go for a few days and see them out?"
"That would be welcomed," Grandma Harman replied with a small smile. There was little to smile at with the seriousness of the times they were about to face.
"Everything is a possibility, and while it is a good idea to look into these possibilities certainly, we cannot find ourselves limited by them," Thierry reminded all of them cautiously. "As well, right now, the best thing we can ensure for ourselves is that we are each well rested for the times about to come. Let me assure you they are set to be greatly tiring on us all."
*
Timmy was getting on everybody's nerves. Just now at this time when every moment was critical, he was constantly getting in the way and trying to undermine everything that everyone else was working at during any given time. Even Rashel could see what was becoming a swiftly larger and larger problem, though sibling loyalty heaped even higher after what she saw as her failure in the first place, was blinding her to what needed to be done about it.
"Quinn, man, you're going to have to say something to her," Eric was saying to him. "This morning he came in part way through our meditations. Do you know how much that almost stuffed up David's train? And just when he's starting to get it too. If I didn't know better, I would think he was getting thoughts from Hunter on exactly what to do to get us off our game right now, while he's free to pick up the first Wild Power."
Quinn rubbed his forehead with two fingers, knowing that what the human was saying to him was what everyone, including him, was thinking around here. But how the hell was he supposed to say anything? He was her soulmate. And people around here thought that should make it easier? People around here ought to know better, was what he thought!
"Look, I'll have a word with her, but. . ." he started, but was interrupted by the little bundle of disruption himself.
"Have a word with who?" Timmy asked, coming out of the shadows were he so often lingered. "Does Rashel know that her soulmate and fellow Daybreaker are co-conspiring about her behind her back? Don't think that would make her very happy to know about it, do you?"
"You keep quiet, you little snot," Quinn told him in no uncertain terms. "This has nothing to do with you."
"Oh, but I think it does," Timmy said smartly. "I think your worries about me and my contacts outside of these walls have everything to do with me. Why so silent, human?" he asked suddenly, his eyes flashing across to Eric who had stayed silent ever since the tiny vampire had shown himself.
"Nothing to say," he answered, adding pointedly, "To you."
"So unfriendly. Exactly the opposite to what Thierry wants for us all. The happy family made vampire. It's almost funny, you know?" Timmy started laughing in an off beat, eerie way that only he could manage to contrive. Both Quinn and Eric winced at the sound of it.
Then Rashel came into the room.
"Oh, I thought I heard you in here," she murmured to her little brother, or rather, the insane minion that had taken over his body when Hunter had drunk from it all those years ago.
She sidled up to Quinn, giving him a peck on the cheek with a tired smile that she always wore when Timmy was around these days.
"And what have you been up to then?" she asked him, striving for a brightness that she didn't feel.
"Just having an interesting conversation with a couple of your friends, actually," Timmy said in a parody of sweetness. "Wanna hear what I heard?"
"Rashel, why don't we go back up to your room? I saw Fayth and Chess going off somewhere with Hannah a little while ago. We should get your room to ourselves for a little while if we go now," Quinn said suggestively, a light hand over her arm.
Rashel smiled up at him, the first genuine smile she'd given anyone since she'd walked into that room.
"Sure. I'd like that," she answered. "You going to be okay in here without us, Timmy?" she asked, turning to face him as Quinn started leading her out.
"Just fine," Timmy answered with a snide smile.
*
"Doesn't it just thrill you, the idea of another lost Harman witch somewhere out there? A Wild Power witch," Thea said, her eyes shining at the thought.
"Personally, I think that there are too many of us as it is," Blaise answered sourly, pulling apart the differing threads in a piece of string. She looked up at Gillian who was learning from Thea the art of weaving magic into her threads. "Not that I have a problem with you of course," she added falsely sweet.
"Of course," Gillian replied, her tone revealing that she knew all too well Blaise's true meaning.
"Come on, Gill. I've taught you heaps of times, you have to really concentrate if you want to get this right," Thea instructed, her mind going back to her teachings instead of the Wild Powers that they had been told of the night before.
All three witches looked up at the clearing of someone's throat in the doorway. Blaise rolled her eyes and went back to picking at her thread. Thea looked vaguely uncomfortable and went back to focusing on Gillian's thread, while Gillian looked a mixture of confused and intrigued.
"Blaise, can I talk to you a moment?" Kestrel asked.
With a loud sigh, Blaise deliberately put down her things and walked over to the vampire, conscious of the other two witches' gazes on her back.
"What do you want?" she asked as soon as they were out of earshot.
"Not this," was Kestrel's answer. "I want you to tell me truthful. Tell me that you don't want this, and I'll walk away."
As Kestrel said 'this', she wrapped a slender hand around Blaise's wrist and held on while the mind link opened up and the warm fuzziness invaded the corners of both of their minds and hearts. Blaise took deep breaths, unused to such closeness and still uncomfortable in it.
Abruptly, and before any thoughts could be sent either way, Kestrel let go again.
"I'll just walk away," she reiterated, waiting a moment for her words to sink through, before turning and leaving Blaise to think on what she really wanted in this.
Moments later, her cheeks still flushed and breathing a little erratically, Blaise reentered the room, only to fiddle around a bit before announcing that she had better things that needed doing outside on so fine a day as this one.
*
