"You don't remember a thing," Fran whispered and Daryl slumped forward, unconscious. The whole room had been thrown into silence, bodies littering the floor. I'd expected Fran to go from person to person, eliminating their memories – but… I stood there, shaking in fear and disbelief. The only people he'd had to wipe were the people around me – which included Lily, Katie, Mitchell and Daryl. It was as if his telepathic powers were so strong that he could send out something like sonar and people would fall to his wishes. That was what had happened. The whole top floor of Brunel was asleep, knocked out from one thought from one very broody guy.

Fran's gaze swept over me and he sighed. "Hannah…" it was a lost cause, he could see the tears in my eyes. Finally, he only managed to say, "Don't be afraid of me," It wasn't enough to make me feel it. I know I should've, but I was scared. Not of him but for him. What must it be like to be you? To watch what you say? To think that everyone's talking about you and your secret? To be paranoid? To be a Wild Power, I thought dizzily.

He stood up, brushing his brown hair out of his eyes. His blue eyes flashed the same colour as cyan as they caught the light. They twinkled like the stars at night as they're gaze locked mine and I was absorbed, drowning in the essence of 'Fran'. He opened his mouth but I couldn't hear him speak anymore. I briefly realised that when he stood up to his full height, instead of bending to catch me, my eyes were facing his lips.

I shivered. Fran stopped talking and gazed down at me, worriedly. "Hannah? Are you cold?" I could hear that for some strange reason. My senses were knocked back into reality and I looked up at him before nodding shyly. He nodded and then put an arm around my shoulder.
"We'd better leave before everyone starts to wake up," he smiled, encouragingly and held me close. "Let's get outside and go someplace safe,"

"Fran…" I opened my mouth to tell him to take me home but I knew that was stupid. I couldn't live without him now that he was in my life; I felt something thrumming between us – like an invisible cord. He knew I wouldn't stop him leading me to wherever it was he was taking me, and I didn't say anything whilst we walked out of the club, seeming pretty casual considering what had just happened.

It was hard enough to realise it was true and that he really was a Daybreaker. Not just a Daybreaker, a lamia. And what's more the fourth Wild Power. A purple stairway led down to the exit of the club. You couldn't hear anything down there when I'd arrived, so the bouncers wouldn't be suspicious. They nodded at us as we left and I flashed a dazzling smile back. Fran just looked at me, curious.

I was lifted out of my down mood and thought I might as well enjoy the time I had with my soulmate. When we'd cleared the corner, I turned to Fran and rested my head on his shoulder. He stared at me as if I had three-heads but I knew so much about him already. Because the connection between us… the invisible cord… it was literally whispering secrets about Fran to me. It told me what sort of person he was and who he'd always thought he'd been, and the scary thing was – he didn't even know it was happening. And I bet it's doing exactly the same thing to me, I mentally groaned, but I didn't shift my happiness.

As soon as we were outside, I didn't feel cold – because it was a warm summer's night. The streets were deserted and the only sound was the occasional thrum of a joyride down the hill. "Where are we going?" I asked, sighing. Fran looked at me and I realised we were in some sort of bubble – making us the only two in the world that mattered. That someone was directing us. Like puppets on a stage. Guiding us to complete the scene. And we both knew where it was headed.

"My place." I stared at him and then, stammering, he tried again. "I – I mean, uh, where I'm staying." Close, but no cigar, buddy. I thought, sourly. "And where are you staying?" I asked, smirking. Fran cleared his throat and relaxed his arm around my shoulders. I could feel how uncomfortable he was. I wasn't thrown off.

"Walcot Road. It's not far from –" he didn't finished. I was staring at him with wide-eyes, both in astonishment and mock disbelief. "What?" he asked. I laughed, maniacally, throwing my head back so my hair dangled around my shoulders. "You don't live along Walcot Road!"
"No, I don't – I said that, okay?" he said, patiently. "I told you that I'm just staying there. It's my uncle's house but I'm sort of house-sitting," he shrugged. "Why is it so hard to believe?"
I looked down at my feet and immediately realised he was taking my way home. It was a wonder we'd never met before. "Because I only live around the corner," I smiled faintly whilst my heart gave a dull thump.

We were walking slow, just making ordinary conversation. We were rounding Walcot Road when I saw the cars parked in the centre of the street. Fran stopped abruptly when he saw them. Black sedans and a limo. By the way he was staring, I could tell they were parked outside his house.

"Fran?" I shook his arm and all I got back from him was tightened muscles and a grim expression. He removed his arm from my shoulder and scowled. "We can't go there tonight," he told me. I simply just stared, open mouthed at him. "But why not?" I hissed. I didn't know why I was getting so worked up. If the cars belonged to Circle Daybreak…

"I mean it, Han, we can't." he pointed to the bonnet of the cars and I could just make out a very small emblem marked on the top of each of them. It was a black rose. The Night World. I gasped and then started tugging on his arm, trying to reassure him (but most of all – myself). "They wouldn't know! Fran, they couldn't-"

At that instant, a boy about nineteen came skulking out of a house in the centre of the street. He had a grimy face and limp, blond hair – like surfers get when they've been in the sea too long. He was quite tall, with a savage way of walking and a stare that made your insides shrivel. Fran pushed me into the shadows and clamped his hand around my mouth. It's a werewolf, he told me. Don't speak – try and hold your breath.

I'd never been good at holding my breath, but I tried desperately. Fran and I peered around the wall we'd sheltered behind and watched. The 'wolf clambered into one of the cars and then it drove off. Soon, all the cars followed suit until the limo was the only one left. This was the only car that didn't have the rose emblem on it.

The number plate read: HREDFER but it didn't click until I saw the design of the fern on the bonnet. And then, Fran sucked in a breath as a tall, flat-muscled redhead swung out of the passenger side. I couldn't see his face from this distance but as soon as I saw his figure my body tensed up. Hunter Redfern. I didn't know how I knew but I did and I was terrified from the moment he walked up the path, to the moment he came out of the house, nodding in the direction of the car.

Fran watched with wide eyes that glistened in the lamplight, shining amber above us. His pupils were so small; his eyes practically seemed to have lost the irises too. A person swung out from the back seat, holding a stout gun in their arms. My eyebrows flew up. It wasn't like anything I'd ever seen. It was chrome and short, with a thick trigger and a harpoon sort of tip. It was hollow, like an exhaust pipe, and the tip of the arrowhead had the small hole that was the tunnel smack-bang in the middle. I could see it, but I wondered with my subconscious mind how I could notice a detail like that from this distance.

The figure was a girl, I could tell by the way her hips swayed. She had oily black hair that ran down her back like a cloak. "I'm not getting caught in a fire again, father." The girl growled and instinctively I knew she was Lily. And a fire – what other fire was there other than Nyala's idea to set the house aflame in The Chosen?

Hunter laughed. "The entire house is soaked in gasoline, just shoot through the window," he grinned, before clambering back into the car. Fran's mouth was hanging open and he was shaking his head. I could feel the distance between us now – the soulmate cord so thin that I couldn't feel it underneath all my panic.

"You're positive he's the Wild Power?" she called over her shoulder, aiming the gun at the front window. I wondered, for a moment, what time it was and whether they could get away with doing something like this when people might be awake. Fran was thinking the same, I could tell. But no one came outside and maybe that was good. Maybe if they did go outside then they would be killed…

Lily tossed her head back and laughed, pulling the trigger on the gun. I was wrong from the beginning, because it wasn't just a gun – it was a flamethrower. And everything happened so fast after that. Like slow motion. The tentacle of fire came out as a thin line and then exploded into a mass of billowing flames, roaring and bursting through the window of the house. It engulfed everything as it went, I could hear by the sound of the fire growling and pounding into anything in its path.

Lily kept her finger on the trigger and soon the frame surrounding the window was on fire and it reminded me of the circus. As if Lily was a lion and was going to perform the trick of jumping through the ring of fire. Hunter was cheering on from the sidelines, cracking his whip. The ringleader.

Fran had tears in his eyes by the time Lily had stopped firing. She cocked her head on one side, watching admiringly, before returning to the limo. As the sleek vehicle pulled away, Fran watched the house burn and rumble with constant fire. It was a miracle that the whole street didn't wake up. After a while, the noise turned to a drone that was almost a lullaby and the two of us slumped down onto the pavement, watching. It was beautiful, despite the consequences.

I knew that Fran's things were in there and I felt terrible, but it was like watching a firework display. It trapped my attention and refused to give it back.

Fran bowed his head and cradled it in his hands. "I don't understand how he could've found out –" then he stopped, jerked his head up and groaned. "The bouncers," he concluded. I simply shuffled my feet and held my knees to my chest. "The bouncers were Night People. If they were then they could've heard the music stop – they could've…" he spun off and simply took a deep breath.

Then he turned to me and stood up. "Let's go,"
"But I have to get home," I finally managed to blurt out. Fran looked hurt and I regretted it instantly. Because he had no home to go to now – not in Swindon, anyway. "Hannah, please…"

"I could call my parents and say I'm sleeping round a friend's," I replied immediately, already getting my phone out of my pocket. I refused to carry my money and phone in handbags when I went to Brunel – I didn't want to risk it getting stolen.

Fran smiled and nodded.

"Mum? I'm staying over at Lily's tonight-" God, the word Lily left a bitter taste in my mouth after the evening's events and it was hard for me to force the image of my friend into mind - I was so focused on the Redfern Lily and not the Raynor Lily, "She's inviting some girls… Yeah, I know it's short notice but… Well, put it this way, Lily knows people Mum – I could be popular... Well, Katie's going and so is Leighanne… Oh you know who Leighanne is! Look, Mum do you want me to have a social life or –" I stopped when I saw Fran sniggering. I winked and then started wrapping up the conversation. "Yep, uh huh, okay Mum. Thanks! Bye!"

I put the phone down and just swung it back in my pocket. "Will she check up on you?" Fran asked, watching me intently. I waved a hand. "Nah, she trusts me," then I looked up at him. "Now where?" I asked, motioning my head back so it signified the burning skeleton of the house. Fran grimaced and held out his hand.
"Do you trust me?" he asked, voice quiet and mysterious. I raised an eyebrow and folded my arms. "Why?"
"Do you trust me?" he repeated, not removing his hand. For an instant, our eyes locked. "Y-e-s," I replied, confused. I took Fran's hand and he smiled, a secret smile.

"Then let's go," he whispered in my ear.