This chapter sucks, but it's for the next chapter, which shouldn't suck quite so much.

Chapter 3.

"Erm…are you mad at me, Thea?" Eric said as he stopped the car outside what had formerly been known as the Circle Daybreak Headquarters. They hadn't really talked since the day before, when his mother had insisted on embarrassing him in front of his soulmate – he could normally take the questions like that, but not when Thea was just a foot away – now, the day after, he wasn't sure whether he had wanted to drop to one knee right there in the kitchen and produce a diamond ring. They hadn't talked properly since breakfast the day before, not even to argue over Blaise.

"Mad at you?" Thea chortled from the back seat, "no! Why would you think that?"

"Well, you haven't talked to me since yesterday…"

"You haven't talked to me either," she replied indignantly.

"I was embarrassed," he said in defence, "my mother…"

She laughed again, and it was like music to him, "so was I, Eric. Just let it go. Your mother is sweet, but I don't think she understands things like humiliation." With that comment, she groped for the door handle, swung it open, and unbuckled the baby car seat, lifting it by the handle and getting out the car. Blaise was awake and staring at everything in wonder, Eric was already out of the car, and as he slammed the door shut, her caught Thea's hand. Electricity shot through her arm, through her shoulders, and almost made her drop the seat in the other hand. She smiled – who needed speech when you had the soulmate connection, anyway?

They walked through the huge building towards the wing that Thierry had already had rebuilt, weaving through black rose decorations and white plaster, they found themselves in what had been the living room, where all the meetings had taken place. A quick look around the room told them almost everyone was there already. Poppy and James were sitting in the corner together, James on the floor, Poppy on the couch; Hannah and Thierry were sitting on the couch in the middle, opposite Delos and Maggie, Quinn and Rashel were at the window, sitting on the windowsill, Gillian and David on the floor in between Delos and Maggie. The only couple missing was Jez and Morgead – and themselves, of course.

"Ooh!" Poppy squealed, jumping up from the sofa, stepping on James's hand in her rush to get to Eric and Thea or – more likely – Blaise, when she got over, she snatched the car seat from Thea's hand and looked in at Blaise, who gurgled and made an indefinable squeal, "She talked!" Poppy exclaimed, looked at Thea, "what did she say?"

"Nothing, Poppy, she can't talk yet," she answered, "wont be saying her first words for a few months yet, she's just starting making noises now," smiling gently, she leaned down as though to pick the carrier up, but Poppy had danced off towards James.

"Look, uncle James!" she announced, even though he was actually a second cousin, not an uncle – neither Eric or Thea bothered to correct her, it was cute – "isn't she the cutest thing you've seen this side of forever? Don't you want one, huh? Huh?"

James only glared, "you know, I have a whole new reason to want to kill you now, Eric," he said conversationally, "she will not shut up!"

"I have the same problem," David confided from across the room.

"Well, at least you could…" James started, then trailed off, as though he'd changed his mind about what he was going to say.

"Yeah, me too James," Delos agreed in relation to having the same problem.

Hannah hit Thierry before he could agree. Quinn just looked smug, "well I don't have that problem."

"No, that problem's entirely mine," Rashel commented dryly, everyone laughed; Thea gripped Eric's hand and pulled him to the floor, seeing as how all the seats were already taken.

"So, what is this all about, Thierry?" Eric asked, assuming that they'd already been told. Thierry shook his head, "I'm waiting for Jez and Morgead to get here before I tell you all."

"Hannah?" Thea asked, and everyone knew why she was doing it. Hannah was a lot easier than Thierry to get information from – she was almost an ordinary teenager, after all, she revelled in gossip.

"You're the third to try that trick on me today, Thea!" she exclaimed, "but Thierry hasn't even told me!"

"Not telling his beloved soulmate?" Quinn asked dryly, "We're all in serious trouble."

Suddenly, the doors burst open, not quietly as they had when Thea and Eric came in, but angrily, with force, Rashel dropped into a fighting stance, Delos and Quinn reaching for weapons, as a voice sailed through the air, they all heard the voice before they recognized the people "I tell you Morgead – I won fair and square! Claire said so, and Claire doesn't lie!"

A flash of red, spinning through the air angrily, a flash of black. That was all they could see of the people now.

"Sure she does, everyone lies, she didn't want her cousin to get hurt feelings," another voice trailed through into the room, "it was quite obvious that I beat you."

The flashes finally formed the bodies of two people they all knew well: Morgead and Jez.

"In your dreams, Morgie, you beat a wild power? Heck no…"

"Not in my dreams, Jezebel, in reality!"

"Nice to have you two back to normal," Maggie grinned.

"Normal? This isn't normal, this is outrage!" Jez hissed, slamming herself down, "he's so damn wrong. He's such a goddamn sore loser."

"A sore loser, me? You're…"

"I'M GLAD YOU'RE ALL HERE," Thierry yelled over the noise.

"The one who wont admit defeat – ever!"

"BECAUSE WE HAVE SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT TO DISCUSS…"

"Yeah, and you're the one who claims its only your affection for me that lets me win."

"THE NIGHT WORLD HAS DUG UP A NEW PROPHECY!"

"It is!"

"IT MAY EVEN BE AS IMPORTANT AS THAT OF THE WILD POWERS…"

"I beat you as a human onceMorgead!"

"Will you two shut up?" James yelled, still in a bad mood, "Thierry is trying to talk about something a little more important than your little game!"

"Thank you James," Thierry said in his proper voice again, "we don't know what the prophecy is right now, we're looking into it, but we have reason to suspect that it has to do with one of you," he waved his hand to indicate everyone in the room, "or me and Hannah. One of the couples anyway, it..."

This time the interruption came from the direction of Poppy and James, but it wasn't either of them, it was Blaise, she was crying. Poppy looked up, startled, "I didn't do anything!"

"She'll just be hungry," Eric said, feeling an argument brewing, "she hasn't fed since breakfast," he stood up and took Blaise from her seat, walked over to where Thea was waiting with a bottle, he reached for it but Thea pulled it out of reach, "you fed her at breakfast."

"Yeah, but then you got to look after her in the back of the car," Eric said.

"You can look after her on the way back."

"I want to feed her," Eric replied stubbornly. He realised the others were all gaping at them in morbid fascination, "you can look after her on the way back." Maggie was the first to break the silence; "lord, I didn't think you were serious when you said you fought…" she blinked.

"Where's your dignity, man?" David asked, pointing his question at Eric, "at least Morgead was arguing about a fight."

"Gone," Eric answered with a smile.

"A long time ago by the looks of it," Rashel added, "Thea's too."

"No way, women are supposed to be like that," Delos argued, got a hit from Maggie, "I mean…yeah…I meant what I said," she hit him again.

Thea laughed and Eric grinned, seeing Thea's hand come down, he reached and grabbed for the bottle, "thank you."

Everyone watched as he fed Blaise, blotting spilled milk with the bib, until Poppy said, "Look, see how adorable they are together."

"You're falling for Eric now?" James asked teasingly.

She glared, "I'm falling for the baby, James – get a clue."

"OKAY," Thierry yelled, "anyway, where was I?"

"Prophecy, had no idea what it was, involving one of the soulmate couples," Jez drawled.

"You heard all that in the middle of arguing?" Gillian asked, surprised.

"Thank you, Jez," Thierry cut in again, "the point is that you should all take the necessary precautions. You are all welcome to stay here, of course, and we'll transfer headquarters back from Galen's mansion. He wrinkled his nose as if perhaps he'd been enjoying the peace, "or stay at Galen's. Somewhere secure and safe."

"Yeah, somewhere secure and safe," Jez rolled her eyes, "like this mansion was when it got broken into? It had just as many guards as the Drache's does now, just as many security systems, they still got through."

Thierry nodded, raking one hand through his hair, "but is there anywhere better to go?"

No one had an answer to that.

"You said you don't know anything, Thierry," Thea said softly, "but you must know something to be warning just us. What is it?"

He hesitated, as though he didn't want to speak, "my spies couldn't recollect the whole thing. They said it was like a poem, surprisingly long, but they could remember one line, power resulted from a soulmates love.

"Power…" Delos repeated, "You don't think that it's targeting me or Jez…?"

"No, it couldn't," Hannah supplied, seemingly thinking hard, "That power isn't resulted from love, it just is. But all of us have gained power being with our soulmates. it's a given," suddenly she looked up, moved her eyes from Rashel to Poppy to Jez, "except…power resulted…vampires are more powerful than humans, and Rashel and Poppy only got turned through love, and Jez starting having blood meals for the same reason."

"No." Morgead said softly, "Not for love, Jez did it so that she could help more in the millennium battle."

"Okay," Thierry nodded, "that was a good point, I hadn't thought of it," He looked at his soulmate in admiration, "Rashel and Quinn, Poppy and James especially, but in case we're wrong – everyone else too, be on your guard."

"Yes sir!" Rashel snapped out a salute, the other three looked unbelievably worried.

"Don't worry. This wont be like before," Thierry went on, "we'll find the prophecy, we'll know who they're targeting, and we'll keep you safe. I promise."