Chapter 4.

"I want that baby dead!" Morana Redfern screamed as loud as she possibly could. Everyone in her command jumped back, as though stung by murderous bees. She loved that power, loved the feeling it gave her, but today wasn't the day to bathe in it. Today was the day to start planning to kill the child, the one that the prophecy spoke of as the Destroyer:

The Destroyer, it comes, to kill the enemy,

Power resulted from soulmates love, to be wielded only by them
The first of her kind, ever to breathe, named through misfortune,

A miracle of all free peoples,

To kill her is to achieve the power of the gods,

The ability for either side to win the Great War,

At one time, it may have rhymed, not translated into English however. Morana had only one interest; she wanted that baby dead. There were other prophecies to back it up, and they all told of the baby being born in the months after the 'freedom of kings' another prophecy that Morana wished she had read before. She saw the king as Galen, who was – of course – now the king of the shape shifters. Never again would she be beaten, she intended to kill the baby and have her side achieve ultimate power.

She wasn't with the Night World, or Daybreak, she made her own team – a team fixed not on Night People's survival. No…not any more.

Survival of the Vampires, it was all that mattered. The shape shifters? Damn them to hell for following the first house. The werewolves? Snivelling idiots that they were, they wouldn't understand as she executed them, laughing. The witches? They were as bad as the shape shifters, worse…practically humans.

Humans? They would live, as a source of food – nothing more.

Sure, she had werewolves, witches, shape shifters, and even humans working for her as well as vampires, but they didn't know her great plan. Once the war was won, she'd wipe them all out and the vampires would have the world as their own playground, not having to share the humans with shape shifters or werewolves, not having to listen to the self-righteousness of those witches.

As soon as Keller was freed to go and play house with the king of the shape shifters, Morana had been searching for the baby, knowing that it must be one of those righteous couples Circle Daybreak were always parading. Then she found her, not the baby: Thea Harman. She was lying in the human hospital, in pain – pathetic. Her friend Holly was down the hall. First she dealt with that Holly – she could tell that she had wood poison that she would probably live through it as a witch. There was a solution to that, feed her vampire blood – make her as much vampire for her to die eventually from it, and in the process scare Circle Daybreak when the humans noticed.

She had gone back to finish Thea Harman off. One of the last Harman girls, leaving only Gillian and Illiana, wouldn't that shake up Circle Daybreak? Let them think she was after the Draches and the Harmans, but she had already read the prophecy, and as she crossed the room, she read a card that was sitting by the side of the bed, it caught her attention only because it had a picture of a baby on, the word CONGRATULATIONS in pink writing.

Thea, and I suppose Eric too I didn't want to send a card saying get well soon, they had flowers on the front and were boring, thought you might like this one more. Get well soon though! And congrats on the new baby!
Lots of love, from both of us! Gillian and David

X X X

This had surprised the vampire and she had scoured the whole of the hospital for the baby, eventually finding – by pretending to be a friend of Thea's – that the baby wouldn't be born for another four months. She had remembered the due date and made a mental note to come back a week before then to watch Thea and her kid.

She hadn't counted on the baby being born premature and no matter who she talked to, she couldn't find out where Thea and Eric had taken the kid. She did discover that the kid was called 'Blaise' – named through misfortune, her namesake had been killed by a vampire of the Night World not long before.

Also, from a nurse that she tortured – before killing – she found out that the baby had been a miracle, practically. For her to live through Thea's stabbing, then be born premature with no difficulties, already perfect.

The more she learnt, the more convinced she was. There was just one thing puzzling her: the first of her kind…it was rare nowadays for a witch and a human to have a child together, but that was only because of the Night World laws, long ago it had been frequent, and still happened between lost witches and humans, Morana was going to give up – until she heard some very interesting news through the Night World. she had been in a club, drinking, talking to vampires, when one of them had brought a very important matter up.

"Have you heard about Blaise Harman?"

Morana's eyes had shot up into her hair, but she had been cool, "the girl who was part of a raid on the warehouse and got bled dry? One of the four last Harman girls?"

"Not that Blaise. Blaise Harman-Ross" the girl had laughed, already at least partially drunk, "Thea Harman – in Circle Daybreak – she had a baby with that vermin she says is her soulmate. Stupid Daybreakers, soulmates…" she had snorted, and Morana had felt herself start to lose her temper, "anyway, I have a shape shifter friend, and he told me that he saw the baby at the Drache's wedding. It had smoky grey eyes when one parent had brown and the other green."

Morana had rolled her eyes; "Harman had probably been playing away, could you imagine being with vermin always?"

"You don't know Thea," the girl had laughed, "or any of them with their itty-bitty soulmates. This one had grey eyes, like the other Harman girl: Blaise, and people say that they bristle with intelligence, not with wisdom, but with intelligence anyhow, like a new old soul. They think she's the first ever witch old soul!"

The first of her kind…

That girl had been very informative; Morana had made sure she didn't suffer too much when she killed her.

Now, she was preparing to go to the house of Eric Ross's family, she was going to kill that baby once and for all if her team could get moving. She had a submachine gun in her hands and she'd discovered where Thea was living from stalking out Thierry's mansion, as soon as she had recognized a blonde woman with a baby, along with a blonde man, getting out her jeep, she had tightened her hold on her gun, then realised there were too many guns to try anything. Instead, she waited until they came out again and drove home, following them, coming back to put a team together before she went after the happy couple and their adorable little baby.

Now, it was time.

As a collective unit, she and her team started towards the door. Driving to the Ross-Harman house in so many different vans and cars that the whole road would be congested until the baby was dead. Morana wanted the chance of killing the baby, so – flanked by a couple of shape shifters – she made the way to the roof of a nearby house. From there, she could see the crib for the baby, a blonde girl was standing over it, staring in – it seemed – a sandy haired guy walked in behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and peeking over the baby. The girl – presumably Thea – looked abck and kissed him.

She was tempted to kill them both, along with the baby. But Thea was a powerful witch – what if Morana didn't kill them on first shot – or only got Eric? – She could grab the baby and run.

So, she waited until Eric and Thea were at the other side of the room, in bed – the lights off – she waited half an hour. then she machine-gunned the crib until the thing was blown into pieces.

She waited for the strength to come.