"What? How the hell could they have found out? I've kept to the rules!" Draven shouted in disbelief. "How could this happen so soon?" He got up and turned away from the figures at the table.
"Time is not an issue, child. You should have learnt that by now, if anything." Kalea replied gently. Not only a seer, Kalea's prowess with time magic was widely renowned.
"How am I supposed to protect her? I'll have no time to prepare anything, and it's only going to be Ethyn and me again! You know what happened last time! Isn't the purpose of these things to repair what went wrong? To stop the same thing from happening again?" He was pacing up and down the room. "If you don't give us more time we'll never be able to do it! Someone will end up dying, again!" Draven had never been this worked up about anything. He was usually calm and collected.
"Listen, you will be able to do this. You are not the same people you were before. Do not let your feelings cloud your judgement. Just protect Arianne, she will handle the situation, it is her destiny. I shall grant you more time as well, child, if that is your wish."
"You will not be alone this time either." Rakesh's commanding voice rang out, suddenly loud compared to Kalea's soft dulcet tone. "This is why we're here, to help you after all."
"We are going to provide you with a team." Draven spun to face the speaker. Jaci continued, "The best that Claudio and Akantha are able to spare." Her stony grey eyes bored into his, he opened his mouth to protest but she raised a cautionary finger. "Do not see them as a burden, they will be able to help and in some instances guide you. Remember the last time you tried to do this alone. It is best to learn from mistakes."
"You can't be in two places at once either, and no doubt Ethyn will still manage to get dragged into it all again. You will need help with the damage control, and help protecting the human. The rules have changed this time." This was the first time Henry had spoken during the meeting; he had a quiet voice that seemed to focus all eyes to him.
"Fine." Draven slumped down in chair, defeated. They knew he would have trouble accepting direct intervention, he felt that the situation was his fault therefore he should be the one to rectify it. However, he knew they were right. Trying to work alone got him in this mess in the first place. He sighed and look to the leaders. "So what happens now?"
"I will work with Kalea to produce the delay that you need. We will also put more wards around her. They may have become aware of her, but we can hide her power and mind from them for a little longer. They will not be able to find her." Akantha's voice was sharp and heavily accented.
"In the mean time I will introduce you to your team, you will get acquainted, bond, that sort of thing." Claudio grinned and went to stand up.
"Wait, I forgot to mention, the reason for me getting in touch in the first place. Someone has been following Ethyn."
Akantha looked at Kalea, a small frown, wrinkling her brow. "The human? This is not good news. I was going to suggest putting similar wards round those closely associated with her, family and such like, but if they are already tracking them it will be useless."
"We need to establish if it is really the council sending people to follow them. It is cause for concern if they are moving that quickly." Kalea added. "The only way to discover her will be to track someone that has contact with her and get that person to lead them straight to her, and to break the wards all they need is one or more witches with sufficient power."
"We could send a separate team to monitor her friends and family, they may be able to intervene if the council's drones get too close," suggested Jaci.
Claudio approved with a nod. "You and your team's first mission will be to discover if they are actually targeting her friends. We do not want to pull people off other important missions for a false alarm."
Draven rubbed his eyes with his hands and pushed his hair out of his face. "Right. I have one question though. How did the council find out in the first place?"
Kalea looked sadly at him, "Circle Midnight has their own seer too, my twin, we have a strong bond, sometimes we share visions. I can only assume she has seen one of mine regarding Arianne. If not, then she has probably had her own vision concerning the council's part to play in this. I am sorry; we have not come up with a way to block this."
"It's not your fault. At least we know that they know. We won't be caught completely unaware." He shrugged and gave Kalea a small smile. "I guess it's time I met this team. We've got people to find after all."
Jaci smiled, "In the mean time we will do our best to find out more information and place more wards around the girl. If you need any more help, you know where we are; our resources are at your disposal. The rest will be in your hands."
With that, Draven got up and walked to the door, he paused before he left, "thank you. I'll protect her. I owe her that. Maybe I couldn't save her last time, but this time I will."
At this Kalea chuckled softly. "You have no choice child."
And with that he left the room.
Rose was waiting for him outside the meeting room, with a concerned look on her face. "I'm sorry that it wasn't good news." She placed a hand on his arm.
He shrugged and carried on walking. "It's done now; all that matters now is how we deal with it. Do you know anything about this team that's been assigned to me?"
"Well," she said in her lilting voice, brushing a stray lock of deep brown hair off her forehead as she caught up with him. "I'm not supposed to say until Claudio introduces them all to you, but, and you didn't hear this from me ok? I think you'll be happy with who've they picked. I personally think they're a great bunch." She shot a dazzling grin at Draven, showing very white, small teeth, and winked mischievously at him. That could only mean one thing. She had been placed on the team.
Rose was one of the first daybreakers he'd met after the incident. They'd got on well from the start. She was playful, fun, very determined and at times annoyingly stubborn. She'd come to Circle Daybreak fed up of the prejudice and treatment she received by the majority of the Night World community.
He gave her a disappointed look, "oh, I guess that means I'm stuck with you then."
"Hey!" She punched him playfully on the arm. "I'll remember that"
He winced and put on a pained expression, "If the whole team is like this then I'll be in big trouble, I'll need some form of padding" he grinned and carried on walking. They had a tendency of winding each other up.
Rose made a noise that sounded very much like a snort. "You'll need more than that if you carry on!"
He laughed and felt some of the tension from the meeting melt away. "I'm starving, how long have I got before I meet the troops?"
"Enough time to grab a bite I guess. Depending on what you fancy, of course." She raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow.