"Where are we?" Zac asked as they pulled up to an old Victorian house in the middle of nowhere.
"Somewhere safe," Annie said quietly.
Jez glanced back at her. They were riding motorcycles. Annie on Jez’s and Zac on Morgead’s.
"Right," Jez said. "This house is basically a safe house. We have them all over the USA. This one has only a few people at the moment. Just the Wild Powers and a few others."
"What’s a Wild Power?" Zac asked.
"Can’t say," Morgeade said.
"Maybe later…" Jez told them, glancing at Annie as if to say ‘don’t tell.’
Annie looked back at her and nodded. They all knew that if Zac were to know that the end of the world was near and it was up to 4 teenagers to stop it, he’d freak out.
"Ok," Zac said, giving them all a strange look.
"Let’s go in," Jez said, leading the way.
They walked up the front porch and into the house.
"Hello Jezebel!" a girl said once they were inside.
"How many times to I have to tell you Iliana! Don’t call me Jezebel!" Jez said.
"Oooh! Gonna use your blue fire on me?!?" she asked with a grin.
"Don’t tempt me…" she said, glaring at the other girl.
"Oh, Zac, Annie, Iliana," Jez introduced.
"Hey," Iliana said. "You Keller’s victims?"
"Yeah," Annie said. "I guess you could say that."
"Well, its nice to meet you."
"No, its nice to meet you," Annie replied.
"What did she mean by blue fire?" Zac asked, suddenly feeling even more uncomfortable.
"Never mind," Annie told him.
"Ok," he said slowly.
"We’re going to introduce you to some other people from Circle Daybreak," Morgeade said.
They all went into a large room. It was a meeting room, but looked more like a lounge with people just casually sitting about talking.
"Hey," Jez called for silence. "This is Annie and Zac," she announced.
"Wow, a celebrity," a guy said, a mocking tone in his voice.
"Shut up, Ash," Jez said.
Annie’s heart raced. Ash? As in Ash Redfern? In the books he was wonderful! He was kind of evil but that just made her love him more!
"Anyway," Jez said. "as I was saying. Since he is a celebrity, that could cause problems for us here in the Night World."
"Yeah, we’ll have screaming teenage girls showing up at our door," Ash said, smiling and showing off his teeth.
"Once again, shut up Ash," Jez said.
"Who died and made you leader?" Ash demanded.
Jez gave him a smug look. "I was sent out to find Keller, I found victims. I’m leader."
"Whatever," Ash said.
"Anyway, since he is a celebrity that could cause problems because we here like to blend in and not let the Night World exist, but someone’s bound to find out or Keller will just kill them."
"What about our families?" Annie asked.
"We’ve already got people on it," Morgeade said. "They’re watching the house’s in secret."
"Good," Annie said, sounding relieved.
"So what do we do?" Morgeade asked.
"Well, they could go on living normal lives and stick to the basic laws of not letting anyone know about them. Or they could come live with everyone here at Circle Daybreak. Or in another city," Jez said.
"We can go on living normal?" Zac asked, brightening up.
"Well," Jez said.
"It’d be hard," another boy said.
"Who are you?" Zac asked.
"Delos," he answered.
Zac just nodded.
"Delos is right," Morgeade said. "It would be very difficult. Keller will be after and if she reports back to the council, so will they."
"So we just disappear off the face of the planet?" Zac asked.
"Its not so bad, Zac," Annie said.
"But, I can’t leave my family. My career. I love my music!"
"Zac, what good is it if you’re dead?" she asked.
Zac sighed, his hope diminishing. She had a point.
"We’ll work on getting rid of Keller," Jez said. "Then work with that."
"She still expects Annie to hold up on her end of the bargain," Morgeade added.
"What bargain?" Ash asked.
"I kind of told her that I’d make my friends vampires if she would make me one…" she answered quietly, ashamed. "But I wasn’t gonna do it!" she added quickly.
"She didn’t even make her a vampire! She left her there to die!" Zac added. "My brothers and Jennifer brought her home and I changed her!"
"Well, first let’s work on getting rid of Keller," Jez said.
"I hate this!" Jennifer exclaimed. "I want to know what’s happening!"
"Don’t worry," Taylor soothed her. "They’re in good hands."
"He’s right Jen," Isaac added. "They’ll be fine."
"But, they’re…they’re vampires." She whispered the last part.
"I know," Taylor whispered into her hair, holding her close on the couch. "I know."
