people in the world who were normal.
Beside the door was a bureau. It was lined with a jewelry box and pictures. She found herself looking at the pictures. Emile and Mackenzie were posed in front of the zoo together.
The sun was shining. Emile was wearing a miniskirt and laughing as Mackenzie splashed water from fountain at her. Both of them were smiling. Beside it was one taken at
Christmastime. Mackenzie looked handsome in a dark red sweater, and strangely relaxed with the book he held in his hands. His eyes were closed as he napped against Emile, who
was nestled tightly in his arms, as sound asleep as he was.
She shut the door to their bedroom quietly. She didn't want to see anymore. It was easier to hate Mac when she thought of him as a terrorist, and not a man who had a loving wife
and a life.
They drove for a long time. Beth noted that Mackenzie, driving the white van, was making the route as complicated as he could, as if trying to confuse her. Beth didn't care. She
wasn't paying attention. She was just trying hard not to think. She'd done a lot of thinking in the past six days, and she was tired of it. If there was a way to keep Cain from siding
with Mackenzie, she hadn't been able to think of it. She had come to terms with it long ago: they were enemies.
But saying it and believing it were two different things. It was hard to keep thinking of them as enemies when he dusted off her coat or did something similarly nice for her. He
confused her. He was dangerous because he was tearing her in two. How could she fight him? How could she let her friends fight him when they would probably die in the attempt?
How could she side with him when he wanted the subordination of her people?
She had often thought it would be better if she just seduced him and slit his throat when he slept. But she couldn't do that. He was her Soulmate. When he got close to her she tried
to physically push him away but her very body refused to act to such a thought. It would be easier for Bethany's hand to slit her own throat than to harm him.
So she just thought and reflected. Eventually they were going to kill her. Maybe she could deduce one of the theories of the universe first, and then die happy knowing that she had
finally discovered the meaning of life only to let it die with her. Yes, she decided. Douglas Adams would have appreciated that humor.
Mackenzie pulled the car to a stop at a Mac's convenience store. He hoped out and nodded to Cain. The dragon undid his seat belt and motioned for Beth to undo hers. He opened
the door for them to both hop out. Beth's legs were sore as she stood, looking around. She recognized this area. She was only two blocks from…
Don't say anything, he warned her. His arm slipped around hers and he steadily pulled her away. Her head hurt from the sound of his telepathic voice. It kind of rumbled. It was
like standing next to a waterfall when the sound echoed around you. There was a definite, deafening kind of rumble.
They walked steadily in silence. Had they not been dirty and tired and grumpy and ignoring each other as intently as they could, it almost would have been a pleasant walk. Beth
could feel her heart beginning to beat harder in happiness. Yes, she was close to home. It dawned on her as they drew to a stop only a few minutes from her house. He had
promised to keep her away from Fala. He was letting her go. She was going home.
He didn't need to tell her when she turned to see him. The shine and light of hope in her eyes told him everything. She had already figured it out. He wanted to tell her anyway as
his hand slipped from her arm. "I'm letting you go."
"But… why?"
It was a question neither of them wanted to have asked. Beth didn't want an answer, and he didn't want to hear the question. Why did she have to ask it? Couldn't she just have
accepted it?
"There is no reason for you to remain a prisoner. But I will continue to keep an eye out from you. I release you from bondage, not from being a prisoner. You are still my
responsibility to care for and ensure no harm comes to you."
Her face settled stubbornly. She shook her head, and her limp hair barely moved. Even it was tired. "That doesn't answer why. If you're going to kill me to bring back your family,
then why not just do it and get it done with?"
"That is not why I am going to watch over you." His voice was stern, but Beth knew why. He was doing it for the same reason that she wouldn't be able to kill him if fate ever gave
her the chance. "Mackenzie wants me to tell you not to tell Daybreak where they took you or else he promises he'll do more than read your diary."
She meekly nodded. Yes, Mac had proved that he and LouisEtienne could do much more than read her diary. She'd give them no reason to attack Eliza. "And you? Do I tell them
about you? Do I tell them you're awake?"
He shrugged. "Do whatever you please. I do not care if they know I am awake or not. They will not be able to find me. There is only one person in the world capable to tracking me
down. Though she refuses to let me know her, I have seen enough of her life to know that she is too honorable to use the connection between us to tell them where I live."
Beth blushed. No, she would never use their connection like that. She knew then that she would not tell Daybreak that Cain was her Soulmate. She didn't want them to use their
connection as bait for him, or to trick her into betraying him, or to wonder whose side she was on. She would show them nothing but fear and loathing. She knew she was good
enough to pull it off.
They stood on the corner. They didn't know what to say to each other. "You confuse me," she admitted to Kaneonuskatew.
He held out his hand in silent offering. All she had to do was touch him and she could see his intentions. She shook her head no and stepped back as if she were afraid of what he
was offering… and she was. She didn't want to see his mind. She didn't want to hear his thoughts. If it was a twisted place she'd be scared of him and if it wasn't then she knew
she'd only long to see it again. She didn't want that connection. She didn't want to remember what it was like to feel that… that complete, not after she had just become accustomed
to the emptiness of her own mind again.
He let his hand fall back down. He let his mask come right off, knowing that it was the only way Beth would see his sincerity. "I don't love you, either. Nothing I do is out of love.
It's done selfishly, or perhaps out of fear of knowing that without you, I… I would be truly alone. I don't want you to love me. I just wish that you could give me a chance to get to
change. Give me a reason to change, Bethany. Give yourself a reason to change. Maybe we can find some kind of a middle ground."
She looked up at him in surprise. Hadn't he seen her hate? Sometimes she felt like she was swimming in it. She hated so many people… she felt so dead and bitter on the inside
sometimes. She was so tired of life, sometimes!
"I don't want to be like them. I want change, but I won't help start a war to get change."
"It's not a war until your side fights back," he countered, trying to trap her with words.
Beth held her chin proudly. "Yes," she agreed. "It's only a war if we fight back. If we don't, it's a slaughter."
She turned and walked away, letting him chew on that idea.
No one was home when Beth walked through the door. She called Eliza's cell phone, but no one picked up. Knowing that people would have been worried about her, she then called
Kotori. With no answer at her house, she called Nicolas. After the phone rang at is house several times and no one picked it up, Beth decided that she'd had enough of the
conscientious friend. She wanted to be selfish and have a shower.
The shower was so hot most of her body had a red shade when she stepped out of it. Wrapped in a bathrobe
—the fluffiest one she could find—Beth tossed her dirty clothes in the
laundry hamper and ransacked her closet for suitable clothing. She found a pair of lounge pants and a fluffy orange sweater bought from the men's section at Goodwill. It was
perfect, coming down to the joints of fingers and making her feel like a fallcolored marshmallow.
Marshmallows made her think of hot chocolate. Beth headed down to the kitchen to make herself some, rummaging around until she found the marshmallows. She sat on the couch
with the television playing, fingers wrapped around the hot mug and her body curled in on itself as she tried to relax and forget about her ordeal.
Her mother found her like that when she returned from work. She saw the light on in the living room and ran the rest of the way to the house, throwing open the door. "
Then she spotted her daughter and ran to her. Beth welcomed her home with open arms. "Bethany! Where were you? We were so worried about you!"
There were tears clinging to her eye lashes as she unwound herself from Eliza. "Momma… I think it'd be better if you sat down to hear this."
Eliza excused Beth from school the next day, at Daybreak's request. They needed to talk to her. She had contacted them and asked to meet with her team the following morning—
Kotori included. Beth knew she would not be able to talk unless Kotori was there to back her up. After Eliza had listened to her story and accepted it with a grain of salt, Beth had
doubted Daybreak would believe her. Not that Eliza had called Beth a liar—she knew her daughter was a good and honest girl—she just found it hard to believe that a fifteen year
old boy had seriously been able to break the spells of a witch like Hellewise. Beth had faith that Kotori would support her.
It was because of Kotori that Beth kept from blowing up and getting frustrated. It was because of Kotori's hand laying supportively over hers that Beth's voice never rose, not even
when she had to repeat the story for the third, fourth and fifth times. She sat in a meeting room in the Daybreak headquarters, in a cramped and hot room. Clustered around the
table were Beth, Kotori, Alicia, Robert and Nick at the head of the table.
The room was painted a shade more grey than blue, and was windowless. Halogen lights made their shadows flicker across the table when they moved. The buzzing sounds from
the lights were the only sounds in the room as Beth concluded her story for the fifth time. It seemed her companions had finally concluded she was telling the truth.
Nick ordered them to take a fifteen minute break so he could go and make a phone call. Kotori accompanied Beth to the second floor cafeteria she could buy an Evian. She waited
until they were walking back before she inquired about Beth's ordeal.
"What aren't you telling me, Beth?"
"What?"
Her friend shrugged casually, but her body language indicated she was emotionally withdrawn from the conversation. "You haven't looked me in the eye since you arrived. You only
do that when you're avoiding me. Something happened out there that you're keeping from me…" She trailed off before she swallowed painfully. Beth suspected that though the
tremor she heard in Kotori's voice sounded born from fear, there was a torrent of rage underlying it. "These people abducted you, tore off your clothes, and nearly killed you. What
else could they have done to you that's so bad you're ashamed to look me in the eye?"
"Nothing else happened," she lied.
Kotori appeared to remain dubious. Slowly, Beth lifted her face to Kotori's. Her green eyes were determined. She knew she could lie to Kotori and make it believable, although the
feeling of that silver tongue touching her lips made her skin want to shudder. She repeated her words and Kotori visibly relaxed, her cheeks blushing with the same of having
accused Beth of lying to her.
When they returned to the meeting room, a lamia was standing there. Beth had never seen him before. He looked classy in a black suit with a warm, orange Oxford shirt
underneath. It complimented the dark color of his skin, and with the top two buttons left open, it appeared suitable for work but not uptight. Beth wondered, though, if the top two
buttons were undone because is neck was too thick for those buttons to even close.
Like all the vampire kin, he possessed the strange kind of beauty that marked all Night Worlders. It was strange to see that he possessed long lashes, blending invisibly against his
skin, or the way his lips seemed to move so suggestively when he spoke. He looked much more like a fighter: a large neck, muscular hands, thick limbs, broad shoulders, and a
stern chin. When she shook his hand in greeting, Beth found his handshake firm and competent, and he squeezed tightly as if testing her. Beth squeezed back for every bit of
strength in her much smaller hands.
He smiled when he felt her fighting back. His teeth were perfectly straight and pearllike. Bethany sized up the predator in him. He was one of those people who liked to play with
his food before he ate it as a kid. She'd stake her allowance on it. "So, you are Bethany."
"It's Beth," she corrected him. Her hand felt kind of numb from shaking hands with him.
Nick smiled. "Beth, this is the man in charge of running Daybreak, Mr. Duncan."
"Nicolas, Nicolas, Nicolas. It's just Duncan. The last thing I want is to have people calling me 'mister'." He smiled fondly at Beth—and she saw then how he was able to become the
leader of a region of Daybreak.
He may have had the underlying streak of dark satisfaction all Night Worlders had—probably from an unhealthy relationship with seeing too much violence and bloodshed—and he
was clearly a fighter, but there was a charisma there too that left all his other traits forgotten. The man could charm a rock, Beth was sure. So completely and utterly unlike
Kaneonuskatew, who rarely showed anything…
She steered her mind away from that train of thought and took her seat.
"Nicolas has been kind enough to fill me in on everything that's been happening," Duncan said, taking Nick's vacated seat at the head of the table. Again, he flashed that sincere
smile Beth's way. Nicolas took an empty seat beside Kotori, and Kotori's cheeks turned red by his proximity. No one but Beth noticed. Everyone else was too busy concentrating on
Duncan. He commanded the room. "Don't worry. I won't make you repeat your story, Beth. If you say there are two dragons loose, then I believe you. The question remains, what
do we do now?"
Alicia answered, staring across the table at Beth. "We protect her. She's the key, right? They need her to awaken the others, right? We make sure they can't do that! We hide Beth,
put her in a safe house or something where they can't get at her again!"
Duncan was already nodding his head in agreement. Beth didn't want to go to a safe house. Leave school? Leave Daybreak? Leave her home? She was shaking her head. "It won't
work. They'll be able to find me. Kaneonuskatew, he's my… he's a good tracker. He can find me anywhere, probably by scent alone. It doesn't matter how far away I am, he'll find me. Besides, all they need is someone halfshifter and halfhuman. It doesn't have to be, just someone like me."
The leader of Daybreak arched an eyebrow curiously. "And what do you propose we do, as you are so quick to shoot down the ideas of your companions?"
Beth chewed on her bottom lip. She wasn't used to being put on the spot, and especially not about tactics. She felt guilty she had been so quick to judge Alicia's idea. Alicia didn't
know Cain was her Soulmate. If it wasn't for that, it would have been a good idea. But even in Daybreak she could feel their connection humming steadily between them, stretching
across the city. If she touched it she knew she'd be able to pick up on his emotions and make sure that he wasn't scared or in danger… but she never
wanted to touch that
connection. She wanted to ignore it and pretend it didn't exist.
"Kaneonuskatew wants to protect his people. Mackenzie has led him to believe that this is the right and only way of doing it. We may be able to convince him otherwise. If we did,
we'd have a match in firepower for Fala. I tried to convince him whenever we spoke, but he wouldn't listen. He was... preoccupied. The others aren't bad. They may listen to change
as well. We just lack the ability to put them in a time and a place where they listen."
"They almost killed you," Kotori hissed over to her. "How can you say that they're good people? Think of all the others they killed!"
"I know!" Beth snapped back. Her face was red with embarrassment. What if the other thought she was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome or something, now? "But the fact is that
they are still people, not monsters. All of them have some kind of a reason for acting in this way. I'm not absolving what they did—I think they need to be punished for the crimes
they committed, but you have to understand that they all possessed real reasons for wanting to change our society! They're just doing it in the wrong way. Remember psychology
and sociology class, Kotori? If all a body is ever shown is violence, then violence is all it will ever know! Isn't that what Daybreak is here for? To give a nonviolent option?"
Duncan was nodding his head approvingly. That was what Daybreak was there for. They weren't pacifist, but they preferred taking first, and fought only when all other options had
been examined.
"Fala is the dangerous one. If it gets to a fight, we should concentrate on taking her down first. She kills indiscriminately. Cain will wait until he has a reason. We do research.
Figure out how to hurt, capture, slow down a dragon, whatever. We could talk to other sects of Daybreak, maybe try to get our hands on the same documents they had. Maybe
Roger could put them to sleep.
"I really don't know. Hell, I'm a high school student. I don't even have a decent grasp of Shakespeare yet. The point is: we have time. They're gaining power before they try to take
us down, but that won't mean they wouldn't kill or attack humans in the meantime. If they press us, I say we should fight, but our primary goal should be to subvert them by some
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