They were driving into Berlin from the East, in Sweet's blood-red antique Ford Vampire with hover conversion, because the Porsche Joy had given him had been forgotten in their hasty departure from Karachi.  Neither car had much of a back seat, so Angel sat with her legs drawn to her chest, and Quick sat on the edge of that seat bent over her computer.  Not safe at these speeds, but if they wanted to risk decapitation or painful burns and mutilation, well, they were Sweet's elders.  Anyway, Sweet wasn't about to get the gorgeous car Amadeo had gifted him with into a wreck.  It had originally been owned by Orchid, and Sweet wouldn't dream of wrecking anything that bound him to Orchid.

     "I've got a picture of Isolde," Quick said.  She turned her computer in her lap so that Angel and Sweet might try to get a look at the digitized photo.  Sweet took his eyes from the road long enough to see that Isolde was not very much like Rozz or Salome had been.  She was voluptuous and zaftig, pictured with long crimped and braided dark hair, in bondage attire including an oh so tightly cinched corset. 

     "Oooh, Frauline Wagner's juicy," Sweet giggled.

     "She put this photo up on her home page," Quick explained.  "But the bondage gear does explain a few things."

     "Eh?" Sweet asked.

     "Alaric was rather forceful with Rozz, rather controlling with Salome at least.  Don't you suppose he's found someone who shares his interests?"

     Sweet shrugged as he drove.  "I always had this idea that people who were into that masochism and such were coincidentally pretty kewl."

     Angel laughed, and Quick said, "Like you, Cher?"

     Sweet shook his head, "Nah, not like me playing slave to Joy because I thought her a goddess, or thinking Christ oh so attractive.  You cured me of that, My Love.  I mean like Thierry and Athen.  You know what I mean, right, Angel?"

     "But Thierry's only coincidentally Masochistic and Athen only coincidentally Sadistic.  Believe me, most of the people who are into that are like most of the people anywhere.  The majority of people are always terribly normal.  Fat balding men who wear leather masks and want to be flogged after wielding power at work all day and women with bad hair and crooked teeth who feel the need to steal some power cinched into a corset.  I always found it all rather dull."

     "They show you the ugliest swingers and dominatrixes on those American television shows because the puritan traditions of the country won't allow them to promote such things as glamourous.  And then it's all very shocking when a rock star puts on a pair of opera length rubber gloves and some black vinyl."

     Sweet laughed aloud.  "And you just know all about America, Frauline Klein!"

     "Quick, please," she said.

     Sweet pulled the car into a drive between two houses, knowing that Angel was about to tell him to do so.  Aje was waiting for them here, in the house across from Alaric's.  Angel had told them Aje had gone ahead to set up the surveillance equipment. 

     Angel opened the ornately wood-trimmed door and went up the stairs in the entrance hall, looking just like one of the kids on the streets they drove through, in over-sized shirt, and fitted vests and leggings.  Quick was back to ratty, once-modest, somber dresses with skirt knotted at her knees. 

     Aje was in one of the upstairs rooms, surrounded by various devices and the images and voices of Alaric and Isolde.  But there was no furniture or decoration in the house.  He threw a small box at Sweet.  Sweet only had to move a finger and the box froze mid-air in front of him.  Sweet smiled.  He liked knowing how to use this power.

     "You look too like yourself, but you and Quick know the city better than we do..."

     Sweet nodded seeing the box's label described a hair dying kit.  "Help me dye it, Angel?" 

     She helped Sweet apply the gelatinous dye over the kitchen sink.  They wrapped his head in plastic and waited for the dye to sink into the hair.  Aje continued to use a remote device to switch between input from various video and audio devices.  Isolde was speaking in German, asking Alaric who his mother was it seemed. 

     "Can we turn this down, Aje?" Quick asked, rather turned-off by their foreplay. 

     Sweet went to rinse his hair.  He toweled his hair dry and raised his head to look at his reflection in the stainless steel door of the refrigerator.  It was brown, a common ordinary shade of brown.  "I hate it."  Sweet ran his fingers up through his hair.

     "Oh no," Angel said.  She came at Sweet with a comb and brushed his hair back away from his forehead.  "The whole idea is that you look unlike yourself, Sweet," she said. 

     To make matters worse Aje produced from a box a pair of round framed green tinted glasses, a tunic shirt, vest, and leggings.  "When Isolde goes out you'll follow her," Aje said.

     "In disguise."

     "Angel or Quick can follow Alaric if he goes out...depending on which of them is needed here," Aje said.

     "And Quick doesn't have to dye her hair?" Sweet asked.  It seemed the others thought this a stupid question. 

     "They're used to seeing quick when she is dressed up," Aje explained.

     Angel bowed slightly to be able to reach Quick's chin.  "They don't all associate this raggedy, ratty-haired hacker with the First Lady of Goth."

     Sweet smiled.  He really felt something close to love for Quick.  She was brilliant, inspiring, beautiful.  She was worthy of sainthood and yet atheistic. "I'd know her no matter what."

     "You look on me with your heart, not your mind," Quick said.  And when she spoke Sweet felt as if this was a disappointment to her. 

     "You used to be so passionate, you used to cling and quiver for David or me.  You used to care so much for your people."

     "Get dressed," Quick commanded.  Sweet did as she said.  He always obeyed her.  "I can be caring and passionate when I want to."

     Sweet pulled on the tan colored leggings.   "Yes, when you decide it's a logical time to be emotional."

     "Go fast," Aje said.  Sweet pulled the tunic shirt and fitted vest on quickly, pushed the glasses to his face.  "Isolde's leaving the house."   But Sweet was already at the door.  He could do all things very fast when he wanted to. 

     He recognized Isolde right away, didn't need to be a Vampyre to do that.  The street wasn't crowded, and she was just so juicy, Sweet thought.  He wondered what it would be like to wrap his arms about her and drink her blood.  She was so large and soft.  Quick was large and soft, voluptuous even.  But Isolde had the figure of a fertility goddess where Quick had more the figure of a goddess of wisdom.  Quick had always been sexy and scholarly.

     Isolde entered a house beside a large Lutheran Church.  The door was closed behind her and so Sweet stopped outside and listened.  He needed his Vampyre powers for this, but Angel had been a good teacher.  It was apparent immediately that Isolde was close friends with the priest that lived in the house...she was their organ player. 

     "Isolde, I must tell you something..."

     "Yes?"

     "When you brought me that information some while back...about the Shivs..."

     "You tell us that they were created in accord with an evil plan.  That their creator is spawn of a fallen angel.  He plans to create a master race and then to take control of our nations and our planet.  It is an insidious plan that must be stopped. Was I not right tell you what I knew?"

     "Yes, child.  But some of our friends in the states...God fearing people whom I have been in correspondence with...they attempted to put a stop to this scheme...and they did not return home."

     "Imprisoned?"

     "Dead, we fear."

     "No...dead?"

     "I fear you may be in danger right now."

     "But how?" Isolde gasped.

     "These creatures created by an evil mind, they have supernatural power that we cannot control.  And they have persuaded powerful persons to aid them in their schemes.  They have killed those who fought on the side of God.  They will come after anyone who helped the people who were sent against them."

     "What should I do?"

     "Don't come here.  Go to Alaric.  Hide out.  I will try to contact you when things have settled down."

     Within seconds Isolde was running from the house.

†  †  †

She was a slender reed of a woman with nearly a life's growth of hair all gone silver-gray.  She stared from windows of the renovated convent she lived in with piercing gray eyes seemingly knowing Athen was there.  She was not a terribly religious woman, not a preacher or cult leader, though Bathsheba Zion seemed to be connected to everyone who was.  Athen had not yet figured her out. 

     Her long-dead ancestor, Jonathan, Athen had known vaguely.  He had not been religious, but had a mission given into his care that could only have been something funded by the US government or the fabled Illuminati, his soldiers in red had been so above the law.  Bathsheba seemed to have a similar mission.  She seemed bent on Human supremacy. 

     Athen had battled so-called White supremacist groups in the past, and he had battled Human supremacist groups.  He had even battled various churches and governments that believed their directive Supreme Law.   Athen detested witch hunters, Nazis, and all manner of  organized persecution of groups united solely by religion or race or sex. 

     But, Bathsheba had no army of red jacketed troops that knew the trick of blocking telepathy and wore thin flexible full-body armor and masks.  She had no church.  Bathsheba had no group of torturers that manned rack and wheel and iron maiden.  She just held an enormous amount of blood money that had been gathered for her, the price she would award to whomever brought her proof that all Shi Vampires capable of bearing children were dead.

     Athen had already contacted her in the guise of  a kindred individual holding a bounty on Vampyres heads.  But she had not explained where the money came from.  She did not herself collect it.  Though Athen had at least found out that many religious persons and particular political groups had given money over to her.

     He was sure she knew he was there.  She was human, not even an eighth Angel, he was fairly certain, had found her family's records.  Her father was unnamed, but that lacked relevance knowing she looked so fully Human. Yet, she could block him from stealing her thoughts.  And she did sense he watched her from the street.

     A witch?  A sorceress?  An evil sorceress bent on Human supremacy, or a saint gifted beyond all others with righteous mission to wipe out unholy creatures?  Athen couldn't steal enough to figure out what she thought herself.  He had to speak to her, had to take a much more direct approach. 

     And this would not be a game as he had played along with his father when they drove Steven mad (before Shade decided he liked Steven enough to spare him) or when they had driven various other humans mad or stolen their homes and lives.  This would be different, because Bathsheba would likely know who he was to begin with.  His face and figure were becoming a bit recognizable after two and a half millennia including several centuries of life out of the closet, denying to no one that he was in fact a Vampyre and that they had existed since the first men had encountered Angels.

     Athen walked across the street coolly.  When he came to the entrance to the large old building that had been a convent he rose into the air of his own will.  Bathsheba no longer stood at her window.  He saw her back was turned when he came to it.  Silently as ever, Athen climbed in through her window, then stood straight in Bathsheba's large upstairs parlor. 

     "Hello Athenè," she said.

     "Bathsheba."  She turned then, unafraid, and looked at him.  She seemed more the gray-eyed Goddess of Wisdom and Handicraft than he.  But, perhaps she thought he seemed more Biblical temptress than she.  She smiled, perfect teeth, or at least she had a good cosmetic dentist. 

     "You arranged to put the bounty on Theo and the Vampyres in The Succubus Club?" She said.

     Athen didn't answer.  She knew too much as it was. 

     "Naturally, I took the opportunity to send all the hunters elsewhere...not for that sake alone, of course.  It's just that preventing an unnatural and freakish race capable of procreating on their own is so much more important than getting rid of a few Vampyres habitually hanging out at a bar on Bourbon street.  Actually, they're good for business and atmosphere.  But having a race stronger and longer lived than Humans roaming about and breeding uncontrolled, it just can't be allowed, you understand?"

     "No," Athen said, eyes slit as he studied Bathsheba. 

     "Vampires, all right, freakishly strong and long lived but nicely controlled population wise by the laws they wrote and agreed to.  Wolfbreed, Naphaim, Enim, Gibborim...these races are all so few compared to the number of Humans.  And though strange, they are not all that longer lived and not all so much stronger than Humans.  But the Shi Vampires can't just be wiped out with a few bullets or contained in camps.  They even regenerate brain cells, they may just be immortal, they are powerful, they don't fear the sun, they don't need blood so much as Vampyres, and they have proved able to breed amongst themselves."

     "Well we knew you'd be frightened of how very different they are," Athen said.

     Bathsheba shrugged.  She was so damn cold.  "They have to be wiped out.  It effects to much.  It effects economy, it effects politics, it effects religion greatly.  What do all the various religions say about them?  Nothing.  There are no prophesies about them, no clear writings to tell us whether they should be preached to so that they may be saved or eliminated as all evil things should be.  No, too much is effected if they survive."

     "This is about keeping the status quo?" Athen asked, pretty much in disbelief.

     "This is about fighting Chaos," Bathsheba said. 

     "I ought to feed you to the discordians."

     "I could control them so easily.  Really, what is discordian about following a discordian message?  I would say a discordian statement of belief in itself is too orderly to be viable.  And yet if the message is that there is no message then what's to unite them either for or against what I'm doing?"

     "I was only being facetious."

      "I'd heard that about you," Bathsheba said.

     Athen moved closer to her, looked her in the eyes.  "Where does the money come from?"

     She laughed.  Didn't fall in thrall, just laughed.  "Everywhere," Bathsheba said.  She was smiling wide.  "People all over the world donate money to the cause so that the terrible threat of the Shi Vampires can be removed.  Some think it is for God.  Others think it is a political agenda.  The money finds its way to me.  There are enough familiar with my philosophy."

     "We'll take out all the hunters you can send."

     Bathsheba nodded her agreement.  "Yes, but that failure has taught me how I can get at Trepidation.  You won't stop me."

     "Oh won't I?"

     "Athenè, you have no means to stop me.  I know now how to get rid of the Shi Vampires.  You can't keep me from going ahead with my plan by killing me.  It's against your laws.  There are strategically placed people across the globe that know where I am and what my plans are.  Even killing me won't stop what I have set in motion.  You can't change the minds of so many Humans who really believe the world would be better without Trepidation and his children.  No number of outreach groups or trendy talk shows will help him now.  It's really too late you've come to me."

     Athen was about sick of her.  Two sick to live.  It was all too true what she was saying and it pissed him off.  It used to be he could kill a few people in a sadistic way and he was thought evil.  But this was a level of evil that not even serial killers such as himself reached.  Bathsheba was the one taking the whole "good of the many outweighs the good of the few" theory to a really sick extreme.  She wanted to commit genocide against one race in order to content another. 

     With a though and simple gesture Athen sent Bathsheba flying backward into the wall behind her.  Her head hit with a thud and then her body sank.  In a few long stretching moments her eyes found his and she showed her anger and Bathsheba showed embarrassment.  She pulled herself up, the palms of her hands against the wall with the force of her weight pressed into them so that she gained leverage enough to move upward. 

     Athen made a quick gesture of one hand and Bathsheba's feet left the floor and she was pinned to the wall, her throat held with the invisible extension of Athen's hand.  She moved her own hands in attempt to pry his psychic hand away. 

     She coughed language as Athen let her drop.  "I'll call the police."

     "That would effect to many things for me to allow it," Athen hissed at her. 

     "Let me go."

     "No."  She was afraid of him now, just a little.  Athen wasn't going to give in yet.  He walked up to her and gripped each of her arms in a hand.  Bathsheba tried to escape his grasp, but she was only as strong as any thin, petite Human woman. 

     "I know it was Thierry's plan alone.  You can let me go.  Just let me punish Thierry and his creations and I'll be just another law abiding citizen of the Union."

     "So you're not a law abiding citizen of the Union now?" Athen asked.  Bathsheba didn't try to answer.  She wasn't going to help him anymore.  Athen didn't care.  He pressed forward and tore two deep slits in her neck. 

     A horse sound came from Bathsheba's throat, she tried to speak, but the sting of the wound Athen had given her was too much.  He kept his hold on her as he sucked her blood into his mouth, as it warmed his insides.  It felt good to break the rules, to drink her blood from such a cruel wound after drinking so much rabbit blood and taking tiny sips from Human friends.  But then, breaking the rules always felt good, he thought. 

     Bathsheba started to weaken.  Her block broke down and Athen sensed her lightheadedness and fear.  Tremendous anger toward him.  Bathsheba was sinking to the floor. 

     Athen stood, looked down at her and considered.  Well, he was the evil one.  He bit at his wrist then bent and pressed it to Bathsheba's mouth.  A fitting revenge against the Zion family, to make one of them Darkling.  With a last conscious breath she spit the blood from her mouth, but she couldn't keep it from falling down her throat as Athen pressed his wrist against her teeth to keep the wound open. 

     When the blood hit the brain Bathsheba's lips began to suck for the blood.  Athen tossed his head back in a private laugh and sat letting Bathsheba drink until he felt his veins must be entirely constricted.  And then he bowed over Bathsheba, brushed her hair from her throat and made two more small wounds with his fangs, so that he drank as she drank. 

     Athen sensed a new sort of consciousness coming over Bathsheba.  She lifted her body gracefully, rolled her throat from his fangs.  And then she was staring at the blood vessels at the crook of Athen's arm as they pulsed oh so slightly.  She tore at it with blunt teeth before realizing she had never wanted to drink someone's blood before. 

     She backed away from him quickly, so endearing the way she seemed angelicate and ethereal without being aware of her own movements.  "You raped me," she said, arms crossing over her chest. 

     Athen sat back against the wall looking rather jaded.  "Well, can't say I haven't been accused of that before.  I've forced my blood into people, my fangs and my dick. So? Sue me."

     Bathsheba's skin was starting to look slimy.  Sweat and blood, wax and pus and dirt that had so long clogged her pores without her noticing, and dust mites jumping from her skin and hair.  And her teeth were aching, Athen sensed that they were.  He was enjoying this, he hadn't watched this happen in a long while, and even then it hadn't been his own blood that worked the trick.  In some matter of hours, she would have fangs, already her skin was paling.  Her long gray hair would be smooth and soft and full of life, not wiry and dead.  Her eyes would glitter and look more windows than gelatinous globs of fleshy matter.  Her skin would be clear of blemishes, smoother.  She would be beautiful.

     Humans really held so much dirt and earth about them.  Thinking themselves so beautiful and holy when they were so much ash and dust.  Vampyres were clean. 

     Bathsheba saw the slimy coating that glistened on her arms.  She wiped her arms and hands on her dress.  She tore madly at her clothes till she was naked and the fabric was stained with what had just been on her skin.  Already she looked a Vampyre except for the size of her fangs.  The initial change always showed quickly, but it took days for the body to entirely die.  It took time for the gifts to show themselves.

     Athen laughed to himself.  Would Bathsheba leave Thierry and Trepidation alone?  Perhaps she had told the truth when she said her plan was already set in action.  But it didn't matter.  Whether or not Trepidation would be hurt, Bathsheba had already received her punishment. 

     Athen stood up.  He had a bit of blood on his jacket and shirt.  Bathsheba was crying.   She'd be sick soon, void her stomach and bowels of whatever she had been eating that wasn't blood. 

     "I don't care so much what you think of Thierry but Trepidation and his children are innocent of their existence.  They do not deserve death."

     Bathsheba laughed, sounded a bit mad.  "Sadian and Astoric knew exactly what they were doing.  You know...I can see it!"

     Athen threw up a block and walked slowly to the window. 

     You're leaving?!"

     Athen turned back into the room as he sat in the open window.  "You seem to know so much.  You figure it all out," he told Bathsheba.  He jumped to the street, leaving her screaming.

†  †  †

The basement had always been poorly lit, and though, like all houses, the Lash house had once been modern, it was centuries old now, perhaps many centuries old.  In any case, it was in need of another complete re-wiring of the electrical system.  Thierry was getting brown outs in the lab when using certain equipment.  He was sitting cross-legged upon a table thinking on the easiest way to figure exactly what combination of devices in use caused the drains on the power.  It probably wasn't the computer itself, but the monitor or printer might be a factor. Heat producing appliances were always suspect. 

     Thierry knew the coffee maker he'd been using was a big part of the problem.  But he was dozing off without the caffeine now that he had his own work plus his share of the duties involved in caring for the new baby.  And since Thierry was devoted to his work and he was a good father really (as long as his child's mother wasn't a horrid manipulative bitch) it was sleep he was cutting back on.

     Monique came tip toeing down the stairs, tiny Étain wrapped in a her favorite blue flannel blanket and clutched to her chest.  "Hey, Hon." Thierry greeted her.

     "I know you have work to do, but I'm beat, can I put Étain down here again?"

     Thierry waved her over.  Monique came across the old stone flooring in her bare blue feet.  Thierry twisted and reached his left hand toward her, it was coincidentally the hand he had better use of.  He touched Monique's elbow, guided her toward the table where he sat.  Thierry could see Étain's face then, she was just old enough that her colouring was her own and not the coloring of so many infants that soon changes.  Her face that peered from her blanket sleepily was like all her skin a skin so white, so snowy and translucent it was colored blue from the veins within it.  Étain's eyes were bright blue, as both Monique and Thierry had some shade of blue eyes, though his had a tinge more green to them most of the time.  And their dear little Étain had a fuzz of hair that seemed more the color of Thierry's father's hair rather than either of her parents.  It was that strange shade of red that people had always found beautiful on Amadeo and found hard to believe it did not come from dye because he appeared often enough with black or blonde hair that everyone knew he was familiar with hair dying.  But Amadeo's hair was natural, though strange, as Étain's was, a red very vibrant and deep, like the soft highlights in the petals of very deep red roses.

     Thierry loved his daughter.  Etain would be beautiful, like the legendary Sidhe she was named after.  She was named Étain Danu Jewel and Thierry and Monique felt this gave her a reasonable amount of god parents, name saints and other various patrons to call upon.  They thought Étain sounded close enough to what Steven was translated into in some languages that Old Steven could be counted among the powers the child might call on by name. 

     He took Étain into his arms, cradled her.  Then Thierry looked at Monique in such a way that she knew he wanted to kiss her.  She leaned over the table so that their lips might meet.  She was so good to them, to Thierry and Étain, she greatly deserved a break now and then. 

     The barbell in Monique's tongue clinked softly against Thierry's teeth and Monique had to back up and laugh. She'd had to remove seven piercings total in the process of bearing and nursing her child and had three redone so far. "Sorry," she breathed.

     "It's no problem," Thierry said, shifted Étain into one arm so that he could touch Monique's face.  He kissed her again.  Whispered to her as he kissed her jaw and her ear and her neck, "I miss sleeping with you.  I want you right here."

      "Thierry, I'm so tired.  Can't you come upstairs and sleep?  We can breakfast in bed...I'll put a blindfold on you and feed you..."

      "Promise?" Thierry asked.  He sat straight and hugged Étain to his chest.

      "You going to come up to bed?"

      "I'll just do some work here...but then I'll come to bed."

      Monique smiled at him, then looked down at their baby.  "Good night," she said.

      "G'night, Nique," Thierry called softly as he watched her go to the stairs.  He slipped from the table top to the floor and walked to the play pen where Étain lay when she was down here with him. 

      She was a bit young to play, but the pen filled with clean new soft toys and warm blankets gave her room to sleep.  When no one else watched Thierry held the stuffed animals before her and made different voices for each.  He'd gone out and bought the GothWorld baby mobile that spun on a string above her play pen with plastic figures of Raym T. Raven, Crowley, and Leanan. 

      Thierry lay Étain down aid her animals.  "Étain, what am I going to do?" He asked, "I've had to make so many little changes in my plans.  I just can't hurt you or Monique.  I've got to be strong, control myself, because Monique just had you, so she doesn't have as much energy to devote to disciplining me."

     Étain only gurgled and tried to get her fist into her mouth. 

      "Daniel," Thierry said aloud.  He waited.  There was no sound.  No voice, no presence.  "Daniel Never." Daniel Never, Thierry calls you."

      Such a faint voice, Daniel can't get to Thierry now.

      "He must be helping another of us...strange, Daniel should always serve the younger before the older," Thierry mused.  "Étain, you call him."

      For an instant Thierry thought that she had, he knew his daughter was gifted. Étain was at least three-eighths Angel, and even those one-eighth Angel were noticeably unlike Humans. She was like David one-eighth Wolfbreed and though like David and Thierry she would never take the shape of a wolf, she would have keener senses than Humans with none of the Wolfbreed in their family.  And she was a Jewel, Thierry's daughter, she would be a witch.  Of course she was Sidhe, and that tended to amplify all other preternatural traits. 

      But it wasn't Daniel.

      Cat.

      "Why do you come to me, Emile?" Thierry asked.

      I wish to serve you, to have you see  I can help you.  I saw that Daniel cannot come.  I will watch Étain.

      "Do you see what prevents Daniel from coming, Emile?"

      I answer to Cat when you call, Thierry.

      Cat could be annoying.  Thierry had loved the boyish man thirteen years older than himself since he was a boy, but death - specifically the manner and choosing of his death - had changed that.  He now found Cat rather disturbing.  "Answer my question, spirit, or I will not pay attention to anything you say!"

      The voice was wounded, but he showed his ghostly body then.  Daniel is drawn in so many directions he cannot be everywhere he is needed.

      Thierry looked down at Étain.   She was an infant but her eyes showed that she saw Cat standing beside her pen.  She smiled at the ghostly image of the thin boyish man in black vinyl, at the pair of amber eyes that seemed more substance than the rest of his form.  "You disappointed me when you were alive, then died...do you really wish to serve me?"

      Oh, yes, Thierry!

      "Then do this for me: be always Étain's guardian.  In Daniel's absence watch and protect my child.  Never harm her or allow her to be harmed if it is within your power. If you ever sense danger to Étain do not leave her side even to warn me, unless she commands it herself.  Stay with Étain and protect her, comfort her with your voice.  And serve Étain as you would me.  Do you understand?"

      Yes!  I will watch over your child.  I will serve the witch Étain and be her guardian.

      Thierry thought.  Cat would be a suitable guardian.  Unlike Daniel he was not one of the Neverborn, he had the memories and language of an adult. And though he could be a violent spirit at times he was truly devoted to Thierry and willing to serve.  If Daniel was present Cat would not need to interfere.  But if the spirit guardian Gabriel and Zerachiel had placed over the family was not present Thierry felt better knowing he had placed another spirit to watch over his daughter.  If there were danger Cat would probably do a better job of fighting it off than Daniel.  Daniel made a good observer and informant, but he did not know how to hurt people.  But Cat, Cat knew very well how to hurt.  In his lifetime Emile Araña  had been a spoiled Hollywood child, a club kid, a master thief, a Mafia hitman's moll, a martial artist, a dancer...Thierry had seen the kind of damage Cat could dish out with spirit body and psychic whip.

      "Cat, take Étain up into her bedroom and lay her in her crib to sleep.  I have work to do down here."

      Yes, Thierry...Come little Étain, little Faerie Princess. Cat lifted her, his ghostly arms quite capable of supporting her, because she was aware of him and that gave him strength.  He sauntered from the basement rooms, body barely transparent, climbed the stairs singing to Étain.  Perhaps Thierry had kept both Étain and Cat out of trouble by putting them together.

     He returned to his work he had been too long distracted from.  Other trusted spirits had helped to transport everything from his lab in Tanzania.  Quick and Mara had no idea just what he had.  Why, if he wanted to, if he only had wombs enough to grow them, he could clone so many people.  He could make another Thierry.  He could make another Mara.  David, Claudia...who Quick had been when she was mortal, he could clone the both of them. 

      Thierry had taken this art so far that he could splice this and that person together with another.  Would they care to see what it would have been like if David had fathered Claudia's child?  Perhaps they might like to see what powerful witches Thierry and Mara could parent? 

      Thierry wanted to see that.  There was something in him that had always wanted to know that: if he and his sister would produce even stronger witches, or just sickly children.  Sadian understood.  little by little over the years Thierry had been teaching her his art as he and Aje had learned it.  she could take over this work if he could not continue.  Just a little more experience and Sadian could do it, the little girl who had laughed knowing that Thierry would make a brother for her with the people seeds he had. 

      Thierry could possibly make several more Sadian's. 

      And animals.  The others knew of the two tailed cat and the one with three eyes.  They knew of the identical cats.  Somewhere Thierry had a preserved embryo and other biological samples from a rare green colored cat.  He had good genetic material from most of the planet's commonly known animals and some rare ones.   He could probably make some dinosaurs if he tried. 

      This was what the others didn't understand, but Quick probably suspected.  It wasn't just about making a few Shi Vampires  and not at all about making a race to conquer the humans with.  Thierry liked Humans.  It was about the genesis of things entirely different.  It was about accomplishing what no one else dared to try.  What if one was in charge of populating the garden of Eden?  What would you populate it with? 

Thierry even had a unicorn or two...or the materials to make a few with. 

      Could he make large furry land mammals to replace the mammoths?  He didn't care about the geneticists that grew chicken parts in tubs and vats or created four legged birds so that they could sell packages of chicken legs in the supermarket.  Thierry was more interested in eternity.  Could he create creatures for every climate and condition that time allowed?

      People had silly fears.  Might people abuse this power and make only blue eyed children?  Would they prevent another homosexual from ever being born?  Thierry did not want to breed out or destroy what was already made.  He wanted to make new things yet leave what nature had spawned alone for the most part. 

      Could he splice enough genes together to create a warm blooded thick skinned fast-moving bipedal, furry dinosaur like creature that breathed low concentrations of oxygen such as was in high altitude regions or the thin atmosphere of Mars?  What of the low atmospheric pressure?  How was it animals in the highest mountains and deepest oceans handled the pressure?

      Could he create a tauntaun as only the people at ILM had before?

      Something wrong.  Thierry turned to the stairs, listened.  There was someone there that shouldn't be. 

      He ran for the steps.  There were a total of four flights to the second floor where the bedrooms were and Thierry ran up all of them.  He ran right past the guest room, but then sensing Étain was there, Thierry turned back and entered the dark room.  His daughter was asleep in the middle of the Queen sized bed, pillows guarding her. 

      Thierry picked her up quickly then slunk down the hall toward the small bedroom that had once been Trepidation's.  This was Étain's room now, and Cat was there, crouched upon the windowsill staring down into the dark, tiny garden behind the house, whip a slithering transparent and black thing with a slight ethereal glow hanging down the wall from his hand. 

      "What happened?"

      Danger.  He tried to take Étain, so I came, I hid her, then caught the fucker with my whip and flung him out the window.

      "Is he dead?  Who is he?" Thierry asked.

      He's not dead, he only fell twenty-four feet.  Some random guy. Following someone else's orders.

      Thierry turned, meaning to call for the police.  He noticed yet another presence.  Daniel had come.  He was in the corner of the room, near some of Trip's posters that they had never taken down, a young man with striking violet eyes and sharp cheekbones in dusty velvet clothes so that he seemed the ghost of a Victorian poet when he had never even been born.      Daniel could not save all those he must watch.  The ghost appeared to cry.

      Then Thierry understood.   The phone was ringing.

      Gonna get the phone, Hon? Cat asked.

      "It's going to be Mara." Thierry said.  "Daniel, who else did they try to hurt that you know about?"  Thierry moved into the hall and then into the room he shared with Monique as the spirits followed him.  "And where were they when it happened?"

      David Thierry's son was at work in Islamabad and going to sleep.  Daniel always watches those he must watch when those he must watch go to Dream, if Daniel can.  People tried to burn David with fire.  Daniel tried to help, to wake David.  David got into water but was burnt and other Vampyres who know David were far away.  Then Daniel hears voices calling, not those he must watch but from family of Amadeo's sister Amber who know Daniel and can see Daniel.  People took Malik from the tent he slept in at digging site of Camille Mother of Malik.  Then small Elizabeth is taken from her house in Ankara.  Then Daniel hears Tris and Teena Marie in trouble.

      Thierry shook Monique awake.  "I'm sleeping," she said, but then she sensed spirits about and blinked on Thierry's worried expression.  Daniel continued speaking silently to Thierry.

      People were breaking into castle ground.  Eva and Freidrich beloved of Tris and Teena Marie were coming in and Friedrich's head was taken.  Valerie and Tris and Teena Marie came...and Rozz...and many guards.  But the guards can't stop the people from taking Valerie and Eva away in a van. Then Daniel is trying to find Eva and Valerie for Tris but Emilia needs Daniel.   Emilia was coming home very late and some people pushed Emilia down stairs of place trains come and go.  Emilia lost small person inside her in fall.  Daniel came to Étain but Cat spirit guarded better than Daniel.  Daniel does not know who needs Daniel now.

      Monique was rubbing sleep from her eyes as she slipped a shirt over wings and arms.   Thierry looked for Daniel and saw him faintly near one of the windows.  "Daniel, go to Emilia, tell her that she must call her child from Neverland.  Does she know it's name?"

      Elise.

      "Help Emilia get Elise from Neverland, help her look like a big person's body like you did.  Tell Emilia I said that we are all sorry that she lost her child but that everything else may be OK if she helps us.  Take Elise with you to Mitchell's family in San Francisco.  Mitchell is away and cannot guard his family.  Cat will follow Étain and me.  We will go to Sadian and Mara and see what we can do.  Go quickly, Daniel, help Emilia and Mitchell, then when they are safe come to me and we will find the ones who were taken."

      Daniel went. 

      Thierry helped Monique up from the bed and with Étain still in his left arm led her out of the bedroom.  They paused only to gather a few things for the trip then went outside where their Volvo station wagon was parked on the street.  It wasn't so sporty as the cars so many of the Vampyres drove but it served their purposes.  Of course, Thierry had ordered some custom work done on it, reinforced the hood, front end, and doors against minor collisions and gunfire, had all the windows replaced with darkly tinted bulletproof panes. 

Monique strapped Étain into her baby seat in the back then sat herself in the front passenger seat. Thierry started the car and in the quietest part of the day, just before dawn, there was little traffic in the way.  Thierry raced downtown toward the tunnel and into Brooklyn.  He could get to Steven's house in a half hour at this speed.

†  †  †

"He's not answering his phone, and Daniel is not answering me either," Mara said.  She hoped it only meant Thierry was tied up to his bed, or that he knew he might be in danger and had left his house.  They had differing opinions on so many things, but Thierry was her brother, after a fashion.

      "Calm down, he's all right," Shade said.

      Mara turned from the monitor that still displayed the number the system was dialing.  "You're certain?"

      He nodded. Mara was still not really used to him, though Sadian was often speaking to their ancient high Lord of the Union so very casually.  "My hearing over distance is superior to yours," he said, trying to reassure her, Mara suspected, though her first instinct was to be insulted by his arrogance.

      "Don't tie up the phone," Steven called.  For a moment Mara hesitated but then shook herself and clicked off the phone.  It began ringing immediately.  Mara answered the call.  She saw Justice was there, Stephan's wife, the wife of the man who was the son of the woman Mara was a clone of. Justice seemed confused for a moment, as if she too was thinking the same thing and thought Mara Caroline. 

      "It's me, Mara," Mara said quietly.  She was aware of Trip pacing about in the hall, and Steven was trying to comfort Orchid who was nearly hysterical since Eleni had called to report that David was badly burnt, Victoria's daughter Brittany Leigh was kidnapped and someone had tried to take her own son, Oliver. Morpheus had flown off to rescue David, just as his three-quarters angelic blood had several times saved Orchid from living a burnt scarred thing.

      "Stephan and Caroline are too upset to speak, do you know what's going on?  Tris's castle was attacked, and Emilia is in the hospital, she lost the baby. and  Stephan and Caroline keep saying they sense something threatening the family."

      "Yes, Justice, we heard about Valerie and Eva being taken from the castle in Frankfurt.  David was also attacked, we've sent someone to help him.  But it isn't only Jewels. Not only did they take Eva and Val rather than Tris and Teena but they have taken the daughter of our friend Victoria in Karachi."

      "Lord, girl, where's Steven?  Has this got to do with your husband?"

      "We're not actually married," Mara whispered, "Steven's busy consoling Orchid...his house was also attacked and he was also close to David."

      Justice nodded.  "Then you tell Steven and Orchid we're sorry for his loss as well.  I know that Steven considered that boy like a son to him even after he got the blood..." Justice lowered her voice, "We got so many Juliens in the family."

      Mara nodded.

      "Hold on, Dear, Emilia's calling here from the hospital."

      For a moment the screen showed the carrier logo and then Justice and Emilia both appeared in split-screen.  Emilia was quite lighter skinned than Justice who was her grandmother.  She looked pale in a sickly way as well.  And Emilia looked horrified.  "I saw Daniel," she said.

      "Do you know why he doesn't come when I call?" Mara asked.

      "Emilia nodded.  "There were too many others calling on him.  Do you know our family and friends have been attacked and abducted from the most eastern part of Arabia and west to America?  Cousins in Syria and Turkey...Daniel says Thierry's baby Étain  was almost taken."

      "Étain is she all right?" Justice asked.

      "They're heading to you're house, Mara.  Thierry sent Daniel to me.  I-I had to call my baby from Neverland, Thierry said other witches might call on her and bind her soul to them if I didn't do it."

      "I'm sorry," Mara breathed.  She could not imagine loosing a child then having to call its ghost.

      "Elise," Emilia said, "She was beautiful.  Daniel took her to find my brother's children.  Thierry thought they might be in danger."

      "I'm sorry about Elise, but it's probably a good idea Thierry and you place spirits over Mitchell's children," Mara said. 

      "Why are they doing this?" Emilia cried.

      "Emilia, I'm so sorry.   I think this has all been done to hurt Trepidation and Sadian."

      "Stephan is asking if Sadian is still well?  He always thinks of her as a sister."

Mara touched her right hand to her chest.  "Oh, I could never actually be Caroline, but I'm touched Stephan is so concerned for my daughter.  Sadian and Valor are well...I'm afraid the attacks on us have failed so they are hurting us through our friends.  Right now Sadian is in a trance, trying to see how many have been taken...trying to find them."

      "Oh, Justice, tell Grampa he ought to do the same.  He's still very good at listening.  I'm going to try to do the same.  I think I'll go mad if I don't feel I'm doing something."

      "I'll tell him," Justice promised.

      "Oh, Justice, see if your Caroline can try to remember if we have any family west of here that may be in danger. Beside Old Steven you have the best records on the family there.  I'm afraid  I am not so familiar with it."

      "What about your friend Cat?  Isn't he back in New Orleans ?"

      "You're right!  I better call him.  I'll call if I  find out more.  Thierry should be here soon, he's bound to know something."

      Mara clicked off the phone again.  She redialed immediately, called Theo's bar.  It rang without being answered and then finally Theo appeared on the screen.  "Theo!" Mara said.

      "Hello, this isn't really me, only a very handsome projection of points of light on a screen.  I can't come to the phone right now, but do leave a message."

      "Damn, Theo!" Mara swore.

      The phone beeped. 

      "Angels and Saints! Theo, there have been attacks on the family and on friends.  Tris was attacked, and Thierry.  I think Cat might be in danger.  Call us!"

      "I always hated those machines," Shade said, "I mean, I found them amusing for a while."

      Trip had stopped pacing.  He stood in the wide doorway.  "Thierry is coming."  Mara stood up.  Trip had been more on guard than she had.  Mara walked to the row of curtained windows that faced the front of the house and the drive.  Thierry's black Volvo was coming up the drive.  Mara thought it seemed a budget hearse for its color and the curtains in the long rear windows.  

      Astoric sat just under the windows, half asleep, asking himself, What would The Vampire Lestat do in a case like this?

      He'd cry, Mara thought.  She didn't know where that information came from.  She was much more well read concerning Angels and Saints than Vampires.  It must be that Trip and Orchid had been watching so many old vampire movies with Morpheus when he had been there.

      The car came to a halt just outside the house and Mara watched Thierry step out from the driver's side.  "Astoric, Thierry is here, go up and tell Sadian she should come down and talk to him."

      The boy was awake.  He stretched then got up and walked from the room.  He walked like his father. 

      Thierry came into the room with Trip.  Thierry looked right at Mara, as she looked at him and in moments they had both relayed all that they knew to each other without words.  "Sadian is coming down?" Thierry asked just as Monique brought Étain into the room. 

      "I can take her upstairs to stay with Valor," Steven said, passing off Orchid to Shade. 

      "That's considerate of you but if I am not needed at the moment I'd like to go up and sleep myself...I haven't slept in over a day."

      Thierry turned and spoke to Monique, "It's OK, you go up.  You need to sleep."

      Steven paused at Thierry's side while Monique headed for the stairs.  "I'm sure David will be all right, Morpheus has saved Orchid before.  And I suspect Amad will show up at any second—"

      "He's over the ocean," Shade said.

      Steven almost smiled.  "I trust you'll wake me if I can be any help at all."

      Sadian came into the room from the hall with Astoric right behind her.  "Anything?" Thierry asked.

      Sadian tilted her head to one side, hesitated.  But that was just her way.  "Well, the thing is these people all following the same orders made many attempts on people we're connected to...but...uh...of the ones they actually managed to steal away the strongest witch among them seems to be Malik."

      "He's supposed to be part of Amber's family?" Thierry asked.

      "I believe that Malik's mother Camille is the granddaughter of Amber's son Malik," Sadian said, "He is a direct descendant of Amber, so is Elizabeth, but she's just a baby, not easy to trace."

      "You can't find them then?  No one's had any sort of demands sent to them?" Mara asked.

      Sadian shook her head.  "I don't really know them well.  Valerie and Eva don't relay or project well at all.  But if you helped..."

      "I knew Amber's Malik, he was my cousin, we grew up in Steven and Amanda's house together," Thierry said, "I'm fairly sure he had at least one son.  The oldest one was named Terrence."

"Then you should try listening for them, Malik and Elizabeth are Terrence's grand children," Sadian said.