A few minutes later, Hannah was sitting on a couch with a plate of eggs Benedict, being introduced.
"This is James and Poppy," Thea said. "James is a Redfern on his mother's side-which makes him a descendant of Maya's." She glanced at James with gentle mischief.
"I didn't pick my parents. Believe me, I didn't," James said to Hannah. He had light brown hair and thoughtful gray eyes. When he smiled it was impossible not to smile back.
"Nobody would have picked your parents, Jamie," Poppy said, elbowing him. She was very small, but there was a kind of impish wisdom in her face. Her head was a tangle of copper curls and her eyes were as green as emeralds. Hannah found her elfin beauty just a little scary... just a little inhuman.
"They're both vampires," Thea said, answering Hannah's unspoken question.
"I didn't used to be," Poppy said. "James changed me because I was dying."
"What's a soulmate for?" James said, and Poppy poked him again and then grinned at him. They were obviously in love.
"You're-soulmates?" Hannah spoke softly, wistfully.
It was Thea who answered. "That's the thing, you see-something is causing Night People to find human soulmates. We witches think that it's some Power that's waking up again, making it happen. Some Power that's been asleep for a long time- maybe since the time when Thierry was born."
Now Hannah understood why Lupe had said she was Circle Daybreak's type of people. She was part of this.
"But-that's wonderful," she said, speaking slowly and trying to gather her thoughts. "I mean..." She couldn't exactly explain why it was so wonderful, but she had a sense of some immense turning point being reached in the world, of some cycle that was about to end.
Thea was smiling at her. "I know what you mean. We think so, too." She turned and held out a hand to a very tall boy with a sweet face, sandy hair, and hazel eyes. "And this is my soulmate, Eric. He's human."
"Just barely," a boy from the other side of the room said. Eric ignored him and smiled at Hannah.
"And this is Gillian and David," Thea said, moving around the circle. "Gillian's a distant cousin of mine, a witch, and David's human. Soulmates, again."
Gillian was tiny, with white-blond hair that fit her head like a silky cap and deep violet eyes. David had dark hair, brown eyes, and a lean tanned face. They both smiled at Hannah.
Thea was moving on. "And next comes Rashel and Quinn. Rashel is human-she used to be a vampire hunter."
"I still am. But now I just hunt bad vampires," Rashel said coolly. Hannah had an instinctive feeling of respect for her. She was tall and seemed to have perfect control of her body. Her hair was black and her eyes were a fierce and blazing green.
"And Quinn's a vampire," Thea said.
Quinn was the boy who'd made the barely-human remark. He was very good-looking, with clean features that were strongly chiseled but almost delicate. His hair was as black as Rashel's, and his eyes were black, too. He flashed Hannah a smile that, while beautiful, was slightly unnerving.
"Quinn's the only one here who can compete with you as far as the past goes," Thea added. "He was made into a vampire back in the sixteen hundreds, by Hunter Redfern."
Quinn flashed another smile. "Did you have a life in colonial America? Maybe we've met."
Hannah smiled in return, but she was also studying him with interest. He didn't look older than eighteen.
"Is that why everybody here looks so young?" she asked. "All the staff, I mean-Nilsson and the other guys in suits. Are they all vampires?"
Thea nodded. "All made vampires. Lamia, like James, can grow up if they want. But once you make a human into a vampire they stop aging-and you can't make somebody over nineteen into a vampire. Their bodies can't make the change. They just burn out."
Hannah felt an odd chill, almost of premonition. But before she could say anything, a new voice interrupted.
"Speaking of the lamia, isn't anybody going to introduce me?"
Thea turned toward the window. "Sorry, Ash-but if you're going to sleep over there, you can't blame us for forgetting you." She looked at Hannah. "This is another Redfern, a cousin of James's. His name is Ash."
Ash was gorgeous, lanky and elegant, with ash-blond hair. But what startled Hannah as he got up and unhurriedly walked to meet her was his eyes.
They were like Maya's eyes, shifting color from moment to moment. The resemblance was so striking that it was a moment before Hannah could take his hand.
He's got Maya's genes, Hannah thought. He smiled at her, then sprawled on the loveseat.
"We're not all of Circle Daybreak, of course," Thea said. "In fact, we're some of the newest members.
And we're from all over the country-North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, everywhere. But Thierry called us together specially, to talk about the soulmate principle and the old Powers awakening."
"That was last week, before he found out about you," copper-haired Poppy said. "And before he ran off. But we've been talking without him, trying to figure out what to do next."
Hannah said, "Whatever it is, I'd like to help you."
They all looked pleased. But Thea said, "You should think about it first. We're dangerous people to know."
"We're on everybody's hit list," Rashel, the black-haired vampire hunter, said dryly.
"We've got the whole Night World against us," Ash said, rolling his ever-changing eyes.
"Against us. You just said 'us.' " James turned on his cousin triumphantly, as if he'd just won a point in an argument. "You admit you're a part of us."