Marriage is Murder

Jess breathed out feeling Khaat was now safe sat back in her chair she looked ta Jack who nodded and went to fetch her some tea witch he used the chocolate tea Robert had newly made for testing,he returned to Jess and handed it to her as she smiled smelling it. Cassidy looked over and smiled as she finished placing the bread in a bowl to prove for now so she could cook it later. Steven moved to her side and kissed her cheek as he stood with her waiting for Khaat's return every one worried why she had done what she had done.

Michael sent his coat and Hiss back to his room, while Khaat and Brian ended up arguing in the hallway between the kitchen and the dining hall.

"Well," Michael said, going, instead, into the great hall, "all's well that ends well, but Brian made a wise choice in keeping us inside. I've seen that cougar. Its incredibly big."

"How big is big? And where is she?" Robert asked.

"She and Brian have somehow gone to arguing in sign language," Michael said. "They're both signing, and I dont' know why. But. that cougar is easily every bit of 250 pounds."

"That's not possible," Robert frowned. "There's no cougar that size on record."

Kate frowned as well. She knew animals and no cougar was that big. Michael looked at Robert.

"Did you give Khaat some sort of order that she is not capable of doing?" Michael asked.

"What? How stupid do you think I am?" Robert said. "Certainly not."

"Let me rephrase that, then. Did you give her some order than she didn't believe she was capable of doing?"

"Not that I know of," Robert frowned. "I said the same things I always say. I told her I was going to improve her diet for better nutrition and start her working with Brian in the gym...."

"And you also said you wanted her to retrain her magic skills," Angus said, bringing him a mail delivery.

"And she is very capable of all of that," Robert said.

Jess and Jack sat listening to them talking or rather arguing in the corridor Steven listened and frowned " cougar that big not possible " he said repeating what Kate said previously " you sure it couldn't have been an animangus?"he asked still frowning " but if it is he or she would have to be big " he said pacing back and forth Cassidy sighed and stopped Steven from pacing.

" that's not going to help Steven" she said and made him sit down with her.

(hey, start checking your word count again, please. your posts have been getting short again, and this last one was under word count. thanks)

"Most likely," Kate said. "But that means we've been penetrated if that's the case."

"We should not jump to the conclusion that an animagus is naturally our enemy," Robert said. "Lee has the coordinates to this place. His men come here often. An animagus doesn't mean an enemy."

"No, but it does mean someone unauthorized has penetrated our protective spells," Kate said.

"I'll talk to Brian," Robert said. "It will scarcely do us any good to go out and add layers of protection spells with an unauthorized vampire and an animagus on our grounds. But we do need to find out how they're finding us and getting here."

"The truth is that they find Khaat wherever she goes," Angus sighed. "There is no place she can go without being found."

"And thats why she has all of you," Robert said. "But, as long as you're all here without her, I need to tell you what I've seen in the reports I'm getting from home. There are a number of people getting more and more upset with the Ministry as a whole. I am truly getting tired of it all. People who have never done the job thinking that they can do it better. We do need to start taking precautions because I don't know how this is going to end up. I've broken up some of the staff into crews to go ready all the safehouses in case we need them very quickly. You need to do the same. I am going to hope we don't need them, but it well may be that we do need to use them again. I've also bought some more properties and I'm having them readied as well. Are we clear?"

Every one was relived when Khaat was brought back Jess smiled as did Cassidy, Jim just looked up and nodded before returning to look at the chess board as if it was usual for her to do what she did . Jess looked at Kate and shook her head in disbelief at the scene unfolding between Khaat and Robert . " you do think they will be alright?" she asked her voice gentle and soft as she spoke Cassidy moved to put her bread in the oven to cook then returned to the chess board again . Steven watched shadow and his mate curl up together in a corner and fall asleep.

"They'll be fine," Kate said. "The only time Brian argues with her is when he's concerned about her safety. And he is willing to fight for that. Why he's signing, I have no clue."

"I think he's just gotten caught up in the emotion of it with her," Angus laughed, watching them sign back and forth angrily. "But, I've lived in that house with her for the last three years every day. And one thing I've seen is that she only does this when she feels she has no choice--and particularly when its something she does not want to do. For it to happen this suddenly, someone has said something to her that makes her feel cornered. And she always outs herself to him when she's upset. Give him long enough and he'll figure it out from what she tries not to say to him."

"You did notice I'm not getting up to go interfere with them, right? There's a reason for that," Kate laughed, agreeing with him.

Jess smiled she understood what Kate was saying Jack sat with her still with his cup of coffee he was worried about the big cat that was on the grounds. Jess smiled and took his hand in her own trying to get him to stop thinking about the big cat. " let it go Jack its out there and nothing you can do about it " she said Cassidy looked up and nodded as Steven stood looking out the window. Cassidy stood up and moved to the kitchen now taking out the bread and placing it on cooling wires to cool down she looked at Angus and smiled.

" you'd like to thought right?" she said" I think we all would " she placed the last loaf on the wire and placed each tin in the washer then moved back to sit with Jim.

Khaat continued to argue with Brian, but in her signing to him, she accidently fired a burst of wandless magic at Brian. In the flash of a burst of magic, she had transfigured him to stone. Angus frowned deeply.

"Oh, thats not good," he said seriously. "That one isn't so easily undone."

"I'll get Robert. He's undone that spell before," Kate said. "Michael, do go and try to keep her from getting frantic. She's not going to realize she hasn't killed him."

"On my way," Michael said, heading out to the foyer. Kate apparated upstairs to find Robert quickly. Khaat stood, stunned, frozen in her own panic.

Jack listened and sighed remembering when she turned him into a yellow duck it was fine until some one suggested coking him and he shivered at the memory " he'll be fine" he said softly and smiled " I wonder if that's how the legend of Medusa came about?" he said and Cassidy chuckled.

" what some disgruntled wizard that wanted his privacy and turned every one to stone?" she said Jack looked at her and shrugged.

" Hey, weirder things have happened." he told her and chuckled softly as he moved to stand with Cassidy watching Kate as she moved to Khaat.

Michael went out to her and wrapped himself around her from behind. "Its alright," he said softly. "Its very reversable. Don't overthink it. It was an accident. We'll change him back." She looked at him, confused about how she'd even done it in the first place.

Her father and mother apparated down into the front hallway. Robert looked at Brian.

"I think that's a rather good look for him, don't you?" Robert laughed.

"She probably prefers him movable," Michael said.

"Not to worry, my dear," Robert stroked her cheek. "Its not the first time he's gotten the wrong end of a wand or a spell, and it won't be his last either. Actually, its not an easy transfiguration spell to begin with. The fact that you did it wandlessly says that your magic is back to its full powerlevels, most likely."

"I'm not using it ever again," she signed to him.

"Oh yes you will," he said. "Its a misfire. Nothing more. Calm yourself." He drew his wand and carefully cast the spell to undo her misfire. It took him a moment and some rather powerful magic, but before long, Brian was transfigrued back to his human form. Brian's knees buckled under him, but Robert caught him, expecting the normal reaction.

"What happened?" Brian asked.

"You must took another hit for the team," Robert laughed.

"Well, thats not new," Brian said.