Marriage is Murder

"That won't end well," Marcus said, apparating after Khaat. She was already in her father's room.

Khaat had rushed in to see Robert and Michael dueling. Her father was using his wand and appeared to be doing his best to off him. Michael had laid down his wand and was only using wandless magic to defend himself.

"Daddy! No!" she shrieked, trying to dive between them.

"No!" Marcus was suddenly there out of nowhere. He would not forget his prime directive--to protect her at all costs. He swept his arms around her and spun her behind him, placing himself between Robert and her.

Brian was running up the stairs, his wand drawn. He ran in and saw exactly what he expected to find.

"Marcus, get her out of here!" Brian said, leveling his wand at Robert. "Michael, get out."

"No,..." Michael began.

"Go!" Brian said. He knew he was the only one who had regularly dueled Robert with any chance whatsoever of winning. And he saw too clearly that the curse had stripped Robert of any ability to hold back. Robert somehow felt like he was defending himself and defending what he held most dear. Brian figured Robert would try to fight to the death. Brian figured he stood a chance of keeping them both alive.

Khaat found herself being forced out into the hallway. She tried to pull away to go back but Marcus was still standing between her and the door. Michael had been just as forced out and was wanting to back as much as she did.

"That's my father he's fighting!" she began, upset. Marcus knew this was agonizing for her. He glanced at Jack, hoping Jack would make sure Michael didn't go back.

"Listen," he took her face in his hands gently and forced her to look at him. "Brian isn't fighting your father. Not really. He's fighting that curse--pure evil. Its what he was trained his whole life to do. He knows the risks."

"He's right," Michael said, trying to catch his breath. "The curse wants to kill. Your father's top priorities have only ever been on his family, and you've always been on the top of that list."

"Didn't someone tell me that Brian's track record of sparring with your father is pretty good?" Marcus asked.

Khaat said nothing but she was having visuals of being a single mother with seven children under 4. Marcus looked at her, and he saw she was seriously stressing. That wasn't healthy.

"Alright," he said to her gently. "You're dripping. You can't stand here all day in a wet bathing suit. It still is January, and its not as warm here as where we were."

"Your suit isn't dry either, Slick," Michael said. "Marcus, why don't you let Jess help Khaat find something warm and dry and you do the same? Perhaps the house elves will bring up some tea." He was hoping they'd choose a soothing blend that would ease Khaat's stress before the baby started to stress.

Marcus wasn't sure he wanted to leave Khaat right at the moment.

"She'll be with Jess," Michael said. "I can't imaging you'll take more than ten minutes to change."

"More like three," Marcus said.

"Well, then, see? She'll probably still be in her underwear that quick. Go. Jess, you've got this? And some tea perhaps?"

"Thank you," Marcus said to Jess. He looked at Khaat. "I won't be long." He went to his room to change, remembering he would have to go back to get their things from the hotel and check out for them. Now just wasn't the time, though.

Khaat went with Jess to her room. The fire felt good. She didn't realize she was cold until she felt the fire warming her. She sat down, not thinking about clothes.

"When I find who's responsible for this curse, I'll kill them," she said softly. "Its destroyed too many lives. No one deserves to do this much damage."

"Psst," Michael called from the doorway before he headed downstairs. He accio'd a pair of black leggings and a soft gray tunic sweater for her. "Clothes. Wear some."

He glanced towards Jack to make sure Jack wasn't going to move.

"Jack," Michael went over to him and spoke very softly so Khaat could not hear. "I'm only going to say this once. If Robert gets out of control and Brian...well, lets just say that if Robert wins, let him go. If he wants to go that badly, lets not challenge him further. Let him go. Understand?"

Khaat changed, and by then Marcus was changed. He was heading back to her room when he saw Suki bringing a tea tray.  Suki paused, listening to the violent fighting in Robert's room.

"I'll take that, Suki," Marcus said quietly. "Thank you. Will it settle her nerves? We don't need her to lose the baby."

"Yes, Sir," Suki said. She pointed to the blue mug. "Yours. Earl Grey." Then she pointed to the pink mug. "Hers.  For pregnant women. Won't hurt you, but its better for her."

"I really don't want hers," Marcus said. "And in the pot?"

"Regular almond tea," she said. He breathed a sigh of relief.  He took the tea and went into her room.

"Thanks," he told them. "She looks better. And that fire feels great. That porting was cold travelling, and I know she was very cold in that bathing suit."  He handed Khaat the pink mug. "Tea. Drink it," he told her.  "We don't need you catching cold. You need it to warm up."

Across the hall, the battle had turned bitter and violent. Brian didn't want to hurt Robert but Robert clearly wasn't himself.  Brian could feel how seriously Robert wanted to kill him. Well, it wasn't Robert. It was the curse. The unbridled rage that the curse caused.

And it was getting messy. Nothing was free from perhaps being broken or destroyed. And both he and Robert were collecting wounds.  So far, it wasn't entirely unlike the sparring battles of old. And it helped Brian keep his wits about him.

But Robert hit him with two very powerful blasts of wand fire. Brian's wand went flying out of his hand and out of sight. Brian saw blood fly, and the wind left his lungs. He felt pain in his chest. The second blow hit him in the head. Things spun, and he fell. Hard. He saw things start to go fuzzy and black and saw Robert aiming at him again.

Lying in a bloody heap on the bedroom floor, he had one thing left, just one. It wasn't one he usually used, but there was no time for a second plan. He reached out both hands and fired wandless magic straight at Robert, using both hands at once.  Something he never did.

Brian's spells caught Robert purely by surprise, and they hit him fair and square.  It threw Robert backwards into the wall like a rag doll and stunned him and knocked him unconscious. Robert fell to the floor and moved no more. He didn't know how badly he'd hurt Robert but neither of them had died.

It was a win for both of them.  He didn't know if anyone was still outside the door. But he was too hurt to get up.

"Jack?" He called, feeling himself fading. He wanted to get up, but nothing worked. He fell back to the floor, unable to get up. "Michael? He's hurt. Come get him. I can't touch him."  He was hoping they remembered that only non-energy workers could touch him. That meant that Jim, Jack, Steven and Michael might have to patch him. Unless they could find Escobar. Escobar didn't seem to give a damn about mortal's curses.

He fell completely limp, not unconscious but too badly hurt himself to be of any help.  Brian had thought he would be able to pull himself to his feet and leave the bedroom on his own power, but at this point he couldn't lift his head off the floor. On second thought, they were probably going to have to come and get him too. Not just Robert.