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.