Trophies

The last thing Marcus wanted to do was to be taking Khaat out now. First of all, she was, technically, overdue, to have twins. She was constantly uncomfortable now, and although she hadn't said much about it, he knew she was more than miserable. He felt for her, actually. It wasn't something he'd have volunteered for. Anytime.

Second of all, it was an ungodly hour of the morning. 4:30. The coffee and tea supplier for Sparks had decided to make a massive price hike, and it was costing Sparks entirely too much. Khaat needed to select a new supplier and send some owls to get the new supplies coming. The only way she could go out right now was when the wizarding world was largely asleep. She was too much on James Blood's list.

The brutal werewolf wanted her badly, and, while Marcus didn't know if Blood wanted Khaat dead or alive, he didn't much care either. He didn't intend to let him have her. That limited when and how he let her go out. Especially now. The other thing that made him uncomfortable was that, although she went out rarely, it was always at these predawn hours, and it was always to Sparks. It was the one thing that had been come too predictable, and it made the risk ungodly high.

He was very protective. Although it was Spring, the early mornings were still very cold. He insisted she dress warm and in dark colors to try to help hide her a bit more. He approved of the black leggings and the gray tunic sweater she'd chosen. He hated the heels on her boots. They were impractical as hell. He used his wand and shortened the heels to kitten heels, which earned him a daggered glare from her. He flashed her a quick 'What-are-you-going-to-do-about-it?' careless smile. Then he found her black wool jacket and helped her with it.

"You stay with me," he told her with iron firmness, keenly aware of the risk and finding himself, for some reason annoyingly uncomfortable. He just didn't like this trip this morning at all. Nothing about it felt right. "You don't let go, you don't wander off, and if I tell you to go, you go--straight home. You don't question, you don't wait. You leave me if I say so. You understand me?"

"It'll be fine," she said. "You aren't normally a worrywart. What's with you? Are you ready? Lets go and get back."

It hadn't been hard to make the polyjuice potion.

The chef at Sparks really wasn't careful with what she did, or rather, what she ended up leaving behind. Just one movement and she had obtained what she had gone to Sparks for. A hair sample of the girl named Lizzie that worked for the Lupin woman at the bistro. What she didn't really like though, was that she was going to have to go back to it.

She was going to have to wait patiently. Patience was something that Moira kind of lacked though, so she hoped that all of this didn't take her too long. She was supposed to capture Khaat quickly. But she knew that it would be kind of hard for it to be as easy and as quickly as she wanted it to. The woman always had her bodyguard with her and he never left her side. Moira had to find a way to get to her, she had to find a way to get the bodyguard out of the way.

The only way she saw was to gain their confidence and since that wasn't possible. She could just turn herself into someone that already had their confidence. Who better than the girl she had taken the hair sample from? She had been easy to subdue, a lot easier than Moira would have hoped. She liked having her victims struggle at least a little bit. But at least she wouldn't get in the way of anything while Moira did what she had to.

They were going to be coming in anytime, Moira assumed and she put herself in the kitchen, making tea for them for when they came in. Moira made sure to add a sleeping potion to Marcus' cut, though she doubted he would notice anything was wrong with it. But Moira had to admit that she felt strange acting like this woman. She was too happy or whatever it was that she was for Moira. She hated having to act this way.

Marcus escorted Khaat inside, and they found that Lizzie was working alone. The place wasn't open yet and the servers had not arrived yet for the morning shift.  Marcus checked for any signs of trouble and didn't find any.

"'Morning, Lizzie," Khaat said, always glad to see Lizzie's smiling, cheerful face.  "I'm sorry its taken me awhile to get here. I'll send to that new supplier so we can get caught up on things for our spring menu. But Marcus isn't going to want us to stay long.  So, no breakfast for us this morning, please. Could we just get some tea, please?"

Khaat and Marcus had noticed it was chilly in the kitchen and the office this morning.

"I'd leave your coat on," Marcus said. "Its cold in here, and we don't want you catching cold at this late date." He looked behind him at the thermostat on the wall and decided to turn up the heat a couple degrees.

"Whatever the new blend is for the month, please," Khaat said, going into her office.  Marcus went in with her to make sure that she could negotiate the office desk chair and its wheels.