LONDON CALLING

The moment that Mira and Jess had the creature captured, Kate fell forward, fainting, exhausted. Robert caught her and leaned her back in her chair and began to check her. She was fine, except she was drained. He brought her around, and Kate called to Jess.

"Jess, see if you can visualize the veil and see if you can chuck that thing across the veil and then bind it from ever being able to return. I don't have anything more to do it with myself."

Mira had not done more than one or two binding spells, but she certainly wanted to learn how. She was hoping that Jess and Kate could show her more, but first things first. She found she was drawn to lay her hands on Edward. His energies were strong, except she could still feel his headache pain. His sleep was sound, though, and she felt no more negative energies anywhere around him. She wondered if this was anything like what Jess and Robert felt when they used healing energies. She had so many questions. She knew now wasn't the time, but she hoped she would get to ask them maybe tomorrow.

Jess looked at Kate and heard her picking up the bottle she stood still imagined the vail like a curtain and pulled it back a figure stood on the other side. gently she held out her hand with teh bottle. in the real world she held up the bottle as it began to fade into nothing but a puff of smoke. in the other side she took a thin cord wrapping it aroud the wrist of the figure she bound it to the figure who turned and floated away. Jess let the curtain fall back in place before opening her eyes again and turning to Kate.

Placing her hand on Kate she let some of her energy slip into her topping her up so she could at least stand on her own two feet. " your just drained, but a good night sleep should regenerate them." she told her glancing at Mira she smiled . "How is he?" she asked her "I found the best way to learn is to do slowly and gently, I was told to think of the energies like threads, each resonating at a diferent frequency therefor giving off a diferent feel and light, in time you learn which energy goes to which place." Jess stood up and moved to Mira placing her hand on her shouder. " what do I feel like to you?" she asked gently as she smiled to Kate.

"He seems fine," Mira said. "I don't think, wherever he is, that any negative energies can reach him right now."

"That's because I cast a powerful dreamless sleep on him," Robert said. "Now, I'm going to do one more thing." He used a powerful pain relief spell on Edward, and he saw Edward visibly relax now. "Good. Now his sleep should actually do him some good."

"Thank you, Jess and Mira," Kate said. "I wanted to think I could deal with it, but you're right. We were much better together."

"What do you know about that thing?" Robert asked.

"I think it was some evil entity that had some sort of hold on Benjamin and contaminated his own greedy nature and made him a lot more evil," Kate said. "Somehow it transferred to Edward and tried to take him over because Edward's powers were very attractive."

"Could that be why Benjamin was so bonkers?" Mira asked.

"Perhaps. Perhaps he was a bit bonkers before, and this dark arts energy made it worse. Either way, you both dealt beautifully with it, and its gone. So I think we've all earned a good night's sleep. I don't know about you two, but I'm tired."

"You've had enough, my sweet," Robert told her. He picked Kate up. "If you'll excuse us, I'm taking her to our room. I'll be back to check on Edward in a little bit." He carried Kate to their room and helped her into bed. She fell asleep almost before her head hit the pillow. Once Kate was settled, Robert went back to Edward's room and found Jess and Mira still talking.

Mira listened to Jess talking about energy like threads that all resonated differently.

"It's funny that you say that because that's sometimes how I see it. Sometimes I feel that resonating. It feels like almost hearing or seeing a thread that's resonating with a certain vibration or sound. Like, yours tends to be more steady than some people's. Sometimes I see it in colors, though. Like when I see you, sometimes I see you surrounded by green light."

"That's part of her energy signature when she's using her healing energies. Green light is healing energy," Robert told her.

"So why is yours white when her's is green, if you're both healers?" she asked Robert.

"I think that's sometimes the difference in people," Robert replied. "A good deal of Jess's time and energies are about some form of creating comfort and healing and peace--whether she's cooking to make sure we're all fed, or healing someone, or just trying to make sure everyone else around her is alright. It makes sense that she is always surrounded in healing energies.

"My energies are used a bit differently. It isn't that I can't heal, because I do. But my energies are also spent in researching, fact finding, strategizing, trying to make sure that I have the truth of situation and that I am working to make sure the greater good is always what we fight for."

"So it's about the pursuit of truth and wisdom of some sort," she said.

"Well, I suppose," he said. "More importantly, though, is the fact that the way you see and feel and hear energy can have an impact on how you use it. And, I think, you may find that you can learn how to do some diagnosing and healing spells if you ever thing you want to learn it."

"Really?" she was intrigued. "You think I could?"

"Yes. I think you could," he said. "After all, your readings about Edward were spot on, and its exactly the sort of thing that we healers do to diagnose. So I don't see why not. You seem to have some of those abilities naturally. Maybe you could work with Jess a little and learn how she reads things. You're always welcome to work with me, but since I'm not a seer, how I perceive things and how I work may be decidedly different.

"Cool!" she was excited. It made Robert laugh.

"You're up for just about anything, aren't you?" he laughed.

"Why not? If I can learn some new skills, why shouldn't I?" she asked.

"You do have a point," he said. He checked Edward once more, just to be certain. "I think he's going to sleep for several hours now, so I think its time we should all be able to safely go to bed. I'm going to head to my room, and I'm sure I'll be up to check on him during the night. Sleep well, Ladies." He got up and headed to Angus's room to leave out his sleeping potion for him. He didn't want Angus to avoid it, and Angus had given him his word that he would try to remember, so Robert purposely left it out for him and then went to his own room and went to bed.

Jess was glad when Mira confirmed Edward was fine "They can't becuse of the sheild we placed around him" she said hearing Robert talk she smiled as he confirmed what she'd told Mira. Hearing him explain she nodded " thats exactly right" she said and listened to him continue.

When he spoke of trainning to Mira Jess nodded " I think you'd do well, maybe test the waters with a bit of each and see which you feel you prefer." she said then she heard Kate " you should feel beter tomorrow, get some rest, I'll clean up the kitchen and make sure everything is cleared away." she said with a smile.

Robert got up early, left a quick note to Kate, and then he took Nigel to London to have a very early breakfast out at Sparks with Nigel. Then, after breakfast, Nigel took his leave to go back home to New York. As much as Robert had appreciated Nige's help, Robert had needed to get back into his own groove, and he looked forward to stepping back into his role as a healer again. He had missed it while his hands were healing. Now, the blue gloves were gone, and although his hands were significantly scarred from the burns, his magic worked again, and that was, at the end of the day, what mattered.

When he went back home, Angus was up and he was setting breakfast in the dining room. Seeing Angus cooking again back at Brian's felt, finally, like things were getting back to normal. He had made a couple different kinds of breakfast pastries. One was a rich, dark chocolate orange scone that had a lovely muscovado sugar crust on the top. That looked amazing. The other was a bacon cheddar scone that had a little sprinkling of a flaked salt on the top. He had deliberately made them a bit oversized so that they looked very generous.

He had made a breakfast casserole that he had set out, and he had included the meat and potatoes in the casserole, so there was no need to make separate bacon or sausage. Then he had made a large fruit salad with a citrus dressing, and he had set out pitchers of tea, coffee, and juice.

"Wow," Robert said. "The aromas in this kitchen this morning are divine. I now regret having breakfast out with Nigel."

"Have a scone and some tea, then," Angus said.

"I might. I'm dying to try one of the dark chocolate scones."

"Help yourself," Angus said. "I need to get busy on the inventory and on ordering supplies or we won't be having much of a supper tonight if I don't get on that this morning."

"Angus," Robert said, "how did you sleep?"

"I did take the potion, so I did sleep," Angus replied.

"And you took the nerve potion this morning?"

"Much as I didn't want to, yes. I kept my word," Angus said.

"Good. Thank you. I'll go up to check on Edward shortly."

"Simone would like to take some riding lessons," Angus said. "She says she's a bit rusty."

"Hook her up with Brian, then. He's a good riding teacher. I think Mira wanted to improve her riding skills too. Maybe he could teach them together."

"I'll ask him."

"How are your plans for the duplex coming? Are they where you want them to be?"

"I think. I just need to find out what I need to do to actually break ground and start building."

"You talk to me, and since you just did, I'll authorize contractors to do the ground breaking and start building. And that place Ruby staked out is where you want it?"

"It's a fine spot for it. I think I would move it forward just a little bit towards this house so the front garden of the duplex isn't necessarily in the woods and the back of it is. I don't want there to be a safety issue after dark if Edward or Ruby are walking back to the duplex from here. I want it to be clear enough for them to be able to see if there is anything heading at them that doesn't belong there."

"I agree, but as much as I wouldn't want Edward or Ruby getting jumped on their way home after dark, I wouldn't want you jumped either. You did leave yourself out of that list."

"Just a figure of speech," Angus shrugged.

"When you get done with breakfast, let's go out and take a look at how far you want it moved forward," Robert said.

"Okay. Thank you," Angus said. Angus sipped at some coffee and every so often he would break off a bit of a scone to eat it while he was working at the washing up, cleaning out expired foods out of the fridge and inventorying so he could do some menu planning and order more groceries. The supplies had been heavily tapped into while everyone was living at Kate and Robert's. But now, since everyone was back home, they desperately needed supplies, and that had to be a priority today.

Ruby had gotten up with Angus and while he was busy in the kitchen she was busy in his office with paperwork. Hearing voices she picked up two that were bothering her and walked out "morning Robert" she said then walked to Angus " Angus these two are dificult, they both want the same thing and I can't seperate it, I don't know if there the same person or just two that are making it difficult." she showed him the papers " I can work around it for the most part." seeing the scones she stood as they spoke of the duplex and she smiled.

"Thats seems a fair desishion" she said taking and cutting a scone in half before placing it on a plate and sat to eat. "so how was breakfast with Nigel?" she asked " he get off home okay?" she asked just out of curiosity she would miss him but was happy he'd gone home. " and I got two begs done, not many to go now." she shiffled the papers on the table and read more. "These are delishious as always Angus, wellp back to the paperwork." Kissing his cheek she headed back to the office to continue.

"Leave those two for me," Angus said. "Just set them aside, and I'll get to the bottom of them. Not a problem. If you've gotten to the rest of it, then these two are nothing. I'll have them done as soon as I can get to them."

"Breakfast was nice, but, honestly, I'm not so sure he really wanted to go. He went, alright, but I don't think he wanted to. He was seeing a completely different side of life when he was here. He lives his life, from what he and I talked about, in a bit of a rut. He has the same routine almost every day of his life in New York. He's alone, except for his work, seven days a week. He gets up, goes to work, has a cup of tea while he reads the newspaper and catches up on his messages. Then he sees patients all day until sometimes 7 or 8 at night. He leaves the office, picks up some takeaway someplace, eats, reads the evening papers over supper, might read a chapter or two of a book, goes to bed and does it all over again. It sounds like a bloody lonely existence, if you ask me. When he was here, he had friends, and he was enjoying the companionship he found here with all of us. He was already talking of coming back at least once a quarter to spend his holidays. He's thinking of maybe of retiring and moving back to England. Asked me if we could use him just even for filling in at St. Mungos when we're short staffed."

"Well it isn't as if he isn't qualified for the job," Angus replied.

"Precisely," he said, as Edward made his way into the kitchen. He had cleaned up and dressed, but he still looked barely awake. He didn't speak but instead he poured himself a cup of coffee. "Come sit," Robert motioned to him. Edward went over and sat down, yawning sleepily. "You're barely awake, my friend. Let me see if I can't take the rest of that sleep spell off now. That will help significantly." Robert touched his forehead and removed the rest of the sleep spell. "How's your head?"

"Not 100 percent, but better," Edward said, taking a sip of coffee. "Angus, you have espresso?"

"Certainly. Can I brew you some?" Angus asked.

"A gallon or two would be good," Edward said. Angus cast him a bit of an amused smile and went to put on the espresso pot.

"I think your headache was caused by that entity from last night."

"But when did I pick it up?" Edward asked.

"Yesterday. It could have been something simple, just in something you touched in the house. Could have been anything, but I think it attached to you at the house yesterday and came back with you. Did you find anything new, pick anything up..."

"No, I don't think so," Edward said.

"Well, get some coffee and some breakfast and then, as you wake up, maybe it'll come to you."

"If I do, I'll let you know. It's gone then?"

"I think so," Robert said. "I think Kate and Jess and Mira got rid of it."

"Good. Mira got my message then. I thought Kate was misreading it. It was trying to look more benign than it actually was. I knew it was going to take more than one to get rid of it."

"Mira did get your message. Well done. It was most helpful."

"They believe you now, Angus," Edward said, looking at him. "After I showed them my memory threads, they changed their tunes. They believe you now."

"Makes no difference," Angus said stiffly. "You shouldn't have had to show them that. They should have taken you at your word. They aren't welcome here. Not now, not ever."

Ruby listened from the office and could not agree more with Angus over how his family had treated them she could see it een now in the letters and cards they had recived in bag fulls. Jess walked down and smiled at Edward glad to see him up and awake.

"Good morning every one, how you feeling this morning Edward, got to be a whole lot better." she said poring some coffee and taking a scone. " oh and Robert hows Kate?" she asked as she sat and ate. Jack walked in from ouside and sighed deeply.

"that hypogriff needs talking to, it took down a metal pole" he said " please some one talk to it and find out why it keeps wanting to get out of the north paddock." he said laying his head on the counter.

"is it breeding season?" Ruby said from the office "It might be his mate is in the other paddock." she looked up as she placed more sealed responce letters in a post bag.

"Good morning, Ruby," Edward said, yawning. "I'm much better, thanks."

"He'll be better in a moment," Angus said. He got a coffee mug, poured the entire contents of the espresso pot into a mug and set it in front of Edward.

"Now that's proper fuel," Edward said. "Thank you, Lad."

"You're welcome," Angus replied.

"Kate is better," Robert said. "I had Marcus and Khaat drop her off at the spa at St. Mungo's on their way in this morning. I arranged for a morning at the spa for her. Sauna, massage, manicure, pedicure, the works."

"The massage sounds great," Edward said.

"She'll be back by lunch time. I think she's maybe going to see about bringing lunch for everyone from Sparks."

"She did mention it," Angus said. "So I didn't intend to cook unless I heard otherwise. I'll ask her to have a word with the hippgriff when she gets home. The last I knew we weren't separating any of the hippogriffs. I'll go out and see if I can see anything obvious. I'll go now and then come back and deal with the inventory when I get back. I'll be right back."

Angus went out to the north paddock and saw a very agitated hippogriff. That was unusual because this hippogriff was normally friendly and calm. Angus crawled between the fence rails and went into the paddock, and as he started to approach the hippogriff, it rushed at him and attempted to knock him down. Angus stepped aside and the hippogriff turned and came back again at him. He didn't want Kate anywhere near this bloke until he calmed down. He made one last attempt to go near the hippogriff and as the beast turned, he saw it. There was an open wound on the beast's flank, and from the wound oozed some sort of very odd black smoke. That, Angus was sure, was the cause of the problem. Angus made an attempt to get closer, and the hippogriff dove and him and kicked him in the ribs, knocking him to the ground.

Angus was certain he was going to be stomped by the hippogriff when two of the grounds crew came running and fired bombarda spells at the ground to drive the hippogriff away from Angus.

Inside, Robert immediately heard the explosions from the bombarda spells.

"Jack! Go!" Robert ordered. Something was going on that clearly wasn't supposed to be.

Jack looked up at Robert and nodded as he ported to the hipogriff padock. seeing Angus on the ground he called to one of the grounds men " get him out of there" he said and moved to get the creatures attenshion he spotted the wound to its flank and tood his ground with it. It tried to push him out of the way like it had done to Angus but Jack being stronger dug his heels in and held on to its horns " were trying to help you, you cantankerous beast." he told it. Ruby saw Jack leave and ported to the paddock as well.

Moving to Angus she helpped the grounds men get him out. Before she took out her kit and placed it beside her on the ground. "whats wrong with him?" she asked glancing at where Jack stood holding the creature face to face.

Seeing Angus was clear he tossed the hypogriff to one side and left the paddock. "You okay?" he asked kneeling down beside Angus.