A Birth day

Kate and Robert took Anise with them, took Simone's keys, and they ported to Edward's house.

They walked the grounds around the house, but there had been so many people here, especially since the fire, that they couldn't pick up on anything helpful. Then they went inside. They walked through the house, and Anise was alerted the moment they went into Edward's office.

"Werewolf," she said firmly. "I can smell him. It was a male. And he's dark. Dark. Really dark."

"Is he here now?" Robert frowned.

"No," Kate replied. "But it was recent. She's right. I feel his energy."

"What does he want?"

"Death," Anise said firmly.

"No, that's not right," Kate said. "Money."

"No, death. I'm certain," Anise said.

"Is there more than one?" Robert asked.

"Maybe," Kate said. They continued to walk through the house, and then, as it began to get dark, Anise began to get anxious, looking all around her. And then they all heard the sound of breaking glass. Kate saw Edward's weapon closet and used an alohamora to open the cabinet. She got out a pistol and a clip of silver bullets. Anise took down a rapier from the wall, hoping she wouldn't have to use it, and she wasn't sure she knew how eve if it came to it.

Robert headed down the hallway in the direction of the breaking glass. He reached the dining room, and he saw a huge hulk of a man there. He knew even before Kate and Anise came in. This was no ordinary man. This was a werewolf in his human form. Kate and Anise came in, and Robert tried to keep them behind him.

"I didn't come for you," the man spoke in a deep voice, seeming to have trouble speaking words.

"Back up," Anise told Robert. "Step back." They all took a couple steps back, and the man changed into his werewolf form because of the light of the full moon that poured in through the windows. Anise had had her wolfsbane, and now she wished she had not. She could not change even if she wanted to. Kate aimed her pistol, and Robert aimed his wand. Anise had her blade raised, but when the werewolf leaped, he leaped for Anise, and not having a choice, she made one swing with the blade and the beast fell--in two pieces--on the floor. Anise was horrified at what she had just done, the blade clattering to the floor, and she screamed in absolute horror and repulsion. Robert wrapped her close, burying her face in his chest so she didn't have to see it.

Ruby seeing Caprice happily playing got up and put down her book walking to the kitchen where she could still see caprice she began making some cinimon rolls for the evening supper if any wanted one. She Mix the filling ingredients together and Spread evenly over the dough then roll it up lengthways, like a Swiss roll, to form a log. Using a sharp knife she cut the dough into 8 even-sized slices and put them into a greased tin. Brushing gently with extra milk she placed them in the oven to rise on a low heat.

Moving to Caprice she could tell she needed changing again and headed up to do a diper change and outfit change on her with a quick wash.

Edward's housekeeper had a means of reaching Edward, and she paged him. Edward and Marcus arrived within mere moments, and the housekeeper led them to the dining room where Robert and Kate were standing trying to console Anise, who stood still with a bloody rapier in her hand, near the corpse of a beast, one of her own kind. It was a terrible thing for a young girl to have to see, let alone to know she had done it.

Edward took the rapier from her hand, and laid the blade on the floor. Some of his crew were used to the occasional intrusion and the means that often caused them to be dispatched.

"Take her home," Edward told Marcus quietly. "Ask Nigel to tend her for tonight. She's just too young to have to have been a part of this." Robert laid his hand on her forehead and cast a powerful calming spell for the moment. He kissed the top of Anise's head, knowing how tightly she was wrapped around him.

"I'll be there shortly," Robert told Anise. "Marcus is going to take you home." He turned her over to Marcus, and he wrapped her close.

"Hold tight," he told her. "We'll be home in a moment. He ported Anise home, her face turned into his chest. He looked at them. "Nigel, I'll need you downstairs. The rest of you, give us a moment, please." Then he took Anise downstairs to her room. Nigel got up and went straight away. It only took Nigel about five minutes to tend to her and to get her into her own bed to sleep for awhile. He came back upstairs.

"She's sleeping. They found a werewolf at Edward's house," Nigel told the others. Long story short, the werewolf attacked and Anise killed him in self defense. She feels like she killed one of her own kind. that's a damned hard lesson for a young lass not grown yet. I cast a sleep spell for her and tucked her into bed to sleep off the worst of it. She said she and Kate and Robert were unharmed."

Ruby saw Marcus apear from the basment and looked confused until he started to speak about what had happened while they had been away. She also heard Marcus call for Nigel and stood up " she is okay right?" she asked concerned for Anise. but she knew Robert and the others were dealing with it and had sent her home to keep her safe. She looked over where Ginger was knowing she probably wold go down and check on Anise eventualy.

Hearing th time ron the oven ding she headed back to turn up the oven to cook them ready for coolong and icing so the others could eat something on their return if they felt up to it.

"She's alright physically," Nigel said. "Emotionally, it was horrifying for her. She was not prepared for that."

"We've all seen werewolves die in one form or another," Ginger said. "But for her to have actually done it, she would feel horrible about it, like she had killed one of her own kind. We always swore we would never do that, but that's childish foolishness. None of us can ever know what's in store for us. Not really."

"She's going to be alright," Nigel said "I'll keep an eye on her.. I asked Marcus to stay a few minutes just to make sure she settles."

"Is there any chance she'll wake up? Ginger asked.

"Not for two or three hours at the soonest."

"I'll go downstairs so he can come up," Ginger said.

"Take your time, Ginger," Nigel said. Marcus came back upstairs.

"She seems settled for now," Marcus said. "I expect Edward and Robert and Kate to be home in a bit. I can't help thinking that this werewolf is tied to Angus's situation somehow. I just don't know how though. Maybe they'll know something more when they get back. I smell cinnamon rolls. Good thought, Ruby. That's pure comfort for this crew. Always has been."

Ruby listened to Nigel and breathed out " yeah, I agree" she said as Marcus walked up " good idea Ginger " she said then looked to Marcus again " thought people might be hungry , plus it keeps me busy" she added walking over and taking out the buns from the oven to place them on a cooling wire to cool down " they need to cool now" she said.

Hearing Marcus mention the others should be back soon she knew it ment they had concluded there investigation of the house and she was intreste in finding out what they had found other than the werewolf Anise had killed. She wondered if anything else had been found while they ahd been at the house.

Night was approaching in Azkaban, but the inside of Azkaban was so dark it hardly made any difference. Angus had been given a rather pitiful ration of bread and water, which he turned down. His pain potion had worn off hours ago, and he was miserable. He had had to keep trying to cast a patronus spell but he did not want to think of a positive thought because all that did was to cause a dementor to swoop in to try to swipe it from him. So he had chosen to focus, instead, in mildly miserable memories. Not horrendous traumatizing ones. Just troubling enough that it caused the dementors to not zero in on him. He could hear when the other prisoners were being tortured. Their hideous screams echoed endlessly all around him. Angus was determined to make his survival training count, though. He stretched out on the mattress-less wooden bunk and closed his eyes, wanting to escape it all for awhile and sleep.

The men on Edward's crew who had seen this sort of thing before came in to put the house back to rights. Edward went over to the body on the floor and looked at it carefully.

"Robert, come look at this," he said. He took out a pocketknife from his pocket and cut a lock of sticky, matted fur from the werewolf and handed it to Robert. Robert looked carefully at the fur and the odd reddish substance on the fur.

"It's a potion but I don't know what," Edward said. Robert looked at the substance and then looked at Edward.

"It's a rather rare potion, not used very often because there isn't much of a sue for it. It is a Draught of Irrepressible Hunger."

"Never heard of it," Edward said.

"Causes whoever drinks it to have agonizing, crippling hunger that cannot be eased or satisfied no matter how much one eats," Robert said. "Bloody painful, and pointless. Can drive one mad if they're given enough of it. Poor bloke. In his animal state, he was looking to feed."

"On us."

"Yes," Robert said.

"So there truly was no choice but to kill him," Edward said.

"Not unless we could have contained him til the potion wore off or until I could formulate and antidote," Robert said.

"Who would do that?"

"I'm telling you I know there was a human here," Kate said. "Anise was sensing the werewolf, but i was sensing a human. Maybe the human planted the werewolf in here."

"If they did, they were trying to deliberately kill one of us," Robert said.

"Clearly," Edward said. "Sounds like I need to make a stand right here until I can figure out who they want and why."

"Well, that would work if you could stay awake forever," Robert said. "It would help if we knew who was behind this and what they've struck out at Angus for."

"You're thinking it isn't Suzanne," Kate said.

"I'm betting it isn't," Robert said. "It feels all wrong for Suzanne or Gelding either one. I could be entirely wrong, and if I am, we'll go after Gelding with everything we've got. My gut, though, says this is someone else. So who has some sort of interest in hurting you or Angus, Edward? Let's make a list."

"You don't have enough paper for that," Edward said. "But so long as my housekeeper and my head of house are here, they're in great danger."

"Yes. They are."

"it's been their only home for the last forty years," Edward sighed. "They're like family to Angus and me. They changed his diapers, for pity's sake."

"So, let's set a protection line around the house so that you, your family, your housekeeper and your head of house are the only ones who can get in for now, and then let's see what happens."

"We have to start somewhere," Edward sighed. Once the werewolf was removed and the room cleaned, Robert and Edward and Kate set the protection line in place and then warned Edward's housekeeper and her husband. They were not afraid, and they insisted they weren't leaving. Edward made them promise to send him word at the slightest disturbance.

Then, Edward, Kate and Robert, all ported back to Edwards. Meanwhile, Ginger had taken her shower for the night, and she'd taken part of a cinnamon roll and a mug of tea and had gone downstairs to be closer to Anise.


"Sorry," Robert told them when they came in from Edward's side of the duplex. "Took us longer than we thought. We have some reason to think this is not Suzanne or Tom. This is, most likely, someone else, but who or why, we have no idea."

"So we have nothing," Michael said.

"Well, not entirely nothing but close to it," Robert admitted.

"Bloody fabulous," Michael sighed.

Ruby was busy playing with Caprice when she heard Robert and Edward return standing with Caprice in her arms she waited to hear what of if they ahd found anything new . Hearing Robert talk and say they had not found anything but that it was nothing to do with her mother and her new husband she sighed and sat down some what disapointed at the thought that now Angus would be spending a night in Askaban. She knew it was not the best place for him to be.

Ruby stood up and looked at Robert " so who can it be surely theres not that long a list of people who hate Angus and want him dead or out the way?" she asked

"Well, I suppose there cold be some enemies from his years as an auror, and while it would certainly be easier to make some conclusions if it fit Gelding's pattern or Suzanne's, it really just doesn't add up that way," Robert said.

"I have to agree," Edward said. "It would be far more likely that Angus is being used as a pawn because someone perhaps has something against me. That list, though, could be immensely long. It could be a relative of some werewolf I had to dispatch. Maybe a competitor to the winery or the cruise business, perhaps. But I can't imagine someone angry enough to want to take it out on Angus."

"We think the werewolf was basically planted at Edward's house tonight," Robert said. "Kate is positive she felt the energies of a human at the same time that Anise was sure there was a werewolf. Anise said the werewolf wanted to kill, and I have evidence to support that. Kate, though, said that there was a human's energies there too, and they were motivated by greed--for money. It's no secret that Edward has a lot of money."

"So all we would have to do is to figure out which human likes money," Michael said sarcastically. "Piece of cake."

"Can't you get Angus out of Azkaban even temporarily for medical reasons?" Kate asked Robert.

"And put him where, Kate?" Robert asked. "He's been arrested on two charges of murder. There are only two lockdown places here--Azkaban and the fourth floor of St. Mungo's."

"If you do that," Marcus said seriously, "you would likely do far more damage to him than he already has. You lock him up on the fourth floor and you make that nightmare of his come true, that he ended up locked up there, feeling utterly hopeless. To the best of my knowledge, he's not ever dreamed of being in Azakban. I think he has more hope that we won't leave him there. You move him to St. Mungos, and I think all his hope would be gone."

"Exactly," Robert said. "I think that would be massively damaging to him. Reginald did not do him any favors. Still, I think that was just coincidence. Since Kate got rid of him, Reginald does not have any way to reconnect with Angus. That door is closed. So we can safely eliminate Reginald too. This suspect is very much alive, whoever he or she is."

"Angus is not a fool. He has sailed straight through every survival course and week we've had in the last four or five years," Michael said. "He'll be pulling on those skills to keep his wits about him. For now, I think its safe to assume he's alright, and he knows we won't abandon him."

Ruby listened to them and held Caprice " so , hes safer where he is for now." she said then stood firm infront of them " if its not suzanne then we look further back like you said, his Auror days or school days, I have freinds in the ministry Auror departmentstill, I could head there and talk to them" she said looking from Edward to Robert and back. "I have one freind, her names Aria Barnett" she said " Shes still there in records for the Aurors cases." Ruby told them as she finished bringing up some more of Caprices wind she ahd held onto with a loud belch. " oops , big burp for a little one." she said chukaling to them both.

Moving to the play mat she lay Caprice down so she could roll or play with ehr toys. " okay so what we going to do now?" she asked