A Birth day

Ruby chuckled at Fi and Kieran talking to Angus " if a mountain lion get to our kids , I want its pelt" she said with a serious face but then burst out laughing " na they will be fine" she said smiling as the boys came down saying she'd got mostly everything except for money. She looked at Fi and smiled when they said they could convert galleons to american money. When Fi said Angus had always been a family man but never had afamily of his own Ruby smiled " now he does, three girls and two boys" she said and chuckled " and this one " she said picking up Caprice who let go of the pork " won't be jining them for a long time yet" she said standing as she watched the boys and girls gather their things.

Watching Angus hug them she handed him Caprice as she too moved to them giving each a hug " just rember , do the best you can , your there to learn and train, mistakes will be made but also corrected too" she said to them all moving back to stand beside Angus . " its so going to be quiet without them" she said softly to him.

"We will," Sam said.

"We'll see you in two weeks," Anise said. Kieran and Fi took their hands, and then they were gone, just as the clock chimed eight.

"Yes, it will be quiet without them," Angus said. He handed the baby back to her to start clearing the table and putting the leftovers away. There weren't many leftovers because people had enthusiastically tucked into the meal, but he was glad to see they had eaten nearly everything. He had just enough for one or two plates left, and he decided to just make them up, cover them with plastic wrap and put them in the fridge to reheat later. Then he set a washing up spell to clean up the rest. He was just going to let Finn out when Marcus came back.

"I lost track of you. Where were you?" Angus asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I should have said. I finished the last of the paperwork to keep Evelyn with Jeffrey long term. She'll be there for at least six or seven months before Jeffrey will even consider releasing her, and by then, the facility could very well be snowed in since it is so high in the alps. If they're snowed in, then at the soonest, she won't be able to leave there until spring."

"So how do you feel about it?" Angus asked.

"I guess I feel sad for her that its come to this, but if I'm honest, I do feel no small amount of relief for my kids, my parents and myself," Marcus said.

"We'd have gone along, if you'd told us," Angus said.

"No. You had the kids to take care of," Marcus said. "And it was fine. it was just signing some paperwork, that's all." He went to the kitchen and put on a pot of almond tea.

"There's leftovers from supper if you're hungry. I just put them in the fridge," Angus said.

"No thanks, I ate with Jeffrey and Sarah before I came back. They're ahead of us, you know."

"Yeah," Angus said.

"Do we have any books on runes or symbols?" Marcus asked.

"No, but I'm positive there are several extensive volumes over in Robert's library at the farm. Why do you ask?"

"Well, as I was walking through the community room of the normal facility, a patient called to me. She was quite an elderly woman, and she was blind, but she seemed to see me somehow with those blind eyes. Anyway, I went over to her, and she handed me this coin. It has a hole in it so someone could actually wear it. But she handed it to me and told me to give it to someone but I don't know who. She said, 'Give it to that little lad that's going into battle. It'll help him.' And then she press this coin in my hand."

He handed Angus what looked like an amulet without a chain. It looked like it was copper with a gold inlay, and the gold formed what was clearly a set of runes of some sort. Angus believed he had at least seen most of the runes that were common in potions, but he had never seen anything that looked even remotely like this.

"Ever seen anything like it?" Marcus asked.

"Not even remotely," Angus said, noticing the coin get warm in his hand. He handed it back to Marcus.

"That's odd," Marcus said.

"Yeah."

"No. Not that. I was telling Jeffrey how cold the coin stayed, but you take it for a moment, and the coin is hot. I take hold of it, and it immediately gets cold again. It didn't get warm for Jeffrey either. I wonder if somehow it has some link to you."

"No clue," Angus shrugged.

Ruby smiled taking Caprice from Angus she was about to bathe and change her into her pj's so she could get comfortable and play a little on her mat when she saw Marcus enter and heard him talk of Evelyn and how he'd just finished the paper work. She said nothing knowing Angus would say what needed to be said "Oh, Robert does have a rune book in his library, I've seen it," she said " I can send a note to Jess to send it over if you want but it does sound strange that it reacts to Angus but no one else." she walked over and looked at it herself not touching it.

Moving to the coffee table she wrote a note to Jess and sent it over to her asking for the book. Five minutes later Jess knocked and smiled at Marcus " hey, that's a weird coin you have there, here's the book you wanted" she said and gave Marcus the rune book."I think you should let Robert or Kate take aloook at that before you hand it over" she said " remember cursed objects and the last time you were given something that looked innocent, wasn't" she chuckled as she waved bye and headed back to the main house.

"Well, there are two problems with it," Angus said. "First, we don't know what it means and whether its a good thing or a bad thing. And secondly, we don't know who he was supposed to give it to. The obvious thought would be to give to Cris since, besides Sam and Victor, they're the only lads here. However, I absolutely won't ever put anything in their hands that I'm not 100% sure of."

"Agreed," Marcus said. "Maybe we'll know more when we know what the symbol means. Thanks, Jess."

Angus watched Jess leave, just as he heard the kettle whistle, so, without thinking, he dropped the coin in his pocket and went over and poured mugs of tea for Marcus, Ruby and himself and handed them around. He sat down and looked page by page at the book but there wasn't anything even remotely close to the rune on the coin. He went through it a second time, thinking perhaps a page had maybe gotten stuck together, but he found nothing. He closed the book, sighing heavily.

"It isn't in here," Angus said. "Well, I guess I'll go over to the farmhouse tomorrow and check the other rune books there."

"If you're going to do that, then just keep it with you so you can compare it to what you find in the books," Marcus said.

"Okay," Angus said, as Caprice started to get angry and cranky. Angus looked at her, and he saw she really was getting quite tired. "I think it's past someone's bedtime. I'll take her up and then I'll shower." He took her upstairs and put her to bed, and he got out clean pajama bottoms for himself, laying the things from his pockets on his nightstand. Once he was showered, he came back downstairs and got a new book out.

"Other than researching the rune, any plans for tomorrow that I should be aware of?" Marcus asked.

"Well, nothing earth shattering. I have to get working on weeding the garden and the flowerbeds. They're completely out of control. And I told Ruby I wanted to order some fruit trees and nut trees, so I need to talk to our landscaper about what will grow here and when we should plant. I believe we'll have to wait until fall but I'd like to get those plans made now. And, if we're going to be going to New Orleans, I need to ask Clive to get us all some clothes for all that ridiculously high heat and humidity that Louisiana has in July and August."

"Oh, yes. That's a good thought--before he gets rid of all of his summer inventory," Marcus nodded.

Ruby saw Caprice start to fuss and heard Agus offer to take her up to bed "All right" she said and smiled at him as he took her upstairs. Cleaning up she finished as she saw Angus return looking fresh and clean from a shower. Hearing Marcus she nodded " I think one was a plum tree and the other a nut one I think," she said not quite sure of what he'd mentioned "Sorry trees aren't my forte" she admitted to both of them as she sipped the tea Angus had given her earlier before his shower " did she go down all right?" she asked about Caprice.

"I guess for me tomorrow Im washing the boy's bedding and the girls so they will have fresh on their return in two weeks," she said " might do their rooms too if were going away for a while" she added not spicifcaly saying much more.

"Yeah, she did," Angus said. "I put her in her crib and then I showered. By the time I was done in the shower, she was out like a light. I knew she was tired. It was a long day for a little one. Heck, it was a long day for us too."

"New book?" Marcus asked.

"Yeah. Its a tad different for me. It's about a wizard that is on a camping trip with his muggle girlfriend, and they wake up in their tent to find out that the couple in the tent next to theirs was murdered during the night, and no one seems to know a thing. The wizard believes it's some sort of magical creature, but of course he can't tell the muggles that. And so the game is on."

"Let me know if its any good," Marcus said. Angus settled into his chair to read. In a few minutes, his eyes fluttered shut, and he dozed off. The instant he dozed off, in his dreams, he found himself outside, in front of a bonfire, and people were following that same woman again and she was dancing. She looked at him and laughed. In his sleep, the dancers took him captive, and they started to fight with him. But they outnumbered him badly, and he lost badly. He woke abruptly.

He looked at the clock. He'd only been asleep half an hour, but it felt like he had been asleep for hours. He decided he wanted more tea. He was hoping to stay awake a bit longer, especially if he was going to have dreams like that. He got up to go to the kitchen, and Marcus stopped him.

"Hey. Stop, Just a minute. Where did you get all those bruises? Did you get those this morning?" Marcus asked. Angus had no idea what he was talking about. Marcus pointed out bruises that had formed on his arms, his chest, his back, and his face. He looked like someone had beaten the daylights out of him.

"Did you get those from our trip to Paris?" Marcus asked.

"No. Not one. I swear it," Angus said.

"Did you dream just now?"

"Well, yeah, but it was just a dream," Angus said.

"Did you get into a fight?"

"Yeah, and I lost," Angus said, with an amused grin.

"I'm not sure it was entirely just a dream. I think that woman got to you. Where's that coin?"

"Um...upstairs."

"Not in your pocket?"

"No. I put it on the nightstand before I showered."

"I think we should alert Robert. This woman has some really strong spellwork if she can beat the crap out of you in your sleep," Marcus said.

Ruby was glad Caprice went down without a fuss and nodded "That's good and yeah it has" she said and watched as Angus walked to his recliner and not long after fell asleep. Ruby stood and made a fresh pot of tea before sitting down to work on her word search. As she did she looked up to see Angus stand up she placed down her book and looked at him seeing the marks on Angus. " good idea Marcus" she said and looked to Angus " I'll send a note over to him" she said and wrote a note sending it out the back door and over to the main house.

Moving over to Angus she looked at the bruises " shesh, she must be powerful if she can do this, all in his sleep" she said and looked at Marcus. she hoped Robert wuld come with an explination and something to help Angus so he would not be harmed anymore in his dreams.

"It's late," Angus said. "Perhaps we shouldn't bother him. With his head injury, he needs a little rest."

"He'd want to know about this, and you know it," Marcus said. It wasn't more than two minutes before Robert arrived, and he had Nigel and Kate with him. They were all in their pajamas and their robes, but they showed up all the same. Robert knocked and then they all just came in.

"Good lord," Kate was abhorred. "You have never taken that sort of a beating--never. Tell us exactly what happened. What did you see?"

"It was the same creole woman," Angus said. "And the same group of people. They were dancing around a fire until they saw me, and then when they saw me, the woman started to laugh at me, and all of the people just thought they could start brawling with me. There were just entirely too many of them, that's all. I was ridiculously outnumbered. I could have taken them, I was overpowered."

"Come upstairs with me. I want to see how far this goes," Robert told him. Angus didn't say a word and followed Robert and Nigel upstairs. They weren't gone more than just a few minutes and then they all came back down together.

"I've taken some the pain out of the bruises so Angus can sleep tonight, and since they were conjured in his sleep and not actually physically generated, I might be able to reduce them or get rid of them altogether. There's a potion that is relatively close to what we're dealing with here. We can try. Honestly? If you want my opinion on it, I think that this is nothing more than this woman showing off."

"I will have her, Angus," Kate said angrily. "She cannot come and attack any of mine and not have to face me. I will have her. She is not your fight. She's mine."

"Kate," Robert said. "This is going to take more than just you. She's a murderer. Angus is used to bruises. Whether I can remove the bruises or whether he ends up just letting them fade, we need to work together with Lee's people, all of us, and get her so that she cannot continue to cause all of this mayhem. And, in point of fact, if this killing is part of what she believed she needed to do to fulfill whatever it was that Suzanne asked of her, it very well might make Suzanne an accomplice to several killings, and if we prove that, and if she comes back to England or goes to the States, she very likely could be sentenced to cross the veil herself for that. This is one time when I can't let anyone take on an enemy by themselves. This one is too dangerous.

"Angus," Robert said, "I owe you an apology. I meant to get that dreamless sleep potion to you..."

"I still have a little," Angus said. "I hadn't intended to go to bed yet. I was down here reading a book and dozed off."

"Then she was waiting for you," Nigel said. "And I will get back to you on that coin. I copied the symbol on it, and I'll get it to Lee. He or Tiggy might be able to identify it. I'm not familiar, but Lee's people might be able to track it."

"And I have a lot more rune books over at the farm," Robert said. "I'll bring some over, and maybe we can all go through it together. Marcus, you're sure the woman who gave it to you said that the person going into battle would find it helpful?"

"Yeah. Close enough, but yes," Marcus replied.

"Then I wonder. I wonder if, just by chance, this woman gave you a token with a folk symbol on it."

"I'll have Lee and Tiggy look for that too," Nigel said.

"You absolutely have to take the dreamless sleep potion from now on when you want to sleep," Robert told Angus. "It will serve as a block to keep her out of your sleep. It will cut back on her access to you. It might not block it 100%, but it will dramatically decrease it. You can't stay awake forever, but if you sleep on your own, she will try again to kill you in your sleep. I am absolutely not willing to risk it." He looked at Ruby and Marcus. "You two can help. What he just told us is important. He accidently dozed off when this happened. Try not to leave him alone very long if you can help it. If you have be gone, try to leave someone in eyesight or earshot unless he's awake and active and isn't likely to sleep. We do not want him to sleep at any time without the dreamless sleep potion until we get this woman captured."

"No problem. He's used to us being around," Marcus said.

"And Angus, you cannot let yourself get overly tired because you do not want to risk that uncontrollable dozing off to happen for the time being."

"Why don't you and I work on a very short acting version of a dreamless sleep potion?" Nigel suggested. "Something that only lasts for three hours at the most. A dreamless nap potion. If she is doing this with Angus, we may need a version of it, in case he needs it or in case she starts targetting something else too."

"I like that," Robert said. "I have an idea of how we might be able to do it, too. Perhaps. We'll have to try it." He looked at Angus. "If we manage it, I'll bring you some--just in case you could use it."

"Thank you, Robert," Angus said. "I am sorry to roust you out of bed for something like this..."

"If you hadn't, I'd have been quite irked with you," Robert said. "Besides, we were all still awake. We were all just settling in to read a little before bed. Make sure you take a full dose of sleeping potion tonight, and make sure you check for any new bruises or marks in the morning. If you see even one, I want to know straight away. If you dream anyway, I want to know. Get the idea?"

"Yes. Thanks," Angus said.

"Questions, anyone?" Robert asked.

Ruby had sat and listened and she could not disagree with everyone especially Kate looking at her as she spoke Ruby nodded to her "Not if I get to her first" she said softly then looked back at Robert knowing he was right they had to stop the creole woman to let Angus have some peace. She also knew that Suzzane would not come back to England or America knowing she was wanted as she was and was probably the reason she was dealing with the Creole woman and her black magic. " we'll keep an eye on him don't worry Robert" she said as he finished explaining what was going to happen.

When he asked if there was any questions Ruby looked at him " how are we going to find this woman and stop her perminatly, if we don't know where she is apart from where suzzane is?" she asked glancing over at the now shirt wearing Angus seeing the bruises on his body.

"We don't have any real idea where she is.," Nigel replied to Ruby. "We'll have to rely on Lee and the Americans for that. So far, the kinds of magic she's using wouldn't require her to be in Paris at all. She could do what she's doing from a distance easily enough, especially if she has anything that belongs to Angus or anyone else she intends to go after."

"Does it mean anything that I could see some of the trees and plants around and some of the people that were with her?" Angus asked.

"Maybe," Nigel shrugged. "Maybe not. Kate? Any ideas?"

"It depends on how damned powerful she actually is. It would take some considerable work to alter the setting of a dream spell and involve other people in it to the degree that she did. She had people actively with her to help beat him up. That takes some preparation and some layers of spells," Kate replied.

"So again, we might need to see if Lee has any ideas about how powerful she really might be," Robert said. "I'll need to reach Lee. With the time difference, he'll certainly still be awake. I'll try to reach him. The bottom line is that this is going to take teamwork. In the meantime, you should get good night's sleep."

"Oh, yeah. Sleep is precisely what I'm in the mood for now," Angus said, with abundant sarcasm. Nigel and Robert laughed.

"Your potion should see you through, Lad," Nigel said.

"We'll check in on you in the morning," Robert said. "Goodnight, All." The three of them left and went back to the main house.

"I think I'll go get that potion for you," Marcus said. "You don't need any more trouble tonight." He headed to the kitchen.