A Birth day

Ruby watched as Marcus brought Angus his potion for the night she heard them talk and sighed. Watching him leave and then stop and talk to her she chuckled " I know I just wish I could knock the stuffing out of that old bat too" she said and laid her head down "Sleep might take some time for me" she said then smiled at Marcus " but it will come I know that" she added as she turned to face Angus watching him down the potion.

Laying next to him she could not sleep for wondering if she would enter his dreams. But she could not stop herself falling asleep beside him her hand holding his as she wanted to keep contact with him even in her dreams.

Angus slipped into sleep, feeling a last surge of anxiety as it overtook him. As he entered the swamp land again, he could feel he wasn't alone tonight. He felt Iya behind him, and she was close. It felt very much like she was so close that if he took a step backwards, he would step on her feet.

"Oh," Iya said softly in his ear, and he heard some recognition in her tone. "So this is where she hides."

"Is this a real place?" Angus asked softly.

"She cannot hear you if you talk to me. Do not fear. Yes. It is a real place. There is an old Creole swamp cemetery nearby. She is using it as window dressing, hoping to add to your fear by making you believe she is who she says she is...." Angus was listening but as he turned he saw the figure of a skeleton in the trees, and it was moving towards him. It put him on alert.

"Calm," she told him. "It is not what it seems. It is quite mortal. This is a muggle illusion used a lot at Halloween. It is a man, dressed in all black, with skeletal bones painted on the clothes in luminous paint."

"Then I will fix that," Angus saw angrily. He cast a spell at the skeleton to cause the clothes to be changed to all neon pink. It made him laugh out loud, and Iya could not help laughing too.

"Oh, good work," she laughed. "She will be angry, though, so be ready." He waited and walked through the area, trying to remember landmarks.

"She's here," Angus finally said quietly, feeling the woman arrive.

"Yes. And she hunts you," she said. Angus spun around, saw the woman, and cast an obscuro to blind her, followed by a silencio to deafen her at the same time. She recoiled like a venomous snke firing avada kedavras in all directions. Angus was wise enough to leap behind a huge boulder and just wait. Then he started to apparate behind trees and buildings, firing fireballs at her from a location, and then apparating to another to fire from someplace else, hitting her repeatedly, causing her clothes to catch fire. She screamed in blind rage.

"Careful! She is healing herself of your spell," Iya warned him finally. "She can see you and hear you now."

"Her followers are coming," Angus said, seeing shadows in the woods approaching.

"Yes."

"They know one skill--they brawl."

"You do not have to fight. Use your magic." Angus followed her coaching and used fireballs and any other spell that either of them could think of so that he did not have to brawl tonight. Eventually, the woman actually tired, leaving and taking her followers with her. And Iya came in front of him, willing to be seen now in his dreams.

"You have done very well, Piti. Come. Come sit. Your potion will not let you wake yet." She led him to where there was a fire ring that hadn't even been lit tonight. "Sit." She sat beside him. "You can rest now. She won't be back tonight." In his dreams, he simply closed his eyes and everything vanished.

Marcus went downstairs at five am and he found Iya sitting, turning over cards like a tarot reader, and Beau was refilling a tea mug for her.

"Oh, we didn't expect you awake yet," Beau said to Marcus. "I just brewed a fresh pot of coffee and one of tea."

"We're early risers here," Marcus said, as Finn made his way to the door. Marcus opened the door and let the dog out, fetching the newspaper and a large basket from the main house. He put the basket on the counter and opened it, finding fresh breakfast pastries and some individual sized breakfast quiches, a large bowl of fruit salad, and a most unusual casserole of sausage, has brown potatoes, onion, and cheese as a side dish.

"Zoe has sent breakfast from the main house if you're hungry," Marcus told them. "I'll set it out."

"Starving," Beau grinned. "She won't eat until she knows Angus is awake, though."

Ruy woke early making her curse that she'd not slept well worrying about Angus who she could see was still sleeping but it seemed more peaceful now as he had a goofy smile on his face. With a light kiss, she moved to shower letting the warm water wash away her tiredness so she could get on with her day. Now dressed she headed downstairs and smiled seeing Marcus was already up " morning " she said as she poured a cup of coffee and sent it up to rest beside the bed on Angus's side for when he woke. She poured another for herself and looked at Marcus " did Zoe send over breakfast already?" she asked looking at the food laid out.

Sitting she looked at Iya and spoke softy " please tell me everything went well last night, I do know hes sleeping with a smile today" she told her smiling herself as she recalled the goofy look he had.

"Yes. She did," Marcus said, feeding Finn.

"She's still with him," Beau said. "She will stay with him until he wakes. Then she'll be able to tell us what she knows. At this point, all we may see is her periodically sip on her tea. If it were not going well, though, I would know. I don't think you have anything to worry about.

It was a little less than an hour later when Angus woke. When he woke, Iya opened her eyes, stretched, and sipped on her tea.

"Did you learn anything?" Beau asked her.

"Yes. I think I know where her camp is," Iya said, "but it is a meeting place only. She does not stay there. Nor do her followers, and she has quite an army of those. Some of them are muggles, and so we do not want to overpower the magic around them unless Lee is prepared to obliviate them all."

"And Angus?"

"He's an exceptional man for her to think she can put one over on him. In my book he's a poor mark. He's not frightened by much of anything, his reactions are quick, and he's a good fighter."

"Well, then, she's doing this for the money," Beau said.

"Probably so," Iya replied. "We outfoxed them last night, but we were lucky. I don't know that we could do that every night, but we did have a small victory. I think it's time Robert took his people to New Orleans. We need to take the fight to her for real so we can actually fight something that everyone can see."

He sipped on his coffee, washed, shaved and dressed and went downstairs with him

Ruby sat and watched Iya and listened to Beau she sipped her coffee and noticed that Iya changed and moved to start sipping her coffee. she listened as she explained to them what had happened and Ruby relaxed knowing he'd had a good night's sleep thanks to her " thank you" she said smiling as she sat and waited for Angus to come down from the bedroom.

It was now she heard Caprice start to fuss in her room and she stood up, walking to the stairs she headed up and got her chenged and dressed for the day . Walking back down she placed Caprice in hr high chair and gave her some food to eat with her fingers as she spooned her her mushed fruit. " she gets fussy if she dosn't eat" she said to Iya then she looked at Caprice as Jessie walked in .

"morning " he said and stopped in his tracks " wow, so many up this early " he said and looked to Marcus " um, whose that at the table?" he asked as Chris ran in behind him holding his sketch book and a new set of water colur pencils.

Iya merely nodded as she and Beau started to repack her bag.

"May I fix you a plate of breakfast?" Angus asked Iya quietly. "Or you're certainly welcome to help yourself."

"I've been helping myself for decades before you were born, Piti," she smiled, reaching up to caress his cheek affectionately. "Go get some breakfast for yourself. I think we need to talk to Robert this morning. I think it's time you all came to New Orleans. It will not be without danger, but it will serve us very little to continue fighting her, just the two of us."

"Agreed," Angus said.

"Now off with you, my boy. Go eat. We have more work to do."

"Taskmaster," he teased her. She laughed out loud. When Jessie came in and asked who the woman was at the table, she looked up at him.

"And you would be Jessie. I speak English," Iya said. "I am Iya, an associate of Lee's. Where I come from, if we don't know someone, we generally introduce ourselves. You're welcome to speak directly to me if you like."

Angus motioned to Cris and introduced him to her.

"Aya, this is Cris. He is Romanian and he is just starting to learn English. Jessie and his partner Yulong are looking to adopt him." He explained to Cris that Iya was a friend.

"H-H-Hi, Iya," Cris spoke slowly, unsteadily, but using relatively good but awkward English. It was about the only English he knew.

"Hi, Cris," she smiled, shaking hands with him. Angus suggested Cris show her his sketches, so Cris went over and opened his book for Iya. Iya easily put her arm around the boy's waist, and they seemed to be communicating quite easily with gestures, no language required, and not having a problem at all.

"Not all the children Iya has cared for have spoken Haitian dialect. She has found that sometimes words aren't so very necessary," Beau smiled.

Jessie looked at the woman and smiled " I'm Jessie Tyler Rubys' brother this is Chris" he said as Angus introduced him to the as well making him chuckle he watched her interaction with Chris and smiled "Let me guess grandmother vibes?" he said and just let Chris talk to her he knew he would be safe with her and smiled as he climbed on her knee to show her the pictures he'd done.

"so what brings you here?" Ruby asked Jessie who smiled "Okay you smelt the food right?" she said and he nodded with a chuckle.

"Yu's out on patrol so we thought we could come here for breakfast that and Im waiting for the food supplies too," he said leaning on the counter " I kinda got them sent here." he looked at Marcus "accidentally mind you" he chuckled as he glanced over to see Chris and Iya having a good conversation.

"Cris and I have met," Iya said. "We're on our way to becoming old pals, he and I."

"Iya is a voodoo queen," Angus said, sipping his coffee. "She's the real deal, not this Marie Laveau imitation. Beau here is one of Lee's agents and works out of Louisiana, and Iya is his grandmother. This phony should be very afraid because she has no clue what she's about to encounter." That made Iya laugh.

"She's not afraid yet, but she will be in due time," Iya said. "I think she believes you were just lucky last night. I don't think she takes you seriously yet, but we will change that. She won't be afraid until she actually gets a clue of what she's encountering, and, with any clever planning, by then it will be too late because we will have her."

"If it's clever planning you're looking for, Robert is your man for that," Angus said.

"You didn't do so bad last night yourself," she said.

"That wasn't planning. That was improvising. Robert is the clever one."

"I'll talk to him after breakfast," she said. "He's given Beau and me a room next door to use. Beau and I are well experienced with sharing a hotel room, so one room for the both of us was just fine for us. We'll grab a bite here, go talk to Robert, and then get some sleep." She brought Cris to the table and helped him fix his own plate, and then she fixed her own. The two of them tucked into breakfast, and Angus finished his coffee before he fixed a plate.

As they were all finishing breakfast, Robert and Lee arrived.

"Sorry we're so early, but we really wanted to see how you both did overnight against Marie," Robert said, helping himself to coffee and pouring one for Lee too. "Here. Have a cup of fuel, Lee."

"Thanks," Lee said, the time difference affecting him a bit this morning.

"He did well," Iya said. "I managed to conceal myself from her, but I do think I know the area where she is taking him in his dreams."

"It actually exists?" Robert asked.

"It does," Iya said. She looked at Robert. "She is very mortal, and, I do not think she is any descendant of Marie Laveau. I think she is purely an imposter. She does have some knowledge of voodoo, but I think she is very defeatable, if we do it correctly."

"Sounds like Iya thinks you all should pack your bags," Lee said.

"Yes," she said. "It's time."

"Lee and I have continued to discuss this, as I'm sure everyone expects," Robert said. "We have aliases and places for everyone. I'll go over that later with the whole team but for now, Iya is right. Everyone who's going should pack, and be wise about it. Remember, summer in New Orleans is swelteringly hot and exceptionally humid. I would choose cottons, gauze, cooling summer fabrics. Even the night time temperature are going to feel warm and really muggy to us. The only time you might find any relief from it is if you get into a location that has muggle air conditioning. A waterproof jacket is a must. It's a coastal city, after all. They get a lot of rain. I would make sure you take one outfit for something a bit dressier, just in case, and definitely take some hot weather mission wear and your weapons. On this assignment, you should have as flexible a wardrobe as you can muster because we just don't know what all you might get into. I don't think we'll be into a black tie affair, but you should plan in case the ladies need dresses and the guys need a bit of upscale dressing, like perhaps a nice restaurant."

"I think we can manage that," Angus said.

"Oh, and before I forget to mention it, Kieran notified me this morning that Anise sprained her elbow last night in a nighttime training exercise. Apparently she tripped and fell, and she landed on her left elbow. Evan is there training with them, and he went with Anise when we had her treated. There's no fracture, and they've got it in a wrap with a magic wrap on top. She's determined she isn't missing any training, so I've been assured she intends to be at training today. Remember we're seven hours ahead of Colorado, so it's just midnight there. The last I knew, they were all settling in for the night a short while ago. We might not know anything more until perhaps sometime this afternoon our time."

"She's tough," Angus said. "She'll muscle through it. How are they doing otherwise?"

"Exceptionally well, all of them," Robert said.

Jesie looked at Lya and smiled gald they had met " good to meet you" he said and smiled hoping he was polite enough. Ruby smiled and looked to Lya as Jessie gthered nreakfast for himself and Chris and they sat to eat together.
"he tries" she said softly but when Lee and Robert arived she looekd worried at them for amoment them relaxed as they spoke she listened to them talk of Anise but she knew she would be fine as she kne anise ws a toughgirl and would not let this stop her from completing the trining.

Hearing them talk of packing light clothing Ruby nodded " already done" she said " something told me it wa going this way" she added as she finished her food and looked to Jessie and Chris as they dilivery appered by the back door " okay food diliverys here " she saidstanding and walking over to bring it inside to the kitchen. Jessie gathered his own and with Chris carrying a small box said good bye and headed to their cabin to put their suplies away . Ruby smiled and waved bye to them as she too put all of their suplies away.

"Well, we'll go finish getting our arrangements made, then," Robert said.

"Oh, Robert," Angus said, "I presume we will need both American muggle money and wizaring money?"

"Don't worry about that," Lee said. "We've arranged for that for you. Each team will have muggle bank accounts, debit cards and ready cash, along with wizarding accounts and cash. You'll be fine."

"We've arranged everyone all into teams of twos and threes," Robert said. "We're putting you and Ruby, and Marcus and Barnett in two teams on the same property. There are two houses on the property next door to one another, sharing a common center courtyard. You'll be farther out in the bayou. We're putting Jess and Jack in town in the French quarter. Kate and Michael and I will be in the garden district. Edward and Simone will be in the Gentilly district, and Beau and Iya will be in the bywater district. You'll all have different aliases. We're working on ways to help you to communicate without compromising the mission, but we're currently not planning on having your covers actually knowing each other. We think we'll stay under her radar better if you work on small teams that don't know each other, rather than betraying that we're really a much larger team."

"Makes sense."

"Oh, and if we last longer there than two weeks, we do have some backup plans to perhaps include Evan and the kids, if you don't object."

"If they pass the training, then I would certainly be open to discussing it," Angus said.