LONDON CALLING

Jess looked at Michael and the expreshion on his face. Something told her trouble was on its way and they were going to be in the middle of it all. " I have a feeling somethings going to go wrong " she said softly to him. Taking a deep breath she sighed " Kate?" she asked hoping he understood she was a seer and could pick up on silght changes around them.

Jack watched as the younger children were placed in the beds from the doorway making sure they were safe for the night. Once donw he moved outside to sit with Jess. " The cub said they will be patrolling the west side tonight " he said to Michael but paused seeing he looked like he was having a conversation with some one.

"Yes," Michael replied to Jess as she joined him. "That whole face-in-the-fire is not my favorite spell. She needs to add a doorbell to it or something. Just a nice friendly little ding dong would be nice. It's just strange to see one's bonfire wanting a conversation, and understand this is from a man who plays poker with his hat rack."

Jack joined them and said the wolves were on duty for the night. That honestly would have ordinarily made him feel a little better but he was now concerned that at some point there would be some risk to the wolves if they decided to go after this dark woman.

"Kate saw our gypsy sorceress in a vision tonight. Sounds like she's trying to make herself another staff. I don't know if she's any sort of alchemist or not, but I'm hoping not. I'm hoping she blows herself up or something in the process. Anyway, Kate thinks this woman is on the move tonight and wants to cause some sort of trouble. Our night crew needs to be on their toes. Kate doesn't think there's any point in us going to the farm. Said Robert laid a trap for any dark energies that tried to enter there. I suppose I could try to lay some sort of trap myself, but Robert is better at improvising those sorts of wacky spells. And I'm tired. I can't guarantee mine would work as well tonight. Perhaps tonight we need to just be on our toes. Thoughts?"

Jess listened to Michael and nodded "agreed" she said and smiled as Jack sat next to her speacking of the wolves. Jack looked up at Michael as he placed some wood in the fire.

"they know to not go after anyone only to observe and report to us if they find any one not autherised or that they don't like on the grounds." he said " if she's trying to make a new staff I have her old one on my shelf at home." Jack chuckled as he looked at Jess.

"all thats fine but what if she manages to make a new staff and use it " Jess said worry sitting on her face as she spoke. Jack sootherd her by brushing her arm and smiled.

"Maybe I should talk to Gabe and see if he's got any thoughts. After all, he's our resident alchemist," Michael said. "You've got the pieces of the staff, jack, but Gabe still has the stone that was in that thing. I can't help but think that stone has some significance. Now that the staff is in pieces, I'm sure the energies can't be intact, but the stone might be important somehow."

Mira came out to the firepit and looked at them.

"Is this a private party or can anyone join?" she asked.

"Pull up a stump," Michael invited. She laughed and decided on a lawn chair, not a stump. "Where's your dad tonight, Mira?"

"He's out of pipe tobacco, and Brian said Robert has a jar in the little lab he has here so he unlocked the door for Dad so Dad could root around in it. How many potions labs does that man have anyway? The one at St Mungos, his farm, here...."

"And in Paris," Michael laughed. "Probably more than we know about. Ah, he must have found the tobacco because here he comes."

"'Evening, All," Gabe said, sitting with them. "What a perfect night for a bonfire."

"Gabe, what can you tell us about that weird woman's staff?" Michael asked.

"Jack depleted the energies when he broke it," Gabe said.

"And the stone?"

"Ah, now that stone might be something else. Shortly before Flamel died, he sold off some of the stones and artifacts he had. That stone matches one of the ones he had diagramed in one of his journals. If its the same stone, its one he bought in the Far East at least a century ago. I'll have to look at his journal to refresh my memory about it, though. The last I read about it was years ago."

"Do take a look, would you?" Michael asked. "Kate sent a message that the sorceress we took it from is trying to make another staff and doing some sort of movements tonight."

"Will do, and then I'll let you know," Gabe said. "Sounds like Brian needs to alert all the night staff here to stay sharp."

"Yes, he does. Unless you'd prefer to alert them yourself, Jack?" Michael asked.

Jack looked at Michael and shook his head " I'll leave that to you guys tonight." he said just as Jessie ported him and smiled at seeing them around the firepit.

"nice " he said but looked around " I got to patrol." he said a frown on his face as he left them by the pit. Walking around he found one of the wolves it dropped a small yellow stone at his feet and backed away. " thanks." he said and picked it up.

Carfully he walked with it to Gabe " taking of stones anyone recognise this? " he held it out for them to see " one of the wolf cubs brought it to me." he added " over by the west boundry."

"Well, that could be interesting," Gabe said, holding it up and taking a look at it. "Topaz. Topaz is known for its healing potentials and its protective abilities. It's a positive energy stone that isn't easily turned for dark magic uses. I'm guessing that it might be a set in a piece of jewelry, judging by its size. I'd check with the staff first to see if someone has lost it. If not, then one of our intruders likely had a sentimental piece because I doubt it would have helped them do much dark magic. Actually, I could alter the organization's medallions a bit by adding a protective stone to them. I'll talk to Robert about it when I see him next."

"I'll go for you and pass the word onto Brian," Mira told Gabe, since Jack preferred not to. The word still needed to get to the men before safety became an issue. Gabe nodded, and Mira went to the house. It wasn't more than a moment before Brian ran down to the barn, with Archangel flying ahead of him, and he got out the hippogryff to take it to reach the men sooner. He mounted the hippogryff and took to the skies to go to the watchtowers on all four corners of the estate to spread the word.

"He's creative about it, that's for sure," Gabe said.

"Well, I think what he's doing is not just flying to the watchtowers, but I think he also wants a look at the estate from the air. If he sees any bonfires that shouldn't be, he'll know we could be breeched. Remember, Robert trained him himself."

"Did he, now?" Gabe asked.

"Yes, indeed," Michael said. "Brian and Khaat were childhood friends, but when Brian's parents were killed, Robert and Kate took guardianship of Brian and took him into their house. He was an angry little boy when that happened, I can tell you that, so Robert and Remus used that anger and taught him how to fight to give him some means to deal with his whole world being uprooted. There hardly was any other choice for the boy but to be a fighter, given who his teachers were.

Jessie was relived it wasn't dangerous in any way and breathed out. It was now he heard gentel snoring and looked over at Jack who had fallen asleep next to Jess. " looks like some one needs his rest." Jessie said chuckaling " and to think I thought I didn't have much stamina" this made Jess chuckle and shake her head.

"yeah all the running around tired him out, oh and the early morning." she looked at Jessie who smiled and held up his hand " don't worry I'll do a double shift , let sleeping dogs lie" he said and Jess chuckled nodding at his words. " well I would have done the air servalance if not for the hypogriff not liking me, got to ask Kate to help me with that if Im going to feed them more." he said softly " oh and it makes sence he can get a good look at the grounds, not had any reports of odd bonfires so far."

"No need for a double shift, I don't think, Jess," Michael said. "Since most of the organization staff and the kids were moved out of the estate today, we only have, I think, maybe 4 little ones and, I think four adults. I think Khaat suggested that two adults worked dayshift and two worked evening/night shift. That should mean the rest of it is now business as usual.

"If you ask me, I think you'll be definitely needed to help get breakfast off. I've got 2 breakfast casseroles in the fridge that will need to be baked off, a large bowl of fresh fruit salad, several pastries already baked, and tea and coffee ready to go. We'll need to get baskets ready to be delivered to the two cabins that the kids and staff are still using, and make sure that the staff and family are all well fed before whatever mayhem takes place tomorrow. Besides, much as its the last thing I want, I'm going to have to be up for awhile. I have jewelry to continue to identify tonight if I'm going to have it all checked by morning."

"Michael," Gabe said, "you look like you're completely knackered. I think you ought to get a good night's sleep and hit it again in the morning. Robert's taking some time off, so I think he would certainly understand you getting a good night's sleep. If there's trouble, I'm sure you're all well trained at being up and dressed in a matter of a few seconds, right?"

"Maybe you're right," Michael yawned. "And, yes, we can all be up and dressed before our eyes are even really open."

"Then let's let the night shift do their jobs and let's all get a good night's sleep. Everything will look better in the morning. What do you all say?" Gabe asked.

Jess nudged Jack who woke and looked at every one " I agree we should all get some sleep." Jess said as Jack stood up and stretched then helped her to stand.

"yeah sorry about that guys, I don't normal fall asleep like that." he said rubbing his eyes. " Im hitting the hay" he yawned and with Jess headed to their place to sleep.

Jessie looked at every one and left them be, He moved back to the borders and slowly walked around it. Taking paticuldr attenshion to anything out of place. Once in a while he'd glance up to see a passing hypogriff and wonder if it was Brian or just one out for a night flight.

Michael decided to take leave of them so he could use his own resources to check on the jewelry. He believed, by the time he got home, he had gotten a bit of a second wind, so he got out the jewelry and some of his resource books, a ledger pad and a pen and sat down on his sofa to work. And as soon as he sat down, he accidently fell into a deep, sound sleep, far more fatigued than he even realized.

He heard nothing until morning when Snidely kicked him with one of the hat racks' wooden legs, in Michael's shin. The pain uprooted Michael immediately. He scowled at the hat rack, sure that the kick was going to leave a bruise. The kettle had put itself on the hob and had brewed a proper cup for Michael and had summoned a mug and had poured the tea and added a spot of milk and sugar to it for him. Michael took the mug and went upstairs, forced himself into the shower and some clean clothes, making him feel human again.

Once cleaned up, he was ready to start again to work. By noon he had researched the jewelry pieces. None of them were reported as stolen, but many of them were listed as having been sold at private sales. Michael started to trace the money from the sales through their owners from one owner, through the sale, to whoever bought them. And that showed some interesting things indeed. Things that the others were going to be interested in. He packed up the jewelry and all the research that he had found and decided to head over to Khaat's.

He arrived in Khaat's living room just as the clock struck 2pm in the afternoon.

"Good afternoon! Anyone home?" Michael called.