~~~~~~~~~
The fire was going when she got there. Isis spotted her first and her violet eyes greeted her.
"What?" She tugged at Isis' black hair full of green glitter.

"Jack's got guards on Cole's room." Isis beamed at the accomplishment. She seemed to have Jack wrapped around her finger at times.
The rustling sound alerted them to the arrival of Marcus, Gwen, Jonathan and Bane gathered around the fire.

"Where's Elizabeth?" Bane and that Irish accent of his, always questioning things.

"Sorry." A hazel eyed, olive skinned, blond flopped down huffing and puffing. "What did I miss?"

"How's Cole?" Gwen began to shake, she worried so much when they weren't together. If they found out, there was no telling what would happen to them.

"Fine." Alex told her.

"Better," Isis replied, "Jack's got guards on his room."

~~~~~~~~~~
"With all due respect to your fiancee Isis, should not one of us be with him? At least part of the time?" Questioned Gwen braiding her long blond hair.

"Gwen, as much as I agree with you, we need to keep our distance." Jonathan, was half Native American, reminded her, tying back his long brown hair.
"He's close to being on the outs and we will be as well if we don't. You know, I had two tails that I had to lose before coming here."
Gwen went white as some rustling noise was heard in the forest behind her.

Bane and Marcus were up in a flash, daggers or stakes were brought out by all, ready to do battle if the need arise.
Bane followed the short brown hair of Marcus into the forest behind Gwen. A few minutes later three figures came tumbling out and stopped just short of the fire.

~~~~~~~~~~~
Wesley found himself on the short end of the stake or dagger, depending where he looked.
Bane, had a stubble of a beard and mustache, wasn't a large Irishman, but he had the strength of five men, as Wesley soon found out as Bane picked him up off the ground and his feet never touching the ground.

"BANE!" Alexandria yelled at him. "Put Master Wesley down, nicely." Wesley found his feet on the ground and looked at all the staring faces.

Gwen silently looked Wesley up and down and then announced. "Wesley Wyndham Pryce, I thought you were taller."

"Wesley, come sit next to me." Alex invited pointing to the empty space on her right. "Take Cole's seat."

"But...." Marcus and Bane tried to protest. Gwen silenced them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Isis you'd better do it now, before we anything else happens." Alex said to her friend.
Isis nodded, as she poured some sand into her hand from a pouch and passed it around.
She spoke a spell in Greek and tossed the powder into the fire, killing it.

"Isis." Wesley noted the knot of Isis, the Egyptian goddess, that hung around her neck. She looked as if she were Cleopatra,
her eyes were painted like that of the Queen herself. Isis caught his glance and just smiled.

"Bane." He tossed the powder into the dead fire.

"Gwen." She threw it into the burned wood.
Elizabeth, Marcus, Wesley and Alex followed suit.

"Jonathan." He repeated the Greek Isis had chanted, and when the powder hit the ashes the fire revived, spitting out flames, that brought up a wall of fire that encircled them. "Its safe."

Wesley opened his mouth to ask a question, but Isis answered it. "Yes we are the ones who put the fire wall up."

Wesley thought to himself, as he studied the young people gathered around the fire, an Irishman, a Greek, what looked to be a half Native American, Egyptian, the French and of course the British.

~~~~~~~~~~

"You look like hell." Marcus stated. He had a French accent with a little British thrown in for good measure.

"The herbs aren't helping?" Jonathan asked.

"No, they aren't." Alex told him.

"Helping what?" Wesley inquired.

"The lack of sleep." Isis answered.

"What about the black outs?" Bane questioned.

"Still here." Alex frowned.

"I think that we should crack a piece of wood over her head....." Gwen teased. Alex stuck her tongue out at Elizabeth's cousin.

"And chain you to the bed." Elizabeth put in.

"Sounds like the fun, can I help?" Marcus asked.

"Absolutely!" chimed Elizabeth and Gwen.

"They're teasing." Bane told Wesley.

Alex rolled her eyes, it was their attempt to cheer her up, it work, a little, very little.
"What did you find out about Adern?"

"Nothing much, but I do know that Adern was a powerful warlock, very vain. He concocted a spell to keep his looks as he went along in life." Elizabeth spoke up as she passed Alex Adern's book.

"Well that explains why he looked the way he did." Alex told them.

"I've copied the book, and have friends working on translating it." Elizabeth crossed her arms.

"Its going to storm, best we start wrapping things up." Gwen said.

~~~~~~~~~~~