Author's notes: You know, since everyone seems to like these author's notes so much, why don't we just skip the whole Sweep thing and have this entire chapter just be me talking about stuff. Come on, it'll be fun! I'm an interesting person with rounded tastes… mmm… round… cookies. Ah yes, chocolate chip cookies are round. You know what else is round? An oatmeal raisin cookie. So are shortbread cookies, and Oreos, and macadamia nut cookies, and sugar cookies, and M&M cookies and………….

The author has begun to drool on herself, so in place of the author's notes chapter we bring you more Sweep. We apologize for any inconvenience-- The Management

The cards are in my hands, soon will come the time for the dealing and everything will fall into place. Until then I'll spend my time in quiet contemplation, knowing that my efforts will finally be paid off and we will be together at last… as it was meant to be.

-Sgàth

My thoughts were intense as I drove to Hunter's house. A powerful binding spell… he wasn't planning on binding me so that he could "protect" me from whatever it was that the Council detected, was he? Or perhaps he was planning on going after this himself, as intent on stopping evil as he had been when David Redstone had summoned a taibhs. But this was foolish, he had no idea what it was that he was even looking for! He wouldn't possibly go after it on his own, would he? I suddenly became unsure of why I was bothering to even drive down to his house, considering I was foolish to believe that I could try to stop him.

I continued to drive on, feeling that even if I couldn't stop him, it would be worth the trip just to see him. Soon I was pulling up to the house and walking up the porch. Sky answered the door, but casting my senses I felt another presence. "Hello, Morgan," she greeted me.

"Hey, Sky. Is Hunter here?" I asked despite the fact that I was pretty sure that it was his presence that I had felt when I cast my senses.

Her eyes twinkled. "Come on in. Now, you tell me… is he here?"

It seemed that everyone wanted to test my powers; it was pretty rare for an uninitiated witch to be able to cast their senses, but Sky knew that I was capable of it and did it quite often. When she first met me she had been amazed that I could scry with fire and do tàth meànma or the "Vulcan mind meld" as I referred to it as. "Yes, he's here. In the circle room?" I asked her, feeling that I felt his presence in that direction.

"Yes, you can go ahead and find him in there, if you'd like," she told me.

"Thanks, Sky," I said, walking into their warm house. I hung up my coat before proceeding to make my way back to the circle room.

My tennis shoes squeaked softly on their wooden floors as I approached the door quietly. Looking in I saw Hunter grinding up herbs using his white marble mortar and pestle and chanting words in Gaelic. I could feel the magick that had build up in the room and noticed that he was in a circle and saw the chalk ring around him, as well as the altar that he had set up facing north. I watched him intently for a couple of minutes before deciding to let him know that I was here. Usually we could feel when the other was near, but he seemed preoccupied with the spell… or perhaps his power was failing again as it had when Mary K. walked in on us.

I hesitated, not sure how to let my presence known. I imagined throwing myself at his feet and begging him to stop the spell and saying that I would let him protect me if he really wanted to, or just begging him to give up the idea of taking down the force on his own. Sighing, I knew that wouldn't be the best solution… maybe he wasn't doing either of those things, it could just be a healing spell for a friend. He must have heard my sigh, because he turned around and looked at me. "Morgan," he breathed.

I stepped in through the doorway, and waited for him to walk through the circle deosil as not to weaken his circle and then cut open a door with his athame for me to walk in. As I walked into the circle, I could feel his magick much more intensely than I had from outside the door. He closed the doorway that he cut in the circle behind me and then we turned to each other and our gazes met, studying the mixture of emotions reflected in our eyes. I saw deep-set worry, curiosity at what brought me here, and a dozen other lesser emotions; was that desire I saw?

Finally he spoke. "Were you standing there long?"

I shook my head. "Maybe a minute or so, I wasn't sure if I should interrupt you," I replied quietly, seeming almost shy despite the fact that Hunter was my boyfriend and had seen me in nothing more than my Wonder Woman panties when I was drunk before. He nodded and looked away for a moment, seeming deep in thought. "What spell were you doing?" I asked him.

"I was conjuring a binding powder. It might come in handy once the Council is ready to send me in to investigate the force that they feel," he replied, his voice quiet.

I wondered if he was still holding a grudge from how I had yelled at him this morning, I felt sick to my stomach just thinking about how I had acted. "I'm sorry about what happened this morning, I over-reacted," I said, looking at the ground to avoid his eyes.

There was silence for a minute and then he wrapped his arms around my waist. His embrace was warm and I felt comforted. All of my nerve-endings tingled just being near him. "No, you deserve to be a normal teenage girl. Sometimes it's easy to forget that you're so young an inexperienced, because of how much natural power you have," he whispered into my ear.

It was true, despite the fact that he was only two years older than me, sometimes he seemed much older and more experienced. Perhaps it was because he had been taught his heritage as a blood witch since he was little, and learned of his power. Or maybe it was just his English accent. "I should finish this spell, and then we can talk," Hunter finally spoke, letting go of my waist. I frowned slightly, not wanting to leave his embrace.

Hunter went back to his mortar and pestle and continued to turn the dried leaves into a powder. I recognized its smell as rosemary despite the other smells that wafted through the air. Carefully he added the rosemary to the mixture of herbs and talc that he had sitting in a copper bowl and placed a few stones on top, which I recognized as smoky quartz and amethyst, while still chanting in Gaelic. Finally he stopped and raised both of his hands over the bowl, and began a new chant:

"In Hectate's name we bind you to the flame
May she bring nightmares, depression and pain
We cast you to the wind, that all know your shame
May Hectate envelope you in the threefold law
May all forget your shame, their harm, their call
May their ability to raise magick fall on deaf walls
We join our energies fellow friends in the Craft
May Hectate stop your harm in the future, present and past
Only when their deeds are reversed will this binding be uncast
So mote it be!"

From his hands glowed a deep blue the color of the nigh sky on the night of the new moon, but as he neared the end of his spell the blue it gradually turned maroon and eventually crimson. Involuntarily a chill ran down my spine; the air within the circle was intense and I could feel the energy curling around us, but I stayed back. For the first time, I felt uncomfortable being in a circle with Hunter; it wasn't as bad as it had been in the sèoban with Cal, but still I began to feel odd. My head swam in the energy that he had created, but the feeling wasn't entirely unpleasant: I knew that this was a powerful spell that Hunter was conjuring, and it intrigued me, but I was also afraid because of my natural Woodbane tendency to abuse power.

Hunter motioned for me to come and sit across from him. With the bowl between us we held hands above it. "I want to teach you a simple spell that you can say when using this powder to bind someone. It's rather powerful, so only use it in an emergency," he warned. Then he began the spell, and I said it with him as if someone had told me what he was going to say prior to him saying it:

" So you send me,
It will return to you three times three
Be it sorrow or be it glee's
It will return to you three times three."

I bind thee, Three times three,

Evil is drawn away from thee,

I bind thee, Three times more,

Evil is gone, And what is more,

I bind thee, Three times three,

Begone Negativity!"

Energy flowed through my fingers and up my arm into my whole body: energy from Hunter, my own energy, and energy from Spirit. I gasped as a black puff of smoke rose from the bowl and blurred my vision for a second. A face seemed to be within the smoke before it dissipated "Hecate," Hunter whispered in awe. We sat there for a few minutes in silence and then he carefully poured the powder into a black velvet bag. Hunter then tose to his feet and thanked Spirit for its assistance, closed the quarters, and then closed the circle. After having also replaced the altar to its usual area and cleaned up the supplies the room looked almost like normal, except for the salt on the floor, the chalk circle, and the smell of sage in the air.

"Would you like some tea?" he finally asked.

Tea suddenly sounded really good, though diet coke would have been just as good. "That would be nice," I replied and followed him into the kitchen.

Hunter filled the kettle with water and put it on the burner, and then turned to me. "I'm guessing you came for reasons other than to watch me do a spell, and to get a cup of tea," Hunter started, flashing his amazing smile.

I thought about it for a minute. Yes, I did have a reason to be here, but what was it? "Alyce told me that you stopped by Practical Magick and seemed distressed about something, and that you got some supplies that could be used in a binding spell. I guess I was just worried," came my reluctant reply, though I hadn't willed it to come. The truth was best I knew, and that's exactly what my mouth said before I had time to decide whether or not to use it.

Hunter's eyes met mine and I found myself surprised that I couldn't read in them what his thoughts were. "You needn't worry about me," his reply sounded very stiff and British.

I found myself angered by his reply. How was it that he could worry so much about me, and to even try to control my life, yet tell me not to worry about him? My fists clenched and my jaw locked, as angry as the Morrigan, the goddess of war, herself. "How can you even—" I struggled with the words. Can even what? "Even ask me not to worry when you throw yourself into what could possibly be a den of coveners of Amyranth, yet try to control my life in order to 'protect' me?"

A muscle in his jaw flinched, as it always did when he was angry, remembering the events of the morning. "I remember someone else actually throwing herself into a den of Amyranth witches," he replied in almost a growl. His eyes flared the anger coming though them so that I could almost imagine them blood red rather than their current sea green.

I glared back, unable to find a response to his snide remark. There was no use arguing it: I had practically thrown myself at Amyranth's feet, but the fact that he was right made it all the worse. At last I chose not to take it and left his kitchen in a hurry and rushed out his door. Frustration came over me as I rushed down the stairs of the porch and I turned around to throw witch fire at the door before I got into Das Boot and peeled away from his house.

Once on the road and out of view of his house the tears full came, and I had to pull to the side of the road until my eyesight was no longer so blurred.

*Author's notes*: Hah… how do you like that? That should teach you all what happens when you neglect to leave me reviews. *evil laughter* Okay… I've got more work to do on this… curse the Backstreet Boys that ring their songs of doom in my ears. Someday we will live in a perfect world, free of boy-bands and teen fashion magazines… and gerbils. Until then, who's up for Justin Timberlake hunting? Afterwards we can have lunch at a restaurant not plagued by the evil reign of waffles… and hopefully free of mouse-like rodents. Keep reading… it'll get better, though how much is dependant on the reviews and cookies I receive *evil laughter*