Chapter 28

The rest of the week went by without trauma, drama, or incident. Kelly continued to keep her distance from both Xander and him, but he remained hopeful that she would come around.

The gang had all worked on their magical history papers together after school and when they passed it in they knew Ms. Long was going to be blown away with the thorough research job they'd done.

He started laying his head down more often at Lauren's and it felt good to have a steady place again, but he couldn't wait to stop moving and to get things back to normal. He wondered what it would be like to wear the scabbard. He knew with it he would be invincible, but he couldn't help but worry that any injury he sustained would still hurt.

Cait claws are serious weapons and they can cut you straight to the bone. They are more deadly than he daggers and he had ten of them.

He believed that now especially after seeing his own up close and personal. The unfortunate thing was, he hadn't been able to morph into his Cait form since the last time he'd done it. No matter how many times he had tried. Helsing assured him that it wasn't uncommon to have a sudden surge of ability and then not to be able to make it happen again at will, but he also said he'd never had a student not be able to conquer it by graduation.

By graduation, he had thought, fat lot of good that would do him.

He'd keep trying but he wasn't even close. He hoped Kelly was doing better than him with controlling her Goddess of death power. He knew if he asked Helsing he would tell him he couldn't say and it was against school privacy rules, but he worried that her power might consume her.

He had the ability to grow claws and a tail she had the intense ability to end your life with a thought.

It was Friday and most of the guys had come to them to show off their rushed passports. Kyle and Travis we're especially proud of theirs. Quinn announced that he had never flown before, and in fact he looked a little green around the gills about it, but Lauren assured him she would sit by him all the way. That worked like a charm. Her generous offer did much to alleviate his fears.

Kyle and Travis were itching to go on this adventure, and that was what it was beginning to feel like.

An adventure – one he would miss out on – he wished he could go to see the mystical Isle. He didn't want to be the only one who was safe at home while his friends stuck their necks out for him.

But in the end he had to agree they would be in more danger if he came, so he eventually came to terms with the idea.

He had come to school today with the intention of focusing. That hadn't worked out. Now it was lunch and he had a chance to get with the program over the lunch break and regroup.

Unfortunately he never got a chance, on his way to the cafeteria from Steinman's geography class, Mr. Tuma, their school principal, cornered him and asked if he could come to his office right away.

As Donnie followed the school's patriarch he could not help digging through his head to try and figure out what he might have done. When nothing came to mind he began to relax a little.

But the principal was moving too quickly for him to believe there was going to be any good news at the end of the line. As they entered his office he grabbed his multilined phone off the desk and handing it to him, he announced," Your cousin called just five minutes ago sounding frantic, he said there was a family emergency.

He needs you to call him straight away.

When Donnie took the receiver from his hand his hand shook a little, he hoped everyone was all right. Had the Caits not being able to get their hands on him taken out their anger and aggression on his distant relations? He hoped not. What purpose would it serve to do that anyway?

The phone rang for half a ring before it was snatched up on the other end.

"Ciao Donovan is that you?" His cousin Sophia was on the other line and she really did sound frantic."

He switched to Italian to give them privacy Tuma was still in the room seeming to wait for the news so he could decide if he needed to be dismissed.

"Si it is me cousin what is wrong?" Donnie spoke hurriedly through the line, feeling more anxious then he ever had.

"Cousin the girls they are gone," Her voice broke then and he could almost hear her tears fall. Suddenly he could hear Achilles demand that she give him the phone.

She must have complied because he heard his cousin's cultured Italian accent come through the receiver and Donnie shook a little with the tension his deathly silence created.

"Cousin the King has taken my babies and he says he will kill them if you do not go to his court by the week's end."

Donnie couldn't believe his ears; he knew the King was unstable but to threaten eight year old girls, fullbloods no less, and obviously members of the aristocracy. To do that he most truly be desperate.

Donnie caught himself and realized he had yet to breath a word but what could he say, "Cousin how? Where was Consuela?"

"She was with them dear cousin. Her life it hangs by a thread because of it. They would not have been able to take my girls if she was not near death."

With those words Sophia began to cry noisily.

He heard muffled noises on the line and Sophia's voice broke through."Please Donnie don't go to Italy. We can get our girls. We'll travel there ourselves in one hour and if I find one hair on their precious heads harmed I kill the king myself."

Donnie could hear now that she spoke through a mouth full of Cait teeth she must have morphed in her rage and he could feel his skin crawl too in the first signs of the change.

But after a moment it settled back to his human features. "Please cousin," he said, "Let me speak to Achilles."

She handed the phone over and he spoke while he tried to reassure his wife." Si you stay here cousin you are just a child." he insisted.

"Cousin, just tell me one thing will he really kill them if I don't go?"

There was silence on the other end and Donnie was about to ask again and demand an answer but his cousin sighed and said, "He is deranged Donovan he is capable of anything."

That was it. Sophia began to wail in the background and Achilles rushed to sooth her speaking a mixture of Italian, English, and French. But nothing would dissuade her from her fears.

So Donnie said the only thing he knew could possibly make her feel better, "Sophia I'm going to Italy as soon as possible and getting the girls. And you don't need to worry about me. I have some very smart and powerful friends. The king is going to regret the day he ever messed with my family.

When Donnie hung up the phone he looked at Tuma whose expression held a mixture of concern and foreboding. Apparently he understood Italian and he had heard every word, but Tuma nodded like he understood why he needed to go and that there was nothing that he could say to persuade him otherwise, so instead, he let him go without a word.

Donnie stormed out of the office.

He needed to find his friends they'd have to leave this very second if they wanted to find the Isle, the scabbard and get to the Kings court by tomorrow night.

Donnie hurried to the lunchroom and his usual table. There was no time to waste. Kelly was the first one to see him coming and he realized he must look like he felt, because she stood up when she saw him and said, "What? What Happened?"

She looked ready to take on the world.

Donnie had to fight back the urge to change in front of everyone. Enlightened and unenlightened alike, but after a few short breaths he blurted out, "My young cousins. They have been taken by the King. If I no come and face him by the end of the week, he will kill them. The worst thing is my cousin, Achilles, doesn't think he's bluffing."

He'd blurted that out all in one go and needed to take a quick breath before he continued," I leave now for the Isle. I will get the scabbard and then I will be getting the girls back."

He took another quick breath and by this time they were all standing around the table.

"Guy's I go now with or without you. So if you want to go we go now."

Kelly looked like she might object again but she nodded her head stiffly instead and through her leg over the bench at the formica table and said, "what are ya'll waiting for we've some kitties to save?"

He could have hugged her then if she hadn't given him a look after her words that spoke volumes. It said 'this doesn't change anything between us.'

"Has everyone finally gotten their passport?"

"Cameron hung his head and said mournfully, "Guys I can't go. I haven't got my yet."

Lauren chuckled and said, "Relax I got you covered. Have you guys ever heard of fairy money?"

"No what's that?" Quinn was made curious by her confident smirk.

"Faeries can glamour anything to look like money: buttons can look like coins and plain paper like the monetary kind. We can do the same to identification cards. I've been working on it since we've come back to school. I thought it might come in handy and I guess I was right."

"Watch," she said and she drew out her library card to wave a hand over it a muttered some words under her breath.

By the time her hand passed completely over the card it looked like Xan's black card.

The entire crew looked on in stunned silence and then they erupted in to raucous cheers.

"I hope you guys aren't celebrating, because you suddenly think this makes us rich, because it doesn't," she said.

"It's only glamoured it doesn't contain the physical structure required to function as a real card would. For example, it doesn't contain the chip that normal Black Cards carry, but if I show it to you it passes inspection.

So will your passports.

"AH MAANNN you mean I spent all that money for a passport for nothing, "Quinn complained.

Lauren laughed and jabbed him in the shoulder before she said, "Don't be such a whiner. "

"I feel faaaairly comfortable that I can pull it off, but do I feel confident to do it to half a dozen cards? Not so much."

"But you're sure you can do it with at least one right, because it would suck to be thrown into jail in a foreign country?" Cameron asked with concern.

"Cam when have I ever let you down?"

"Well never. So far." He said uncertainly.

"Cameron relax if Lauren says she's got you she's got you, beside if you get thrown in jail in Wales I'll just drop my dad's name and you should be fine."

Cameron gulped nervously and said, "Great thanks that's all I need. I'm sure it will really endear me to him to have to call him to bail me out. I'm sure he'd like me even less then, if that's even possible."

Everyone laughed at the image of it, but Cam consigned himself to the risk and they moved on with their plans.

"Okay guys," Zach jumped in, "Everyone's going to have to make an excuse to leave we can't wait until the end of the day. We'll have to meet up at the San Francisco International Airport in one hour, and guys anyone other than Donnie not there at that time will be left behind, we have no time to waste, understood?"

They all nodded their heads in agreement and went their separate ways.

Donnie had to admit reluctantly that the great thing about being on the run for the last two months was that he was already packed.

But the not so great thing about it was -- now he had the time to wait and worry.

This is it boys and girls. Either Donnie gets that scabbard and faces the king or the girls die.

Will they be able to retrieve the magical artifact?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.