New City, New Life

[Maira]

Brielle knew that the money in her savings account would only last so long and the last thing she wanted to happen was for it to run out completely. So, after being in New Orleans for nearly two months and having done nothing but goof off, she knew it was time for her to get a job. Putting on one of the few presentable (according to her parents) outfits on that she owned, Brielle took herself out to find some sort of employment she could tolerate.

The first place that Brielle had lived in New Orleans she had left shortly after her first Change, the neighbors had started asking weird questions, and her new place was located in the french quarter of the city. It was her favorite part anyway, so she'd not really been too opposed to moving. As she had no car yet, Brielle started looking at stores and shops nearby where she lived to see if any of them were hiring.

She had only started out at noon and by 12:30pm, Brielle found herself standing in front of a very charming shop with a "Help Wanted" sign in the window. The only things about the shop that really distinguished it from the others around it was the painted sign in the window and the window display. The letters of the sign were gold and in a gothic style and read Mystic Bayou and the display was composed of more than one magic book and a few different items for spells and other magic craft.

Her interest seriously perked, Brielle wandered on into the store and she couldn't help smiling when a little bell above the door gave a tinkling sound at her entrance. Yep, very charming. Looking around for somebody to talk to about the job, Brielle noticed that the woman behind the counter was busy with a customer so she just decided to browse the store until the woman was free.

Once the customer left Brielle waited just a moment to let the woman finish up her transaction then she approached the counter. She hadn't really planned on what to say so when the words, "I saw your 'help wanted' sign in the window," came out of her mouth in a rather calm and confident tone, Brielle was somewhat surprised with herself. Now she just needed to see what the lady had to say.

[Demeter]

Mercedes whirled around from digging out of her sold cards to stick onto the recently purchased two foot tall pewter dragon statue and stared at the girl standing on the opposite side of her counter. She'd been looking for help, seeing as how Maria had just quit to go follow her boyfriend around the country.

"I do need the help. Can you work a cash registar? Flexiable hours? How are your people skills." Mercedes never believed in traditional interviews, believing that she could learn more about someone but shoving them off the deep end after getting the pertaniant information.

"Why don't you come behind the counter. It's slow during this time of the week so lets see how you do," Mercedes grinned and held open the swinging doors.

[Maira]

By the time the woman was done drowning her in questions, Brielle was smirking. She couldn't help herself really, she instantly liked the woman. When she could finally get a word in edgewise, Brielle answered the woman's questions, "I don't like math but surprisingly, at least to me since I hate it so much, I'm pretty good at it so a register shouldn't be a problem. As for the hours, I just moved here two months ago and don't really have a social life as yet, nor am I student so there isn't much in my life to work around. And," she continued with a laugh, "if you knew the family I grew up with you would know that not having people skills would have been darn near suicidal. Its a huge family and every single on of them is a well-intentioned meddler. Dealing with them all on a daily basis would prepare anybody for a job dealing with people."

When the woman invited her behind the counter and held open the swinging doors for her, Brielle smiled and nodded her head in understanding. As she walked behind the counter, Brielle heard a curious monologue in her head and looking down and to her right she saw a very large great dane staring at her. She smiled at the dog and told the woman, "You can tell your pretty Dane that the cat she smells on me is my siamese named Akasha and that the other feline she smells is me. I had a run-in with a Lynx about a month and a half ago."

If the woman was as seriously into the arts of magic as her store indicated, surely she would know what Brielle was talking about and wouldn't be freaked out by it. If she wasn't, she would likely just be really confused and too scared to ask any questions on what specifically Brielle had meant. Honestly, Brielle hoped for the former.

[Demeter]

Mercedes glanced at Teacup and grinned. "Oh she heard you," Mercedes said while crouching down to rub the dane's head. She liked her fluffy bed and it was still her naptime. "This is Teacup, she accompanies me to work and is my familar. She also acts as a deterant to all those people who think it would be easy to rob a magic shop."

Mercedes stood. "I'm Mercedes by the way and I refuse to listen to any jokes about cars. Now, we are in our slow slump for the day, so go ahead and get used to the shop. I've got to see if I still have that crate for that statue," she said while pointing to the two foot tall statue." Mercedes swung out of the counter area and headed for the back room. She knew that Teacup would keep an eye on the girl. Even if she wandered away from the desk, Teacup could see over the swinging door and Mercedes had no problems allowing the dane to peer over the counter by resting her front paws on the edge. Teacup would tell her if anything was wrong.

[Maira]

Brielle laughed inwardly at the name the woman, Mercedes, gave for her great dane. A teacup likely wouldn't fit on the dane's nose let alone have much to do with the dog. Either way, it seemed oddly fitting so she just nodded politely to the dog as she looked up at her from her bed. In truth, Brielle wasn't that surprised to find out that Teacup was Mercedes' familiar, this was a magic shop after all.

After the introductions, Brielle watched as Mercedes wandered off to find the packing crate for the dragon statue and then crouched down next to Teacup and held out her hand letting the big dog sniff her. ~May I pet you lovely one?~ she asked silently of the dane and then waited for her reply before doing so, gently around the ears, neck and shoulders. "You sure are a gorgeous one," she then said aloud and with a smile.

That other introduction complete, Brielle then stood up and looked around the shop. There was so much different stuff crammed into the space but it didn't look or feel cluttered. It was stylishly eclectic and quite pleasing to the eye actually. Most of the more expensive stuff, and the more volatile, fragile, or delicate items were all stashed behind the counter on shelves built into the wall. Made sense.

Looking at Teacup, Brielle said, "I'm going to take a look around to figure out what all your mistress has in this place okay? If you need anything, or Mercedes does, just let me know okay?" That said, she let herself out from behind the counter and began to browse. She picked up many items that would likely be popular and committed their prices to memory in case somebody asked her. The last thing she wanted was to seem ignorant about the products, otherwise who would have faith in buying from her?

This type of store wasn't like other types of stores after all, it was directed toward a limitted clientel and most of them were rather particular about what they bought and who they bought from. She should know after all, as she was much like many of the people who visited the shop on a daily basis.

[Demeter]

When the new girl walked away from the desk, Teacup stood, stretched and followed her to the swinging half door. She didn't leave the enclosed counter area, a relic from the days of the shop being a bar, but she peered over the door, her head standing several inches over the polished wood. She could see all of the store except for the immediate right of the store. That was easily taken care of.

Big for a Dane, Teacup could place her front paws on the counter and be able to see all of her domain. Tracking the new girl, who smelled overwhelmingly of feline, Teacup conversed with her owner. "She's touching the stock...I like her...Can we keep her...Can we bathe her to get rid of the cat smell?"

In the backroom of the store, Mercedes has to surpress a giggle. She often found Teacup's running commitary entertaining. She often found the Dane's intutution about people correct and if she liked Brielle, minus the cat smell, Brielle must be a good person in the long run.

While dusting off her long red skirt from the cloud of dust that had been layered on the crate, Mercedes heard the little bell she'd tied on above the door tinkle. She stepped out of the backroom and leaned against the door frame. There was nothing like trail by fire. The customer who'd walked in was a regular, convinced that a love potion would be the way to find her perfect mate. Katie's attempts were harmless so Mercedes was content to let her experiment. Just another desperate college girl seeking love.

She'd point out locations to Brielle but she wanted to see how she handled a customer. She reached down and patted Teacup's head when the Dane leaned against her legs. "If she can survive Katie, she can stay."

[Maira]

At the sound of the bell above the door tinkling, Brielle turned to greet the customer. She tried not to cringe at the preppy, bubbly, cheerleader appearance of the other girl and asked in a calm business-like tone, "Afternoon, welcome to Mystic Bayou, is there something I can help you find?"

She already had a pretty good idea what the girl would be after and had spotted that section of the store early on. She had avoided it because there really wasn't anything -that- interesting to her in that section. Still, if she was going to be getting college girls in here interested in love potions, she probably better brush up...

[nyoka]

Vhea made it a normal routine of hers to at least perform one of her rituals a day but if she couldn't oh well.

The day was long at the office and there were way too many injured snakes for her liking. All of them were Nagini in her eyes, even if she knew her 8 ft long albino python was safe and happy back at her house. There had been one particular pet that knocked her off her whole game as it were, it was a a small dane puppy who had gone in for taping of its ears and tail and it was done horribly wrong enough that the poor creature had a really bad infection. From that moment she just couldn't focus on the rest of her day, rescheduling many just so she could provide the animals with proper care later.

Making her way home she threw open the door to her place that had been dubbed the "Evil Witch House" by neighbor hood kids. It was rumored the witch who lived inside stole kids, boiled them up, cursed their blood, and fed them to the 18 ft long snake that lived in the basement. Vhea got a sick enjoyment out of that fact, hey anything to keep those pesky brats the heck away, she shuddered at the thought of them.

Her house looked as if it was old and decrepit, which it kind of was, but not so in the fact that it had been reinforced and kept the old look to it. This manor was her families old one inhereited from her Great Uncle and when he passed away, no one wanted it. Vhea always loved the creepy things in life and took up the responsibility of it, upkeep and whatever else required. Surrounded by a old rusted wrought iron fence with dieing ivy encircling the bars, if you could peer through the shrubs you would assume this place to be deserted. The grounds, though largely focused in the back, had minimal upkeep to it. The grass had died in the heat, the shrubs maintained their own moisture, and the house, well she just didn't want to change it. The back was where all the fun was anyway, the old family plots, her black gardens, the fact that she was far enough away from people to have her own bayou gators and all.

Running by Nagini's room she opened the door and let her out. Vhea hated keeping her locked up in her room all day but her room was pretty expansive and had everything her precious could want. Nagini hissed welcoming as Vhea gave her love, she couldn't picture her ever harmed the way those little snakes were today and the meer thought of it made her sniffle.

Cmoing back to her senses, she ran up to her ritual room and began the rite with the calling of the shamen. As the rite went on, the ingredients began to mix themselves, her only work was to chant her psalm and pull a liver from a 2 day dead chicken. The ritual was heightening and coming to an end, only then did she notice that the 2 day dead chicken needed to be a fresh dead chicken. Too late at that point and as she tossed it in the ring, all of the ingredients exploded outward and all over her and the room, snuffing out many of the black and white candles lit.

Stunned and shocked to her own oversite she made her way to the back pen for her brown hen, only to see she had no more hens. Not even a rooster or a duck that may be substituted in place. The night was getting worse and worse, letting out a scream of frustration, she flew down the road and made it to the French Quarter to Mercedes' shop. There were always a few things waiting for her there what with her automatic orders coming in.

Flinging open the door, barely noticing it, she saw a new girl and some one else hovering at the counter. Knowing she looked afright with mixed and mashed things all over her person, not being able to determin red hair from red organs, she stormed up to the counter and interuped the other customer.

"Mercedes, where is she, I need to talk to her."

Looking over her shoulder she noticed Teacup and changed her demeanor 180 to give the familar love "Hi teacup! How are you today. I don't think you want to give me loving cause I am dirty, but later ok?"

[Demeter]

Mercedes snagged Vhea's attention before Brielle could help her. "Vhea, darling, I don't have any chickens in stock right now. You know that I can't keep them in the city for more then a day. You know the rules, you have to call and give me time to order them."

She knew to be firm with Vhea. She was the only occult dealer in town that actually dealt with Vhea and her demands. "I know this must put a damper on your plans but it has to be done this way. Now, I'll order your chickens tonight and they'll be in on monday."

Mercedes steered Vhea out of the store, Teacup following and reassuring the woman that her owner was speaking the truth. Once Vhea was out of the store, Mercedes leaned against the door and watched as Brielle took cash from the college girl. Well, she seemed to have handles that well enough.

[nyoka]

It was hardly a worthwhile trip down to the store since she was both in and practically shoved out in less than 3 minutes. Yea she knew the rules but really how often did Mercedes follow them in actuality and in her opinion rules were there to be broken or pushed to the limits.

Letting out a rather large huff, she tromped to the back side of the store which had a staircase leading to the second floor where Mercedes rented it out to her. Having the key and all, and not wanting to walk all the way home in guts she jotted upstairs to clean up. Ok the rule was no riturals but she never heard that it wasn't ok to clean up after one. Besides she would clean up the mess anyway, messes were the worst and she knew she would have to clean her room back at the manor, but she could summon worker imps to help too.

Finally clean and cleaning up the mess in the bathroom, she grabbed a spare pair of clothes she left here and bagged up her bloody ones. It was only then that she relized that it was a new girl working for Mercedes. In her earlier fit she saw her but it didn't click that Mercedes was training a new girl to work for her. "huh..." she said to no one and grabbed all of her belongings before leaving.

[Demeter]

Mercedes hated being short with Vhea but there were laws and she was sure that her new neighbors were spying on her, just waiting for the day she broke a law. She cut a glare towards the west wall of her store, grumbling because she knew the owners of New Orleans Antiques were sitting on the otherside of the wall, plotting against her.

She was sure of it. They'd already tried to raise a fuss about Teacup. And her very strange tenant. Vhea was a character unto herself. She'd have to call Vhea up later and promise to have a whole coop of chickens delivered to the swamp.

She watched as Brielle dealt with the college girl and grinned as the sale was effortlessly done. Once College Girl was out of the store, Mercedes leaned on the counter and grinned at the girl. "Yeah, you got a job. Get me your information."

[Maira]

She had been living in New Orleans for three months and working for Mercedes at Mystic Bayou for one. The nights were starting to get a bit cooler with the approach of fall but for the most part they were still pretty warm. She had found the Metairie Cemetery shortly after coming to New Orleans and while she often came to the cemetery just to walk around and absorb the serenity of the place, she also found it the perfect place for her rituals, despite the very long bus ride away from her beloved French Quarter. There was enough open green space and enough trees that she felt suitably connected to the Earth, and something about the place just resonated with her giving her a powerful charge to her work that she didn't normally have.

She preferred to work her rituals in as little clothing as possible as she learned early on that she always seemed to wind up with some annoying article of clothing pinching, itching, or restricting her in some distracting way. Tonight, because it was a bit cool, she wore her dark purple cloak (and only that) as she prepared her circle. Her backpack with her clothing sat not far away, leaning against the wall of one of the tombs.

She didn't like calling herself a witch, there were too many sterotypes with that, but many of the things that Brielle did would be considered "witchy" by lay folks. She had another bag in addition to the one holding her clothes, one filled with candles and all of her other ritual supplies, and as she prepared she pulled out what she needed before that bag too wound up leaning against the tomb wall.

As she stepped into her circle, Brielle slipped out of her cloak and lay it on the ground just outside of it before closing the circle behind her. She walked the circle, lighting her candles and invoking the directions and the Lord and Lady. From that point on all of her senses were heightened, yet at the same time everything seemed to fade away. Her ritual was the same basic one she did at every full moon plus a little extra mini-ritual added on for good measure, thanking the Gods for watching out for her again this month as she continued to adjust to all the new aspects in her life. When she was finished she thanked the directions and the Gods and released them all as she extinguished the candles in reverse order of how they were lit.

Once all the candles were snuffed, she brushed her foot in the salt bordering her circle and gathered up her cloak as it was even chillier now than it had been when she started. Before she had a chance to slip it over her shoulders and close it around her body, Brielle heard two sets of footsteps come up from her right side and stop a short distance away. One set was two legged, the other four. Hellcat, protective of her human side and ready to take control in an instant, sniffed the air and deemed the interlopers not a threat before slipping back into the background of Brielle's mind. Since when did Hellcat not find somebody threatening? Turning to look, Brielle quickly found out why. Her boss Mercedes, and her boss's familiar a giant great dane named Teacup, were both staring at the naked Brielle curiously.

With a small laugh Brielle finally shrugged on her cloak and asked, "Did you think I was just curious and a fast learner Mercedes?" At that moment, the delicately built, light colored siamese that called her mistress jumped down from the branches of a nearby tree and started rubbing against her legs. Apparently Teacup was going to try and steal her away or something. *Akasha love don't be so possesive, I am all yours,* Brielle said soothingly to her own familiar.

[Demeter]

Mercedes touched a hand to Teacup's head and smiled softly at her employee. She conducted her own rituals deep in the bayou but she'd been curious about Brielle. When the girl had bought various items with her employee discount, Mercedes had noted that they were what the serious users went for. So, when Brielle had specifically used for tonight off, Mercedes had simplely closed shop early and followed her out to the Metairie Cemetary.

Mercedes stroked Teacup with her left hand and held up the right. At her age, she rarely needed to recite spells. She still cast her circle for the serious rituals but for the little acts, the ones that made the tourist scream with shock, she hardly used a circle. Mercedes looked at her outstretched hand and smiled as water poured from her spread fingers. She raised a brow at Brielle. "Did you think I was in it only for the pretty tourist dollars?"

Mercedes closed her fingers and the water stopped. Once the spell was cut off, Mercedes took at closer look at the young woman and made note that Brielle liked to work skyclad. She cast her gaze up and down the woman's body and then raised her eyes to Brielle's. "You should dress, Brielle. You look a little cold." Mercedes hitched her own leather coat up a little and watched as Brielle dressed. "Did you think that you had to hide it from me?"

While waiting for Brielle to get struggle into her shirt and respond, Mercedes turned towards the feline in the tree. She didn't hold her hand out to the cat, instead she would wait to be invited to stroke and scratch. Cat bites, she knew, could be nasty things and she would wait for approval from that source. To the cat, she bent her head. "Good Evening," she said and chuckled when Teacup pressed against her. "Stop being such a baby," she said to the dog while bumping her with a knee.

Once Brielle was dressed, Mercedes smiled at her. "Well, that's better isn't it? Did you work skyclad when you lived up north? Couldn't imagine doing a ritual outdoors during those winters," she said while shaking her head. She held out her hand to Brielle. "Come, let's get a cafe au lait, go to the shop and talk spells. You wouldn't happen to have one that can get rid of fleas, would you?" Mercedes cast a look at Teacup. "We seemed to have developed a case of them after someone went visiting with the mutt down the street."

[Maira]

Brielle watched, jaw open slightly in awe, as water poured from Mercedes's hand. At her boss's question and the ceasing of the water pouring from her hand, Brielle answered as she dressed, "If you were in it for just the tourist dollars, you wouldn't have nearly the bond you do with Teacup. Sure she'd be a great dog for anybody, but she's too intelligent to just be your pet." Akasha, not sure she liked her mistress paying the gigantic canine compliments, left Brielle's side and went back to her perch in the tree.

The next question from Mercedes had Brielle shrugging. "I wasn't really trying to hide it, I'm just so used to everybody around me being super nosey that when you didn't ask or mention anything I just didn't volunteer the information. After all, I told you on the first day about my other side and you never brought it up so I just figured you weren't the sharing type." As she had finished dressing, Brielle watched the brief interaction between Akasha and Mercedes and when Akasha seemed to nod her head, like a queen to a subject, in response to Mercedes greeting Brielle just shook her head. That cat was normally shameless when it came to getting attention but she was probably going to hold it against both Brielle and Mercedes for weeks for the fact that her mistress had complimented a -dog-.

When Mercedes commented on working skyclad in the northwest winters, Brielle laughed and agreed. "Most of the time it was way too cold to work outside, especially skyclad. I either worked inside or was minimally dressed with a bonfire roaring nearby outside and I only did that on special occaisons." At the suggestion to get a nice warm drink and go back to the shop to talk spells, Brielle smiled warmly at the other woman in approval of the plan. "As for fleas, I'll show you my remedy when we get back to the shop."

She hurried and repacked her stuff, putting her supplies in her backpack so that Akasha could hunker down in the smaller tote bag instead of having to actually be seen walking next to a dog. Spoiled beast. Almost as if on cue, as soon as Brielle zipped up the backpack, the little chocolate point siamese once again leapt out of the tree and and daintily climbed into the bag Brielle was holding open for her. "Ready when you are," Brielle said to Mercedes.

[Demeter]

Mercedes chuckled as she watched the cat leap into the tote bag. She glanced at Teacup and shook her head. Still grinning, Mercedes led Brielle to the SUV she'd left at the gates of the cemetary. She might have preferred something smaller, perhaps sportier, but the SUV had the cargo space that made hauling stock, and her companion, a breeze. She used the keyfob and unlocked the door to the vehicle as they approached. As Mercedes loaded Teacup into the back, she told Brielle to get comfy in the front seat.

They talked of inconsquencal things on the ride back to the shop. After navigating the SUV down the narrow alley behind the buildings and into her garage, Mercedes bypassed the backdoor to the shop and took the stairs up to her second floor apartment. "We'll be more comfortable in my place. I have to find some new chairs for the shop; I forget that I sold the sofa we've had in there earlier today."

Mercedes unlocked the door, stepping back to let Teacup bound through and to let Brielle and her companion enter. She locked the door behind her, tossing keys, phone and the slim wallet she carried on a small table set next to the door. "Go ahead and get comfy in the living room. It's just right down the hall. I'm going to get those drinks started."

Before heading into the kitchen, Mercedes stopped at the theromostat and clicked the temperature of the central heating up a few degrees. She pasted through the galley style kitchen, waving at Brielle from the pass through bar set up and ducked into her bedroom. She tossed her coat on the bed and pulled the pins from her hair. She gave the long mane a shake and winced as the skin of her skull ached just a bit. She returned to the kitchen and set up her supplies to make some coffee.

Once the bowls she used for Cafe au lait were filled, Mercedes carried them out to the living room. Teacup was sprawled on her end of the big sectional and the cat, Mercedes noted, was perched on the back, eyeing the Dane. She handed Brielle one of the bowls and sat next to her. She tilted her head and looked at the woman. "So, are you a heriditary crafter or did you find your way on your own?"

[Maira]

Her backpack on the floorboard between her feet and the tote sitting on her lap, it didn't take Akasha long to make herself comfortable, start purring, and eventually fall asleep on the ride back to the shop as Brielle and Mercedes talked about little things. Once they got to the shop and Mecedes informed her they would be more comfortble upstairs in her apartment, Brielle just nodded in understanding and followed the other woman up to the second floor apartment.

It wasn't a huge place, but it was cozy and comfortable an when Mercedes told her to make herself at home in the livingroom, Brielle did just that. She dropped her backpack next to the end of the couch, placed the tote on the couch itself and let Akasha crawl out and immediately she jumped up onto the back of the couch, placing herself squarely between Brielle and Teacup who was sprawled at the opposite end of the couch. Brielle just sighed and shook her head in amusement, and claimed the corner of the sectional where the two pieces met. It looked like the perfect place to lean back in and not get out of for a while.

Not long after she curled up in her chosen spot on the couch, Mercedes came out of the kitchen bearing two mugs filled with delicious smelling coffee. She did her best to sit a little straighter, but the corner truly was meant for lounging, not sitting at attention. As Mercedes sat down next to her and handed her one of the mugs,the other woman asked Brielle a question which she honestly had never been asked. She had to think for a moment before answering, "Well, umm... I think maybe a little bit of both?" By the way Mercedes screwed up her face in confusion, mug part way to her lips, Brielle knew that her answer was anything but clear. She took a sip, sighed lightly with pleasure as she savored the taste, then tried again. "I'm not exactly sure who my birth father is, but I know for a fact that my birth mother was just plain old boring human. All I know is that he could't have been either of the men my birth mother married because if it was I'd be half pard."

She'd never really thought about where her magic came from and it was actually really frustrating not to know. She felt her hands shaking and with a grumble she lowered her coffee onto her lap, staring into it blindly as she did, so she wouldn't spill the sweet warm drink all over Mercedes's couch. Curious, Brielle looked from her coffee up at Mercedes and asked, "Would there be any way to find out if its genetic or if the magic just sort of found me?"

[Demeter]

Mercedes curled against the couch cushions and sipped at her coffee while she listened to Brielle explain about not knowing her father. "Many women don't know their fathers and sometimes that is a good thing. I never knew my father and, from what little my mother told me about him, that's probably a good thing," she said while leaning forward and brushing a loose lock of hair from Brielle's face. She tucked the strands behind an ear and smiled at Brielle.

"As for being a heriditary user, well...they are many kinds of users in this world. Classic withcraft, eclectic witchcraft, monothetheistic crafters, the goths, the wiccans, the gardnerian ones. And then there are those like me, and a suspect you, who fall under the title of a natural-born witch. The Magic is in our bones and blood. I've never question why I was given this gift."

"As for if you are a natural born, I suppose the only real way to know would be track down your birth father, if you really wanted to do that. There are other ways, I suppose, of knowing. Many natural-born crafters have bad reactions to be turned. I know that when I was turned,83 years ago, I was apparently out cold for severals days."

Mercedes leaned to the side to set her coffee mug on the table. She leaned back towards the couch and reached out to set a hand of Brielle's leg. "You said, when I hired you, that you were a Lynx-Shifter. When you were turned, was there a reaction? A bad one?"
83

[Maira]

At Mercedes's question about her first Shift, Brielle just gawked for a moment. Once she shook herself out of the shock about how Mercedes could possibly know, Brielle nodded slowly before answering, "Hellcat went feral for at least three days, I'm still not totally sure. She took over and I have no idea what happened until I woke up on the balcony of my apartment. I couldn't get out of bed for days except to get something to eat or drink or use the bathroom. For a couple weeks after that I barely left the apartment because my talents were running haywire because I guess they just didn't mesh well."

She watched as Mercedes nodded in understanding, confirming that what Brielle was saying indicated she was indeed a natural born witch. That was just really weird to Brielle to think about. Apparently she had some connection to the unknown man who had donated half of her DNA and she wasn't sure she liked that at all. It was a moment before she realized she was again just staring into her coffee, this time it took Akasha stepping delicately onto her shoulder with her front paws and rubbing her cheek against Brielle's for her to snap out of her thoughts. "Sorry," she apologized quickly to Mercedes, "you've just given me a lot to think about is all." She took another drink of her coffee and rubbed Akasha's cheeks before the cat moved back to her perch on the back of the couch.

Wanting to change the subject off of her curious heritage, Brielle asked, "So, did you want to know that flea remedy I use? We can go down to the shop so I can show you what I use."

[Demeter]

Mercedes sat back against the couch and watched as Brielle seemed to absorb this new information. The chances that she was a natural born magic user were high, if there'd been that kind of reaction to the turning. Mercedes sipped her coffee and looked at the younger woman over the rim of the mug. "Many decades ago, when I was infected with the vampire virus, I pretty much went into a coma for several days. Even though my magic had been...unavailable to me at the time, it still fought against the change. I've been told, by a good friend of mine, that even though I was in a coma, I screamed myself hoarse while unconcious."

She took the hint to change the subject and slid a glance towards the Dane sprawled on the couch. "I would very much love to know that flea remedy. No one in this room likes the prospect of a flea dip," she turned to Brielle. "Do you know how much a flea dip costs for a Great Dane. I could buy a new dress with that kind of money."

***

Mercedes did a little dance in the driver's seat of her SUV. Once a year, she shut down the shop for a week and swabbed the place out. For the past three days, she and her employees had been moving stock, dusting, mopping and polishing the shop up. And at the end, she invited everyone out to Bayou House for a nice weekend of relaxing. It was Thursday and she was heading up early to open the house up and make sure that she had plenty of wine and chocolate stocked. Brielle was planning on renting a car and heading up the next day while her two part timers were carpooling out on Saturday. Mercedes liked her girls weekends.

She slowed and turned into the drive. As always got a smug little grin when she saw Bayou House. Sometimes, it was still hard to believe that someone like her, a bastard-born, vampire-slave, magic user had such a house. As Mercedes neared the house, she gave a little squeal and Teacup, flopped in the cargo area, scrambled to her feet, stuck her head out the window and gave a happy bark. Elise's truck was parked in front of the house and the woman was waving from the top of the front steps.

She couldn't really define her relationship with the brood/alati hybrid. It was either the best of friends with some very good benefits or a very open relationship. They'd met six years ago when Elise had been photographing the area and had wanted to take some pictures of the local witch. Mercedes had induldged her wit the photographs as well as other things. Bayou House was as much Elise's home as it was Mercedes'.

Mercedes came to a stop behind Elise's truck and hopped out of her car. She ran around to the rear hatch to let Teacup out. Once the door was shut, and the Dane was happily bouncing around Elise, Mercedes ran over to the woman and pounced on her. "Yo're here! You didn't say you were heading in the last time we talked!"

[Maira]

She had been calling the Bayou House home for quite a while now. Mercedes had welcomed her to stay not long after their first meeting when Elise had come out to photograph the locally famous witch. She had been working on a "fantasy realm" project, travelling the world photographing Others in all their glory. The humans would never believe the photos to be anything but really cool costumes or make-up, and because of that the Others community at large would probably forgive her for revealing them to the public.

Even though Bayou House was now her home base, Elise still liked to travel for her work and today she was returning from a three week trip to the South American jungle. She had only been home long enough to get her bags up to her room and make up some sweet-tea when she heard a familiar car coming up the drive. With a grin pulling at the corners of her mouth, Elise stashed the tea in the fridge to cool and then hurried out to the front porch. She watched as Mercedes parked and let Teacup out, who then bounded up to Elise demanding love and attention. Elise laughed and obligingly stroked the Dane's head, neck, and shoulders. She hadn't really satisfied Teacup enough to stop petting her when suddenly her arms were full of Mercedes as the other woman pounced her. Elise enthusiastically kissed Mercedes and pulled her in tight, "I missed you too," she said softly once Mercedes finally broke the kiss.

*****

Brielle had never been a fan of driving, much to her uncle Kiyo and quasi-step-dad Dominic's dismay. That was why she didn't own a car. She felt that if she couldn't get somewhere via public transportation or by her own two (or sometimes four) feet then she probably didn't need to go there that badly. Like everything else though, there were a few exceptions and that was why she was currently behind the wheel of a sporty little convertible winding her way through the bayou to Mercedes's house for a girls' weekend.

The trip wasn't as long as she had expected, for some reason, and while the scenery wasn't what she was used to it was still pretty in its own way. Hellcat was actually quite excited by the sights and smells of the bayou and Brielle had a feeling she was going to have to ask Mercedes if she minded a lynx prowling her property one or two nights this weekend. Hellcat was silenced as Brielle was distracted by a muffled chirpy-meow that came from the soft sided carrier riding shotgun next to her. Brielle wiggled her fingers through some of the holes in the mesh to give Akasha some gentle scratches and soothed the Siamese, "We'll be there soon, then you can stalk poor Teacup and explore Mercedes's house." Brielle wasn't sure if it was giving her permission to stalk the giant dog, to go exploring, or the scratches that caused Akasha to start purring but she couldn't help but laugh a little.

While she had been distracted by her familiar, Brielle had taken a couple turns but the one she took just after removing her fingers from Akasha's carrier nearly caused her to put her foot on the brakes. Surely that wasn't Mercedes's house. It was huge! Not to mention gorgeous and just bursting with all the southern charm she'd drooled over in all those home makeover magazines she'd filched from her mom over the years. While she didn't slam on the breaks, she did slow down to have proper time to gawk. Maybe the road was just going to drive by this big ole beautiful beast of a house and it didn't belong to her boss at all.

Only, as she got closer she noticed two vehicles parked out front, one of which was the SUV she knew belonged to Mercedes. At that point she -did- stop, muttered "Merde," under her breath, and then eased her car back into motion long enough to finish driving up to Bayou House. When she parked next to the familiar SUV, Brielle just sat and gawked until Akasha again chirp-meowed at her, demanding to be taken out of the carrier. Absently, Brielle unzipped the top and the delicate Siamese hopped out into her person's lap.