Announcementcontent warning: brief violence, injury, deathAll of us were quiet again after Melody dropped that bomb on the meeting.

  We already knew the council was potentially dangerous, May warned us about them st June when she tried to disband the club. She never told us they went around killing people though. And just as worrying was the news that Melody's dad might have worked with them. Or worse, maybe Alison was still working with them now.

  Except that was the sort of thing we'd have to worry about ter on. For now we still needed to deal with the problem of Mr. Ainsley. And my girlfriend seemed to have an idea, or at least she was working on one.

  "So we're working under the theory that Mr. Ainsley has fae blood in him right?" Kaylee asked. "And that eating those fae mushrooms either unlocked or awakened his power?"

  Cerys sounded guilty again as she sighed, "Yeah. That's the only thing I can think of? He definitely ate the pickled mushrooms back in August, and after that my spells stopped working on him. And he became aware of my magic, he knew when I tried to enspell him."

  "Fae aren't magic-proof though," Kaylee pointed out. "Cass knocked Brian out with a sleep spell st month, then I banished him myself. And you knocked him out with a sleep spell too Cerys, back at the hospital."

  The young blonde shook her head, "It took me three or four tries, remember? Maybe it would have worked with my dad if I had time to use the spell a few more times, but I didn't. He..."

  Her voice trailed off and Menie pulled her into a tighter hug. The older wolf looked at my girlfriend and asked, "What's your point Kaylee? Do you have an idea or something, some way to stop him?"

  The cute redhead adjusted her gsses then suggested, "Maybe if we could get to Mr. Ainsley, we could use that same banishing spell on him? Send him to the fae realm, so he won't be able to get at Cerys or her mom ever again."

  Our club leader frowned, "I don't know if that would work. Cerys's dad might have some fae blood in him, but he's not fae. From the sound of it he was born here on Earth. Even if one of his great grandparents was fae, Mr. Ainsley himself won't have any link to the fae realm. It's not like sending Brian or those fairies back where they come from."

  "Paige is right," my mum said. "A banishing ritual won't work on someone who's not from a different realm."

  "It's not a bad idea though," Brooke chimed in. "Rather than banishing, think of it like an exile? The only question is if we can modify that spell Kaylee found, or if we need to figure something else out."

  Melody pointed out, "The other question is how do you pn on performing this ritual when the guy's safely tucked away in a federal prison?"

  My girlfriend gnced at me for a moment, then suggested "He could be teleported out of jail. Then maybe Cass or Nina could use a strong sleep spell to make sure he didn't try and make a run for it, while we worked on the banishing ritual. Or exile ritual, I guess."

  I cringed a bit, since I was still trying to keep quiet about being able to teleport. I only told Kaylee about it on one of our dates st month because she directly asked and I didn't want to lie to her.

  Fortunately she didn't say anything to the others about me being able to do it, and none of them asked or commented or anything. They all knew my parents and sister could do that, so I figured they all assumed Kaylee meant someone else would handle that part of her pn.

  Mom looked at Cerys and asked her, "What do you think of this pn, hon? You know if this works you'll almost certainly never see your father again. He'll be trapped in an unfamiliar realm, and things probably won't go well for him there."

  Everyone turned to look at the blonde wolf, while she stared at the floor with a thoughtful expression on her face. After a few seconds she shrugged, "I never want to see him again anyways. And this sounds like the best option to make sure he can never hurt me or anyone else again. If we can do this, then let's do it."

  After that everyone started working on the project. Kaylee, Cerys, Paige, and Brooke all started comparing notes on the banishing ritual Kaylee used, the portal-closing ritual Cerys found, and other spells and rituals connected to the fae that they'd all come across in their research st summer. Melody sat in on that conversation as well, even if she didn't know as much about what they were doing she was really curious and wanted to learn.

  Nina and Menie and mum talked about dinner, then ended up ordering some pizzas. And mom and me got more drinks for everyone, as well as ptes and napkins and everything for when the pizzas arrived.

  The four experienced witches continued to work on the problem over dinner, with the rest of us listening in and trying to help out however we could. The whole thing took a few hours, but by around nine o'clock it seemed like they were finally beginning to make some progress. They were interrupted though when Kaylee's phone started ringing.

  "It's my parents," she grimaced as she checked the call dispy. "I have to take this, sorry."

  She excused herself and went into the kitchen as she answered the phone, but we could hear enough of her side of the conversation to know that her parents wanted her to come home ASAP. She argued that we were in the middle of working on a project but from the sound of it her parents weren't going to relent.

  "I'm really sorry about this," she apologized when she came back to the living-room. "But I have to head home now. My parents are uh, getting a little upset with me for being gone so much tely?"

  Kaylee blushed and added, "They also gave me a hard time about having pizza for dinner again tonight, since we just did that at the 'sleep over' on Saturday."

  Then as she got her backpack and stuff she apologized again to Cerys and added, "I can help work on this stuff again after school tomorrow."

  The young wolf shrugged and put on a brave face, "It's ok. It's not like you can tell your folks you're working on important witch-club business."

  "Does this mean we're just giving up now?" Menie asked impatiently. "We can't just sit back and hope Mr. Ainsley decides to take the next few nights off just because it's inconvenient!"

  Brooke responded, "We're doing all we can, but this isn't easy. And the way it's shaping up, we'd have to perform this ritual at midnight? Half of us can't be out that te on a school night, so we might not be able to do anything till Friday anyways."

  Menie was even more stressed about that, but there wasn't anything we could do about it. Meanwhile I saw Kaylee to the door, we exchanged a hug and kiss before she left. Then the rest of us worked on the problem for another half hour or so, but it felt like the progress had stalled completely by that point.

  Then Paige and Brooke both had to go home too. Melody left as well, since there was nothing else she could do to help. In the end it was just the two wolfgirls and our family all sitting together in the living-room, with a bunch of half-finished notes and stuff.

  "Cerys, Menie," mum addressed the two werewolfs, "You're welcome to stay here tonight. If you like, I can take you both home to pack an overnight bag then bring you back here?"

  I added, "We'll all do our best to keep you safe."

  "What do you think?" Menie asked her girlfriend.

  Cerys still looked sad and guilty, but she nodded "Ok. Thank you all for looking out for us."

  It was about ten o'clock when mum took the wolfgirls to get their things. Nina went with them, and while they were out mom and I did some tidying up. We put away the left-over pizza and washed the dishes, and we also got mom's office ready and got the fold-out bed set up with pillows and extra bnkets. So everything was ready to go when the others got back about a half hour ter.

  The two wolfgirls thanked all of us again, then mom and mum decided to head upstairs and get ready for bed. We all bid them goodnight, but the rest of us stayed in the living-room to talk and hang out some more. We actually ended up pying some video games, although we kept the volume down so as not to disturb our parents.

  "So what do you think's going to happen tonight?" Menie asked no-one in particur. She and Nina were pying against each other while me and Cerys watched.

  I shrugged, "It's been happening between one and three in the morning, right? So maybe in three or four hours Mr. Ainsley will try again?"

  The blonde wolfgirl sighed, "I'm sorry for causing everyone so much trouble."

  "It's not your fault," Nina replied. "We just want you to be safe Cerys, and I know you'll be safe here. We're all looking out for you."

  "Thanks Nina," Cerys replied quietly.

  Everyone was quiet again after that, either pying the game or watching the others py. It felt like nobody was in a hurry to go to bed, since we all expected to be woken up again soon anyways. So we all just stayed up and stayed together in the living-room, pying games and stuff.

  Around midnight we raided the fridge, we got more drinks and munched on some cold pizza in between games. That kept us all going, and soon enough it was one o'clock in the morning.

  "Should we turn off the TV and pretend to sleep or something?" Nina asked.

  Menie shrugged, "No idea. I guess we don't even know for sure he'll show up? Like maybe he'll try at the Ainsley house again? Or worst-case scenario, he goes to our house and messes with my dad while we're all waiting for him here."

  "I think he wants me," Cerys whispered. "I think once he saw me at my mom's pce, that let him lock onto me. That's how he found me st night, and I'm sure he'll come after me again tonight."

  "If he does, we'll protect you," Nina stated with a lot more confidence than usual.

  We ended up turning off the TV and just sat there together in the dark. We were all quiet, like the conversation tapered off completely as we waited and listened. And sure enough, around half past one we heard some noises. It sounded like someone was opening cupboards in the kitchen.

  "Why does he always start in the kitchen?" Menie whispered.

  Cerys replied just as quietly, "He's looking for something to drink. No booze in jail."

  After a minute or two he gave up searching the kitchen. We heard the footsteps start coming along the hall towards us, but they paused at the door to my mom's office. I wondered if maybe he noticed the fold-out bed, or Cerys's overnight bag or something. I worried he might damage mom's computer or work stuff, but luckily he started moving again after a half minute.

  The footsteps continued our way, and a moment ter the shadowy figure appeared in the living-room doorway. Just like back at the Ainsley house Saturday night, the figure was outlined in the purple glow of magic. And like that night, there was the outline of a spectral knife in his hand.

  He stopped for a moment as he seemed to stare at the four of us, where we were all sitting together on the sofa. Cerys and Menie were in the middle, with me and Nina on either side.

  As we all stared back at the figure any anxiety I was feeling seemed to fade away as my calm confident act settled into pce. I also felt my muscles tense, like I was ready for action the moment Mr. Ainsley tried anything.

  Menie let out a soft warning growl. She was in her wolf-girl form again, with her ears showing and her tail was wrapped around her side and against Cerys's leg. She had one arm around her girlfriend's shoulders, like protectively holding the blonde werewolf to her side.

  Everyone stayed sort of frozen like that for what felt like ten or fifteen seconds, all just silently staring back and forth waiting for somebody to make the first move.

  In the end Mr. Ainsley broke the stalemate. He was brandishing that ghostly knife as he suddenly unched himself towards Cerys, and as soon as he moved I did too. I leaped up from the sofa to try and body-check him again, since that worked when I did it the other night. He was ready for me this time though, and with inhumanly fast reflexes he dodged to the side as I went past him.

  At that point it was like everything went into slow motion. I twisted around and my feet dug into the carpet as I tried to reverse my momentum, while behind me Nina attempted to block Mr. Ainsley from reaching the werewolfs. Except he passed right through her, his ghostly form seemed completely insubstantial.

  Menie still had her arm around her girlfriend's shoulders, she turned and pulled Cerys back and into a full hug, positioning them both so her back was to Mr. Ainsley and the blonde wolf was fully protected behind the older wolfgirl's body.

  That's when I spotted that thin purple thread, stretching out from Mr. Ainsley and disappearing through a wall and off to the north. I remembered Kaylee said it was important, and bad things would happen if it was cut.

  Without even realizing what I was doing I saw my hand calmly reach out towards it. A sudden sense of dread came over me as I watched myself pinch the thin magic fiment between my thumb and forefinger, just as the spectral figure shed out with his ghostly knife.

  The moment I touched it magic drained from the astral cord, and it was instantly severed. The side still attached to Mr. Ainsley snapped forward into his shadowy form, while the other end of the thread quickly unravelled back towards the source, disappearing out of sight through the wall.

  The shadowy figure reacted as if he'd been punched in the gut. He staggered away from the wolfgirls, as his purple outline started to blur and fade. Mr. Ainsley fell to his knees, and once the magic outline was gone the rest of him seemed to lose structure as well. Then he just sort of spread out and faded away, like a puff of smoke in a gentle breeze.

  I felt a pang of arm as I noticed the only trace of him left was his ghostly knife, which was protruding from Menie's back. I quickly stepped forward and took hold of it to pull it free, but as soon as I touched it the magic was dispelled and it vanished.

  The wolfgirl groaned, "Crud that hurts."

  "I'll get our parents, they can heal you!" Nina gasped.

  "Nah I'll be fine. Just give me a minute," Menie grumbled as she shifted around. She asked, "I take it he's gone for now, but I guess we'll have to go through all this again tomorrow night?"

  On the outside I remained completely calm as I slowly shook my head. Meanwhile on the inside I was shaking like a leaf and felt almost nauseous.

  "I don't think he'll be back," I replied in a quiet level voice. "I cut that thread that connected him to his body. Kaylee said it was important. Something tells me we won't be seeing Mr. Ainsley again."

  "Cerys?" Nina asked as she moved back to the sofa. "Are you ok?"

  The blonde werewolf had both arms around her girlfriend. She seemed somewhere between scared and shocked and numb as she nodded, "Yeah. I'm ok. Thanks to all of you."

  A moment ter she added, "Don't listen to my tough stubborn girlfriend. Please ask your moms to heal her?"

  "Of course!" my little sister nodded.

  She hurried upstairs to get our parents, while I moved to one of the chairs. Then I all but colpsed into it as my calm act fell apart and a mass of churning emotions hit me all at once.

  ~ End of Episode Eleven ~

  PurpleCatGirl