9A/N: This chapter is on the shorter side because I wanted to put something out to you all now because I'm going to be away from WIFI for over a week.
The door flicked open once more cutting the lights and the conversations short. A young Asian woman trotted up the stairs with the worst deadpan expression Jude had ever seen in her life. The woman looked like she had never had a happy thought in her life. The idea made Jude snap her head away from her, she had heard of a woman matching her description when Jude worked at the Ministry of Magic. Jude was lucky enough to have foreigners so far, but this woman was from the U.K and worked at the Ministry as well. Her only hope was that this woman's look of dissatisfaction meant she didn't read newspapers or listen to the office gossip. She kept her gaze on the fire, but her focus was on this woman. The others were a bit reluctant to greet her, but Mateo got up to welcome her, and Jude found herself gauging Amen's expression like he were a canary singing for danger. His bulbous eyes seemed perturbed by this woman as if she was ice in his shoes. Roisin just didn't seem bothered.
"Hello my name is Mateo," he said offering his hand. "What may I call you?"
She looked down at his hand then over at everyone else seeming to not knowing anyone before her gaze settled on Rosaline who again was pleading with muffle grunts for help.
"Ana," she said ignoring his hand and walking past Mateo to the relieved Rosaline. Ana helped Rosaline into a sitting position on the end of the lounge but instead of unbinding her, Ana instead just sat down on the opposite end acting like she'd just moved a pile of pillows out of the way. Mateo stood there like she had shape-shifted into a werewolf, he looked down at her, but she didn't look back, so he sat back down on the lounge. The room was quiet except for the crackling of the fire which sounded like thunder in the void of silence in this room. Amen was quiet in fixation of Ana; Mateo seemed like his confidence had been shattered, Roisin seemed comfortable in the silence looking at the fire like Jude, and even Rosaline had become placid. Jude's eyelids began to grow heavy like they were made of granite, where the fluttering of her eyes became slow like the drip of a tap. Jude didn't even realise she had fallen asleep until the smell of Billywig and Wolfsbane fluttered in her nostrils, and the taste of it invaded her mouth. Her eyes opened with a sharper and clearer vision as her heart thumped like a hummingbird. Yves stood over her with the vial in his hand and a very tall brunette man next to him. This man was not tall in the way Mateo had been tall, this man could quickly look at the top of his head. He was too short to be a giant or even a half-giant, but Jude wouldn't be surprised if he some of that lineage in him.
"Who are you?"
"Mathias," he answered, revealing a German accent an a voice that was deep and rich like the maple of a tree.
Jude looked around to see everyone waking up from the grog of sleep. Jude couldn't decide whether she wanted to curse herself or Ana; Jude had been so focused on whether Ana had heard about Jude to remember what she had heard about Ana.
"I must apologise, Madame Mercury, I had not -"
"Why the hell did you bring someone like her here?" Jude asked with a bellowing tone.
"Like her?" Mateo asked.
"She is an energy vampire. I had honestly thought it was a joke or an exaggeration when I'd very heard about it, but she and her family literally steal energy off of people."
Rosaline blinked with shock before she stood up and hopped away from Ana, who didn't seem to care. "It's a curse."
"Ooh a curse," Jude said before she stood up heading for the door. "I'm out of here. I'm not going to risk her knocking me out in the middle of a job."
"I don't do it on purpose. I travelled a long way, and that's draining, and my body reacted."
"If I thought you'd done it on purpose. I'd have lit that little cotton jacket you're wearing on fire," She said as she grabbed the handle of the door. "And by the way from London to Paris is not that far."
"It is when you have to take the long way because of this," Ana said her voice flat as she pulled out a parchment of paper. "A transcription of a prophecy we are all in."
Jude let go of the handle and walked over to grab it, but Yves with a whip of his wand beat her to it. "This is only for the ear of people who are fully committed to the job."
Jude kicked the lounge in frustration. She'd been jerked around by this man far too much, and she didn't know or trust any of these people. "Job, job, job. You keep saying that there's a job and you are throwing around all of this money and obvious success that you have, but you still haven't said what this job which tells me it is something difficult and dangerous."
Yves appeared to sigh in defeat. "You are all going to be stealing three things as determined by this prophecy, as to what and where we'll just have to interpret ourselves, which is one of the reasons I contacted you."
"How can I or any of us be sure of the authenticity of this transcription. Could be utter poppycock. If little miss soul sucker was a part of this prophecy, then she could have taken it or have grounds to apply for an orb copy."
"Not when its from the Black section of the Hall of Prophecy."
A/N: Be sure to leave a review. They are what keeps the story going.
Thanks to cityscapetowers and chiaki ebooks for their contributions to Ana and Mathias.
