Kelly had a sip of her Irish coffee then looked over at me and said "I'm proud of you, babe."

"Why?" I asked with a smirk. "For not giggling at you anymore when you order that?"

She grinned back at me as I had a sip of my cafe-mocha. "No silly. For taking the whole exercise thing seriously. I know it's too early to say for sure if it's helping, but the fact that you've stuck with it over a month really makes me happy."

I blushed slightly and shrugged, "All I'm doing is walking. It's not that hard, I've been doing it since before I was two."

Kelly rolled her eyes "I'm being serious, babe. And whether or not it helps with the long-term pain, I know it's helping in other ways. You got all the way here today without any trouble, and you're walking at a good pace again. That's already an improvement."

She had a point there. It was the last Sunday of October and I'd been walking almost every day for the past five weeks or so. The two of us walked into town today to visit the cafe then pick up some groceries, and I was able to keep up with her all the way here. Normally I'd have to ask her to slow down, or even stop so I could take a break part-way.

Apart from being good exercise, the walk with Kelly also helped distract me from my dad's visit the other day. That had been kind of intense, with some delicate conversations and a two-hour demonstration using a temporary transformation spell. Dad was pretty excited about it and I was happy to help, but it was also kind of weird.

I'd agreed to keep the whole thing secret, nobody else even knew dad had visited. I was trying to just put the whole thing out of my mind for a while. I did promise though I'd do what I could to help afterwards, including help with college or whatever if dad decided to go back to school.

However it all played out, I knew things were going to get awkward over the winter holidays when my folks would be asking me to work some magic for them.

"Too bad it's going to be winter soon," I commented with a little sigh as I turned my attention back to the topic at hand. "I'm actually going to miss my daily walks, but I don't want to risk slipping on ice or something. Pretty inglorious end for the legendary Tegan Vale, to wind up dead in a snowbank because I slipped on our country road."

Kelly gave me a little frown and said quietly "Please don't joke about that sort of thing, Tegan. I don't care about the legend, but you're too important to me. I don't even want to think about losing you."

I just smiled, "Don't worry about me Kelly. I'm not going anywhere."

After a moment I added, "This time next week we'll be able to go walking around the castle, maybe ride some horses through the south forest and visit Maeve's lake."

Kelly corrected me, "This time next week we'll probably want to spend the day in bed, recovering from the Samhain feast."

"Good point," I nodded. After another sip of my cafe-mocha I leaned forward and half-whispered, "That means this afternoon will be the last Sunday dinner with maid service for a couple weeks."

"Hmm," Kelly frowned. "I'm sure every dinner over there will be served by maids. But I much prefer when you're the one doing it." She smirked at me.

I grinned and whispered, "I'm sure Maeve would have a fit if I got dressed up like that over there."

Kelly suppressed a giggle, "Ok now I really want to see you in a castle Brádaigh maid's uniform."

I bit my lip and smiled, but I started to wonder if there was a way I could make that happen. Maybe I could bribe the dressmaker or something. I wouldn't want to wear it while we were at the castle, Maeve would definitely flip if she or anyone else over there caught me dressed up as one of her servants. But if I could smuggle it back here it would be a fun surprise for Kelly.

We were both quiet for a few minutes, while I continued to plot and scheme about getting my hands on one of those outfits.

Eventually Kelly asked, "What were you planning on making for dinner tonight?"

I shrugged, "I don't know yet. I figured I might find some inspiration when we visit the grocery store."

In a quieter voice I asked, "Does my mistress have any requests, anything in particular she'd like?"

"Hmmm," Kelly looked thoughtful. She was quiet for a little while as she seemed to be thinking it over.

After a few minutes she finally shook her head. "I don't have any requests. It would be nice to have something different though. I don't want to complain but it's been roast and vegetables every Sunday for a while now. And we're probably going to be eating that every night we're over there? So this week before we leave, it would be nice to have something different."

"Ok Kelly," I gave her a smile. "We'll see what inspiration I find at the grocery store, but I'll avoid the roast this week."

After the cafe, I made my way over to the store while Kelly wandered along the main street and did some window-shopping.

It took me ten or twelve minutes before I figured out a plan for dinner. We missed our Asian take-away out here in the country, so I'd try and make something like that. I couldn't do sushi, and I didn't know how to make the sauces from scratch so a few things would have to come from jars. But I figured it would still taste good, and it would be a break from the usual like Kelly wanted.

Once I had everything and the cashier was ringing it up, I texted Kelly to come help me carry it all. As usual I bought too much, but we wouldn't need to get anything else this week.

With both of us loaded down with bags, me and Kelly set out for home. As soon as we were outside the town and on a quiet stretch of road I stopped.

"Let's just teleport the groceries home, ok?" I suggested. "We can text Keira and ask her to put it away, then we don't have to lug it all on foot."

Kelly grinned, "Good idea, babe."

We set the bags down on the ground, and she texted her sister while I sent it all straight into the kitchen.

A couple minutes later Kelly looked at her phone and reported, "Keira says she's done it. She also says she's hungry so we should hurry up and get home."

I grinned but protested, "I'm going as fast as I can."

"I know babe." She teased, "It's not your fault you've got such stubby little legs."

"Hey!" I glared but she giggled and ran a few paces ahead of me.

I made a show of pouting and grumped, "Sounds to me like someone wants to make her own dinner tonight."

She eventually came back and we both grinned as we kissed and made up. She had her right arm around my shoulders, my left arm was around her waist, and I let my head lean against her shoulder as we walked together.

We were about halfway back to the house when we both spotted the police cruiser as it approached. Normally we wouldn't have paid it any mind, except it slowed to a stop seven or eight meters in front of us and the red and blue lights came on.

Kelly and I exchanged a glance, as the two cops emerged from the car and approached. As far as I knew neither of us had done anything wrong, we certainly hadn't done anything that'd require a couple cops to track us down while we were walking home from the cafe and grocery.

Something about the situation had me on edge. The cop on our right, the one who'd been driving, he had a weird sort of look on his face. Almost like he wasn't all there. The one on the left looked confused, he kept glancing at his partner like he had no idea what was going on.

Kelly asked, "What's up officers? Something wrong?"

The one on the right was staring at me now. He asked, "Are you Tegan Vale of Clann Brádaigh?"

If I hadn't already been on alert that was certainly enough to do it. There were only two humans who knew that name, and they were my parents.

I looked back and forth between the two of them and asked, "Who are you guys? What do you want with us?"

The cop on the left, the confused one, replied "I'm constable Matsko, he's constable Rhodes." He didn't have an answer for why they'd stopped us though.

The weird one, Rhodes, was still staring at me. He stated "The Ceallaigh family have a message for you, Tegan Vale."

Now I wondered if these guys were even human. Or maybe Matsko was but I thought maybe Rhodes wasn't. I glanced at Kelly again, then looked back at him and asked "Ok? What's the message?"

I was just starting to cast the identification spell, I figured I'd find out if he was fae or not while he was talking. That's when I saw his right hand come up, and he was holding his gun.

Then he just started shooting.

Me and Kelly both hit the ground as I scrambled to cast my barrier spell. I'd never been shot at before, I'd never even seen a gun up close before, but everything was way louder and scarier than in the movies.

The gun was loud, the sound of bullets smacking into my barrier was loud, and ontop of all that constable Matsko was shouting his head off.

"What the fuck! Steve stop! What the fuck are you doing?!"

I think I was half in shock at this point, as I just stayed crouched on my knees and focused on keeping my shield in place.

Matsko kept shouting over and over at his partner, until Rhodes turned and put a bullet through Matsko's forehead.

By now I was completely stunned. I'm sure my eyes were wide and my mouth hanging open as I just stared up at the guy.

Rhodes turned back towards me and fired twice more. I saw ripples in the shield directly in front of my face as the bullets smashed into it.

He still had that same weird look on his face, and it finally hit me. He was in a trance or something, he was being controlled. His eyes were locked on mine and I saw fear in them as he brought the gun up to his own temple.

I closed my eyes before I heard the shot. Then I heard him fall, and everything was finally still and silent.

My heart was racing and my hands were shaking. I felt nauseous as the adrenaline started to leave my bloodstream, and I had no idea what to do.

There were two cops laying dead on the ground in front of us, their car was stopped in the middle of the road with the lights flashing. It wasn't a busy road but I knew it wouldn't be very long before someone came along and discovered the horrific scene.

The silence was broken by Kelly, who whispered "Tegan?"

"I'm ok," I replied quietly. I still had my eyes closed and my shield up, I didn't want to look yet at the grisly mess before us. "How about you Kelly, are you all right?"

She answered softly, "No."

The adrenaline hit a second time as my eyes snapped open and I turned to look at her. Kelly was laying on her back next to me. Her face was so pale she almost looked grey, and her lips had a bluish tone to them. There was blood on the front of her jacket, and I could see more pooled on the ground beneath her.

"Kelly!" I shouted as I forgot about my barrier spell and twisted towards her. I gently laid my hands on her, my left hand on her shoulder and my right hand on her abdomen, and I started casting healing spells. I didn't know where she'd been hit or how bad it was, and I didn't care.

I just kept hitting her with healing magic. I knew if I did it enough she'd be ok. She had to be ok.

Time seemed to stand still and everything else faded from my awareness as I focused on my girlfriend. I had no idea how many times I cast the spell, but eventually I heard Kelly say "Tegan stop. That's enough, you can stop."

She still looked pale, but there was some colour in her face again, and the blue was gone from her lips.

Kelly was still talking quietly, she still sounded weak which scared me. But she seemed to be thinking clearly, more clearly than me anyways. "We have to get home. We have to get away from here."

I nodded, "Ok. I'm going to teleport us home. Stay still."

She nodded slightly. I still had my hands on her and I focused, then worked the spell. A moment later she was gone. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes then cast it again.

Kelly was laying in the middle of our bedroom floor, and I was kneeling a meter or so away from her. When I opened my eyes everything was blurry, and it took me a moment to realize I was crying.

I moved to my girlfriend's side as I shouted, "Keira! Help!"

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