The gang met at Lauren's after training and he wished he could say he played it cool, and he could if . . . playing it cool meant . . . he couldn't keep his eyes off the affectionate power couple and his mind on what was being said. But yeah no, that never happened.

It was obvious to almost everyone in attendance that he was miserable and by almost everybody he meant that Kelly and Xander were as usual too absorbed in each other to notice, but there were times when he would catch Kelly's eye, and for a moment she would look like she wanted to say something, but inevitably her smile would turn to a sneer before she looked away.

Which made him wonder again what he could have done to make her hate him so much?

He wanted desperately to transform into his cat form and to take a long nap. The circle was cramped and looked ridiculous around his human form, but he couldn't respond to questions or make remarks as a cat, so here he sat wretchedly eating a sandwich that Lauren had prepared for him.

He was beginning to lose weight because of the scarcity of decent meals. He missed his cousin's cooking. In Italy meal time is special. It's family time. Besides his trousers were beginning to bag off him and his face was starting to look a little gaunt. Soon he would have to shop for a whole new wardrobe if things didn't turn around.

And nobody wanted things to turn around more than he did, but that would require him actually paying attention while the gang talked, so he put on his 'listening ears' as Sister Marguerite used to say, and set his mind to hyper focus mode.

To his surprise Zach was just getting to the end of the sordid tale of le Fay and King Arthur when Quinn piped up and said with a low whistle, "Wow they took the whole sibling revelry thing to a whole new level."

Zach rolled his eyes at Quinn before continuing, "I think we all know what the obvious solution is to finding the misty Isle? Lauren could you scry for its location if we get the ring?"

Several people laughed nervously, but the laughter petered out when they saw that Zach was serious.

"No way Brah!" Kyle whined, "You can't be serious! Look I've gone along with some really harebrained ideas with you guys before, but this is never gonna fly."

Donnie's mouth began to water when he noticed that Kyle was looked through a delivery menu for an Italian place in Mission Hills, and he thought yes please.

Travis pointed to something on the menu before he announced, "Yeah Dude I'd rather face the death worm and the mystical Library together than go head to head with No-Nonsense-Knight."

Donnie snorted, which earned him a hard stare from Zach, but he couldn't help it. He liked the knick name it suited the acerbic teacher.

"Well if you guys can think of a better idea, be my guest," Zach said sarcastically.

Kyle and Travis just shrugged from their usual spot on the floor in front of the fireplace and went back to circling things on the takeout menu.

Donnie tried to get their attention so he could circle some items of his own but they were engrossed. So instead he said with a sigh, "Zach, he is right. I can think of no other way, can you?"

Marley sat forward from her spot at her girlfriends feet to say "I could probably pull the ring off his finger faster than he could react, and book it, but he'd know it was me, and there's no way in hell I'm risking the wrath of a Knight of the Round table."

Olivia was engrossed in the task of styling Marley's punk rocker hair. She was currently taking her hair in sections and twisting them until they pointed straight up like spikes. He didn't know if the new style suited her. He certainly wasn't going to tell her she was beginning to resemble a hedgehog.

This week Marley's hair was blue so he didn't think she'd mind an experimental look especially since it included having her succubus girlfriend's hands all over her.

"Baby I'd love to see that but I might have a better idea," Liv said in her sultry voice, which had an obvious effect on him even from where he sat -- making him have to adjust his baggy trousers -- and when he looked around the room he noticed a couple of the other guys doing the same thing. Donnie could tell you from experience that no guy in the room was immune to her charms. Hell if she asked him he'd probably try to take the ring even without the speed of a Dhampir.

"I could use love speak," Liv offered which made Marley turn her head to stare at her with a stunned expression.

"What?" She said incredulously, "I'm a succubus Babe that's what we do?"

"No way! I forbid it." Marley blurted out and looked like she regretted the words as soon as they were out of her mouth.

Olivia narrowed her eyes on her and folded her arms on her chest indignantly. "You can't tell me what to do." She insisted.

"That's not what I meant to say Babe and you know it."

But the argument didn't stop there. Soon everyone's heads were swiveling back and forth from argumentative girl to argumentative girl like it was some sort of tennis match.

Finally Liv jumped up on the couch in one fluid move and flipped over the back to stalk off dramatically to the kitchen. Marley followed her looking dejected. Her shoulders were slumped and her head hung low, at least she understood that she had truly put her foot in it, and she knew what she had done. He would give anything to be in her boat.

His eyes found Kelly's again but she wasted no time in turning her attention back to Xander as she played with a chain around his neck. It filled his gut with rot to see them together. Suddenly he began to wonder if the scarcity of food was the real reason for his sudden weight loss.

"On that note," Connor announced awkwardly, "I could touch him." He offered, "My powers could work on a guy especially if he's bi-curious. You never know? Some of those knights could have been getting pretty cozy if you know what I mean. All cooped up in cold castles, going off to war with not a woman in sight, that sort of thing."

Their resident Gancanagh was right. It could work, but Knight would know and as plans go it wouldn't be exactly covert.

Connor stood back from the bunch around the coffee table, but he was never very far from Brenna. Everyone but her knew he had a huge thing for her. A thing might not cover it sufficiently though; it was more like he worshipped her from afar.

Maybe the forlorn Gancanagh would have some advice to give him about unrequited love. It was sad really. Just last year he'd found out that he can touch someone briefly without it being equated with a death sentence, but that didn't mean he could have a partner male or female from the sounds of it.

Donnie looked at Brenna the Inuit Shaman who currently sat in the kitchen chair that Connor had brought in for her and set up near the big comfy 90's couch. At her feet lounged her loyal Arctic wolf. They had become inseparable over the last year, and even though he was mostly dog and Donnie was mostly cat he liked the large animal. He never gave him any trouble aside from sniffing his butt once and a while when he was in cat form, but Donnie knew it couldn't be helped. If any magical creatures could understood undeniable animal urges it was the Cait Sith.

Take now for instance . . . right now he wanted to march over to Xander and rip Kelly from his arm, before he eviscerated him with his Cait claws.

Donnie tried to think of anything else and his mind alighted on the irony that Connor had fallen for a girl who didn't seem to have any interest in either sex, and if she was indeed a-sexual as he surmised, then she might just be the perfect girl for him, if he could ever muster up the courage to go for it.

Ryan spoke up then, "I could also turn to smoke and possess him to make him take the ring off but I'm not sure I could make him forget we took it though," he said uncertainly." After I leave the body, I'm not sure if the possessed know what happened to them or not."

Ryan was sitting next to CJ in front of the big bay window that looked out on to the sunny San Francisco street. The sun was going down and it was beaming in the window at the back of them illuminating them from behind and giving them both golden halos.

Donnie chuckled to himself thinking he knew for a fact neither one of them was saintly. Just last year CJ had taken Ryan under his wing to teach him in the ways of wooing girls and the shy Arabic Jin was finally getting somewhere. He'd even heard that he was leaving anonymous notes all over the school for a fifth year Silas Gene to find. The rumor, according to Xan, was that she was dying to find out who her secret admirer was.

"As Undine, Cam and I are out, unless someone comes up with an elaborate plan that includes dropping him in the ocean," Megan chuckled.

Megan was sitting in Cameron's lap on the big comfy chair next to Kelly and Xander's. Every once and awhile he looked over to find them rolling their eyes at the exuberant couple.

Megan's crutches rested against the fireplace in easy reach of their owner. Not that Cameron wouldn't jump to and grab them for her, but Megan hated when he treated her like an invalid. If you asked him both of them looked out for each other a little too fiercely, especially since the death worm had used his venom on Cameron leaving him forever addicted to the next magical high. Their close relationship was probably the only thing keeping Cameron the Selkie from becoming a magical tweaker.

Ray announced from his spot next to the now vacant seat on the three-seater love seat, his eyes constantly darting to the now quiet kitchen," I could probably get him to take it off using my power to heat up the metal, but that would require holding his hand, and Knight doesn't appear to be the touchy feely type."

Everyone chuckled at the image that evoked.

"Do ya'll ever crack a damn book?" Kelly snorted caustically. "We don't need to take the darn thing off to scry with it; we just need to be close enough to it. Isn't that right Lauren?"

Everyone did a quick swivel of their heads in Lauren's direction to find her looking at Kelly with a questioning stare, "I guess you're right, but I don't know if I have the magical knowhow to do it."

"How did you know that though? " Zach asked her pointedly.

"Well since ya'll seem to know so much about me you might as well add I like to read to the list. And when you spend two months wasting your time in the library you end up doing a lot of reading." She turned to him then and fixed him with an unfeeling look which made his stomach do a sick little flop.

If he hadn't been transfixed by her stare, he would have witness his other friends making exaggerated 'ouch gestures' and mouthing burn to one another.

But he only had eyes for her.

Zach quickly tried to change the subject, "Great point Kelly let's all head to the library tomorrow to see if we can come up with a spell that will allow Lauren to scry using the ring remotely and undetected.

"All agreed?"

Everyone nodded their heads, but Donnie's eyes were still locked on Kelly who had gone back to playing with Xander's necklace.

"Finally Brah I never thought this meeting was going to end." Kyle announced good-naturedly. "I'm starving who's up for Italian?"

There was a chorus of me's, but Donnie didn't join in. He quickly morphed to his cat form and curled up on the old carpet to fall asleep, and as far as he was concerned the sooner this day was over the better.

Well that sucks for Donnie.

Is Kelly ever going to forgive him?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.