"My name is Jackie Chan. This is my niece Jade, my uncle Uncle and our friend Tohru." As Jackie spoke, he pointed to each person.

"Pleased to meet you. Now, why don't we head over to my apartment so we can have a more private conversation?" Alda inclined her head towards the door.

"That would probably be smart..." Jackie agreed. "Let's go. Lead the way, Miss Cameron..."

"Call me Alda, Jackie. I can call you Jackie, right?" Alda asked, just to be certain.

"It's only fair if I'm calling you Alda..." Jackie shrugged.

"Let's get going. My place is only a few minutes' walk from here." Alda motioned for them to follow her out the door.

A few minutes later, they found themselves in an apartment, which, although it looked as if it was for someone who was more on the lower end of the pay scale, was actually quite neat and comfortable.

"Welcome to my home base. Small, but comfortable. I'm not gonna be hanging around here much longer though, now that you're here..." Alda looked gleeful at the thought.

None of them could blame her.

"How about you tell us your story? How did you end up here?" Tohru asked.

"It's a long story, but the one common factor between your story and mine is a certain Dominique Gattineau." Alda scowled as she practically hissed the name.

"It's a long story though, so y'alls better have a seat." she gestured around and Tohru found himself taking over a sofa, Uncle had an armchair, Jade had perched herself on the armrest of the sofa Tohru was sitting in and Jackie sat at the small dining table, set a little way behind them.

Alda waited until they were all seated to start her story.

"As you can probably tell from my accent, I'm a Southern girl, born and bred in Atlanta, Georgia, if you want to get specific. It was there that I first met her. I worked as a paralegal in this pretty sweet law firm in Savannah. Got the job right out of school and everything decided to pack up and move outta my home city. Now reduced to working as a cashier to keep up the cash flow." Alda spoke bitterly. "Ain't nothing wrong with being a cashier, but I hate the job."

She closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath in an effort to calm herself.

"I went back to Atlanta for my vacation and I ended up babysitting my niece for a bit since her mom- my older sister Lisette- got called in for an emergency and my brother-in-law was in Germany on a business trip. Lisette's an ER nurse and there was a big accident, so they needed all hands-on deck. Anyway, back to the story. My niece Daniela loves reading, so I took her to the local public library to get her some books. It turns out that Dominique too, had decided to check out the library that day..."

"What was she looking for information on?" Tohru asked.

"I remember seeing her in the history section, looking at something about European artefacts. I didn't look close enough to see precisely what it was." Alda shrugged.

The Chans and Tohru all shared a look.

"I bumped into her by accident and she swore at me in French. Now, I've only taken four years of high school French and took a couple of language courses while at university, but I knew enough to know that what she was saying wasn't pleasant. I brushed it off. Maybe she was having a bad day or something. I didn't know at the time and I didn't really care..." Alda shrugged.

"I went to check out the books Daniela and I found and something clicked in my mind as I handed over the books to the librarian. I may be a self taught... witch, if you will, but I can sense magic and magic potential within people. I sensed the magic in her. That's how I knew you weren't exactly ordinary people when you entered the coffee shop earlier." the young woman explained.

"Ah, yes. Magic Sense. Uncle has it too. He calls it the willies." Uncle nodded knowingly. "Comes in very useful, considering past adventures Uncle has had..."

Alda raised an eyebrow. "Really? I've very rarely encountered other magical humans myself..."

"Who said anything about magical humans?" Uncle retorted.

Alda blinked.

"Okay then... I suppose that's a story for another time..."

"Enough chatting! Finish the story already!" Jade exclaimed, impatient.

Alda chuckled at Jade's antics. "Patience, my little friend. I will get there in time."

She walked over to the kitchen, rummaged around in the fridge, pulled out a tall, half full bottle of orange juice and downed the remaining juice in the bottle with one gulp.

"Okay. Back to the story. She was staring at me the entire time after our little collision. As if she was trying to x-ray me with those creepy mud brown eyes of hers..." Alda shuddered.

"I took Daniela to drop off her books at home, dropped her off at a friend's birthday party, then I decided to go out and relax for a bit. Came back to the apartment I rented for that week and that... she was in there, looting it!"

"NO WAY." Jade gasped dramatically.

"Yes, way, Jade." Alda nodded.

"Why was she there? What was she looking for?" Tohru asked, himself enraptured in the story.

"I heard her muttering something about le collier. The necklace." Alda said. "Then she noticed me standing there, my hand reaching for my cell phone and she attacked me. Physically."

"We started throwing punches and kicks and such at each other. I knew Capoeira, as my mother is Brazilian and she taught me it growing up, but Dominique fought dirty. She started throwing the first magic spells around." Alda smirked at the memory of something. "Boy did she seem surprised that I could use magic too. Blasted her clean across my damn living room"

Jade snorted.

"She insisted that I hand over the necklace I was wearing. I didn't, because I wasn't about to give in to somebody like her..." Alda scowled.

Jackie, Uncle and Tohru shared a look. "All of that, just for a necklace?" Jackie looked sceptical. "What kind of necklace was it? What did it look like?"

"It looked like it was a small chunk of ruby with black onyx streaked through it and it was attached to a silver chain. Why?" Alda asked.

At this, even Jade joined in the looks that Jackie, Uncle and Tohru were giving each other.

"Do you still have it?" Uncle asked. "That necklace?"

"No." Alda spoke bitterly. "Dominique managed to pin me down and rip it off my neck."

"Ouch!" Jade winced and Tohru winced with her, rubbing his neck.

"My friend had loaned me a Twilight book and it somehow ended up off the bookshelf during the scuffle and landed right next to my head. Dominique hit me with some sort of magic beam and the next thing I know, I felt myself being sucked into the book and well, here I am." Alda shrugged.

"So, a chance encounter with that witch led to you being here? And she wasn't even going after you originally? That sucks..." Jade winced.

Alda sighed. "I know. She spotted my necklace, wanted my necklace and broke into my apartment and attacked me just to get it. What was so damn important about the thing? Sure, it looked unusual and kinda pretty in its own right, but it was nothin' special..."

"Actually..." Uncle piped up. "It might have been something very special."

Alda took a seat opposite Jackie at the dining table. "Oh? What's so special about it?"

Uncle stood up.

"Tell me, Alda. Have you ever heard of Le Cœur Démon?"