scifi
Familiar
Posts: 135
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Post by scifi on Jan 23, 2005 17:03:41 GMT -5
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scifi
Familiar
Posts: 135
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Post by scifi on Jan 23, 2005 17:08:39 GMT -5
“What about Bianca?”<br>
Chris averted his eyes at Phoebe’s question. Don’t let them see you cry. Play the part. Don’t cry, he repeated to himself, though something told him he needn’t keep up that reminder. Somehow, he was totally, eerily calm, calmer than he’d ever been in his life. “Bianca won’t be a threat to anyone anymore.”<br>
“I’m sorry,” Phoebe offered.
Don’t look at me like you understand. We were nothing like you and Cole, was what he thought. “Me, too,” was what he let escape his mouth in a small voice.
Then they let him go, his father with forgiveness and insistence that they could help him if he’d only ask and with an oh-so-Elderly sentiment that trust works both ways. Chris nodded to humor him, putting on as contrite a face as he could muster, then sidled out of the attic and down the steps into the hall. At the nursery, he stopped and leaned against the doorway, his arms crossed defensively and his gaze cold as Bianca’s hand in his. However hard he tried, he couldn’t see a baby there in the playpen, regardless of the innocence in Wyatt’s return stare. All he could see were the eyes that had looked on him in contempt of his weakness, the hand that had directed his throat to constrict, that had held him aloft and gasping for breath, and the foot that had sent his almost-wife flying back through the air. But for all that, the unnatural calm didn’t leave him when he spoke. “If I can’t save you, I swear to God, I’ll stop you.”<br>
Chris turned away from his brother, not caring to speculate why he’d not raised his shield even though they were alone together, other than to attribute it to the arrogance that would only grow with time, and continued his descent to the first floor. It was always well-lit here, perhaps in subtle defiance of the darkness that seemed ever to grow around the house. But he did not want any light, or sound, or anything else to make him aware of his surroundings. Numbness was good. Numbness kept him from dying right along with her. He needed to go further down, away from the people who he knew would eventually seek him out and try to get him to talk, away from the light that mocked him with its illusion of comfort. In the basement he could find those things, for they would never think to look for him there, sitting alone in the stillness.
He didn’t touch the light switch at the basement door, but felt his way down the steps, counting them like he had done as a child hiding from his mother after accidentally breaking a lamp or window. He’d done it so often, he had these steps memorized, down to knowing how to place his foot on the fifth one so it didn’t creak. Yes, he’d broken quite a bit in his life -- furniture, his own arm . . . his mother’s heart. And now he’d let break the vow he’d made to himself long ago, that nothing would take Bianca away from him.
Chris lowered himself to sit at the bottom of the steps, letting his eyes adjust to the dim illumination of the moonlight through the small windows where the basement poked above ground. It was nearly a full moon tonight, as it had been their last night together -- but no, he couldn’t think of that now. Nevertheless, when he closed his eyes, flashes of the visions he’d seen during his delirium played in the darkness, dredged up out of the haze of fevered memory to now fill his conscious thoughts. He opened his eyes again and could now make out the old furniture and stacked boxes that were stored down here to make room in the attic for the witchcraft that went on every day. His eyes fell almost immediately on a flat-topped trunk that must have been there for ages, for it was still there in the future he came from. He didn’t want to rise from his seat, but it was as though the trunk drew him toward it, and with every step he took, the calm that had lain on him like a shroud since he’d come back through the portal began to lift imperceptibly away until his hands actually shook as they directed the rusty latches to open. He kneeled before the trunk as though before a shrine and began to dig among the blankets folded inside until he found the crocheted bedspread he was searching for. In light, it would have been hideous to look on, olive green and goldenrod on purple, and moth-eaten in a couple of places to show its age. It must have belonged to his Grandma, or rather, to his Grams, for she had always been more flamboyant. But with the colors muted in the dark, he didn’t think of that any more than he’d thought of it the last time he’d seen it, when he’d used it to wrap around himself and Bianca to ward off the chill of the basement air and floor. He felt for the matching pillow that he’d placed beneath her head, then sat against the trunk as he covered himself with the bedspread and hugged the pillow to his chest. It smelled the same, of dust and age, and in his memory it mingled with the smell of her. He let his eyes close again, and felt her hair one more time, saw her eyes reflect every speck of light in the room, and tasted the salt of her skin and the sweet of her lips.
He didn’t know when memory stopped and dream began, but suddenly he found himself sitting back at the bottom of the basement steps with Bianca standing before him.
“What is it?” she asked.
He shook his head. “It’s just that . . . You died.”<br>
“Oh,” she said simply, like she was only a trifle disappointed. She moved to sit beside him, then wrapped her arms around his so she could take his hand in both of hers, and rested her head on his shoulder. She spoke again after a few moments in a resigned tone. “Well, you figured I would sooner or later.” She glanced up at his face and smiled. “You figured we both would.” She lay her head down again and laced her fingers between his. “It’s not fair, because I love you so much.”<br>
Chris nodded and kissed the top of her head. They both moved in perfect sync to place their arms around each other, and he held her for a few moments before he could say anything. “So what do we do now?”<br>
She shrugged and shook her head against his chest as though to say there was only one thing they could do. “We say goodbye.”<br>
Chris awoke with a sob in his throat, and several more followed in quick succession. He choked the rest down as the tears finally came. But these, too, he stopped, for as soon as he allowed his sorrow to become manifest, his anger and hate rose up, ready to subdue it as they always had been. And he knew, he’d known for a long, long time, that these were the easier emotions to feel. He looked up at the basement ceiling as though trying to see through it all the way to the second floor and to the dormant monster in the playpen.
“We say goodbye,” Bianca said again in his memory.
“No, we don’t,” he responded through clenched teeth, and orbed to make sure that this time, his promise stuck.
To be continued...
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Post by mcharmed21 on Jan 23, 2005 17:36:53 GMT -5
I like Chris stories. You story is again so verry wonderful! Update soon  |
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Post by sugarbox on Jan 25, 2005 22:57:29 GMT -5
I haven't been at this board for quite a while now and it seems that I nearly missed out on this little gem. I've always loved your stories from the first one you wrote to the last one. I can tell this one is going to be as great as the others. Glad that there's another gem from you once more.
;D
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CharmedNadine
Innocent
Smallville hides the hero that nobody knows about!
Posts: 18
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Post by CharmedNadine on Jan 26, 2005 8:53:47 GMT -5
Poor Chris he really is upset about losing Bianca.  If only they could see how he is feeling right now. It must be hard for Chris coming back and seeing Wyatt there when he knows what the older Wyatt has to his almost-wife and himself. After what had happened I’m still surprised that Chris is still thinking of ways to save his brother. That’s defiantly what I call brotherly love. Maybe Wyatt knows how Chris is feeling to him right now and is trying not to get Chris in a madder mood against him. At least he has somewhere to go even if it is the basement as it must be hard for him knowing that his vow he made to himself is now broken from his brothers hands, when all he has been trying to do is save Wyatt. Ahhh! At least he is able to remember her in peace as it seems to allow him to remember the last time him and Bianca even if it involves a blanket and pillow. At least he’ll have something to remember her by even though he might still has the ring he gave her I hope. Ok either Bianca has come back from the dead just to say goodbye to Chris or he is dreaming this. They sound so lovely together. I wish Bianca hadn’t died as I would have loved to see what was going to happen to her and Chris now if she had survived. So Chris was dreaming.  Chris is really in a bad mood now and I’m also beginning to wonder what Chris is going to do now to make sure that his promise stuck this time.  Nice fan fiction! ;D Please post more soon as I want to see what Chris is going to do now and if it will affect any of the sisters once he has done it. Hope you don’t mind be posting like this but I read a bit of the fan fiction and I leave a comment and then I read a bit more and keep repeating that until I’ve got to the end.  |
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scifi
Familiar
Posts: 135
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Post by scifi on Jan 26, 2005 12:04:36 GMT -5
Thanks for the comments, all. I really appreciate it. And Nadine, it's actually kinda neat to see what's going through a reader's head as she's reading, so your reply was more than fine! Here's Chapter 2.
His destination offered all of the darkness he could ever have wanted. It was a part of the Underworld open to the sky, but only nominally so, for an enchantment ensured that boiling purple clouds obliterated all hints of sunlight and kept the barren landscape in perpetual twilight.
Chris stepped amid the stones that rose up on all sides to cast a deeper shadow on the land until he came to the base of the lone tree in the canyon. It did not grow much above his head, but instead twisted around itself, occasionally reaching its empty black limbs outward like the gnarled fingers of an old hag’s hand. Here he waited and listened to the wind carry the lifeless gray dirt further along through the canyon.
The wind carried more than dirt, however, as it brought the sound of the demon’s approach before he was near enough to strike. Chris turned and caught the hand that held an athame ready for a down stroke. The demon was stronger than he anticipated, but just as the athame came near his chest, Chris wrenched himself to the side, forcing himself and his opponent to the ground. The demon was ready for this move and wrestled his way astride his prey with ease. The muscles in Chris’s arms shot flames of pain into his back as he tried to keep the blade from creeping closer, and for a second he recognized the stupidity of picking two fights in one night. Then he remembered that he was a witch, after all, and since his hands were occupied, he reverted to the less advanced method of channeling his power through his eyes. The force was sufficient to knock the demon back a few feet, and with his hands now free, Chris gestured for the athame to fly from its owners grasp and then double back in its trajectory for a fiery vanquish.
Chris allowed himself only a moment to catch his breath and swept his hair out of his face as he stood up. “I passed your test, Mira!” he yelled into the wind. “Now, come out!”<br>
Several heartbeats passed before the blackened old tree transformed itself into a beautiful young woman, Mira’s preferred shape. She shook her raven hair behind her and stretched luxuriously so that the leather halter beneath her sheer robes clung tighter to her form and left very little to the imagination. Chris watched her eyes during the display, seeing there how she was in turn watching him for a reaction. And he knew she would be ticked off when he gave none.
“Do I know you?” she asked finally, the pout clear in her liquid, throaty voice.
“No, but you will,” he answered matter-of-factly. “I’m from the future.”<br>
“Ah, the Charmed Ones’ Whitelighter,” she exclaimed in her self-satisfied manner that almost made Chris cringe -- he’d forgotten how irritating her aristocratic enunciation could be.
“I’ve heard of you,” she continued as she moved closer. “You’re the one who comes down here like you own the place, calling in favors for services not yet even rendered. What are all those favors for, anyway?”<br>
“Information.” Chris turned his head as she circled him; she would have him flatter himself that she was sizing him up like a piece of meat. But again, he gave no indication that he enjoyed her attentions.
“I was under the impression that whitelighters go Up There for information.” She made to straighten his collar.
“Going Up There is a waste of time.” He moved her hand away.
“Or perhaps you feel uncomfortable Up There.” She smiled. “Perhaps you feel more at home down here.”<br>
Chris didn’t answer as she turned away and put a little distance between them with that teasing walk she did so well. When she faced him again, she clasped her hands in front of her expectantly.
“I’m waiting to hear what favor I owe you in the future.”<br>
“You don’t. This is a straight-up offer, no obligation. You can take it or leave it.”<br>
“Now you sound like a vacuum cleaner salesman.” She conjured a seat for herself with a bored wave of the hand. “Go on.”<br>
At the moment of commitment, the words stuck in his throat, but the ache they caused reminded him of Wyatt’s grip, and he remembered why he was doing this. “I want you to go after Wyatt.”<br>
“The Twice-blessed Child?” Mira looked as though the prospect was intriguing, despite the incredulity of her tone. “Now, why would I want to do that?”<br>
“To keep him from vanquishing you when he grows up, for one.”<br>
She raised an eyebrow. “You know how to get a girl’s attention.” The languid seductress façade melted away and was replaced by the calculating strategist that Chris knew Mira to be. She paced behind her seat for a moment, then spoke as though inviting him to prove her wrong. “It can’t be done.”<br>
“I think it can -- now, while he’s young and doesn’t have a fraction of the power that he’ll develop.” He paused to let his words begin to work on her. “You’re not the most powerful demon I know, but you are the craftiest. If anybody can do it, you can.”<br>
“And then I wait for the Charmed Ones to hunt me down? No thanks.”<br>
“Not if they don’t know it was you. I know you’ve got a small army down here with you --” Chris surveyed the crannies of the canyon walls for the myriad possibilities for concealment. “Surely you can find some use for it.” He shrugged. “Besides, you’re not in their Book. Yet. I’m the only one who knows how to vanquish you, and I’m not telling.”<br>
“Pardon me, but you don’t exactly have a reputation for honesty. How do I know you won’t cross me?”<br>
“If I cross you, then you’ll rat me out. That’s the last thing I need.”<br>
Mira stared at him, trying to read his expression. “I need more substantial motivation than a future event that may or may not happen.”<br>
Chris nodded; he’d expected her to balk at a reward so far removed in time. “Of course, if you were to do this, we’d have to get rid of Balchus. How long’s he had you holed up down here?”<br>
It was her turn not to answer his question, though he knew perfectly well the number of years Mira had been hiding from her ex-lover. She simply laughed mirthlessly. “It would take a far more powerful being than you to --”<br>
“Like a Charmed One?” Chris reminded her of his connections.
Mira grinned. “You’ve thought this out. How long have you had this in mind?”<br>
“A while.”<br>
She took a few steps toward him. “You have all the outward signs . . . But you’re no whitelighter.”<br>
“Brilliant observation.”<br>
She crept closer still, the temptress coming back into her own as she leaned against his arm. He shook her off.
“Get away from me.”<br>
“Oh,” she pouted, then smirked mischievously. “Do you prefer --” She shifted her shape to that of a strapping young boy, to which Chris simply glared.
She laughed as she reassumed her feminine guise, then looked him up and down with mock pity. “Ah, a eunuch.”<br>
“Are you in or out?” He let his irritation show in his voice, which only made Mira laugh again.
“I’ll consider your offer and send my answer in due time.”<br>
She shimmered then, probably to reappear in the shape of a rock or something that he wouldn’t recognize as sentient, and Chris took it as a sign that he would just have to swallow his impatience as he orbed home to wait.
To be continued...
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Post by alit on Jan 26, 2005 12:14:56 GMT -5
Hi scifi! How are you?
This is really exciting! I was hooked from the first lines and i loved the scene with Mira when he had to persuade her to help.... really looking forward to reading more.
Ali x
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Post by sugarbox on Jan 26, 2005 20:40:21 GMT -5
I can picture Mira in my head, all raven haired beauty with that seductiveness since she's in leather. What is it with bad girls and leather?  I like this, it reminds me of Wyatt who channel his powers that way when he was young. Chris is certainly rather sly; asking favors from demons to do his bidding and not-so-promising something in return. Subtle and wily. Mira is certainly interesting, she intrigues me and I hope to see more of her in the future updates. |
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CharmedNadine
Innocent
Smallville hides the hero that nobody knows about!
Posts: 18
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Post by CharmedNadine on Jan 27, 2005 9:32:50 GMT -5
I’m glad you don’t mind me doing that as I always have these things in my head when I’m reading so I though that if I did it that way I would be able to write what I thought or feel at that time.
So Chris has gone to the Underworld! Oh no something is bound to go wrong now. I hope the sisters notice him missing soon before he does something that he might regret later.
I loved how you described that as I’m able to imagine Chris in a place like that with all the things you described there and what they looked like and how Chris must be feeling to go to a place like that.
It’s a good job Chris has a power like that or that demon could have done a lot of damage to him witch or not. He shouldn’t have even thought of trying to pick a fight with the demon the way he’s feeling because he could get him self in a lot of more trouble if he’s not careful.
That was only a test! Ok now I think that Chris maybe should go back and get the sisters. He may not like it but a least it would be better than him winding up dead if this Mira has it her way. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but
“For god sake man give her any reaction before you really to piss her off!”<br>She knows that he’s the Charmed One’s Whitelighter! I wonder if she knows anything else about him.
So she does know that he’s up to something or should I say looking for something. That’s not good because if she finds out why he’s here he might be joining Bianca, and then what will the sisters do.
I’m also waiting to see what this favour is that Chris wants her to do. What he wants her to go after Wyatt! But all that time he’s been trying to protect Wyatt from anything that could turn him and for all he knows she could be the one. You would think that it would be a good think if Wyatt vanquished her or has Chris got something up his sleeves.
Ok I have read up to "She raised an eyebrow." and this is what I have commented up to. I would have commented some more but I have to go to work. I'll try to get on the computer tonight to finish reading that part and any new parts that might be up. Keep up the good work and I can't wait to read the rest of this.
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Post by traci26 on Jan 27, 2005 13:36:27 GMT -5
I hope that you update this story soon. This is a very good FanFic and I can't wait to read more. /color] 
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CharmedNadine
Innocent
Smallville hides the hero that nobody knows about!
Posts: 18
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Post by CharmedNadine on Jan 28, 2005 9:27:22 GMT -5
It’s a good thing that Chris knows what Mira can do before he went to see her. It’s a good thing that Mira thinks that it can’t be done or someone was going to really get into trouble.
Trust Chris to say that. Just when I though that Wyatt was safe he turns around and says that. No offence Chris but wouldn’t it have been better to go for a powerful demon to help you out that one where the sisters could destroy quicker.
The only person there that seems to understand what could happen is the demon.
Chris really wants her to do that as he seems to be trying anything that could work to get her to agree in doing what he wants. I’m sure the sisters would find a way to vanquish her if they never she was going after Wyatt.
What I’m more worried about is that if he does rat her out what will she do to him and what would the sisters think and do if they could see Chris now and know what he is up to.
I take it that Chris has hit some never spot on her as she didn’t answer his question about her ex-lover. Maybe she is beginning to believe that maybe he is from the future.
What on earth is Chris going to do? Tell the sisters that a demon is in trouble or needs their help. Some how I don’t think she is going to get a sister to go down there not unless he has something up his sleeve.
I would if the boy was Wyatt that she changed to or was it Chris when he was younger.
I hope that she doesn’t give him an answer soon as I think he needs to think what he is doing before he gets into any more trouble.
You can’t leave it like that you have to post more please. I still really like this fan fiction and I’ll defiantly be making sure to keep checking for any more updates.
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wickedamazon
Witch
My Mad World is Full of Paper Flowers
Posts: 1,209
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Post by wickedamazon on Jan 28, 2005 18:34:56 GMT -5
Finally a story from you! i have been wondering when you would post again scifi. by the way, i didn't post this on TWATA but i thought the ending to be brilliant.
anyways, i really like how you are going into the gap that was never filled by the show. I was really annoyed with the show for having Chris just brush off his fiance's death as if it were just another day just another death thing.
I love this character Mira. she's a great creation and she's quite mysterious too.
as always sci fi, keep up the wonderful work. you're truly a gifted writer.
~natasha
aka wiccagirl311
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scifi
Familiar
Posts: 135
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Post by scifi on Feb 3, 2005 18:08:44 GMT -5
Someday, Piper would learn her lesson -- she could never leave Wyatt alone with his food. He had banged his bottle against his high chair’s tray to indicate to her that he’d rather drink than eat this morning, so Piper had taken only a few seconds to pull the orange juice out of the refrigerator. But a few seconds were all Wyatt needed to get oatmeal down the front of his jumper and matted in his hair. Piper set the juice on the counter and let out a despairing groan, but Wyatt simply grinned at her and stuck his fingers in the gooey mass atop his head, as though determined to shampoo his hair with it. Piper couldn’t help but smile back at that face.
“Okay, you want a bath. I can take a hint.”<br>
She knelt in front of his high chair with the smile still on her face to retrieve the empty bowl he’d thrown down, but when she stood up and saw the blue glow of her baby’s shield, the smile dropped along with the forgotten bowl as she spun around with her hands ready to channel her power. Only just in time did she stop herself.
“Chris! Geez!” She put her hands down at the sight of her wannabe-whitelighter standing behind the kitchen island. “You can’t just sneak up on me like that. A second more and --”<br>
“I’m part-witch, remember? I don’t freeze.”<br>
“I wasn’t gonna freeze ya.” She raised her eyebrows and let the impact of what could have happened sink into his thick head as she knelt once again to retrieve the bowl.
"I'll keep that in mind,” Chris replied absently. Piper paused in her cleanup effort to watch him. He was just standing there, staring down at a burner on the stove -- sort of aimlessly, really, and however hard he was to read, she knew enough of him to know that he was anything but aimless. She noticed too that he had not changed out of his jeans and black shirt from the night before -- only the shirt no longer looked black; rather, a gray film clung to its fibers, and his brown hair was dusted with the stuff, giving the impression of an old man with a boy’s face. But somehow it wasn’t only his appearance that gave Piper that picture. He just felt older.
“You want something to drink?” she said as gently as she had ever managed to speak to him.
“No, I --” Chris started to answer, but she stopped him by shoving a glass of orange juice into his hand.
“I don’t know why he raised his shield -- he hasn’t done that with you in a while, at least not that I’ve seen.” She placed the empty cereal bowl in the sink and grabbed a dish towel to clean the clumps off of Wyatt. “I guess he just sensed the Underworld on you.” She saw Chris flinch. “That’s where all that dirt came from, isn’t it?”<br>
His eyes searched the kitchen walls as if he could find a response written on them, and Piper’s voice softened, her usual annoyance with his secrets mitigated by her understanding. She knew what it was to drown sorrow with work. “Chris, you know, it’s okay to slow down for a little while -- to take a break.”<br>
He blew out a long, tired breath, but still he didn’t meet her eyes. Instead, he took a gulp of the orange juice to keep from making a reply. When he swallowed however, Piper saw that whatever else he was hiding, he couldn’t hide the pain of the liquid going down.
“Are you okay?” she asked and instinctively stepped over to check on him.
“I’m fine. It just burns a little.” He tried to wave her away, but she had already reached up to touch his throat. Now that she was close to him, she could see the beginnings of some bruising, the kind of coloration that started deep under the skin and worked its way out, almost like the pressure that had formed it had come from the inside.
“Chris, what happened?” She frowned as she fingered the perfectly formed ring of faint blue. But before he could answer, she called out, “Leo!”<br>
“No, you don’t have to call --” Chris sighed as his words were cut off by the arrival of the Elder’s orbs.
“What’s wrong?” As was the habit of an overprotective father, Leo automatically turned to check that Wyatt was fine as he spoke.
“Look at his neck,” Piper gestured to Chris, her renewed annoyance at his keeping the injury from them evident in her voice.
“Really, I’m fine,” Chris protested. “You don’t have to --”<br>
But Leo held up a hand to silence him, then used the same hand to heal his throat. Chris turned his eyes on Wyatt as Leo worked, and they took on a blank hardness.
“She, uh,” Leo began, this new civility he was showing Chris lending an uncertain tone to his voice. “She must have done a number on you.”<br>
Chris kept his eyes on Wyatt, who returned the stare relentlessly. “Bianca didn’t do it.”<br>
“Then who --” Piper started to ask as the glow from Leo’s hand stopped.
“It doesn’t matter.” Chris tore his eyes away from the baby and tried to change the subject. “Where are Phoebe and Paige?”<br>
Now Piper avoided all eye contact as she nonchalantly started toward Wyatt with her dish towel in hand. “They’re upstairs packing.”<br>
Leo’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Where are they going?”<br>
“Well,” Piper tried to keep her tone even. “Paige is moving in with Richard, and Phoebe is moving to Hong Kong.”<br>
“What?” both men blurted simultaneously, and Piper rolled her eyes at the predictability of their reaction.
“We decided it last night.”<br>
“Piper,” Leo stammered, “This is not a good idea. You’re breaking up the Power of Three --”<br>
“No, we’re not,” Piper interrupted. “Paige will be just across town, and she or Chris can get Phoebe any time.”<br>
“But that could take too long. If a demon attacks --”<br>
“Then I’ll handle it.” Piper sighed. “Leo, I can’t keep asking them to put their lives on hold. They deserve to be happy.”<br>
As Leo came up with more reasons for concern, Chris simply moved around the island and sat at the table with a heavy thud. He stared first at his hands splayed open before him to feel the wood where in a few years Wyatt would carve their names in kindergarten-style block letters, then again brought his gaze up to his brother. Wyatt ignored his parents’ argument and refused to take his eyes off of Chris, who could only guess what was going on in that child’s head as his own thoughts whirled in all directions. Was it possible that Wyatt was afraid of him? But no, that couldn’t be right. Wyatt had never been afraid of anything. In fact, he’d gloried in being untouchable, even before he’d shown the evil that was inside him. Chris could recall so many scrapes when Wyatt had escaped punishment while he had been caught; there was a time when he’d secretly been proud that his big brother could pull anything over on their mom. It had been the accepted order of things, the way the world was supposed to work -- Chris was the one who could be touched, but Wyatt stayed above it all. He was no different now, Chris assured himself; even as a baby, he was arrogant in his imperviousness.
Still, it was a good thing his brother had finally lowered his shield when Leo came. Piper was right. Though he was seldom without it when alone with Chris, Wyatt never raised his shield when their mother or Leo was around. Chris figured he didn’t think he needed it with them there to protect him. The fact that he was raising it again had to mean his whitelighter intuition was warning him of the threat Chris now posed. That was something else Wyatt had always been able to boast of -- he was a better whitelighter than Chris would ever be. He’d even been able to heal up until a couple of years ago, when the love he bore Chris had become so tainted that he could no longer trigger the power. That had not been too long after Chris had fallen for Bianca -- but he couldn’t think about that, he realized, as his chest tightened at the memory. No, if Wyatt had ever loved him, then he wouldn’t have killed that best part of him. His healing power must simply have come from some other trigger.
Chris watched Piper try to comb some of the oatmeal out of Wyatt’s hair as she continued to counter Leo’s points. She seemed unfazed that the shield had gone up, and since it had lowered again, all was forgotten. It was probably for the best that she’d called Leo, then. If the shield had stayed up longer, she might have become suspicious. His mom had always been so smart. It was only luck -- and dislike, he reminded himself ruefully -- that kept her from figuring out who he really was.
Yes, he’d been inordinately lucky over the past day or so, except for . . . He closed his eyes and forced himself not to register the sensation of Bianca’s dying breaths on his face. He was going to change that, so there was no point in remembering. Reliving those last moments was becoming a habit, and like the habit of protecting Wyatt that had caused him to protest the sisters’ separation before thinking it through, it was a habit he had to break. Their decision could not have come at a more perfect time; fate must have been pointing in this direction all along, if he’d only read the signs earlier. The sisters’ short-sighted quest for normal lives that had infuriated him countless times was now giving him an even better opportunity to save Bianca -- to save everyone -- from a monster who could not be allowed to grow up. With the sisters scattered, his plan might actually work.
“Chris?” Leo said a second time to snap his focus back to the argument. “Help me out here.”<br>
Chris didn’t need to come up with a lie, though, because a crash from the upstairs hall stole their attention.
“Stay with Wyatt,” Piper ordered Leo as she and Chris bounded out of the kitchen.
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scifi
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Post by scifi on Feb 3, 2005 18:09:45 GMT -5
The scene that met them upstairs was actually pretty typical in the Charmed Ones’ lives. The demon was facing off against Phoebe, whose body slamming into a pile of moving boxes had apparently caused the noise that they’d heard. As he advanced on her prone form, a blade gleaming in his hand, Paige stepped away from her cover and held out her hand. “Athame!”<br>
She needn’t have orbed the weapon away, though, for just as the dancing lights moved from the demon’s grasp to her own, Piper flicked out her hands to vanquish him in an explosion of black particles.
“Are you okay?” Piper asked as she helped Phoebe stand up amid the boxes.
Her younger sister simply massaged a shoulder and grimaced. “Nothing Leo can’t fix.”<br>
“Well, I got a nifty souvenir off him, anyway,” Paige said as she joined her sisters. “Anybody know what this means?” She held out the athame for the other witches to examine.
What Chris saw there set his mind to working out what his next move would be, but at the same time, its import sent an uncontrollable wave of nausea through him. On the hilt of the athame, engraved in silver, were the letters IN.
To be continued...
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Post by traci26 on Feb 3, 2005 21:38:12 GMT -5
OOHHH Scifi,
This is sooo good.. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time that I was reading the last update.
I can't wait for you to add more to this riviting story.
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scifi
Familiar
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Post by scifi on Feb 13, 2005 21:03:21 GMT -5
“The most obvious answer is that it’s the word ‘in,’” Paige said as she headed the other three witches’ procession into the attic. “But that doesn’t make any sense. ‘In’ what?”<br>
“Maybe they’re initials?” Phoebe offered with a shrug.
“Since when do demons carry monogrammed athames?” Piper shot down the idea.
“Not his initials,” Phoebe said, insulted that Piper would think she was that stupid. “Maybe a group’s initials -- you know, like a clan or something.”<br>
“It’s a possibility,” Paige answered as she flipped past another entry in the Book. She glanced at the athame again and turned it so the letters were on their side to get a new perspective. “Then again, it could be some kind of funky runic symbol.”<br>
“Good point,” Chris said.
“For all we know it’s an operating instruction,” Piper fumed, obviously not pleased at the preponderance of guesses without any real answers. “He wasn’t exactly the brightest demon ever.”<br>
“He was more brawn than brain.” Phoebe rubbed her shoulder again.
“So he might have been sent by someone else.” Paige closed the Book and crossed to the map table to pick up the scrying crystal.
“What are you doing?” Chris asked quickly.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m gonna try and find his boss.”<br>
“If he even had a boss,” Chris countered. “Let me see that.” He took the athame from Paige and made a show of inspecting it. “You may be right. But I doubt scrying will work.”<br>
“Have you seen this kind of thing before?” Phoebe asked.
“I have some connections who might have. Let me go check it out.”<br>
“Hang on,” Piper stopped him. “Maybe we should let Leo check with the Elders instead. No offense, but you seem kind of out of it this morning.”<br>
“Look, I’m fine. How many times do I have to tell you?”<br>
“But I really think you should take some time to --”<br>
“And I really think you should stop treating me like glass! I’m not broken!”<br>
His three charges just stared at his unexpected outburst.
“Sorry.” He swallowed. “I’ll let you know if I find out anything.” And before they could delay him any further, he orbed.
“Well, so much for Leo’s little speech last night about trusting us.” Paige flopped down on the old sofa.
“Cut him a little slack, Paige,” Phoebe chided. “His fiancé just died.”<br>
“Working himself into the ground isn’t going to change that.” Piper took Paige’s side. “I never thought I’d say this, but I’m worried about him.”<br>
“Yeah, that is definitely something I wouldn’t have expected out of your mouth,” Paige said. “But then again, you have a tendency to mother everybody.”<br>
“I do not.”<br>
Phoebe and Paige exchanged looks.
“You know, Piper,” Phoebe shifted the subject. “I’ve been thinking maybe we should wait a few days before we go through with the move. Especially now with this Chris thing and with the demon attack.”<br>
“It does sort of seem like we’re dumping on you,” Paige added.
Piper forced a smile. “It’s okay; I can always call you if I need you. You’re both only an orb away. Honestly, you guys deserve this; you really do.”<br>
“But Piper --”<br>
“No, this kind of stuff is always going to be happening. And if you drop everything every time it does, you’ll never get out.” They had to realize what she said was true. “If you don’t put your foot down and do this now, then when?”<br>
*** *** ***
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scifi
Familiar
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Post by scifi on Feb 13, 2005 21:03:53 GMT -5
It was the strangest thing, but Chris had an urge to go to the arboretum when he orbed. Why, he didn’t know. He would have thought that their spot was the last place he would choose to sit and think of how to further his plan. But here he was, nevertheless, staring at the angels that only yesterday had looked down from marble eyes as a pair of lovers hurt each other in tones that neither of them really felt. But yes, he had meant some of it, perhaps hoping that his contemptuous glare would shake her out of what she had once again become. Or what he had thought she’d become. God, he should have known she would never go back to evil, that everything she’d done had been to protect him. It was that hope of hers, the hope that she could make a difference -- the hope he had planted in her that her life was meant for more than she’d ever believed -- that had made her think that together they could find another way to stop Wyatt. It was Chris’s fault she was dead. When he’d helped her leave her past behind, he’d given her the hope that destroyed her.
If it was his fault, it was his responsibility to fix it. And the only way to fix it was to make sure Wyatt never got the chance to kill her.
That’s what he kept telling himself, anyway, as he fingered the engraved letters on the athame in his hand. When Mira made up her mind about something, she didn’t waste time getting started. And she believed in dramatic answers, apparently. He’d have to talk to her about toning down the drama. There was only one person in that house he wanted to hurt, and it certainly wasn’t his mother or aunts.
But first, he’d have to figure out a way to convince them that the demon Balchus was behind everything, even though this guy wasn’t known to have followers. He could always say the entry for him in the Book was obsolete, which probably wasn’t too far from the truth. The sisters were lax in this time in their obligation to update their Book of Shadows, a failing he’d never have thought them capable of when he’d first arrived. It wasn’t the only difference in them that he’d discovered -- in many ways, he preferred the Charmed Ones of his childhood -- smarter, more compassionate, and infinitely more aware that their powers were meant to help others, not themselves. But then one of them would say or do something that reminded him that they were well on their way to becoming the women he’d known so long ago -- or would know in so many years; sometimes, this time travel stuff confused even him.
Maybe it wouldn’t be too hard to convince them, then, especially since they were distracted with the move. So they would vanquish Balchus, and Mira would be free to carry on with vanquishing Wyatt. His nausea returned briefly at the thought, but he pushed it down. This was the only thing to do, the only way to save everything that was good in the world.
It occurred to him that he’d come to use that phrase almost habitually in the past couple of years of his life, ever since the world had gone from bad to worse. The only way. He could probably trace it back to around the time he’d met Bianca, just before Wyatt enacted his plans to set himself up as ruler of a world dominated by Evil. And that was the weird thing about it -- he’d tried to teach Bianca that there were always choices, never only one way. But he supposed now that maybe she’d been right to think that sometimes there were no choices.
Still, she’d become more open to the possibility of choice the longer they’d been together, and it was a bit harder to trace when she’d become a part of his conscience. Instances came to mind, but no specific revelatory event that he could point to and say “There.” Perhaps it was because the change had come on so gradually that he’d never really noticed it. But there was one time that came to mind, as he thought about it, that seemed to epitomize what she had become to him -- advisor, compass, lover, and friend.
It had been about three months before he opened the portal to the past, before they’d even seriously considered trying it -- before all their other options had been spent. He’d orbed with Bianca to a prearranged site deep in the woods of upstate New York. A derelict cabin, its window broken and its door hanging off the hinges, offered them respite from the driving snow, if not from the biting cold. Matthew Pike was inside waiting for them, his hands thrust deep in his pockets as he paced the room to keep warm.
“What is it with us and cold climates?” Matt had quipped when he saw them. However flippant he tried to be, Chris had heard the fear and read the underlying implication. Their first meeting, a little more than a year before, had been on a mountainside in Germany. And now, in even colder weather than they’d known then, they were having what would most likely be their last.
“We can’t stay long, “ Chris had told him. “Wyatt’s expecting us back any time now.”<br>
Matt had blown out a stream of nervous air that hung suspended for a moment before dissipating.
“Do you have the potion?” Chris asked quietly.
Matt nodded. “And I have this.” He pulled out one of the cyanide capsules that most of the Resistance members had taken to carrying in case they were captured for questioning.
“Are you ready?”<br>
“As I’ll ever be.” Matt uncorked his potion vial and drained it back into his throat.
“Okay, now try it.”<br>
“Think of yourself standing beside me,” Bianca instructed. A moment passed, and Matt materialized a foot to her right.
“And now back where you were.”<br>
Matt carried out the order, and Bianca okayed the demonstration to Chris. “It looks enough like a shimmer.”<br>
“Let’s see what you’ve come up with,” Chris told the boy who was all of a year younger than himself.
His friend said a variation of the glamouring spell Chris had taught all his operatives, and his chestnut brown skin seemed to pale to a chalky white with black markings etched in an elaborate design. He looked perfectly demonic.
“That’ll do it,” Chris said approvingly. “Okay, now you might see us down there; remember --”<br>
“That I’ve never met you before, and only know that you’re Wyatt’s faithful little brother, who just happens to be bedding the Phoenix Matriarch, whom, by the way, I would love to nail myself, if my beloved Queen would only let me.”<br>
Chris glanced to see Bianca’s reaction to the decidedly un-Matthew-like vulgarity. She simply gave their friend a smile. “Convincing.”<br>
Matt bowed as though to show them that, once he was in character, his nervousness had disappeared.
Or maybe it hadn’t disappeared, but simply had been transferred to Chris, who sighed a final time before giving the go-ahead. “Be careful.”<br>
Matt dematerialized in his approximation of a shimmer, and Bianca let out a sigh of her own.
“What is it?” Chris asked.
Bianca shook her head dismissively. “I’m just still worried.”<br>
“Matt’s a phenomenal actor; he’ll be fine.”<br>
“If he gets too attached to her Collective, it won’t be an act anymore.”<br>
“He’s the most pigheaded person I know, besides you,” Chris reiterated the same points he’d made the last time they’d discussed this plan. “She won’t break his will.”<br>
Bianca nodded an outward acceptance of his decisions -- she always did when he had made them with a clear focus. But still she heaved another sigh.
“Bianca, I have to know the Queen’s mind on this -- at what point she’d be willing to turn against Wyatt. If we can get her and her brood on our side --”<br>
“That’s just it, Chris. She’ll never be on our side. Even if she’s against Wyatt, she’ll be on her own side. She’s evil; that’s what Evil does. When you work with Evil, you have to understand that -- as soon as you stop serving her purposes, she’ll betray you.”<br>
“We’re working with the Phoenix --”<br>
Bianca shut her eyes. “The Phoenix don’t obey me because I’m Matriarch. They obey me because we pay them better than Wyatt does. If your grandpa’s money ever runs out, we’re in trouble.”<br>
Chris put a calming hand on Bianca’s cheek. “You were evil once. And you’ve never betrayed me.”<br>
“And I never will. But, Baby, I’m not like them anymore. What you did for me … Well, let’s just say you gave me something that you can’t give too many demons.”<br>
“I wouldn’t give it to anyone else, period.”<br>
She’d placed her gloved hands in his and smiled wearily, then stared at them a moment in thought. “Chris, I know your intentions are good. They always are. But…” She paused to look him in the eye. “You can have all the good intentions in the world, but there is a line between the right thing and the wrong thing. Believe me, I’ve crossed that line too many times not to know we’re skirting it right now.”<br>
Chris had sighed. “I know,” he acknowledged finally. “I just . . . I don’t know if there even is a right thing to do anymore. I think there’s only the best we can do.”<br>
“Then we just have to be careful and be sure that the best we can do really is for the best.”<br>
That advice came to Chris again as he now sat in the arboretum, and he answered aloud what he had answered then. “It is.” He looked down again at the athame. Mira was in, and the next move was his. He would frame Balchus -- maybe even saving a few future innocents from the demon’s indiscriminate rage in the process -- and he would send the Charmed Ones to vanquish him. But first, he would take some time to bathe and change clothes, he thought as his eyes drifted to the gritty filth on his body. He tried dusting some of it off now, but it seemed to cling to him as though grafted to his very being. As he orbed, he found himself wondering if he would ever come clean.
To be continued...
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scifi
Familiar
Posts: 135
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Post by scifi on Mar 5, 2005 18:23:21 GMT -5
A day and a half seemed a long enough time to be gone pretending to get information on the athame. None of the sisters were in the attic when Chris finally returned to the Manor, and it was just as well. He could concentrate on the Book better if they weren’t there to distract him with their pointless chatter.
He reached for the cover he knew so well, anticipating the coolness of the centuries-old binding beneath his fingertips. What he felt instead was a minor shock -- not painful, really, but enough to make him jerk his hand back and give the Book a nervous frown. In all his life, it had never done that before. Much more slowly and deliberately now, he tried touching it again. This time the cover opened without so much as a crinkling of paper, and Chris blew out the breath he hadn’t even realized he was holding. Static electricity -- that must have been it.
He found the entry for Balchus near the middle of the Book, and the illustration was striking in its resemblance to the demon. In his human guise, Balchus wasn’t exactly handsome, but he was solidly built. It was in his true form as a demon, though, that he was really imposing. The jagged points of his teeth, the gray skin, and the burning eyes added a degree of grotesque fearsomeness to his girth. But, really, he was a typical demon in all respects, and the sisters wouldn’t even need to break much of a sweat to vanquish him. Chris would just have to exaggerate the hubris Balchus was known for -- make him out to be some power-mad upstart eager to prove his worth to the Underworld by taking on the Charmed Ones. It helped that Balchus wasn’t known to be particularly wise, though it would be easy enough to believe that he could raise a following by virtue of brute force.
“Phoebe, you have got to go on a clothes diet.”<br>
Chris glanced up at his mother’s muttering voice, and moved quickly when he saw she was struggling to get a box of clothes in through the attic door.
“Here, I got it,” he said, and lifted the box out of her arms.
“Thank you,” she breathed. “Just set it against the wall there. You wouldn’t think Phoebe’s clothes would weigh that much, since, you know, they’re mostly tiny strips of cloth sewn together. But she just has so many tiny strips of cloth . . .”<br>
Chris grinned at her exasperation as he set down the box. “So it’s official? The sisters have split?”<br>
“Well, you don’t have to put it that way, but, yeah, Phoebe caught her flight this morning and Paige left for Richard’s a couple of hours ago.”<br>
“And you’re already clearing out their stuff? Man, you are a clean freak.”<br>
Piper let out a couple of quick, unenthusiastic laughs. “No, I just figure if Wyatt and I are going to have the house to ourselves, we’re entitled to spread out a little.”<br>
Chris’s smile dropped at the mention of his brother, but he nodded anyway at Piper’s plan and crossed back to the Book. She simply took his sudden shift in demeanor as his workaholism kicking in.
“But, anyway,” she went along with the flow, “You’re back, so I guess that means you found something?”<br>
“Yeah, I found your demon.” He turned the pedestal toward her so she could read the entry for herself.
“Balchus,” she said to herself. “Why does it seem like every demon who comes after us has a Latinate name?” She read a little further, then squinted her eyes at the strangeness of it all. “He doesn’t really sound like the kind of guy who’d inspire groupies.”<br>
“Yeah, well, the entry’s a little outdated -- not the only one in there, by the way. Apparently, he’s gone pretty screwy, and is making a bid for control of the Underworld --”<br>
“And we’re the way to get it,” Piper finished for him. She sighed. “Will this vanquish still work?”<br>
“Yeah, it should. He’s not really any more powerful; he just thinks he is.”<br>
“Okay, then.” She picked up the Book and carried it to the potions table, where she began picking out the ingredients she’d need.
“I’ll go get your sisters.” Chris started to orb.
“No,” she stopped him. “It’s not a Power of Three spell. I can do it myself.”<br>
Chris stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “Piper, no. You need your sisters for vanquishes. For backup, you know, in case anything goes wrong.”<br>
“I need to learn to do things on my own. We all do, if we’re going to make this work.”<br>
“But --”<br>
“I mean it, Chris.” She adjusted the flame on the Bunsen burner beneath the cauldron. "I’m not going to run to them on the very first day of their independence. God knows I’ll be doing it enough whenever the next big bad attacks. Let’s just give them a break.”<br>
“Give me a break. You can’t just all of a sudden become Piper the super witch --”<br>
Piper turned from her work and gave him the look he’d always dreaded as a kid. And, as he’d done then, he backed down. “Fine. But I’m going with you.”<br>
She rolled her eyes and tossed a sprinkling of dried sage into the potion. “Chris, part-witch or not, you’re still just our whitelighter. That means we do the vanquishing, and you stand on the sidelines and cheer. That’s the way it’s always been done, and that’s the way it will continue to be done.”<br>
“Even if I am still just your whitelighter, I’m going so I can orb you out of there if something goes wrong. It’s nothing more than Leo would have done.”<br>
“You’re not Leo.” Piper bit her tongue as soon as she’d said it. She saw him look away and cross his arms in that insulating manner he used to guard himself just as surely as Wyatt’s shield protected him. “I’m sorry.”<br>
“Forget it,” he said, then brought his eyes back to hers. “But I’m still going.”<br>
Piper accepted the defeat, even though she thought about how she’d love to meet his parents, whoever they were, and slap the stubborn streak out of them before they had a chance to pass it on to their son.
She added a few more ingredients to the potion with a measured eye. In the silence that fell between them, she heard the springs in the sofa creak as Chris sat to watch her. Now this was something she really wanted her sisters around for. She’d never been very good at starting conversations, or at keeping them going. That was Phoebe’s strong point. That sister of hers could jabber endlessly about anything. And Paige -- well, Paige would have been perfectly suited to walk Chris through what he had to be feeling under that meticulously collected exterior, what with her training in social work, not to mention the fact that she was a fellow part-whitelighter. But Piper? She didn’t have a lot to offer in this area. She was just an overworked single mother, for crying out loud. Nevertheless, she was the only one around, and despite the general annoyance with which she usually regarded Chris, there’d been something in her these last couple of days, something she couldn’t begin to explain, that made her want to take his hurt away.
“So, uh, have you thought any more about what I said? I mean, about taking a break when this is over?” she asked without turning to him.
“Your flame’s too high. It’s supposed to come up to temperature slowly.”<br>
Piper crossed her eyes in frustration, checked the Book’s directions, and lowered the flame. If he kept avoiding the issue by trying to pretend he knew more about making a potion than she did, that helpful feeling that had been nagging her would rather quickly dissipate. She decided to try again.
“Chris.” She turned a chair to face him and sat down. “Believe it or not, I do know a little about what it’s like. When my sister Prue died, there were days I didn’t think I’d make it out of bed.” She watched his face for any semblance of a crack in the façade. “After all this time, I still have some bad mornings. And I know everything inside you is saying, ‘Gotta keep going. Can’t think about it. Just keep moving.’” She saw him shift his eyes from his hands and up to the shelves near the bay window. “I know because those voices were saying the same things to me. So I did; I worked my tail off, taking it out on every demon I could find, because I was so … beyond angry that she could make me hurt that much. But I wouldn’t let myself see how angry I was, and in the process I hurt my whole family. My anger nearly demonized me.”<br>
Chris stood from the sofa and started pacing behind it. Something she was saying seemed to be hitting the mark, and she continued while she was on target.
“What I’m trying to say, Chris, is it’s okay to be that angry -- at Bianca, at whatever brought you here in the first place. But you have to let yourself feel it so you can work through it and get to the sadness. Because it’s only after the sadness that it can start to get better. Chris, it’s the pain that keeps us human, and if you try to cut it off, you could lose yourself.”<br>
Chris closed his eyes and wet his lips. “I appreciate your concern.” The steel in his voice crushed any hope Piper might have had that she could break though to him, and his next statement only confirmed that his walls were still intact. “Call me when the potion’s ready,” he said before orbing and leaving Piper to sigh at her uselessness.
To be continued...
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Post by taintedshimmer on Mar 13, 2005 14:06:12 GMT -5
I've just realised you are writing again and I was so happy! As usual, you don't disappoint! I've only read the first bit but I will certainly be catching up. All I can say so far is that i think my heart is broken.
Fabulous stuff!
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scifi
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Post by scifi on Mar 24, 2005 12:40:46 GMT -5
Thank you so much for responding, taintedshimmer. It means more than you know to me that someone likes it enough to take the time to reply. Mira lay draped across a flattened stone in an attitude that might have been suited to sunbathing were any hint of sunlight ever to penetrate this place. Chris folded his arms as soon as his orb cloud became solid, and he watched as several minions under her sway fawned over her prostrate body in abject adoration. He’d seen it all before, and on a grander scale, but it never ceased to sicken him. “Mira,” he called out impatiently to her. A smile played at the corners of her lips as she opened her eyes to look on him. “Care to join us?”<br> Chris turned his gaze away from the demons in disgust. “I can’t stay long; I need to be topside when Piper calls.”<br> “A rain check, then.” Mira rose lazily into a seated position and motioned for the sulky demons who surrounded her to leave. Chris didn’t speak again until the last of them had shimmered. “We’re almost finished with the potion for Balchus,” he said. “Nicely done, Whitelighter.“ She paused for a moment. “What is your name? ‘Whitelighter’ sounds like some sort of title, and, I’m sorry, but you’re just not . . .” she searched for the right word, “impressive enough for a title.”<br> “You don’t need to know my name.”<br> Mira smiled again. “Yes, but I want to know. I want you to tell me. I want you to trust me with it.” She brought one of her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on it. “Needs may be important, but wants are so much more fun to satisfy, aren’t they, Chris?” She covered her mouth in mock embarrassment at a slip of the tongue. “Oops. I guess being ‘holed up down here’ doesn’t keep me so completely out of the loop.”<br> Chris’s teeth were clenched together so tightly at her arrogance that his jaws ached. “I want to know how you’re going to do it once we take care of Balchus.”<br> “Oh, but you don’t need to know,” she teased. “Yeah, I do, so I can keep Piper and Leo out of the way.”<br> Mira shook her head. “Sorry. That’s still just a want.”<br> “Well, whatever you’re going to do, you do it only to Wyatt.” Chris’s waning patience was evident in the terseness of his words. “Nobody else gets hurt.”<br> “My dear boy. That is a tall order.”<br> “I’m serious.”<br> “So am I.” Mira stood up. “The Halliwells have a history of going to great lengths to save each other.” Chris looked away as she continued speaking. “They have a highly developed sense of family. I admire that about them, actually, the bond they share. It’s much like the bond my darlings have with me.” Mira motioned to where her minions had just been worshipping her. “Their idea of family is very different from yours,” Chris snapped. “Not really. My demons would die for me, as the Halliwells would die for each other. So far, we are equal.”<br> “Not even close,” he breathed. “Think what you will, Chris.” She waved off his argument. “The point is they will not lose the child without a struggle. Particularly not the parents. There are bound to be casualties.”<br> “Maybe you didn’t hear me. Nobody else gets hurt.”<br> “I don’t know. I’ve heard the eldest is quite the pistol --”<br> “Stay away from her.”<br> “My, my, you are a persistent little thing.” She laughed at Chris’s silent attempt to stare her down. “Very well. I promise I won’t touch a hair on her head. Feel better, now?”<br> Chris didn’t answer, but simply gave her a look which said that although he couldn’t trust her, he had little choice but to take her word. Mira watched his orb cloud depart, then returned to her stone seat. She stood before it a moment, the smile that came to her lips every time she thought of the young whitelighter broadening as her plan reshaped itself in an even better design than originally intended. “I simply adore that boy,” she said to herself in thanks for his spur in changing her ideas. “He’s so deliciously conflicted.” Her eyes focused on the stone for the first time in several minutes. “You heard, Petir?”<br> The inanimate slab quickly transformed into a squat little toad of a man, or rather, demon, whose stature in comparison to Mira brought him eye level with her two best features. He nodded. “You won’t touch a hair on her head,” his gravelly voice returned. “And my word is golden.” Mira swirled a finger over his shaven head. “I want you to keep watching them with that lovely second sight of yours,” her finger traced down across his cheek, “and I will see which one of my darklighters most wants to prove his love for me. I think between the three of us, we can manage to keep my promise and accomplish our goals at the same time.”<br> “The Charmed Circle broken, and the Twice-blessed Child dead. Lofty goals,” Petir admired. “More importantly, doable goals.” Mira corrected. “We just have to keep in mind where some have come close, and where others have failed.” Mira’s thoughts revolved around her own brilliance for a moment, then turned to the whitelighter again. “Yes,” she grinned naughtily, “Very doable.”<br> To be continued...
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If only they could see how he is feeling right now. It must be hard for Chris coming back and seeing Wyatt there when he knows what the older Wyatt has to his almost-wife and himself. After what had happened I’m still surprised that Chris is still thinking of ways to save his brother. That’s defiantly what I call brotherly love.
Chris is really in a bad mood now and I’m also beginning to wonder what Chris is going to do now to make sure that his promise stuck this time. 
