A/N: Is it just me or is Fanfiction getting whacked…? System wise I mean…I could've swear that it showed last week's page…
I knew I'm a bit late in updating. (shrugs) I'm a slow typist. And being a tad bit of a perfectionist isn't helping the matter, I kept checking and rechecking for any editing…good thing too, I found some mistakes in need of rectification.
Then there's also the launching of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows…of course I finished in one day…
Oh, not to mention I was chatting with a fellow author, BrianKrause. (chuckles) Sorry Bri.
For being so tardy, I made this chapter longer than the last. Have fun reading it. Again do point out if I have any errors in this chapter…
Oh, to those who want the romance…do calm down. I assure you there'll be one. In my opinion, love doesn't come that easily…so it's natural to wait it out.
Chapter 2
Ending it took twenty more minutes.
It was taking so long for them to conquer the holding, much too long to Wyatt's distaste.
Wyatt had just arrived back at his family holdings the day before. He was shocked to learn what had befallen his mother and Aunt Paige and angry with the rest of the family for not calling him sooner.
His father and remaining Aunt had worked and researched non-stop to produce a cure for the poison.
His brother and cousin had ample time to go after the ones responsible for the mess. Wyatt was appalled to learn of his brother's and cousins' defeat in their retaliation towards the Perrys.
From what he could gather from their encounter with the enemies the enemy holding was defended by the middle Perry and his whitelighter, courtesy of Chris and cohorts. The last bit of news came as a shock. The thought of a whitelighter leading a fight was unheard of, let alone one to be assigned to witches that lived with demons under one roof. Wyatt's father, Leo, had gone 'up' to ask for information from the other elders. It turned out that a whitelighter was assigned to the Perrys by an elder who died when the titans were unleashed.
The whitelighter was called back to be reassigned (they thought his presence with demon would jeopardise the greater good) but refused, cutting all contacts with the elders, saying his that the demons were...nice and that the Perry line needed a guide.
Whatever the case, Wyatt was determined to win this fight and capture the enemies and forced them to give the antidote to him.
Wyatt walked to the small rise of the holding, his brother and nine of his experienced men flanked his side. He held his hand up and a ball of electric blue crackled to life and threw it to one of Perry's soldier on the wall. The blow would have vanquished the soldier on the spot, but the energy ball just passed through, the man unharmed.
Perplexed, Wyatt threw two more shots and the same thing happened again. Wyatt repeated the procedure, this time targeting another only to achieve the same result, but not before catching the man flickering around the edges.
An illusion! The twice blessed child narrowed his eyes. He was made a fool twice now. He would find satisfaction in getting even.
Five of his men climbed the wall and proceeded to cut the ropes holding the bridge, lowering it. Sword drawn, Wyatt crossed the bridge, ready for any surprise attack, but none came. The lower bailey was deserted, as was the upper one. Even the images of the soldiers on the upper bailey had vanished.
Wyatt ordered his men to comb the entire area and discovered the castle ground was deserted. It was apparent that the soldiers had fled. He ordered his men to search for secret passageways and barricade them.
Wyatt cast out his senses, he could feel his men's signature around the grounds but he found that he couldn't go further into the keep; a ward was placed around it. Two foreign presences tugged at his senses. One he was familiar with, and that made a scowl form on his face.
Wyatt took two strides toward his mount. Hands on his hips, Wyatt stared on the ground before him. If what he was doing seemed peculiar, his men didn't seemed faze by all of it.
"Paul Nathan Haliwell," Wyatt began in a stern voice, "I know you're there young man. So you can drop your invisibility now."
The twice blessed just stood there waiting.
The air wavered to reveal a grubby four year old boy with a mopey brown hair and hazel eyes. The boy was squirming and fidgeting under the gaze of the older Haliwell.
Phillip Haliwell ran to stand beside Wyatt, gawking at the new 'arrival'.
"What the hell are you doing here, Paul?" The hot tempered blonde hollered.
The boy flinched. Wyatt gave Phillip a glare.
"Phillip. Shut up," he reprimanded. "Shouting at the boy isn't helping any."
"I just wanna help," Paul answered solemnly.
"I take it Aunt Phoebe didn't know you are missing," Wyatt sighed.
"I'm sowie." Paul wasn't sure why he was apologising. He only wanted to help.
"How'd you get here?"
"I followed you here on Argen," he replied suddenly excited. "I can turn him invi-inbisi…I can make him disappear too. See?" He pointed excitedly to the empty air besides him.
He waved his hands and a pony appeared.
Wyatt had to inhale deep gulps of air to squelch the rising anger. Philip held no such reservation and exploded. The child was soon reduced to tears, wailing 'I'm sowie'. Wyatt glared at his tactless brother who stopped his ranting, but a scowl still carved on his face.
He didn't need this family drama, not when he was only half done with his duties. Wyatt only needed to capture the elusive Perry and his whitelighter.
"Paul, listen to me. Look at me," Wyatt sighed to the wailing brunette. "We are not mad at you."
The little boy shook his head, unconvinced. "No, you are mad at me. That's why Phillip is shouting," blubbered the four years old. Wyatt sent another glare at Phillip, who shrugged noncommittally before dropping down beside his brother with a sigh.
"We really aren't mad at you, Paul." He assured Paul in a calm voice, and then continued with a grin tugged on his face. "We are only angry because you could've gotten hurt. Where would Wyatt and I if our favourite little brother got hurt, huh?"
"But I'm you only little brother. How can you have a favourite little brother?" the boy chirped, perplexed. "Do I have another little brother?"
"'Course not, that's why we'll be sad if you got hurt."
Convinced they weren't mad at him, the little boy smiled.
Wyatt picked him up. "Don't think you have escaped your punishment, young man. We'll talk more later. For now," Wyatt gave him a good swat on his backside and placed him atop of his mount, "You stay here and contemplate on what you did wrong, do you understand me?"
Paul didn't know what the word 'contemplate' meant but he just nodded to placate his brother.
Now, to take care of another business. Wyatt's attention turned to mountain of crates beside a hut, but saw no one. He walked purposely to the pile of crates, his intent obvious.
He could feel the anxiety exuded by his prey and for brief moment saw the air trembled above the crates. Wyatt smiled; a tell-tale sign he sent to his prey saying that he knew.
Anxiety turned to panic and the invisible presence wavered into existence, running desperately in the direction of the keep's door.
She didn't get far as one of Wyatt's men caught her by the waist. She was brought to Wyatt, struggling and kicking something fierce. The spy, was a tiny young girl, barely looking the age of four, with thick lustrous wavy red hair
"Ge' off me," she spat, followed by a string of curses that had Paul coughing. Dear god, his mama would faint if she heard any of it.
"You!" Wyatt's brother, Phillip Haliwell cried out in recognition.
"And ye." The girl returned in a thick Scottish burr. "I dinna ken ye was stupid enough tae return after the beating ye took last time. I see that ye already took the arrow oot o' ye buttocks."
Phillip's face was red with fury with the mention of his humiliation. He took a step forward to the little girl.
Wyatt blocked his way, his gaze fully directed to his brother. "Are you so simple-minded that a mere child can rile you so easily, Phillip? You do not show strength when you mistreat a child."
His brother was properly humiliated, his head hung low as he retreat a step backward.
The little red-head bit into the hand of his captive, eliciting a pained shout and a curse. The girl fell onto the ground and ran to Wyatt's side. She was feeling quite proud with herself; she wasn't afraid in facing the bad man who terrorised her home the week before.
An eyebrow arched, Wyatt scrutinised the little girl in amusement, amazed at how trusting the girl was. To see the little girl taunting his brother was also entertaining. The gall little children have.
"Do you know this girl, Phillip?" the twice-blessed child questioned.
"Course he recognized me. I bit him on the thighs last week," the child answered for the blonde. "Then he bloody boxed me ears and I went flying to the wall, I did. Knocked the wind out o' me, I can tell ye that."
"He did, did he?" Wyatt asked dangerously.
"It was reflex," Phillip stuttered.
"I'll deal with you later," Wyatt promised, then squatted down to the little girl. "What's your name, child?"
"Taylor," was the timid answer.
Little Taylor hadn't looked up to see Wyatt until then, busy as she was with focusing her attention to Wyatt's brother earlier. Now that she had, she was sorry indeed. He was a handsome devil.
The sudden change in the little imp surprised Wyatt.
"What's your full name?" Wyatt coaxed.
"It's Taylor Pe…"She stopped herself in time. Taylor covered her mouth with her puny little hands and shook her head vigorously. "Och, I almost forgot. I canna tell ye that."
"Oh, and why is that?" Wyatt asked.
"Unc…" Taylor stopped herself short. She almost called Chris her uncle. She remembered Chris forbade her to call him Uncle if she ever got caught by the Haliwells or their soldiers. She didn't know why she had to do that, but she always had done what Chris told her to do…at least she tried to do everything he said. Thank god, she had the right mind to stop while she was ahead. She beamed, proud of this accomplishment.
"Chris said no' to tell anything to the damn Haliwells," she said quite authoratively. "Chris told me I shouldna want to talk to any damn Haliwells either."
"Wyatt, am I damn Haliwell?" Paul asked beside Wyatt suddenly. He had slid down to the ground and scuttled toward them earlier.
"No, you most certainly are not. What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay on my horse."
"You did." The boy shrugged. "I was bored."
Paul didn't have the faintest idea what the word contemplate meant, so he decided it was a waste of time to stay on the horse. Besides, the girl looked interesting. Maybe they could be friends.
"Am I one?" the girl asked, worried.
"You are not a Haliwell," Wyatt explained patiently.
"That man," Taylor pointed to the one who caught her, "Said that I was a demon. Am I damn demon?"
Wyatt was clearly exasperated. "Nobody is damn anything," He started to say more but laughed instead. "I have to be careful on what I say infront of younglings next time.
You shouldn't be using such bad languages young lady," Wyatt admonished Taylor. "I don't suppose your mother would like it."
Taylor shrugged. "Dinna have one. Papa said she went off and kicked the bucket and landed herself a spot in heaven."
"Isn't that pitiful, Wyatt? She kicked a bucket for no apparent reason and died," Paul was the picture of innocence. To Taylor, he asked, "How did she die?"
"I dinna know. She just got tuckered oot."
Wyatt sighed. "Paul, I need you to be quite for a while. I want to ask some questions to our little friend here."
Paul nodded.
"How old are you Taylor?"
"Five," she answered but held out four fingers.
"That's four, Taylor. You have to splay out all your fingers to get a five." Paul exclaimed indignantly. "I know because I'm four. I'm four aren't I, Wyatt?"
"Yes, you are." Wyatt agreed. "What Paul said is true, that's a four,"
"I'm five," Taylor said again, this time with a challenging tone.
"Very well, you're five," Wyatt placaed.
"But Wyatt…" the small brunette whined loudly.
Wyatt rolled his eyes heavenward, time to tactfully change the subject. "You have the prettiest blue I've ever seen, Taylor."
The little girl blushed. Even though he didn't smile, Wyatt's eyes crinkled with humour.
"What about me, Wyatt? Mama said my eyes are beautiful" Paul piped in, not to be outdone.
"Yes. Yes. You have the prettiest brown eyes I've ever seen too."
Appeased, the boy's chest puffed up proudly, certain of his own worth. He tugged at Wyatt's side and threw his hands upwards. Wyatt picked him up.
Watching this, Taylor imitated the same act. Wyatt did the same thing to her too.
Wyatt gave a chuckle. "You aren't scared of me, are you, Taylor? Why is that?"
"Because ye're doughty." She blushed. "Aye, ye are. Chris would like ye too."
"Who is this Chris?" Wyatt asked. "You kept saying his name. Is it someone you like?"
Remembering her 'pretend' game with Chris, she answered, "Chris is our whitelighter."
Wyatt's eyebrow arched with interest. He glanced at Phillip, who frowned, remembering his last encounter with Chris. So, the elusive whitelighter's name was Chris.
"Taylor, I need you to tell me something. Do you know where Chris is?"
Taylor nodded. "He's inside."
Wyatt's heart skipped a beat. Finally, he was going to meet the man of legend; the whitelighter who led the Perrys' army to thwart three attempts of the Charmed Ones progenies. He surprised himself with the interest to meet the whitelighter. But then again, there was hardly anyone who could boast of defeating a 'Charmed' advances…let alone three times. Why, even Wyatt had some difficulties in this battle.
So, the whitelighter had stayed behind. Was the man daft? Was he so sure that he would he unharmed because he was a whitelighter? Even if he had not actually fought and killed anyone in the battle, he did beat up Phillip a week ago. And Wyatt didn't think that Phillip would forget so soon. Of course Wyatt wouldn't let Phillip beat him to a bloody pulp.
Wyatt's mind was full of questions but no answers seemed to be forthcoming.
"What were you doing outside the castle, Taylor?" A questioned that nagged Wyatt earlier popped back.
"I want tae see what ye Haliwells looked like."
"Your papa must be worried by now. Is your papa here?"
Taylor shook her head. "He's away for business. In another dimen-die men…"
"In another dimension, you mean."
"Yes, in a diamond shell."
Wyatt's mind reeled with that new piece of information. They had the eldest Perry's daughter in their hands!
He looked again at the tiny little in his arms. This was Taylor Perry. No wonder she refused to tell her full name before. It was to protect her. But why had she stayed behind? Then Wyatt remembered the cold winter season. He had also rendered travelling through magical means useless for miles out since the beginning of the battle. Taylor won't last long on a horse in the cold. That must be the reason.
Wyatt would not tell anyone of this bit of news. He did not want to drag a small child into the fray. However, if the situation worsened, the child could stop all of this…yes, Wyatt would only use the child as a last resort.
He set both children down. He would deal with this later. Now, he had a meeting with a certain whitelighter.
He sauntered to the castle's archway. Aye, he would meet Chris and get his answers.
"Wyatt…?" Paul began.
"Yes?"
"Can I keep Taylor?"
"For the love of…"
A/N: So how'd you people find this chapter? I can't wait for the boys' first meeting. I find that I'm getting jumpy. Aren't you?