An Unknown Destiny

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: Siblings Three

Nathan Scott felt like he was flying—literally. It had been an almost perfect night; he and Haley had finally started to work on their issues and were back on the right track to making their marriage better; he and Lucas were on their way back to being brothers. Everything seemed so right, that usually in Tree Hill that was when something went so horribly wrong.

Almost on cue, Nathan felt a tug on his brain and images started to swirl through his mind. Lucas and a girl that he'd never seen before in his life but somehow seemed familiar being attacked by a . . . well, he couldn't think of any other word to describe it other than monster.

As fast as it had come, the vision, or whatever it was, was gone and Nathan found himself standing still on the street, almost a half a block to his house. He'd had these dreams before, sometimes when he was awake, other times when he was asleep. They came without warning . . . and sometimes Nathan couldn't decipher them until it was too late.

But that wasn't what scared him. It was that these dreams always had a way of coming true, though sometimes he could prevent the outcome.

The night that he'd moved back in with his mom—the day of the fire at the dealership—he'd had a vision that day that Haley was going to come back, and then she showed up there. And the day of Lucas and Keith's accident . . . he'd seen that a car had crashed, but hadn't seen who was in it. He'd felt so guilty about it when he learned that it was Lucas. His own brother . . .

Without waiting another second, Nathan took off down the street, away from his house and towards Lucas's. He didn't care if it sounded crazy; he didn't even care what Lucas might think if he went babbling on about a dream that he thought might come true. All he was thinking of was saving his brother and that girl.

Pulling his phone out of his pocket as he ran, Nathan started dialing Lucas's cell and waited for him to pick up. "Come on, Luke, pick up the phone," he muttered, trying to stay calm. "Come on, big brother."

--

"Really, it's no problem, Ms. Roe," Susan protested as Karen pulled some blankets out of a closet and a pillow. "I can just go back to the hotel and sleep there, come back in the morning."

Her brother's mother smiled at her ruefully. "Call me Karen," she told her. "And it might be a good idea for you to stay here, at least until the three of you—you, Lucas, and Nathan, I mean—know what you're up against. It's not going to do anybody any good if demons come after you and you get yourself killed."

Susan groaned. "And I was so looking forward to having brothers," she said with a sigh. Karen smiled just as the cell phone sitting on the table rang. "Whose phone is that?"

"Lucas's," Karen answered, nodding towards the porch, where Lucas and Keith were sitting on the steps, talking. "Why don't you go and take it out to your brother; I'll finish up here." Susan sighed, nodded, and headed out the door, picking up the cell as she did so.

Lucas and Keith stopped talking the moment that she opened the door. "Your cell's ringing, Lucas," she told him, handing it over.

"Thanks," Lucas said blandly, taking the cell phone from her. He glanced down at it and said, "Great; it's the third Charmed One." Susan couldn't help grinning as he answered. "Nathan? Whoa, Nate, slow down . . . what? Hey, your reception sucks . . . what do you mean, somebody's after us . . ."

Whatever Nathan said, it made Lucas look up towards Susan, who was still standing near the door. "What?" she asked as she caught his gaze.

Shaking his head at her, Lucas returned to his conversation with Nathan. "Dark haired girl?" he wanted to know. "Blue eyes, short height?"

"They're not blue, they're green," Susan grumbled and Keith chuckled. "And I'm not that short. I'm not!" she insisted as Lucas rolled his eyes at her.

"Okay, Nathan, where are you?" Lucas asked him and he nodded, frowning. "By Peyton's place . . . sure, no problem, we'll meet you at the River Court. Five minutes, ten tops." He shut his phone and said to Susan, "Come on, we got to go."

"Where are we going?" Susan asked, following him.

"Luke, what's going on?" Keith asked. His brown eyes were looking worried as Lucas turned around to face his uncle.

"Nathan had a premonition, I think," he explained. "He saw Susan and me getting attacked by a demon. At least, I think it was a demon, from what he described. So we need to get to Nathan."

"But Luke—"

"Keith, he's our brother," Susan said flatly, joining Lucas as he hurried down the porch steps and headed out into Tree Hill. "So, where are we going?" she wanted to know, trying to keep up with Lucas's long strides. "Luke, will you slow down a little bit?"

He slowed to a brisk walk. "Sorry," he apologized. "We're going to the River Court. Nathan's going to meet us there; he's completely freaked out by this. Honestly, I can't say that I blame him . . ." Running a hand through his blond hair, he looked towards Susan. "How could they keep something like this from me?"

"Maybe so you could have a normal childhood?" Susan suggested, rubbing her arms. She'd left her jean jacket back at Lucas's house. Now she wished that she had brought it with her.

Lucas, upon seeing this, slipped off his jacket and put it around her shoulders. "Thanks," she said, shrugging into it. "I mean, childhood is hard enough without the knowledge that there's a whole other world that we're a part of. They only probably told us about it now because now that the three of us are together, our powers—the Power of Three—is going to be unleashed."

"So long as you were away from Tree Hill, no one suspected that Nathan and I were two of the Charmed Ones," Lucas said, repeating Keith's words. "But now that we're together, it won't take the demons long to figure out who we are."

Susan giggled slightly, but her smile faded as they headed into the River Court and she saw a tall, dark haired figure running towards them. All at once, she knew exactly who this person was; her younger brother, Nathan, whose mother had married their father.

"Hey," Nathan said once he managed to catch up with them. "Are you two all right? 'Cause I saw—"

"Hey, Nate, slow down, okay, we're all right," Lucas assured him, herding Nathan over to one of the benches. "Now, maybe you can explain what happened and why you're so freaked."

Nathan sighed. "It's a long story, Luke," he muttered, not looking at Lucas or Susan. "And something tells me that you wouldn't even believe me if I told you. Because even I think it sounds crazy."

Susan smiled ruefully. "Well, it wouldn't be the first time today," she said cheerfully, placing a gentle hand on Nathan's shoulder, to which he glanced at sharply.

"Girl," he said, shaking his head at her. "I'm married." He held up his left hand, where he had reluctantly returned his wedding ring recently.

Glaring at Lucas, who had started laughing, she retorted, "Dude, I'm too close in bloodlines." That caused Lucas to start laughing even harder and Nathan stared at her, then at Lucas.

"Okay," he said slowly, "who are you?"

"Nate," Lucas said once he got control over his laughter. His eyes were still glistening with mirth. "She's our sister, Susan. Well, half-sister, technically. But we share the same father as her. She's Dan's daughter."

Staring at him and then Susan, Nathan started to grin. "Well," he said with amusement in his own eyes. "I guess that Dan didn't have to adopt one after all. Last year, before you joined the team, Dan said something about if he wanted a daughter, he would've adopted one."

"What, so he could abandon her too?" Susan grumbled, making Nathan start to laugh. "Okay, that wasn't exactly meant to be funny."

"Yeah, but that's exactly what I said," Nathan replied, still grinning. Then he suddenly turned sober. "All right, about what I said earlier, about that vision or whatever it was—"

Lucas stopped him. "Look, Nathan, we already know about that," he said. "Mom and Keith explained it. You had a premonition, didn't you?" Nathan hesitated and then nodded. "Well, it kind of runs in the family. Apparently, basketball isn't the only thing that we inherited from Dan." He exchanged a look at Susan; it was clear that he didn't know how to proceed.

"We're witches, according to Keith," Susan said with a sigh. "You, Lucas, and me. We have powers. Luke can move things with his mind, I can freeze time, and you can see the future."

"So what I see—these visions or premonitions—are true? They're not just stuff that I make up that sometimes happens?" Nathan said slowly. "Then this monster—"

"Demon," Susan supplied and Nathan nodded.

"Right, demon," he corrected himself, "is actually going to attack. Which means that—"

"There you are, witches!" a voice snarled and Susan whirled around, shocked to see a demon appear out of nowhere behind them.

"He's here!" Nathan yelled as the demon started to attack.