Chapter Ten

"Brace yourself, bro. This is going to hurt," Wyatt warned as he prepared to use his magic. The darklighter arrow was still buried deep inside his brother's body, and although it would probably be a relief for the young man to have it removed, he would doubtless lose blood as soon as it disappeared.

Chris nodded weakly, unable to say anything more. Wyatt's face grew even graver as he noticed how injured his younger brother was. He didn't speak, however. Instead, he called his orbing power to orb the arrow that was sticking out of Chris's chest.

The brunette cringed at the peculiar sensation, and although he felt some of the pressure being relieved, but he knew that wasn't necessarily a good thing. His vision began dimming alarmingly and his eyes began to flutter shut.

Wyatt made the weapon reappear just a short distance away, and with a twitch of his fingers, it burst into flames and vanished. Then, he applied himself to healing his brother. With a surge of affection he had for the young man, his little brother, he healed up the wound and eliminated all the poison that was flooding through Chris. "Come on, bro. Don't quit on me."

Chris sighed happily as he felt the pain go away. The weakness, however, remained. Being poisoned was rather different from being wounded in other ways. The dangerous liquid seemed to sap one's energy even after being healed. Chris had only felt that way a handful of times, and it seemed that the times had only increased ever since he'd decided to team up with his brother in defeating evil.

Chris opened his eyes to see Wyatt staring worriedly at him. "I'm fine, Wyatt," he said, beginning to sit up by himself. He brother leaned back a little, still looking at him with an anxious face. "Just a little sore, that's all."

"No, that's not all. Chris, why did you get shot by a darklighter?" Wyatt demanded. He couldn't believe that his brother would go off on a demon hunt without him. Hadn't they already established multiple times that that was dangerous?

Chris froze. He remembered how Melinda had just walked away, and how he'd warned Wyatt about their little sister being in danger. "Melinda! We have to get to her!" he cried out, trying to stand but wobbling as the weakness caught up to him.

Chris stumbled and was only saved from falling flat on his face by Wyatt, who'd stood up with him. "Whoa, take it easy. I've told you a bunch of times, when you lose a lot of blood it takes a while to get your strength back." Wyatt was being his overprotective self again. He couldn't help it. He was the oldest, after all. Plus, he was supposedly the most powerful witch in the world and was supposed to lead everyone in the magic world soon. How was he going to lead the entire world when he could barely keep his family safe? That question plagued the young man every day, but especially on days like these. "You're going to have to wait a while until you're strong enough," he repeated.

Chris shook his head wildly. "No, you don't understand. We don't have time! Melinda is being attacked by a darklighter!" he insisted. He began to look around, almost as if Melinda was hiding in the dark alley somewhere. She wasn't there, though, and Chris was a little weak to access his own whitelighter abilities.

"I would feel if she was hurt," Wyatt said. He was confused at the way his brother was acting. Darklighters were pretty straightforward in the way they killed either witches or whitelighters. They mostly got rid of the good beings the same way they'd tried to do in Chris. A shot by a poisoned arrow usually did it. Yet Melinda felt as healthy as usual. Her life force wasn't flickering or dimming. It felt just like it usually did.

"It's not a regular darklighter, Wy. He didn't shoot her," Chris said, trying to get his brother to understand. His heart was screaming at him to just orb to his little sister, but his head was taking control. His mind told him that the smart thing to do was let his older brother know all the facts before he did anything else. Going in without a plan rarely worked out well for anyone.

"So what did he do then?" Despite himself, Wyatt was beginning to get worried. It wasn't like Chris to get frantic over nothing. Something must be wrong if he was acting that way.

"He's the emotional kind of darklighter. Like the one that Mom talked about? Remember the bridge?" Piper had told them this story a long time ago. Her sister, Prue, had been emotionally attacked by a darklighter and had nearly thrown herself off a bridge. Fortunately, she had been saved. Piper was still reminded of the awful scene, however, every time they drove by the bridge. She would never forget the fear she'd felt, and she explained to her sons as soon as they were old enough to understand.

Wyatt paled as he realized the implications of what Chris had said. If his little brother was right, Melinda was receiving a psychological attack that very moment that was potentially damaging her emotional status. She would be contemplating suicide to rid the world of herself.

Instantly, he cast his magic in search of Melinda. He found her nearby. Knowing that Chris was too weak to orb himself after the poison that had infected him, he seized the young man by the arm and orbed them away. They had to save Melinda before it was too late.

-)-(-

Donovan was so happy that his plan was working. Outside, his face remained as stoic as usual. Inside, however, he was practically dancing a conga. Not long after he'd cast his dark magic over the girl he'd realized that she was one of the Halliwell witches. And yet, she hadn't been particularly hard to convince. In fact, she was rather easy compared to some other people he'd spelled. It was probably because she cared too much about others. That was always the weakness of the greatest people. The more they cared about others, the easier they were to depress.

His plan had very nearly failed for a second, when the girl's brother had seen him and realized what was going on. Donovan had underestimated the Halliwell familial ties. Luckily, the girl had been too far gone to react to her brother's pleas. That was Donovan's specialty. He made them fall swiftly but deeply. She was now under his complete control and would do anything he told her to.

Donovan loved the moment when his victim realized everything was pointless. They became so easy to mold after that. He considered himself an artist, able to cause even the strongest to fail. After he knew their weakness, it didn't take long for them to fall. In Melinda's case, it was her love for others and especially her family. After causing the accident with her brother, it had been obvious. A few whispered words later and he'd managed to get her out of the house and searching for the tallest building nearby.

The stupid boy had had to try and ruin it all. But Donovan wasn't worried now. The boy was probably dead by now. He knew that several Halliwells had whitelighter blood in them, and that had been proven by the young man orbing in. As long as he possessed a single drop of that angelic blood, he was susceptible to the poison. And, even if he wasn't, an arrow was still lethal if it hit the right place. Donovan had good aim, but sometimes he sought to prolong his victim's suffering. He hadn't outright killed the boy for that reason. Plus, his pathetic whimpers were quite amusing for the darklighter to witness. Good beings were just too easy to destroy.

At the moment, Donovan had led Melinda to a tall building near the center of town. He wanted many people to witness her demise. Not only would more demons find out about his actions this way, but many mortals would be negatively affected. Who knew? Maybe his next victim was waiting in the crowd nearby.

The girl had gone up the stairs. She'd hesitated at first, but Donovan had dripped verbal poison into her ears and her face had set. She'd finished climbing and was now standing near the edge, looking down. Below, the city of San Francisco was functioning as normal. Everyone was going about their daily business, not knowing that they were about to witness a horrific act.

"It is time to save the world, Melinda," Donovan said to the young girl, brushing away one of the strands of her dark hair in an almost tender gesture. "They will never be safe if you're still alive. You know what to do."

The girl hesitated and the looked down at the ground. The people underneath were innocents to be protected, she knew that. Her resolve hardened once more and she stepped onto the ledge. Donovan allowed himself a grin. It was all going beautifully.

(A/N) Hey, guys! So, true to my promise, here is the next chapter exactly one week after the last one! Nice, huh? I apologize for the times I didn't update, but here it is! Finally! And, after this, there are two more chapters left, and unfortunately, I haven't actually started to work on the story after this one. College is sapping all my strength, and I've had a tough week full of personal problems. And typing this is extremely difficult since my right hand is currently in a wrist brace... Anyway, pity party aside, enjoy!

As usual, thank you to my lovely reviewers! You are the best! Your reviews allowed me to get through the whole week intact! Thanks to: Fanycharmed, Yugiohobsessed, l3largus. You guys are the best! And see you next week! Hopefully, by then I'll be able to type!