Chapter 32
Warpath
Belated Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year everyone!
The double of Kara swung at his feet and he jumped over her and brought his sword down to block her upward swing. When he landed he immediately turned and blocked the dagger that she held in her other hand with the guard on his wrist. Then he kicked out, hitting her in the side and sending her across the training area where she rolled out of bounds and disappeared. He let out a frustrated breath, this was one of the pitfalls of his training system. Even the updated double imprints he'd made a few days ago, when he'd gone to inform his council of his latest meet up with his brother, had only made them slightly more durable. Well, at least he could say two good things had come from the trip. The first was that his people would be on guard for the retribution he knew was coming after his escape and the second was that Mark hadn't been in his new set of memories.
Chris rolled his head around his shoulders and grabbed his water bottle as he headed to his workroom to put away his gear. It had been a week since Bianca and he'd only checked on the sisters once in that time as he dealt with her loss. Piper had informed him the day after his return that everyone was moving out and he'd yelled at her before he realized what he was doing and pulled himself together enough to leave. Since then the sisters hadn't called on him and he hadn't gone to visit them. Now it was time to start doing his job again, he couldn't waste any more time.
That thought in mind he made himself presentable and orbed into the house, sensing that Phoebe was in her room. There he found her folding clothes and putting them into large suitcases. His calm mask cracked at the sight but quickly repaired the damage before she saw it.
"So you're really moving out, huh?" he asked tightly as he leaned against the doorway and she jumped a little before turning to glare at him in a joking manner.
"Chris!" she admonished lightly, "How many times have we told you orbers to enter places like normal people?"
Chris shrugged, the silent entrances were something she was going to have to get used to given who she was hopefully still to marry someday, "A lot, so, you're really moving across the Pacific."
Phoebe put down the shirt she'd been packing and walked over to him, her gaze probing, "Yea, I heard you were less than happy about that, but Chris, I'm just an orb away."
"Oh!" he said as if that made any kind of difference, and he was holding onto his patience by a thread. He needed to convince her to stay and making her defensive wouldn't help, "So then Jason knows about magic? Well, that's good! I mean I'd hate for us to need you and you couldn't come because your out-of-the-loop boyfriend was with you and you couldn't get away."
Phoebe looked away from him, she knew he'd made a good point. Then she looked back at him and her familiar motherly expression made the hair on the back of his neck stand up straight, "Look, Chris, I need to do this. I know you probably don't understand-"
"Oh no, I get it," Chris countered as he folded his arms, trying to hold himself together or back, he couldn't decide which. All he knew was that it didn't help and his mouth went on without his say so, "Your fleeting wants are more important than your nephew's safety and the future of the world."
She looked like he'd slapped her, "Excuse me?! How dare you-"
"How dare I?" he spoke over her, and the cool calm Commander in him was screaming to stop but he found he suddenly couldn't. What was wrong with him?! He was better than this! Stop talking! "I don't know what it's like?! You have no idea what I've lost trying to save that world! Bianca just died and she wasn't the first! She died saving me and I let her because we both understood saving the future was more important than anyone's life!"
He was breathing hard as he reached up to run his face, hard. What the hell was wrong with him?! He needed to get out of here before he did something really stupid. However, before he could Phoebe again reached out to him and again he flinched away from her and out of the room into the hall as if she'd struck him. The anger on her face replaced with understanding and sympathy. "Oh …Oh Chris, what happened?"
He looked away, still trying and failing to control himself. He'd wanted to talk to her like a rational adult, to make her see things his way. It had been a stupid idea to believe he could pull this off as he was now or that she'd even care. He should leave, she wasn't going to listen and he didn't want to say more than he already had. Yet, as he looked back into her warm brown eyes to say goodbye, he didn't want to. In his younger years, she was who he'd talked to when he felt like this, he needed that right now and he opened his mouth instead. "The Source in my time…because of what happened to Wyatt he came topside. Phoebe he...the world is over, and I do mean over . Bianca she- she was a spy for our side and when I came back here to stop him, he…he found out…"
"He programmed her," Phoebe whispered as realization crossed her face, "That's what you said last week when I came downstairs. That he programmed and killed her, was she under a spell that whole time?"
"I wish," Chris breathed as he leaned heavily against the door frame, and he could see that the idea that Bianca had been an innocent they'd failed hit her hard. It always did when they lost someone they were supposed to save, "What it - Programming … It's when someone is torture until - until they break-"
His voice cracked and Phoebe took a horrified step away from him, "You mean she..."
Chris rubbed his eyes to get rid of the burning feeling suddenly in them, "Yes, so don't ask me to be happy about what you two are doing, for relationships that won't last the year-"
"Chris I-"
"You have no idea what I've been through to save all of you," Chris repeated as if she hadn't spoken and orbed into the attic before he said anything else. He'd said too much already, and he couldn't talk about this anymore. As it was he'd talked about Bianca's death more than he'd talked about any loss in years. He was getting soft, talkative, and that wasn't a good thing. He couldn't let himself feel these things or he was going to break completely again, then he'd be useless to everyone.
His intention had been to lose himself in the Book of Shadows for a few hours, hoping that doing something toward his end goal would make him feel even a little bit better. However, he found his parents and his brother spending some time together there.
"So did it help?" Piper asked with a raised eyebrow as she mixed a potion without looking up, "yelling at Phoebe I mean, did it make you feel better?"
Chris closed his eyes and ground his teeth, he couldn't do this right now. Not with her, "It doesn't matter what I do or say, they're going to do what they want to. I know that. I'm still gonna say my piece about it though."
Leo, who was playing with Wyatt and watching them, smiled sympathetically, "I told you they were headstrong."
Piper gave her husband a look and Chris didn't say anything other than asking Piper for the book which she gave him. Then he took up residence in the farthest corner he could from them before flip through it. It wasn't lost on him how domestic this moment was, with his parents working away, Wyatt playing and him studying. He could feel his eyes burning again and he rubbed them. Did he need sleep? Would that help? He did have the sleeping potion that prevented nightmares, he could use that.
He debated the benefits when a familiar teddy bear orbed onto the book in front of him and he stared at it before looking at his brother. Wyatt was watching him critically again, ignoring Leo's attempts to engage him, and something in Chris snapped. He put the toy on the floor beside him, slammed the book shut, and orbed away before anyone could say anything. He needed to kill things, lots of things, and he knew the perfect place for that.
0ooo0ooo0ooo0
The main hall was full of people, yet the noise level was a low murmur at best when he entered it. Getting dressed been its own kind of hell when he'd frozen for several minutes staring at his blood-stained boots. A reaction made all the more infuriating by the fact that the black leather barely showed the discoloration, and thus it was something he only noticed because he knew it was there. Now dressed in a forest green shirt and dark brown cargo pants he eyed the clusters of people, many of them magical creatures, all around when the quiet was disturbed by someone shouting his name. He'd had just enough time to turn when he was all but tackled off his feet and put into a headlock by Brandon.
"Chris! Welcome back!" Chris choked a little and then, grabbing the arm holding him. He quickly spun them in a long-practiced move until he was holding his friend's arm behind him and the other boy was on his toes. "OW! Ok, Uncle! you win! You win!"
"Wimp," Zack chuckled, his dark blue eyes flashing, as he walked up to them with the rest of the group. "I'm a mortal and even I could have lasted longer than five seconds in that hold."
Brandon rubbed his wrist and narrowed his brown eye at the well built fifteen years old, "Yea, well, you're a mortal who also happens to be a black belt like Bruce Lee over here, doesn't count."
"I guess that's true," Zack ran his fingers through his hair dramatically like he was posing for a photoshoot. Then he turned to Sean with a smirk, "by the way you owe me half your rations this week."
The lanky olive-skinned boy scowled and glared at Chris from beneath his bangs, "You couldn't have just stayed out for two more days could you?"
The statement confused him and Duncan snorted, his eyes cold, "They made a bet about when you'd be, uh, waking up. Brandon, John, and I told them it was insensitive, but you know them."
He stared at his friends and they looked away, embarrassed, while Duncan and the tall frosted haired boy beside him glared at the two. He was sure Brandon beside him was the same, "Wait…you two made a bet about when I'd come out of trauma-induced shock?!"
Sean put his hands up in surrender, "Hey it was just a bet, come on Chris, we all knew you'd pull through. It's just who you are, I mean even when your-"
Zack, wincing, cut him off before he put his foot any deeper into his mouth, "What Sean is trying to say, badly, is that you've never let anything beat you and that the shock thing was understandable."
"You know what," Chris eyed them as he thought of the perfect thing to make them beg for forgiveness. "I was going to have you guys come with me to raid weapons stores, you know, build an arsenal. But I need people I can trust for that and-"
"Are you fucking kidding?!" Brandon yelled as he jumped back from him, and the other four boy's mouths dropped open. "What did you just snap back to reality and decide you needed guns?"
"Keep your voice down," Chris growled in a hushed voice, glaring, as several people looked over at them and the other boys snapped his mouth shut. "Look we need to get them now while the getting's good. This isn't going to just go away. He's gone insane. He's trying to make himself emperor of the fucking world. We need weapons."
"So it's true then," Jon asked into the ensuing silence, his hazel eyes hard. "Wyatt was the one who did all of this."
"Not here," he replied looking around at the surrounding groups and then motioned for his friends to follow him outside.
The second he was out from under the ward's protection he felt his brother's attention like electricity running down his spine, and it made him roll his shoulders. It wasn't surprising that he'd have a magical laser sight on him, given that the last time they'd had contact he'd been emotionally broken and weak as a kitten. Then he'd been unreachable for eight days. His brother had probably been worried to distraction, but for the moment he did no more than simply let Chris know he was paying attention. For now, at least, Chris knew that was all it would be. Eventually, his brother might get to the point where he fought to break through the barrier between them. Only such an attack would most likely leave the younger boy brain dead. Wyatt wasn't that far-gone, yet, but Chris had no delusions about him getting there eventually.
He led his friends to a cluster of rocks just over the rise of a neighboring hill with a view of the local vineyard that appeared to have been abandoned. He should have his people collect those grapes when Fall came around if it stayed untouched. It took no more than a minute for them all to claim seats and they watched him expectantly. At length, with numerous interruptions and some glossing over of the more gruesome details he didn't want to relive, he was able to tell them everything that had happened since last November. When he was done they all sat in stunned silence.
"That son of a bitch," Brandon snarled as he stood up and stormed to the edge of the hill breathing hard.
It didn't surprise him that the sandy-haired boy took the news hardest. He and Chris had met at the age of four and had hit it off spectacularly. He was like Chris and Wyatt's unofficial brother, though he'd always been closer to Chris while Wyatt had Mark. This betrayal stung him deeply, doubly so because he'd known something was wrong with Chris for months but had trusted Wyatt's word on what that something was.
"So you and Parker are really all that's left?" Zack asked with a heavy voice, while Duncan looked away, eyes shining.
Both boys had come to know all the aunts and cousins well, not just their classmates, and being mortals hadn't diminished their connection to the family. In fact, he could remember Duncan helping P.J. perfect a spin kick she'd worked on for weeks just before he'd been imprisoned last fall.
Chris nodded not looking at anyone when Sean spoke up, his voice hard, "Alright so we need to get those weapons right? It sounds like we're gonna need 'em and I'm suddenly feeling the desperate need to end some demons."
"Bad idea," John reasoned and the young illusionist walked forward, "We start running around killing his demons wholesale Wyatt's gonna notice. I, for one, don't want the Excalibur wielding psychopath to notice us. Not when Chris has gone through the trouble of hiding everyone - speaking of which should we have those? Wyatt does know our magic."
Chris looked at the fading sharpie ward on his arm and smirked. Leave it to the group's other resident bookworm to have some vague idea what it did. "Yea, but you're fine here. Get closer to him though and he'll know it."
Brandon finally came back to the group, calmer but still simmering, "Well, put it on us and let's go. We're running out of daylight and being out at night seems like a bad idea."
"You're all really going to do this with me?" Chris hesitated but he had to warn them. Brandon's gung ho attitude alone told him that. He had to give them the same kind of speech his mother had given him when he was thirteen and had romanticized the idea of hunting demons. He wouldn't let them walk into the coming fight blind. "Guys, this isn't kids' stuff anymore. We're going to be fighting a warwith real demons that want to kill us, it's not a game."
They all looked at each other and, while they all seemed to come to a consensus, it was Brandon who spoke for the group, "We know - we've kinda been talking the last few days about everything and, well, now with the whole story...Look Wyatt's turned this into a kill or be killed world. I'd rather be fighting than hiding in a cave waiting for him to come and get me."
Chris bit his lip, "That's easy to say when you haven't almost died Brandon. Getting wounded sucks, and it hurts, a lot, it's not heroic or fun."
"Why are you talking like this," Sean frowned, "Don't you want our help?"
"Yes," he said immediately. "I do, more than almost anything, but you need to understand what you're really getting into. We could all die, just like- just like my family. I don't want to lose any of you and I know if we do this, I probably will."
"Come on Chris-"
"People die in war Zack," he cut him off harshly and they all looked taken aback. "That's what happened eight days ago. Wyatt started a war he's been planning for years. If you're going to fight in it you have to understand that we could all die, painfully. Being my friends won't get you a pass, actually, it probably makes your bigger targets. I just need you all to think that over before you say yes, ok?"
Then he stood up and walked away to the edge of the hill, out of earshot, so they could discuss their options. He felt like he was torn in two. On the one hand, he wanted his friends to help him with this, to have his back, and to not be alone. He wouldn't admit it, but it was something he more needed than wanted at the moment. On the other he wanted them to stay in the hideout and never come back out of it. Never have to see or experience the things he had, and the things he knew were coming. It was their choice though, and he would respect whatever decision they made.
"Chris?" he turned back to see five serious faces watching him almost half an hour later, Brandon again at the front. They'd at least actually taken the time to discuss it. "We'll follow you."
Chris nodded taking a deep breath, all business now, and pulled out the sharpie he'd decided he'd always carry with him. Seals were his strongest weapons and defense against Wyatt's hordes which meant he needed to carry something with him at all times so he could make them. There was only so much blood he could stand to lose as a second option. The thought gave him pause, they should stop at an office supply store as well and get a supply of markers while he could. Once he was done the boys stood in a circle with their hands outstretched one on top of the other and then Chris placed him at the top before orbing them into an alley between what looked like houses.
"Really? Bobby's? You couldn't have chosen a store closer to Manor for our first stop?" Sean snapped as he looked around nervously like he expected Wyatt to pop out any second. The other boys seemed to be of a like mind, and they watched him skeptically.
Bobby's Steel Shop was a weapons store built into an old Victorian house several streets over from the Manor. Inside was every form of weapon and armor imaginable, save guns. Chris had brought them here because he knew the stock and also because he remembered how quiet this area had been eight days ago. A quick glance onto the deserted and relatively untouched street told him it hadn't changed much. The only reason he could think of to explain it was that Wyatt wanted to preserve the area around the manor for his own personal, aesthetic, use.
"Look," he said heading to the back door and unlocked it with a wave of his hand, "I know the alarm codes for this one if it's still working and this place is quiet. Wyatt left the area around the house untouched, I think we're less likely to run into anyone, friend or foe here."
When he walked into the back hall he noticed that the alarm was indeed inactive and a quick flip of the light switch told him that there was no power in the building. Walking in further he heard his friends follow, shutting the door behind them leaving the hall in total darkness. Sean sighed as the others grumbled at him and then smirked at them when a small ball of fire formed in the fire starter's hand. He moved to pass him, and Chris noticed the ward on Sean's forearm glowing slightly. That had been a mistake. He could even feel his brother projecting interest and curiosity at him, what was his little brother's friend doing? Cursing internally he was about to say something when Duncan beat him to it.
"Should I be worried about the fact that Sean's arm is glowing?" he asked eyeing the seal speculatively, his dark skin and clothes almost hiding him completely in the shadows, even with the fire. Chris winced as Sean panicked looking down at his arm and the fire went out. Chris hastily turned back to head into the actual shop portion of the building, they needed to move.
"A fire starter's magic is the easiest magic of all to sense," Chris said over his shoulder as he carefully pushed open the main door to find the store before him completely untouched, he'd been right. "Wyatt, or someone else, must have been trying to follow it but the ward is stopping them. Sorry, Sean, I'll make you a better one when we get back. Come on, we've got time, but not a lot of it."
"Oh good! So Wyatt knows I'm nearby just not exactly where?!" Sean snapped his eyes wild as he looked around frantically, and Zack rolled him before smacking the boy upside the head. It frustrated the black-haired boy to no end when his friend overreacted to situations. Especially when his overreactions tended to end in flaming furniture nowadays.
"Chill Sean," Zack as he moved to a wall full of swords he started to collect. "It just sounds like he's going to be looking. We need to get this done fast."
"Exactly. Brandon, Duncan, Jon: you guys hit the storeroom and just start piling things up in the middle of this room? Grab everything of quality you can," Then he turned to Zack and Sean, who were already moving to create a pile from the displays. He nodded at them before heading to the room's long glass display case to work there.
Inside it was every type of dagger and throwing implement that he could have hope for. He used his magic to open the locks and started pulling things out. Throwing them into the small plastic shopping baskets that Sean retrieved for him. There were only two of them in the store, but it was enough that he was able to fill one while Sean dumped the other on the pile until the entire case and it's under storage area was cleaned out. Then he moved to look upstairs where the armor and clothing were stored, while the pile continued to grow.
Ten minutes later using a significant amount of concentration and energy he moved both his hands and was able to remote orb the massive pile they'd created to a clearing near the hideout. The ward on his arm glowed, protecting the magic from being followed. However, it didn't stop those paying attention now, from knowing it had been used. Zack caught him as his legs turned to jelly and held on until he had his feet again. Then he snarled as he felt his brother probing his weakened barrier. He needed to come up with a permanent solution to that, a block that would stay even if he was weakened or not paying attention. Wyatt had nothing to say that he wanted to hear anymore and this connection put everyone in danger.
"Wyatt?" Jon asked seeing the look on his face, his eyes knowing. He was making a pile of tools and products designed for taking care of weapons. "He's trying to get through your defenses isn't he?"
"No, he's just poking at them and it's annoying," Chris grumbled, ever the frustrated younger brother, and moved to stand on his own. Quickly he fixed his shirt and the body armor he'd grabbed, then repositioning the short sword strapped to his back. It had been Duncan's idea for each of them to get outfitted with weapons and protection to wear while they had their choice of the store's stock. "That drained me, but I'm still good, I can do that at least ten more times before it becomes an issue."
"Of course you can powerhouse," Brandon snarked as he came in lugging several boxes, each filled with still packaged blades, and he even had several crossbows slung over his shoulders. He put his load down and then grabbed Chris's shoulder to shake him slightly, "But how about you not get to the point where your brother can easily break through your defenses and find you, huh?"
Chris let out a long-suffering sigh, "Alright fine, then I can do piles about that size twice more and then two more piles half that."
"It's so eerie out there," Sean muttered as he took a moment to stare out the store window at the deserted street. Everyone looked over at him, "It's like a ghost town. I don't even hear birds."
"Not surprising," Zack grabbed a couple of different bows and started adding to the new pile. "I heard survivors talking the other day. I guess cities were the worst hit and it was bad."
"Yeah, it was," Chris said as he moved away and back toward the stairs. "Anyone still alive out there is hiding if they're smart."
"That's right, you ran downtown, huh," Sean moved away from the window, just in case. "I'm just gonna assume I'm glad I'm not you."
Chris quirked his lips in a sardonic smile, "A truer statement has never been spoken."
Another fifteen minutes later, the first half pile they'd made having just been sent away when he felt the cold. It was like electricity going straight through him, or, rather, like someone had just stepped on his grave. Jon must have felt it too because he dropped the compact bow he'd been considering and, after a glance out the window, ran to the counter before hopping over it and hitting the ground. Chris signaled to Zack, who'd been walking in from the back where Brandon and Duncan were, to stay out of sight before grabbing Sean and pulling them both behind the counter as well.
The building was so quiet they could hear the wind whistling outside, and it increased the tension as he actually felt the temperature start dropping. They'd stayed here too long. He should have listened to his own ten-minute rule, but he'd gotten greedy. Now his friends were in danger. This was the kind of mistake he couldn't afford to make, not now and not ever again. Carefully he edged upward to peer through the display case, ignoring the way Sean tugged on his arm. For a few seconds, he saw nothing but then a large black lumbering creature moved along the bottom of the window. The top of its back was just visible over the window ledge and a line of frost followed along with the glass in its wake.
It paused near the door, and he immediately ducked down, before it's burning coal like eyes spotted him, to look at Jon and Sean. They waited patiently and he reluctantly mouthed the only creature he knew of that fit what he'd seen, Hell Hound, before signaling that they had to get to the backroom with the others. Both looked petrified and Chris couldn't blame them, Hell Hounds were extremely powerful and very dangerous. Desperately he tried to recall everything he'd ever heard about them, and what he remembered wasn't comforting. They were rarely seen in the overworld, unless a soul contract was being called in, preferring instead to live at the very center of hell where everything was burning cold.
Slowly, he and his friends crawled on their stomachs into the back room out of sight and he wondered what other horrors his brother had dragged up from the Pit if he was having freaking Hounds patrolling the streets for him.
"What the fucks going on?" Brandon whispered, his breath misting in the air in front of him. From the look of building terror in his eyes, Chris knew he already had the answer. Magical and armed they might be, but even with the right weapons Hounds were a bitch, and they didn't have the right weapons.
"Freakin' Hell Hounds, that's what," He saw Zack open his mouth as if to yell something, but Chris pounced on him and covered it. Then grabbed Duncan and pulled him over so he could hear as well, neither boy having ever been to magic school. "Quiet, they have really good hearing."
"Are they hunting us," Sean asked but Chris really knew he really meant, are they hunting me?
"Maybe, or they're just on a patrol, I don't know which but-" he stopped talking as a bone-chilling howl reverberated through the air around them and the blood in all six of their veins froze.
They stood huddled together, shivering as they stared at the wall the sound had come from. The ice crystals forming in their hair and on everything around them meant that there were several beasts in the area. He was the first to move as he walked silently over to the wall before hesitantly leaning his ear against it. On the other side, he could hear what sound like several creatures growling at one another, and he realized this was the wall that separated them from the alley they'd arrived in. They must have picked up the scent of his magic, if they hadn't had it already from Wyatt, and were hunting him. His face started to burn against the cold stone and he pulled away quickly. Course now determined he signaled to the others to follow him and lead them to a back stairway to the upper floors. Once everyone was in he shut the door at the top of the stairs as silently as possible before turning to look at them.
"They picked up the scent of my orbing, but it's old so we have a chance" he walked over to one of the windows and looked down. Below three malformed wolf-like creatures with glowing red eyes and ratty fur moved about the alley. They didn't have long before the hounds thought to check the building, God those claws and teeth looked sharp. "We need to get to the roof."
"Why so we can commit suicide instead of being eaten?" Sean snapped and Chris gave him a long look before he led them into the room that once held gauntlets and wrist guards. It had a window that looked out onto a decorative faux balcony they could use to reach the top of the roof and he carefully pushed it open. The banging on the metal backdoor downstairs started then, and Chris shoved Brandon forward and out the window.
As silently and quickly as possible they all climbed out the window and pulled themselves up through the Victorians tiered roofs. Chris was the last to go and he'd just exited the building when he heard the dogs finally break through the door downstairs. His friends heard it too and Zack and Duncan slid down the shingles quickly to pull him up onto the first level. With their help, he made it to the top roof and they formed their circle as best they could around him. It was then that he heard the growl. It was a low, sinister, sound and it froze his friends in place, though he forced himself to look across the rooftop. There it stood, snarling at them, mist falling from its mouth like smoke in the warm sun. Its razor-sharp claws glinting in the light while its teeth dripped with poisonous saliva. He moved quickly, though he knew it wouldn't be quick enough, and grabbed his friends, orbing them just as the dog landed where they had been milliseconds prior.
Not that it mattered.
The beast had his fresh magical scent now, and that was outside his wards protection for the moment. That meant he needed to take them someplace they could prepare because those hounds were going to keep following them until they or his friends were dead. And he refused to let it be his friends.
The next chapter will be up either later today or tomorrow! :)
