Monday morning was never a good time for twenty-eight-year-old Buck Wilmington, and this cold, wet one was no exception. Buck did not look forward to arriving at his new office job on the other side of Denver. He didn't know anyone there and he had never wanted to work in a law firm before, but he had no choice. It was the company his late father had worked for - the one the man had gone on a company outing with when he'd had his mysterious 'accident'. Buck didn't think it was an accident that had killed his dad - otherwise his mother wouldn't have been so secretive about the whole thing. She had just told him that his father had been killed in an accident and hadn't given any details about how he'd died.
He was living alone in his mom's apartment now - she had gone to another state, away from all reminders of her loving husband. She had turned the lease for the apartment over to her son, who hadn't wanted to leave the place he loved. His mother promised she'd call him while she was away - but so far she'd only called once a week; Buck had been expecting her to be in touch more often somehow.
Buck arrived at the high-rise and drove his small car to the parking lot at the back of the building. He already had a permit to allow him to park there as an employee of one of the companies inside.
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"I call upon the Goddess of Luck, to help me now and bring me Buck," chanted the teenager with shoulder-length, dark-brown hair.
"You call that a spell?" asked Chris Larabee, the young man's adopted older brother of thirty-years-old with short blond hair.
"At least my spells work," answered the male who'd chanted, named John Dunne, or JD for short. He had to admit it wasn't the best spell he'd written - but if it did the job, then that was good enough.
While Chris had lived with JD, the younger adopted brother had always had more success with the spells he'd written. Chris's spells worked sometimes, but he wasn't so good at writing them and often there were unwanted side-effects to them. JD's were good enough to be put into a book and be marketed; although that wasn't something that Josiah, the oldest adopted brother, would ever approve of.
"What's the goddess of luck called?" asked Vin, another adopted brother, standing beside JD; he doubted there was such a being.
"I didn't think I could put duck or the 'F' word in a spell and that was all I could think of to rhyme with our innocent's first name," said JD. He was upset that his older brothers all had to pick on him as he was the youngest and couldn't think of a decent summoning spell today.
"Gentlemen? I bear good tidings," said Ezra Standish, suddenly appearing from out of thin air. The short man with medium-brown hair was twenty-five and was the only adopted brother who had a demon for a father. At six, he'd been rescued from a group of demons, after 'The Source of all Evil' (the king of the Underworld) had found out about one of his demon subjects fathering a child with a witch. It was unheard of in the underworld for a demon to do such a thing and The Source had intended to have the child and his mother killed as punishment. The boy had been rescued by Chris and the Potters' Whitelighter (an angel who was sent from Heaven to assist and guide witches), Nathan. Unfortunately Ezra's cowardly mother had gone into hiding while Ezra was being attacked, so Mr. Potter had taken the boy in, as he had nowhere else to go. Ezra's mother hadn't contacted her son since.
"You've found our innocent?" guessed Chris. They had to find him before he could be killed like he had been in Chris's premonition. They had already failed to save Buck's father who had been their last innocent, who had been killed.
"Not exactly. I have procured a situation with the wealthiest legal organization in the vicinity."
"What did he say?" asked Chris, still not used to the long words the witch-demon used.
"He's got a job with Kennedy and Sons lawyers," elaborated JD, who could always decipher Ezra's long words.
"Wow!" exclaimed Chris. That was the richest, biggest law firm in Denver and even the office assistants got paid a lot there. "Hold on. Aren't they very particular about who they take on?"
"That is why they selected me for the position of Senior Office Clerk."
Chris held back a laugh - they chose a part-demon, part-witch over an ordinary human! Then the company name rang a bell. "Isn't that the company Mr. Wilmington Senior was working for when he had that accident on the company trip?"
"Your conjecture is accurate, Chris. That was why I procured the interview immediately following my observation of the advertisement," answered Ezra smugly.
"Why can't you talk like we do, Ezra?" asked Chris, frustration in his voice. He had no idea what Ezra had just said.
"Yes, it was Wilmington Senior's company. Ezra got the interview right after he saw the vacancy in the paper," explained JD. He was getting sick of being Ezra's translator.
Chris suddenly had a thought and looked at Ezra. "When did you hear you got the job, Ezra?" Then he suddenly added, "Try and answer in short words?"
"I opened the letter about five minutes ago," answered Ezra, remembering to use basic English.
"JD recited a spell to bring Buck to him about five minutes ago!"
"That's hardly bringing him to me though, is it?" said JD, annoyed that Ezra was making more progress at getting closer to their innocent than him. He knew that spell wouldn't be very effective, if it even worked at all. The brothers all knew that Buck had got a job at the lawyers as well, to try and find out what had really happened to his father.
"Ezra, are you starting your job today?" Upon seeing a nod from Ezra, Chris requested, "Do you think you could invite Buck here tonight?"
"He would be suspicious if Ezra invited him over tonight - they haven't even met yet," reasoned JD. It would do no good to get Buck suspicious of them, otherwise they'd never be able to help their innocent. Anyway, Chris had obviously forgotten that Vin, Nathan and Ezra were going to see a movie tonight - they were entitled to some leisure time, even if they were witches who had to help protect people.
"Isn't one of your powers mind-control?" asked Chris rhetorically.
"You are correct. I think I could use it to persuade young Mr. Wilmington to visit soon." Ezra had remembered to use only words which he thought Chris understood this time.
"Good, try persuading Buck to come to dinner tomorrow night. I'm sorry, I forgot you had plans for tonight. You better get ready for work now or you'll be late on your first day."
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"Excuse me? Do you know where Mr. Anderson's office is?" asked Buck as he walked along the corridor toward the smartly dressed, brown-haired man.
The man looked at him and smiled, "You must be the new guy."
"Who told you?" asked Buck. Even the pretty receptionist hadn't known he was a new employee.
"There isn't much I don't know. My name's Eddie by the way," answered Ezra. He had made an alias for himself when he'd applied for this job, and created all the necessary false documentation for his new persona. He had decided to pretend he'd been working here a while, so Buck couldn't get suspicious of Ezra for starting here the same day as him - not that Buck would be so clever to think anything of that coincidence.
"Mine's Buck. When I had the interview for the office assistant position, it wasn't in Mr. Anderson's office, so I never had to find it. This place is so huge, I don't think I'd ever find it without directions."
"His office is quite far from here. Let me take you there, then we can get acquainted, seeing as we're likely to bump into each other again some time." Ezra was very good at fitting in wherever he had to - his mother had told him it was a skill he'd inherited from his demon-father.
"Thanks, Eddie," accepted Buck, glad that he'd made his first work-friend already. Perhaps the day wouldn't be so bad after all.
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"This is Mr. Anderson's office. I work in that office there," said Ezra pointing toward a closed door farther along the corridor. Then he handed Buck a piece of paper he had prepared in case he met Buck that day; "Here's my extension so you can call if you need anything. Perhaps we could meet for lunch?" Ezra turned on his mind-control power as he spoke and planted a positive answer in Buck's mind. It had been very lucky when Ezra had found out he would be working not far from Buck.
"I'd be glad to have lunch with you, I don't have any plans for then. How about I come by your office at twelve thirty?" He'd leave off asking any secretaries out for lunch that day - he didn't want to offend Eddie by turning down his offer.
"I can't wait. See you then," said Ezra with a smile, then walked to his office.
Buck turned back to Mr. Anderson's door and knocked. It was promptly answered by Mr. Anderson, Buck's new boss. The man was in his early fifties, with dark hair that was slightly graying.
"Hi Buck, come in and I'll make us some coffee," greeted the man. Buck looked so like Mr. Wilmington Senior. It had been so easy to persuade higher powers that Buck was the best-suited candidate for the job.
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Ezra Standish stood waiting for Buck, who was running late. His new friend finally left Anderson's office where Ezra assumed he'd been all morning, learning about his duties from his new boss. Buck would share the office with his boss as he was only an office assistant.
"Sorry, I'm late; he sure talks a lot," said Buck putting on his coat as he walked.
"We're going to my place for lunch - it's not far," explained Ezra. His brothers would be surprised - they hadn't been so sure the mind-control would work on Buck. It didn't work on everyone. They didn't think he'd be so lucky and meet Buck so early in the day - luck was certainly on Ezra's side today.
Ezra led Buck out of the building and toward his Jaguar car. Ezra couldn't keep using his blinking power to disappear from one place then appear the next second in another. The Elders looking down on him would see that as personal gain (even if it was a demon power and not a witch one) and he would suffer consequences for doing it then. So he'd learnt to drive, passed the test on the first attempt and bought a flashy black Jaguar to travel about in.
"Nice car, Eddie," complimented Buck - his car looked like scrap in comparison.
"Perhaps if there's time after lunch I could take you for a spin in it."
Buck smiled; Eddie's car would be great for riding in, and he wondered what its top speed was. Then he got into the passenger seat and strapped himself in, as Eddie fastened himself in and started the engine.
To be continued...