Ten minutes later, Buck and Ezra had parked on Ezra's home's driveway and had exited the car.
Now Buck stood facing the house - one that he'd never seen the likes of before. "Wow! Great place, Eddie," commented Buck as he looked at the impressive three-story, brown brick house complete with small second-story front balconies.
"It's not really my place. My oldest brother bought it when it was back on the market after my adoptive parents died. Then he asked us to move in with him, as we'd all been living elsewhere. As we're a close-knit family, we're happy to live together."
"How many of you are there?" asked Buck curiously. When Eddie had said about his oldest brother it meant that there must be at least one other brother who wasn't the oldest.
"I have five adopted brothers: two younger and three older. We were all adopted by the Potters." Ezra thought he might as well include Nathan to explain that man's constant presence in the house - it was more believable than the truth that Nathan was an angel who was their Whitelighter. Almost every witch had a Whitelighter who guided them and protected the witches from evil (or tried to when they could).
Ezra was glad that all his brothers would be out, as they all had places to be then - it was too soon for anyone to slip up and call him 'Ezra' instead of 'Eddie'. He didn't have much faith in his brothers remembering his assumed identity's name. Ezra needed to maintain Buck's trust and he would lose it if Buck found out his new friend was lying about his name.
For his assumed identity, Ezra had changed as few details as possible about himself. His real name was the only thing that would make people suspicious if they ran a background check on it. 'Ezra Standish' wasn't registered on any human databases, but 'Eddie Spelling' was, thanks to JD hacking into some databases and creating the man's records. The youngest brother was an expert with computers and could do just about anything with them. Ezra couldn't have records for his real name because demons all knew that name. If they knew where the man worked without any back-up from his brothers, they could attack in a group, outnumbering and easily killing him.
Ezra led Buck inside, eager to see if he could obtain some more information about his innocent over lunch.
CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7
"Wow, this place is great!" said Buck, examining the wood paneling on the house's interior walls. The house looked very old and Buck thought it must be worth a fortune, judging by its antique appearance.
"I'm glad it meets your approval," said Ezra as he closed the ornate, colored glass-paneled front door gently behind him. He always closed that door gently because he didn't imagine they'd be able to find replacement glass if it got broken. Ezra's brothers usually slammed the door and every time they did it, the man cringed and waited nervously to see if the glass would break. Thankfully, it had remained intact every time.
"How long have you lived here, Eddie?" asked Buck, anxious to learn more about his new friend. He envied his friend for having a share in such an amazing house.
Before Ezra could answer, his dark-haired, younger brother JD walked down the stairs. 'Just what I need,' thought Ezra. He was well aware that JD's memory for names wasn't usually very good. Even if the teenage boy had typed Ezra's new name numerous times while he had been creating the man's legitimate identity, JD might still forget it.
Buck looked toward the dark-haired teen coming down the stairs and froze in place.
"Ezra? Is this Buck?" asked the eighteen-year-old as he walked over to the statue-like man and looked at him. He knew that the man wouldn't realize he was being studied, because not even a micro-second was passing for him while he was frozen. JD was pretty certain it was their innocent, but he was surprized that Ezra had met him and got him to visit so soon - it seemed like Ezra was having a lot of good luck since JD had cast that home-made spell to summon Buck.
"Yes, he is indeed Buck Wilmington. I assumed you'd be at college," answered Ezra, trying not to show his annoyance at JD's presence - Ezra felt sure that the youngest brother would say something and give him away.
"I can't believe you managed to get him to come here so soon," exclaimed JD, annoyed that Ezra had found Buck so soon - his spell was meant to summon Buck to HIM, not to Ezra. "I had a free period so I got Nathan to bring me back here to study for a while."
"That has personal gain written all over it. How many times must I remind you that you aren't supposed to use Nathan as a free Taxi-service?" reproached Ezra glaring at his brother.
"I also hoped to find some time to look through The Book again and try to work out what demon could've killed Buck's dad," added JD, justifying using Nathan to transport him home.
"That's an admirable defense, Master Dunne. I commend you for fabricating such convincing justification at a second's notice," mocked Ezra. He knew that they didn't have enough to go on to identity which particular demon had killed Mr. Wilmington Senior and was sure that JD was just using the excuse so the sometimes easily deceived elders would believe JD wasn't using their Whitelighter for the wrong reasons.
The Elders were the higher-ranked angels who lived in Heaven. They were in charge of the Whitelighters and the witches, although it was very rare for them to communicate with witches. They watched the planet's goings-on from above and had more knowledge on supernatural things than Whitelighters or witches. The Elders had laid down strict rules which witches and Whitelighters had to obey or they'd face consequences inflicted on them by the powerful Elders. One of these rules said that witches mustn't use magic for their own personal gain and that included using their Whitelighters for quick and free travel unless it was to help others. Breaking rules such as that one could lose the rule-breaking witches their Whitelighters. The Potter family knew they were very lucky to get as much of their Whitelighter's time as they did and didn't want to put that in jeopardy.
All Whitelighters had many charges all over the world and could hear their charge's calls and go to them at a moment's notice. They could also sense all their charges and could orb to where-ever they could sense they were. Nathan was able to spend a lot of his time with the five witches because each one was counted as only one charge meaning that he didn't have many other witches to look after.
"Umm, Ez? I forgot that name you're using." JD looked guiltily at his brother - he hadn't meant to forget his older brother's new name, but somehow he had.
"Eddie Spelling," snapped Ezra, irritated at JD's terrible memory for names. "I see you've mastered freezing people without motioning with your arms, Master Dunne."
"Yeah, I've been practicing," answered JD with a grin. "How're we gonna tell him we're witches and we have to protect him?" It could take ages before they could be sure Buck wouldn't run when they told him the truth. They didn't usually have to tell their innocents the truth - just protect them from danger, but it was more serious this time as this demon had already killed the man's father and could end up killing the whole Wilmington family before they could find out more information and kill him first. They needed to tell Buck the truth so they could warn him of the demon. Chris believed he might be able to get a premonition from Buck to help them see the demon attacking him in the future - this would at least show them what the evil supernatural looked like, as they hadn't seen the demon so far. All demons looked different but were mostly pictured in the witches' magical book, so they could match the ones they'd seen with the ones in there, then they'd be able to find out the particular demon's details and how to destroy it.
Buck became unfrozen and looked at JD. "Hi, I'm Buck Wilmington," he greeted in a friendly manner.
JD blinked his eyes once and froze him again. "Sorry; it doesn't work for long that way, but I'm gonna keep practicing to see if I can make it work for longer. I'll get outta your hair and give you a chance to talk to him some more"
JD blinked his eyes and Buck unfroze. "Hi Buck, my name's JD and I'm Eddie's youngest brother. I can't stay - I've got a class at my college soon, but maybe I'll see you again sometime," said the teen, hardly pausing until he'd finished speaking. The teen had a talent for reeling off long sentences or several put together and the brothers sometimes had trouble trying to understand all he had said in one go. JD walked down the rest of the stairs with his backpack draped over his shoulder and left the house.
Buck blinked, slightly dazed by the teen's introduction and good-bye all put into one.
"Would you like something to eat?" offered Ezra as he walked through the house to the kitchen.
Buck followed after the man; "Sure, what've you got?" Buck gasped as Ezra opened the refrigerator to reveal shelves full of food.
"Anything you like - take your pick," said Ezra. "JD has a weekend job in the local supermarket and gets discounts and freebies which he shares with us," he explained upon seeing Buck's surprised expression.
"I'd like to meet your other brothers sometime," said Buck, as he took out some salad items from the salad drawer, then took out an open loaf of bread and some butter. He had started being a healthy eater, not wanting to gain weight - that would make him unattractive to women. Buck had a deep respect for women and enjoyed being in their company. He dated as often as he could - he was an expert at charming women into going on dates with him. Now he had a full-time job he'd probably end up too tired to see women some evenings. His mother had always been nagging him to settle down and raise a family - maybe he should consider doing that now that he was earning so much money.
Ezra took a knife out of the cutlery drawer, jars of peanut butter and jelly out of the food cupboard for him, then two plates out of an overhead cupboard. He took some slices of bread out of the open loaf which Buck had placed on the counter along with the salad items for Buck's sandwich.
"Buck? What do you think of your new job?" asked Ezra, as he spread butter onto slices of bread. He needed to ease the man into trusting him, then maybe he'd be able to tell him the truth about why he had befriended him.
"It's okay. My boss is the nicest one I've had yet - even made me coffee all morning!" answered Buck happily. He liked Mr. Anderson, but there was something creepy about how nice he was.
"I wouldn't get too used to it - he's probably only being nice because you're new," warned Ezra, making a mental note to dig up some background information on Mr. Anderson soon. Nice bosses were very rare and a lot of them turned out to be warlocks or other evil supernaturals. Ezra finished buttering slices of bread and started making Buck's salad sandwich, intent on being a good host to his guest.
"My dad never mentioned Mr. Anderson when he worked there, but he worked on the same floor, not far away. Mr. Anderson says he's been with the company for ten years and my dad was there during that time; something doesn't add up," admitted Buck, feeling he could open up to his new friend.
"Where is your father now?" asked Ezra as he placed Buck's salad sandwich onto a plate and handed it to his friend. He had to pretend he knew nothing about Buck or his father, or the other man would get suspicious.
"He's dead," said Buck sadly. "Thing is my mom won't tell me how exactly he died. He was on a trip with the law-firm when he died in an 'accident'. Then my mom moved soon after and hasn't been back to visit since."
"I'm sorry about your dad, Buck," said Ezra sympathetically. "You're not just working for the company for the good pay and excellent added extras I take it?" chanced Ezra, feeling he was really making good headway with Buck.
"To be honest, I'm only there to find out how Dad really died. I knew they'd choose me with my qualifications. Dad always wanted me to work hard to get a good job, so it was lucky I listened to him. Once I've got justice for dad's death, I'm planning to get a job elsewhere. I'll have my experience at a successful law firm to give me a better chance of finding something quicker then."
'Don't push Buck too hard, Ezra,' thought Ezra to himself - he couldn't afford to scare his innocent away or Buck might get killed as a result. He decided to continue lunch with his friend, talking about less serious things - it was safer for the time-being.
To be continued...