Buck put the phone down. "Eddie's on his way," he said to himself, wiping the sweat from his face with the handkerchief from his pocket. "Maybe he can wake me from this horrible dream before anything else happens."
He walked over to the mirror and gazed at his reflection. His skin was quite pale from all the shocks he'd received recently – first he'd changed into a bird, then he'd been visited by the ghost of his mother, who was now apparently dead. Buck wondered how long he'd have to wait until Eddie got there. It was still rush-hour and that wouldn't make it easy for his friend to drive there from across town.
"Buck, are you okay?" asked Ezra as he appeared behind Buck, making the man jump. Chris stood beside him with his hand resting on his brother's shoulder.
"How did you two get here?" asked Buck as he turned around, startled by the men's sudden appearance in the room.
"How specific would you like me to be about that?" asked Ezra, ready to explain in great detail about blinking.
"I was expecting you to drive here!" exclaimed Buck, still not believing what had just happened. It wasn't possible for people to just appear out of thin-air.
"That is one of the advantages of having magical powers. I can move around in the blink of an eye. My particular method of transportation is inherited from my demonic father and is called 'Blinking' because it happens in the blink of an eye; I find it very useful if I wish to avoid traffic jams." Ezra smiled, remembering how surprised one of his previous employers had looked when he got to work on time, despite all the local roads being jammed with traffic.
"Demonic?" Had Eddie just said his father was demonic, or was Buck hearing things?
"You shouldn't have mentioned that part," muttered Chris, just loud enough for his brother to hear. He received a look from Ezra that seemed to communicate that Ezra knew exactly what he had said and didn't think he'd said the wrong thing.
Ezra turned back to Buck. "It is time to embrace your true destiny," informed Ezra, preparing Buck for the future.
"My true destiny? What are you on about?" asked Buck, clearly puzzled and surprised by the other man's words. "This is all just some weird nightmare and in a minute I'll wake up and find out my mom's not really dead and I didn't really change into a bird." Buck looked pale as he unsteadily walked to the nearest armchair and slumped down in it. This was the scariest nightmare that Buck had ever experienced.
"This could be harder than we thought," whispered Ezra to Chris. That Buck couldn't accept the reality of the situation would complicate things.
"This is all because his parents bound his powers when he was still a kid. If he'd learned the truth when he was a kid, he would be more open to magic now," replied Chris, not bothering to whisper so only Ezra would hear him.
"What? My parents?" asked Buck. What could they possibly know about his parents? "What have my parents got to do with this?"
"Your father was a witch..." started Chris, but was cut off by Buck.
"My mom said that dad had magic powers when she visited me as a ghost," said Buck - he might as well try to go along with it until the very real-seeming dream ended.
Chris stepped forward - this wasn't getting them anywhere. "BUCK, LISTEN TO ME. YOU ARE NOT DREAMING. MAGIC IS REAL AND THIS IS ALL REAL," he shouted at the man, saying each word slowly so the man would understand.
Buck took a step back; hurt by the shouting. "Okay, I'll take your word for it. Can you 'Blink' me back to your house? Maybe that will help me believe all this crazy talk."
"Mr. Larabee, your little outburst was un-called for. Buck will start believing us in time, but shouting is not the answer," scolded Ezra. He was almost considering throwing a fireball at Chris and burning the annoying witch, but Josiah would be very angry if Ezra started using his demonic powers on his brothers. Ezra was scared of Josiah when he was angry, so didn't wish to be the cause of the oldest brother losing his temper.
"Your gentle, slow approach is even less effective," argued Chris loudly. He wished he hadn't come along with the short half-demon; he had far better things he could be doing right now.
"Hi? Remember me?" asked Buck, standing up and walking over to the men, then gesturing at himself with his hands. He wanted to get this over and done with, in the hope that his mother wasn't really dead and this had all been a bad dream.
"I'm sorry, Buck. Just a little brotherly row. Let us now travel to my family residence - my other brothers are all anxious to make your acquaintance," said Ezra, glaring at Chris as he spoke.
"It's a good job blinking is so fast, or I'd have to put up with you for longer while we did it," said Chris, still annoyed about being scolded by his younger brother. Ezra was really getting on his nerves that week.
"That is why it is called 'Blinking', Mr. Larabee," answered back Ezra, not wanting to call him by his first name while they weren't getting along.
"How does it work?" asked Buck, not sure if he had to do anything so it would work for him.
"Just put your hand on Ezra and keep it there and he'll blink us home," said Chris, calming down a little after realising that they had to put their fighting aside and help their innocent. Even magical beings and witches like Buck needed protecting from evil sometimes, as they could be just as defenceless as un-magical innocents at times.
Buck put his hand on Ezra's arm, not wanting to hold hands with a man - if Ezra had been a woman Buck wouldn't have minded holding her hand.
Chris put his hand on Ezra's shoulder on the other side and Ezra concentrated on where he wanted to go. Then they blinked out of the room.
CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7 - CH7
Back at the Potter house, Josiah and JD were waiting for Ezra and Chris to return with Buck - it seemed to be taking longer than they'd expected.
"Why aren't they back yet? I thought blinking was meant to be fast," complained JD impatiently.
"Perhaps Buck wasn't very willing to co-operate," suggested Josiah, who knew how awkward innocents could be if they had to believe in magical things all of a sudden. "Have you found anything out about the demon?"
"Some since Mom gave us some clues on which one it is. I've found a vanquishing spell and the ingredients for the vanquishing potion. Someone has to say the spell while they throw the potion at him. It has to be a relative of someone he has killed though."
"So Buck has to say the vanquishing spell to defeat him?"
"Yes, but he has to be the one to throw the potion at him too," confirmed JD. "I also read that he's quite a high-up demon in their hierarchy and well-respected by lower-level demons. They'll be real mad at whoever kills him, so it won't be long until they start wanting revenge."
"We'll deal with the repercussions later. Let's concentrate on vanquishing this demon first, Brother," said Josiah, who wasn't scared of any demons and would be happy to vanquish any who came looking for revenge after their demon-brother was vanquished. "Once Buck's here, the demon will soon arrive after sensing him. We need to tell our friend how to vanquish the demon almost as soon as he arrives. Just make sure you can have the potion and spell ready for Buck when he needs them."
"I've already got Vin working on the potion and I've got the spell printed out for Buck right here," said JD, handing his oldest brother a sheet of paper with computer type on it.
"Why is the second half of this in Latin, brother?" asked Josiah in surprise. He hoped that Buck wouldn't have to try and pronounce all those Latin words correctly. It wasn't an easy language for the uninitiated to speak in.
"That was how it was written in The Book, so I guess Buck has to say it like that," replied JD, who hadn't a clue what the Latin words meant.
"Can't ya translate them inta English? Surely the spell would still work?" asked Vin, as he strolled casually into the room as though fighting demons was as normal as watching TV. He carried a small glass bottle with a dark purple liquid inside.
"Buck will just have to try his best with the Latin - we can't risk it not working by saying it different from how The Book says, Vin," said JD, eyeing the bottle curiously. "What's in that potion?"
"You don't wanna know, believe me."
"Here they are at last," said Josiah, relieved as Buck, Ezra and Chris blinked into the room.
Buck looked around him at the room he remembered from his previous visit. Then he noticed the older man smiling at him. Buck stepped forward and offered his hand politely.
"Buck, I presume?" asked Josiah, shaking Buck's hand.
"Got it in one. Which brother are you?"
"I am Josiah, the oldest brother. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Josiah, there was no sign of that demon at Buck's place," affirmed Chris.
Buck asked a question the brothers hadn't realized the man might ask. "Did the demon kill my mom too?"
Ezra read Josiah's thoughts and found out he was wondering how they could tell Buck that his mother had been killed by a good person - or rather, the ghost of a good person.
"A demon wasn't the cause of your mother's premature demise - we'll discuss that later. We need to vanquish the miscreant who committed your father's murder first," explained Ezra, forgetting all about his false identity now Buck was learning the truth.
"Whoa, easy boy. I don't get all them fancy words. When Chris came into the office that time and started saying all them things, they were true weren't they? And your name is really Ezra, right?"
"Your assumptions are entirely correct, Buck." Ezra smiled - now he didn't have to answer to that awful name anymore. It would be easy enough for JD to have a computer error delete Eddie Spelling's government records.
"You lied to me and we were meant to be friends. I trusted you." Buck's face was becoming red with anger - he couldn't believe his friend had lied about his name all this time.
"I had to - there are demons looking out for 'Ezra Standish' and demons have the skill to look like humans, so chances were that there was at least one at the law-firm. So I had to pretend to be 'Eddie Spelling' - I couldn't risk telling you in case you blew my cover by accident," explained Ezra, using shorter words for Buck to understand.
"We have no time for this - that demon's going to sense Buck now that he has his powers and he'll be coming here for him any minute," said Chris, trying to hurry things along.
"I wonder if the Elders have any more information on him - don't lots of demons want to kill witches for their powers? There must be something which sets him apart. All demons are different in some way," said JD. Although they'd been able to identify the demon after more information on the evil supernatural from Gloria, JD felt there was something more that they might be missing.
"We have plenty of info. on him already - why would there be anything else we need to know?" asked Josiah; his youngest brother always wanted more information - sometimes more than they could obtain.
"I could check with the Elders," offered Nathan as he walked into the room, anxious to meet the new witch in town.
"Another of your brothers, Ez?" asked Buck, looking with curiosity at the African-American who looked to be in his late-twenties. There was something strange about the guy, but Buck couldn't figure out what.
"I might as well tell you the truth about him as well. Every witch has an angel to guide them in their fight against evil - these angels are known as Whitelighters and they also have magical powers, although every Whitelighter has the same powers. Nathan is our Whitelighter, not our brother."
The man in question strode over to Buck and offered his hand. "I'm Nathan Jackson. You must be Buck?"
Buck took Nathan's hand and shook it, noticing that the man's hand was warm and soft. "Yeah, that's my name. So you're an angel?"
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it in time. I better go and check with the Elders before HE gets here." Then Nathan orbed out, noticing how Buck stepped back in fear upon seeing the blue and white orbs.
"What the hell was that?" asked a startled Buck Wilmington, not sure what to make of the lights that had just appeared around Nathan. Nathan's form surrounded by the lights seemed to get sucked toward the ceiling, then the lights and Nathan were gone.
To be continued…