A while later, Buck had been told of each of the brothers' powers and of the demon who had killed his father. Then they'd shown him the spell and potion and explained how he had to vanquish the demon once it appeared.
"Any chance you understand Latin?" asked JD, while Buck was studying the piece of paper that stated the vanquishing spell.
"Are you kidding? Of course I know Latin - my dad taught me it." Buck's voice became more serious upon mentioning his dad.
"Not surprising really - a lot of magic powers are named by combining Latin words, sometimes Greek ones," explained JD, who knew just about all the names of magic powers there were in the world.
"I can say all this Latin easily," reassured Buck, now quite relaxed talking about magic. He was even looking forward to defeating the demon that had killed his father.
"I'm sorry about your mom - I lost my mom when I was a kid, so I know what its like when you lose someone you care about," said JD gently.
Buck tried to keep his tears at bay - he didn't want to cry in front of these men, but he was really upset about losing his mom so soon after losing his dad. A fly buzzing nearby distracted Buck - a welcome distraction, thought Buck as he watched the insect flying wherever he liked - able to fly away from all this if it wanted. It was too much for him that he'd lost both of his parents in the same year. He just couldn't handle all this magic stuff while he had his parents' deaths on his mind.
JD had turned away to allow Buck some quiet time to think, and was having a quiet discussion with Ezra about how they could explain that their mom's ghost had killed Buck's mom, so he didn't notice when the human form of Buck disappeared.
Chris came into the room with a tray of coffees - they might as well try to get in refreshments while they waited for the demon to sense Buck. "Where's Buck?" he asked, noticing that Buck wasn't anywhere to be seen now.
JD turned back to where Buck had been standing and was startled to discover that Buck had disappeared - 'silently,' he added, as he hadn't heard their friend leaving the room.
"You've scared him off now!" Ezra shouted at JD, directing a glare at the teen.
Chris wondered if Buck's disappearance could be related to his magic power; they hadn't seen his changing power yet and it was clear that Buck couldn't control it, so he could change at any time without a moment's notice. "Any chance that he's transformed into something?" he suggested to the two brothers who were present.
Ezra started to concentrate on reading Buck's mind, intent on reading any thoughts that would give away Buck's new form. He hadn't told Buck of his mind-reading or mind-control powers yet. He didn't want to make Buck feel any more uneasy than he already did.
'If I can just make it to that open window, I can escape,' thought Buck as he noticed the open window in the lounge.
"JD, quickly close the window!" urged Ezra, now able to work out Buck's new identity and location. While JD ran to the window, Ezra picked up a glass from the table - luckily an empty glass.
'Yeah, as if you can really catch me,' thought Buck, zooming around the room to avoid being caught and enjoying the freedom of being a fly - that was until he got caught in a spider's web that hung down from the ceiling - he hadn't seen that. If Buck could've talked he would've cursed.
"It isn't all fun being a fly," said Ezra with a grin, as he watched the fly struggling to free himself from the web. Ezra had spotted the fly and had been following it with his eyes - it would be awful if they lost the fledgling witch.
'He can't know I'm a fly!'
"I do know that you are a fly, Mr. Wilmington - I'm smarter than I may appear to be." Ezra carefully took the fly out of the web and put it on a magazine on the coffee table, then quickly placed the glass over the top, so Buck was now trapped.
Buck tried to push the glass over, but only managed to bang against the walls of his glass prison - this wasn't what he'd been expecting.
Josiah walked into the room then, wondering when the demon was going to show up - he was certainly taking his time. The oldest brother looked around, wondering where Buck had gone.
"Mr. Wilmington has changed," informed Ezra as he met Josiah's questioning look. "He is now safe from harm's way."
"What has he changed into, Brother? You must be aware that we need him human to vanquish the demon."
"It is not my responsibility to keep our friend in his human form, Mr. Sanchez. He has free-will and is at liberty to do whatever he pleases."
"Umm, I mentioned his mom and I think he started getting upset about her," recalled JD - he'd caused Buck to change and now they wouldn't be able to vanquish the demon.
"I can read his emotions clearly; he's really unhappy," said Chris. He also had empathic power and could sense people's emotions - it was a very useful power at times.
"So when he saw a fly and felt like things were getting too much for him; he DESIRED to become a fly to try to escape things - that's it!" said JD.
"What?"
"Desire mixed with seeing the object he wants to become are the triggers for his transformation power," said JD, his voice becoming slightly high-pitched with excitement at his discovery.
"So we need him to desire to become human again to turn him back," added Chris. He realized that Buck's power could be very useful for fighting demons.
Nathan came back amidst his blue and white orbs that slowly vanished leaving him behind. "The witch-killer isn't just killing witches for their powers," he revealed, getting the attention of the men present with the startling revelation. "He's trying to kill off witch family-lines so there won't be any future generations, and it looks like someone hired him to do it."
"That would explain why he's after Buck. We need to get him back to being a witch so he can kill the demon when he arrives," said Josiah, looking toward the glass on the coffee table.
"Speaking of Buck..."
"Mr. Wilmington has metamorphosed into a winged entity after acquiring a yearning to evade true reality," informed Ezra, again demonstrating his extensive vocabulary.
"Huh?" asked Nathan, a puzzled expression on his face.
"He said Buck has changed into a fly because he wanted to escape from RL," said JD, abbreviating 'real life' as usual. RL was shorthand for real life and saved typing the whole two words on a computer or cell phone.
"I can think of a lot of things I'd rather be than a fly. It won't change the fact that he's lost both his parents in the same year though."
"We need to stop any more witches losing their lives first, then we'll help him deal with his losses," said Chris, hiding all emotion from his voice. He was angry that Buck wasn't being given any time to grieve for his mother, but they had to stop the demon taking any more lives first.
"One good thing though, is that the demon won't go after any other witches until he has destroyed one family line," explained Nathan. "Since Buck is the Wilmington witches' only chance of future generations by procreation, the demon won't go after anyone else until he's got Buck."
'Procreation, now that's something I'd rather practise as a human,' thought Buck. He'd been listening to Nathan's every word with great interest.
"I think he'd like to return to his true form now, Gentlemen," said Ezra, walking over to the upside-down glass and lifting it. Then he carefully placed the fly on the floor. He wasn't sure what would happen if Buck tried to turn back still under the glass.
Then Buck changed back into a human. "Being a fly ain't so much fun as I thought it might be, guys."
"We're glad to hear it, Buck," said Chris with a smile. "Now we have to vanquish the witch-killer, otherwise you'll have a homicidal groupie for life."
"Interesting wording, Chris," said Ezra with a chuckle.
"Buck," said JD, walking over to the man and handing him the vanquishing potion, "when he appears you need to start saying the spell, then throw the potion at him and continue saying the spell until it's finished. Say it in Latin as well, just in case that is needed."
Buck took the bottle and looked at the dark liquid through the clear glass. "Lucky I'm a skilled pitcher. I just need the spell now."
JD handed Buck the paper with the spell on. The teenager had been looking after it for when they needed to give it to Buck.
A cloud of purple smoke suddenly appeared a short distance in front of Buck. When it cleared, a purple and white demon with red eyes stood there, looking at Buck in disgust. The demon hated witches - especially live ones.
"This is no time for being scared," said Chris; his empathic power told him that Buck felt terrified of the demon.
"Witch-killer, power-thief," chanted Buck, then threw the potion straight onto the demon, which began to smoke. Then he continued the spell, "I strip you of all powers, and through my grief, I call upon my family, to banish you from this plane for all eternity." The demon became enveloped in a thick cloud of black smoke until he couldn't be seen anymore. He let out a chilling howl, then the smoke-cloud vanished, taking the demon with it. Buck hadn't needed to say the Latin part of the spell after all.
Buck collapsed into a sitting position on the floor, suddenly feeling weary.
Chris sat down beside him with a supportive hand on Buck's shoulder. "It gets easier, believe me. Your pain will lessen in time."
"How about we take you to our favorite night-spot? You'll like it there," said JD, sitting on the other side of Buck.
"Whatever you like," mumbled Buck, not really caring what they did next - it wouldn't bring back his parents, who he missed so much.
"Perhaps we should refrain from visiting Senorita Recillos for a while," suggested Ezra, feeling sorry for Buck.
"Senorita Recillos?" asked Buck, intrigued by the exotic-sounding name and that 'Senorita' meant it would be a female with an exotic surname.
"She's our friend who works at the night-club," explained JD, picturing the pretty South-American waitress.
"I'm feeling a bit better already, let's go," said Buck with a little enthusiasm, as he stood up and started toward the hallway, temporarily forgetting about grieving. Getting his mind off things might help.
"I neglected to mention his fondness for the fairer sex," said Ezra with a smile, glad that his friend had perked up, although he hadn't meant to be the cause of it by mentioning a woman.
"It won't hurt him to stop thinking about his parents for a couple of hours or so," said Chris, conveying to Ezra that he hadn't done anything wrong by inadvertently lifting Buck's spirits.
"Did the demon come?" asked Vin, walking into the room.
"He came, he saw, he got vanquished," said JD with a grin - trust Vin to miss all the action!
"Good. Where's Buck goin'?"
"To meet a certain waitress and to celebrate his first vanquish."
"Count me in," said Vin with a smile.
"We're all going," said Josiah in a voice that no-one would argue with.
The men went and put their coats on - the club was a short walk away so they wouldn't need to drive. They filed out the front door, with Josiah pausing in the doorway behind the others.
"Another day, another demon," he said to himself, then stepped outside and used his telekinesis to close the door gently behind him.
To be continued…