Suddenly, Richard unfroze, oblivious to the fact that Wesley had frozen him at all. He looked at Matthew and Wesley suspiciously. To him, they had just instantly moved from their chairs to where James said. He blinked his eyes again, wondering if what he had seen was real. But it was; they had moved in the blink of an eye. He jumped up.
"Dad?" James asked, but that was all he could get out.
Jimmy," Richard called out, "get away from those two! They just, they moved to where you are in the blink of an eye! I saw it myself!"
"Crap," Wesley said in a low voice.
"You mean 'shit,'" Matthew corrected. "Mr. Armstrong, there's a reasonable explanation for what you think you saw."
"Well, let's hear it then," he replied.
"Jimmy," Matthew prodded, "you better tell him."
Lina tiptoed carefully through James' dorm room, acting as if someone might wake up if she made a noise. She looked everywhere, from behind the posters to under the sink. But unless it was in a highly obvious place, the Book of Light was nowhere to be found. She didn't stop, though. She kept moving around the room, anxious to find anything that would be of use to her. Then she saw something; a smile slowly stretched across her face to accompany the redness that had begun to manifest itself. She picked up the object and stared at it longingly, like it would come to life at any given moment. Right before she could conceal it, a shadowy figure appeared behind her, catching her off guard.
He swiftly placed both hands around her waist, startling her. Instinctively, she turned around and kneed her "assailant" between the legs, giving her time to make her next move. She quickly followed with a punch to the face and a powerful kick to the chest that knocked him onto James' bed. She held up her hand and lightning flickered from her palm threateningly. She slowly walked towards the man.
"Calm down!" the man said, raising his hands.
"Tom?" she asked as she extinguished the lightning and turned on the light. Now she was able to see that the man she had fended off was the same demon who she had enlisted to help her kill the Complete.
"Of course it's me, you git!" he retorted in his Southern British accent. "Why are you so jumpy? Maybe it's your new boyfriend…"
"He is not my boyfriend!" Lina snapped. "I'm just doing some covert research."
"Is that so?" Thomas asked. "Then why were you swooning so much over a picture of him that, if I'm correct, you were planning to steal for yourself?"
"It was," Lina said slowly, trying to think of an answer, "for my plans. I need to…know everything about the three of them so that I can do my job."
"Why don't you just take them on, one-on-one?" Thomas asked. "You are an assassin, after all."
"Because," Lina explained, "these aren't regular witches I'm dealing with. These are the Complete, the most powerful witches ever. You don't go about killing them by just jumping into things. You have to plan."
"Which is what you have clearly been doing," Thomas replied. "So far, you've gotten one demon killed by them, Krasney, I believe. You're not planning on having that happen to me, are you?"
"That was a fluke," Lina said quickly. "It's not my intention to kill other demons and warlocks."
"But it happens," Thomas countered. "And I don't intend for you to plan my downfall as well. That's why I've come to you."
"What are you talking about?" Lina asked.
Without answering, Thomas extended his right hand and a sparkling ball of energy flew from it, hitting Lina right in the chest. She was thrown backwards into the door, which fortunately didn't crack. Before she could register what was happening, Thomas had grabbed her by the shirt and flung her across the room; this time she slammed into the wall on the opposite side. He advanced upon her, tossing an energy ball up and down all the while.
She suddenly shot a bolt of lightning at him. It just barely missed his face, but disintegrated his ball of energy. She took the chance and swept Thomas' legs from under him, throwing him to the floor. She stood up and fired electric bolts from both her hands at Thomas, causing him to jerk uncontrollably in pain for several minutes. Finally, she stopped, leaving Thomas smoking, but still alive.
"Does it hurt?" she asked slyly.
"Stings," Thomas replied, slowly standing to his feet, "but you're going to have to do better than that to destroy me. No one has been able to destroy me for hundreds of years. I'm practically invincible."
"Which is exactly why we should be working together," Lina reasoned. "Fighting each other isn't gonna solve anything except wasting time. I know about your history, okay? I know that you're a very powerful warlock. I just need you to do your job while I do mine."
"When your job consists of stalking a witch because you love him," Thomas said, "then that's where I stop doing my job to make sure that you're doing yours."
"Like I said," Lina said reassuringly, "I know what I'm doing. Now get out of here. I have to clean this mess up and you have witches to kill."
Thomas hesitated for a brief moment, then faded out of the room. Lina sighed as she continued staring at James' picture. Her mind was fighting with itself. Was she falling for this man? She started picking up chairs and replacing things that fell or toppled over.
Hmm, Lina's definitely got something up her sleeve, but what exactly is it? Meanwhile, how are James and his brothers gonna work their way out of possibly being exposed? Well, there's only one way to find out; check back! Coming up: the brothers try to work their way out of possibly being exposed.