Back at the Potter house, the Potters had used a spell they'd found in the Book to summon Ella to them in the Magic Room. They had also found more information about Ella in their book, including how to vanquish her. The Book said that she was many centuries old and had been vanquished many times in the past by Potter ancestors.
Ella arrived soon after Terrence, JD, Josiah and Vin had finished chanting, muttering to herself. Ezra thought he heard her say something surprising, and looked her in the eyes before he asked about her muttering. "Did you just say 'Devlin'?"
"Maybe, maybe not. I suppose you wish to vanquish me." Ella held the staff, with one end resting on the floor. The female warlock knew that the Potters would succeed to destroy her, and she was ready - there was no way to escape from the powerful family, and she would die honorably after coming close to destroying the Potters.
"I'm fairly certain she uttered my father's name - we cannot vanquish her until I know for sure."
"Son, we have to vanquish her - she's a danger to us all," explained Terrence, sounding regretful that they would be taking away a chance for Ezra to trace his real father.
Ezra suddenly stepped in front of Ella. He wouldn't let them take away the chance to find his real father. "No! I have to know if she knows where my father is now."
Ella raised the staff, keeping the point toward the ground. "I won't help witches - even if they are half-demons; you'll just have to kill me."
"Son, we'll find your father, but you must let us vanquish Ella first," said Terrence gently, knowing how important finding his real father was to Ezra. The boy's father had disappeared from his life when he was very young, and Ezra had always maintained the belief that his father was still alive.
"Okay," said Ezra reluctantly, as he stepped away from Ella.
Josiah threw the vanquishing potion at Ella, and the glass bottle containing the potion broke as it hit the floor in front of the woman. Then the witches, including Ezra, began to recite the vanquishing spell in unison. Smoke began to appear around Ella, and by the end of the spell, she was completely concealed inside the thick black smoke; then the smoke suddenly vanished, taking Ella with it.
"Now it's safe for Chris to come back," said Vin happily.
"Not quite - first, we have to dispose of her staff before it can find a new owner," said Josiah, as he magically moved the Staff of Powers from where it lay on the floor; but before it could move through the air to him, it vanished.
"Uh oh," said JD, feeling sure it wasn't good if the staff suddenly vanished - maybe another warlock or demon had got it.
Suddenly, Devlin blinked into the room, holding the staff downwards, not wanting to point it at anything in case that unleashed one of its powers. He didn't know how the staff worked
"Who are you?" asked Terrence threateningly, holding his arms up, ready to freeze or explode the stranger.
Before Devlin could reply, Ezra walked over to the demon, somehow recognizing him. "This is my father, Devlin."
"Your memory serves you well, my son," said Devlin with a smile. "You must vanquish the Source. All the powers needed to use against him are in this Staff, and as you are half-demon, you will be able to use it to destroy him. You will just need to think about needing to kill him and the staff will unleash the powers which will bring about his demise."
"NO, he won't do that for you; even if you are his father. Ezra does not take orders from demons," said Josiah, as he motioned with his arms and Devlin fell against the wall. Luckily for Devlin, Josiah didn't fling him too hard, so he didn't fall unconscious from the impact.
"The Source wants to destroy you all - if you destroy him first, it will send a message out that even the powerful Source cannot succeed in destroying the Potters and their adopted sons."
"Once the Source was dead, you would work your way up the ranks until you could take his throne and become the new Source," deduced Ezra, trusting his oldest brother over the father he hadn't seen since he was young. "I cannot help a demon, even the one who gave me life, I'm sorry, Father."
Devlin lifted the staff and pointed it toward Josiah in anger, intent on using one of the staff's powers to hurt the man who'd dissuaded his son from helping him. Fortunately, JD was fast to point his hands towards Devlin and the staff to freeze him. Instead, the staff exploded into many tiny pieces, startling JD. The little boy ran out of the room, scared by what he'd just done.
Gloria ran out of the room to calm down the little boy, trusting the brothers and their father to deal with Devlin.
"The boy clearly has more power than he thought," said Devlin, impressed by the power of the little boy.
Turner suddenly appeared in the room; he'd been wondering if Ella's plan was working. Upon noticing Devlin, he looked shocked. "Devlin, what are YOU doing here?"
"The Source personally asked me to destroy the Potter witches since Ella has failed, so I came here to destroy them."
"That wasn't all he wanted ta do," said Vin. "He wanted Ezra ta kill the Source for him, so Devlin could one day be the new Source."
"He's too low-ranking to be in line to the Source's throne," said Turner with a cocky grin. "Unless, he was planning to kill all of you - achieving that would improve his rank considerably. I guess Ella's dead, then?"
"We vanquished her - so we are now enemies again," said Terrence, realizing that the demons would no longer want to help the witches.
Then Mr. Potter turned to face Ezra's father. "Is Turner correct? Were you going to kill us all, including your own son, to get a promotion?"
Devlin stood still, retaining a poker-faced expression; he had never realized that killing the Potter witches would mean killing one of his own kin, who was now also a Potter. He was proud of Ezra - he had heard of how the boy had always evaded capture by demon bounty hunters, and of all the demons his son had helped vanquish. His son was obviously a very brave and skilled half-demon and a definite improvement on Devlin himself. Also, Devlin felt a fondness for the boy - perhaps because he was as handsome as his father had been in his youth. Maybe he actually liked the boy, although he couldn't remember if he ever had before he'd been caught and returned to evil.
As Ezra watched Devlin silently refusing to answer Terrence's question, the boy was reading his father's thoughts, and was finding out that his father did really care about him. Ezra knew then that Devlin would never try to hurt him; even though they were enemies by nature - they were still related by blood, meaning that they couldn't be proper enemies.
"Now, I have something pressing to take care of," said Turner, as he turned to face Devlin. He lifted his hand and a long, sharp knife magically appeared in it. He threw it toward Devlin - he didn't want that demon succeeding in his plan to become the new Source. Turner had trusted Devlin to betray Ella, but not to betray him. By killing all the Potters himself, Devlin would automatically become a higher rank than Turner and next in line to be the Source after Fowler. Turner intended to deal with Fowler soon, because with Ella gone, Fowler would be the next Source if anything happened to the present one.
What neither Turner nor Devlin expected, was for a brown-haired teenage boy to dive in front of Devlin and be hit by the knife himself. Ezra felt the knife plunge into his skin, and then he lost consciousness as the pain overcame him. Blood started to pool on the floor by Ezra where he'd fallen and was now lying.
"Your son is both brave and foolish; you must be very proud," said Turner, before he blinked away from the room, temporarily giving up his plan to kill Devlin. He felt slightly sorry for the boy and would at least let Devlin say good-bye to his dying son.
Devlin looked at Ezra lying on the floor, blood flowing from his wound freely. "Someone help him or he'll die," he said with urgency in his voice, as tears began to fall from his eyes. Devlin muttered a few words of Latin; then, unexpectedly, he vanished.
"NATHAN!" called Vin, desperate for his brother to be saved. He was annoyed at Ezra's father for leaving his son to possibly die; the Potters would never leave their sons if they were dying. Vin and Terrence's Whitelighter healing powers could only heal minor wounds, as they were both only half-Whitelighters, so a full-Whitelighter's healing power was needed to cure Ezra's more major wound. Even two half-Whitelighters' healing powers used together wouldn't be as effective as a full-Whitelighter's - they'd found this out in the past and weren't willing to risk losing Ezra by trying to heal him with their limited healing powers used together instead of just Nathan's.
To be continued…