Chris Larabee sat alone in the bar, hoping his family was managing okay in their efforts to vanquish Ella. His powers might not be very useful for harming demons, but he was a good fighter and could still fight demons by using those skills. Chris was worried that his younger brothers could get hurt in demon attacks while he wasn't with them.
"Chris? The Elders called me before I got to your house, and told me that they can sense somethin' bad's goin' to happen there soon. We have to get back to them - there's trouble in the Underworld; it seems that with Ella being vanquished, several demons want to be next in line to the Source. To do that they have to show how powerful they are, and one way to do that would be to destroy your whole family."
Larabee stood up and faced the Whitelighter. "We better get back; we can orb from the alley outside, there are only a few drunks and homeless people there - no-one that would be believed if they saw us orbing."
Nathan and Chris headed outside to the alley indicated by Chris, then the blond held Nathan's hand and they orbed home. Somehow, Nathan didn't hear it when he was called to the house by Vin.
They arrived in the Magic Room and Chris instantly saw Ezra lying on the floor. "We're too late."
The Whitelighter rushed over and placed both his hands over the wound. An orange glow appeared between his hands and Ezra's wound; Nathan's Whitelighter healing power was working.
Gloria and JD came rushing into the room, after a fearful Vin had fetched them. Gloria rushed over to Ezra and knelt down beside Nathan, who was still healing the wound. JD stood beside Vin for comfort. The young boy was still shocked by what he'd done to the Staff of Powers when he'd tried to freeze it.
"He's going to be okay, isn't he?" asked Gloria, worried in case Nathan's healing power didn't cure her half-demon son.
"Yes, Ma'am," answered Nathan. "Luckily, it seems like the knife only hurt the witch part of him. I'd be able to tell if I weren't able to heal him completely." Whitelighters couldn't heal demons or demon-halfs of half-breeds, but because Ezra's demon-half was mostly inactive, when he got hurt, only the witch side of him suffered, meaning Nathan could heal him completely.
Everyone in the room felt a great wave of relief wash over them - they trusted what their Whitelighter told them, and were now sure that Ezra would soon be as healthy as he was before the knife hit him.
Vin wrapped his arms around JD and hugged the younger boy tightly, sensing his brother's distress. One of Vin's half-Whitelighter powers helped him sense emotions and locations of anyone he knew quite well. He'd always been able to sense JD, even when his mom had been pregnant with the younger boy.
"What happened to Ezra?" asked a grief-stricken Gloria, as she knelt down beside Ezra, and Nathan continued to heal the wound.
"Turner didn't want Devlin to become a higher-ranking demon than him, so threw a knife in an attempt to kill him; but Ezra dived and took the knife instead," explained Terrence, as he knelt beside Gloria and held her hand tightly in support.
Nathan pulled the knife out of Ezra and laid it on the floor. The wound then disappeared completely and Ezra opened his eyes.
"Five more minutes, Mrs. Potter," he muttered, before closing his eyes.
"Ezra, Dear?" asked Gloria, relieved to hear her son's voice.
"I'm sleeping, Mrs. Potter."
Gloria smiled, then leant over Ezra and kissed him softly on the cheek. "Don't you remember? You saved your father's life."
The teenager opened his eyes suddenly. "A Darklighter tried to hurt Mr. Potter?" he asked in alarm.
"No, Dear. Don't you remember at all?"
"No, but I do feel a little weak. Did I lose some blood?"
"Yes, you lost quite a lot," answered Gloria. "Go back to sleep now; everyone's fine, I promise."
Ezra closed his eyes again and fell asleep, glad that no-one had been hurt except for him.
"Why can't he remember?" asked Gloria, shocked that Ezra didn't recollect that Devlin had been there. She continued to watch the sleeping teenager - she cared a great deal about all of her sons and was relieved that she hadn't lost Ezra or any of the others that day.
"I think his father may have done somethin' to wipe his memory," said Nathan thoughtfully. "We only know of Devlin's mind-control power besides the usual demonic ones - perhaps he has another one that can wipe people's memories."
"Why would he want to wipe Ezra's memory?" asked Chris, as he walked to Ezra and looked down at the sleeping teen. He had actually felt concerned about Ezra when he'd seen the brunet lying on the floor with the knife in him. Chris had always felt some distrust for Ezra, although he did love him. He didn't often show the half-demon that he cared, but now felt bad about it, and Chris swore that in the future, he'd show the boy that he really did care about him. Otherwise, when Ezra did die, he'd die thinking his slightly older adopted brother didn't care about him.
"Maybe Devlin saw the error of his ways and didn't want Ezra's last memory of his father to be of him wanting to use his own son just to become Source," guessed Vin.
"I'm sure that's not the last we've seen of Devlin," said Gloria, as she smiled at her sleeping son. Some powerful magic must have been used to turn Devlin back to evil, but perhaps that magic would become undone and Devlin would go back to being good. Devlin looked like a demon that wasn't completely evil - perhaps he'd never be completely free of the spell used to turn him good.
A sound like little bells tinkling was heard then, signaling that the Elders were calling Nathan. "I'm being called - I'll see you all later." Then Nathan disappeared as he orbed to see the Elders.
Mr. Potter picked up Ezra and carried the boy to his room, then tucked him into bed; Terrence was as relieved as his wife that none of their sons had been hurt permanently or killed. Josiah followed his adoptive father, needing to make sure that his younger brother was put safely to bed. The oldest son sometimes felt like a father to his brothers because of the age gap between him and the younger witches.
Vin and JD went to their own room to play; they couldn't bath and get ready for bed until they'd had dinner and they weren't sure what had happened to that. They started to build with their Lego bricks, trying to ignore their empty stomachs that were growling.
Chris remained behind in the Magic Room; he couldn't forget his earlier conversation with Sarah in the bar, and was upset that he seemingly couldn't have a future with her. He stood still, just imagining what a future with her would be like if she weren't so against raising a magical family.
"Chris?" asked Vin, as he joined his older brother in the room, having told JD he wanted to see Chris for a while. "What's wrong?" Vin's half-Whitelighter, sensing power had helped him sense Chris's sadness.
"Sarah wants to raise a non-magical family. She wants to give up her powers just like her parents have done."
The half-Whitelighter brother wrapped his arms around Chris comfortingly. "Are ya jus' goin' ta give up on her? She doesn't know what a great dad ya'd make - you've been more than just a brother ta me and I reckon you'd make a great dad."
Before Chris could reply, Vin had orbed them both to the front of the Connolly house. "Vin? Did you mean to orb us here?" asked Chris, surprised by their sudden change of location. His younger brother still wasn't very good with his orbing power and it didn't often work when he wanted. The only time it worked well was when he wanted to orb to a member of his family - he could sense them so would be able to get a lock on them and orb directly there.
"No, I guess I wanted to help ya so much that m' orbin' got us here."
Chris stepped away from Vin and rang Sarah's doorbell; maybe she hadn't gone clubbing after he'd said he couldn't go. Otherwise, Vin would have orbed them there in vain.
Sarah, dressed in mid-blue pajamas and ready for bed, answered the door. "CHRIS? What are you doing here at this time?" She was very shocked to see him there, as it was late evening by that time. She had decided not to go clubbing, preferring to have an early night - she was upset that Chris had turned down her offer to go out with her that night.
"Sarah, I think it would be a big mistake to give up your magical destiny. What's more, I'd like us to try again at being a couple."
"I've been thinking about things since we met up earlier and I realized that if giving up on magic meant cutting you out of my life, then I couldn't do it. I still care for you, Chris."
Vin watched from a distance as his older brother and Sarah chatted on the doorstep. Then he covered his eyes when they started kissing; he thought it was so disgusting when people kissed for longer than a few seconds.
Sarah and Chris stepped back from each other and exchanged smiles.
"I'm not doing anything tomorrow during the day, so if you're free I could drive over and take you out somewhere," suggested Chris, hopeful that Sarah would accept his offer.
"I don't have any plans - only job-hunting, but that can keep for a day," answered Sarah with a grin; "Pick me up at 9.00 a.m.?"
"I'll see you then. Good-night Sarah." Chris leant in for a quick goodnight kiss, which also lasted longer than a few seconds.
"CHRI-IS!" hissed Vin angrily. "We have ta go, 'fore the folks get mad at us."
The older brother stepped away from Sarah and waved, as he held one of Vin's hands and they orbed back to the Potter house.
To be continued…